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A review by levi66
She Who Waits by Daniel Polansky
5.0
The old familiar social order is starting to crumble. A dangerous new drug has hit the streets and is leaving bodies in its wake. A political party of religious zealots wants Warden to find out where it comes from, and Black House wants him to keep an eye on the zealots. To complicate things, someone from Warden's past has come back, reopening old wounds. Warden feels events are leading to disaster, and he must hold all factions at bay until he and his people are safe.
The following pertains to the entire Low Town series. Don't worry--there's no spoilers!
Wow! I loved the mix of fantasy and hardboiled crime. The Warden is not a great man. He's been brought low by his own mistakes and addictions. He's a cynic and a misanthrope. He's self-demeaning and self-pitying. However, in each installment of this series, he acts from a deep-down altruistic impulse. We like the Warden because he's a better person than he thinks he is.
The series is written in the first person from Warden's point of view. The books are full of digressions in the form of flashbacks. I am not always a fan of flashbacks, but they are deftly done here and greatly enhance the narrative.
The prose has a biting cleverness to it that is a combination of Joe Abercrombie and Terry Pratchett. Every description and every nuance is filtered through Warden's cynical and self-pitying point of view. The Warden is a broken man, and he sees everything around him as broken and brought low. The reader is left to wonder if a more optimistic narrator would describe the same scenes in more pleasant or uplifting terms.
This is one of my most highy-rated series to date.
View the complete review here at Epic Grit.
The following pertains to the entire Low Town series. Don't worry--there's no spoilers!
Wow! I loved the mix of fantasy and hardboiled crime. The Warden is not a great man. He's been brought low by his own mistakes and addictions. He's a cynic and a misanthrope. He's self-demeaning and self-pitying. However, in each installment of this series, he acts from a deep-down altruistic impulse. We like the Warden because he's a better person than he thinks he is.
The series is written in the first person from Warden's point of view. The books are full of digressions in the form of flashbacks. I am not always a fan of flashbacks, but they are deftly done here and greatly enhance the narrative.
The prose has a biting cleverness to it that is a combination of Joe Abercrombie and Terry Pratchett. Every description and every nuance is filtered through Warden's cynical and self-pitying point of view. The Warden is a broken man, and he sees everything around him as broken and brought low. The reader is left to wonder if a more optimistic narrator would describe the same scenes in more pleasant or uplifting terms.
This is one of my most highy-rated series to date.
View the complete review here at Epic Grit.