Book Review: The Travelling City by Adrienne Miller
Wielding a psychedelic array of bizarre imagery and space-distorting magic, The Travelling City boasts a truly fantastical setting for readers to dive in to. In a world where humans can manifest new realities for themselves, Adrienne Miller tests the limits of how weird and unfamiliar she can make her debut world, and it’s in this uniqueness that the book finds its shine.
One of the first things that struck me was how Miller uses her magic system to explore gender in greater detail. If magic can manifest anything, then it stands to reason that some people would use their power to reshape their own bodies, and Miller seemed keenly interested in exploring the freedoms and boundaries of this. Through the writing I was able to see how someone could embrace fluidity in order to better be themselves, while also discovering how power structures could then commodify and pervert this exact liberty. At the same time, I was also able to catch glimpses of how someone might still value having a fixed gender expression in a world of constant change, and it was with grace that the narrative never tries to frame one path as superior to the other. Cumulatively these aspects were nothing short of fascinating, and a strong example of what is best about The Travelling City.
Another significant component of Miller’s work is romance, and it’s here that I first started to feel conflicted. For huge swathes of the book I simply wasn’t convinced that the main couple had any real chemistry, and much of their inevitable romantic entanglement felt like it was a case of ‘they are hot and a constant in my life’, which isn’t unrealistic, but I would have preferred to see something more tangible bringing them together. Especially since the author proved themselves deft at writing emotionally intimate moments after the couple was properly established.
Though If I had to pick just one aspect that defines The Travelling City more than any other, it would be the prose. This is really what will ultimately make or break the experience for anyone thinking of giving it a try. Adrienne Miller clearly has a passion for lavish descriptions, and she’s not without talent by my estimate, but to say the book gets disorientating and lost in wordiness would probably be underselling it. For example, take this line that features early on in the story:
“[...]a sudden gust of wind picked up and ripped the paper dolls upwards as if the hand of a resurrected god had commanded them to follow.”
That sounds incredible and breathtaking to behold, and yet I have to stop and ask myself, what image is “the hand of a resurrected god” supposed to conjure up? It’s something that sounds cool while also being impossible for me to form a mental image of, and that’s an issue that kept cropping up in the writing. The more I encountered phrases like this, the more the reading experience began to feel laborious, which is a shame for how fixable it appears. I respect what the author set out to do, but I can’t deny that a more ‘readable’ experience would have done the book a lot of favours.
With weight to both its flaws and its strengths, there are few books that are quite like The Travelling City. If the idea of taking a risk on a bold new series appeals to you, then that makes my recommendation easier. However for those looking for a tidier and sharper experience, then it might be worth holding off until Adrienne Miller has had more time to develop as a writer. I’ll say this without hesitation though; the indie space is blessed to have another author trying new things, and that gives me hope for the series.