The Grand Dark

by Richard Kadrey

From the bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrison-a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos.

The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war's horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonism-drugs and sex and endless parties-distracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can't mask.

Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions. A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city's streets and its secrets intimately. His life seems set. He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotion-and maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation: a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets.

But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward. Others have a vision of life very different from Largo's, and they will use any methods to secure control. And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Steampunk, Horror, Audiobook

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 11, 2019

About the author

Richard Kadrey is a writer and freelance musician living in Pittsburgh, best known for his Sandman Slim novels. His work has been nominated for the Locus and BSFA awards. Kadrey's newest books are The Secrets of Insects, released in August 2023; The Dead Take the A Train (with Cassandra Khaw), released in September 2023; The Pale House Devil, released in September 2023.

Reviews

[Mark Lawrence]

So, this is sci-fi set in an alternate Germanic state - the feel of it is "between the wars" as it is literally between wars, and also as much of the vibe feels like the 1930s. The technology is a strange mix of 1930s - telephones are rare, photography is clunky, lighting is primitive - and 2100s - intelligent automata, bioengineered life forms, plasma guns. It's an interesting mix though the many fascinating issues with artificial intelligence and created life are not addressed/explored.

The story is told entirely through the eyes of a young bicycle courier who has a job despite the prevalence of robotic taxi drivers and delivery-bots. His extensive knowledge of the bomb-damaged city means his services are in demand. His focus is on his girlfriend who's an actress at The Grand Dark, a theatre.

For the great majority of the book the story unfolds rather slowly with a lot of time spent with Largo & Remy taking drugs, having sex, going to parties, taking drugs, acting, taking drugs, cycling around the city, and taking drugs. The slow-drip world building is intriguing and the interspersed excerpts from newspaper articles and books about the city and its people broaden the scope.

The prose is strong. Kadrey is an accomplished writer with a literary leaning and he captures the moods and the characters well. The characters are perhaps a weak link. Largo is a drifter who is largely only interested in Remy and his morphine. Remy is an airhead. So it's harder to be excited about what happens to them - but over time I did find my attachment to them strengthening.

There's a slowly building mystery at work in the book and towards the end I had a definite desire to find out what the hell was going on. I found myself speculating during the day, and when I lost the book I had to contact the publisher to get a PDF because I needed to know how it ended (which is a good sign!). Of course as soon as I'd got the replacement file I found the book.

Largo continues to be carried on the currents, though when Remy is in jeopardy he does step up to take action and things take a violent turn. Even then though, his plans are pretty rubbish, particularly when on the strength of almost no evidence he decides to visit a whole other country to look for her.

The final few chapters are full of tension, excitement, and revelations, and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

The book ends with the story reaching for a second book but enough of the plot resolved for me to feel I'd had closure.

So, all in all, a well-written book that rewards persistence, but perhaps not for those looking for high tempo excitement out of the gate, or particularly charismatic characters.


Join my Patreon
Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes



...

[Chelsea Humphrey]

Calling this a DNF @ page 97. The cover is gorgeous, and the idea is really clever and intriguing, but I found the pacing to be far too slow, and I see I'm not the only early reviewer to feel this way so far. I think this will be a great book for the right reader, and I hope those looking for a slow burning stand-alone adult fantasy will give The Grand Dark a try for themselves.

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of two of my favorite genres, science fiction and history, The Grand Dark is set in the malevolent chaos between World Wars 1 and 2. In an eastern European city of the future, the citizens try to enjoy life to its fullest after a devastating war. They are decadent and depraved, enjoying drugs and sex, and watching murder plays at the Grand Dark, the best theater in town. The main character is Largo, a bicycle delivery boy in his 20s and his actor girlfriend, Remy, the best performer at The Grand Dark. They are both hooked on morphine, but also frequently indulge in cocaine and alcohol and hashish. Despite this, they are sweetly innocent in their love for each other.

Largo is content with his lot, since he started out in the poorest section of the destroyed city and now has a good job and his own apartment, until his brutish boss advances him to head courier. With his new job comes many strange, unexplained occurrences which makes Largo start to question everything in his life. He has been living in a fog, not seeing the evil around him, the complete corruption of the government and the military and their headlong push towards another horrific war. This is one of those fantasy books in which the reporting is so true to life that it feels like you are reading an historical account. I really felt for the 2 young lovers too, the innocent always get crushed in the greed and lust for power of the elite.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kadrey's The Grand Dark is an expedition into a world of fantasy very different from sword-battling rascals and pirate conquests. Think more Kafka meets Orwell meets Germanic Steampunk. First, of all, the world created in this novel is at once sort of familiar, but in other respects, unique, different, odd. The setting is dreary, coal-fired smoke-filled, war-ruined City of Lower Proszawa following a Great War that left Upper Proszawa a world of desolation, ruin, and plague.

