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A review by vinayvasan
Poison City by Paul Crilley
4.0
A 4.5 really.
Truly an outstanding first book in a dark urban fantasy series set in South Africa (a star for that alone, change in setting from the usual London/ NYC vibe). Dresden is pretty much the gold standard for an urban fantasy series and most other books kind of have to live up to it else they run the risk of being branded as mere knockoffs. Poison City makes this work in multiple ways
It starts on the right note by infusing just that right element of cynical humor and a messed up lead character battling his own demons as he tries to take on the seamy supernatural side of things trying to mess up the fragile peace, saddled with a wise-ass, world weary, sherry loving sidekick of a dog. It also strikes gold by making things happen very fast. Yes, to an extent this comes at the expense of building up the rest of the cast but the world building is fantastic and the stakes higher. In so far, that the lead character has to keep striking and breaking deals of great consequences right through
The pacing is fairly frenetic, our lead character who starts off as a hot mess gets even more messed up and then there are the consequences and the revelations regarding God, which is admirable in its conceit.
On the flip side, the very pace of the book kind of does work against it where things just happen so fast that its effect on our characters doesnt last, which to me is a shame because there are instances where a breather or a quiet moment would serve the purpose
Overall, a very promising start to what seems like a intriguing series
Truly an outstanding first book in a dark urban fantasy series set in South Africa (a star for that alone, change in setting from the usual London/ NYC vibe). Dresden is pretty much the gold standard for an urban fantasy series and most other books kind of have to live up to it else they run the risk of being branded as mere knockoffs. Poison City makes this work in multiple ways
It starts on the right note by infusing just that right element of cynical humor and a messed up lead character battling his own demons as he tries to take on the seamy supernatural side of things trying to mess up the fragile peace, saddled with a wise-ass, world weary, sherry loving sidekick of a dog. It also strikes gold by making things happen very fast. Yes, to an extent this comes at the expense of building up the rest of the cast but the world building is fantastic and the stakes higher. In so far, that the lead character has to keep striking and breaking deals of great consequences right through
The pacing is fairly frenetic, our lead character who starts off as a hot mess gets even more messed up and then there are the consequences and the revelations regarding God, which is admirable in its conceit.
On the flip side, the very pace of the book kind of does work against it where things just happen so fast that its effect on our characters doesnt last, which to me is a shame because there are instances where a breather or a quiet moment would serve the purpose
Overall, a very promising start to what seems like a intriguing series