Glen Cook: Sweet Silver Blues Part 3

Remember what I said about the Cantard being a warzone?  This complicates Garrett’s preparations, as no one in town will rent him their horses or pack animals for such a dangerous journey.  His friend Morley suggests an alternative: hire Grolls instead.  As hybrids between humans and trolls, Garrett sees Grolls as “slow of wit and often quick of temper.”  With their giant toad mouths, and hair-raising bass voices, no one will accuse them of possessing great beauty (except, perhaps, other Grolls).  But what Grolls lack in intelligence and decorum, they make up for in strength and endurance.  A mature Groll stands twenty-feet tall, can carry a heavy load of supplies, and is imminently useful in a fight.  Morley introduces Garrett to three of them: Dojango, and his brothers Marsha and Doris.  As Garrett raises his eyebrows at the brothers' unfortunate names (Garrett considers raising his eyebrow a useful skill, and an important weapon in his arsenal), the Grolls explain that they are triplets, “but with different mothers, actually.”

Hopefully, I’ve given you enough information to decide if you might enjoy this book.  Allow me to add that, should you embark on your journey with Garrett, you’ll encounter creatures like unicorns, vampires, and centaurs.  And while I can’t speak for you, none of them met my preconceived notion of what they would be like.  As with the Tate family, Morley Dotes, and the Grolls, nothing is conventional in Glen Cook’s novel.  Some people disregard humorous novels, as if the author isn’t taking his story seriously.  Let me assure you, not only does Garrett take his mission seriously, but Cook builds history, depth, and personality into his characters and world that are impossible to convey in this short introduction. 

The Back Cover Blurb

It’s hard to believe that Glen Cook even wrote one novel a year, let alone novels in other series, such as The Black Company and Dread Empire.  Somehow, after a grueling day of work at a General Motors automobile assembly plant, he marched home and wrote these novels.  (Since his retirement, his Fiction output has actually decreased).  He certainly didn’t need to write them, and most people would have chosen to spend those off hours with their families, friends, and other projects.  The fact that he worked so hard on his writing bespeaks his passion and commitment to his craft, and his desire to entertain others.  Because of the effort, determination, and perseverance he expended in this labor of love, and for the complex and entertaining novels he created, I hold Glen Cook in the very highest regard.

And I’ve gone on to read additional novels in his Garrett P.I. series. 

Dragon Dave

Glen Cook: Sweet Silver Blues Part 2

Of course, even after Garrett decides to accept Old Man Tate’s commission, that doesn’t mean he can just march off into the Cantard.  The area is a perennial warzone, and the town where Denny’s beneficiary lived is far away from Garrett’s hometown of Tunfaire.  He must prepare for his journey, and in order to do so, he looks for assistance from his friends.

Foremost among his friends is The Dead Man, whom Garrett sometimes refers to as Chuckles, Smiley, Old Bones, and His Nibs.  The Dead Man belongs to a race called the Loghyr, and he died four hundred years ago.  Still, as Garrett says of them, “They don’t die just because somebody sticks a bunch of knives into them.”  Weighing in at 450 pounds, the Loghyr’s body slowly decays, but at a rate mere humans cannot detect.  Although he cannot physically move, he communicates with Garrett via telepathy, and can control nearby humans, animals, and insects with his psychokinetic powers.  Garrett finds The Dead Man’s advice valuable, and so he often bounces his thoughts off him, just to see if he’s assessed the situation properly.  In return for his help, Garrett pays the rent on the Loghyr’s room, keeps it clean, and brings fresh flowers to keep the smell down.  Still, insects and small animals occasionally take advantage of the Loghyr’s inability to physically move anymore.  While he’s consulting with his friend, Garrett relates, “A big, shiny black spider crawled out of one pig-like nostril at the end of his ten-inch trunk.  It did not like my looks.  It ducked back inside.”

