Angry Lead Skies

Garrett Files #10

by Glen Cook

A series far ahead of its time, now back in print Anyone else would have learned by when trouble comes knocking, don't open the door. But there's a reason why Garrett's still in the P.I. business after all these years-he's not one to learn his lessons. Maybe that's why he lets himself get roped into being a bodyguard for Kip Prose, an obnoxious kid being threatened by creatures that can't quite be described. But before Kip Prose has a chance to explain what he's done to get on the hit list of some nameless nasties, the precocious Prose is abducted, and the chase begins...

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Detective, Crime, Humor

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2002

About the author

Glen Cook was born in New York City, lived in southern Indiana as a small child, then grew up in Northern California. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy and attended the University of Missouri. He worked for General Motors for 33 years, retiring some years ago. He started writing short stories in 7th grade, had several published in a high school literary magazine. He began writing with malicious intent to publish in 1968, eventually producing 51 books and a number of short fiction pieces.
He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. series. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is tenth in a fantasy mystery series that you can read out of order if you like. I recommend reading in order, though as you'd miss the building relationships and side-character developments otherwise.

This one is all about aliens. Take all the cultural cruft we have built around aliens, breathe enough life into them to craft a plot around, and dump them on TunFaire. Oh, and give Garrett a hook to run into them. It's a little like the petty gods book, only aliens are the overpowered outsiders messing with TunFaire instead of gods. Only this time, Garrett is the one messing them up instead of them messing with him. Which already makes it ten times better than the petty gods story.

Some of the mystery is a bit shallow due to knowing what aliens look like and some of their tricks (abductions? floating lights? flying saucers?), but I still enjoyed Garrett prying into things trying to figure everything out and queering long-laid plots while doing so.

This story also has two left turns that I kind of loved. One is more framework as Garrett stumbles onto a burgeoning industrial revolution and is in the right place to put the right people together to cobble together a nascent capitalist empire. I loved how this propels him into some responsibility and I liked seeing him grow up a bit.

Better, though, is events around the ratgirl Pular Singe. Garrett's only real racial bias has been against rat people so seeing him not only overcome that failing but doing so while becoming a friend and support to Singe is great. Seeing her blossom with a little encouragement and take Garrett's support in independent directions he hadn't expected is outstanding. She is one of my favorite characters and I loved seeing her take those steps on stage here.

I'm way less happy with Tinnie still being a thing. Not that Garrett isn't catting around. Still, I cringe every time we have Tinnie around even if it isn't much in this book.

Anyway, this is a solid four stars. The aliens are a bit out of Garrett's ability to affect effectively so he's mostly crashing around. And the main bugaboo in Kip is just frustrating as Garrett chases his tail around corralling the annoying plot convenience. It's still a fun book, but with enough friction that I can't call it five stars.

A note about Chaste/Steamy: Garrett has some very curious aliens wondering about Karentine Marine biology. He obliges. I'm not saying that he's perfected his alien probe but I'm not not saying it. There is enough detail that I can't really call this chaste, though nothing truly prurient. So it's not steamy, either. So this one gets neither tag.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stars: 2.5 out of 5

A less than stellar rating on a Garret PI book? Trust me, I was as shocked as you are. I love this series. It's combination of sarcastic fun, shenanigans, and humor even when touching some pretty dark themes, was a joy to read.

Unfortunately, this book was rather underwhelming. It is was way too long. It drags and meanders more than any of the previous books. Interesting twist in the gray aliens trope, but I think the stakes aren't high enough to keep me interested.

Yes, Garrett agreed to rescue the kid, but we as a reader have no skin in the game on this one. We never met the kid before, and frankly what we see of him or his family is not endearing.

Also, Garrett panting after any remotely female character that comes into his orbit gets old very fast. And anything with female genitalia practically throwing themselves at him at every turn isn't funny anymore. Probably because there are too many of them in this book and none of them have any personality to speak of. I was invested in Tinnie, or Maya, or even Belinda and Alyx, but the gray alien girls? Who cares?

The biggest issue is that there is no character growth or development in this series anymore. Garrett doesn't learn or evolve. I was willing to overlook that when the stories were interesting, but this book brought that particular issue into focus.

I really think that this series should have ended with the previous book. Throughout the last 9 books, we had a theme - the mysterious identity and motives of Glory Mooncalled and the war in the Kantard. Yes, we had some other wonderful stories in each book, but that was the thread that tied everything together. Well, the author finished that story (and fumbled it horribly, in my opinion), and didn't create anything even remotely as compelling to take its place.

