Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett Files #1)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 1,689 ratings · 113 reviews

It should have been a simple job. But for Garrett, a human detective in a world of gnomes, tracking down the woman to whom his dead pal Danny left a fortune in silver is no slight task. Even with the aid of Morley, the toughest half-elf around, Garrett isn't sure he'll make it out alive from a land where magic can be murder, the dead still talk, and vampires are always hun...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published May 1st 1990 by Roc (first published May 1st 1987)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Urban Fantasy With Male Lead Characters

62nd out of 292 books — 417 voters

Best Fantasy-Mystery/Detective

27th out of 107 books — 75 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,687)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 10, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1980-1989, comfort-food, hardboiled, detectives, fantasy, mystery

My apologies to the legion of Dresdenites who may be about to burn me in effigy...but Garrett's files are far more entertaining to peruse than those of Jim Butcher's more famous creation. And while I enjoy many aspects of the Dresden stories, Harry himself annoys the bejesus outta me and taints my happy when I read them.

I had SO MUCH MORE FUN with this story and this character.

Garrett is a hard-boiled, freelance Private Investigator in a world in which humans live and work alongside a variety...more

like 79 likes · see review

Apr 21, 2013 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of genre mash-ups, fantasy parody

Shelves: urban-fantasy, classic, fantasy, mystery, my-library

It's likely a sign of aging, but my brain kept distracting me with that song from the nursery rhyme about mares eat oats and does eat oats.

Mares eat oats and does eat oats,
And little lambs eat ivy

The song slurs it all together:

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
description

So every time P.I. Garrett's sidekick Morley Dotes appeared, a half-elf notorious for his fighting and gambling, I found myself starting to rhyme, clearly making it impossible to view him...more

like 22 likes · see review

Apr 02, 2013 Sebastien rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: light-fantasy

Quand je suis partie en voyage au Costa Rica j'avais apporter mon Kindle avec un paquet de livre dessus et pour le fun j'avais apporter ce livre aussi. Rendu dans l'avion, je me suis rendu compte que pas mal tout ce que j'avais était un peu pesant et avec le mal de l'air j'ai voulu quelque chose de plus légé et de facile à lire, quand j'ai vu que les chapitre dans Sweet Silver Blues faisaient en moyenne 2-5 pages, j'ai décidé que ce serait le bon choix pour tuer le temps.

Droit au départ j'ai eu...more Quand je suis partie en voyage au Costa Rica j'avais apporter mon Kindle avec un paquet de livre dessus et pour le fun j'avais apporter ce livre aussi. Rendu dans l'avion, je me suis rendu compte que pas mal tout ce que j'avais était un peu pesant et avec le mal de l'air j'ai voulu quelque chose de plus légé et de facile à lire, quand j'ai vu que les chapitre dans Sweet Silver Blues faisaient en moyenne 2-5 pages, j'ai décidé que ce serait le bon choix pour tuer le temps.

Droit au départ j'ai eu peur que sa soit l'équivalent des Desden Files mais écrit avant et un peu différement. Le tout écrit au "je", avec un personnage avec une personnalité explosive, ladiesman et qui se permet de dire ce qu'il pense vraiment tout en étant caractériel, j'ai tout de suite reconnu Harry Dresden, mais il ne se passe pas 10 pages et on voit que l'histoire, le monde, le setting et même le personnage est foncièrement différent et on vient même à oublier qu'on a penser voir une similitude tellement c'est différent. Ce doit être la raison pourquoi je n'ai jamais entendu personne me comparer les deux oeuvres.

Donc pour revenir à la critique, au début c'est pas facile à suivre, l'auteur ne décrit pas beaucoup et les dialogue sont rapide et ne disent pas toujours qui a dit quelle ligne, donc il ne faut pas trop cligner des yeux. En plus, il arrive que le récit passe de la première personne à la troisième personne. Surement des erreur qui n'ont pas été vu quand le livre à été édité, mais pas bout sa peut être confu et n'aide pas à suivre l'histoire qui est à la fois simple mais pleine de plein de cossins. Oui de cossins, vous avez bien lu. Par cossin je veux dire plein de race non décrite, plein de personnage avec un nom mais pas de description, plein de sub-plot qui vont et viennent et plein de dialogue qui mènes souvent nul part et finalement donne quelque chose un peu plus loin.

