Bitter Gold Hearts (second novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Wednesday, 4 November 2009)

My rating: 9/10 (high re-reading value)
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.

[Short review]

I will compare it to Sweet Silver Blues (rated 10/10).

What’s worse:
1. The pace is a little slower, but still quite fast overall.
2. The story is a little less exiting, but far from boring.
3. There is no extra spice of horror (which was a nice touch in the first book).

What’s better:
1. Garrett’s home town is even better described.
2. Garrett gets to know (against his will) the crime boss and some of his cronies. Glen Cook creates unique atmosphere about those characters. I could feel the menace emanating from them. Even though they are evil and ruthless, they have some sort of code of honour (especially the boss). They fit this series perfectly.

What’s the same (good):
1. Everything else (see my earlier review).

Bitter Gold Hearts is not as groundbreaking as Sweet Silver Blues, but it is still fresh and very, very entertaining. The story itself is lacking a little something to rate it as a perfect book. It is “only” very good.
(9/10)

Bitter Gold Hearts re-read

(Originally posted on Saturday, 4 March 2017)

My original rating: 9/10
My final rating: 10/10

The first time I have read Bitter Gold Hearts I read it shortly after the ground-breaking Sweet Silver Blues and I was a little “biased”. This time the break between re-reading these two novels was more than two years and I was able to judge Bitter Gold Hearts much more objectively. It's a different kind of story but on its own it's awesome.

There is a side of the novel that I appreciated much more now, when I am several years older and several years wiser. It's the relationship between average people and the “elites”.

Here are some spoiler-free quotes. Please notice that I use italic type the way it is used in the book – to distinguish telepathic communication of the Dead Man. This is the reason I can't quote everything using italic type, like I usually do.

    We marched off like a parody of a military outfit. Amiranda's companions were clad in uniforms. That seemed to be the limit of their familiarity with the military concept. At a guess I would have said their only use was to keep their livery from collapsing into the dust.

    The Hill is a good deal more than a piece of high ground looking down its nose at the sprawl of TunFair, the beast upon whose back it rides. It is a state of mind, and one I don't like. But their coin is as good as any down below, and they have a lot more of it. I register my disapproval by refusing jobs that might help the Hill tribe close their grip even tighter on the rest of us.
    Usually when they try to hire me it's because they want dirty work done. I turn them down. They find somebody less morally fastidious. So it goes.

    Amiranda said, “Mr. Garratt, Domina.”
    The woman looked at me like I was either a potentially contagious disease or an especially curious specimen in the zoo. One of the uglier ones, like a thunder lizard.
    There are times when I feel like I belong to one of the dying breeds.
    “Thank you Amiranda. Have a seat, Mr. Garrett.” The “mister” left her jaws aching. She wasn't used to being nice to people like me.

    “How much did Amiranda tell you?”
    “Enough to get me to listen.” She tried to stare me down. I stared back. “I don't usually have much grief to spare for uptown folks. When the fates want to stick them I say more power to them. But to kidnapping I take exception.”
    She scowled. I give the woman this – her scowl was first rate. Any gorgon would have been proud to own it. (…)

    Morley's place was jumping – as much as it ever does. Which means it was packed with dwarfs, elves, trolls, goblins, pixies, brownies, and whatnot, along with the curious specimens you get when you crossbreed the races. The boys looked at Amiranda with obvious approval and at me with equally obvious distaste. But I forgave them. I would be sullen and sour too if I was in a place where the drinks were nonalcoholic and the meals left out everything but the rabbit food.

    “Watch yourself, Garrett. You're playing with rough people.”
    “I know. But so are they.”
    “They probably know who you are and might know you're poking around. You don't know who they are.”
    “I've had plenty of practice being paranoid.” (…)

    The Dead Man was trying to sleep when I stepped into his room. He was long overdue for one of his three-week naps, but now wasn't the time. “Wake it up, Old Bones. You're supposed to have some suggestions for me this morning.”
    He had several, but none of the first few was fit to record. (…)

    A guy came charging through the doorway just as Saucerhead got there. His nose and Saucerhead's fist collided. No contest. (…)

    “You figured there might be a connection, eh?”
    Of course.
    But you didn't bother to mention it.”
    You have become too dependant upon me. You need to exercise your brain yourself.
    “The reason you're here at all is so I don't have to strain my brain. We humans are born bone lazy. Remember? With innate ambition and energy levels only slightly above those of a dead Loghyr.”

    Dean scowled and grumbled, not at all inclined to let me take matters into my own hands. He prepared the tea with such care and deliberation I was ready to do without before he finished. Tea is tea. Making a religious ceremony of fixing it doesn't improve it a bit.

    I started to express my incredulity, but it struck me that I might learn a little more a lot faster with my mouth shut. I admit that I don't often have these epiphanies.

    I went around the front of the horse and looked him in the eye. He looked back. I saw none of the tribe's usual malice. He obviously hadn't heard of me.

    It was coming together beautifully. I just hoped I wouldn't be in the middle when it crushed.

    I made the mistake, for a short time, of thinking I saw a chance for the big hit. You don't want to fall into that trap. It can shatter your perspective. It can narrow your focus until the rest of the world slides out of touch.

Cold Copper Tears (third novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Wednesday, 4 November 2009)

My rating: 10/10 (high re-reading value)
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.

[Short review]

Even though it is the third book in the series Glen Cook still introduces more and more interesting elements to the Garrett world. His imagination is amazing. What is more important it suits my taste perfectly. This book was a real page-turner to me. I enjoyed it even more than Sweet Silver Blues, which I also rated 10/10 (see my earlier review).

For me Cold Copper Tears is the best book so far in the Garrett series. It’s perfect.
(10/10)

Cold Copper Tears re-read

(Originally posted on Sunday, 14 May 2017)

My original rating: 10/10
My final rating: 10/10

Cold Copper Tears is a roller-coaster of action. Overall the novel is so fantastic that again (like the first time through) I ignored two minor things that actually annoy me.

The first thing is that Morley Dotes does some very ruthless things (for reasons that are greatly exaggerated) to cover one of Garrett's undertaking and Garrett contradicts himself while judging Morley's actions on the spot. Thankfully at the very end of the novel Garrett admits that it was kind of his fault (for taking Morley along) and feels bad about it.