Throughout this book, I kept feeling cheated. Like I was reading about characters I used to love, but they seemed like pale shadows of their glorious selves. Unless the author course corrected in the next installment, I think I might have to say goodbye to this series before I get any more disappointed.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

🦜 Dodos in Clown Suits For the Win Buddy Read (DiCSFtWBR™) with The Overlord 🦜

💥 Warning! Extra Super Crappy Review straight ahead! You’re welcome!

Okay, so this installment isn't my favorite in the series. First because it doesn’t start with with a girl (not sure Garrett will ever recover from that one). Second because no one dies 😱😱. Which is shocking as fish when you're familiar with CookBooks™ and their average body count (as in, the reader is usually grateful for making it out of the story alive). Third because there is lots of some unnecessary filler stuff that slows the book down. Fourth because I’m not a fan of distasteful, unnecessary, overly convoluted plot devices. Fifth because most abrupt ending in the history of most abrupt endings. Sixth because, I don't know, reasons and stuff. But hey, the plot is still pretty entertaining and original and stuff and there is lots of action, so it’s not all bad and stuff (as my pathetic 4-star rating might indicate).

Also NOT bad: the ever-expanding, yummilicious cast of characters. Garrett is a great MC but the secondary characters really outshines him in this one (most of them deserve to have their own spin-off series, methinks): there is of course everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed bird, aka the Goddam Parrot, aka the painted jungle buzzard, aka the multicolored chicken. And also my boyfriend Morley Dotes, aka the Ever-Murderous Celery Stalker and Carrot Killer. And Playmate, a minor character we met in book 1 and who turns out to be a pretty great Garret sidekick in this installment (this despite his being part of the Great Equine Conspiracy). And then we have the groll triplets who are the most hilariously hilarious grolls you will ever meet. (They most likely are the only grolls you will ever meet, come to think of it.)

But the real star of this show? My new girlfriend Pular Singe, obviously (I may or may not have mentioned her down there ↓↓ a little while ago.) She’s the most amazing ratgirl ever and one day she will rule the world. You can trust me on that one. And if you want to know more about her you’ll have to read the book. Because I lurves Singe so much that if I start telling you more about her we’ll be here until pigs fly, chicken have teeth and crayfish whistle on the mountain. So let’s leave it at that, shall we? Quite welcome you are.



Now here are some other reasons why I didn’t entire dislike this installment: Glen Cook wrote it 😬 + Garrett’s delightful relationship with his slightly hostile friendly pixie neighbours reminds me of my boyfriend Jojo Cabal (also, 😂😂😂) + the yellow brick dump (don’t ask) + the Morley Dotes Glee Club and Bone-Breaking Society (how do I join?!) + vindictive little bastards (always a plus, those) + the total moronification of the masses + HAHAHAHAHA + Garrett’s eyebrow tricks misfiring as much as Kate Daniel’s smiles + the flea getter ridder ofer (I told you not to ask) + space elves, a concept some authors I shall not name out of the goodness of my heart think they invented recently, when Glen Cook came up with it twenty bloody shrimping years ago.

Need I say more? Didn’t think so.



👋 To be continued and stuff.

· Book 1: Sweet Silver Blues ★★★★
· Book 2: Bitter Gold Hearts ★★★★
· Book 3: Cold Copper Tears ★★★★
· Book 4: Old Tin Sorrows ★★★★★
· Book 5: Dread Brass Shadows ★★★★
· Book 6: Red Iron Nights ★★★★★
· Book 7: Deadly Quicksilver Lies ★★★★★
· Book 8: Petty Pewter Gods ★★★
· Book 9: Faded Steel Heat ★★★
· Book 11: Whispering Nickel Idols ★★★★
· Book 12: Cruel Zinc Melodies ★★★★
· Book 13: Gilded Latten Bones ★★★★
· Book 14: Wicked Bronze Ambition ★★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

💥 Newsflash! 💥

I'm in 💕lurve💕 with a beer-drinking, sarcastic as fish, too clever for her own good ratgirl named Pular Singe.



That's my new rodent girlfriend there on the right. Pretty hot, hu?

➽ Review to come and stuff.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

UFOs and alien visitors come to TunFaire and Garrett is right in the middle of their shenanigans. In fact, a confusingly large number of alien groups have visited Garrett’s city and their little scientific gadgets (which Garrett and his friends see as a new kind of magic) give them extraordinary advantages over the regular fantasy cast of the Garrett Files. Cook deserves credit for finding a new type of threat not normally seen in fantasy literature, but in practical terms, he didn’t succeed in using them to make for an interesting and exciting adventure. The aliens (even the sex crazed ones) just don’t ever become good antagonists leaving the reader wondering why this novel got written. In fact, this is the book that almost killed the series for me the first time I read it, and now that I’m rereading the novels, I am very much afraid that my recollection might be wrong and we have another torturously slow novel coming after this one. (Memory tells me it was three or four bad books in the middle before Cook finds his groove again. I guess the next novel will let me know for sure.)

