Wicked Bronze Ambition by Glen Cook

 I've been reading Glen Cook's work for a long time - three decades, in fact. I may have to re-read his early Black Company novels one of these days and get some reviews up. I used a Christmas gift card to buy Nook versions of the first six of them recently, and picked this one up as an ebook to catch up on the Garrett series, too. Ebooks weren't even a gleam in their daddy's eye back when I first wandered the streets of Tunfair.

Though Garrett would much prefer to avoid the gazes of the dangerous and powerful, it's gotten a little tougher since being affianced to one of the most powerful sorceresses in the city. Her daddy and grandmother have decided they need Garrett to use his skills to find out more about the contest known as the Tournament of Swords, which threatens to kill off many of the children of the magical families of the kingdom, and by implication to put a stop to it, as well.

Then, someone kills his fiancee,Strafa, and all bets are off. Once the shock is over, he relentlessly pursues the identity of the killer(s), with the help of all of his friends whom we have come to know over a dozen or so books, as well as the resources of one of the powerful wizarding houses, since he is now considered to be family by the denizens of The Hill.

The downside to this novel is that it takes a long and winding road to discover the truth about who is behind the resurrection of the tournament and Strafa's murder, and Garrett stumbles like a drunken bull through it all, only the steadfast support of his friends keeping him from a dire fate on his own. There was almost an element of french farce to the whole thing, as Garrett repeatedly tracked down the usual suspects, hauled them off to be questioned by the Dead Man or to his friends in the Algarda or Relway's guard, then they would escape or be turned loose, and he'd end up tracking them down all over again for a new round of questioning.

Glad I pushed on to the end for a nice surprise twist.

Water Sleeps by Glen Cook

Review written March 2000

Water Sleeps is the most recent addition to the saga of the Black Company. Personally, I think the early books in this series (The books of the North) were the best in the series, Cook is just coasting along on momentum now, it seems. One of the annoying things about the recent books in the series is that the point of view has switched from Croaker (the annalist of the Company we met in the first book) to Lady to Murgen and, in Water Sleeps, to Sleepy. (Those of you who have no clue who these people are need to read the rest of the series).
 
At the end of She is the Darkness, Cook left all of our old friends from the Black Company trapped by Soulcatcher on the plain of Glittering Stone, in some sort of suspended animation. Sleepy, a young woman who usually goes around disguised as a man, for various personal and military reasons, has inherited the job of Annalist and, by default, Captain in all but title. The remnants of the Black Company are in hiding and disgrace in Taglia, hunted by Soulcatcher, the Radisha Dra and Willow Swan's secret police.
 
The goals of the company are: to survive, to exact vengeance upon their betrayors, and to rescue their trapped leaders (the Captured) from beyond the Shadowgate.
 
The book moves along pretty slowly for the first two-thirds, as Sleepy and her companions connive and confuse their enemies in the city. When they finally leave the city to go after the key to open the Shadowgate, things begin to pick up a bit. During their attempt to rescue the Captured, we learn a great deal, finally, about the origins of the Black Company and the nature of the plain of Glittering Stone.
 
At the end, of course, Cook leaves all of their old nasty enemies alive and at large, so I've got to assume that we'll be seeing more of the Black Company in another novel or two before too very long. Hopefully, he'll stick with Sleepy, Murgen or one of the previously established annalists for a POV, instead of forcing us to make new acquaintances with each iteration.

Short Takes

10/28/07 Reading Glen Cook's new series, Tyranny of the Night. Slow to get into it, but it's getting more interesting.

11/2/07 Finished the Glen Cook book. More to come in that series, but I'll wait till they're cheap, probably.

1/3/08 I'm either reading or re-reading The Viscount of Adrilankha series by Brust. I had a copy of the middle book in the library, and just picked up the 1st and 3rd the other day, so I decided to start with the first one and work my way into it. I vaguely remember having read it before. I think Brust could have cut the volume of these books in half if he'd left off with the droll dialogue, which grows a bit tiresome after having seen the same turns of phrase for about the seventeenth time. Looks like he's coming out with a new book in the Vlad Taltos series this spring, so that's exciting.

1/16/08 Finished reading Sethra Lavode (#3 in Viscount of Adrilankha by Brust) last night. Everything wrapped up quite nicely in the end. Provides a bit of insight into later events. Morrolan is way cooler than we ever see him being in the Vlad books.

The Garrett Files by Glen Cook

(Review written March 2000)

In its day, the Science Fiction Book Club published some great omnibus editions of authors' series. I loaned one out to a friend, who never seemed to find the time to read it, and when I got it back, I figured it was time for a re-read, anyway. The Garrett Files is one of those omnibi, containing Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts and Cold Copper Tears by Glen Cook.
 
Well, I like a good detective yarn, and when it's a fantasy detective yarn it just gets better. Cook has provided a series of six or seven novels about the cynical PI, Garrett, which I've really enjoyed over the years. Each one of the novels works as a stand-alone, though it does help to read them from the beginning, just to get a feel for all of the supporting players and "what has gone before." Each of the novels has the name of a metal or alloy in its title, so they're pretty easy to pick out from the rest of his books.
 