The other annoying thing is that the plot revolves partly about religions and priests and there are some things about the way people believe and think about gods (or a god). On its own it's not so bad and to some extent it is even thought-provoking, but Glen Cook seems to be a very strong atheist and uses the novel to make some digs at religions on purpose. Thankfully a non-fanatical religious person like me can take it rather well. Well, a religious person should never be fanatical, otherwise it fuels the negative opinion of the other side. But I digress.

Please notice that the things described above don't lower my perfect rating. Yes, this novel so THAT awesome! The action is non-stop and the plot is overall cool and mysterious. On top of that there are some truthful and/or quite positive things to be found in the novel. Perfect!

Here are some spoiler-free quotes:

    I looked at the blonde. She looked at me. I liked what I saw. She had mixed feelings. (…)

    I've been poor and I've been poorer, and the practical side of me has learned one truth: money runs out. No matter how well I did yesterday, the money will run out tomorrow.

    My street was always a carnival, like TunFair itself. But it's all darkness grinning behind a party mask.

    (…) “You're going to get more than you bargain for if you keep trying to do something for those kids.”
    “They need a friend in the grown-up world, Dean. They need to see there's somebody decent out there, that the world isn't all shadow-eat-shadow and the prizes go to the guys who're the hardest and nastiest.”
    He faked a surprise. “It isn't that way?”
    “Not yet. Not completely. A few of us are trying to fight a rearguard action by doing a good deed here and there.”

    (…)
    “That's sad. I'm sorry. It isn't fair.”
    “Life isn't fair, Maya. I've learned to live with it. Mostly, I don't think about it. I don't let it shape me or drive me.”

    I had a thought. That happens. So do lunar eclipses. (…)

    It was the kingpin's man Crask, looking uglier and meaner than ever because he was trying to be friendly and courteous. “Chodo says he'd consider it a big favor if you'd come out to the house right away, Mr. Garrett. He said to give you his assurance that it's important and that you'll be compensated for your trouble.”
    I was getting compensated by everybody in sight without having the slightest notion what was going on. I'd get rich if the mess never sorted itself out.

    I'm a guy who doesn't understand intangible stakes. I know some would argue that I have a set of values I take pretty seriously, but if I can't eat it or spend it or make it go purr in the night, I don't know what to do with it. It's a weakness, a blind spot. Sometimes I forget there are guys willing to get killed over ideas. I just go bulling ahead looking for a pot of gold.

    “You know how dangerous that is?” (…)
    She gave me the look the look the young save for old farts who say dumb things. “What did we have to lose?”
    Only their lives. But kids are immortal and invulnerable. Just ask them.

    “(…) What's happening is, I've disappeared. Maybe run out of town. You aren't seeing me. You're seeing some guy who came down here to gawk.”
    He lifted an eyebrow. Damn, I hate it when people steal my tricks.

    Maya frowned and gave me a searching look. “I don't know. But you're more an expert on people than I am.”
    I snorted. Me an expert? I can't even figure me out, let alone the rest of the world.

Old Tin Sorrows (fourth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Wednesday, 4 November 2009)

My rating: 10/10 (high re-reading value)
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.

[Short review]

Old Tin Sorrows is significantly different from any other book in the Garrett series. This novel has an intimate feeling about it. Almost all action takes place in an old countryside estate. Garret spends several days there, trying to solve a case which at first looks very simple. In time he learns more and more about all the men and women living there. During his stay somebody starts killing people. Garrett’s life is also in danger. Moreover the house seems to be haunted by a ghost.

All this elements are only a frame for a tremendously enjoyable, yet very dark story. Many deaths and other creepy things doesn’t make this book a comedy. There is some humour classic to the Garrett series, but not as much as in previous novels. All the rest is as good as in any other Garrett book (see my earlier reviews).

For me Old Tin Sorrows is the best book so far in the Garrett series. It’s perfect.
(10/10)

P.S.
I rated the first book of the Garrett series a perfect 10/10 and already two of the next three books are considered by me as even better. Unbelievable, isn't it?

Old Tin Sorrows re-read

(Originally posted on Thursday, 14 February 2019)

My original rating: 10/10
My final rating: 10/10

My original ranking: the best Garrett P.I. novel
My final rating: the best Garrett P.I. novel

Old Tin Sorrows is an unbelievably gripping novel. I couldn't put it down even though I knew how it would end. AWESOME!

There are several very good action scenes. There are many scenes (action and non-action scenes) that are very memorable. The mystery is great. The little things are perfect. And the ending is very thought-provoking as far as killer's motives are concerned.

Here are some spoiler-free quotes. Enjoy!

    Bone-lazy, Morley would call me, but that's a base canard from a character without the moral fiber to sit still more than five minutes. I'm not lazy; I'd just rather not work if I don't need money. When I do, I operate as a confidential agent. Which means I spend a lot of time in the middle, between people you wouldn't invite to dinner. Kidnappers. Blackmailers. Thugs and thieves and killers.
    My, the things kids grow up to be.

    Trying not to work when I don't need money means looking through the peephole first when someone knocks on the door of my place on Macunado Street. If whoever is there looks like a prospective client, I simply don't answer.

    Whenever the big troubles came, the harbinger always wore a skirt and looked like something you couldn't find anywhere but in your dreams. In case that's too subtle, it's like this: I've got a weakness for ripe tomatoes. But I'm learning. Give me about a thousand years and ...
    This wasn't any tomato. This was a guy I'd known a long time ago and never expected to see again. One I hadn't ever wanted to see again when we'd parted. And he just looked uncomfortable out there, not like he was in trouble. So I opened the door.
    That was my first mistake.

    His name was Blake Peters. The guys in the company called him Black Pete. He'd been our leading sergeant and the nearest thing to a god or devil any one of us had known, the kind of professional soldier that gives an outfit its spine. I couldn't imagine him as a civilian. Three years out? He looked like a Marine sergeant in disguise.
    There was a time when we'd gotten caught with our pants down on one of the islands. A surprise Venageti invasion nearly wiped us out. We survivors had fled into the swamps and had lived on whatever didn't eat us first while we harrassed the Venageti. Sergeant Peters had brought us through that. I owed him for that.
    But I owed him more. He'd carried me away when I'd been injured during a raid. He hadn't had to do it. I couldn't have done anything but lie there waiting for the Venageti to kill me.