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Stephen Robert Collins]

Having read 1-8 this perhaps not right one to read first.
Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade & Philip Marlowe with hint of Peter Falk from Murder by Death by Neil Simon.
I always sore Bogart as Garrett hunting for his Lauren Bacall these are private dick books the old fashioned yellow back but In TunFaire as crazy as Anik Morepork or Who Framed Rodger Rabbit?
Elves, Trolls, Dwarfs & lots funerals Garrett 's mostly

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/4 stars

This is one of the really good ones as far as Garrett and his adventures are concerned. I always like that he has something different going on that takes place in his fictional land. The story moves pretty quickly and we get to see how he acts with women other than those he always has around. The characters are fairly well defined and fleshed out.

Garrett is awakened from a deep sleep by Playmate who comes to him and asks that he help protect an obnoxious kid named Kip Prose who is being threatened by creatures who are hard to describe. Kip is a teenager who was befriended by two strange guys who have been giving him ideas for inventions that could make someone a lot of money. Opening his door when a woman is not knocking does not ever work out for him, but neither does it when they do.

Enjoy this adventure and watch Garrett try to please everyone and still get paid.

[Maggie K · Rating 2 out of 5]

So after the lameness of Petty Pewter gods, I was hoping Garrett would make more of a comeback. After all, sorting out the Gods can be kind of trope-ish, so it was time for something original, right?
Well, space elves? We gave up sex generations ago but Garrett makes us rethink it space elves? There has to be some female who doesn't want to sleep with Garrett, Id think....I don't know.
But if this is what Im thinking about rather than whatever it was the case was this time, well, that is a problem....

[Drew McCaffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d heard that this was one of the weaker Garrett books, but I can’t disagree more. This book was an absolute blast. There were some…weird…things in it, but the overall premise was so wild that it overshadows them. On top of that, this is maybe the *funniest* Glen Cook novel I’ve yet read. I was laughing out loud all through the story, but especially during one particular meeting of business partners and their daughters with Garrett.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angry Lead Skies is the tenth book in the Garrett P.I. series written by Glen Cook and centered on the adventures of private investigator Garrett.

Garrett is at home when Playmate visits, with a kid, Kip Prose. Kip has made friends with creatures that cannot quite be described, but because of his relationship with these creatures, other parties are trying to kidnap Kip. Despite his protests, Garrett gets drawn into the mess.

While searching Playmate's stables for clues, Garrett and company are attacked by another group of indescribable assailants. Morley, Saucerhead, and Pular Singe wake Garrett and Playmate after the scuffle, but Kip Prose is gone.

Angry Lead Skies is written rather well. Cook continues to expand the world of TunFaire and the narrative and writing seemed to be improved significantly. The action scenes are written well and there is just about the right amount of humor, albeit rather sarcastic at times. Garrett, the protagonist, seems to be maturing as a character, which is a welcomed change.

All in all, Angry Lead Skies is written rather well and is a rather good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to continue in the very near future.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best Garrett novels so far.
It has everything I enjoy in the series: A great mystery, a cast of great characters both new and old, lots of action/exploration of TunFaire, and some great social commentary(at this point I feel like Glen Cook is just gaslighting us when he says he doesn't think about subtext).

The Garrett novels are the place that Glen Cook just does whatever he wants. Sometimes it is a flop but most of the time it is innovative, refreshing, and sometimes downright ridiculous in the best way possible.
You get all of that along with the sharp, gut punch passages you expect from Glen Cook. I had a revelation during this book that totally changed the way I see Garrett. It has been there the whole time but I finally caught on. It was great.

This novel also took a big leap forward in progressing the setting and the characters, including Garrett. Most mystery series seem to keep everything in stasis so they can keep telling the same stories. It isn't like that with these novels.

I loved this book and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

[Justus · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the 10th book in the Garrett P.I. series. Like all series, I suppose, what was once novel, intriguing, and interesting has been worn down to a tired patina of retreads over the course of time. Angry Lead Skies offers up what you come to expect from a Garrett book: he gets involved in some weird case, sleeps with a half dozen women (okay, only four), is knocked unconscious a full dozen times, never kills anyone, and generally comes up smelling roses at the end of it all. Along the way you'll get cameos from all the secondary characters and/or sex toys that have accumulated over the years: Alyx Weider, Tinnie Tate, Belinda Contague, Winger, Saucerhead Thorpe, the groll brothers, etc. Mara gets name checked but otherwise seems to have dropped out of the picture entirely. The sexy librarian is about the only one I don't recall even being mentioned.

