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    Low Town: A Novel
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    Low Town: A Novel
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    Low Town: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Low Town: A Novel

    Written by Daniel Polansky

    Narrated by Rob Shapiro

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops . . . and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town.

    In the forgotten back alleys and flophouses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you will find Low Town. It is an ugly place, and its cham­pion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer. After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs. Every day is a constant hustle to find new customers and protect his turf from low-life competition like Tancred the Harelip and Ling Chi, the enigmatic crime lord of the heathens.

    The Warden's life of drugged iniquity is shaken by his dis­covery of a murdered child down a dead-end street . . . set­ting him on a collision course with the life he left behind. As a former agent with Black House-the secret police-he knows better than anyone that murder in Low Town is an everyday thing, the kind of crime that doesn't get investi­gated. To protect his home, he will take part in a dangerous game of deception between underworld bosses and the psy­chotic head of Black House, but the truth is far darker than he imagines. In Low Town, no one can be trusted.

    Daniel Polansky has crafted a thrilling novel steeped in noir sensibilities and relentless action, and set in an original world of stunning imagination, leading to a gut-wrenching, unforeseeable conclusion. Low Town is an attention-grabbing debut that will leave readers riveted . . . and hun­gry for more.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 16, 2011
    ISBN9780307934291
    Unavailable
    Low Town: A Novel
    Author

    Daniel Polansky

    DANIEL POLANSKY was born in 1984 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of the Low Town series, the Hugo nominated The Builders, and A City Dreaming. He currently resides on a hill in eastern Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for Low Town

    3.5/5

    112 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      As I am writing this while slightly loopy on cold meds, please pardon any rambling that might ensue. It doesn't change the fact that Low Town impressed me so very much, that it has firmly settled Daniel Polansky into my favorite authors list. After reading a short story of his, and then devouring a much longer piece, I can tell you that he is an amazing writer in all formats. His worlds brim with atmosphere, his characters are gritty and realistic, but best of all it always feels like you're seated right in the thick of it. This book was utterly addictive, and I'm honestly so sad that it's over.

      If you asked me to classify this, I'd have a hard time settling on any genre. Low Town is a fantasy, because magic is in play. However it's also noir fiction, in that Warden falls solidly on the wrong side of the law. There's a gritty quality to this story. Polansky takes the hand of the reader, and slowly leads them into the darkest parts of society. The parts where the drugs run thick, danger is around every corner, and the supposed "law men" are actually the worst of the bunch. What I loved about this was that it set Warden in this gray area between worlds. Once a crony of the state, now a crime boss of sorts, poor Warden floats in this intriguing purgatory of his own making. It allows for so much depth, in both his character and the story that surrounds him.

      Which, honestly, is why I liked Warden as a character so much. Polansky never labels Warden as a "bad guy" or a "good guy". He's just a man, faced with tons of impossible choices, struggling to make a life the best that he can. I never felt cause to judge him for his choices. In fact, more often than not, I silently cheered him on for choosing to do things the hard way. It's tough to create a character who has a good heart, but does bad things. Polansky does it without even blinking. Warden is wonderful, terrible, and tragic all wrapped up into one. I adored and respected him for it.

      If you think that the impressive world building, and the brilliantly layered characters, were all that you were going to get? Well, you'd be wrong. On top of all of that, is the type of mystery that keeps you reading well into the night. As I mentioned before, Warden isn't exactly the shiniest character you've ever met. He has enemies, and worst of all he has enemies from both his prior and his current life. Polansky took this opportunity to craft a dark and gritty mystery. One steeped in magic and surrounded by death. I liked Warden before he was wrapped up in this mystery, but I loved him afterwards.

