Breach of Peace is the debut novella of Daniel Greene, popular fantasy YouTuber, book reviewer, and creator of Fantasy News. It is a dark story set in an early industrial fantasy world. A deity of some sort has decided to come down to Earth and rule directly, creating a theocratic autocracy. And this first story we have in this religio-fascist society follows three cops as its protagonists.
This caused a bit of a stir in the fantasy community. Some early reviewers expressed discomfort with the choice to make religious cops with more power to abuse than even modern American cops have the protagonists of the story. Which in turn lead to commenters saying they wouldn’t read the book because of that choice, and some even disparaging Greene as somehow supporting police abuse of power.
When the controversy first broke, I had not yet read the book. Now that I have, I want to weigh in with a different perspective: Greene’s choices of how to portray his protagonists actually works really well for the time we are living in.
But before I get into why I think that, here is my review of the book, minus the choice to have cop protagonists in our current political climate:
Breach of Peace is a dark fantasy mystery thriller that follows Senior Inspector Khlid as she and Inspectors Samuel and Chapman investigate the gruesome murder of a wealthy family. What starts out seeming to be a disturbing but straightforward case turns out to be merely a loose thread in a larger and more horrifying conspiracy. Khlid must not only figure out who she can trust, but must decide whether she is willing to put her career and even her life on the line to uncover the truth and execute her duty as an Officer of God.
Outside of the controversy surrounding it, Breach of Peace is an enjoyable debut from Greene, though far from perfect.
The prose was, for the most part, serviceable, acting as merely a vehicle to relay the story to the reader. There were a couple of Khlid’s lines in the beginning that struck me as being very modern-sounding, and so pulled me out the story for a second. And there were a couple of visceral descriptions during the action sequences that were really good and drew me further into the story. But other than those few moments, the prose mostly just faded into the background for me.
What we’ve seen of the worldbuilding has been fascinating so far. As I mentioned above, the setting for the story is a religio-fascist empire in which a deity is the ruler. Think the society of 1984, but in an early industrial fantasy world and if Big Brother was literally God. I am definitely interested in learning more about this world in future installments, and the set up of the world and what is to come in the future for this series is one of the biggest points of recommendation I have for it.
I found the story intriguing, as it was a layered mystery, with the question of who killed this family and why only leading to bigger and deeper questions. But, unfortunately, I found the plotting and pacing to be this book’s weakest points. The first third of the novella is spent at the crime scene. By the end of the characters’ time at the scene, we learn that there is something more, something horrific going on than just the slaughter of a wealthy family, but we the readers don’t really have any good context to know what that ‘something more’ might be. The rest of the book moves at such a breakneck pace that Greene only has time to give us the information we need to make sense of things as that information is put to use by the characters. As a result, the mystery and suspense are rendered ineffective, since the reader rarely has time to consider the possible stakes, answers, and choices before the characters are confronting them. And even when we do get a moment to consider these things, we don’t have a firm enough grasp of how things work in this fantasy world to properly consider all of the options. And so, I think that this novella would have benefited from shortening the part at the crime scene in the beginning and using those pages to better unfold the mystery and suspense of the rest of the story.
But the place where this novella shone the brightest is in Khlid, the protagonist, and her relationships with the other characters. Greene did a great job of writing her in such a way that I believed that this Officer of God in a religio-fascist government is trying to be a good person and do the right thing. I became invested in her desire to do her duty, and in her relationships with her husband and her other colleagues in her precinct. I wanted her to succeed in uncovering the conspiracy.
Over all, taken separately from the issue of police like this as protagonists, I would recommend this novella to anyone with a love of dark fantasy, especially those who prefer prose that fade into the background. It is an enjoyable read that won’t take up much of your time (the audiobook is just over 3 hours). I fully intend to continue with this series when the second novella comes out later this year.
QUICK WARNING: The crime scene at the beginning does include some graphic descriptions, including the mutilated bodies of a young boy and a teenage girl. If these might bother you to read, it is probably best to skip this book, even if the other aspects of it might appeal to you.
So now, onto the controversy.
Greene has publicly stated that the government in this book is a religious cult and is inspired by Big Brother in 1984 in a YouTube video from December in which he announced his novella. He also made clear that, while his characters, who are members of the police force, support this religious cult 1984-esque government, he is not in favor of a totalitarian government.
Then, in a video responding to the controversy, Greene specifically stated that, while he was undoubtedly influenced by current events, he was not trying to draw an analogy to the issues we are currently facing in the United States around police.
Whether he intended it or not, though, what he left us with is actually a good illustration of the phrase All Cops Are Bastard (often shortened to ACAB), which is a phrase commonly used among those protesting police violence and demanding a ground-up restructuring of how our society approaches policing and emergency response.
Let me explain what I mean.
As has been so eloquently explained by many other people, ACAB is not a statement about the moral character of individual cops, but rather a statement about the corrupt and bastardized nature of our police system in this country. It is meant to draw attention to how the origins of police forces is in the protection of the property and business interests of the wealthy, including the capture and return of escaped slaves pre-Civil War, rather than to protect and serve the whole populace. It points to how, even today, we still have laws on the books that were meant to unduly punish and otherize marginalized minority groups, laws that are still enforced by police and the rest of the justice system today. And, of course, it is directly tied to the license police have to threaten and use force without legal repercussion through qualified immunity and a populace that has largely been taught to always give police officers the benefit of the doubt.
So all cops, regardless of any noble ideas they had about protecting and serving when they decided to become cops, are part of a corrupt system with unjust roots upholding unjust laws through unjust means. Even if they are an otherwise good person who is genuinely trying to make their community a better place through their job.
Enter Khlid.
She has bought into the system. She believes she is making her city a better place. She wants to find justice, and to punish those who would commit heinous crimes in her city so that they cannot do it again. She believes that she is justified in the use of brutality and even murder in the execution of her job, because a literal god said that it was justified. She is a misguided person who is trying to do good while propping up and perpetuating an evil system.
And, while I won’t get into the specifics, this book makes clear that it is an evil system, even if the protagonists can’t see it.
And so, in Khlid, we get an excellent illustration of the idea that All Cops Are Bastards, insofar as they are part of a corrupt system that will corrupt and cloud their view of the world. And it is for this reason that I would say that that this book is worth reading carefully and discussing. It is nuanced in its handling of the police force and the protagonists who are part of it. And that nuance allows for an exploration of the idea of otherwise good people upholding unjust and corrupt systems.
Breach of Peace is available on now Audible in audiobook form, and will be available in print and e-book tomorrow, March 30, 2021.