Je dirais que la première moitié du livre donne une solide performance, mais dès la deuxième moitié on commence à perdre un peu d'intérêt car, bien qu'il y ait plein d'histoire, il n'y a pas vraiment de rebondissements. On s'attend à un punch et il n'arrive pas. Il me semble que dans un livre à co-notation noire et d'enquête qu'à la fin on va avoir droit à une révélation ou quelque chose du genre. Mais non il n'arrive pas vraiment rien, l'histoire nous est conté simplement et il n'arrive rien de vraiment excitant. Même la scène finale qui aurait dû être un "fight" intéressant passe comme dans du beurre.

J'ai apprécié la lecture, mais j'ai trouvé que sa manquait de viande, de sauce, de piquant et de goût par bout. Certains chapitre m'ont fait rire et sourire, mais plusieurs m'ont fait soupiré car ils n'apportaient pas vraiment rien à l'histoire et semblait servir de remplissage ou de "Garret pense à tout, il peut pas être surpris ou s'il est surpris il est chanceux donc il lui arrive rien". Pour ceux qui ont déjà jouer à des jeux de rôle, souvenez vous de la game où votre GM a mis des NPC tellement fort que vous avez eu l'impression de regarder un film et de pas jouer pantoute, he bien au moins 1/3 du livre c'est ça qui arrive. C'est amusant de savoir le personnage principal bien entouré, mais à un moment donner sa tue l'ambiance et surtout le suspense.

Donc, une bonne lecture, je n'ai pas eu besoin de me battre pour finir de lire le livre qui est assez court (222 pages en paperback large) et j'aurais aimer donner 4 étoiles à ce livre, mais la fin qui est un peu baclé à mon avis, les bout inutiles et l'inégalité de l'écriture ont gâcher beaucoup de mon temps de lecture. J'accepterai 3.5 étoiles, mais pas 4. Je dirais que c'est quand même à découvrir et je vais lire le prochain livre pour voir si l'auteur améliore son style.

Recommandé pour les fan de Fantasy qui pensent avoir tout vu mais cherche un livre différent.(less)

like · see review

May 04, 2012 Aaron Singleton rated it 5 of 5 stars

SSB is the first installment of Glen Cook's Garrett series. Garrett is a "Confidential Agent" in a fantasy world inhabited by elves, gnomes, trolls, vampires, sorcerers, you name it. The entire series is like American P.I./hard-boiled detective fic combined with fantasy. When I first read the description I thought: "This is not for me." It sounded hokey. I am not into fantasy with elves, dwarves and the like.

But dammit, these books are great.

This book, as with all in the series, are told in fi...more

like 2 likes · see review

Jan 01, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: completed-2012

Decent. Not really true fantasy, not really urban fantasy, something in between. First of the series, and it shows. Rough writing, and the author tends to reveal plot twists in the most subtle and unspoken ways ("aha! now it all makes sense!" *60 pages later they sorta tell you what made sense, by telling you what they're going to do next, which really has to do with a single sentence from the beginning of the book, but they don't tell you which sentence. If you don't have to guess what we're re...more

like · see review

Aug 04, 2012 Michael Hall rated it 3 of 5 stars

This turned out to be a very fun book to read despite my initial thought that the circumstances seemed a bit contrived and overblown. It also suffers from maybe a little too much detail and far too many names at once for a first time visitor to this world. It does take a few chapters to grow on you, but once it does it becomes a very engaging noir-detective story set in a fantasy (urban) world of continous war, entrigue, supernatural, and a wide range of humanoid life. Somewhere in the middle of...more

like 2 likes · see review

May 29, 2011 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is amazing. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting. The idea of a Private Investigator in a Fantasy setting was too rich for me to pass up when I heard about it -- but I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was.

Garrett, a P.I. in TunFaire, is hired by a family of gnomes to find a girl who their recently deceased family member and friend of Garrett has left a substantial chunk of silver to. Garrett hires Morley as his body guard and a few grolls to make the voyage to "The Cantard...more This book is amazing. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting. The idea of a Private Investigator in a Fantasy setting was too rich for me to pass up when I heard about it -- but I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was.

