I do wish there were half-stars you could give, because this would get more of a 2 and a half. The only reason it's a two is because this book felt a little too jumbled. Too many things were going on with little breathing space, there were too many characters with too little development, and all the ladies of this book were always getting in the way and needing rescuing from the bad men. It could just be the first-novel-of-a-series thing, but I'm really not sure I'd continue to number two.

I used to really like this series when I was younger, but tried re-reading the first book recently and just couldn't get into it. Still like the idea of the fantasy/noir detective mashup, but the characters seemed more flat than I remember, the story didn't grab me, couldn't understand why girls threw themselves at the protagonist seconds after meeting him. But the book didn't change; I guess I did.

Characters: 4
Plot: 4
Setting/world building: 3
Atmosphere: 4
——
3,75

DNFed at pg 69.

Why? Why, universe, do you present me with such fabulous ideas wrapped in such an odious package?

The premise of this book sounded awesome. And the execution of that premise started out awesome and equally hilarious. And then...

And then...

Then the sexism walked in the door and slapped me in the face. I shook it off and kept going. Surely it would be the only overt instance of sexism in the book?

5 pages later, the sexism came back. But they were just talking about the sexism that happened earlier. Surely now that it's done with, we can move on and the book will be better.

10 pages later, oh yay, more sexism.

Next page, oh look, there it is again.

In the middle of the next paragraph with the main character trying to cop a feel on a woman he's already instantly decided is awesome, based on nothing more than her "sashaying hips" and the fact that she laughed at his joke, who (by the way) has only had 3 lines in the book up til this point! (Is this really all that you men want from us women? Us to be hot, silent, and think you're funny? And anything else is unwelcome?) Well, at that point, I put the book down, looked at it sadly, and officially gave up.

Why do I even bother to read male scifi/fantasy authors written before the 2000s anymore? It seems like they're all full of this crap.

I'm just gonna stick with Tanya Huff...

This is very similar to the Harry Dresden books, but suffers by the comparison. It's ok, but lacks focus both in plotting and writing.

***2.0***

It was just not "My Type" of book.
It was originally published in 1987, the book might fall under Urban Fantasy, kind of. Garrett, is a private investigator who is rough and tough type.

The story started off very interestingly. Garrett is hired to find a beneficiary of his late buddy Denny, who has left a fortune in silver to a mystery woman. During this quest, Garrett meets a list of different magical, mystical creatures like Vampires, Gnomes, Centaur etc. Well, what follows is a set of questioning, deaths and fights. Garrett, obviously succeeds.

I felt the narration was too fast for me. It jumped from one setting to another so fast and without a connection. The story felt a bit of choppy, one dimensional and without any depth. And I didn't like the way the women were treated here, at all. I have read enough books where women are treated badly, but here it just infuriated me and that was a big minus for me.

And I am not sure I will pick the next in the series!

Happy Reading!!

Autant le dire tout de suite, c'est pas terrible terrible comme bouquin.
Bien sûr, j'ai mis pas mal de temps pour le lire, ce qui n'a pas fait une différence notable à mon appréciation finale, que j'ai déja résumée.
En fait, le problème, c'est que j'ai bien l'impression que [author:Cook] ne sait pas écrire beaucoup de types de bouquins différents. En effet, on retrouve beaucoup de points communs avec [book: la compagnie noire] : une ambiance très "pourriture au royaume des fées", une enquête pas forcément évidente, et un personnage central quasi-militaire, également désabusé, mais néanmoins très motivé.
Néanmoins, il y a des différences notables, comme par exemple le découpage en chapitres très courts, dont aucun ne fait plus de cinq pages, et une histoire également assez courte, qui a l'avantage de se finir en ancien tome.
C'est d'ailleurs suffisement rare pour être souligné : c'est une histoire de fantasy qui se termine en un tome de 200 pages ou plus. Et ça, c'est vraiment bien.
En revanche, il faut bien reconnaître que, même si les rebondissements sont raisonnablement bien trouvés, l'intrigue policière m'a paru légèrement téléphonée.
Donc, un roman plutôt original, mais malheureusement desservi par un traitement qui hésite entre l'humour et le polar. Personnellement, je n'ai absolument pas compris l'humour, et j'aurais donc préféré que la balance penche du côté le plus sombre, mais ça me paraissait difficilement possible. Un dernier détail, en passant : toute la scène dans le nid de vampire m'a fait penser à Etoiles, garde à vous, et à ses terrifiants nids d'insectes ...

Come sono vissuta io fino ad ora senza Garrett?! E Morley???