Early DNF Review – The Last Smile in Sunder City (Fetch Phillips Archives, Book 1) by Luke Arnold (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February 25, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-0316455824
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Fetch Phillips Archives series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Welcome to Sunder City. The magic is gone but the monsters remain.

I’m Fetch Phillips, just like it says on the window. There are a few things you should know before you hire me:

1. Sobriety costs extra. 2. My services are confidential. 3. I don’t work for humans.

It’s nothing personal–I’m human myself. But after what happened, to the magic, it’s not the humans who need my help.”

Series Info/Source: I got this as an egalley through NetGalley.com. This is the first book in the Fetch Phillips series.

Story (3/5): I read the first 25% of this book and then stopped because I just didn’t care. This book felt like a lot of other urban fantasy books with male protagonists that I have read in the past. It has a Dresden Files or Repairman Jack vibe to it. This is mainly an investigative urban fantasy where Fetch is trying to solve the disappearance of a vampire.

Characters (3/5): Fetch is the only character that was wellish developed in the first 25% of the story. Fetch is your very typical UF male lead; scattered, barely making it, drinks too much with a sordid past. I didn’t really enjoy him and thought he was just too cookie-cutter. However, if you enjoy that sort of thing you may like this.

Setting (4/5): The setting and world-building is the most interesting part of this book. This is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic Earth where humans broke magic and now all the magical creatures are trying to get buy with the mess humanity has made. It’s very creative and interesting, but a bit scattered.

Writing Style (3/5): This was just a bit too messy for me. Fetch gets distracted a lot and the story wanders between telling you about the past and Fetch in the present. It’s a bit hard to follow. The whole thing is written in this kind of dark detective noir style with a lot of self-deprecating humor from Fetch.

Summary (3/5): Overall this is okay and I think those who are looking for more Dresden Files or Repairman Jack-like books will enjoy this. I personally just thought Fetch was too cookie-cutter male UF lead and I thought the story was too messy and hard to follow.