The place names and words used to describe things feel German, or at least Eastern European. The setting is a city after a huge war struggling to recover and filled with theaters, actors, dancing, parties, and drugs. It feels like the decadence of Weimar Germany after the First World War, but it is not, despite the U-boats. It is someplace in Kadrey's wild imagination. It is also a city that operates like a police state with secret informers everywhere, a ragtag band of revolutionaries, and proletariats everywhere. Drabness, uniformity, and fear are spread like a cancer. And, there's plague brought back from the war and veterans from the war so scarred that they wear masks and parade through the streets.

Kadrey doesn't exactly give a full exposition of the world he creates and allows the reader to slowly grasp it as the layers of the onion are each pulled back. And, perhaps that is why, rather than have the main protagonist be the greatest swordsman of two worlds or a swashbuckling .007, it's a lowly bike messenger who is half the time hopped on Morphia, late for his own funeral, and without a care for anything beyond his own daily life which includes cavorting with famed actress Remy and her happy-dappy thespian friends at crazy parties at which costumes, cocaine, and morphia are everywhere.

And, this world also includes Maras, the German word for nightmares, which are automatons that carry things across the city and work in factories and as maids and butlers.

As fascinating as this whole world is, the key to this novel is that you are not sucked into a great adventure at the start, but the bike messenger's petty little world, his promotion to the chief courier, his plodding through bad neighborhoods, and his sweet romance with Remy. You wonder at first where this is going and whether the plot will ever thicken. Just be confident that you are slowly being swept into this gray world and many things may not turn out to be what you think or characters who you think they are.

[Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars The Grand Dark)audiobook) by Richard Kadrey read by Vikas Adam.

I think this story is trying to be a Steampunk version of Blade Runner, or maybe Quicksilver? I don’t know. The different elements of the story just didn’t work for me.

[Skip · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Grand Dark is the tale of Largo, a bike courier, working in a dirty futuristic city, somewhat reminiscent of Blade Runner. The technology is a steampunk blend of autonomous robots (Maras) and chimeras. The city seems trapped in between past and future wars, with a police and secret police presence to suppress opposition. Largo has a beautiful girlfriend actress named Remi, who is kind of slumming with him, but they seem to enjoy sex and drugs together. Sadly, the characters are dull and the book putters along in a very boring way for about 75%, causing even some of the most dedicated readers to abandon this one; however, the book does get interesting at the end as the various plots coalesce. My advice is stick with Kadrey's Sandman Slim or Coop series.

[Ila Perey · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an underground world set in a dystopian, biopunk/dieselpunk hybrid and belle époque-inspired era, the spotlight is fixed upon counter cultures identified through their love of art or erudition. There are both repressed resentment of the bourgeoisie and restrained artistic transcendence as the artists mingle with rich patrons at elaborate parties and avoid confronting politics and reality outside their immediate circles. Ironies abound—those who do not like to confront mortality, still find fascination in spiritualism. Blind people observe what others refuse to see. Drugs are the gateway to a dance in the ring of fire and unexpectedly save them from a sobering and hard existence. The people who turn to performance art as escapism are in fact dealing with reality in a roundabout way: death and violence on the stage. “Finding the erotic in even the most depraved stories was one of her specialities”. The bohemian spirit is in stark contrast to the backdrop—like unexpected beauty in the form of wild, intense and unfettered love against external decay and bizarre occurrences.

A rebellious underground movement is also stirring to contend with the secret police. It is a resistance to the climate of suspicion, sickness and malevolence in which information is a valuable currency. The protagonist, in a bid to better his life and chances, exchanges for cash and other favours, what he observes as he makes deliveries at a time of censorship and social repression intended to prevent mass hysteria and repress insurgency. He is the unwitting participant to danger and tragedies as he makes his rounds. Though unrelated, they do not seem to be incoincidental. His overbearing boss both mocks and appreciates his inexperience, political indifference and naivety. His girlfriend has child-like buoyancy and treats everything wrong in his life with cheer and exoticism. Her optimism is sometimes saccharine and out of place.

The novel reads as prescient and descriptive of history. In later chapters, it resembles a Japanese dystopian anime—disturbing, frantic and thought-provoking. Automata are threatening jobs and more while experiments on hybrids and chimeras raise ethical questions. How far should scientists go and for what end? The novel itself is art in that regard—it lets us face real issues by putting them in a simulator so we can see how ideas, conflicts and emotions play out. This is akin to putting abstract ideas into relatable context albeit within a background of rising malevolence, nihilism and the hallmarks of authoritarianism.

[Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley & Edelweiss. This has not influenced my review.*

This was one of those books that had a low thrum of tension throughout the whole thing, that feeling that things were weird and wrong even though you didn’t yet know what. But since I didn’t really know what the plot was working toward, I didn’t have this sense of things building, and the book felt slow for about the first 2/3. The beginning of the book also seemed to be more world-building and descriptions of settings than plot, and the articles and things that were between chapters sometimes only slowed the pace more. That being said, once things did really start building and take off around the last third, they got pretty twisty and complex.

Largo’s characterization was really well done though. He was so flawed, yet also a character I sympathized with. He had dreams, but he just kind of settled with his life as it was. He had a pretty dead-end job and a crappy apartment, and he spent most of his free time and money on drugs, including one called morphia that he was addicted to. Largo didn’t always make great decisions in life, but he had a good heart. He cared about others. He wasn’t as judgmental as many people around him were. And when he came across an opportunity to better himself and maybe one day achieve his dreams, he jumped on it. He also realized some things about himself and changed throughout the story. The supporting characters felt believable too, even if they weren’t explored as much. This book also did a great job showing how situations and lives and people can spiral down or out of control.

I’m not sure if this is considered sci-fi or fantasy or some combo of the two. Personally I���d say it’s kind of dystopian. It’s got robotic technology and government conspiracies and plague and strange creatures made with eugenics all set in a darkly decadent and vice-ridden city.

I struggled with what rating to give this book because it wasn’t a bad book, but it still wasn’t quite right for me. I struggled with all the description and with not knowing where the plot was going, but the characterization of the main character was strong and there was a lot of complexity put into the story, and I think some readers will really enjoy this!

Recommended For:
Anyone who likes flawed characters, detailed world-building, lots of mystery and tension, and a slow-building plot.

Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight

[Diana]

The premise sounded so great I wanted to enjoy this book, but I found out I couldn't care less for the characters or how the story moved. The pace of it was off for me, but I can't quite put my finger on "why". I just felt lost inside the story, like I was missing a bit more of world building or situating myself inside the story, but neither it or the characters caught my interest.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec. by: Previous work; Powell's on Hawthorne
Rec. for: Sufferers from prewar jitters or morphia addiction

You will know that you are elsewhere.

Listen to the man in the liquor store
Yelling, "Anybody want a drink before the war?"
—from "Drink Before the War" (1987) on Sinéad O'Connor's The Lion and the Cobra

The city of Lower Proszawa exists between. Between wars; between rival states; between Heldenblut Bay and the wasteland that used to be High Proszawa. Between our reality and... elsewhere.

Having survived the Great War, the city awaits the next war with defiance, debauchery, decadence, denial and dread. The parallels with our own history's Weimar Republic are both obvious and intentional. Cory Doctorow noticed, too.

Lower Proszawa plainly does not exist in our Germany, though, or even in our Europe. The electromechanical automatons called Maras, which we meet on page 1, are but one of many steampunk attributes in The Grand Dark that tip us off to this.

There are common threads, however. The use of Bakelite (p.42)—an oddly specific brand name mentioned more than once—ties Lower Proszawa back to our world. Somehow.

*

You should know that you are elsewhere.

"A city of thieves and addicts," he said. "How appropriate."
—p.230

The Grand Dark consists of interlocking chapters—numbered ones about its protagonist, Largo Moorden (about whom more below), alternating with unnumbered supplemental material (okay, infodumps) about the world of the Grand Dark. (We find out what the Grand Dark really is quite early, too, on p.44—and it's not at all what I would have expected.)

Largo Moorden is a bicycle messenger for an unnamed firm in Lower Proszawa. He is uniquely suited to the job—he knows the city's alleyways and back roads intimately—yet even so seems destined for failure. Derided by his coworkers and addicted to morphia, Largo can't even make it to work on time.

Which is why Largo's so surprised when his acerbic manager Branca promotes him to chief courier, after the abrupt disappearance of König, the former holder of that role.

Largo's girlfriend Remy is an actress, though of a peculiarly Proszawan kind—she stays backstage, wearing a whole-body electrical suit that allows her to control a realistic puppet on the stage. The plays in which Remy appears can therefore be (and usually are) much bloodier and more sexually explicit than any traditional live theatre; they're only puppets, after all.

Remy, too, is addicted to morphia. It's a common affliction, hardly worth mentioning, among the demimonde of Lower Proszawa.

*

You will find that you are elsewhere.

The Grand Dark is one of two books I acquired over the holidays as presents, during a shopping trip with my daughter (our time together was of course the real gift). Kadrey's novel was also my first genre read of 2022—I've been stretching myself more recently, exploring other parts of the universe of printed matter... but of course I'd never abandon speculative fiction altogether.