    A fat raindrop got me in the back of the neck. I scampered up a dozen marble steps to the porch. I took a minute to arrange my face so I wouldn't look impressed when somebody answered the door. You want to deal with the rich, you've got to overcome the intimidation factor of wealth.
    The door – which would have done a castle proud as a drawbridge – swung in without a sound, maybe a foot. A man looked out. All I could see was his face. I almost asked him what the grease bill was for silencing those monster hinges.

    I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the idea of being rich. I guess most people do. But if this was the way the rich had to live, I thought maybe I could settle for less.

    “The General will see you now, sir.” He turned and marched away.
    I followed. I caught myself marching in step, skipped to get out. In a minute I was back in step. I gave it up. They'd pounded it in good. The flesh remembered and couldn't hear the rebellion in the mind.

    The dining room was a dinning room. The kind where a guy can entertain three hundred of his closest friends. Most of it was dark. Everybody was seated at one corner table. The decor was standard for the house, armor and edged steel.

    The girl and guys I hadn't met looked me over. The men looked like retired Marines. Surprise, surprise. The girl looked good. She'd changed into her vamping clothes.
    Garrett, you dog . . . The thought fled. This one gave off something sour. She was radiating the come-and-get-it and my reaction was to back off. Here was trouble on the hoof. What was it Morley said? Don't never fool around with a woman who's crazier than you are?
    Maybe I was growing up.

    I paused. Go ahead like the cavalry? Or exercise a little caution? Caution didn't go with the image I wanted to project. But it did contribute to an extended life. And nobody was looking.

    The word disinformation trotted through my mind. From the spy game. Provide not just false information but more information than necessary, most of it untrustworthy, so that all information received came under shadow of doubt.
    I backed off, leaned against a wall, nodded to myself. Yeah. That felt like a good intuition. I was going to be allowed to find out all kinds of things, most of which were untrue, useless, or misleading. Hard to put a puzzle together when you've got three times too many pieces.

    Dotes was doing sit-ups, chunking them out like a machine. My stomach hurt just watching.
    “You're in pretty good shape for a guy your age,” I told him. I wasn't sure what that was. It could be substantial. He's part dark-elf. Elves can last a long time.
    “I take it you're working again.” He said it while popping up and down. Like there was no strain to what he was doing.
    I told myself I had to start doing a few exercises. At my age, when you lose it, it's hard to get back. (...).

    Sometimes you guess right and sometimes you don't. I don't a lot more than I do.

    Maybe it was their background, all those years in the war zone. When my company went in, there were two hundred of us, officers, sergeants, and men, who had trained together and been hammered into a single unit. Two years later there were eighteen originals left. Guys went down. After a while you accepted that. After a while you accepted the fact that your turn was coming. You went on and stayed alive as long as you could. You become completely fatalistic.

    “Lead on, noble knight.” Morley rags me about being romantic and sentimental. He has his moments himself – like turning up here. He'd never admit he was concerned about me swimming in a school of sharks. He'd just claim he was curious.

    “Have you nothing positive to report, Mr. Garrett?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Any suspects?”
    “No sir. Everybody. I'm having trouble making sense of the situation. I don't know the people well enough yet.”
    He looked at me like he was thinking I should be living up to one of those Corps mottos like “The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a minute longer.” (...)

Dread Brass Shadows (fifth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Friday, 12 March 2010)

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

This book is clearly weaker than previous books in the Garrett series, but it’s still good. Just good - previous were brilliant.The style is the same, but some parts were a little too confusing. I’m talking about some action scenes which I had to read very carefully.

The main problem for me was the fact, that many things happened around Garrett, but HIS actions didn’t make anything happen. The things just happened and he was caught in the middle.

Maybe it was Cook’s goal to show that a person sometimes has to go with the flow and is somehow helpless. If that’s so, than he did it a very good job. Even the surrounding is described as if there was doom coming on everybody, not only Garrett - thunder lizards flying over the city, MorCatha fighting among themselves in the night sky and the war in the Cantard at its peak. In fact I enjoyed such little things more than the main plot, which had some minor logical flaws.

One more thing. The humour is there, but the book isn’t as funny as the previous ones.

Overall it’s a good book, but its re-reading value is low because it comes after brilliant first 4 Garrett novels.
(7/10)

Red Iron Nights (sixth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Friday, 12 March 2010)

When I was looking for this book I found out that this and the next book in the Garrett series had not been reprinted, even though the 8th book had already been reprinted. I wanted to read the whole series in an appropriate order, so I bought this book translated to my native language. The cover is pretty good, except that Garrett looks older than he is and his index finger is ridiculously short. Please compare it with the original cover.

My rating: 6/10 (low re-reading value)
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.

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing, but I must admit that it is weaker than usual. As always this book was a fast-read and I didn’t have to force myself to keep on reading even though I saw some obvious problems.
2. Introduction of Belinda Contague – a daughter of Chodo Contague.

What’s bad:
1. The plot is about a psychopath – a serial killer who cruelly kills women. I don’t like books (or films) about psychopaths, especially serial killers.
2. The plot becomes kind of repetitive and I am not talking about subsequent murders. In one moment I thought to myself: “What? This happened again? Oh, come on!”
3. There is not so much fighting.
4. There is very little good humour. I realised this fact much, much later and it struck me like a lightning. The first three books in the Garrett series were almost a comedy. Fourth had some less humour, because it was darker, but it was probably the best book in the whole series. The next book had the feeling of doom coming on everybody and that low mood is still present in this book. There is even less humour and it's not as fresh and light as in the first three books.
5. The action at the end of the book is somewhat disappointing.
6. Some characters don’t behave the way they used to. Garrett himself is not the same Garrett we know from the first four books. I know that this is true in real life: people change. Some more radically than others. But from my point of view all the characters in the Garrett series change for the worse. Even Garrett.

Overall the whole book was a disappointment to me. I was hoping that after Dread Brass Shadows the series will again reach the heights of the first four novels. Sadly it is not the case here. This book is even weaker. Maybe the translation was not so good, but it doesn’t explain the main issues I had with this book. Interestingly this book was still kind of gripping and I can’t explain it. Overall it’s a little more than average and its re-reading value is low.
(6/10)

Deadly Quicksilver Lies (seventh novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Saturday, 13 March 2010)

When I was looking for this book I found out that this and the previous (6th) book in the Garrett series had not been reprinted, even though the 8th book had already been reprinted. I wanted to read the whole series in an appropriate order, so I bought this book translated to my native language. The cover is pretty good. I think it’s much better than original. Please compare both covers.

