ENCHAINED

McNulty’s YA SF series-starter tells the story of a freshly trained member of an urban militia, learning dark secrets of her city as she fights to defend it.

Eighteen-year-old Noni is a citizen of the city of Arel. After passing a brutal gauntlet challenge, she’s now an arbiter, charged with protecting the city from threats within and without. Her first assignment is in the poverty-stricken eastern sector; once there, she begins to discover the reality of her city is different from what her instructors taught her. She fights in an attack on the wall against people known as barbarians, who oddly bear weapons from Arel’s rival city, Kition. She travels to the outposts outside the walls, encountering undisciplined, sadistic fellow arbiters. When she’s injured in an attack on her convoy, a “plebeian,” whom she’s been taught to treat as if they’re enslaved, helps her survive, which starts to make her question her own beliefs. The action scenes are skillfully done and suitably harrowing from the perspective of a novice fighter: “I push through. I have to push through it. Pain is a sign of weakness and weakness will not be tolerated.” In between these scenes, though, the pacing drags a bit. The history of Arel, briefly described at the beginning, tells of a city that survived a cultural collapse, leaving people of color in charge, exacting vengeance on White people for centuries of racism; the worldbuilding is highly detailed, though the politics motivating much of the action feel simplistic and underdeveloped. Noni is the perfect vehicle to introduce readers to the world; her sheltered upbringing at the training center means that much of the city is still new to her, and her compassion and perceptiveness during her indoctrination is well handled. This book is the first in a trilogy, so it makes sense that much of the plot consists of setup for future books. Still, when a long-awaited attack finally occurs at the conclusion, it’s hard not to feel that the book is ending just as the real conflict has begun.

A bleak, uneven read that’s improved by its protagonist’s burgeoning sympathy.