The Grand Dark is not a typical Richard Kadrey novel, and Largo Moorden's not much like Sandman Slim, either—this is Kadrey stretching, too. It's more akin to something from China Miéville, or Jack O'Connell's Word Made Flesh (with its own slipstream city, Quinsigamond), or even to Kafka than to Kadrey's own earlier books.

*

Richard Kadrey was right to end Sandman Slim when he did, you know. The series was turning into a straitjacket—and The Grand Dark proves that Kadrey is capable of so much more.

[Nancy D Miz-Firefly aka Sparky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lusted for The Grand Dark from the moment I laid eyes on that cover. It looked magical; the first sentences promised me war, and it was written by the father of my all-time favorite badass, Sandman Slim. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

Thank you Netgalley for fulfilling my wish. My heart thumped when I received notification of approval. Please don’t hold this review against me.

How do I… What can I…. Oh just pull off the bandage already.
The Grand Dark is an extraordinarily well written novel full of danger and debauchery. The main character is fully realized and very likable. All the characters are well crafted, and very well represented. And it bored me out of my ever-loving mind. It’s as the story began its life as a trilogy and was pared down to a single book. Sparing none of the origin story and stinting on the crisis.

This is a great book for the right reader. Kadrey has crafted a no holds barred look into the police state and living on the knife edge of tyranny. The world building is dark and riddled with intrigue. Every aspect of this story is well crafted and incredibly believable. There are several interesting story elements, but it is slow as molasses in January and there is no sizzle. Just a couple of sweet kids so drugged they don’t feel the weight of the oppression that surrounds them. Or feel the sword that threatens to destroy their fragile existence.

Die Hard fans of Sandman Slim should consider what they want out of their read before beginning . I made a huge mistake going into this one looking for the snark and verve of James Stark. The main character, Largo is Stark's polar opposite. He is earnest and thoughtful and charmingly naive.

[Faith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it to the 31% point of this book and no plot had appeared yet. There were a bunch of scenes strung together. One of my other problems with the book was the dialog which was so clunky and unrealistic that it felt like it had been poorly translated from another language. Some of the world building was imaginative, but the characters weren’t interesting and the pacing was too slow. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can find this review and more on my blog.

Stars: 2 out of 5 (and that's pushing it because at least the language is good)

I love the Sandman Slim series, so I really, REALLY, wanted to love this book... I was so excited to receive the ARC from Netgalley that I pushed all my other half-read books aside to start this as soon as possible. Unfortunately, my excitement soon turned into bewilderment, then annoyance, then boredom. I finished it only because I was already 75% done and felt like I'd already suffered enough torture to stick around and see the ending... which was nothing to call home about.

So what went wrong with this book? Oh where do I begin? Get comfortable, it's gonna take a while.

First and biggest problem, in my opinion, is the pacing. NOTHING, and I mean, nothing happens in the first 3/4 of the book. The protagonist delivers some packages, then goes home to get high on drugs and have sex with his girlfriend. Rinse, repeat. for over 300 pages!!!

Then the action suddenly picks up around page 300 and we careen to the end at a neck breaking speed. It would be good if the pacing was justified, but it feels exhausting, almost as if the author suddenly realized that he only had 400 odd pages to tell the story and decided to cram all of it in the last 100 instead of editing the beginning and cutting most of the boring bits out. The action feels more like an outline that has been hastily fleshed out just enough to pass mustard. And the big reveal, final big bad, as well as the ending are underwhelming to say the least.

I might have been okay with the lack of story in the beginning if the protagonist was interesting enough to follow along with. But Largo is anything but. He is a doormat. He has no initiative. All his life he simply floats with the current thinking only about his next score or his girlfriend. He doesn't DRIVE the story, he just floats along in the current. So when it's not even clear where that current is going, this gets boring very fast.

And even when he actually decides to do something, he doesn't actually have to work to accomplish anything. There are no real efforts on his part.

He needs to make an urgent delivery and his tires are slashed? Hey, perfect time for character growth and for the author to actually make him DO something to change his circumstance... But no, another courtier, who was never mentioned as being his friend, lends him her bike. Why? Because reasons only known to the author. Mostly, I suspect to move the story along.

He decides to go to Higher Proszawa, which is a battlefield and a quarantine zone off limits for everyone. Does he plan this trip? Does he, you know, gather supplies, investigate the means of getting there an back? Actually do something to get this done? Nope... He just mentions this to his friend Raineer and magically, everything is taken care off. He suddenly has money, and a weapon, and a convenient way in and out via a smuggler his friend knows. Everything handed to him on a sliver platter.

