Here are 2 books that City of Oom fans have personally recommended if you like
City of Oom.
Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
The book is outstanding for the way it weaves the fictional characters' stories with historical events and people. Reading it feels like being transported back in time to 15th century Kronstadt (present day Brașov, Romania). Dark nights with only lamps and candles for illumination, smells of smoke, beer, herbs, and books, the clatter of feet on cobbled streets, and a feeling of perpetual danger made it an intense reading experience. References to superstitions and the customs of different ethnic and religious groups enriched it as well. The narrative is a long series of snapshot-like scenes. It zooms deep into characters' minds, and then out into historical perspectives or descriptions of streets, markets, and interiors of homes and a printer's establishment. It took me a while to get used to this narrative style; some scenes are interrupted by a character's memories, creating flashbacks within flashbacks. The language is poetic and metaphorical.…
Transylvania, 1463. A land of fortress cities, whispered heresies, and shadows cast by Vlad Dracula, the man.
Kate Webber, a 28-year-old Saxon healer, has always lived between reverence and suspicion. Her gift with herbs and midwifery makes her indispensable - and dangerous - in Kronstadt, a medieval city where fear rules and women are silenced.
Her marriage to the powerful, secretive Magyar promised safety, but instead bound her voice.
One bitter Advent night, Kate breaks her husband’s command and saves a dying mother and child. Her defiance sparks awe in some, fury in others. The jealous town physician seizes his…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I selected "couldn't put it down" to describe the pace of this book. But I had to put it down many times because it took the best part of a week to read. That said, the plot is captivating. The book's length is due in part to the care the author takes to establish atmosphere, portraying vividly the lives of the privileged in 1880s England. Rural landscapes, weather, city streets, and building interiors are described in a way that is almost cinematic. Reading this book reminded me of watching the original Forsyte Saga television series decades ago. After a lengthy buildup, during which a reader inevitably develops theories as to who is lying and who is telling the truth, based on the significance of things said, remembered, or seen by various characters, there is an apparent resolution. But wait--there's more, much more. The final chapters are a cascade of revelations,…
In Robert Goddard’s third novel, a bestseller in the United Kingdom and now back in print, is a masterful exercise in suspense set in Victorian-era England. On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, thirty-four-year-old husband and father William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. When the creak of the garden gate announces the arrival of an unexpected visitor, he is puzzled but not alarmed. He has no inkling of the destruction this man will wreak on all he holds most dear.
The stranger offers his name as James Norton, but claims he is…