While humans rule Tunfaire, many different races call it home.  Sometimes Garrett’s not even sure of some of his friends’ ancestry.  For example, when Denny’s family invades his office, insensitive to his raging hangover, Garrett says, “For a moment, I didn’t see the woman.  She barely came up to my chest.  ‘We’re invaded by dwarfs,’ I moaned.”  Later, he learns that there is elvish blood on both sides of Denny’s family.  This isn’t unusual, but that doesn’t mean that the family trumpets their mixed heritage.  “Plenty of people have the taint, yet most cover it up,” Garrett tells us.  “There is a lot of prejudice against the half elfin.” 

Another person he calls upon for assistance is Morley Dotes, who runs Morley’s Joy House, a hangout for elfin, cartha, and other breeds.  In his establishment, he serves up vegetarian food, nonalcoholic fruit drinks, and the kind of “impenetrable and dull entertainment that a dead Loghyr might find exciting.”  Morley is a dark-elf, a fount of local knowledge, and invaluable in a fight.  When some of those interested in Denny’s treasure attack them, Morley “seems to grow about six extra limbs.  He uses them all so fast you could hardly see them move.   And when he isn’t kicking or punching he’s biting, head-butting, hip-jagging, or knee-dropping.” 

When Garrett asks Morley to accompany him, he finds Morley equally reluctant to enter the Cantard.  Nor does Morley have a high opinion of Garrett.  After beating back attackers in Tunfaire, he’s annoyed that Garrett just wants to go to bed, and urges him to cleanse his body of pent-up energy by accompanying him on a five mile run.  Also, he doesn't approve of Garrett’s preference for eating meat and drinking beer.  He chides the private investigator, “You don’t get enough roughage, your bowels tighten up.  When your bowls tighten up, you get these dangerous, self-destructive mood swings.” 

Just as in real life, while Garrett may try to accept everyone for who they are, that doesn’t mean others are as open-minded.

Dragon Dave

Glen Cook: Sweet Silver Blues Part 1

In Sweet Silver Blues, author Glen Cook introduces us to Garrett, a Private Investigator in the Karentine city of Tunfaire.  One morning, people bang on his door, and refuse to go away.  They’re short in stature, humor, and sympathy for his hangover, and he finally agrees to visit their home when he learns that they’re the grieving relatives of his friend Denny Tate, whom he hadn’t realized died the preceding week. 

Actually, they’re not all grieving.  Denny’s sister Rose, for example, doesn’t want him to take the case.  What case, you ask?  Why, Denny’s father has requested Garrett’s services because Denny left a fortune to a woman none of them ever met.  His family wasn’t even aware the fortune existed until Denny died.  With his characteristic understatement, Garret says, “Actually, when my mind started working, I saw it wasn’t so much after all.  Just more than I’d ever imagined I would see in one place.  A few hundred robbers working double shifts for four or five years might pile up as much.”   

Denny left no provision for his family in the will, except for the ten percent that is apportioned as executor fees.  But Denny’s father doesn’t care about the money, and offers Garrett the entire ten percent if he’ll locate the beneficiary.  Old Man Tate just wants to meet the woman who Denny fell in love with during his military service.  Even though she married, and they never saw each other again, she and Denny kept up correspondence, which Garrett can use to track her down.  Unfortunately, finding this woman will take Garrett into the Cantard, where Karentia perpetually fights the Venageti over possession of the rich silver mines, a “mystic metal” constantly in demand by each country’s sorcerers.  Both Garrett and Denny were drafted into military service when they were younger, and after his five years in the Marines, Garrett swore he’d never return. 

As ninety percent of the world’s silver is mined in the Cantard, Karentia’s economy rises and falls with each military success or failure, and the market values of gold and silver rise or fall accordingly.  Apparently, Denny grew quite adept at reading these price fluctuations, buying silver and gold when prices were low, and selling when they were high.  This talent has not gone unnoticed, and those who have heard about the treasure want it for themselves.  People break into the Tate’s house one night, attempting to steal it.  Family members and employees of the family cobbling business are killed, and more attacks follow.  They also visit Garrett, in hopes of dissuading him from taking the case. 