I could go on and on about this, but that would just be beating a dead horse. This character is as interesting as a doorknob. And he is the protagonist, which can tell you a lot about the other characters in this book. They are all cardboard cutouts that have a role to play to push the doormat Largo along. The girlfriend who has zero personality apart from being beautiful and in love with Largo. And her sole purpose in the story is to get captured to push the protagonist into action (or what passes for action for this one). The best friend and wounded veteran that conveniently still has all his contacts and can part with a wad of cash even though he lives in a dilapidated apartment on a meager government pension. And so on, and so forth.

And finally, the worldbuilding really sucks. We are told there was a great war that Lower Proszawa won, but we don't know when that happened, and who they were fighting against. The other party is only ever mentioned as the Enemy. We also know absolutely nothing about the world outside of this city. I think one other "provincial" town is mentioned once, because a character was born there. Other than that, the rest of the world might as well not exist at all.

In fact, at one point, I even wondered if Lower Proszawa was actually a purgatory for all the souls that died in the war. That would have explained the lack of information about the outside world or why the details of the Great War are so fuzzy, or why they live in constant fear of a new war... Now that's a twist I would have welcomed. Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be.

What we have instead is a sub-par story with a boring protagonist in a barely fleshed out world. Very disappointing book from the author of Sandman Slim series. I definitely won't recommend it. Save your money and your time for other books.

[Beth Tabler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this to me in exchange for my open and honest review.

First off, I want to say that Richard Kadrey is the man and hands down one of my favorite authors. The Sandman Slim saga is a story that has made me cheer for the dark antihero, the fallible Slim. It is dark and twisted, and in my opinion, one of the perfect urban fantasy series out there. It has it all, which is why I did backflips when I got approved. The Grand Dark was my most anticipated release of this year so far. That is why it pains me to DNF this at 50%.

The Grand Dark is not a bad book in any stretch of the word. Kadrey is a master worldbuilder. The world he creates here is rich, lusty, and dark. It has vice and wonder, with just a tinge of steampunk. The pervasive drug use and the bisection of classes add a very interesting visual to an already cool world. What made me stop was the pacing. The pacing is slow, plodding. At times it is so slow that I can't find a plot amidst the rich language and description. The intercuts of the story between chapters would have added a great backstory to a faster-paced book, but in this book, it turns things into a slog. I stopped reading it because I was not the right reader for this type of storytelling, but the correct reader is out there. If you like languid storytelling very much in the vein of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, this is a good fit for you.

If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my page on beforewegoblog.com

[Jypsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to like The Grand Dark, but it didn't work out that way. This is a seriously slow going story, and the pace caused disinterest for me. I read and skimmed some because I could not connect with this story. Unfortunately, this one is a miss. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

[joyce g · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a dark world author Richard Kadrey crests!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did finish The Grand Dark in its entirety, I have to first and foremost agree with all the other reviews out there that say this book is a bit of mess. It felt like Richard Kadrey wanted so badly to fit so many things into this story, that it became tangled. Post-war hedonism, class systems, pervasive drug use, secret government plots, and vivid violence are only a few of the things that are wrapped up in this book. It took me a lot longer than I expected to make it through, because this all makes this a very plodding read.

Now, on to the parts that I did enjoy. First off, I loved the idea of The Grand Dark. Remy's world of puppets and plays, of violence and vice, was a fascinating place to be lost in. Even before Largo's messenger adventures began, I was completely in love with the idea that he and Remy were together. There's something painfully stunning about a couple that holds one another together. These two were both so broken. Their relationship was one that bordered on explosive. Yet, there was something beautiful about the way that they found even a minute amount of happiness in a world that was torn to ribbons by war.

I also appreciated the fact that Kadrey doesn't shy away from the realities of that post-war world. From the Iron Dandies, who are casualties of that war, to the copious drug use that fills the lower class, he shines a light on the gritty parts of Largo's world. As a bike messenger, Largo sees both halves of that post-war haze. The elite, who lost essentially nothing and are untouched. The lower class, who are broken, battered, and addicted. I thought it was a great way to show that duality, because Largo had to be the one to bridge the gap. The whole idea of being a pawn for the government was only the icing on the cake.

So why the lower rating? Mainly the plodding pace, but also that the ending of this book didn't feel at all complete. For how long it took for that ending to finally arrive, I felt so unsatisfied with the way that things wrapped up. Pity, really, but I'm still in the Kadrey fan camp and will await the next book.

[T. Frohock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as George RR Martin used the War of the Roses as the historical basis for The Game of Thrones, so does Kadrey use that heady period between the Great War and World War II for his world-building of the fictional city of Proszawa.

Here is a steampunkish world with mechanical Maras taking over human jobs, and a city in transition from a war-time economy to a peace-time economy. The Great War has left mutilated soldiers, known as Iron Dandies for the masks they wear to cover their mangled faces, living on the fringes of society. Anarchists plot rebellions and the mysterious secret police, the Nachtvogel, make malcontents and enemies of the state disappear in programs reminiscent of the Nazi’s decree of Nacht und Nebel.

