REVIEW: BARD CITY BLUES

Gally girl...

I'd backed the Kickstarter for this cozy fantasy largely out of interest for the author (who's somewhat local to me) and also because I was starting to dip my toes into the cozier side of fantasy at the time. Although the campaign was fulfilled relatively quickly, it took me a rather long time to pick this one up for some reason.

HOW I RATED IT 

4/5 Although I would say that this made for a fairly middling reading experience for much of the story, the way things all came together at the end made this a memorable low stakes adventure when everything was said and done. 

CHARACTERS

The story is told from the first person by a young woman named Gally, who has left home to pursue her dreams of becoming a bard. She's come to the right place with her selected city serving as a sort of hub for this world's music industry, but she sadly comes without the financial or moral support of her family who have disowned her. There's a lot of layers to Gally's character and I found her to be quite compelling despite how I wouldn't always describe her as likeable. She's got a tough sort of determination to her, but that can also make her come off as cold and calculating rather than empathetic to those around her. Thankfully the story acknowledges this about her and we get to see her grow a little as a person in some fun and surprising ways. During the course of her journey towards becoming a bard, Gally finds herself desperately in need of employment to pay for her tutelage to a crotchety music instructor. Herein is where the majority of the side cast comes into play as she finds herself in a tavern that is disreputable enough to hire a "gutter bard" (meaning someone not accepted into the Bardic Guild) and meets both the employees and the patrons of this establishment. At first meeting, very few of these supporting characters are at all likeable. Most are brusque, rude, or engaged in illegal endeavors. This made it rather hard to connect with any of them and for that reason, good sections of the book dragged on for me since I just wasn't super invested or interested in these shady characters. Over time though, we get to know each of them a bit better and most of them begin to grow alongside Gally. After I caught onto this pattern, the rest of the cast all became a lot more interesting to me because I was curious to see where the story would take them (and which would ultimately be the culprit of a crime). Most important of all the side characters though is Alix, who serves as main love interest for Gally. Other than Chill, she is probably the only other side character from the first chapters who came off in a congenial way though her characterization throughout the story will come across as a little uneven until her deeper motivations and insecurities come to light. Overall, I think it's the story's final act that really brought a lot of these fictional people to life for me as I did not really find them to be iconic or enjoyable to spend time with for at least half the story.  

PLOT/TONE

The cozy fantasy subgenre has taken on a bit of a reputation for "not really having a plot." While I've found that to not really be as true as one might expect from other books in this category, I actually think it sort of fits here. There are, in fact, several key plot threads that slowly unfold here. There is a bit of a mystery element that much of the story centers around, though I didn't find it to be an especially gripping one. Despite it's importance as connective tissue to everything else, the twists weren't especially surprising, the clues weren't all that enticing, and I just generally found it to be a sort of weird window dressing to justify everything else that was happening (though, I must say that the final reveal was decently satisfying). The second major thread is a romantic plot between Gally and Alix. Unfortunately, I think this element fell equally flat for me in that it relied quite heavily on some common romance tropes and cliches. There's a bit of an insta-love/insta-attraction device at play when the two characters first meet. This is then followed up by a series of highs and lows driven by moments of genuine connection followed by annoying use of the miscommunication trope. While this certainly can be representative of relationships in real life, I think some of my suspension of disbelief was lost in how contrived their initial interactions felt. Then things, of course, resolve themselves in a very Hallmark-esque manner with grand moments and tons of ooey gooey dialogue. There's probably plenty of people who will disagree with me on this point, but the fact that this is a sapphic love story just didn't cover up some of the underlying conventions that tend not to click with me in most heterosexual romances either. Where I think things ultimately shine though is in the more slice of life angle that is sort of a foundational element of cozy fantasies at this point. What makes this one feel so unique and special is the emphasis on music and being a musician and performing your music for others. While I have no musical talent whatsoever, I do very much appreciate it as an art form and it's clear that Webb has a good deal of musical background that weaves it's way into the way these elements are handled. Gally's journey as a musician and her end goal of joining the Bardic Guild is ultimately what really drove the book forward for me when other aspects felt a bit lackluster. 

SETTING/WORLD

Gally's adventure takes place in a quiet, quaint little cobblestone town that's rich with music and culture. While this isn't the most inventive fantasy realm in terms of raw originality, that generally isn't the point with books in this subgenre. For it's part, the city of bards is filled with lots of different types of folk from humans to halflings and orcs to goblins. There is even a sentient gelatinous cube that serves as the dishwasher for the tavern Gally works at. Where things get more compelling is in the commentary that the book offers within the context of this world. There's some discussion on class and "legitimate" vs. "illegitimate" artists and businesses. There's also some dialogue around how wealth can affect the individual in terms of both the having and not having of coin. There are some interesting ideas presented around the expectations of a family and the impact that can have on a person for either good or ill as well. While this may be the bardic city, it is also a city brimming with different ideas to ponder and I loved a the different and deeply human conversations that this book is primed to have with its readers. There is even a bit of meta conversation around books and reading. There is some kind of apparent commentary on religion present too, but it's a bit confusing as to what exactly is being said and I generally found what was there to be rather uninspired and unenlightened in terms of how its role within the human experience is portrayed. This is too bad since so many other things felt like they rung true to reality. All in all, the setting itself is charming and the larger world has enough going on to be compelling, but it's the less tangible elements that I found to be truly special.  

KICKSTARTER MMPB

While there is a trade paperback readily available, the edition I read from is a Mass Market Paperback that was funded through Kickstarter which also contains a bonus story set after the events of the novel. This little book is well made and nice to hold. It also includes a bunch of character illustrations as well as one full color painting and some depictions of a couple scenes from the book. A lot of this is frontloaded toward the early chapters when most of the cast is introduced, but there are some other images spaced out through the rest of the story as well. The interior is nicely formatted, though I'd sort of forgotten how much text can be crammed into this smaller paper size, so though this book might seem little, I found that it is indeed a full length novel of about 200-300 trade-sized pages. 

CONCLUSION

If you're a fan of the cozy fantasy subgenre, then this is probably by far the "coziest" book in that category that I have read to date. If you're just trying it for the first time, there might be better choices out there for you, but if you're coming from more of a background of contemporary reading, then this may not be the worst place to try a little fantasy. 

(+) Satisfying character growth for both Gally and her companions

(+) Meaningful dialogue on different concepts and ideas that are deeply engrained in real life

(+) A charming little fantasy setting filled with magical creatures

(+) The focus on music made for a novel and enjoyable backbone to the story

(+) Some delightful character illustrations

(+) A well made mass market paperback edition

(+) An ending that elevated what would have otherwise been a somewhat middling experience for me

(-) The romantic plotline really did not work for me at all

(-) The mystery elements were a bit underwhelming for me

(-) So many characters being so unlikeable early on made it hard for me to get fully engaged in the events happening around them