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A review by lisyda
Breach of Peace by Daniel B. Greene
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I've watched some of Daniel Greene's videos over the years, so I was aware he had published something and when I noticed the books were available on Libby, I decided to give them a go.
Since it's a novella, Breach of Peace can't really go into all the nitty-gritty details of worldbuilding that I personally would have loved. Genre-wise, this was grimdark industrial fantasy, and despite the short length of the story, I did get those vibes from the atmosphere, just without much detail. There's an empire, there was a big war a while back, there seem to be different races living in this world, some of whom can use a type of magic, and our main characters are police inspectors, guns and all.
The story starts off with Khlid, Samuel and Chapman – our three inspectors – arriving at the scene of a grisly multiple homicide. And the descriptions here were quite interesting at first. I wanted to know more and to figure out what was happening, but I was left a bit deflated as the "murder mystery" part of the story isn't at the centre at all. It's not really possible for the reader to properly solve it alongside the detectives due to lacking the necessary background information to make certain assumptions.
So instead, it felt more like just being told what happened as further details emerged, and you're just along for the ride to witness the plot happening: a conspiracy is revealed, a plan is made, there's a big culmination and a cliffhanger. So, of course I read the next book as well.
But this one? The writing style itself was very straightforward, simple. The prose itself wasn't distinct or memorable, so I wouldn't say that Greene has found his voice in that regard yet. So the novella was OK overall. Not great, not awful, just OK.
Since it's a novella, Breach of Peace can't really go into all the nitty-gritty details of worldbuilding that I personally would have loved. Genre-wise, this was grimdark industrial fantasy, and despite the short length of the story, I did get those vibes from the atmosphere, just without much detail. There's an empire, there was a big war a while back, there seem to be different races living in this world, some of whom can use a type of magic, and our main characters are police inspectors, guns and all.
The story starts off with Khlid, Samuel and Chapman – our three inspectors – arriving at the scene of a grisly multiple homicide. And the descriptions here were quite interesting at first. I wanted to know more and to figure out what was happening, but I was left a bit deflated as the "murder mystery" part of the story isn't at the centre at all. It's not really possible for the reader to properly solve it alongside the detectives due to lacking the necessary background information to make certain assumptions.
So instead, it felt more like just being told what happened as further details emerged, and you're just along for the ride to witness the plot happening: a conspiracy is revealed, a plan is made, there's a big culmination and a cliffhanger. So, of course I read the next book as well.
But this one? The writing style itself was very straightforward, simple. The prose itself wasn't distinct or memorable, so I wouldn't say that Greene has found his voice in that regard yet. So the novella was OK overall. Not great, not awful, just OK.