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tlwd's review against another edition
4.0
TW:
I quite enjoyed this book because it did very well in the whole suspense/mystery department. The stakes were high, time was running out, and the protagonists went about a systematic investigation, instead of bumbling about like idiots and getting lucky. (They did get lucky sometimes, but they didn't bumble.)
One thing that did stand out to me was the description of how the protagonist went cold-turkey off alcohol and immediately became a mostly functional human being. Yes, the book describes how he has the DTs and cravings and all that miserable stuff, but he is functional. And when people repeatedly invite him to grab a drink a few days later, he says no. Because apparently willpower is all you need to overcome alcoholism. Riiiiight.
Spoiler
rape, sexual abuse of minors, drug and alcohol abuse, racismI quite enjoyed this book because it did very well in the whole suspense/mystery department. The stakes were high, time was running out, and the protagonists went about a systematic investigation, instead of bumbling about like idiots and getting lucky. (They did get lucky sometimes, but they didn't bumble.)
One thing that did stand out to me was the description of how the protagonist went cold-turkey off alcohol and immediately became a mostly functional human being. Yes, the book describes how he has the DTs and cravings and all that miserable stuff, but he is functional. And when people repeatedly invite him to grab a drink a few days later, he says no. Because apparently willpower is all you need to overcome alcoholism. Riiiiight.
tuftymctavish's review against another edition
3.0
It's been years since I last read this book, and fortunately enough had faded from memory that it was liking reading it for the first time - I didn't have a clear idea on whodunnit until the grand reveal at the end.
There was stuff I was waiting to happen, having more recently read the second book in the series, but other than that this time around it seemed more easily read than I only vaguely recall now. Lots of references to being a drunk to which I have no familiarity, but an engaging enough read that I moved straight onto the 'next' (unread) book in the series...
There was stuff I was waiting to happen, having more recently read the second book in the series, but other than that this time around it seemed more easily read than I only vaguely recall now. Lots of references to being a drunk to which I have no familiarity, but an engaging enough read that I moved straight onto the 'next' (unread) book in the series...
lesserjoke's review
3.0
Author Stephen R. Donaldson is best known for his fantasy sagas like The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, but his character work and intense internal struggles resonate more than the epic quests and magical worldbuilding, and that's what shines in his The Man Who detective novels. Originally a trilogy that Donaldson wrote under a pseudonym in the 1980s, the series was later reissued with the author's real name attached to accompany the publication of the fourth (and so far, final) book in 2001.
This first story is probably the weakest of the lot, but it still has distinctive flourishes that raise it above the genre standard. The language is deliciously hardboiled, and although the setting lacks any giants or wizards, it's painted as such a torturous purgatory for the titular detective that I hesitate to call it entirely earthbound. I've read plenty of other stories about alcoholics, but no series has ever made addiction seem as starkly horrifying as it does here. The narrator's dependence on alcohol colors every corner of his investigations, with drinking presented as this awful, ugly thing that Axbrewder is nevertheless compelled to do. I'm honestly half-convinced that reading this series in high school may have been the catalyst that sparked my own lifelong decision not to drink.
It's not a perfect book. Donaldson is still clearly figuring out the rules of detective fiction at this stage in his career, and careful readers will likely run a few steps ahead of Axbrewder and his partner in unraveling the case. There's a lot of oblique subtext that would have been stronger if spelled out explicitly, especially concerning the backstory in the title of the time the private investigator fired at a suspect while drunk and gunned down his brother by mistake. It's clear that even on the wagon the protagonist no longer believes in the possibility of his own redemption, but Donaldson focuses narrowly on that effect at the expense of really exploring its root cause.
There's also a somewhat strained racial dynamic between what the text calls Anglos and Chicanos in the fictional southwestern city of Puerta del Sol. Axbrewder is the rare member of the former group who doesn't discriminate against the latter, but the minority characters do come across as just a little more stereotypical and mysticized than their white counterparts. I remember this being less of an issue in the sequels, so perhaps it's yet another mark of a talented but clumsy early writer. Luckily, there's still a lot to recommend this first volume, and the books only get better from here.
[Content warning for child prostitution and rape, off-screen but regularly discussed throughout.]
This first story is probably the weakest of the lot, but it still has distinctive flourishes that raise it above the genre standard. The language is deliciously hardboiled, and although the setting lacks any giants or wizards, it's painted as such a torturous purgatory for the titular detective that I hesitate to call it entirely earthbound. I've read plenty of other stories about alcoholics, but no series has ever made addiction seem as starkly horrifying as it does here. The narrator's dependence on alcohol colors every corner of his investigations, with drinking presented as this awful, ugly thing that Axbrewder is nevertheless compelled to do. I'm honestly half-convinced that reading this series in high school may have been the catalyst that sparked my own lifelong decision not to drink.
It's not a perfect book. Donaldson is still clearly figuring out the rules of detective fiction at this stage in his career, and careful readers will likely run a few steps ahead of Axbrewder and his partner in unraveling the case. There's a lot of oblique subtext that would have been stronger if spelled out explicitly, especially concerning the backstory in the title of the time the private investigator fired at a suspect while drunk and gunned down his brother by mistake. It's clear that even on the wagon the protagonist no longer believes in the possibility of his own redemption, but Donaldson focuses narrowly on that effect at the expense of really exploring its root cause.
There's also a somewhat strained racial dynamic between what the text calls Anglos and Chicanos in the fictional southwestern city of Puerta del Sol. Axbrewder is the rare member of the former group who doesn't discriminate against the latter, but the minority characters do come across as just a little more stereotypical and mysticized than their white counterparts. I remember this being less of an issue in the sequels, so perhaps it's yet another mark of a talented but clumsy early writer. Luckily, there's still a lot to recommend this first volume, and the books only get better from here.
[Content warning for child prostitution and rape, off-screen but regularly discussed throughout.]
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