Whispering Nickel Idols (eleventh novel in the Garrett P. I. series)

(Originally posted on Saturday, 10 August 2013)

Please read my post from April 2009 to find out about my rating.
Please read my post from May 2009 to learn about Glen Cook’s style of writing.

My rating: 7/10 (low re-reading value)

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing.
2. There are even more positive things happening in Whispering Nickel Idols than in the previous Garrett novel. Still, not too much but clearly more than in the 6th, 7th and 8th Garrett novels.
3. There is less venom put into describing religions. Glen Cook even gives an example (somewhat hidden example) that a religion handled in the right way can in fact help people in their lives, something he totally ignored in his earlier novels.
4. There are some little things that make Garrett more like a normal person than some hero. I am talking especially about a heavy illness. Yeah, it sounds silly, but Glen Cook handled it so skilfully that I really enjoyed reading about it. Gritty, in a totally different way.
5. A wonderful description of a really hard winter. Glen Cook gives a great example of what an outstanding writer he is. This description felt so real and was so beautiful that I couldn’t believe it. Amazing stuff, really.

What’s bad:
1. Glen Cook goes over the top with positive thinking. At one moment Garrett with the help of the Dead Man gives a very detailed information about a criminal network to the police. On one hand
I liked the idea because I am a lawful person, but even to me it seemed like a wishful thinking.
2. The main plot is a little inconsistent. To me some things that happened in the beginning didn’t make much sense in the end.
3. Garrett himself doesn’t do much in this novel. He is more like a spectator to what is happening.
4. There are magic kittens. At first I really enjoyed that some cute, little kittens somehow got into Garrett house, but it got strange very fast. The biggest problem to me was the fact that these kittens made people practically stop thinking and act as if they were high on drugs. Weird.
5. The ending is somewhat disappointing. The main story slowly dissolves into nothing concrete and in the very end some side-plot about family issues plays the main strings.

Whispering Nickel Idols is by far the softest novel by Glen Cook I have read so far. There is some fighting action and some usual grittiness, but less than in his other novels. Nevertheless it is a good novel that is easy to read and quite enjoyable. It’s worth to read Whispering Nickel Idols just to see how a soft book by Glen Cook looks like, but its re-reading value is low.
(7/10)