Interviews
An interview with Daniel Polansky,author of Low Town, coming to your town this summer...be prepared. With additional bonus content: Extra vocabulary reference to the unusual words and phrases used in Low Town.
Q: Low Town takes several noir elementsa disgraced anti-hero detective, a shadowy underworld rife with thugs and drugs, and a horrific murder that drives the plotand arranges them in a fantasy/sci-fi setting. The result is a wholly unique mystery/thriller. Is it accurate to describe Low Town as "Tarantino meets Tolkien"?
A: It's not exactly how I think of it, but it's certainly flattering. In my mind it's more Dan Brown meets the Old Testament.
Q: "Low Town" refers to a poor, drug and crime ridden district of a major city in not only a foreign land but an alternate world/universe, that is populated by a diverse and colorful array of people and cultures. Were these inventions informed by people and places in the real world?
A: In terms of the broader world, I read a lot of history so most of it is grounded in that. I always tried to keep in mind that however alien the world of Low Town may be, the characters are all human, affected by the same fundamental drivesgreed, guilt, loyalty, bigotry etc.as we are. In terms of the characters and situations and so on, you do your best to take from your own experiences, though obviously, I've never knifed anyone.
Q: Your hometown is Baltimore, which has seen its share of crime and inner city turmoil. Did life in Charm City shape your fiction writing?
A: I have no idea what you are talking about. Inner city turmoil? Baltimore is an edenic paradise, Plato's Athens but without all the pederasty. Where are you getting this misinformation?
Q: The principles of good versus evil are murky in noir fiction, and Low Town is characteristic of the genre. Are the gray areas of character easier to portray than stark black and white?
A: There's not really a clear good/evil axis to most of our decisions. People muddle through as best they canif you are lucky enough to be in a situation where your basic needs are met, you can more easily spend energy thinking about your neighbor's. Should society descend into anarchy, on the other hand, it all becomes more of a zero sum game. All that is to say I don't know what a 'stark black or white' character would look like, so I guess in that sense it's easier to write people with more mixed motivations.
Q: Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops...and sorcery. Where did the idea for Low Town come from?
A: Honestly I sat down to write something a little more in line with the typical fantasy norms, but as it turns out I hate elves so I realized I needed to do something different. I guess I liked the idea of introducing a faster pace to a genre that tends to bloat a little, and Low Town seemed like one way to do it.
Q: What kind of research and preparation went into crafting Low Town? Which other fantasy/sci-fi authors influenced you, and do you have a favorite?
A: I wear my influences pretty heavy on my sleeve, Chandler and Hammett in particular. As far as fantasy goes, Gene Wolfe is a giant, deserved of far more regard than he gets. George RR Martin is probably the only person who ever wrote a good high fantasy book, cruel though it was to strand us mid-series.
Q: What do you think the main character, the Warden, would have become if the "Crane" hadn't rescued him from life on the streetswhere he ultimately returned on his own terms?
A: I'm not sure that I think of the Warden as having been saved by the Crane exactly, or having returned to the streets on his own terms. For better or for worse, I think of the Warden as fundamentally a pretty self-made man.
Q: How did you make the journey from earning a philosophy degree to becoming a novelist at the ripe old age of 25?
A: Well I'm 26 actually, but I guess that doesn't change the question. I wish I had a better story for you, but my post-college history is pretty dull. I lived in China for a while, I went broke and came back to the US, I got a job, I wrote the first draft of Low Town, I quit my job, I went traveling again, I got an agent, I went broke and came back to the US, some gentleman at Random House drank too much at lunch one morning and gave me some money, and now I'm traveling again.
Q: Finally, have you sampled pixie's breath and/or dreamvine?
A: Are you a cop? Because, honestly, that reads like the kind of question a cop would ask. If you're a cop you have to tell me, or it's entrapment.
Bonus content: Extra vocabulary reference to the unusual words and phrases used in Low Town.
New to Low Town, huh? Easy to tellBetter lose those wide eyes before they get closed permanent. There's lots of folk round here wouldn't mind filling their purse with whatever you got in yours, and most of them ain't shy about rifling a corpse. Course, you stand a fellow a drink, and I might tip you to the local gossip.
Maybe this will keep you alive a while longer.
The Bite
Sinks its teeth into you after that first pipe of wyrm, whispers sweet words in your ear, rots your teeth and turns your soul.
See Also: Your Firstborn Son, Your Last Drop of Blood
Black House
Don't see many agents in Low Townwe ain't important enough for the Crown to bother with. But stick a blade in some rich boy from Kor's Heights, or make trouble for a person that matters, and you can expect a visit from a squad of jackboots in ice gray dusters. After thatwell, I wouldn't be expecting to expect anything else, if you catch the drift.