Garrett, a P.I. in TunFaire, is hired by a family of gnomes to find a girl who their recently deceased family member and friend of Garrett has left a substantial chunk of silver to. Garrett hires Morley as his body guard and a few grolls to make the voyage to "The Cantard" -- a nasty place by the way everyone seems to refer to it in the book. During their little adventure they have to deal with vampires, a shapeshifter, venagati spies, vampires, and unicorns.

Glen Cook does an amazing job with this. Garrett is a very witty character. I found myself unable to wait to turn the pages and find out not only what events would happen, but how Glen Cook chooses to describe the events that transpire and the witty rapport between Garrett and Morley -- the half-darkelf muscle-for-hire.

I still like the book, but I think it was a bit short. It didn't take me long to read it at all, partly because of its length and partly just because I was enjoying it so much. As I said earlier, I enjoyed Garrett's wit throughout this entire book. The way he describes the events that take place in the book are usually pretty funny and kept me laughing every other page.

Drawbacks are that sometimes I couldn't figure out what was going on because of that wit. Instead of describing the goings on in a straightforward type of manor, he would put things a different way using metaphors. If I didn't understand those metaphors then I had no idea what was going on in that particular scene. This really only happened a few times, but I kept feeling like I was missing something. There was especially one event where Garrett has an epiphany about where to look to find this girl they're after. It seems like he "feels" this sort of line that goes from one place to another place that he's in the middle of. But I never figured out why or what was going on there. Maybe I just missed something or wasn't paying attention when I read that part -- I don't know.

Glen Cook really has a way with keeping secrets from his readers. Garrett notices something or Morley tells him about something and he makes mention of it in passing to clue you in that its there, but that the details of whatever it is will be disclosed when they are pertinent -- he just doesn't want you to know everything just yet. And I think he executes this rather well most of the time.

I almost felt like more could have been done to improve the book, but I'm still quite satisfied with it anyhow and I do recommend it to those who enjoy witty sarcasm in their books. (less)

like 1 like · see review

Nov 22, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting first dip of a toe into the P.I. Garret series. I'll certainly be reading the next instalment.

First the negative. The language and conversations were a little hard to follow sometimes. I don't know if that was down to some unfamiliar (old fashioned?) nouns, the lack of enough "he said / she said" notation in places or just me losing concentration...The flow just felt a little disjointed at times, like I'd missed something.

That aside, I did quite enjoy the book. The story had some cu...more

like 1 like · see review

Mar 07, 2013 Gordon Shumway rated it 3 of 5 stars

There's a reasonably large amount of "noirish" fantasy out there but Sweet Silver Blues stands out as fantasy-ish noir.

The hard-boiled dialog, the convoluted subplots, the deeply flawed but highly entertaining characters - it's all here. Whereas most fantasy-noir is constantly jumping up and down and shouting, "Look at me, I'm noir!", this novel doesn't have to. It's more natural, like reading Chandler or Hammett. Not exaggerated, just there.

At its heart, Sweet Silver Blues is a detective story,...more

like · see review

Apr 19, 2013 Charles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, kindle

After mentioning that I enjoyed Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company , a friend suggested I take a look at Cook's "Garrett, PI" series, so I gave book #1 a shot. Cook's style fits the hard-boiled detective genre quite well (albeit a detective story in a fantasy world). There was a nice balance of character types, the hero was competent but not perfect (and the same could be said for the villains).

The story is not dominated by magic, though it certainly has its impact. There are assorted s...more

like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Joseph Zurat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I come off of this having no strong feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first book in Chronicles of the Black Company, so I went into this expecting something of roughly that quality. The hard-boiled detective language was good, but the characters were too much the standard "Noir" types with a fantasy flavor. The world was too D&D without getting into the stuff that set this fantasy world apart for my taste. It had some humor to it, but not quite enough for it to be parody/satire....more

like · see review

Feb 15, 2013 Nanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Decent book, I went through it pretty quickly and it kept me entertained. Though it didn't quite grip me as some other books do. The story just wasn't all that appealing to me, the incredible variety of fantastic creatures was just too much and finally the story was a bit too nice for me. At no point did I feel like the main character had any real issues and the whole detective part of the story seemed to be a nice little breadcrumb trail he had to follow with some intelligence leaps in between...more

like · see review

Dec 10, 2011 Kaila rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, urban-fantasy, fantasy, private-detective

This review is also available on my blog, Stumptown Books.