My rating: 4/10 (low re-reading value)
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.

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing, but I must admit that it is weaker than usual. This book was easy to read even though I saw some obvious problems.

What’s bad:
1. Garrett manages to escape from a place he should never be able to escape.
2. There is not so much fighting action.
3. The old characters still change for the worse (see my previous review).
4. One new female character starts out quite strong, but totally falls apart at the end of the book.
5. There is still too little good humour (see my previous review).
6. Some fight toward the end of the book makes little sense for me (maybe the translation is not so good, but I wouldn’t bet on it).
7. The ending is just terrible. I literally missed it! The conclusion about an important bad character is summed up in a couple of vague sentences. After that the Dead Man wakes up and reveals some facts which make the whole story pointless! When I realised it is all over I read the ending again and still couldn’t believe that this is it.

It was hard for me to rate this book. It was easy to read, but I didn’t find any good fighting action and the ending was just terrible. I am a great fan of Glen Cook but this book is not even average. It’s BELOW average and its re-reading value is low.

(4/10)

Petty Pewter Gods (eighth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Saturday, 13 March 2010)

My rating: 3/10 (low re-reading value)
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.

What’s good:
1. A lot of action (but waaay too crazy).
2. Glen Cook’s style of writing (except for the lack of logic and overall craziness).

What’s bad:
1. The plot is very, very, very crazy. Sometimes it’s really @#$%^& up.
2. There are numerous logical flaws in the plot. Sometimes Garrett himself behaves illogically.
3. There is no detective case to be solved in this book. Garrett is forced to do something for some “gods”. There is some kind of mystery in it, but the book never really explains it.
4. Garrett is no longer a regular guy, with whom the reader can try to identify with. Now he is the only person who sees “gods” and is supposed to decide on the future of some of them.
5. This book is an open mockery of any religion. I can understand that some people criticize priests for their faults and sins, but I hate when people make fun of religion in general (any religion). I knew that Glen Cook is an atheist, which was apparent in the books of the south of the Black Company series and in some previous Garrett novels. I didn’t mind that then, but here he crossed the line. It seems to me he doesn’t understand what religion is all about and behave like this: “I don’t understand it, so I make fun out of it”. To me religion is mostly about becoming a better person and about finding inner peace. Making fun out of such things is unacceptable to me.
6. There is some humour of really bad taste. For example there is a small cherub, who is smoking weed and when he needs a new joint he takes it out of his diaper. Oh, man. I think Glen Cook was smoking weed himself, when he was writing this.

This book has no side plots connecting with other books of the Garrett series, so it may be skipped without any consequences. That’s my advice: Skip it !!! Maybe some teenagers would really enjoy this book, but I will never read it again. This book is BAD.
(3/10)

PS. I have read 4 more Garrett novels and they are all much better than this one. So, don’t be afraid to continue reading this series.

Faded Steel Heat (ninth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Thursday, 8 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 – he is back to his usual, great form.
2. There is some good and sarcastic humour. Maybe not too much, but still much more than in the previous 3 novels together.
3. The action is really interesting and gripping.
4. Glen Cook finished (at last) a crappy side-plot from previous novels about a rebellious, racist-like movement. I didn’t mentioned it in my previous reviews, because it was so strange I just didn’t know how to judge it.
5. There are shape-shifters. Don’t worry - it’s not a spoiler because it is clear very soon into the book. I mentioned it because Glen Cook is a master of handling shape-shifters. They are always background characters, but very memorable and climatic.
6. This novel is like an all-star game for the Garrett series. There is almost every important character from ALL of the earlier Garrett novels.

What’s bad:
1. Two Garrett’s enemies – Crask and Sadler – at one moment are described as if they were supernatural beings (like vampires) radiating some evil energy. It makes no sense, because they are normal people without any magical abilities. Yes, they were very cruel and tough, but nothing more.
2. There is some strange encounter during a night that Garrett spends in a mansion outside his home city. It is never really explained and makes no sense to me.
3. I hate what Glen Cook did to one of the characters. He acts totally out of his usual character, almost pathetically. I don’t want to spoil anything so I can’t name him. It’s not a main character, but I liked him anyway (previously).
4. The ending is somewhat disappointing considering a great build-up of tension throughout the book.
5. The fight at the end of the book is described as totally chaotic, but I don’t see any logical reason for it. Yes, there was a very powerful and dangerous monster involved, but only one. He couldn’t attack everybody at the same time.
6. The ending for one of the villains was not understandable to me.
I don’t want to spoil anything, so I can’t explain.

Faded Steel Heat is much more light-hearted than the previous three Garrett novels. It’s far from perfect and the ending is somewhat disappointing, but the series is back on the right track. Overall I rate it as a good (solid) book, but its re-reading value is still low.
(7/10)

Angry Lead Skies (tenth novel in the Garrett P.I. series)

(Originally posted on Friday, 9 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: 8/10 (high re-reading value)

Reading Angry Lead Skies was a real pleasure. To me this is by far the best Garrett book since the 4th one (Old Tin Sorrows, rated 10/10). Among the novels numbered 5 through 10 this is the only one I want to re-read.

I was afraid to start reading Angry Lead Skies because I had read many negative reviews of this novel. To me, however, this book was very enjoyable.

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing.
2. Significant amount of good, mostly sarcastic humour. Not as much as in the first three Garrett novels, but quite close.
3. A lot of fighting and exploring, both inside and outside the city.
4. Very good and enjoyable mix of fantasy and science fiction.
It may seem strange, but Glen Cook pulled that stunt perfectly.
5. It’s interesting to see how “fantasy people” react while discovering highly sophisticated, electronic equipment and the alien creatures themselves (sky elves). Glen Cook describes it in a very believable way. In particular he never uses “modern words” – for example a TV screen is described by Garrett as a “window to a different place”, or something like that.
6. Garrett is, finally, maturing – getting smarter and more thoughtful about other people and himself (in a positive way). Glen Cook surprised me very much with Garrett getting older, because in some of his other novels it seemed to me that all the characters were changing for worse.
7. Nice touch on economy and money making in Garrett world, bearing a strong resemblance to what is going on in our world.

