BREACH OF PEACE (LAWFUL TIMES Book 1)

A grizzly crime leads to a winding detective drama filled with intrigue, some light world building, and several stomach-churningly gruesome action scenes that made me wish I'd saved this for an spooky October read.CHARACTERSThe story primarily follows Khlid who is an Inspector of a seemingly high rank. She is married to an Inspector of a lower rank named Samuel. Another key characters is the brutish Chapman who has some kind of beef with Sam, but gets along alright with Khlid. I wished I felt a bit more invested in both the rivalry between these two men as well as the dynamic between Sam and Khlid. Other than Chapman constantly being rude to Samuel for no apparent reason, I just didn't really understand why the two of them were constantly at odds. Likewise, while Khlid and Sam do not seem to be at all shy about making public displays of affection (even in their office or at a crime scene), I didn't feel like the story really showed us why they make a good couple. Because the story drops us right into the middle of an event that serves as a catalyst for a bigger ordeal, we also never really see any of them get to just be good at their jobs. They are thrown from one extenuating circumstance to the other and since Khlid finds herself in the center of these instances, I think her characterization as a hardened detective suffers the most since she is in a constant state of shock and terror. While this seems perfectly fitting within the context of what happens to her, I just wished we could have seen her be a badass for a chapter or two. I also think these moments of stress would have hit a lot harder if I got to see the three of these characters operating on a more typical case.To be clear, I didn't dislike any of these characters, I just would have liked to feel more connected to them because I did find them quite interesting. I also would have liked better physical descriptions of many of the characters, especially Khlid, who barely gets any. One huge positive I have when it comes to the cast is that the minor characters were all handled really nicely (though again, I didn't have much to go on when picturing what they look like). Williams, Smits, and Rollins were all impressively compelling considering how small their parts are. Even a couple of characters who appear briefly towards the end of the story were handled very nicely.SETTING/WORLDWhile it is clear from the beginning that the story takes place in some kind of fantasy world that's possibly Victorian-inspired, I will say the worldbuilding is quite light for a story in this genre (even one of this length). I didn't get the clearest picture of what any of the locations looked like and largely formed my mental image of them all based on the aesthetic of the cover. In addition to environmental imagery, I also felt like other aspects of the world building could have been expanded upon, even if only slightly. One example is that religion comes up quite a bit, but the actual beliefs were not clear to me. I wasn't really sure if the "Almighty" was a who or a what, and I didn't really understand why Inspectors were considered holy. The Chosen were explained a bit better and I was pretty clear on their physical capabilities, but the Inspectors themselves had a somewhat ambiguous power level. I could never really tell if they were just well trained or if they also possessed enhanced strength of some kind as a couple of scenes seemed to imply that they do. I definitely understand that a whole fantasy world cannot be built out within the confines of such a short story, but I wished that the elements placed directly in front of me were better defined because I was pretty fascinated with it all and wanted to know more.PLOT/TONEIf it sounds like I didn't like this book as much as a 4/5 rating might imply, I think that's because it's tightly woven narrative is what really resonated with me. From the first page, there is an immediate air of intrigue and that only intensifies as more pieces of the puzzle unfold. Characters are introduced gradually and I felt as though I only had access to the minimum amount of information required for the plot to be coherent at any given moment. While the stingy delivery of character and world details were definite drawbacks for me, they also resulted in a fast-paced plotline with very little exposition dumping. The only thing that slowed me down a bit was how some of Greene's prose reads. It's not necessarily clunky and there weren't any noticeable errors aside from some inconsistent naming, but for some reason I did a double take on some of the sentences to understand what was being said or who was saying what. It could be that my brain wasn't fully working, but I've noticed that Greene has an interesting manner of speaking when I watch his YouTube videos, so it could just be that how he thinks/talks is different from how I do. A lot of the sarcastic humor also did not land for me, but again I think this is a quirk that I also find in his YouTube content.I initially intended to just read this chapter by chapter, but the story hooked me enough where I ended up ripping through it instead, which I think is the mark of a compelling story.THE PAPERBACKAs I mentioned upfront, this cover is one of the best I have ever seen. It is so captivating and does such a nice job of interpreting the three main characters. I also liked that the material had a softer feel to it than most matte paperbacks. On the inside, there's nothing crazy going on, but it's all well formatted and I liked some of the subtle touches with lettering as well as the larger font size.CONCLUSIONThis novella definitely could have had more robust world building and more fleshed out characters, but what it lacks in those areas, it makes up for in a tight narrative that propels readers across the pages with no loitering whatsoever. I will say that it was much more gruesome than I expected it to be from beginning to end, so I would NOT recommend this for those that are at all squeamish or sensitive to highly graphic violence. If you don't mind this type of content, then I think this would make an excellent read for Halloween, especially since I felt like the story leaned a lot further into horror than I would have guessed. Fans of fantasy horror in general, will likely enjoy this at any time of the year, even as just a quick pallet cleanser between novels. Even though this felt like a sort of extended prologue to the larger world Greene is setting up, I am not entirely sure if I will continue with the series or not. On one hand, I think it would be nice to see if any of my questions get answered in REBELS CREED, but I may just let the events of BREACH OF PEACE's ending simmer for a little while and see if the sequel (and it's less appealing cover) look enticing after reading some other things. For now, I'm glad I went on this twisted adventure and I think it functions well enough as a self-contained story in it's own right.

