Breach of Peace

Personally I think this was a good introduction to what Daniel Greene wants to achieve. I've read quite a few novellas, and so know not to expect expansive world building or character development. I think that it works in this case because by the end, you realise you don't need to be fully attached to these characters - they are only the set up. The police procedural in this was lacklustre, as there was no real detective process (probably because of length) which is slightly disappointing as I love both them, and fantasy. This could've been a great amalgamation. Despite this, it was easy to get through, read it in one sitting and left me intrigued. I don't think that this novella stands well on its own, I would've been disappointed but overall it has left me very interested in what's to come next from Greene!

Light spoilers in the third paragraph, but these spoilers aren't necessarily story-specific, more so just small scenes or descriptions.

I don't read many novellas, so it was a nice change of pace to finally get around to reading one from Daniel, whose BookTube videos are engaging and put together nicely, and topped off with a dash of charm and zaniness. The story alone is decent, and the twist in the story is pretty good and just enticing enough to make you want to pick up the next entry. However, while the story concept is strong, the novella is lacking in its overall atmosphere and character development.

I do believe it could've benefitted from a few more chapters and more room for the story to breathe. Due to the novella's size, you hit the ground running in the story, but each character is lacking particular elements that would make them truly relatable/likable. The worldbuilding is minimal, which I can forgive since it will most definitely be expanded on in later stories, but there wasn't much to truly visualize. It seemed like the basics covered were civilians, cops, and religious followers. Again, it can be fine for most people, but for some it may not be enough to keep reading.

There were some weird sections in the story that felt weird, namely a part about cops beating up civilians for an intimidation factor, which can be interpreted as a commentary on today's climate, but felt off-putting and ill-written, as well as a brothel owner slapping one of the male sex workers, who had a quote-unquote “extraordinary erection” before leaving the scene. Both times made me scrunch my face as to why they were included, but that's neither here nor there I suppose.

At the end of the day, I think the novella is a decent start, but not one I felt over the moon for. I'm not entirely against continuing the series, but I'm also not eager to do so.

This was an intriguing first look into Daniel Greene's new world.

The idea to start with novellas and work upwards was smart. I can definitely tell it's Greene's first publication, some of the characterizations are cliche (how uncliched can you get in 100 pages, though?) and a few phrases he used felt a bit...amateurish, but overall the writing was engaging on all fronts.

Novellas don't tend to work for me, because they usually don't have the straight up succinctness of a good short story, and they're too brief to really dive into the story. . The ending was really good and I'm looking forward to the next one!

It's a solid three stars read for me. I'm not a native English speaker and can say that was an easy read. I can't say that much about the world-building but the characters were interesting especially the protagonist. As a woman, I rarely enjoy female characters in fantasy books written by man but Khlid was okay. The main reason I gave this story only three stars is the plot. It was too predictable. Like, TOO damn predictable. The first 30% of the book were very interesting and I thought I'll give it 4.5 stars but then it went downhill and I predicted basically all plot twists. I'll definitely read a novel when it came out.

Well, did this surprise me...

It started strong - interesting plot, high tension right away. And being that it's a fairly short read there was pretty much no downtime, without jamming too much action.
But what demolished me was the ending. Brutal and gripping! I loved every moment of it! I read the book in a day and the only reason I'm sorry I did, is that I now want to read more of this story and there isn't.

I am giving it 4 stars because I did find some of the writing lacking. I am no expert in writing in any way, but I could identify lack of fluidity with the dialogues in particular, and some of the exchanges left me a bit confused. Given this is the author's first book, I have no doubt we will see a lot of improvement in future works.

I highly recommend! Though I feel compelled to mention that there is a lot of graphic violence. So if that is something that bothers you, you might want to consider it before reading. Otherwise, plow ahead boldly!