I had a hard time deciding what I thought about this one. I really wanted to like it. Originally published in 1987, it's one of the earlier examples of urban fantasy, and that says a lot in itself. Although according to the Wikipedia the genre was officially acknowledged in the late 80s, I feel the late 90s is when it really came into its own, and it is still extraordinarily popular, especially with women (as evidenced by all the urban pa...more This review is also available on my blog, Stumptown Books.

I had a hard time deciding what I thought about this one. I really wanted to like it. Originally published in 1987, it's one of the earlier examples of urban fantasy, and that says a lot in itself. Although according to the Wikipedia the genre was officially acknowledged in the late 80s, I feel the late 90s is when it really came into its own, and it is still extraordinarily popular, especially with women (as evidenced by all the urban paranormal romance series out there). So I give him props for doing something relatively original at the time, even though private investigator is such a cliche in the genre now. But the book just couldn't quite keep it together.

The huge cast of characters and all the scheming they went through, while usually I enjoy some intense scheming, this time only served to disinterest me. Pretty soon I had to juggle half a dozen story lines and I didn't care about any of them, which made it more of a chore to read then anything because I had to keep flipping back to see who the hell he was talking about. There was a mystery to be solved in there somewhere but I didn't care about it. I can understand the seeds getting planted for sequels, but I was so bored with the story in this one by the time I got to the end, no sequel will come in sight for me. The women...oh god, the women. Even the one Garrett hates he can hardly take his eyes off because of her "lavish figure" or some such malarkey. Here's a nice quote from page 69:

"The boat began to drift away from the wharf. The women took my advice, sprinted and jumped. A delectable bundle of goodies plopped into my arms. Morley popped up and caught Rose, making suitable purrs at the advent of unexpected treasures...she made no effort to peel herself from me. I thought about pushing her away - sometime next week."

At this point, blatant sexism is practically what I'm used to in urban fantasy, but it still enrages me. The two women are never more than annoying, chattering, and good looking background noise, who also happen to need rescuing now and then.

So besides sexism and a plot that I couldn't care to keep up with, there was also the issue of the writing style. Often something "subtle" would happen. The author would point this out to us, probably by Garrett looking significantly at a character or a revelation within the narration...only half the time, I was so confused as to what he was talking about, I would reread the scene a couple times to figure out what I had missed. This happened in action scenes as well, it felt like there would be whole sentences missing and it left me furrowing my brow in question. Once again, I feel this was a missed opportunity for me to get into the story. The author obviously wanted the reader to feel like they were solving the mystery by seeing something subtle in the descriptions he gave us, but it fell so flat as to render me confused and helpless, so I'd just plow on and hope it would be explained. Sometimes it was, sometimes not. By the end of the novel I didn't care anymore to try to find out.(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Lolly's rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mythic-fantasy, private-eye-mys-suspense, part-of-a-series

I actually stopped "reading" this about a third of the way in and skimmed through the rest of the book. The story just lost my interest. Not to mention it was overly convoluted, with names and places and people flying this way and that. I get that the author was trying to develop some sort of conspiracy, but it felt awkward and forced. There was just too much stuff. Perhaps I just wasn't in the proper frame of mind. When I started the book, I was reminded strongly of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files...more

like 1 like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh, boy. I can't say how awesome I thought this book was. As an opening drum-roll, it works very well. Introducing characters in a way that lets them live in the history they have together seems to be a specialty for this author. The only thing I can't decide is which character is my favorite. Is it Garrett, who can slug it out with Saucerhead Tharpe just before talking dirty-lawyer speak? Or Morley, who could charm the pants (literally) off just about any woman and still manage to nag Garrett a...more

like 2 likes · see review

May 10, 2011 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

This series is not for everybody. There is a bittersweet undertone that makes them worth reading - and re-reading - but you have to have a certain amount of... life experience, I guess, to really get it.

The cynical take on war, immigration, and the economics thereof could have been written yesterday. Yet, the series began in 1987.

Very prescient, but then Glen Cook has an almost depressingly accurate understanding of human nature.

