Book review: The Chamber of Ten
The Chamber of Ten is the third of Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon's loosely-connected series of novels "The Hidden Cities." This time the city is Venice and the story is a more overtly supernatural one of an archaeological exploration releasing long-dormant powers fighting for control of the city. It's a quick, fun read but not much more than that and I can't say I was ever desperate to find out what happened next. Plus right from the start I was slightly irritated by the use of a common SF trope, I guess the Sookie Stackhouse books are the most obvious example: Establishing that one of the central characters has some telepathic ability. I can see why writers like it (opening with characters who have some mild experience of the supernatural means you can allow them to suspend disbelief quickly when the really weird shit goes down) but I feel like I've seen it one too many times now.