City of Stone and Silence

The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, Book 2

By: Django Wexler

Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Nancy Wu

Django Wexler's City of Stone and Silence is the second book in the cinematic fantasy Wells of Sorcery Trilogy featuring a fierce young woman skilled in the art of combat magic on an epic mission to steal a ghost ship.

After surviving the Vile Rot, Isoka, Meroe, and the rest of Soliton’s crew finally arrive at Soliton's mysterious destination, the Harbor - a city of great stone ziggurats, enshrouded in a ghostly veil of Eddica magic. And they're not alone.

Royalty, monks, and madmen live in a precarious balance, and by night take shelter from monstrous living corpses. None know how to leave the Harbor, but if Isoka can't find a way to capture Soliton and return it to the Emperor's spymaster before a year is up, her sister Tori's life will be forfeit.

But there's more to Tori's life back in Kahnzoka than the comfortable luxury Isoka intended for her. By night, she visits the lower wards, risking danger to help run a sanctuary for mage-bloods fleeing the Emperor's iron fist. When she discovers that Isoka is missing, her search takes her deep in the mires of intrigue and revolution. And she has her own secret - the power of Kindre, the Well of Mind, which can bend others to its will. Though she's spent her life denying this brutal magic, Tori will use whatever means she has to with Isoka's fate on the line...

©2020 Django Wexler (P)2020 Recorded Books

A tale of two sisters is half great, half meh

Book 2 is split right down the middle, with every other chapter following either Isoka’s story or her sister Tori’s story, and never do they meet. I liked half of this book enough to continue to book 3,

Isoka and the Lost City:
I’d give this half of the book a solid four stars. Isoka’s story picks up right where Book 1 ended and dives into yet another mystery-horror show as the ghost ship survivors arrive at a lost city, run into zombie nightmares (in a great scene reminding me of the Pitch Black nighttime flight sequence), and find themselves between a rock and a three-way hard-place. It was at times hard to follow the plot as the three-way conflict had a rather large cast. There’s the royal faction with Princess Kitari, the Minder faction of monks led by Gregett, and the Prime faction led by a necromancer. It also felt like the same plots from book 1 (the mysterious setting with monsters, competing factions with hidden motives, and the mystery of the ghost ship and its harbor city). But, even with the shades of book 1 repeating, this side of book 2 had more humor, action, heart as Isoka, Meroe, Zerun, Crazy Jack, and Thora bond and battle.

Tori and the Not Very Credible Rebellion:
I’d give this story two stars for several reasons. First, the new narrator for Tori’s POV sounds like she’s holding her nose the whole time. Second, it defied belief that barely 14 year old, sheltered Tori was engaging in high stakes espionage in the slums of the 11th ward. Tori has a Mary Sue type of power that no one around her knows about, and yet veteran warriors repeatedly look to her to lead them in rebellion, because why? Third, this story is humorless and bogged down in the Empire vs. the poor politics until the final hour, when the action and magic explode…but with characters I never really got to know or care for.

Random annoyances: Both stories dwelled too much on the inner flagellation of each sister over being a leader, a monster, or having to sacrifice people. The swear word “rot” is used for all swear words (“go F yourself,” “all H broke loose,” and “Sht, Sht, Sht” become “go Rot yourself,” “all Rot broke loose,” and “rot, rot, rot!”… which Isoka says so much you could build a drinking game out of it.) We all know what words are really intended, so why cop out? On Tori’s side, we get the repeated mantra of “monster, monster, monster,” that was as annoying as “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” from the Brady Bunch. Yes, we get it, she’s afraid she’s a monster. Dead. Horse. Beaten. The triple “rot” and triple “monster” refrains continue in book 3, but the stories finally collide and I found book 3 an improvement.

Starts slow but worth it. Wu’s readings are not great.

Great storytelling and world building. When I first started it, Nancy Wu’s is reading really got to me. It’s like Tricia Takanawa from the Family Guy – – almost comes across as a spoof. Gets better later, but still frequently peppered with ridiculous sounding characterizations. The story is good, though, builds nicely, ends nicely, really interesting world building.

A nice follow up story

We get to see a story from the perspective of the two sisters as the story unfolds. We learn more about the ship and those who created it. We learn what has been happening at the source of the ship and follow one sister as she tries to get control of the ship while the other battles for a city. The problem with the elite in this book is they failed to realize the death of an old woman would end their world. They think they can simply send in a snake to win.

Not as good as first book.

After the first book in the The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, I was looking forward to City of Stone and Silence. Unfortunately, this book starts off right at the beginning with a new POV character in Isoka's sister Tori, and a new narrator for this character Nancy Wu. The book alternates chapters with Tori and Isoka and I found myself dreading Tori's parts. I really didn't care for Ms. Wu's narration, and didn't find myself all that interested in Tori's part of the story. Perhaps it will all come together in the next book, but I had a hard time getting through this one.

Isoka's story, and the narration of Catherine Ho, were as interesting as the first book. Overall, Disappointing.

Awesome!! Sometimes a little slow and confusing

Great story, but it was so different from the first that, at first, I didn't like it. Once I got used to the difference, I loved it. Great ending as well. Lots of details though, it was at times hard to keep track, and the pace was a little slow sometimes. overall great continuation of the previous book!