The Fifth Ward: First Watch
The Fifth Ward, Book One
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A buddy cop story in a secondary world setting. What else do you need to know? . . . page-turning entertainment' Pornokitsch
In the cramped quarters of the city of Yenara, humans, orcs, mages, elves and dwarves all jostle for success and survival, while understaffed watch wardens struggle to keep the citizens in line.
Enter Rem. New to the city, he wakes bruised and hungover in the dungeons of the fifth ward. With no money for bail - and seeing no other way out of his cell - Rem jumps at the chance to join the Watch.
Torval, his new partner - a dwarf who's handy with a maul and known for hitting first and asking questions later - is highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem. But when Torval's former partner goes missing, the two must learn to work together to uncover the truth and catch a murderer loose in their fair city.
'A brilliant premise, wonderfully told. A city that breathes, and heroes you can't help but root for' Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld
A glorious tour through fantasy's seamier side. A wilder ride than Middle Earth, and you'll love every minute of it! Jon Hollins, author of the Dragon Lords series
'A thrilling adventure, it's a buddy action movie masquerading as a fantasy book and I found it to be an awesome read' The Tattooed Book Geek
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lucas (the Doc Voodoo series) opens the Fifth Ward series with a gritty tale set in the fantasy city of Yenara, where humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves coexist in an uneasy d tente. Rem, a human new to the city, wakes up in a dungeon cell after a tavern brawl. Almost out of money, he is given the option to earn his freedom by serving in the city watch for the neighborhood called the Fifth Ward, where he's assigned to a partner, Torval, a maul-wielding dwarf. On their first night together, they stumble across a corpse that turns out to be Torval's absent partner, Freygaf. Together, human and dwarf set out to find who is responsible for Freygaf's death and search for a rich man's missing daughter, battling assassins and using magic spells to get to the truth. Lovelorn Rem and family man Torval get along almost too well; there are echoes of Fritz Leiber's classic Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales in their relationship. The complicated rules governing Yenara are reminiscent of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos adventures. Readers who enjoy this combination of high and low fantasy will eagerly await Rem and Torval's return for a second tour of duty.This review has been corrected; an earlier version misstated that the watch, not the neighborhood, was called the fifth ward.