I hardly ever write reviews on anything, no matter how good or bad the product is, but after blazing through this novella in a little under two hours, I feel compelled to write this out.I'm usually cautious around YouTuber books because they're almost universally bad, and my approach to Daniel Greene was no different. Though I usually agree with a lot of his takes, that doesn't necessarily make him a good writer. Which, luckily, is why I'm pleasantly surprised and delighted to say that this novella is actually excellent.The first of a series of novellas taking place in the same world as the novel he's currently working on, Daniel had the arduous task of writing a condensed narrative that introduced us to several characters, the world, giving us a piece of the broader conflict, telling a reasonably compelling plot, and giving the reader just enough hints at what's to come to leave the reader interested in continuing beyond this story. All the while, he had to keep it down to a low word-count. That's no small task, but he managed to meet every one of those criteria.The grisly murder plot is immediately intriguing, giving us a relatively standard investigation setup from the onset and quickly launching into something much darker and more mysterious that leaves the reader begging for more. Despite the low page count, the characters felt authentic, their interactions hinting at shared history without having shown us that history outright. They're static characters and they have little in the way of development, but given the length of the story and its purpose, that's hardly an issue.I was relieved to see that the violence in the story never felt like it was distasteful or overly gross. I find that a lot of new authors tend to over-indulge themselves in vivid depictions of grotesque violence - Shad M. Brooks and Bryce O'Connor come to mind, clearly having not learned to restrain themselves when depicting grisly scenes. For a monster/murder/mystery, it would've been easy for Daniel to fall into the same trap, but the perspectives of the characters and the way they describe the scene works flawlessly. There's an almost clinical, dispassionate surveillance of death that works beautifully for the context of the characters, and leaves the rest up to the imagination of the reader, allowing for the existence of graphic descriptions of violence, but never going overboard and leaving the worst of it up purely to the imagination of the reader.Little ticks like the protagonist's smoking habit and her picking another cigarette unconsciously are particularly tastefully done - as someone who's struggled with addiction for years, there was a certain layer of intrinsic truth to the description that I appreciated immensely.Of my criticisms, I had only two, and they were fairly minor:1. Excessive strong language. Now I'm no pushover when it comes to language; I've been swearing for the better part of half my life in nearly every conversation I've taken part in, so don't think I'm coming at this from some puritan angle. But there's a certain level of restraint that wasn't exercised with the language that was with the violence. The characters swear profusely, entirely too often, and at times that don't really make any sense. Swears can indicate a heightening of emotional awareness to a character, demonstrate their mindset and a piece of their personality depending on how it's said and when. Avasarala's character in The Expanse books immediately comes to mind - she swears often, but it's always done to punctuate a sentence, to deliver a delightful punch to her dialogue. When she doesn't swear, it immediately telegraphs to the reader her heightened emotional state. Swears can tell you a lot about a character, and I'm by no means whatsoever against their use. Unfortunately, Daniel's use of them here is unnecessary, adding nothing to the scene or the characters. It started to come across as the way a teenager swears when they first start saying "bad words" and thinking they're cool for saying it. It doesn't make the story darker or more mature to swear; it depends on how it's executed, and it was simply done a little too much. Does it detract from the overall structure of the narrative? No, but after a point it certainly made me start questioning the word choice, and when there was a stretch of up to ten consecutive pages with at least one swear per page, it was beginning to become noticeably annoying.2. A surprising lack of description. While I stand by my praise of how violence was handled in the novella, I was sorely disappointed by the stark lack of description of the characters and setting. Had it not been for the cover art, I wouldn't have even known what the protagonist was meant to look like. That can be handled well enough in a first person perspective, but this entire story is told in third. It took several pages after the introduction of one of the characters for me to even know he was bald, and I had to consciously re-visualize what he was meant to look like. The manor where the story opens has so little description put into it that I initially thought of it as a regular house. I have very little idea of what the setting is meant to look like. It is a gothic, Bloodborne-esq fantasy world in the mid-stages of the industrial revolution? Is it a modern setting reminiscent of the Dresden Files with magic running in the background? The cover art doesn't give us enough of an idea to go off of, and I found myself constantly reevaluating what the world looked like when some new piece of technology was suddenly introduced. While I'm hardly calling for the excessive descriptors of the way the clothes were sewn from The Wheel of Time, the story was sorely lacking in the description of what the characters and their environments were meant to look like, leading to a confusing mash of several different time periods that seemed entirely inconsistent with one another. Again, does it damage the structure of the narrative? No, but I dearly hope that Daniel remedies this in the future.Despite my criticisms, I was surprised and delighted to find this story exceptionally well-written. The prose - while not necessarily standing out - was perfectly serviceable and engaging, which is more than can be said for most first-time authors. The plot moved along at a steady pace, it never felt rushed or crammed, there was just enough tidbits of the world hinted at to keep me interested in the grander picture, and the characters - while static - were anything but flat, and were fun enough to follow for the sub two-hour read. It was also a relief to not have picked up any noticeable grammar issues, something I find plagues nearly every self-published work I've read. I know Daniel has said he doesn't feel he's ready to release his full novel yet and is using these novellas as practice for the big leagues, but if this is what he considers his practice run, I'll be thrilled to check out what he considers to be the ready-stage of his novel. Daniel has demonstrated that he follows his own advice and can write a compelling narrative, and he should be proud of his efforts.Now give Pips a head pat, you disheveled goblin!

