Review: A Rift Between Cities by Liz Delton

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

Liz Delton ends The Arcera Trilogy with A Rift between Cities, a young adult fantasy novel that shows us how much damage can be caused when the wrong man sits at the top and calls all the shots. People can achieve extraordinary things when the day comes in which they choose to come together for one purpose, but up until that moment, that goal, whatever it is, always seems unimaginable. Even so, a raging fire starts with a single spark.

An island called Seascape has technological wonders that the Four Cities of Arcera are not privy to. It is here that Sylvia Thorne went to when she looked for help against Governor Sorin Greyling, a man who plans to unite all of Arcera under one banner at all costs. After the Trials in Seascape, the only thing Sylvia walked away with was a drone. Lady Blackwater of Seascape doesn’t want her people to get involved with their wars.

While out trying to improve her skills with the drone, Sylvia gets captured by Scouts and ends up in a Skycity prison,. Having been allowed into Seascape, she has information that Greyling wants, but she refuses to give it to him. As she tries to keep silent, an old friend in Seascape is conjuring up a plan to rescue her. His name is Atlan Blackwater. Sylvia, and perhaps all of Arcera, is running out of time.

When a character named Atlan Blackwater mentioned it, it seemed to me that the “last of the world wars” is something that happened an extremely long time ago. Whatever occurred in that war, it doesn’t seem very important in this book. What seems important is an ambitious governor named Sorin Greyling and the Scouts, along with their mountain lions and wolves, he has running around in Arcera. Lightcity, one of the Four Cities, is no more.

Nicknamed the Rider, Sylvia Thorne is a thorn in the side of Greyling, but despite how much he might want to, he has to keep her alive. Prior to her capture, her concern was with training to enhance her capabilities with controlling her drone. To one Lady Blackwater, Sylvia appears to be a wonder. She thinks about how Sylvia would see any task through to its end. Sylvia more than proves it in her abilities to keep mum while imprisoned in Skycity.

Atlan Blackwater plays a similar role to Sylvia, but unlike her, his torture is merely psychological and his prison is a castle. Naomi Blackwater, his mother, doesn’t seem to like him very much. To readers, Atlan appears to be more like a prized possession to his mother than a son. She assigns Black Knights to escort him wherever he goes. To save Sylvia, he must escape out of his own prison first.

Governor Sorin Greyling doesn’t see his acts as evil. In fact, one could say that he sees himself as a hero. If only everyone else in the Four Cities could see what he was trying to do, it would serve him wonderfully. To prepare for some war that he feels is coming, he reads up on various books on the subject of war. To step inside his mind is to step inside the mind of a calculated wolf.

What I enjoyed most of all about this novel is that it was completely unpredictable. I would think I know what certain things were leading to, only to find myself wrong at the end. For readers who know of Sylvia’s time during the Trials, they will appreciate the author including some familiar faces like Emrick, Talia, and Colin. There are some moments in this novel that knocked my breath away.

Though Sylvia is haunted by nightmares of being electrocuted during her stay at Seascape, readers will wonder why she hasn’t had any of these nightmares in the beginning. The Black Knights have weapons known as stunners that are not mentioned until a fight occurs between them and some of the heroes. A character named Neve thinks about the many times that Sylvia saved her life, but no example of one such time is offered.

It has all the ingredients of a book that gets one eager to find out what happens next. No one is ever safe for long. One minute they’re walking about safe and sound and the next the Scouts show up to mess up someone’s day. I loved the tech from Seascape, the hydrojet, the Scouts, the mountain lions, the wolves, and those explosive orb thingies. Liz Delton concludes her trilogy with an exciting third installment.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars.