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A review by ganglari
Low Town by Daniel Polansky
4.0
tl;dr: Good enough for a diversion, a promising stand-alone detective-novel set in a Dishonored-like setting, marred by a too-simple central conundrum.
I want to give this 3-and-a-half stars. It is exceptionally well written and the world-building is on point (somewhat similar in tone to the Dishonored-series of games, to the extent that I wondered if the author was involved in writing for the game). I definitely enjoyed it enough to read the next in the series. It also earns extra credit for being a stand-alone, rather than yet another first-in-a-trilogy. So four stars for that.
However, story-wise it's no more than a three; the central detective story was so predictable I could've told you the rest of it including the twist as soon as the major players had all been introduced. Enjoyable (there's something to be said for a story that makes you feel smart), but...eh.
So, four stars to be kind, definitely worth reading, but take away a half-star if you got this far.
I want to give this 3-and-a-half stars. It is exceptionally well written and the world-building is on point (somewhat similar in tone to the Dishonored-series of games, to the extent that I wondered if the author was involved in writing for the game). I definitely enjoyed it enough to read the next in the series. It also earns extra credit for being a stand-alone, rather than yet another first-in-a-trilogy. So four stars for that.
However, story-wise it's no more than a three; the central detective story was so predictable I could've told you the rest of it including the twist as soon as the major players had all been introduced. Enjoyable (there's something to be said for a story that makes you feel smart), but...eh.
So, four stars to be kind, definitely worth reading, but take away a half-star if you got this far.