I follow Daniel on his YouTube channel and always enjoy his content. However, I hesitated to buy his book for a long time because it didn't sound like the kind of story I normally like to read.To my surprise, I blasted through this book in two nights and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. The fantasy elements are sort of background elements to the main mystery, but I think that adds to the tension-- there's just something about putting characters up against a seemingly unbeatable supernatural "something" that can't be compared to a human enemy.The prose, like Brandon Sanderson's, is more utilitarian than pretty, but it does a good job of getting out of its own way and letting the story shine through. For this kind of story, I consider that a positive.The characters are a bit sparsely realized--and maybe play a bit too much into common tropes--but they are solid, feel like people, and I was happy to tag along with them. I'd rather get on with things in a story rather than the author spending time describing what people look like (though that's absolutely a personal preference...maybe I played too many text-based MUDs growing up).My 5 stars is not because I was blown away, but rather because this book was extremely readable and accomplished what it set out to do. If you're looking for a quick, gritty, mystery/action read with small, personal stakes that hint at something much bigger, you'll likely enjoy this book.

I have watched Daniel's YouTube Channel for years he is a great guy and if you love fantasy you should check it out that said i am sorry this really was not very good. There is a story in there but the story does not know what it wants to be. Smashing Sherlock Holmes with Steam Punk and Dresden files. The writing style is painful at times and needed more editing. There are thousands of fan boys who love it but take that with a pinch of salt. I hope he keeps writing i think there is potential. This is not just because it is a novella i love novella and writting a good one is knowing what to leave out as well as what to put in.