Also, although the dead Loghyr is supposed to be the center of the...more

like · see review

Aug 13, 2009 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted SO much to like this novel. I really did. Chronicles of the Black Company was an amazing series and I was more then happy to find that Glen Cook had chosen was looked to be a gritty investigator/fantasy world story as another world to explore. But... I dunno. I just never got into it. None of the characters ever gelled for me. I put it down for a good while and then finally picked it up and finished it just because I didn't want to feel like I'd wasted my money. And as the stars indicat...more

like · see review

Feb 02, 2013 Jason Speck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cook's P.I. Garrett is not a new creation, and that is largely what's likeable about him. He's an archetype: the P.I. who wants to play the game the way the bad guys do but his conscience won't let him. Talked into a job against his better judgement (another characteristic of the archetype), Garrett ventures well outside his comfort zone to track down a lost love who's inherited a huge sum, left by one of Garrett's friends, who she was romantically involved with. But as these stories go, the job...more Cook's P.I. Garrett is not a new creation, and that is largely what's likeable about him. He's an archetype: the P.I. who wants to play the game the way the bad guys do but his conscience won't let him. Talked into a job against his better judgement (another characteristic of the archetype), Garrett ventures well outside his comfort zone to track down a lost love who's inherited a huge sum, left by one of Garrett's friends, who she was romantically involved with. But as these stories go, the job is not as it seems, and everywhere Garrett turns someone wants him dead. Can he figure out who all the players are and get out with his skin intact?

The answer, of course is yes. Garrett's adventure is light-hearted, and none of the danger he confronts seems too terribly difficult. There are a bevy of interesting side characters here, but Cook doesn't give them the attention they deserve. I hope in later books that this changes, as characters like Dark Elf tough guy Morley Dotes and The Dead Man are ripe for exploration. The book moves at a good pace and is fun to read, although at times the narrative is short on explanations that would help the reader orient themselves to the action. We're not allowed inside of Garrett's thoughts enough, and so some of what he decides and alludes to is not entirely clear.

If you enjoy the Harry Dresden series, I suggest you give this a go. It's fun the way the Dresden series used to be. (Extended Side Note: What the hell has happened to the Dresden series anyway? There was a time when reading a Harry Dresden novel was a mix of the light and the serious, but Butcher seems to have entirely abandoned the tone of the earlier books, preferring to turn Dresden into a tragic hero who's always on his last legs. I have to say the series has about worn me out--who wants to slog through another 400 pages about an exhausted and desperate man fighting a war he can't hope to win? I also think that Butcher's essentially made the series all but inaccessible to new readers, since he makes little to no effort to catch readers up at the beginning of books, and offers no index of dramatis personae that might help. The series seems to have disappeared down the rabbit hole,in my sad opinion.) Cook has written several books in the Garrett series, so it will be interesting to see how it progresses. (less)

like · see review

Dec 11, 2011 ***Dave Hill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: text

I'm rereading Glen Cook's Garrett books for the first time in many years. This first volume hits many of the highlights of this high fantasy / detective noir series, introducing Garrett, the tarnished knight with a heart of gold, some of his collaborators and occasional enemies, the Dead Man (Wolfe to Garrett's Goodwin), and the overall setting. Indeed, what's mostly missing here is TunFaire, the city Garrett operates in, but is away from for most of the book (making it feel more epic fantasy, c...more

like · see review

Mar 15, 2009 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'd have to re-read the Garrett mysteries to review them all fairly. They're distinctive and complex enough, plot-wise, that they lend themselves nicely to re-reading. This one introduces the characters and the situation. Picture a mash-up between standard fantasy, gritty fantasy, Rex Stout, and detective noir. Garrett doesn't always stay consistent on the "charming detective" versus "guy willing to beat up women" scale of hard-bitten P.Is. But this series is a lot more hopeful than much of Cook...more

like 1 like · see review

Mar 03, 2008 Joshua rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No one

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, taking-out-the-trash

http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/2471

like 1 like · see review

Jan 10, 2013 Ana rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a really funny, complicated but enjoyable book to read. It's an odd combination of a fantasy book and old-fashioned detective novel, which I thought was a really interesting idea. The main character is likable throughout the book although the other characters don't always feel the same way. the story was twisting and interesting. the book kept you engaged and made you want to keep reading, which is unusual for me to do. Normally if I stop reading at some point I don't finish the novel,...more

like · see review

Feb 10, 2012 Mars rated it 5 of 5 stars

(aggregate review for the first 4 books in the series)

It's quirky and fun.
One of the rare cases where I really can't reliably guess which way the story is going to go.