Largo is a courier, valued for his knowledge of the city, but that exceptional ability sometimes draws the wrong attention to his existence, not that Largo notices. An addict and a wastrel, Largo is in love with the beautiful actress, Remy, and at times, the early chapters have a Cabaret feeling about the hedonism the two experience in their daily lives. Then Largo is introduced to a series of opportunities that he believes will enable him to break free of his mundane job as a courier and make him worthy of Remy’s love.

Instead, he finds himself drawn into political intrigues, and the beautiful life he envisioned for himself and Remy takes one tragic turn after another. Largo is no longer able to drift through life, carried by his whims. He makes dangerous decisions and follows through, and in doing so, he loses his innocence and grows emotionally.

Kadrey brings his world to life and makes it his own. Only people with a background in that transitional period between the wars will pick up on a lot of his references, but the singing of patriotic songs in the streets and the smashing of shop windows all resurrect the ghosts of the “Horst-Wessel-Lied” and Kristallnacht for those in the know. For readers unfamiliar with the historical references, they’ll find a story set in a dark world that will feel vaguely familiar.

Kadrey takes his time and builds the novel’s atmosphere carefully so that when the various plot points begin to fall into place at the end, I couldn’t stop flipping the pages. This is the kind of story that I love to read—dark and twisted and hopeful in the end.

Highly recommended, though your mileage may vary based on your expectations.

[Ric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly didn’t expect to like this as much as I did, because the first half of this book really didn’t have a plot. Sure I liked the characters enough, Largo was an interesting main character and Remy was pretty great too, but the book was more about their life of sex and drugs than anything else for a while. Not that I thought that was a bad thing, I was just expecting more things to happen in terms of an actual story with some sort of stakes. But as things started to ramp up it got really interesting and the ending was great. I enjoyed this one very much.

In terms of the characters, I think I liked Largo and Remy both the best because of their love for each other. It was oddly sweet and innocent, despite the fact that they were taking hard drugs and having sex for a lot of the time they were together. I loved the contrast between those two things but how it definitely worked within the world of the story. And what a world that was.

[Emily Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very cool thing when one of your favorite authors goes outside of their normal style and then absolutely kills it. That's what has happened with The Grand Dark. Sandman Slim was the first book of Kadrey's that I read and I've gone on to devour all his others novels. The Grand Dark is a different beast for him, but showcases all of his talents when it comes to world-building and creating characters that you root for (and more importantly, care for). The Grand Dark works as a stand-alone novel, but I certainly hope that Kadrey revisits it in the future. He's set up a fascinating world with tantalizing glimpses of its politics, history, and technology. I'd love to spend more time falling into the lushness of it in the future.

[Loring Wirbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series, has written what is called a standalone novel (though its climax has "sequel" written all over it). It is also intended to be in the style of China Mieville, though its tale of decadence between two great wars seems more a hybrid of 1984 and Cabaret, with hints of Bladerunner, Mad Max, and various Kurt Weill plays added to the mix. The plot displays a few hiccups, but is glorious raunchy fun for the most part.

Some readers think the first 100 pages or so are slow-going, but this tale of a ruined Central European (Baltic)? city trying to navigate in the interregnum between two brutal wars, deserves a slow burn in the opener as we learn what counts for decadence in this apparent future or alternate universe. The presence of human-produced chimera genetic misfits, and purpose-built robots in several vertical domains, suggests a time in the near or distant future, though the disarray seems more steampunk than Brave New World. Everyone seems immersed in sex as a spectator sport, narcotics and opiates of every variety, and learning ways to serve or fight the very dysfunctional state.

Our protagonist Largo wants to be a good citizen, rising from his humble roots as a courier for the secret police to learn how to experiment with chimera, but he rapidly learns the lose-lose nature of the state he serves. Unfortunately for those who love action, it is precisely when the book shifts into high gear that it loses a bit of its rational progression. For example, Largo's trip by U-boat to the formerly larger city across the bay provides a good backdrop to show how the state manufactures false wars, but Largo's sudden and rash decision to make this trip does not seem justified by any solid information that the trip will help him in any way to save the woman he loves. If he had the slightest bit of solid information driving him to Higher Proszawa, perhaps this part of the story would not seem so contrived.

And though there are plenty of sad and random deaths in the book, the attempt by the rebels to storm the major armaments factory and genetic-engineering complex near the book's end seems a little too pat. Largo finds out he can kill at will when circumstances demand it, but would it be so easy to come face to face with the powerful people he wants to eliminate?