What’s bad:
1. There are several inconsistencies considering the whole series. First of all two grolls named Tris and Marsha, who were not able to speak Garrett language before, now talk to Garrett without any problems and he is not even surprised. Some readers claim that their size is also different, but I am not sure.
2. A much bigger and much more disturbing inconsistency to me is the race of Tinnie Tate – Garrett’s love throughout the series (with some breaks). I am sure that she was a gnome. She was sexy,
red-haired and short, but she was a gnome. In this book I got a very strong notion that the whole Tate family are treated like humans. I’ve got a similar notion in the previous novel, but I thought that I have misunderstood something. I can’t believe that Glen Cook forgot about Tates’ real race.
3. The sexual side of this novel is a little too weird to me. Getting laid with sky elves by Garrett would be enough, but the fact that Pular Singe (a rat girl living in Garrett’s house) gets jealous about it was
too much. Nothing happened between her and Garrett, but my imagination is too strong for such ... unusual ideas.
4. At the end of the novel the economy side-plot gets more important than the sky elves themselves. It makes the end of the main story a little lacklustre. On the other hand it couldn’t have been much different, for obvious reasons.

To me Angry Lead Skies is somewhat similar to Bleak Seasons from the Black Company series. There are many people who hate it, but to me it’s very enjoyable. Not perfect, but definitely far from being bad. Overall I rate Angry Lead Skies as a novel more than just good, with high re-reading value.
(8/10)

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)

Cruel Zinc Melodies (twelfth 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: 8/10 (high re-reading value)

Well, it turns out that I didn’t write a review of Cruel Zinc Melodies earlier, even on paper. But I did write down the title and my rating (8/10) next to it. I remember exactly how great this book ended and how much I enjoyed it overall. After reading some reviews (with spoilers) it all came back to me. I still can’t remember the details, but the frame of the story is really good.

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing.
2. An intriguing plot.
3. Giant bugs, ghosts, a youth gang, families of sorcerers, rat people, a troll, dwarves and some other things are combined into a very thought out story.
4. To me the ending is very enjoyable, because it connects to one of the best Garrett novels - Old Tin Sorrows (the 4th one in the series).
5. Garrett is getting more and more mature and thoughtful (in a good way).

What’s bad:
1. I believe the ending can be enjoyable rather to mature readers. Most teenagers will probably hate it.
2. The fighting is mostly about dealing with an infestation of giant bugs. Again, it may be not enjoyable to some people.
3. A silly, tiny side-topic at the end of the whole book. Maybe it was supposed to be gritty in a different way, but it ended up just silly. Something about the lack of toilets in a theatre. Oh, man. It’s just a couple of sentences, but it comes out of the blue and I will remember it forever. Damn it.

Overall I enjoyed Cruel Zinc Melodies very much and it’s another Garret novel I want to re-read. I can’t remember exactly, but there must have been some good humour, because I don’t remember this book to be sad or depressing, rather the opposite. I rate Cruel Zinc Melodies as a novel more than just good, with high re-reading value.
(8/10)

Gilded Latten Bones (thirteenth 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: 5/10 (low re-reading value)

I read this book long time ago and I can remember only the outlines of the main plot. It was quite interesting at first, with hints about very powerful and creepy enemies. The ending however was a little strange to me. Yes, the enemies were powerful, but more like powerful alchemists than sorcerers. Why the Dead Man was
at some moment paralyzed by them is beyond me.

SPOILERS about Garrett's private life !!!
SPOILERS about Garrett's private life !!!
SPOILERS about Garrett's private life !!!
SPOILERS about Garrett's private life !!!
SPOILERS about Garrett's private life !!!

OK, you have been warned.

I can’t remember the details of the main plot, but I remember exactly how I felt when I finished this book. I felt sad and pissed off about the way Garrett (or should I say Glen Cook) treated Tinnie Tate.
It was much worse than killing her.

Tinnie Tate was Garrett’s love throughout the series. Yes, Garrett had some other women, but he always came back to Tinnie. At the end of the previous book (Cruel Zinc Melodies) Garrett and Tinnie got engaged (sort of) and it was great. I felt proud of Garrett – he finally realized that being forever a single is not a good idea.

At the start of this book Garrett and Tinnie had already lived together for some time. After Tinnie Tate was almost kidnapped and Morley Dotes got badly cut Garrett returns to his previous job. But suddenly he behaves like he is really fed up with Tinnie. Just like that. Glen Cook just states that her behaviour was bad, without ever giving any examples. That’s no way to handle a character who was really well described in earlier books. Tinnie Tate was never a harpy. She was a woman with a typical, unpredictable behaviour, but never a harpy. She loved Garrett and was caring about him. Obviously every serious relationship has its ups and downs, but it takes two people to handle a relationship, not just one.

What’s worse throughout the book Garrett hangs out with another woman – a sorceress from the previous book. At first there are only some hints that Garrett cheats on Tinnie, but in the second part of the book it is clear that he really does that. Without ever talking with Tinnie about their problems. And without breaking up with her, first. Garrett behaves like a moron and an asshole. I hated it. I REALLY hated it.

I hated even more the behaviour of other characters who are close to Garrett. They all approve of or simply ignore Garrett’s affair. All of them: the Dead Man, Pular Singe and even Dean – a family kind of guy. It makes no sense to me. They ALL approved of Tinnie before, so why they should change their minds so quickly is beyond me.

I was REALLY pissed off when I finished Gilded Latten Bones. What kind of example does Glen Cook give to young people about relationships? That you can easily give up and run away when some problems arrive? That you can cheat on your woman? That you can break up a relationship without even talking to your partner? Unthinkable to me.

I was doubly disappointed, because the end of the previous Garrett book signalled a totally different continuation. I thought that Garrett finally matured up, but in this book he reversed to being a teenager, not even a young adult.

I try to retain some objectivity and that’s why I rate Gilded Latten Bones as an average book with low re-reading value. No way I could rate it any higher.
(5/10)

PS. I’ve read some reviews of the next Garrett book – Wicked Bronze Ambition. Some people point out that this new novel is mostly sad and dark.

The Dragon Never Sleeps

(Originally posted on Tuesday, 27 October 2009)

My rating: 9/10 (very high re-reading value)
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.