And then there’s Rose, about whom Garret tells us, “The nicest thing he [Denny] ever said about her was, ‘She’s a useless, lazy, whining, conniving freeloader.’  The word b---- also came up several times too.” (Expletive excised by Dragon Dave’s signature Expletive Deleting Inclination).  Before Garrett decides to take the case, Rose hires Saucerhead Tharpe, a local heavy, to beat him up.  As Saucerhead is a conscientious heavy, Garrett hires him for a job before the beating commences.  After Saucerhead knocks Garrett unconscious, he strips Rose naked in the street, and then follows her to make sure she returns home safely.  Rose doesn’t learn her lesson though, and so Garrett must keep an eye out for her machinations, as well as attacks from others who want Denny’s treasure for themselves.

With encouragement like that, in addition to his growing curiosity about the woman Denny never fell out of love with, is it any wonder Garrett decides to accept Old Man Tate's offer and head back into the Cantard in search of her?

Dragon Dave 

Glen Cook, Important Fantasy Writer: Part 2

While the reviewers never mentioned Glen Cook’s novels, and while (or despite the fact that) I had not enjoyed Sweet Silver Blues, my wife started collecting other volumes in his Garrett P.I. series.  The bookstores made her task difficult by not stocking his books.  The publisher frustrated her efforts by allowing installments to go out of print for a year or more, before republishing them with new artwork.  As we were able, we procured what books we could, and Garrett’s presence on our bookshelf grew.  And as it grew, my resistance to Cook’s writing lessened, and I began to wonder if I should give the series another try.

The Garret P.I. saga encompasses
(at least) three different cover designs.

After happening upon Red Iron Nights in Lancaster, a book that had gone out of print (and apparently won’t be reissued in Mass Market Paperback, with another of those eye-catching covers), I decided it was time.  I needed to learn what my wife saw in his books that I had missed the first time around.  So I picked up Sweet Silver Blues, and this time, I found that I accepted Garrett’s dry wit and understated worldview.  I enjoyed the unique spin he put on traditional Fantasy creatures.  I smiled (and yes, even laughed) at the humor inherent in his characters, but that didn’t prevent me from taking the dramatic situations seriously.  As the seemingly simple mystery grew more complex, the danger to Garrett and his companions intensified.  Each development took its toll on Garrett and his companions physically, mentally, and emotionally.  This made everything more compelling, and I raced through the novel, struggling to slow my pace so I didn’t rob myself of the enjoyment each scene offered.  By the story’s end, I felt the satisfaction of the personal growth that comes with surviving a grueling adventure.  More importantly, I empathized with Garrett, and understood how what should have been just a paying job had left him emotionally gutted.

Having read so many good books, I find it rare to bond so completely with a protagonist, and get so swept away by a Fantasy adventure.  But, as Glen Cook asserted at the 2006 World Fantasy Convention, “All Fiction is Fantasy.”  Whatever literary genre a particular novel falls into, it draws upon the stuff of ordinary life, and mixes it with the imagination of its author.  Bookstores and publishers may make it difficult for you to find the novel that you really need to read.  Reviewers may tell you (or imply) that you don’t need to read it.  When you find that novel, you may stumble across it before you really need to read it.  But books like that are out there, books that are (or will be) important to you, and if you search for them, you will find them.

Or if you’re fortunate, they sometimes find you.

As for me, I’ve found one of those special books.  That’s right: you’ve guessed it.  It’s called Sweet Silver Blues.  Next week, I’ve share with you some specifics on why I like the novel so much, but for now, just know that I count it as a blessing that it’s the first in a series, and features a protagonist I like and care about.  I look forward to following Garrett’s adventures in the years to come, wherever they take me.  Oh, and in case you’re wondering, my wife and I are planning on snapping up the fourteenth installment, Wicked Bronze Ambition, when it comes out later this year.  (Before the bookstores decide to no longer stock it, and the publisher decides to let it go out of print). 