Still, despite these minor gripes, this is the type of Weimar-Republic-in-Poland that any deviant could love. I'll be searching for more of Kadrey's back catalog, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a sequel to The Grand Dark in the near future, if only our own rapidly-collapsing dystopia sticks around long enough for any more novels in the series to be published.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Like many others, Sandman Slim is one of my favorite series. Also like many others, I struggled with this one. It's slow and plodding, and it is quite a slog wait for the story develop. I guess I'm used to the faster pace of Sandman Slim.

This was by no means a bad book. The writing was quite descriptive and it places the reader right in the midst of this dreary, dank, and dirty world the author has created. I may even go back and reread this one someday, when I feel like reading a slow burn.

[Caitlyn Newby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tired....I picked this up a few times trying to get through the pacing of this book. As everyone can see the cover is beautiful and the concept is interesting. It's just a very slowly paced book and because of that I just can't really get into it. I liked the articles and entries between the chapters giving history and I'm sure there are people who will love this story. I just couldn't get into it unfortunately.

[InexactEarth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good solid read, and I really enjoyed the story. It started off a bit slow, building the characters and showing how grim the world is, but once that was finished the story picked up quick. I would be very interested in reading a sequel.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note:

I usually love Kadrey's work but this story needed more work to be a finished piece. I felt like I was exposed to the hopscotch of cool ideas for a story.

[Rachel Brune · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic dieselpunk read. Started off a little slowly and then I couldn’t stop reading. Definitely Recommend.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kadrey crafted a genre bender here, blending aspects of steampunk within a gritty urban fantasy environment. Our main protagonist, Logan, makes his living as a bicycle courier in the city of Lower Proszawa. A long and nasty war recently concluded and Proszawa is reeling somewhat in peacetime. TGD definitely has a germanic, or perhaps Eastern European steampunk vibe, but Kadrey gives us a very eclectic mix of technology; we have all kinds of robots (Maras) and bioengineered life forms aplenty, along side a barely functional phone system and crude photography. The robots were in part created for the war effort but versions of them are now displacing manual labor across the city.

The story starts slowly, with Kadrey spending a fair amount of time with Logan and his girlfriend Remy, an actress at The Grand Dark, a somewhat seedy theater. Remy does not appear on stage, however, she animates a 'puppet'-- a life sized robot she controls. Get it- puppet theater? In any case, much of the first part of the story involves Logan and Remy taking drugs, screwing, taking drugs, going to parties, etc. The young couple lives for one another and this sweet romance underpins the plot.

Lower Proszawa is basically some sort of fascist state complete with a secret police. Many of the population believes the peace will be short lived as Proszawa seems to be gearing up for another war nobody wants and subversive posters and pamphlets may be found just about anywhere. Lower Proszawa is also deeply divided by class and Logan himself grew up in a decidedly rough part of town.

Things start to change/evolve rapidly when Logan gets promoted to Chief Courier and starts delivering strange packages to places high and low. Also around this time, people are disappearing, but returning after a few days with different personalities. What is happening in the city? TGD becomes something of a mystery novel with what is going on slowly being revealed to Logan and his naivety slowly starts to unravel. When Remy disappears and the cops are hot on Logan for murder, things really start to pick up...

Overall, a rather slow burn where Kadrey develops a strange world without many info drops (which I really liked) where the main character Logan evolves with the novel as it unfolds. Kadrey's prose is taut and lots of snarky dialogue animates the pages nicely. So, if you are in the mood for a grimdark urban fantasy coupled with a steampunk feel and wrapped around a mystery, TGD may be just your ticket. I found the main characters rather shallow but it was fun to watch Logan evolve; lots of loose ends as Kadrey left a lot of room for sequels. 3 steamy stars.

[Beth Tabler]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this to me in exchange for my open and honest review.

First off, I want to say that Richard Kadrey is the man and hands down one of my favorite authors. The Sandman Slim saga is a story that has made me cheer for the dark antihero, the fallible Slim. It is dark and twisted, and in my opinion, one of the perfect urban fantasy series out there. It has it all, which is why I did backflips when I got approved. The Grand Dark was my most anticipated release of this year so far. That is why it pains me to DNF this at 50%.

The Grand Dark is not a bad book in any stretch of the word. Kadrey is a master worldbuilder. The world he creates here is rich, lusty, and dark. It has vice and wonder, with just a tinge of steampunk. The pervasive drug use and the bisection of classes add a very interesting visual to an already cool world. What made me stop was the pacing. The pacing is slow, plodding. At times it is so slow that I can't find a plot amidst the rich language and description. The intercuts of the story between chapters would have added a great backstory to a faster-paced book, but in this book, it turns things into a slog. I stopped reading it because I was not the right reader for this type of storytelling, but the correct reader is out there. If you like languid storytelling very much in the vein of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, this is a good fit for you.

