Reading: The House of Shattered Wings

I'd expected to enjoy this; fantasy set in Paris in the aftermath of a war between the fallen angels who make up part of its population sounded great. But in fact I didn't really take to it, though it's another fantasy with interesting things to say about colonialism (which was definitely the most interesting bit, for me). A lot of my complaints are basically niggles: the author's first language is French, and there were occasional turns of phrase which made that very obvious; the resolution of the plot felt rather muddled; and the world-building didn't seem consistent - how come people in a world that has been utterly devastated by magical wars are still eating blanquette de veau and baked apples, when earlier it's been implied that the countryside of France is as much of a mess as Paris? Why would a world where fallen angels have coexisted with humans for centuries even have ended up with the same countries and cities as ours, let alone having Notre Dame and Galeries Lafayette? I thought at first that the Fallen must only have appeared in the years before the war, but later it becomes clear that they've been around for centuries, or even millennia, which doesn't seem to make any sense at all.

Niggles aside, though, what I really didn't like was the utter bleakness of the world de Bodard presents. Everything in the books is tarnished and decaying; sixty years after the Great War, there's been no rebuilding, just a continued gradual decay, and the characters lack warmth and compassion and humour. Some of them may love each other, but they don't seem to like each other much and what love there is is limited to a handful of pair-bonds. It's a dark, comfortless world full of torture and death and addiction and pain, and I didn't enjoy the hours I spent in it at all. The end is obviously set up for a sequel, but I don't think I'll be reading it.