Like everyone else who has followed Daniel on YouTube these past years I have been hearing a lot about his writing progress and wondering what form it would take.Happily it seems that Mr D Goblin has quite the knack for writing a good story. This hundred page novella is quite an engrossing little tale, readable in one sitting and opening up a lot of threads for the future.A self-contained detective story hinting at a much bigger world, the characters were decently fleshed out and a lot happens in the short page count without it ever feeling rushed.A very impressive first novella, well worth a read.

I bought this book having been a fan of Daniel Greene's youtube channel for a while and eager to see what his style of writing would be like. The first time I tried to read it, I actually bounced back pretty hard on the severity of the first scene (it begins with a murder mystery - and it is quite a brutal crime scene). However, the writing was really gripping, and I went back to it, got through that scene and really enjoyed it once I had time to get to know the characters a little more. It's a pretty short read, and although it starts with a murder mystery it quickly leaves that behind and moves into more of a horror story. I think it's for quite a specific type of reader, who enjoys a combination of horror, crime, thriller and fantasy. I think if you just like straight-up high fantasy or fantasy without dark or horrific elements this probably isn't for you. However if you like grimdark, or at least don't mind those aspects you might enjoy it. I'm looking forward to reading Rebel's Creed and seeing where the story goes. I feel like this book is more of a taster, getting a feel for the world Dan Greene has built and raising questions for the reader to mull over.

For those not in the know, the author of this novella, Daniel Greene is one of the leading YouTubers covering the realm of Fantasy Fiction. He is indirectly responsible for introducing me, and many others to authors such as Brandon Sanderson, Evan Winter, R F Kiang, Robert Jordan and many many more.So, there was undoubtedly be a lot of expectation when he announced that he was publishing his very own work of fantasy fiction. I believe he has met those expectations head on. Is it perfect? No, you can definitely tell this is an author still honing his craft. But he has painted a picture of a world I desperately want to explore more of, full of amazing intrigue, one that feels could be explored in book upon book and still leave stuff seeping off the page.I'm excited that this is only the beginning!

The Novella opens on a pretty devastating family murder. Trigger for child mutilation here. We follow three detectives as they investigate the scene of the murder and discuss what they think has happened to this imperial family.As they begin to discover the extent of this mystery the story unfolds into suspected rebellion and corruption in this fantasy world that is run by a deity named the Almighty.I enjoyed the characters, it was too short to really get a true sense of who they were but I definitely was sold on the strength of the love between the married couple who were two of the main protagonists.I thought the writing was good. There was one scene in particular that really drew me in and I felt like I was really there and I felt the terror the main character was feeling.But there was some quite simplistic description (bordering on trite) and there were fragments of description that were used multiple times.My main criticism however would be the pacing. It is a novella and you could argue its going to be fast paced, but this was so fast that I struggled to follow what was going on. A contributing factor for this was that it felt a lot of the events stayed within the author's head and didn't quite make it onto the page. For instance I would read a line of dialogue where afterwards, one character would look at another and in that glance something would be conveyed. I had no idea what that was because it was never made apparent to me and this happened a frustrating number of times.We go from a fair amount of time at the murder scene, where a lot of events happen, to a massive culminating scene and what happens in between is again hard to follow and not very memorable.A lot of questions are posed and we get answers but some of those answers later become more questions.The ending of the book was very abrupt and final and left me with more questions.From my understanding this is an introduction to a world that Daniel is going to write a lot more stories for and in my opinion that is the problem.The story was a prequel but its presented as a stand alone, a story that should be complete in and of an in itself and for me it wasn't.For all that it was enjoyable and I believe as Daniel settles into his writing these things will improve. Apparently there are two further Novella's coming down the road before we get into the series proper and whether those help to make more sense of this one we can only wait and see. For me there was too much inside his head to fit into this novella and it shows.But a commendable start for any author willing to venture out there on a platform as big as Daniel Greene already has.