      Long story short, this is absolutely a series that I'll be following. There's not a single thing about it that I didn't fall head over heels in love with. If you're looking for something a bit different, you might want to check this out. I'll tell you, it's put Daniel Polansky on my shelf of favorites. It might do the same for you.
    • 5/5
      Please note: I read this in June 2011 from a copy I received from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.About the Story: In "Low Town," Daniel Polansky has done something few authors have done - taken a noir mystery thriller and placed it in a fantasy world. I've only seen one other author make use of this type of story-telling idea, and have no idea why, because it is really a fabulous idea that allows a much broader range of ideas to be expressed. Low Town has it all - drugs, vice, violence - and sorcery. My Synopsis: Known as The Warden, the main character (a true anti-hero if I ever met one) has run Low Town's drug trade by himself for the five years since he was pushed out of Black House (the secret police), where he had worked since after the Dren wars. However, his established routine is shaken up by the disappearance and then murder of a young girl - ending up in the limelight after finding her body, he is forced to ally himself with Black House in order to try to stop further murders. My Thoughts and Recommendations: This was an amazing book and there is a twist at the end that I never once saw coming - it was very well done and I have to congratulate the author on so successfully fooling me. The characters are all well-done with developed personalities and separate natures, even if they are minor characters - this is always a trait I much admire in a writer. Overall, this is a must-read for fantasy, mystery, thriller, suspense AND noir fans - definitely pick this one up!
    • 4/5
      If Low Town had been a novel from an established author, I would have been impressed. Considering it is his literary debut, I am blown away. Wonderful, earthy, believable characters that I genuinely care about are not what I normally associate with the first book from a fantasy author, and neither is a noir plot that makes sense, is satisfying, and yet leaves you feeling that, even though you believe the main character did the right thing, nobody really wins. Stunning stuff, and the last two chapters alone elevated it from great to incredible.
    • 5/5
      Daniel Polansky has created an intriguing world of Low Town - a slum in the winter time filled with despicable characters, citizens living in poverty and filth, drug trafficking and magic. Children are showing up dead - abused and sacrificed and the Warden, a former secret ops agent now leading a life of crime, can't just stand by and wait for the next victim. So in a bid for his very life, he makes a deal with his former boss to find the culprit.I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well written and interesting, the setting appropriately dismal with just enough goodness and innocence to make you root for the citizens who live there. I did figure out who the killer was early on, but I didn't figure out the motivation until the very end, which kept me turning pages long past when I should have stopped reading to get a good night's sleep. A great book for anyone who enjoys a mystery with a little fantasy mixed in. The perfect blend - not overwhelmed with magic and strange names, but enough magic to keep it fresh.I received this book free from the Goodreads giveaway program.
    • 4/5
      Polansky likes to play with style, and that's in evidence on this early work, first in a series written as (of all things) hard-boiled fantasy. there's an interesting lead, Warden, a criminal who was once a detective for the Crown, and on the mean streets of Low Town with no authority he's still detecting. nicely written, nicely paced, and with real possibilities for an excellent series.
    • 4/5
      I really want to give this 3.5 stars. There were a lot of great elements to it, but sometimes the flow/pacing seemed off to me and I just felt that kept it from rating as high as the other books I have given 4 stars too. There was enough good that I rounded up instead of down. I feel the potential for the sequel is really good.
    • 5/5
      Well written.Though I guessed the climax around halfway through the novel it didn't impede my enjoyment of the novel. The writing is excellent. The character of the warden is a winner.The merger of Noir and Fantasy works surprisingly well.
    • 4/5
      I want to start by saying that I much prefer the UK title of this book. ‘The Straight Razor Cure’ does a far more effective job of describing what kind of place Low Town is and how people there deal with problems. I know, “a rose by any other name…” and all that rot but still, one does like to get a sense of what one’s getting into.‘Low Town’ is noir fantasy, somewhat reminiscent of Alex Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse series. But while Bledsoe’s books are unabashed mash-ups told with tongue-in-cheek irreverence, Daniel Polansky’s noir fantasy is the real deal, delivered coldly and in deadly earnest. By definition, noir fiction must feature a tortured protagonist and ‘Low Town’ provides that in spades. Polansky’s protagonist, the Warden (no other name given) is a veteran of ‘The Great War’ and a disgraced Black House (secret police) agent, eking out a living selling (and using) drugs in a miserable sinkhole of a city. His role as drug lord (with a very small ‘l’) affords him a slight degree of status among the people in his district which sometimes finds him serving as an uncomfortable liaison between his former employers in the police and the citizenry who wouldn’t be caught dead talking to the authorities.The most striking feature of ‘Low Town’ is Polansky’s skill at turning a phrase. His gritty description of Low Town and its environs fits well with the noir genre yet is reminiscent of our own world as well. Less than a page in I was struck by the line “The dangerous men were still asleep, their blades sheathed next to their beds. The really dangerous men had been up for hours, and their quills and ledgers were getting hard use.” Yep, some things are true wherever you are.Some readers have compared Polansky’s dark prose to that of Joe Abercrombie but I can’t confirm this as I haven’t read him yet. Both authors’ worlds seem pretty bleak and neither has much room for unicorns.At times my impressions of ‘Low Town’ seem almost self-contradictory. Sometimes I feel like he has cheated by taking what is familiar and just changing the names. For example, with talk of opium and celestial kingdoms, Heretics really sound a lot like another name for Chinese. Similarly, The Great War sounds awfully similar to our World War One if you replace guns with edged weapons and gas with magic. At other times, though, Polansky’s tweaking of the familiar seems to be what makes his story fascinating. It’s like he is describing our world slightly out of phase, a world that we could see if we just had the right lens through which to view it.While the characters are about what one would expect I’m not sure how you could write a noir novel any differently. A protagonist in noir has about as much chance of being in touch with his inner child as Hugh Grant has of getting cast in the next Hike Hammer picture. ‘Low Town’ is the debut novel by Daniel Polansky and is, for now at least, a stand-alone novel. It has the potential to be a great first volume of a series and I would definitely be interested in reading any subsequent volumes. It has been a while since I have paid any serious attention to fantasy and, it this is what is currently available in the genre, it definitely hasn’t gone downhill in my absence.This is not a book that I would read to my daughters. It is violent and its protagonist is an unapologetic drug abuser. Also, while the author doesn’t go out of his way to impress the reader with his knowledge of four-letter words, neither does he shy away from using the harshest expletives when they are called for.In the end, I’m going to give Low Town 4 points: 5 points for the writing, 4 for plot and originality and 3 for the characters. I definitely intend to keep my eye on this author and likely will get any future books he puts out. *Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review copy of this book was obtained from the publisher via the Amazon Vine Program.
    • 5/5
      I simply have to preface this review with – GO OUT AND GET THIS BOOK! Beg, borrow, buy, or steal it from a friend – I don’t care, but you must read it because it is just THAT good. Now that I’ve made my demands let me tell you why I loved this book. *note this review has a few quote spoilers*

