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On the down side: it's a little plodding. Most of the book seems to be different sets of characters walking around stumbling over clues while they try to meet up to exchange information. There are a few threads that are drawn throughout the story that are left unresolved when the novel closes. only Garrett’s friends reacted to her death in any way; Garrett and Strafa's family sort of shrugged it off. I have followed this series for many years. It is one of the original fantasy noir series to mix magic and hard boiled mysteries. It is very good at what it does. But this installment does have some problems. So does Playmate sometimes, though he's been a bit laid up with the cancer. And what was the point of giving him cancer if it didn't mean anything? Before the cancer he ran his stable and wanted to put some brains into his brother in law. After the cancer, he runs his stable, and wants to put some brains into his brother in law. Nothing functionally changed in the man, he's still strong as an ox, he still holds firmly to his beliefs, as far as we can tell. Don't give the man cancer if you're not gonna do anything with it!!! A grand underground tournament has been set up and is meant to be a battle-royale type: the kids are in it if they want to or not and whether they have actual magic powers or not. This case gets very close for Garrett personally because someone he loves has died and now he is out for revenge.
One interesting thing i did catch from the interview was that Cook's getting into anime. So, when i saw the plot for this book, i thought it felt familiar. I think he watched Fate Stay Night or something, cause it's basically his remix of it. Though, he bungles it by not letting us see anything that happens. I thought he was gonna kinda deconstruct the whole idea, maybe take some jabs at the premise, but outside a few off hand remarks about how stupid the whole thing is, it all just peters out after a while. No big climax, no aha moment, y'know? For all that, the plot was not as well thought-out as most of the earlier novels, which is kind of weird, as this is the longest of the Garrett novels. The ending, while heartening, is not terribly satisfying: a very long build up to a rather anti-climactic climax.This is going to be one of my favorite Garrett novels once I read it for the second time. It was so stressful the first time that I kept having to put it down to catch my breath. Good interaction between our old favorite characters, an interesting story and more of Garrett bulling through all problems to a solution. So why was it stressful?
Let me preface by saying that I love the Garrett series. I liked him when he was a head-thumping alcoholic, and I still like him as he’s becoming less of a smartass and more of an adult. I liked his riotous, 12-book affair with Tinnie Tate, and I like that he’s moved on, left her behind and gotten engaged. And that brings me to the biggest problem i have with this book and, really, the last several entries in the series--ever since Singe showed up, really. Garrett isn't an investigator anymore. And ever since book 13, he doesn't even delegate anymore. Perhaps the biggest lost opportunity, however, is that we are finally on the Hill and have a chance to get deep into the aristocracy that has been on the outskirts of so many of these novels and I just didn’t feel like Cook took advantage of that situation. However, I can't help but like the Garrett series, even if we're now at 14 books with no real end in sight. There's just something oddly charming about them, and about Glen Cook's often peculiar, and quite stylish (not always good, mind you), way of writing.
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The language is interesting, even if it sometimes skews a little aggressively modern ('oh snap' does not feel natural here) and at times a touch experimental, but that's all part of the charm. The one thing I didn't like, in this book specifically, was the subplot with Hagekagome, which felt a bit superfluous, and at times a bit creepy. Which is a shame, since Cook doesn't generally seem afraid of writing strong, or interesting women – even if Garrett's attitude to them should be ignored at all times, of course. For a novel that had very little real action, at least compared to the earliest novels in the series, this moved pretty fast for me. Lots of delving into characters not given much time in the past, as well as areas of TunFaire only hinted at previously. I enjoyed the by-play of some of the marginal characters who finally had a chance to take Center Stage. In the first couple of chapters, Strafa dies. Garrett’s response to this: Be briefly angry. Initiate investigation. Walk around woolgathering while the mysteries are cleared up by other people. The end. Garrett's fiancé, Strafa Algarda, was born on the Hill and his soon-to-be family-in-law is filthy rich. They are all sorcerers too, and that puts them in a tight spot, because someone has it out for them or rather, their children and grandchildren. We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when
It's uncharitable of me to complain about this. I just like being surprised, and this bit of plot was not surprising. I'm kind of happy about the whole deal, actually. It just means that the next book can expound on their relationship a little more. I mean, now that they're married, and everything. Finally, the mystery was very weak. The bad guys are inept at best. Their motivation was weak and felt contrived. Garrett seemed to have more problems solving this mystery because of distractions in his persona life and because the bad guys were doing things in a more random (idiotic) fashion than any logical person would do.On the plus side: this is a Garrett novel. It's funny, fast-paced, full of interesting characters and odd quirks and the vibrant, so-weird-I-want-to-go-there city of Tunfaire. I mean, if you liked the previous Garrett books, you're going to read this one and you're probably going to enjoy it.
Another thing that made this book hard to follow at times is the sheer size of the cast. Over the series, a lot of characters have been introduced into Garrett's life. It seems every single one of those characters made at least an appearance in this story. Plus a whole bunch of new characters are introduced. This would all be compelling enough to watch unfold in third person where we could follow some of these other characters, but instead we get Garrett in first person. Garrett does nothing, NOTHING!!!! Other people do his work for him. Important developments take place off camera. Climaxes come together with all these characters but with zero context, because Garrett's dull as all hell and doesn't have all the pieces cause he didn't do any of the work--we don't have any of the pieces cause we're watching through Garrett's eyes!!!! We're just as frustrated and confused as he is. Seriously, Garrett's fiancee/wife is murdered and the emotional fallout is less than when he broke up with Tinnie Tate. I kept waiting for some kind of emotional breakdown, but ol’ Garrett just plods on. He does have a single night’s drinking, but even that doesn’t hurt; magical hangover medicince mitigated the effects.And I still adore Cook's (often daft) character names. 'Furious Tide of Light' is such a great name. On the middle (?!) side: There are some, er, inventive language choices that I don't think worked all that well. (Mad skills? Really?) and there are some intriguing new mysteries and characters that are only teased at. But there is also quite a bit of character growth; Cook has obviously given some attention to each of the main supporting casts' roles and growth and it plays well. Hey Christine, I probably overshot it with getting all the Blitz. Some of them are terrific but there are colors that don’t really fit my complexion, like the orchid. Otherwise, it’s a terrific formula. I’ve layered it over the Matte lippies and it looks terrific. As a side note: this recent trend of closing a novel as soon as the action finishes is really tiresome. I get the idea behind it - close on an emotional high point where the story is finished - but in practice, well, I read these novels because I love the characters. I have loved them for over twenty years at this point and I've read each novel multiple times. Give me the dammed epilogue that fulfills the emotional connections beyond those served up in the narrative action. Editors at Tor and Roc, I'm looking at you.)
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