[Short review]

What’s bad:
1. The story could be told in a less confusing way. Without careful reading it is hard to follow and understand everything. Actually I had to read some earlier parts of the book again to understand what was going on later. Some characters have their clones (sometimes more than one), which makes the plot even more complicated.
2. The ending leaves the possibility for a sequel, but Glen Cook himself said this book was written under the condition that there would never be a sequel.

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook’s style of writing.
2. Complex and very imaginative plot.
3. Fantastic idea of Guardships.
4. Monumental battles in space.
5. Huge scope of the book.
6. Interesting characters.
7. Great concept of fast travel in space.
8. Nice touch on the political and social aspect of the world.

Although the plot of The Dragon Never Sleeps is sometimes very confusing and I had some hard time to follow it, I enjoyed this book very, very much. I could not believe that one book can contain so much brilliant and very imaginative ideas. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe this book was written especially to suit my taste. I don’t know. Even though its plot is sometimes very confusing I rate The Dragon Never Sleeps as a very good book.
(9/10)

The Dragon Never Sleeps re-read (Glen Cook's masterpiece)

(Originally posted on Saturday, 23 May 2015)

My original rating: 9/10
My final rating: 10/10

The Dragon Never Sleeps is Glen Cook's masterpiece. Period.

I loved it the first time through, but only during the second time I was able to follow and understand everything. At least I think I understood everything. Maybe. Anyway, the novel has an extremely high re-reading value. There is a huge amount of cool things happening. The book is simply awesome!

This novel would be a blockbuster movie hit, if it were filmed properly. And this is the exact reason why it is so hard to follow the story. Apart from the story being very complex, it is written from a movie-camera perspective. While re-reading the novel I realised that some scenes are described from an angle that doesn't show everything. Moreover some things are left unspoken, just like it is done in some good movies. Sometimes “the camera” zooms out and suddenly some things that were spoken or that happened just a moment before get a whole different meaning. Cool.

This movie-like narration makes the story hard to follow, but ultimately it is extremely rewarding. A warning: lazy readers, fast readers or people with little imagination should avoid this novel. You can't read it casually or quickly. You have to analyse, deduce and imagine your way through the story. Otherwise you will end up lost in space. Literally.

I suggest to take notes about everything connected with the Tregesser family. For example: Nyo and Tina Bofoku are brother and sister who are sidekicks of Blessed Tregesser. Or: Tregesser Prime (the capitol planet of the Tregesser House) is called P. Benetonica 3 in the Guardship/Canon terminology. Such things can become important more than a hundred pages later into the novel and I had to search back the novel looking for them, even during the re-reading. I'll give you one last info that is simply missing in the early part of the novel: the headquarters of Simon Tregesser (the head of the Tregesser House) are NOT on the Tregesser Prime, but somewhere in outer space. It's clear later on, but I got confused at first.

OK, I have to point out that there is one scene (that can be found in the quotes below) that seems to be a little inconsistent with the rest of the book. Or maybe I missed something? At one moment a small traveller is forced out of the Web by a Guardship that moves much faster, but even though the traffic on the Web is heavy and such situations should occur regularly, there is no other reference to such dangers for commerce travellers. And there is an additional question: can a Guardship pass a traveller going the opposite way on the Web? That should occur regularly, too. I can imagine some solutions to these potential problems, but they were not explained in the novel and this the ONLY gripe I have about the book.

Here are some spoiler-free quotes that give only a hint what the novel is like. Please notice that I use italic type the way it is used in the book. It is used mostly to distinguish telepathic communication, but it is also used for some proper nouns. This is the reason I can't quote everything using italic type, like I usually do.

    Midnight was afraid.
    Fear was a new feeling. Fear was not part of her design. She had been made for the salons and bedrooms of high society. Fear had had to be learned.
    Lady Midnight savored new things. But this fear she did not like. It stole the color from her wings. It gnawed her innards like cancer. It took away sleep and robbed her of appetite. It was an assassin that butchered the rhythm of her dance-in-flight. It knotted her muscles till they ached.

    Is there no chance for the Concord? Amber Soul asked. Just the edge of that thought was enough to make Midnight's head buzz. Amber Soul almost never communicated with anyone. When she did she knocked you down.
    “None”, Turtle said. “The thing is one of those jackstraw rebellions that come along every human generation. I have seen a hundred. They don't last. The Enherrenraat did not last a year and it was five hundred in the shaping.” He paused, then asked rhetorically, “How old are the Guardships? They were old when I was young. Sometimes it seems the stars themselves are younger and the Guardships were created old and wily and deadly and there was never a moment when they were not invincible.

    No one knew Turtle's true age. Turtle would not say. They joked that DownTown had been build around him.
    Turtle seldom talked about Turtle. Whence had he come? What was he? The last indigene of V. Rothica 4? There were ruins in the deserts. Unlikely that he was of the precursor race, though. Nobody was that old.

    “(…) We must assure our own safety. Precautions never taken are the only sort that leave one with regrets.”

    Third WatchMaster observed, “The pod is in the outer atmosphere already, WarAvocat.”
    Meaning the batteries' beams would lose coherency, that projectiles would be inaccurate, that the fighters would be wasted because they could not go down into atmosphere.
    “Missiles? No. Too late.” They accelerated so swiftly they would hit atmosphere like hitting a wall. “Perfectly timed. The thing is crafty.”
    “Hellspinners?”
    “Probably too late for them those, too. But they'll make an exemplary display.” WarAvocate spoke to the shimmer. “Access, Weapons. Hellspinners, loose. Access, Hall of the Soldiers. Soldiers, warm one battalion of heavy infantry data-prepped for a search-and-kill in Cholot Varagona.”

    “(…) I suspect a manipulation by some House.”
    “They wouldn't stir rebellion against themselves, would they?” Midnight protested. She remained as naive as Amber Soul remained mysterious.
    “They would, and they have done. The Enherrenraat was born from a greed-fever dream in Cholot and Merod. The dream grew up to become a nightmare. Cholot and Merod are paying still. The fury of the Guardships was so exemplary that it has not been challenged since, but the universe spawns fools and insects in numbers beyond all reason.”