      The character building that is done for the protagonist, Warden, is great. He is the good guy, but then hell he’s also one of the bad guys. A low life to love. How is that possible? Essentially he’s a good guy gone bad. He’s fallen in with the Crime world when he got booted from being an Agent of the Crown. I think my only bone of contention with this book is that you never find out exactly why he was given the forcible boot.

      As I feel in this specific case Polansky’s words might server as a better incentive for you to read the book than my own will – here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. Oh the teasers!

      "Mac had managed to carve out a small territory by virtue of his skill with a blade and the unreserved dedication of his whores, who to a woman, were as enamored of him as a mother is her firstborn." page 5

      The background and backflashes in the book on Warden’s life were very well placed. I like that you got to see some of his experiences as a soldier as well as a child during the time of the plague. This particular one below had me laughing so hard, probably because I knew some foul mouthed sergeants in my time.

      "They aren't expecting you to do anything, Private. I, however, am ordering you to shut that flapping cunt mouth of yours and gear up, because you're going over the wall in a quarter hour whether you're butt-fucking naked or covered in soot. And don't worry about the enemy, from what I hear they only fire at men." page 51

      I loved how when reading this book I felt like I was in a different land, so similar to what maybe our own might have been like in another time/world and the differences to some of the normal speech patterns helped give that effect.

      Now, Warden, tries to play like he’s a ball breaker, because he is, but he’s got a soft heart. There are so many times reading this when I thought – he’s only being cruel because it’s how he shows he cares. I’m so thankful this book didn’t have any romance in it – I wasn’t in the mood for any of those shenanigans so if that’s what you’re looking for this book is not it. I think this is about Warden, rediscovering part of who he is and what it is to watch out for your own.

      I just have to throw this last quote in here because I thought it was way too hilarious to leave out. Now this is definitely how you get rid of an unwanted visitor!

