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A review by chrisbiss
The Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky
4.0
The ARC of this novel has been sitting on my shelf since before the damn thing was published, and I've only just now got around to reading it. I can't say why it's taken me so long, really. What I can say is that I'm very, very glad I finally got around to reading it.
Think of the best of Raymond Chandler, spliced with a little bit of Hunter S. Thompson and dropped into a dark, seedy fantasy world, and you'll be approaching what this book is. The writing is strong throughout, the voice grabbing you and dragging you through the story. The pacing is great, just fast enough to keep you guessing but not so fast that it becomes a blur, and the clues all come together into an ending that feels like a twist but really isn't once you add everything up.
The only complaint I have is regarding the world-building, and it's the opposite of the complaint I usually have with fantasy debuts. The world seems fascinating and Polansky clearly has done a lot of work here, but I don't think he shows it off enough. The glimpses of history we get are enthralling, and the disparate cultures represented raise a lot of questions about how this world came to be the way it is, but I don't think he does enough to show that off. There's so much going on that we only get glimpses, when for once I'd like to see a little bit more depth to what is obviously going to be a very well-realised world.
This scratched all the same itches as Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora did when it was first released. I only hope the series doesn't succumb to the same fate as Lynch's, because this really has the potential to rank among my favourites.
Think of the best of Raymond Chandler, spliced with a little bit of Hunter S. Thompson and dropped into a dark, seedy fantasy world, and you'll be approaching what this book is. The writing is strong throughout, the voice grabbing you and dragging you through the story. The pacing is great, just fast enough to keep you guessing but not so fast that it becomes a blur, and the clues all come together into an ending that feels like a twist but really isn't once you add everything up.
The only complaint I have is regarding the world-building, and it's the opposite of the complaint I usually have with fantasy debuts. The world seems fascinating and Polansky clearly has done a lot of work here, but I don't think he shows it off enough. The glimpses of history we get are enthralling, and the disparate cultures represented raise a lot of questions about how this world came to be the way it is, but I don't think he does enough to show that off. There's so much going on that we only get glimpses, when for once I'd like to see a little bit more depth to what is obviously going to be a very well-realised world.
This scratched all the same itches as Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora did when it was first released. I only hope the series doesn't succumb to the same fate as Lynch's, because this really has the potential to rank among my favourites.