The Dead Man is a bit too deus-ex-machina-ish, but his powers are abused only sometimes, so it all works out.

Highly recommended if you want something non-dense to pass time on a subway ride.

(Note: it still features its share of murders and whatnot - a fantasy detective novel can't do without, but with few exceptions Cook doesn't...more

like · see review

Jan 13, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had my reservations about this book from a few pages in as I mistakenly thought I was buying into an urban fantasy, rather than what this really is which is a PI novel set in a high fantasy world, however this reservation ended up being unfounded, I enjoyed reading about the trials of Garret who seemed cool under pressure even when the crap hit the fan, the remaining cast were all lively and complemented the main characters weakness's well, while a couple of the jumps in logic seemed to pass m...more

like · see review

May 11, 2012 Carly rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dresden Files/ Nightside fans

Shelves: detective-noir, fantasy, urban-fantasy, worldbuilding

In any reasonably thorough exploration of the space of Urban Fantasy, the bizarre combination of hardboiled noir detective stories and fantasy, Glen Cook's Garrett, PI series is definitely a necessary read. From my understanding, Garrett is one of the first urban fantasies written. It certainly is a landmark in the genre.

One of the things I loved most about the story was the world. Garrett's world is significantly more creative than the UF norm: a low-fantasy merging of our world with a secret s...more In any reasonably thorough exploration of the space of Urban Fantasy, the bizarre combination of hardboiled noir detective stories and fantasy, Glen Cook's Garrett, PI series is definitely a necessary read. From my understanding, Garrett is one of the first urban fantasies written. It certainly is a landmark in the genre.

One of the things I loved most about the story was the world. Garrett's world is significantly more creative than the UF norm: a low-fantasy merging of our world with a secret society of individuals with special powers. Garrett lives on a totally original, fully-fledged fantasy realm where magic is the norm and dark elves, ratmen, ogres, and more coexist with humans in noisy, busy, and overcrowded cities. The atmosphere of cities themselves, especially TunFaire, where Garrett lives, feels a bit like Anhk Morpork: a cheerful, amoral chaos where mythical creatures rub shoulders with practical magical inventions. The world also has a complex history: there is an ongoing war between two of the human-inhabited countries over an area of silver mines, since silver is a necessary ingredient used by wizards in their spells. Cook does a fantastic job twisting common mythical creatures into new, creative, and realistic-feeling versions. For example, unicorns are vicious creatures that travel in packs and hunt humans.

The front blurb of my book called compared Garrett to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and while I do think that Garrett is a prime example of a famous hardboiled detective, I don't think that detective is Marlowe. To me, Garrett feels more like a reincarnation of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon. Unlike Marlowe, Garrett tends not to engage in the obligatory private detective snarkfest and even in his narration, he avoids the colorful metaphors that characterize Marlowe's narration. Marlowe is the quintessential tarnished knight on the mean streets: outwardly cynical, he is actually a chivalrous (read chauvanistic) softhearted idealist. He speaks joshingly and disrespectfully to women and constantly objectifies them physically, but internally puts them on a pedestal. Marlowe's tragedy is that he wants to see all women as pure and beautiful damsels to be protected and sheltered, but the femme fatales he encounters constantly disappoint him. Garrett, like Sam Spade, has none of Marlowe's idealism. Both Garrett and Spade tend to treat women as "a bit of tail" to be used and discarded. Granted, the women that Garrett encounters are completely obnoxious, but I was still shocked by Garrett's total disregard for their safety. In one scene, women he is familiar with are captured by enemy agents and threatened by vampires. Garrett is unfazed and doesn't rescue them, even though he has the opportunity. Marlowe would have been incapable of such an action. However, this attitude does track with Spade's, who was much more competent than Marlowe at coolly judging a situation and taking the most logical and safety.

