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A review by barb4ry1
The Fifth Ward: First Watch by Dale Lucas
4.0
Humans, orcs, mages, elves, and dwarves all jostle for success and survival in the cramped quarters of Yenara, while understaffed Watch Wardens struggle to keep its citizens in line.
Men at Arms is one of my favorite books ever written. I just don’t tire while reading about night watch adventures. The books touch serious issues but di it with lots of humor that Pratchett’s fan worldwide love so much. New book by Dale Lucas features City Watch as well. While it’s not as light as Pratchett’s books it’s definitely leans to the lighter side of fantasy and that’s highly appreciated. I like serious books but after reading few in a row I feel an itch, developing need to reread Pratchett. Happily there are new books that can bring some relief between too realistic books.
The story follows two partners – human nobleman who fleed his family and riches to build his life in Yenara and his dwarf partner – Torval. As members of the Wardwatch, they’re responsible for keeping the peace in a city teeming with drug dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, and humans being humans. Rem and Torval are a great duo – they complement each other even their personalities don’t match on first sight. They exchange some nice banter and we can observe as their mutual trust and sympathy grow. On their first night together, they stumble across a corpse that turns out to be one of watchwardens. They set out to find who is responsible for this . Along the road they fight with assassins, discover illegal slavery and corruption in parts of the city.
I deeply enjoyed the book for many reasons. Above all it’s entertaining read that got me hooked from the first page. The writing and pacing made me flip page after page and if I didn’t have a work and family I think I would’ve been able to finish this book in one go. It is entertaining. It combines high and low fantasy in great way. Yenara is violent and bad things are happening to it’s habitants. We can observe darkest secrets of the city (slaves, debauchery, violence) but we discover city through narration that uses humor (often dark), distance and sarcasm to balance things a bit. Bare in mind that plot is really simple – basically protagonists walk through the city from place to place, have some fights and then after big reveal we have final battle scene. There’s not a lot of nuances here. But I think this is also the strength of the book – it throws you into action and developing relationships and you just follow it.
I’m sure it’ll appeal to people looking for some comic relief in books touching serious issues. I haven’t read Nicholas Eames Kings of the Wyld yet, but I think these books may share a public.
Some of you may wonder why I’ve given the book 4 stars if I enjoyed it that much. Well, the ending disappointed me a little. It was easy to guess who the bad guy was but I don’t mind as the story kept me entertained throughout. The ending though and explanation of few things didn’t please me. Ending was rather naïve (although leaving reader in a good mood). The thing that bothered me most was a thing I can’t write about without spoiling. While I try not to overanalyze books, I see some logical fallacy in this one that bothers me just a little bit.
It changes nothing though – I’ll preorder sequel as soon as it’s available.
Men at Arms is one of my favorite books ever written. I just don’t tire while reading about night watch adventures. The books touch serious issues but di it with lots of humor that Pratchett’s fan worldwide love so much. New book by Dale Lucas features City Watch as well. While it’s not as light as Pratchett’s books it’s definitely leans to the lighter side of fantasy and that’s highly appreciated. I like serious books but after reading few in a row I feel an itch, developing need to reread Pratchett. Happily there are new books that can bring some relief between too realistic books.
The story follows two partners – human nobleman who fleed his family and riches to build his life in Yenara and his dwarf partner – Torval. As members of the Wardwatch, they’re responsible for keeping the peace in a city teeming with drug dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, and humans being humans. Rem and Torval are a great duo – they complement each other even their personalities don’t match on first sight. They exchange some nice banter and we can observe as their mutual trust and sympathy grow. On their first night together, they stumble across a corpse that turns out to be one of watchwardens. They set out to find who is responsible for this . Along the road they fight with assassins, discover illegal slavery and corruption in parts of the city.
I deeply enjoyed the book for many reasons. Above all it’s entertaining read that got me hooked from the first page. The writing and pacing made me flip page after page and if I didn’t have a work and family I think I would’ve been able to finish this book in one go. It is entertaining. It combines high and low fantasy in great way. Yenara is violent and bad things are happening to it’s habitants. We can observe darkest secrets of the city (slaves, debauchery, violence) but we discover city through narration that uses humor (often dark), distance and sarcasm to balance things a bit. Bare in mind that plot is really simple – basically protagonists walk through the city from place to place, have some fights and then after big reveal we have final battle scene. There’s not a lot of nuances here. But I think this is also the strength of the book – it throws you into action and developing relationships and you just follow it.
I’m sure it’ll appeal to people looking for some comic relief in books touching serious issues. I haven’t read Nicholas Eames Kings of the Wyld yet, but I think these books may share a public.
Some of you may wonder why I’ve given the book 4 stars if I enjoyed it that much. Well, the ending disappointed me a little. It was easy to guess who the bad guy was but I don’t mind as the story kept me entertained throughout. The ending though and explanation of few things didn’t please me. Ending was rather naïve (although leaving reader in a good mood). The thing that bothered me most was a thing I can’t write about without spoiling. While I try not to overanalyze books, I see some logical fallacy in this one that bothers me just a little bit.
It changes nothing though – I’ll preorder sequel as soon as it’s available.