City of Others by Jared Poon Published by Orbit on January 13, 2026
Genres: Fantasy
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I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Dive into a world where magic lies hidden just below the surface in this charming urban fantasy full of workplace found family, queer romance, and supernatural creatures straight out of Southeast Asian lore, from debut author Jared Poon.
In the sunny city of Singapore, the government takes care of everything—even the weird stuff.
Benjamin Toh is a middle manager in the Division for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS), and his job is keep the supernatural inhabitants of Singapore happy and keep them out of sight. That is, don’t bother the good, normal citizens, and certainly don’t bother the bosses. Sure, he's overworked and understaffed, but usually, people (and senior management) don’t see what they don’t want to see.
But when an entire housing estate glitches out of existence on what was meant to be a routine check-in, Ben has to scramble to keep things under control and stop the rest of the city from disappearing. He may not have the budget or the bandwidth, but he has the best—if highly irregular and supernaturally inclined—team to help him. Together, they’ll traverse secret shadow markets, scale skyscrapers, and maybe even go to the stars, all so they can just do their goddamn job.
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We start off City of Others by tagging along with Benjamin Toh (Ben) for a typical workday at the Division for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS). His job is to keep the supernatural people living in Singapore happy and keep them from the eyes of the everyday humans. Things go awry when a building starts to disappear out of existence. Benjamin must uncover what is going on and who is behind it. He and his team are up to the task though and it leads to a very engaging story! I loved the writing style and kept saying one more page while reading and just did not want to put this book down. Entertaining, and so incredibly unique, City of Others is a must read. If you are looking for a great new fantasy book, you should check this out.
