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Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure: A Low Town Novel (Low Town 1) [Paperback]

Daniel Polansky
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Book Description

24 May 2012 Low Town 1
Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.

Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his.

But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley.

And then another.

With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer.

If the killer doesn't find him first.



WINNER OF THE PRIX IMAGINALES AWARD FOR BEST FOREIGN NOVEL IN 2012.

Frequently Bought Together

Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure: A Low Town Novel (Low Town 1) + Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, Book 1) + King of Thorns (The Broken Empire, Book 2)
Price For All Three: £19.04

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks (24 May 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1444721313
  • ISBN-13: 978-1444721317
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.5 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 122,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Saturated with world-weary snark, this is a thoroughly entertaining page-turner which wears its world building lightly. 4 stars'

(SFX Magazine )

'Polansky's writing is confident and punchy from the offset. The action rips along at a brilliant pace allowing us to experience this gritty world through the eyes of a thrilling, dangerous, flawed, yet strangely endearing protagonist. This is modern, dark fantasy at its best and a debut to be envied.'

(British Fantasy Society )

'Quite brilliant... The Straight Razor Cure is as good a debut as I've read in along time. [It] has it all - and as the name suggests, it is sharp, steely and viciously bloody. Highly recommended'

(John Berlyne, SF Revu )

'Polansky hits all the right notes in his intelligent first novel, a blend of dystopian fantasy and hard-boiled crime... Sharp, noir-tinged dialogue and astute insights into class struggle mark Polansky as a writer with a future'

(Publishers Weekly )

'A strong debut novel with a hero who doesn't waste time worrying about the moral implications of cutting someone's throat'

(Kirkus Reviews )

'Polansky transplants his love of crime noir into a magic-steeped, secondary-world fantasy setting. It's an inherently troublesome mash-up that could only work in the hands of a silly satirist or a deft, sensitive dramatist with the blackest sense of humor. Polansky is wholeheartedly the latter - and Low Town is brilliant proof ... Wielding vivid characters and scalpel-sharp banter worthy of fellow dark fantasists Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie, Polansky ratchets up the pace ... Polansky has managed to craft an assured, roaring, and rollicking hybrid, a cross-genre free-for-all that relishes its tropes while spitting out their bones. And he does it all while spinning one hell of a gripping mystery'

(avclub.com )

'I can't remember when I last enjoyed a fantasy book this much'

(Books Monthly )

'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'

(missiontoread.com )

'An impossible to put down read, showing how dark fantasy can truly be' (thefoundingfields.com )

'The Straight Razor Cure is dark, eloquent work filled with a very real presence that permeates both the world and the characters within it. Polansky has created a wickedly delicious fantasy that leaves a profound impression on the reader. Despite the plague, murderers and dark magic, I can't wait to pay another visit to Low Town'

(mithrilwisdom.blogspot.com )

'Polansky brings this world to life with many well-chosen phrases, so that you get the smell and the feel of the place living with you as you read. And unpleasant as it may be at times, Low Town is somewhere you'll want to return to soon.' (www.scifibulletin.com )

About the Author

Daniel Polansky was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He can be found in Brooklyn, when he isn't somewhere else. His debut novel, THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE, received great acclaim. TOMORROW, THE KILLING is the second novel in his 'Low Town' series.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The Lowdown on Low Town 23 Aug 2011
Format:Hardcover
Over the last couple of years, there has been a growing trend in what I guess you would call low fantasy. These are novels that aren't overly interested in the antics of kings, or the fate of nations, quite the opposite in fact as they focus primarily on ordinary people. Joe Abercrombie's work springs to mind. The Straight Razor Cure is written in a similar vein.

Low Town has suffered through many terrible situations. From wars, where large portions of the population were killed, to plagues where bodies ended up rotting in the streets. Though times have been tough, the townsfolk just about managed to get by. Suddenly, a killer is stalking their children and many fear the return of the bad times.

When it comes to the denizens of Low Town, nobody is ever quite what they seem. The main protagonist, Warden is a perfect example of this. Down on his luck and no longer a member of military, his character flies in the face of your conventional fantasy hero. Warden is an ugly man, has violent tendencies and is a drug addict to boot. Not exactly the qualities you would you would expect in a leading man. Why then, did I find myself warming to him? Warden could have so easily been a one dimensional bully-boy, but when you read his interactions with those he cares about, you get glimpses of the man he once was prior to his fall from grace. This is a man that has seen (and probably done) horrible things in the past. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at his core he retains a level of humanity that few of the other characters in the novel display.

The majority of magic and mystical elements that are used in the book are very low key, and this works well within the confines of the story. With a couple of notable exceptions, that are necessary for the plot to move forward, there is nothing that is too in your face. I like this toned down approach, as it gave the entire novel a much more realistic feel.

I enjoyed the way Polansky's writing shifted my suspicions from one character/potential killer, to the next. There were plenty of sufficiently blind alleys and red herrings that kept me on my toes.

Overall, Daniel Polansky's debut novel has been one of my favourite novels of this genre, so far this year. The blend of detective noir and fantasy seems like a good fit. This is a first class murder mystery with an eclectic cast of immoral characters, most of whom inhabit the sleazier side of humanity. They aren't a pleasant bunch but this does make it all the more interesting to read. The wintry streets of Low Town were great fun to visit and I hope I get the opportunity to read more of Warden's exploits in the future.