If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my page on beforewegoblog.com

[Jordan (Forever Lost in Literature) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!

The Grand Dark is an unpredictable, enthralling read full of thing you won't see coming. After finishing the book, I noticed on Goodreads that there are quite a lot of mixed reviews for this and I find that rather disappointing. There are definitely some areas for improvement in these pages, which I'll discuss later in my review, but there's so much more in the way of exciting ideas and engaging characters that made this extremely enjoyable for me. This is a book that will absolutely keep you on your toes.

The world-building in The Grand Dark is strong and introduces a rather gritty location on the heels of a The Great War which has left the city rife with dirt, disease, and a slow recovery. Based upon the names of various places within this book and the usage of 'Herr' and the like, it also has what seems to be a German influence on the world, though I'm not sure exactly what the inspiration for this was. Within this book we mainly visit Upper Prozsawa and Lower Proszawa, both places that our protagonist, Largo, visits on a regular basis due to his job as a bike messenger/delivery man. This is a setting with advanced AI types of technology as well, such as delivery machines that deliver to businesses and that Largo fears will eradicate his own job, as well as 'Maras' that are human-like robotic beings that can act as assistants, cleaners, door openers, etc. There's also the Grand Dark itself, a rather odd sort of theatre that uses puppets to act, but still manages to be extraordinarily gruesome, shocking, and violent. I'm madly intrigued by the Grand Dark and would happily read a collection of stories just about it.

A big part of the first half of this book follows Largo on many of his delivery runs and I loved these parts. This is the portion of the book where some of Kadrey's world-building really shines because we gt to explore different portions of the city (Lower and Upper), including both the shady, the scary, the weird, and the extraordinarily rich. These runs were just a lot of fun to me, both because we got to explore the city and also because of the interactions Largo has with his boss and those he has with people he runs into on his deliveries. Kadrey excels at writing sharp dialogue with subtle wit and sarcasm.

I really liked Largo as a main character. He was very normal and grounded; he's not overly self-deprecating about himself, he has a steady girlfriend who he's madly in love with, and he has a not-great-but-not-horrible job where he's a pretty good worker (minus some drug issues). He doesn't undergo any extreme development in this book, but he does still experience a good amount of growth in smaller, more subtle ways that really made his character a compelling one. There are some other colorful characters in this book in addition to Largo, such as his boss, Herr Branca; his girlfriend, Remy; his friend Parvulesco and his boyfriend, Roland; and a few other coworkers and friends of friends that keep things interesting. I thought that characters seemed to be one of Kadrey strong suits in this book, as I found myself really interested in each and enjoying how unique each person's personality was.

Largo and Remy's relationship was one I really enjoyed as well, partially because I love when a book starts out with the protagonist already in a strong, loving relationship. They have a certain level of freedom with one another that refreshing, but at the end of the day they were unfailingly loyal to one another and wouldn't betray one another's trust. Kadrey does

As much as I enjoyed The Grand Dark, it was not without its faults, either. The first issue that arose for me was mainly the inconsistent pacing, as the first half of the book had a really nice, slower pace that seemed to work well, but at some point in the latter half of the story it just sped up at an awkwardly rushed pace. Once one particularly semi-surprising event happened, everything just started snowballing after that in a fast-paced way that just felt like too much was going on too suddenly. The Grand Dark has multiple plot threads that run throughout the entire book, all of which do eventually tie together in the end, but they just didn't always mesh that well throughout the story itself. There were also a few particular types of "reveals" that felt like they came out of nowhere, but they still fit so I just felt a little mixed on them.

My only other issue is with the technological components in this book, such as the maras and various details littered throughout about the tech in this society. I really liked how Kadrey crafted all of these things in the world, but I also feel like they weren't incorporated quite as well as they could have been. I struggled to place exactly what sort of innovative period this story was set in and it didn't make sense to me why they had some things, but not others. It's the type of setting that's advanced in a lot of ways, but still fairly like our world in others as if caught between two time periods. This also sort of overlaps with my confusion surrounding The Great War that seems to be the big backdrop for the events of this book. I needed more about the war and the people involved, including more information on what sort of world lay outside of Upper and Lower Prozsawa.

Overall, I've given The Grand Dark four stars. I really debated if I should lower it since I did have some issues with this book, but in the end I still really enjoyed it and had a blast reading it, so four stars feels like a fair deal.

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very different to his Sandman series. Political sort of cold war type east german vibe. I got eerily similar style to China Mievelle or Peter Higgins Wolfhound Century. I loved the world building. The world Kadrey has created is original. However the plot was way too slow for me. I also found Largo to be too naive and couldn't really connect with him. Overall it was ok but wish it moved at a quicker pace.