Breakfast for the Eels
Is what you'll be if Ling Chi gets to knowing your nameso keep your head down, and don't run no cons down Kirentown way.
Choke
See The Bite
Copper
One-tenth of an argent, and while we're on the subject, could you spare one for an old hand, down on his luck?
See Also: Argent, Ochre
Dreamvine
I don't touch the stuff myselfunless you've got some, in which case I suggest we adjourn to the alley and roll ourselves up something sweet and colorful.
The Drone
The solid-gold buzz you get when that shot of pixie's breath swells through your nostrils, and ain't you a handsome fellow, and don't you just carry the world in your back pocket?
The Staggering Earl
Nice bar, ain't it? The giant with one eye and arms the size of your legs, that's Adolphusdon't let his size fool you none, he's a sweetheart. I mean he'll break you in two if you get uppity, but he's an all right sort otherwise. It's that fellow at the back table you gotta worry about. But don't look too longthe Warden's an unpredictable sort, and he takes offense easily, as many a dead man could attest.
See Also: The Warden
The Freeze
See Black House
Friendly Folk
The Islanders, quick with a joke or a song. Best sailors in the Thirteen Lands, hence the best smugglers. Every one of 'em's got a friend or a cousin in a foreign port, apt to help them clear customs without no trouble.
The Ground You Stand On, The Air You Breath
Is what the Rouenders claim ownership ofslick white boys looking down their long noses at anyone who can't count their name back five centuries. Don't let the manners fool you, they'd cut your throat over a clipped copper. They been losing territory to the Tarasaighn and the Kirens these last years, but they ain't ones to cross, not if you want to stay on the right side of hell.
The Great War
Is the reason I been hobbling around on that wooden leg these last ten years. But hell, I got five copper a month and the thanks of a grateful nation, and ain't that worth a few pounds of flesh?
The Hoax
I take it you've met the brave soldiers of the city watch. Not exactly the freezecourse, you start making any bank, you'd best kick something up their way. They're apt to get a hell of a lot more competent at their job if they think they ain't getting their slice.
See Also: Black House
The Ice
See Black House
Kor's Heights
Where the noblefolk build their mansions off our sweat and blood. Ain't no safer than Low Town, but the air is a lot cleaner.
The Kiren
Now I ain't no racist or nothing, but the Heretics, I got no use for 'em. Taking jobs ought by right be ours, running down the neighborhood, looking at our women. The Kiren got the best choke, cheap whores, and cheaper muscle.
Low Town
Where it all goes down, brotherthe blackened, beating heart of the Empire.
Ochre
You ever lucky enough to see a solid gold piece, brother, you make sure to remember your old pals, and the good they done did you.
See Also: Copper, Argent
The Old Man
Best not speak so loud, childnot with strange ears a listening.
See Also: Black House, She That Waits Behind All Things
Open Lesions Running the Inside of Your Throat
Are the signs of the Red Fever, and you get any you stay the fuck away from me. The plague killed half the city thirty years ago, and would have done for the rest if the Blue Crane weren't protecting us.
The Price of a Man's Life
Ten Argent make one ochre, and two rung together in the right ears will get you a sharp knife and a man to wield it.
See Also: Copper, Ochre
Rigus
Yeah, yeah, the jewel in the Crown, the greatest city in the Thirteen Lands. Ain't all honey and rosewater kid, I don't care what you heard in the provinces. But you'll figure it out yourself, soon enough.
See Also: Kor's Heights, Low Town
Sakra the Firstborn
I'm as religious at the next man, I supposebut the Oathkeeper ain't much in witness here in Low Town. Leastways, I wouldn't count on him to have your back.
See Also: She That Waits Behind All Things
She That Waits Behind All Things
You'll meet her soon enough. Sooner than you'd like, anyway.
The Swampdwellers
Spend your childhood hacking your livelihood out of the bogs and see how you come out. The Tarasaighn run most of the narcotics trade and they make the best killershollow-eyed men who'd leave a knife in you and walk home whistling.
The Void
There ain't enough in the world for you to be afraid of, you gotta go asking after children's stories? I got a charm I could sell you, keeps bogeys out of your bedroom closet. A steal at five copper!
The Warden
Not a friendly man, but he's reasonable, so long as he ain't been dipping into his stash. He's who you'll be speaking to if you want to make a crooked coin anywhere in Low Town.
See Also: The Staggering Earl, Low Town
Your Firstborn Son, Your Last Drop of Blood What you'll trade for a stem of choke once the bite gets on you, that and anything else you got.
See Also: The Bite