The City, once a thriving metropolis, is now an ancient, dark, and half flooded, inciting endless wars and a wasteland where it was once green. In the heart of the City lives the evil emperor. He is incredibly old, hasn't been seen in a long time, and rumors now fly that he is not human. Some come to believe that in order to stop the war, they must kill the emperor. In the sewers beneath the City, the poor struggle to stay alive in the darkness. Those who live there hope that Shuskara, the emperor's former general who has survived for a long time in hiding, will be the one who can battle the emperor and free the City.

I liked the change of this epic fantasy book. There are no elves or dragons, instead there is a story told from the point of view of children containing an ongoing war. To be fair, there is a giant included. It's a complex story, and one that required me to look back a few times in order to keep up with all of the characters. There is a fair amount of violence within the war, and the story starts off slow, and the pace never really peaks, but more plateaus at a steady pace. This is to be understood considering the complexity of the number of characters and plot lines, and the immense detail. The detail serves to immerse the reader in the world Stella Gemmell has built. Knowing that THE CITY is Gemmell's debut novel, not counting the novel she finished of her husband's when he passed away, there is much to be said. The writing is solid and the story is dark and gritty, yet rich.