If you enjoy your fantasy dark and gritty then this could well be the novel for you. The Straight Razor Cure is available now.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully edgy piece of dark fantasy... 8 Aug 2011
By Christopher Meadows VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure is a sharp, intelligent and somewhat bleak novel. It centres around the fictional `Low Town', the run down, scabrous heart of a larger city. The people in Low Town are poor, oppressed by their betters, and have more than their fair share of crime and general urban misery. The atmosphere is grim, though not unrelentingly so, with sparks of hope and joy scattered throughout, and I was quickly drawn in amongst the grime, the grit, the crime and the blood.

We are quickly introduced to `The Warden', a grizzled, pragmatic, emotionally wounded inhabitant of this city. He serves as our protagonist, as he begins to investigate (for entirely practical reasons), the murder of a child, which rapidly spins out of control. The investigation itself is convincing and well written - there are no leaps of faith, no requirements to suspend disbelief - the logic is, if not Holmesian, certainly sensible. Whilst there are unexpected twists and turns, none of them are dependent upon the framework of the setting; there are no cop-outs.

The fantasy detective fiction idea isn't entirely new; I was reminded of Glen Cooks 'Garrett, P.I.' series. However, where Cook's text draws on the drawing room exploits of Nero Wolfe and other golden age detectives, `Low Town' carries a more obvious edge - rather than Wolfe, it shares a heritage with the likes of James Elroy.

The supporting characters are plentiful, and recognisable, but it would have been nice for them to have had a little more depth; I suspect they'll be fleshed out as the series progresses. That said, part of this may be our restriction to the first-person view provided by The Warden - and some characters may just be unknowable.

The plot is filled with action, double dealing, and the occasional revelation, wrapped around a core of moral ambiguity. Whilst `page-turner' is an overused phrase, I was certainly finding reasons to keep reading with every page, and ended up tearing through the text.

Overall, this is an intelligent novel, with interesting themes running through it, with a compelling central character in a wonderfully evoked, morally ambiguous world. Well recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Low Town 24 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
Book Description
Rigus is the greatest city in the Thirteen Lands, a glittering metropolis of crystalline citadels and sumptuous manors, where the gentlewomen hide delicate smiles behind silken sleeves and bored nobles settle affairs of honour with cold steel. But light casts shadow, and in the darkness of the spires the baseborn struggle, eeking out an existence amidst the cast-offs of their betters. This is Low Town, a sprawling warren of side streets and back alleys, of boarded up windows and false storefronts. Here the corner boys do a steady trade to the dead-eyed and despairing, and a life can be bought with a clipped copper penny.

Low Town is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. A former war hero and intelligence agent, now a crime lord addicted to cheap violence and expensive narcotics, the Warden spends his days hustling for customers and protecting turf, until the chance discovery of a murdered child sets him on a collision course with the life he'd left behind. As bodies bloat in the canal and winter buries the city, he plays a desperate game of deception, pitting the underworld powers against his former colleagues in the secret police, hoping to find the source of the evil before it consumes him, and perhaps the city itself.

In the tradition of Daniel Hammett and Gene Wolfe comes LOW TOWN THE STRAIGHT RAZOR CURE, a novel about the taint of blood and the impossibility of redemption. Bold, brilliant writing makes this a debut that will change the fantasy world landscape.

My Review
This is a story where Fantasy fans can get a taste of a hard boiled PI sort of character, with a good blend of dystopia and detective work in Low Town. The main protagonist is a Gritty been there and got the shirt detective Ex Low Town Government Special Services operative. He's now a man people fear on the streets, and is hired by the powers that be to find a murderer. The story is a straight forward search for killer story blended with a different setting, new rules and some new kind of characters to the long existing detective genre.
I am not head over heels in joy was an ok story, the author does present some skilled writing here.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5
Not the toughest plot to figure out but an enjoyable, well written tale which was good enough for me to pick up any sequels that may follow
Published 7 days ago by nathan
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Feels more like an adult read than many other fantasy books out there. I'm just waiting for the second one to come down in price a bit before I get it.
Published 1 month ago by bushmins
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written and clever
A good, complicated but not confusing plot, with strong, well-written characters. I appreciated that all the female characters were actual people and not reduced to 2-dimensional... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Zort
4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, innovative characters, pity about the contemporary 'slips'
Overall, a readable story and some original characters. Certainly a good bargain at the £1.99 'first in the series' price - a good new strategy from Amazon allowing a read of a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Peter O'Neill
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid read
No long winded review ! It's a solid read, gritty if at times a little lacking in details , good twists and characters though. Overall worth a evening of your attention.
Published 2 months ago by Mr. N. Taylor
2.0 out of 5 stars Sin City Meets Magic - With Unimaginative Results
This book is a blend of hardboiled detective story and low-fantasy adventure. As such it is perfectly competent but without any particular originality or, sadly for a fantasy,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by wolf
1.0 out of 5 stars Get real
Looked at this - thought it might be interesting but saw the price - get real, do you think we are idiots?
Published 3 months ago by Dave
4.0 out of 5 stars Narrative and Construction
Currently, I'm on page 199 of 359. So far, absolutely love where the story is going, most of the characters and the location. Read more
Published 4 months ago by NickyTC
2.0 out of 5 stars Left me feeling annoyed
A whodunit set in a fantasy universe where other races are just terrible cliches and you can guess who did it after about 30 pages. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wollop
1.0 out of 5 stars Message to the publishers
Ten pound for the kindle version of an 18 month old book, that's only 369 pages long?? You're either taking the mickey or you don't want kindle owners to buy this book. So I won't.
Published 4 months ago by Dave B
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