As a debut novella this is a good start to a larger world that did intrigue me to want to learn more about it. You can tell it's a debut and a self-published one (take that how you will). Greene's prose does feel like it lacks some of the maturity you find in a more established author - at times feeling a bit more like a script, describing how an actor should move in a scene - but I expect this will develop as he hones his writing over time. I caught one typo in the text overall but I'm more than happy to allow for that in self-published work. Overall I liked it and look forward to seeing the story evolve as Daniel evolves as a writer.

Find this review and more at The Fantasy Inn

It's always a risky move for a reviewer to try their hand at the craft they critique. If their work doesn't live up to their own standards of quality, they may lose some of their audience. Daniel Greene has taken a risk with the publication of Breach of Peace. So the question is... Does it pay off?

The story opens with a macabre crime scene described in bloody, gristly detail. A family has been murdered and it's up to Inspector Khlid to get to the bottom of it. She's helped by her husband and fellow Inspector, Samuel, and the star of the Seventh Precinct, Chapman. The dynamic between these three core characters is one of the highlights of the story.

Sam and Khlid are happily married and seem to do an admirable job trying to keep their professional and domestic lives separate, and Chapman is a gets-shit-done asshole with the emotional intelligence of a brick. Taken together, the clash of colorful personalities accomplishes a lot in the brief number of pages we get to spend with the Inspectors.

If I had to be picky, I wish that we'd either gotten more time inside the heads of Sam and Chapman. We do get a brief, brilliant passage from Chapman's point of view, but it feels out of place in a story almost entirely told from Khlid's eyes.

Breach of Peace will feel like coming home for fans of Brian McClellan, Brandon Sanderson, and Joe Abercrombie. I imagine it's what you'd get if the lovechild of McClellan's Promise of Blood and Sanderson's Elantris had to spend an hour in Glokta's torture chamber.

With that said, there were some aspects of the novella that didn't quite work for me. This is a world where in which the characters are all police working directly for God.

Now, children didn't grow up wishing to be soldiers, but officers... Since their founding, The Capitol Police had been a force for good in the community. Those who had been among the first to join were all heralded as local heroes.

Yes, this is a fantasy world. But most of us reading this novella live in a world where glorifying cops comes with quite a bit of baggage. There's also an uncomfortable attitude of “violence solves problems” in how the book talks about the interactions between police and civilians.

In a pinch, police could usually count on help from armed bystanders...

I've never been a fan of the mentality that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Again, this is fantasy—and edging toward the grimdark side of the genre at that. But this line took me out of the story and made me question it's inclusion.

Disobeying an officer of God during a raid was punishable by death. Khlid pulled her trigger.

Putting me into the perspective of a cop who shoots people in a surprise raid is not what I was expecting in this fantasy story. Again, it's hard not to draw real-world parallels here in a genre considered by many to be a temporary escape from reality.

From a craft angle, Greene balances action scenes, quiet character moments, and vivid description with ease. I can typically determine an author's strengths pretty quickly, but I thought all of these aspects were handled well. There's a recurring use of foreshadowing at the end of key scenes to hint at the direction the plot will take that kept me at the edge of my seat while reading. And though this is shorter than a full novel, it captured me attention enough to finish in one sitting, which for various reasons has only happened a handful of times in the last year.

Breach of Peace also takes hold of a few tried and true tropes from heroic fantasy and twists them into something beautifully horrific. I'd say more, but I'd rather you be traumatized like I was.

And finally, the closing chapter leads rather nicely into where I'm assuming the next novella will begin. It's compelling, emotional, and sets the tone for the world and the story to come.

There's a ton of hype surrounding Breach of Peace. Hell, it was an Amazon bestseller hours after the preorder went live. So, does this risky novella pay off?

Let's just say that I think this book only improves Daniel Greene's standing as a critic, and if you discovered his work through a shared love of writers like Brandon Sanderson, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

You can also check out our podcast chat with Daniel Greene here, where we discuss Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames and The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards.

I received an advanced review copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review.