    Jo Klass drew a frigid breath of medicine and machine, open her eyes. She felt eager, curious, a touch of trepidation. What would it be? Warming was like wakening to a day guaranteed to be exciting.
    How long had she slept?
    Not that it mattered. Nothing changed.
    As always there was a mouth flutter of panic as the air grew hot and humid. The cell walls pressed in. Its lid opaqued with moisture. She scrawled an obscenity in the condensation.
    The lid opened. Beyond lay the familiar white overhead of the warming room. How many times had she wakened thus, staring up at the sky of pipe and cable? Too often to recall.
    Air swirled in, chilled her.
    What was it? Another Enherrenraat? Fear stroked her. She had died that time. It hunted her, though the bud had detoured her around it.
    Sometimes she thought she dreamed about dying while she was in the cell, but she remembered no dreams once she wakened.
    A face drifted into view. “Off and on, soldier.” No relief at finding her alive instead of a shriveled blue-black mummy. No expression at all. Just on to the next cell and next check.
    (…) Eyes roved old comrades, seeking remembered scars. Unmarked skin could say a lot about last time out.

    City work. Jo hated it. Cities were treacherous. You never knew who would hit you with what from where. The system was not great at detecting non-energy weapons.

    “(…) Suppose you were dealing with IX Furia?”
    Timmerbach blanched.
    IX Furia's style was to shoot first and forget about the questions. Or, some said, to shoot first and then shoot the survivors.

    The brightest object in the nighttime sky, after the moon, had been the station, stationary above the equator south of Merod Schene. But now there was a brighter object. “The Guardship,” Turtle said.
    It must be huge.
    “It's bigger than anything you can imagine humans building.”

    “Deified? You wish to examine these... people?” It was hard to regard them that way.
    Ansehl Ronygos suggested, “Relax the silence.”
    Strate reiterated the request as an order. The system would have responded to Ronygos directly, but the Deified liked to nag the living for having introduced unbreakable routines that prevented them from issuing edicts and making decisions without the consent of the living.
    VII Gemina was trying to avoid troubles that had befallen other Guardships. XII Fulminata, without restraints upon its Deified, had gone cold and weird, ruthless, merciless, and almost suicidally fearless. IV Trajana was the spookiest of all Guardships, having subsumed its crew completely. Afterward, it had climbed onto the Web and been heard from again only briefly during the Enherrenraat incident.

    It was the thing that was the sum of all that the Starbase builders had wrought, all the Guardship had learned, and all that had been input by Deification. It was the thing that made the Guardship so fearsome. It was the thing that, vaguely sensed, made all Canon shiver in dread and overrate a Guardship's terrible might.
    Turtle knew the Guardships were not invincible. Not yet.
    (…)
    In short, learn to think like the enemy, then outthink the enemy – instead of going on trying to outgun him and outfight him.

    “We can't hold it any farther off the centerline, sir. We're risking premature breakaway now.”
    Jo grimaced. If they dropped off right now, they would be almost a light year from the overly hot J. Duosconica. Climbing back on might be impossible. Misty as the strand was, instruments might not locate it.
    (…)
    “Chief!” someone shouted. “We got something coming up behind us. Fast! Gods! It's a big mother... Saldy. What the hell is that? It's going to run us over!”
    Timmerbach ran around, cursed, shook a fist at a secondary screen. “Take us in to the core! Maximum ahead. That's a Guardship! That's a goddamned Guardship, and it's going to smash us right off the Web!”
    (…)
    Timmerbach continued to rage, demanding more speed. The Guardship closed. Features became distinct. Jo blurted, “That's IV Trajana!”
    Hadget gulped air. For the first time he was rattled. “Can't be. Nobody's seen IV Trajana since the Enherrenraat incident.”
    “More speed!” Timmerbach fumed. “Damned Web, you can't go anywhere but in a straight line. Seligo! Calculate a cut course to the nearest away strand in case we get knocked off.”
    Jo guessed they were two light weeks from the anchor point. Seconds on the Web. Months in starspace.

    Sometimes someone spoke to Blessed. Always he replied courteously but coolly, cultivating an image of distance that, tempered by warmth in private, might lead some to think they had wormed their ways into his confidence. Those would be the people he used.

    “It works for VII Gemina, Kez Maefele. Other Guardships evolved other directions. They've gotten strange.”
    Strange. “They say nothing ever changes. They blame you. You are wonderful devils. But I have lived every minute of several thousand years. The entire universe has gone strange. You may not have noticed.”
    “Why wouldn't we notice?”
    “You do not look outside as long as Outside does not fracture the rules you enforce. Canon has changed, WarAvocate. I mark the watershed when the rage for tier cities swept Canon. Before that there were few nonhumans in Canon space, except along the Rims and on Closed Treaty and Reserved worlds. Artifacts were rare. Like me, they were created for noble purposes. Now they are everywhere, nonpareil toys, to be played with, abused, and discarded. Humans' worlds were choked with people. The Web was acrawl with ships. Trade was brisk Outside. Where have the trillions gone, WarAvocate? There are thousands more worlds now. But they should be filled. They are not. Few are more populous than that pesthole where you found me. Why? Your normals are not breeding.
    “These days those held in deepest contempt are the glue binding what is left. Humans own Canon, but nonhumans and artifacts keep it going.”

    The screen withstood the salvo. But the Twist Master had permission to loose at will. No screen could absorb Hellspinners long.
    The Outsider finally grasped the gravity of its situation. It began to move.
    Its assailants moved with it.
    Here, there, soft spots in the screen yielded. A one-meter gap opened and persisted for seven seconds. An interceptor put one hundred rounds of 40mm contraterrene shot through the hole. The Outsider's skin blossomed, a garden of small fires.
    Other gaps opened. Some attack craft chose marksmanship, gunning for specific installations. Others just blazed away. None trying running the gaps. A screen shielded both ways. A fighter inside would become the target of every Outsider weapon otherwise unable to fire.

    There were six completed replacement Guardships in the construction channel and a dozen more being completed at leisurely pace. They amounted to a macro-exemplar of the process by which slain soldiers were replaced. If a Guardship was lost, a replacement would be impressed with data left during its last visit to Starbase.
    VII Gemina began updating its file when it broke off the Web. That would continue throughout its stay. All crew would register a current personal file.
    VII Gemina might be destroyed, but there would always be a VII Gemina.
    Those who created the fleet had faced a problem as old as idealism: how to keep the fire burning. Children reject the dreams of their parents, and grandchildren hold them in contempt.
    Their answer was to preserve the founding generation.

