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Dragon Precinct

Cliff's End, Book 1

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Dragon Precinct

By: Keith R.A. DeCandido
Narrated by: Michael Page
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Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff's End, to say nothing of the tourists and travelers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure - or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff's End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

Gan Brightblade is one of the world's greatest heroes and a personal friend of the Lord and Lady of Cliff's End. So when he's brutally murdered in grubby lodgings in Dragon Precinct, on the eve of a great quest, the Captain of the Guard puts his two best investigators on the case.

©2004 Albe-Shiloh, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Business
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Critic Reviews

"All in all, this is a fascinating excursion in genre-bending; worth a try even for readers who usually take either their procedurals or their fantasies unadulterated." (Booklist)
"Dungeons and Dragnet... As a take-off of the standard crime drama, Dragon Precinct succeeds nicely. Dressed in sword-and-sorcery trappings, the cliches of the genre are given a fresh twist. I would like to see more stories in this same setting." (The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society)
All stars
Most relevant
A well crafted story, with strong characters and a twisting plot. The whole series is really very good and the narrator does a great job.
Things ramp up in the final book - excellent.

An excellent fantasy - who done it?

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This is a crime / detective fiction book set in a fantasy city. The main characters (city guard detectives) are the traditional sort of hard-bitten detectives found in many a good Chrome novel, but with appropriate fantasy twists, and the main crime itself is cleverly implemented. I love the city precinct names.

Writing quality seems excellent from what I can tell from the audiobook, with grammatical errors comprising a few dangling participles and misplaced modifiers. Dialogue is believable and characterized well, and I found the clever humor that comes across in both the story and dialogue immensely enjoyable; I laughed out loud a number of times. the interrogation scene with the murderer was particularly good.

Audiobook production is good, with a well-spoken narrator who emphasizes different character voices just enough. I didn't notice any mispronunciations.

This is the first time I've read or listened to anything by this author, but I will definitely be reading or listening to more in future.

Excellent fantasy crime fiction

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I liked this but it's a bit too short to do justice to the mystery. The first half is confusing, on one hand it feels like there's quite a lot of set up for the world and city state but on the other hand it feels rushed too. Same with the characters, there's a rushed feeling to their backstories, especially in the epilogue. Maybe this will be fleshed out more in the following novels.

But I liked the characters, some of them are genre staples of both fantasy and police procedurals: grumpy chief, veteran about to retire, haughty wizard, arrogant elf. There is a pleasure in seeing the genre staples mixed up like this though. And the main character is a refreshingly unglamorous half elf half human.

It's a quick read and and fun. I liked it enough that I will probably check out the next in the series, I just wish the central mystery had been fleshed out a bit more. The narrator was great.

Good but too short

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