Garrett also captures Spade's enigmatic personality. Like Spade, he appears to be very comfortable with death and murder, to the point that he does exhibit any outward reactions of regret or sadness when a character he knows is killed. To me, this made for a very interesting read, since even though Garrett acts as a first-person narrator, I was often left unable to interpret his true feelings. Garrett tends strip events of emotion during his narration, and I often found his few comments about his feelings to be cryptic. He also tends to skip over the details of his journeys or battles, summarizing them in a single sentence and spending much more effort on the minutiae and inconveniences of travel. Although perhaps less engaging to read, I thought this wasn't necessarily a problem, as it gave Garrett a unique phlegmatic voice: that of someone who avoids remembering or repeating unpleasant events. The duality and differences between the narrator's presentation of himself and his true emotions is one of my favorite aspects of first-person. The book definitely captures the hardboiled detective vibe. Garrett himself must do dubious deals with individuals even more brutal than himself. He must make questionable decisions that have fatal consequences. Yet despite all this, the book is coloured in humour and creativity.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but not for the characters, or even, really, the plot; the world was so engaging that it captured my interest and imagination. I'll be picking up the next book; I hope, but don't particularly expect, to like the characters more, but I'm fairly sure that the fantastic and creative world that Garrett inhabits won't disappoint.
(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jan 17, 2012 Brandt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, recommendations-selection, fantasy

I've got mixed feelings about this one.
I like the universe, classic fantasy setting, with a large variety of species (most classical, but some with a twist), some magic but not overpowering..
The type of story reminded me of Steven Brust's Vlad Talos books, and to a lesser extend the Dresden files..
The descriptions of both the scenes and the events that takes place are extremely slobby. Several times i had no idea what was going on, and felt that Glen Cook did a poor job of giving enough clues f...more I've got mixed feelings about this one.
I like the universe, classic fantasy setting, with a large variety of species (most classical, but some with a twist), some magic but not overpowering..
The type of story reminded me of Steven Brust's Vlad Talos books, and to a lesser extend the Dresden files..
The descriptions of both the scenes and the events that takes place are extremely slobby. Several times i had no idea what was going on, and felt that Glen Cook did a poor job of giving enough clues for the reader to follow..
I'm not a native english reader, so small flaws in language probably go over my head, and i dont usually have any language problems when reading in english, but this one had me rereading sentences over and over again in order to keep track of what was going on, and i'm pretty sure the insufficiency lie with Cook and not me..
An example of his writing,
"The brides of blood had ranged themselves before the stone biers of their lovers, who had not awakened. there where fifteen of them. in only four had the disease run its full course. One of those i had faced across a table in Full Harbor, in a house where i had loved another in whom the disease was only a few years along and still reversible. Beside her stood a man whose face betrayed as he who had passed me a note. She shuddered when she met my gaze, slipped her hand into his. well. did you ever want to cry?"
Besides that i ran into several typo's along the way as well..

Cook throws around with names of species, parties, animals and seem to expect the reader to know the universe as well as he does..
Since this book is written in a pure fantasy setting, from a first person POV, i see his dilemma.
It wouldnt be natural for Garrett to start explaining things to us, that are self-evident for the people living in that world, but that is a small consolation for the reader..

It's filled with good humour, and Garrett is just the type of character i can identify with.. Garrett got his priorities straight!
In fact most of the characters was interesting, although some of the minor ones didnt leave enough of an impact for me to remember who they where when he brought them back later in the story..
When i get use to the universe, and get to know the recurring characters better, i'm sure this will make one of my favourite series..

(less)

like · see review

Nov 14, 2011 Colleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

I went into this book not only hoping, but expecting, that I would like it. I liked the idea of the noir-style detective story in the fantasy setting, and the notion of it being different from most urban fantasy's in that it's set in a fantasy world as opposed to our own. Plus it came recommended.

But it just didn't work for me. The characters never clicked for me - I was never invested in them and didn't particularly care about either the outcome or the story or what happened to our erstwhile he...more

like 4 likes · see review

Sep 08, 2011 M— rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, ebooks, journaled

Vegas Baby Vacation Read #5: I kind of feel as if I've read dramatically less on this vacation than I have on any other but, looking back at my past few vacations, it seems about par.

Reminded me so much of Simon R. Green's Nightside books it's not funny. Probably better written but significantly less fun, and with strong flavor of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I'll enjoy checking out the odd novel of this series from my library but I won't go to any lengths to collect these books.

Vegas Baby Vacation...more

like · see review

Jul 19, 2010 Scott Marlowe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook is the first of the Garrett, P.I., novels set in Cook's pseudo-urban/traditional fantasy world. Glen Cook is perhaps best known for The Black Company series. Unfortunately, Sweet Silver Blues follows in that series' knack for introducing confusion and leading the reader on such a herky-jerky path that it's nearly impossible to see how one dot is connected to another.

