Review: Compelling New Fantasy/Mystery Series
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 15, 2012
I would rate this 4.5 to 5 stars.  The description sounded a bit "off beat" but I decided to give it a try.  I typically don't like "epic fantasy" (takes place on another world where the characters go on a big quest).  I DO read a lot of urban fantasy, paranormal romance and mystery books.  This is an unusual genre that combines fantasy with mystery.  Eleanore (an 8-foot green troll) and Gurt (a 6-inch winged Eleniu) are guardsmen (similar to police) in a bustling port city on a world with 6 "peoples" (humans, elves, dwarfs, Kobolds, Eleniu and Trolls).  Both characters have some some issues in their backgrounds that are hinted at but not revealed.  It flows with the story, so that was intriguing more than annoying.  While walking their rounds, they discover a dead girl and most of the book concerns the investigation of who killed the girl.  There is a secondary issue of a drug being brought into the city and all of the guardsmen needing to deal with this.  The story wraps up nicely at the end (rather than with a cliffhanger).  While this appears to be the start of a series, it doesn't force the series on you by ending in a cliffhanger!It was a nicely told story - told from the point of view of Gurt.  While I guessed some of the major plot points, I didn't skip ahead as the story still held my interest.  There were a few clunky sentences, but other than those few, the writing, grammar and formatting were all polished (something I always watch for in an independent book which I think this is).  I never felt lost in this new world that the author created but understood terminology based on context (e.g. guardsmen are police and a "bell" is an hour).  The author introduced some interesting side characters.  We learned a little of them (I wish we had seen more of "Mac" so I better understood him).  However, there were not so many of these as to become overwhelming.The only complaint I had (and maybe this is because I am geographically challenged) is that when the author described the layout of the city (e.g. the arches and the four areas down by the harbor), I had a really tough time envisioning it and was a bit lost on the city layout. I'm not sure if it would work for a kindle, but when I've read some fantasy books, they sometimes include a map at the start to give you a feel for the layout of the land.  That would have been helpful here.  It didn't really detract from the story, but several times when they made reference to location (e.g. "up-city" or the 5th arch or where Gurt lives), it would have been nice to be able to visualize this.All-in-all, I enjoyed this book a lot.  I am looking forward to reading about more adventures of Elanore and Gurt (and learning more about their backgrounds).