The Fifth Ward: First Watch

By: Dale Lucas

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A watchman of the Yenara City guard has gone missing. The culprit could be any of the usual suspects: drug-dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, or humans being typical humans.

It's up to two reluctant partners - Rem, a hungover miscreant who joins the Watch to pay off his bail, and Torval, a maul-wielding dwarf who's highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem - to uncover the truth and catch the murderer loose in their fair city.

©2017 Dale Lucas (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

Brilliant!

Great story and interesting characters. Well written adventure and an exciting start to a series. So glad I discovered this author!

Love this book

I really enjoyed fast-paced character driven book. It is a fantasy adventure, thriller. A well written, Well plotted, and excellent narration give this book and story an A+++++++
Rating!
This is the book that I will measure all other books, and find them wanting!

a good fantasy read

this book isn't going to blow you away and parts of the story are cliche but a nice police drama set in a fantasy world is quite an enjoyable read. the world is beautifully described and the book leaves you wanting more stories from the Wards.

the performance is top notch. a good listen for fantasy fans

Better than I expected.

This had popped up in my suggestions a few times but I ignored because the cover reminded me a bit of that awful R.I.P.D. movie. Excellent narration and good story line. Some moderate twists without it seeming contrived. I'm actually on the third book at this point.

A fun and interesting tale

I got to really like the two main characters. And I thought the author told a great story

Good stuff.

I enjoyed this book. There are improvements I'd suggest, but I enjoyed the listen and would consider work by this author and / reader again.

loved this book

I listened to this book from beginning to end almost nonstop. a mix of fantasy and crime drama perfection and a must listen.

Ok

Good enough starting spot, not bad writing, could be interesting next story. This one was middling.

A wonderful new series

As strange as it sounds, I originally decided to read this book due to the over art, reading the description, decided to take the chance on someone I had not heard of or read previously. Short answer, I’m very glad I did. The book has this wonderful mix of fantasy/nior like/police drama. The charters themselves are rich, detailed, complex but not overly so. The story itself is well written and builds the foundation for a good series of future books (At least I hope for there to be many more). The narrator does a great job giving the characters unique life, and keeping the pace running well. I would suggest you purchase and listen, I feel secure that you will enjoy the story.

Cute but gritty, fun but twisty

It’s like a buddy-cop movie with humor, action, and emotion. The fact that the cops use swords instead of guns is immaterial. The usual tropes are there, but there’s fun in twisting the tropes to cover dwarfs and elfs. I enjoyed the narrator’s use of different voices and had no trouble recognizing who was talking. The action was fast-paced and the pay-out of the story was spot on. Really good start to a series.