That being said, it's not all bad. Cook presents a colorful array of bruisers, Garrett is about as...more

like · see review

Apr 28, 2011 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of detective fantasy

Shelves: part-of-a-series, urban-fantasy, detective-private-eye-sleuth, owned-copy, uf-spring-challenge, funny-read, magic-noir, 2011-reading

I definitely enjoyed this book, my first read by Mr. Glen Cook, and the first of many, I think. This series is a scrumptious idea: hard-boiled noir detective with faerie creature-infused fantasy, the setting not quite urban, and not quite traditional fantasy. Mr. Cook has made his own world here, and it's a fun world. I must admit that I was a bit confused at times. The characters speak in a 'cant' that took me to some time to get the hang of. Sort of like 40s movie speak, but unique to this sto...more I definitely enjoyed this book, my first read by Mr. Glen Cook, and the first of many, I think. This series is a scrumptious idea: hard-boiled noir detective with faerie creature-infused fantasy, the setting not quite urban, and not quite traditional fantasy. Mr. Cook has made his own world here, and it's a fun world. I must admit that I was a bit confused at times. The characters speak in a 'cant' that took me to some time to get the hang of. Sort of like 40s movie speak, but unique to this story, with some fantasy/magic-specific references. The narrative is on the terse side, which I do like, but at times I did have to reread to make sure I was getting the drift.

The characters stand out, particularly Garrett. He's quite the tough guy, a wiseacre, who doesn't like to take orders, but will do so if the mission calls for it. He's not infallible, which is good, but he's very capable. He's not quite a boy scout, but he does have a deeply-held sense of honor that emerges on a fairly regular basis, despite his cynical narrative voice. The secondary characters are just as interesting. In this case, Garrett's mentor is an undead corpse-like being who has lots of wisdom and smarts to make up for his decaying body. And his sidekicks are a vegetarian, lecherous elf/human hybrid, and three troll/human hybrid heavies with female names, and the inability to hold their liquor. The 'deadly dames' are two sexy gnomes, one with a bad temper, and another with a bad reputation that she happily earned. Garrett is on the hunt for his ex-flame who inherited his recently deceased friend's bequest of one-hundred thousand marks of coinage. He has to go to the toughest country in the realm, and deal with ferocious unicorns, a shifty centaur, and really nasty vampires, and other heavies of various species.

I definitely appreciate the fruits of Glen Cook's imagination on offer here, and the humor was great. It made up for my moments of confusion. Although Cook keeps the action nicely interspersed in with the often-times humorous narrative, the climax was fantastic in its intensity, as Garrett and his crew take on a whole nest of vamps.

Although I did love straight mysteries growing up, I love fantasy/paranormal mysteries even more. This book has not helped my addiction. I'm glad I've been collecting these books, because I want to keep checking in with Garrett, PI on his adventures in and around TunFaire.(less)

like 13 likes · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 89 90 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Fantasy Aficionados: * May 2013 Side Read: Sweet Silver Blues-roll call and initial impressions	4	23	May 02, 2013 04:49am
Fantasy Aficionados: May 2013 Side read: Sweet Silver Blues	4	30	Apr 29, 2013 12:20pm
Fantasy Aficionados: November Discussion: Sweet Silver Blues No Spoilers	26	33	Nov 14, 2011 12:54pm
Fantasy Aficionados: November Discussion: Sweet Silver Blues Spoilers Allowed	1	16	Nov 01, 2011 05:57am

combine
Other Editions (7)

More editions...

Genres

Fantasy

211 users

Mystery

76 users

Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

25 users

Mystery > Detective

12 users

Mystery > Noir

9 users

Mystery > Crime

9 users

Paranormal > Vampires

7 users

Humor

7 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

7 users

Fantasy > Magic

6 users

See top shelves...

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Sweet Silver Blues

4 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Sweet Silver Blues

“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.” — 2,498 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Sweet Silver Blues
avg rating	preview: Sweet Silver Blues Goodreads rating: 3.92 (1689 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400878.Sweet_Silver_Blues?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297624038l/400878.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400878.Sweet_Silver_Blues?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook[/url]

Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett Files #1)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (7)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Glen Cook

Books by Glen Cook

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Sweet Silver Blues

Quotes from Sweet Silver Blues