    He told Midnight, “Just pretend you're too stupid to understand their questions.” There were advantages to belonging to the underclasses. One was that you never disappointed the master race by being stupid.

    (…) They were beyond terror now, into that dulled, accepting, bovine antihysteria that grips the victims of great disasters and atrocities, glazed eyes becoming one-way glasses keeping reality at bay. Wake up some day and find it all a bad dream.

    WarAvocate finally understood. (…) Nothing else explained the mysteries so neatly. He had not seen the obvious because it was not supposed to be there.
    The fleet desperately needed newer, more flexible minds. His own generation had brains set in concrete.

The Tower of Fear

(Originally posted on Thursday, 22 October 2009)

My rating: 9/10 (high re-reading value)
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.

[Short review]

What’s bad:
1. The final confrontation was lacking something for me (but it’s hard to tell what).
2. The fact that the knowledge of how to access the Tower of Fear was known to a number of servants “working” there (too much risk that some of them could be captured or betray this knowledge for a price).

What’s good:
1. Glen Cook style of writing.
2. Complex and thought out plot.
3. Many different viewpoints telling the whole story are easy to follow.
4. Great atmosphere about the city, where the action takes place.
5. Interesting idea about the way this city is ruled and controlled.
6. The world-building is quite rich (for Glen Cook), but not boring.
7. A lot of scheming from all the sides of the story.
8. All the characters are interesting, complex and life-like.
9. It's hard to tell who's good and who’s not (the reader has to decide).
10. The use of magic is quite low and very specific.

This is arguably Glen Cook’s best book considering the “art of writing”. It’s a little different from his better known books, but his style of writing is at its best. The story is very complex and well thought out. Glen Cook himself said in an interview, that this is one of his favourite books (from what he had written).

I don’t rate The Tower of Fear as a perfect book, because it has too little humour and the action is a little slower than usual. This book is enjoyable on a different level than Glen Cook’s other books. That’s why the fun factor is not perfect for me. It’s “only” very good.
(9/10)

Passage at Arms

(Originally posted on Tuesday, 27 December 2011)

My rating: 8/10 (low re-reading value)
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.

Right from the first page I felt “Passage at Arms” would be an exceptional book. It starts in the middle of tense combat on the surface of a planet, but the fighting is rather a background than the main action. The most important thing about this first chapter is the feeling it gave me. The atmosphere is like a mix of the great science-fiction novel “Forever War” (two alien civilizations clashing) and the great film “Terminator” (chaos reigning during the fighting in the city ruins as seen in the “future flashbacks" of the soldier Kyle Reese). Great stuff.

I must warn you that the second chapter shows what was happening a couple of days before the fighting from the first chapter and the action in all the following chapters takes place only in space, so the start of the novel can be misleading. At first I was angry, but after some time I realised it was a touch of genius. The tone of the first chapter is simply unforgettable.

What’s good:

1. Glen Cook’s style of writing.
2. This novel is VERY, VERY, VERY gripping. It’s one of the most gripping books I have ever read.
3. The story is about one very long mission of a climber – a small space ship which is used similarly to a submarine during The World War II.
4. Glen Cook created great speculative science about climbers. Similarly to a submarine going underwater, a climber goes into a different state of energy, virtually vanishing from the normal space (it “climbs”). It leaves only a small trace in the normal space and is reduced to a “Hawking point” which is very small and can’t be hit directly by a missile. However nearby explosions of the missiles do harm it by raising the temperature inside the climber. When the temperature is too high the cooling system fails and the climber explodes because the antimatter inside its tank cannot be controlled properly. Great idea.
5. The atmosphere about living together for a long time in close quarters is good, but it could have been done a little better. What’s really captivating it’s rather the lack of patriotism of the more experienced crew and their only will to survive this one more patrol. Glen Cook skilfully shows that a soldier after prolonged tense fighting is not the same person as when he was joining the army or when he was leaving his military school for real combat. Glen Cook also shows how a soulless decisions of the higher command can ruin morale in any unit.
6. This book also shows how much depends on the captain of a (space)ship like this and how much pressure is laid upon him. He has to carry on the orders of the higher command without losing the respect of his own crew. He is the only person who cannon crack an inch, because he holds the whole crew from falling apart.
7. There are very good examples of how much the news about the ongoing war is manipulated before reaching the people at home.

What’s bad:

1. I didn’t like the idea that a spaceship which is moving so fast and is almost invisible can be traced so easily.
2. The fighting at some moments seemed too easy or simplistic.
3. The very strange behaviour of the higher command toward the end of the book is not believable or reasonable (at least for me).
4. This novel is too heavy emotionally for me to read it again.

The speculative science of a climber is great, but could have been used somewhat differently and the fighting could be better. I liked the science and the space battles in “The Dragon Never Sleeps” more, but I must admit that “Passage at Arms” tells a much more intimate story and is much easier to follow. Glen Cook created a unique feeling about a climber and its crew. As I said it’s one of the most gripping books I have ever read, but it's also exhausting emotionally. Considering its low re-reading value I still rate “Passage at Arms” as a novel more than just good.

(8/10)

A Matter of Time

(Originally posted on Thursday, 8 August 2013)

The cover is very misleading.

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: 8/10 (low re-reading value)

Another book that was very hard to rate for me. The start of the book, with a premise of time travels and with glimpses into the future and into the past, was great (10/10). An investigation about a man who disappeared 50 years earlier and whose body turned up in 1975 was great too (10/10), but only in the first half of the book. Everything else was more and more disappointing.

There is a side-storyline concerning main character’s son trapped in Vietnam war. At first it seemed that there would be some significant connection between those two plots, but they come together very awkwardly. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I can’t say anything more about the plot.

I must say however that I was very disappointed about the outcome of the above mentioned investigation and about the end of the book as a whole. There was some logic to it, but some things seemed really stretched out. Definitely it was not what I was hoping for.

A Matter of Time was VERY gripping and fun to me in the first half – a perfect book (10/10). However the second half was “only” good (7/10) and the ending was only a little more than average (6/10).
Taking an average of these part-ratings I rate A Matter of Time as a book more than just good, but its re-reading value is low because of the disappointing ending.
(8/10)