Customer Reviews

Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett, P.I.)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sweet Silver Blues (1987) is the first fantasy novel in the Garrett Files series. TunFaire is an old city, with the royalty and wizards uphill and the criminals downhill in the slums. Outside the city are the estates of the rich.

In this novel, Garrett is an ex-Marine who has spent five hard years fighting the Venageti within the Cantard. After completing his enlistment, he hung out his shingle as a private detective. Now he has his home and office inside the city gates in the commoner section.

Garrett has a partner in the detective business. The Dead Man had been killed four hundred years previously, but is neither dead nor a man; he is a four hundred fifty pound Loghyr whose body might be dead, but whose mind is definitely still alive. He can read the mind of anyone within a score yards or so of his body and can project thoughts into the minds of anyone within the same radius. He is also capable of other psychic tricks within that restricted range.

The Dead Man is very smart and extremely well informed on historical details, but he is also incapable of moving on his own. Garrett is the active partner, gathering facts and reporting back to the Dead Man. The Dead Man compiles these facts and then deduces certain conclusions, often sending Garrett out to collect additional specific information.

In this story, a friend of Garrett has died and the registered will appoints Garrett as one of the executors. Denny Tate had been a cavalryman in the Cantard and had been in the lucky regiment that overran a Venageti treasure caravan. Denny mustered out with a goodly amount of metal.

When Willard Tate takes him into the basement to see his son's silver, Garrett finds much more than he expected. The basement contains one hundred thousand Karentine marks in silver and other metals. No way that could be Denny's share of the plunder. Willard explains that Denny had been trading in metals, buying gold when the price of silver is high and buying silver when the price of gold is high.

Denny's will left most of the fortune to Kayean Kronk. Supposedly she is an old flame from his army days, who had kept writing letters to Denny after he was returned from the Cantard. After Garrett finished reading a few of the letters, he knew that he would take the job. Of course, he would have to return to the Cantard to find the heiress.

Garrett takes Morley -- the half-darkelf -- and three grolls with him to the Cantard. Unhappily, Rose and Tinnie Tate end up sailing with them down to Liefmold, but Garrett makes a deal with the bargemaster to take the girls back to TunFaire. Morley and the grolls are seasick the entire way on the barge to Liefmold and then even more so on the coaster to Full Harbor.

This story has elements of noir detective stories. It also has some obvious similarities to the Nero Wolfe novels, yet Garrett shows more intuition and independence than Archie Goodwin. Once they reach Full Harbor, however, the plot begins to resemble an espionage thriller. Various groups begin to react to Garrett and his crew as if they are official investigators from the capital. Then people start to vanish after talking to Garrett.

Highly recommended for Cook fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of tough detectives, casual magic, and a dead psychic genius in the wings.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Sweet Silver Blues

Sweet Silver Blues is the first book in the Garrett Files collection. Garrett is a tough ex-marine private investigator in the mold of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. The series is set in a fantasy world that is quite amusing. His advisor is "the Dead Man" who is really not a man at all, but, oh never mind , buy this book, you'll want to read it several times.

Gunner September, 2007


1. Sweet Silver Blues (1987)
2. Bitter Gold Hearts (1988)
3. Cold Copper Tears (1988)
4. Old Tin Sorrows (1989)
5. Dread Brass Shadows (1990)
6. Red Iron Nights (1991)
7. Deadly Quicksilver Lies (1994)
8. Petty Pewter Gods (1995)
9. Faded Steel Heat (1999)
10. Angry Lead Skies (2002)
11. Whispering Nickel Idols (2005)
Science Fiction Book Club omnibus editions:
1. The Garrett Files (collects Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts, and Cold Copper Tears; 2003)
2. Garrett, P.I. (collects Old Tin Sorrows, Dread Brass Shadows, and Red Iron Nights; 2003)
3. Garrett Investigates (collects Deadly Quicksilver Lies, Petty Pewter Gods, and Faded Steel Heat; 2004)

This is the first of 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"). It's an excellent, humorous combination of Fantasy and early Detective novels (Raymond Chandler is the usual comparison). What always strikes me about this series, and especially this book (since it's the first), is how Cook's writing makes it feel like the world he's describing actually exists (and has existed for some time). It's like the history, geography, and people are THERE and he's merely opening a window to their world. This is an excellent book which I highly recommend to anyone who likes either Fantasy or Mystery. I rate it at 5 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 "The Garrett Files." This book is part of that collection.

Most fantasy novels are not so deeply embedded in the mystery genre as this one is. Glen Cook has written a fine homage to the gritty detective novels of the 40s and 50s and placed it in a fantasy world with more oddball and interesting characters than you can shake a stick at. And, this includes the ever present femme fatale from the detective era. A couple of them in this case.
While the fantasy part of the book seems to pull a couple of fixes out of it's hat when all seems lost, the book is so well written that I can't really quibble with it. It is a fantasy after all.
If you like fantasy And detectives novels then you are in for quite an enjoyable ride. This book combines them both in a well structured plot line and Glen Cook has an easy reading style that will carry you through this book to the ultimate double-cross at the end. What do you expect? It is a detective novel after all.

