City of all Seasons by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley

Book Review

Rima Devereaux

Jamie Pike and Esther Pike are cousins, and they both live in the city of Fairharbour, which appears to be situated in a fantasy world in which the technology is on a level with our own. But the cousins have no way of reaching each other, because Jamie’s Fairharbour is in the depths of winter and Esther’s is in a sweltering summer. These alternate realities play out, turn by turn, as the book progresses.

Fairharbour is on an island and, since a semi-apocalyptic weatherbomb some years ago, the city has been split into two (although the inhabitants of each city do not know this) and no communication with the mainland has been possible.

We hear a lot about the cousins’ grandmother, Carmen Pike, who was a famous film director. The way in which she lived and died shows her to be a microcosm of the city itself, bound up with the legend of the Smiling Knight, a tale from the city’s early days. And it is her sons Jan and Remi whose quarrel mirrors the city’s split, the life of the Pike family as a whole being deeply woven into the life of the city. The city’s mayor is another microcosm as he appears to journey between the cities.

Fixing things is a key part of the book, especially in the character of Pawel, and it is objects that provide the link between the two versions of Fairharbour. Making and fixing come to represent what the human spirit can achieve in difficult times. Jamie’s and Esther’s courage and their questioning of the status quo make them inspirational characters. It is a book about damage and loss, and an exploration of how far things can be remade.

By contrast, the Doormen in the winter city and the Fenestration in the summer city – who ironically are doing opposite things in order to cope with the extremes of temperature – have a satirical edge to them, being symbols of the negative things that can happen to humans in groups, and the bureaucracy that can develop in a time of crisis.

The book is well paced and plotted and will appeal to readers looking for an adult take on The City of Ember, or who are interested in post-apocalyptic fiction.