Customer Reviews

Petty Pewter Gods: A Garrett, P.I. Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Add one part Kolchak: The Nightstalker, a touch of Columbo, and heavy helping of wizards, elves, dragons, and all sorts of fantasy creatures. Blend quickly while tongue is planted firmly in cheek. There you have the entire Garrett P.I. series from fantasy writer Glen Cook. Petty Pewter Gods is the 8th book in the series. While it definitely helps to have read the first seven before jumping into this simultaneously zany and action filled installment, Cook does a great job providing just enough back-story to explain the sometimes (O.K. quite often) strained relationships between our hero and his so-called allies.

In this installment, Garrett finds himself in the employment of the gods themselves, who seem to be having a problem holding on to their followers. And when the number of followers falls below a certain level, the gods are threatened with eviction! This one starts out with all the fun and mayhem of the other books, but unfortunately doesn't quite live up to the others in the series. The problem is that in this installment I think the story got too big for Cook, and it appeared destine for multiple volumes. Instead, the author chooses to try and wrap everything up in the last fifteen or so pages, with our hero making a lucky guess and having all you-know-what break loose. While the ensuing chaos is a fun read, don't think to hard about it afterwards, because then you will realize just how contrived it was.

If this was done by most other authors, the story would have fallen flat and turned me off from the rest of the books. But Cook has a way of letting you feel like you are in on some big, cosmic joke. Never taking his protagonist or storyline too seriously, the end result is a fun ride through the magical city of TunFaire. The end result is a lighthearted action-fantasy-adventure that fans of the series will enjoy. If you have never read any of the Garrett P.I. books, don't start with this one, however. Fans of Cook's Black Company series may be surprised by the high humor and just outright silliness that appears in this book, and in the entire series.

This book has been out of print for a while, but is still available at used bookstore vendors and in many libraries. While not the best in the series, its definitely worth reading if you are familiar with the books.

This is the latest installment in a series that is the best fantasy without walls (no swordsmen, no feminist sorceresses, no cats) since Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. Can't wait until the next book, and can't imagine jaded science fiction fans not liking these tales. Sure, Garrett is politically incorrect. But so is real life

Raymond Chandler meets J. R. Tolkien. P. I. Garrett lives in a world where saying the mob is inhuman should be taken literally. If you like detective stories with a twist, this is a must read. It's hard not to like Garrett's style of humor; when he "gets religion" it's only because religion got him

I read the Garret series earlier in my life and loved them. I am starting reading them all over by reading his newest in the series. There is wonderful humor in his writing of this series.

This is the 8th in Cook's Garrett series ("Sweet Silver Blues," "Bitter Gold Hearts," "Cold Copper Tears," "Old Tin Sorrows," "Dread Brass Shadows," "Red Iron Nights," "Deadly Quicksilver Lies," "Petty Pewter Gods," "Faded Steel Heat," "Angry Lead Skies," and "Whispering Nickel Idols"). This is a good book that's fun to read. Unfortunately, it's not quite as good as other books in Cook's Garrett series. In many places, you can see that Cook wrote bits and pieces of the book and then cut-and-pasted them into the final order. It's not a big problem -- it's just that the roughness is a bit disconcerting. A more irritating problem is that Garrett is working with a couple of pantheons of gods which I just couldn't keep straight. The individual gods, and the pantheons they belong to, just blend together and I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. The biggest problem, though, is that the ending just appears out of thin air in the last 10 pages of the book. As I got closer and closer to the physical end, I kept wondering if this was going to be a two-parter: there was just no indication of a reasonable solution. With a sudden flurry of activity, the Dead Man and Garrett take a guess at what's going on and all heck breaks loose (which confirms their theory). Not a very satisfying ending at all. Still, I did enjoy reading the book and do recommend it (but read the earlier books, first). I rate this book at 4 stars out of 5.

BTW: At the time of this review, this book is long out of print. It's tough to find anywhere. As an alternative, look around for the SFBC's "Garrett Investigates." This book is part of that collection.

Petty Pewter Gods is Garrett PI #8. Its quite distinctive from the other Garrett novels in that there is less mystery and more fantasy - Garrett is dealing with Gods here, and is trying to stay alive. It also has a couple of Lovecraftian scenes of where the Gods all come from, and a touching little homage to Jack Vance's The Dying Earth in a magic rope and Nog the Inescapable, who really should be named Nog the Unforgettable, as he has a huge impact on the reader for all his limited vocabulary.

It starts, as it usually does, with Garrett hungover and chasing a gorgeous redhead. This time around, it's a trap, and Garrett is hired by two rival pantheons of Gods - both quite primitive and violent - to find the "key" to the last piece of real estate on the street of the Gods over in the Dream Quarter in TunFaire. Lose a spot on the street, and you become a mere wacky cult, lose power, and have to go back to wherever it is Gods come from. Garrett figures out the "mystery" reasonably quickly, and after this its trying to stay one step ahead of the machinations of various Gods and other similar things. Of course, Garrett being Garrett, some of the Gods - Goddesses actually - are quite pretty, and are somewhat taken with Garrett (they are presented as none too bright, to be fair to all involved).

Garrett then does quite a bit of staying alive, with the help of various supporting cast, including the long-suffering Dean, the long-dead Dead Man, and some incredibly annoying hard-living cherubs.

Glen Cook has real fun with Garrett here, and a lot of that joy comes off the page. Garrett is a dry, deadpan (and possibly unreliable) narrator , recounting a tall story and loving every minute of it.

This series, written in the 1990s features a hard boiled PI in a fantasy world. Its great to have the series reprinted.

A bit of confusion reigns at the beginning. At the end of the previous book, Dean had come home, the Dead Man had woken up, etc, etc. All of a sudden, at the beginning of this book, we got a different version of the events at the end of the previous book. A sure sign that Cook does not keep track of what he is doing with these characters. Which explains all the inconsistancies that have crept in.

Garrett, Glen Cook's long suffering detective (usually because he's got a hangover) is hired by rival factions of gods to find the 'key' to their new home. Seems that once the worshippers fall below a critical mass even the gods can get evicted. First one to come up with the key gets to keep their godhood.
So Garrett trots off, maybe not to do what he's been ordered to do but by the time he's kidnapped, gossiped with some of the inhuman (literally) mob members of TunFaire and figured out the redhead he's chasing ain't no redhead, as usual, he and the Dead Man have it all figured out. After a climax with lots of fireworks, the final explanation, including the final double-cross on the part of the gods takes place, left me unsatisfied. Didn't seem finished somehow.
This book was a good addition to the Garrett series but the plot seemed a bit jerky. Glen Cook's cynical observations on religion in general are quite amusing, depending upon your religious leanings. And this book also follows the change in civil temperament that unexpected peace can have on a war economy. Good setup for future squabbles that Garrett will no doubt be drawn into.

One of the strengths of Cook is to blend his fantasy with his Chandler-esque late 1930's form detective, Garrett. The result is another fine book in the well-crafted series. Short chapters keep the plot divided into almost episodic moments, much like that of a serial film or a Dickens story. Cook's writing has slipped a little from "Dread Brass Shadows" but everyone is allowed to slouch a little here and there. Overall, if you like to mix gnomes, elves and other stuff of fantasy with your noir, "Petty Pewter Gods" is a book that does it for you.