Sweet Silver Blues (1987) introduces Garrett, a private eye in an openly high-fantasy setting. Garrett is a superficially-jaded ex-soldier-turned-detective. He already has an established practice at the opening of the book, the first in a long-running series. Garrett also has an extensive network of allies and confidantes, including Morley - a half-elf with violent tendencies - and 'The Dead Man' - a psychic corpse.

Sweet Silver Blues begins with Garrett being hired to track down a missing heiress. The search takes him out of his comfortable hometown and back to the distinctly uncomfortable site of his military service.


The author, Glen Cook, builds and describes a complicated world with a life of its own. He hastily outlines a tangled political scene, lengthy military campaigns and a mind-boggling social structure that includes a half-dozen mythical races (and their mixed offspring).

The plot takes a half-dozen promising turns, but ultimately fizzles. The primary story quickly loses its noir sensibilities and gets bogged down in vampires and stabbery. Not even Whedon-esque analogized vampires - just vampires. A secondary plot, involving political corruption and espionage, is enticingly introduced, immediately ignored and then conveniently concluded.

The book - and the "mystery" - is resolved not by deduction or intuition, but by roll-to-hit fantasy violence. Garrett and his friends, through a disconnected series of indecipherable narrative railroading, are forced to launch an Aliens-like assault on a nest of vampires. This running combat takes up the latter third of the book.

There are some good moments. Garrett - although a poor detective - is a brilliant ex-soldier, and many of his interactions with the military bureaucracy are hilarious. A few of the world's tiny details also shine (elves gamble on the movement of water-striders), and do more to detail Cook's setting than the world-sweeping political drama. In fact, had Cook left out the primary plot-line entirely, and concentrated solely on the espionage subplot, the book would have come dangerously close to earning the 'fantasy noir' title it claims.

Finally, it is hard to resent any homage to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series - and not just in the naming device of the books. Garrett is a poor copy, but the outline of the original stamp is still there in his jaded chivalry. Cook also appropriately throws in the classic 'knight in tarnished armor' line. 'The Dead Man', oddly, seems to serve as an analogue to Meyer - a strangely mothering source of academic information.

Taken on its own, Sweet Silver Blues is an intriguing - yet ultimately lackluster - effort. It seems like Cook made it up as he went along, rather than taking the time to plot out a holistic story. Although it bursts with creativity, the characters take a backseat to a beat-skipping narrative and over-enthusiastic world-building. As a fantasy, Sweet Silver Blues is adequate - as a mystery, it is a disappointment.

Garrett is an ex marine turned detective living in the city of Tunfaire. He hates legwork, actually he hates any kind of work. His nearest friend is Morley Dotes, a half elf living in the dark side of the city. Garrett describes him as a bonebreaker and a lifetaker. Sweet Silver Blues is a bittersweet story of vampires, lost love, friendship and the war in the Cantard. If you even like fantasy you'll love this city.

Although Glen Cook is best known for his Black Company series, but he is also the author of the long-running and well reviewed Garrett P.I. series, of which Sweet Silver Blues is the first. As you might glean from the title of this review, the series has a lot in common with Jim Butcher's excellent Dresden Files. But, as is often the case with Cook, he is way ahead of the times. Much like how the Black Company series laid the grown work for the military fantasy popular today, such as Erickson's Malazan series, Garrett P.I. laid the ground work for a lot of the urban fantasy/detective fantasy you see today.

The Garrett P.I. series follows the adventures of soldier-turned-private detective living in a magical world. In particular, Sweet Silver Blues details Garrett's journey through a war zone to find a missing heiress. There's no great quest here. Garrett isn't out to save the world. He's just trying to do his job. And it's a lot of fun to read.

The story is told from a first-person perspective. Garrett is no poet or philosopher, so you won't get pages and pages of descriptions like you do with the likes of Martin, Jordan, etc. I came to Glen Cook pretty late in the game (I first picked up one of his books in 2009), so let me tell you, his works have been incredibly refreshing. They're short, quick and entertaining. You don't need an encyclopedia or an entire wiki devoted to helping readers follow the story. Garrett P.I. is definitely a great series to pick up while you're waiting for some of your favorite authors to produce their next work. Or if you're just looking for some fun.

Garrett, the character, is pretty entertaining. As I mentioned previously, the series has a lot in common with the Dresden Files and, indeed, Garrett has a lot in common with Harry Dresden, aside from Dresden's magical talent. They are both smart, gruff, witty, resourceful, a bit dirty and very, very human. Take away the elves and vampires and dwarfs and Garrett would fit in just fine in any noir detective novel. Aside from Garrett, there is a decent supporting cast. None of them are real serious characters, but they add some depth to the story and, more importantly, they add a lot of laughs.