In Sweet Silver Blues, Garrett is hired by the father of a deceased army buddy to find the woman whom his friend has named heir to a rather sizable fortune in silver. Of course, other members of the family who stand to inherit if she's not found try to interfere, and he meets resistance from a group of ex-soldiers who helped his old buddy acquire the silver by somewhat dubious means. His search takes him back to the scene of his war experiences, where things get really interesting.
 
In Bitter Gold Hearts, Garrett must unravel the twisted schemes surrounding the kidnapping of a sorceress' heir. His usual style is to just keep bulling his way through all obstacles, falling for a woman or two and quaffing a few beers along the way. His tenacity is about all that saves him in the midst of treachery by conspirators in the kidnapping plot.
 
In Cold Copper Tears, a long forgotten acquaintance retains Garrett to find out who's been stalking her. She's gotten herself in the middle of a religious dispute over church relics, and it rapidly turns deadly. Garrett must solve the mystery, battle natural and supernatural enemies, and rescue a few damsels along the way to get to the end of this one.
 
There's nothing deep or meaningful about these stories, aside from a minor bit of social satire and hardnosed philosophy along the way. They're just good for a couple hours amusement on a cold steel night.

Gilded Latten Bones by Glen Cook

I find it really hard to believe I haven't written any reviews of earlier books in Cook's Garrett series, as I've read and enjoyed them all. Cook also has written the Black Company series, which was great. He's working on a new one, Instrumentalities of Night, which I haven't gotten too far into.

Garrett is a self-styled private investigator, in the fantasy city of Tun Faire, who has always tended to just blunder about, getting into altercations with the lawless and lawmakers alike, until he finally accomplishes his goal. Most of the stories aren't exactly locked door mysteries, where we have all the clues in the early going, and try to figure out who the culprit is. No, we are left to stagger along with Garrett as he bulls his way to some answers.

Garrett's on-again off-again romance with the inimitable redhead, Tinnie Tate, has been a fixture in the last half dozen novels, and at the end of the book before Bones they move in together. This is where we find Garrett, ensconced in semi-blissful domesticity, and utterly oblivious to the undercurrents he usually swims in around the city. His reverie is disturbed by the arrival of Belinda Contague, boss of the local underworld, who enlists him to watch over his old friend Morley Dotes, a dark elf, who has nearly been killed by person or persons unknown. Tinnie is not happy about Garrett's return to his old circle of friends, but someone is out to finish the job of murdering Morley, and Garrett is ready to knock some heads around to prevent it.

Garrett's been out of the game for a while, so he's pretty rusty, and when Morley's hiding place is uncovered, he decides the safest place to be is back at his old house on Macunado Street. The genius ratgirl, Pular Singe, has been living there and minding Garrett's business affairs for him, and Dean, his servant, is still in residence, though he's getting a bit long in the tooth. The Dead Man is also still firmly in place in his refrigerated room.

The Dead Man is a Loghyr, a member of an ancient race whose spirits do not depart immediately when they are killed, but hang around the body until the body itself completely deteriorates. They are possessed of extraordinary telepathic powers, which Garrett has used often in the past to interrogate reluctant witnesses and even unwitting allies.

Life has gone on without him while he's been dallying with Tinnie, and he finds himself not exactly in control at the old homestead. Instead of actively running around town like a bull in a china shop this time, Garrett gets to play spider in the web, waiting for his friends, informants, and others to drop by the house as he pieces together the information that allows him to finally figure out who attacked Morley, and why.

This book is like a big family reunion of all the folks Garrett has been involved with in previous books - those that are still alive, anyway. I don't think Cook is too motivated to write this little mysteries right now with other projects going on, so it's not quite as sarcastic as the usual fare. We'll have to see if he gets back to his usual form when the next one comes out.

Mall Purchase Night by Rick Cook

Mall Purchase Night, by Rick Cook, is one of those unremarkable novels that you run into all too often. There's nothing really wrong with the book, other than just being a rehash of all the "There are Elves among us" books that have inundated the bookshelves at B Dalton and Waldenbooks, etc. over the last five or six years.


The title appears to be a pun upon Walpurgis Night, which is one of those times when the beasties are let loose until dawn upon the world. Unfortunately, in Cook's novel, the beasties are loose in the shopping mall every night for weeks, searching for a lost talisman. The only other play upon words that I found to be entertaining in this book was the time when a small magical critter gets caught in one of the containers of topping in an ice cream shop and as it escapes across the counter, the owner asks "What was that?", and the soda jerk replies "A chocolate covered brownie."

And that's about as exciting as it gets, with a cast of stereotypical characters, from the gnarly skateboarders to the violent drug lords, the greedy developers, and a hero who manages to do something vaguely brave every so often by mistake, but otherwise drifts aimlessly for three hundred and thirty six pages until the lost talisman, which was there all the time on his girlfriend's necklace, is returned to the faerie realm.

If you're really bored at the airport or bus terminal some time, this one might take your mind off your misery for a bit.