There are all kinds of authors out there, and each has a different aim with his or her Fiction, as well as a different approach to storytelling.  Without in any way wishing to denigrate his contemporaries, there is one thing I need to state in no uncertain terms.  Regardless of how the bookstores, publishers, or the reviewers regard his novels, don’t be fooled like I was.  Glen Cook is an important author, and yes, that means that ought to seek out his books.

Oh, and while you’re doing that, you might take a moment to peruse your own book collection.  You might just find a few novels that didn’t initially capture your enthusiasm, but right now, they’re just the kind of stories you need to read.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Discoveries in Lancaster

Glen Cook, Important Fantasy Writer: Part 1

I saw Glen Cook at the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin Texas, where he was a Guest of Honor.  At the time, I simply couldn’t understand it.  I’ve read Science Fiction and Fantasy (SF&F) all my life.  At the time, I had been reading “Locus Magazine,” the monthly magazine that reviewed the SF&F literary market, for over ten years.  Yet I had never heard of him.  Glen Cook: Guest of Honor?  He couldn’t be that important, could he?

As the World Fantasy Convention is geared toward published authors, few sat in on more than one panel discussion, and many didn’t even snag a seat.  Yet because he was a Guest of Honor, Glen Cook sat in on several, giving attendees his opinion on the various topics being discussed.  Often one of his fellow panelists would turn toward him and say, “You know, Glen, I’ve read some of your Black Company novels, and I really enjoyed them,” as if wishing to go on record that he, and that series, were significant.  But when I saw Glen Cook at his table in the dealer’s room, the books arrayed before him sported not the dark, ominous artwork of the Black Company series, but lighthearted scenes featuring an overcoat-clad detective.  How could he have written that many books in a series without my having heard about him? I wondered.  When my wife bought Sweet Silver Blues, the first installment in what I came to learn was his Garrett P.I. series, I asked her why she had purchased it.  After all, the organizers had given each of us a bag of books at registration, and we would have to pack them into our suitcases for the flight home.

“It just looked fun,” she told me.

As I’ve followed the SF&F literary market over the years, I’ve begun to realize that no reader can possibly stay on top of everything that’s out there.  The publishers put out too many titles each month, and bookstores play it safe by buying multiple copies of the latest offering by top selling authors, and a smattering of anything else that seems different enough that it might become the next big thing.  Even older, established authors find that bookstores carry no more than a small percentage of their available titles.  Consequently, lots of authors go unnoticed, and book reviewers who promote authors who constantly attempt to challenge reader’s expectations through their fiction only perpetuate this trend.  The longer I study the market, the more confounded I am by this approach.  For most readers aren’t looking to have their expectations of Fiction challenged or overthrown each time they pick up a novel.  They’ve worked hard all day, or spent too many hours studying.  They want an escape from reality, not literature that will place additional demands on their already fatigued brains and bodies. 

After my wife read Sweet Silver Blues, the first Garrett P.I. novel, I read it too.  I wasn’t won over by it.  The novel combines two normally separate genres, the High Fantasy novel, with its fantastical creatures, swordplay, and magic-wielding sorcerers and witches, with a Mystery novel featuring a stereotypical hardboiled detective.  Cook’s minimal description of Garrett’s world prevented me from envisioning his Fantasy world.  His characters, variations on traditional trolls, elves, and dwarves, prevented me from taking the overall mystery plot seriously.  Yet as is sometimes the case, that isn’t the end of the story.  Sometimes you discover a particular author before you’re ready for him, and sometimes the authors that prove important to you are different from those the reviewers say you should care about.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why you should care about Glen Cook’s novels.  Or at least why I do…now.

Dragon Dave