If you've read the Dresden Files, you'll probably like Sweet Silver Blues. If you've read Glen Cook's Black Company books, you'll also probably like this one. The writing style is the same as in the Black Company, but it's fair to say that Garrett P.I. is more lighthearted, more humorous. But the humor isn't the laugh-out-loud type. It's more of the ironic, tongue-in-cheek kind that I personally love. Unfortunately, some of the later books in the series are hard to get a hold of today. But Sweet Silver Blues is a standalone novel. So even if you can't get every book in the series, there is no excuse not to pick this one up.

Movie critic Roger Ebert has come up with a new tag for buddy movies where two totally mismatched guys bond, then fight off the rest of the world. He calls them `Wunza' Movies. "Sweet Silver Blues" is a Wunza fantasy. To misquote Ebert concerning this novel's two leads: wunza hard-boiled human P.I. and wunza half-breed dark elf, and neither wunza guy you want to mess with.

If "Sweet Silver Blues" were a movie, I'd rate it PG-13 for sequences of jokey groin-kicking and eye-gouging, sexual content (mostly spanking uppity women), nudity (bad guys who cross our heroes lose their jerkins and codpieces and whatever else pseudo-medieval bad guys wear), and profane language (mainly from the uppity women). The dialogue is very witty--not quite what you might expect between a hard-boiled detective and his hired gun, the elvish Morley. Two running gags permeate the text: P.I. Garrett's gnomish clients keep pounding on his office cum apartment door at the crack of dawn, when he's still hung-over from the previous evening's beer brawl; plus he has to put up with Morley's constant stream of vegetarian propaganda.

A vegetarian dark elf? Well, half-elf. Plus unicorns, the Dead Man (who plays `Mycroft' to Garrett's `Sherlock'), centaurs, gnomes, and gigantic, death-dealing henchmen with names like Saucerhead, Doris, and Marsha.

"Sweet Silver Blues" could be read as a straightforward detective novel, where the hero is hired to find a missing heiress, who happens to be an old sweetheart of his. The plot is straightforward; the hero is a wise-cracking, down-on-his-luck ex-marine--nothing new here; and the swords and sorcery background is standard fantasy. The sizzle appears when the three are combined, and spiced with lively dialogue.

My only problem with this novel is the sheer tonnage of villains, some working for warlords, some for wizards, and some for their own greedy selves. "Sweet Silver Blues" is a fun read, just a tad confusing in places.

So far I've limited myself to reviewing Glen Cook's Black Company series which is about as dark and heavy as Cook gets. In parallel with these, Cook started another series in 1987 that is entirely different in nature. These are a parody of the tough guy noir mysteries that dotted the early 20th century landscape, but set in the city of TunFaire in a fantasy world that includes a spectacular group of odd characters.

Garret is the human star of the series with a partner called the Dead Man - a Loghyr who dies 400 years ago but whose body hasn't caught up with the fact. A regular cohort in Garrett's shady side of the business is Morley Dotes, a vegetarian elf who specializes in violence for hire and making bad bets at the water bug races. And I shouldn't leave out Saucerhead Tharpe, who has earned his name, or Doris, Dojango, and Marsha, triplet grolls who often do the muscle work in between kegs of ale.

In this first volume Garrett gets sucked into helping a family of gnomes track down the woman who an old buddy left a ton of silver. Garrett quickly discovers that other, less wholesome, characters want the silver and they want the woman. The silver comes from insider trading, and there's a bunch of folks who would like to see the trading continue. But there are a few hitches and the secret lies in the battlefields of the Cantard and not only are there crooks and agry lady gnomes to deal with, there are plenty of centaurs and vampires to keep the story boiling.

Considering the nature of Garrett's business he is a little bit too much of a good guy, but his companions quickly balance that out. Cook gives Garrett a mind, which makes him interesting and strange folks and circumstances make up the rest. In many ways Sweet Silver Blues and its sequels of some of the best things Cook has written, simply because they are kept too short to belabor any points. And they display a fine sarcastic humor that sets the tone, no matter how dire the circumstances,

And besides, the various volumes have cool names. Do try a couple out.

Glenn Cook is probably the best overlooked author. His other fantasy novels of the Black Company are favorites of mine, as well as this wry witty detective. Garrett tries to be a hard boiled detective, but he is a romantic at heart and always leaps to aid a damsel in distress before looking. He is a human detective in the fantasy setting of Tunfaire. He is aided in his fight by his two friends, the slick woman's man Morley Dotes and the large mountain that moves like a man Saucerhead Tharpe and then there's always the Dead Man.