      "Up close she looked like someone better seen from father away. 'I don't believe I've had the pleasure,' she began. 'Are you mad? I had you last year at Lord Addington's spring formal! We went behind his pagoda and I took you from the rear. You said I was the best you'd ever had!' The color drained from her face-clearly she didn't find my scenario entirely implausible. Stammering an explanation she hurried off" page 303
    • 4/5
      [Low Town] by [[Daniel Polansky]] was a good read, and an impressive debut in the fantasy field. The main character is Warden, a 30-something drug dealer, and part-time user, who once was a good guy cop-type but ran afoul of the powers that be. The book is an interesting combination of crime novel and gritty fantasy that reminded me somehow of [[Patrick Rothfuss]]'s books. A friend convinces Warden to take on investigating the murder of a girl which the powers that be would just as soon ignore. It turns out her murder is just part of a larger sordid plan..Most of the characters are fairly standard fare, like a large, intimidating innkeeper, a kind wizard, and so on. Warden is more complex, and will be worth following in sequels, which seem to be contemplated - although this one is totally a standalone. Polansky's pulled together some familiar and not-so-familiar elements into a very entertaining story. It's a standout in this genre and a good time for those who enjoy this kind of novel.
    • 4/5
      “I remember the lightning in the air, and the lovers bidding goodbye to each other in the streets, and I can tell you what I think. We went to war because going to war is fun, because there's something in the human breast that trills at the thought, although perhaps not the reality, of murdering its fellows in vast numbers. Fighting a war ain't fun - fighting a war is pretty miserable. But starting a war? Hell, starting a war is better than a night floating on daeva's honey.” This was definately a very enjoyable read, gritty, dark, compelling. More or less a fascinating crime story packed into a fantasy environment. Low Town is an ugly, dirty city full of violence where crime rules the day and the night.The main character Warden, who was once a soldier, then a special service agent, now a drug dealer, addicted to his own products, fits this environment perfectly. He is an ugly man with violent tendencies, but when you look underneath all these disturbing qualities you find an intelligent, determined and very fascinating character. Mostly, I loved his humour and sarcasm which was ever present, and the skilled observations he made of others were very colourful. Then a child, he knows, gets murdered and he is drawn into the investigations. Unfortunately, after a second child gets murdered he comes under suspicion himself and therefore he has to continue the investigations to save his own hide, and to protect himself from further attention from the authorities of the city. Although, Low Town is a city of low morals and his own rules, the killing of the children stirs the city into action. There was some use of magic in this story, but it was more less low key, which worked well for the pace and the setting of the story. I can recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories who are a bit more gritty with flawed, interesting characters.
    • 4/5
      I seem to be on a non-deliberate kick of junkies who investigate and/or criminal underworlds, this one combines the two.Warden is an ex-soldier, ex-cop and now he's a narcotic dealer who samples some of his wares, regularly. He's dragged into a murder mystery because he's the first on scene at two of the murders by coincidence and his ruthless ex-boss decides to use his underworld ties to help the investigation along. Warden gets involved in a lot of murky things to try to find out the truth, but the truth might just kill him.This should score higher for me, it feels like a gritty 1920s type of story, after all the hero is a war veteran, and with early places namechecked from his history of Apres and Ives, you know that this is an influence, there was also a great plague that swept through the poor area (though this one was before, rather than after, the war) and there's a feeling of tensions and of change about to sweep through. There's also a detective story AND magic and you'd think that enough of my checkboxes would be ticked off to make me happy with this, but somehow it didn't sparkle for me, it didn't quite work in the ways it would have expected. It's not a bad story, don't get me wrong, it just didn't work in the ways that make it a great story for me. It was so very nearly a 4* read though, just not quite.I do intend to read the rest of the series, it did do that for me, and I can see potential in the main character but he didn't really come alive for me enough. Hopefully as Polansky develops as a writer there will be more flesh on the bare bones of this character.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes you just read a book for fun.Low Town by Daniel Polansky is a hybrid noir detective/urban fantasy story set in the bad part of a magical city, the slums of fantasy land. The city of Rigus is the richest, most opulent city in the Thirteen Kingdoms, but it has a dark under-belly of narrow streets filled with thieves, street children, prostitutes, drug dealers, gangsters, addicts, and small time wizards.The novel's hero/narrator is a war hero...disgraced former police detective...minor drug-lord who becomes caught up in the investigation of the disappearance and murder of several neighborhood children. His investigation will lead him to parts of town so bad even he avoids them aloIng with magician's towers and the opulent palaces of the city's aristocracy. I loved it.I know that there has been a little burst of fantasy/detective fiction in the last ten years, but most of it hasn't interested me much. The little of it that I have read has been too fantastical, I think, not detectivical enough. Low Town has the fast thinking, quip a minute detective banter found in classic detective novels. If I were casting the movie, I'd find a way to bring Humphrey Bogart back from the dead to play the lead role, though Robert Mitchum would do just as well. The book's setting is full of the urban underbelly characters popular in modern police procedurals. The plot pits a social outsider against a corrupt social system's status quo the same way class detective dramas, like television's Rockford Files and Veronica Mars, so often did. Even without the fantasy elements, Low Town is the sort of classic detective story I enjoy. Every time I try to read a new fantasy novel these days I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters and the scope of the novel's ambition almost as soon as I am left utterly bored by the politcal mechinations of the book's plot. I'm not a Game of Thrones fan. I like a fantasy novel that grows bigger by focusing on a single character or small set of characters. Low Town fits this bill, too. Since it follows a classic detective novel structure, we become very familiar with the detective while we meet the rest of the characters as he does. The cast of Low Town gets bigger gradually as it exposes the treachery of those at the top of the social ladder both aristocrat and magician.The whole thing added up to a very entertaining reading experience. I'd love to read more Low Town stories, Mr. Polansky. If you're out there following the book blogs, please write more. You have until this time next summer to get them published.
    • 5/5
      It's been in my to read pile for a few months now, but once started I couldn't put it down. And it's one book I didn't regret reading after I finished. It's a story that instead of bringing the fantasy to urban, brings the urban to fantasy with a touch of noir.
    • 4/5
      Noir fantasy done better than I've seen it done before. Quite good.
    • 5/5
      Pretty amazing debut novel with lots of smart writing, unique creative plotting and characterization, strong prose, character development and inventive incorporation of tropes from multiple genres. A writer to watch out for, a book to read. Recommended.
    • 3/5
      A fantasy story told with noir panache, this book was thoroughly mediocre beyond its semi-novel premise. Consistent insertions of forced fantasy cliches are meant to be casual nods to this unique world, but are really just constant reminders of how nerdy the book is. Only for diehard fans of both fantasy and noir genres.