Lies Dreaming: Noir in the City of Nightmares

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

For thirty talents a day, plus expenses, Starling Hexel will investigate any case a client brings—though she’s gained a reputation for a little trouble and a lot of insubordination along the way.

But the Outscape is a mean place to ply a trade like hers: a city of ever-shifting architecture, a city battered by ceaseless storms, a city inhabited by nightmares made human. And it’s no place at all for the eleven-year-old Robin, who Hexel stumbles across as the only witness to a murder. Now Hexel must keep Robin safe even as they fall deeper into a bloody conspiracy, and the city itself teeters on the brink of calamity…

Updates Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Goldfether

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 5.0/ 5.0
Followers: 15
Views: 18,369

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

David GilesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'll get my complaints out of the way first. The first chapter leans slightly too hard into noir tropes and cliches... that's literally it. Not a single other complaint. It's a rare gem in a genre that doesn't get enough attention at the best of times.
Grammar: No grammar errors, broad vocabulary and all used well. Nothing more to say here.
Style: Classic noir style with the mystery slowly unfolding at a delightful pace as well as slowly unveiling the fantasy elements at the same time.
Story: Well planned out, well paced and just enjoyable to read. I am reviewing this at the end of the first arc and it has good closure and resolution and I certainly plan to read the rest
Character: The main character is the classic underdog gunshoe and she doesn't disappoint with both her defiance against authority, her deep need to push to the truth or any of the other stalwarts of the genre. If I had one complaint about character it's that a lot of the side characters beyond the villains are on the disposable side, but again that's more a conceit of the genre than the author
In conclusion I highly recommend this is you like either noir or fantasy. Scratch that, I just highly recommend this.