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It's pretty clear this debut fantasy novel is being positioned as a cool new thing. After all, what was the last time you saw a fantasy book with a 1990s stencil street art-style cover? It's definitely keen to carve out a niche in the genre by mashing up classic noir tropes with a more or less standard quasi-medieval low fantasy setting. Throw in some grim violence, contemporary profanity and slang (for example, at one point, a group of thugs is said to "roll deep"), and hey presto, this ain't your daddy's Tolkien! The author has alluded to his mashed up influences, from Hammett, to Tarantino, and yes, Tolkien. And to be fair, that combination actually is fairly representative of the kind of mix one is getting, with Tolkien being perhaps the weak link. What I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the clear influence of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. Those gritty, most city-based sword and sorcery tales are easily the best comparison to this book.
The antihero of this story is a drug dealer named Warden, whose territory covers a portion of the slums of a large capitol city which feels a lot like London. He's got a colorful past: first as a survivor of a vicious plague, then as the protege of the city's most powerful and beloved wizard, then as an officer for five years of trench warfare against the hated Dren kingdom, then as a top-ranking member of the imperial secret police. He left his position of power behind due to an unspecified incident over a woman, and now he's 35ish and living above a tavern run by his old war comrade. The story kicks off when a child is found murdered, and Warden gets caught up in the investigation. Soon enough, he's uncovered ties to the darkest magic, another child is killed, and he's got to race the clock to find out who's behind it.
It's kind of a classic crime story, and it's not to hard to imagine Warden as a down-and-out ex-cop turned private eye, undertaking the same kind of investigation in a modern metropolis. Unfortunately, anyone who's familiar with classic noir tropes will have a pretty easy time identifying the villain of the story well before Warden does. And I have to confess, even while I understood the villain's motivations, I never really understood what their overall goal was. I'm going to need to go back and read the last 15-20 pages or so, and that's never a good sign. The book brims with atmosphere and brio, and there's plenty of snappy dialogue and clever detail -- but it's just a shade too simple. It's the kind of book I can imagine my 18-year-old self falling head over heels for, but for the adult me, it remained just a touch too basic to truly fall in love with. Still, I imagine there will be more installments in the Warden series, and I will definitely pick the next one up with interest.
The antihero of this story is a drug dealer named Warden, whose territory covers a portion of the slums of a large capitol city which feels a lot like London. He's got a colorful past: first as a survivor of a vicious plague, then as the protege of the city's most powerful and beloved wizard, then as an officer for five years of trench warfare against the hated Dren kingdom, then as a top-ranking member of the imperial secret police. He left his position of power behind due to an unspecified incident over a woman, and now he's 35ish and living above a tavern run by his old war comrade. The story kicks off when a child is found murdered, and Warden gets caught up in the investigation. Soon enough, he's uncovered ties to the darkest magic, another child is killed, and he's got to race the clock to find out who's behind it.
It's kind of a classic crime story, and it's not to hard to imagine Warden as a down-and-out ex-cop turned private eye, undertaking the same kind of investigation in a modern metropolis. Unfortunately, anyone who's familiar with classic noir tropes will have a pretty easy time identifying the villain of the story well before Warden does. And I have to confess, even while I understood the villain's motivations, I never really understood what their overall goal was. I'm going to need to go back and read the last 15-20 pages or so, and that's never a good sign. The book brims with atmosphere and brio, and there's plenty of snappy dialogue and clever detail -- but it's just a shade too simple. It's the kind of book I can imagine my 18-year-old self falling head over heels for, but for the adult me, it remained just a touch too basic to truly fall in love with. Still, I imagine there will be more installments in the Warden series, and I will definitely pick the next one up with interest.