Through it all you wonder not only what do these women see in Garrett, but what do his alleged friends see in him? And what does he see in them? Why, for instance, is he friends with Winger?

While this kind of continuity is what sets it above much of the other series-trash I've read in the past -- the world of Tun Faire has changed over the years with the end of the Cantard war, the end of the City Watch, references to The Call -- a lot of it seems to show up only perfunctorily.

I think what made this book especially disappointing is that the core "mystery" gets essentially wrapped up off-screen. The two fugitives that spark all the action are never seen. Somehow the three factions of Visitors all make-up via telepathy or something. I dunno. They come and then they're gone. In a post-modern kind of way I guess that is nifty. But the way Cook handles it, it just feels sloppy. Like he's too busy planning out Garrett's newfound wealth and business empire and got bored with doing anything with the Visitors. Suddenly Casey is just going to file a TPS report and everything is okay again. Or something.

The entire book just felt more formulaic, more just-so, and more self-obsessed than previous entries in the series. I guess this is where I give up and find things to read that give me a higher return-on-investment.

The Garrett series were never high-quality fiction. They're like the book equivalent of Psych or Monk. Quirky detective TV shows whose plots don't hold up too well under inspection...but they're not meant for that either. A half-dozen or ten books worth of enjoyment isn't a bad run and no doubt there are still fans out there hungrily waiting for new installments.

[Ben Duerksen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aliens…and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that most of them wanted to have sex with Garrett. This was sadly a near complete throwaway.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This installment of the Garrett Files has our titular hero facing a puzzling mystery that readers won't have any trouble figuring out. Novels in which fantasy/historical characters are transported to the modern world and have to figure out modern technology (which they describe in terms of their own understanding, so much hilarity ensues) aren't too uncommon. Diana Wynne Jones, in particular, was a master of this technique--see Hexwood, Power of Three, and Howl's Moving Castle for a few. Novels in which a fantasy world is visited by modern humans are less common (though, again, hat tip to Diana Wynne Jones and The Dark Lord of Derkholm). In this case, though, it's aliens--Area 51 big-eyed aliens even--who're troubling Garrett's sleep. My favorite thing about this book is actually the development of ratgirl wunderkind Pular Singe, but the idea of TunFaire experiencing an industrial revolution isn't far behind.

[Pye Josephus Joestar · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a long time for me to get through this one. It just couldn't keep my attention for some reason. I suppose it was a bit hoaky, what with the aliens and all. there were some really unnecessary chapters, especially around the end, like with all the invention stuff being figured out and patented. I felt like I was at a d&d session where the party wanted to go shopping for 8 hours real time. garret sleeping with the aliens was just....I mean come on, this guy sleeps with literally EVERY girl, its so ridiculous. I did like that he made mention of starting to grow up (in his late 30's) and settling down with one girl. Anyway, the book kind of bored me and was slow going for the most part. The alien stuff was a hoaky as I said before, and story was just blah. It's a shame this one had more Playmate in it, as I feel he wasn't done justice in this one but I look forward to hopefully seeing him in a larger role on cases in further books. The only part that I really liked honestly was the Stormwarden at the end of the book that was dropping thunder bolts on his enemies. The book was hard to get into and just as hard to finish, I wouldn't recommend this one to anybody other than maybe some x-files fans? I don't know.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one of the earlier books, there was some mention of "lights in the sky" and I thought to myself that it would be funny if it was a UFO.

Well....ha ha. This book ended up being a lot lighter in tone, and just the whole idea of Garrett's fantasy world being visited by UFOs is a real crack up in itself.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I had any right to. Cook manages to take another genre and mash it in with the rest without being cheesy, which takes a lot of talent. Fun stuff, and even if it's a bit of a deviation from the rest of the series, it's still certainly an enjoyable one.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as most of the others. I think Cook was really reaching with this one. Where do you go once you've had rogue gods, Pegasus rides, a curse that lives on after the cursed one dies. Vampires, centaurs and the gamut of weird things? You bring in aliens. Yep. Sky ships. Grey skinned, earless, noseless and using what seems to be alien technology. So weird. Didn't really work within the stories we've had before. Aliens? I just didn't buy it.

[Seamus Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in in 2025, but I really enjoyed how wacky this one was. The last couple of Garrett books I read were too grim, and this was a lot more fun, albeit kind of unfocused and why is Garrett boinking SO MANY women and I guess he's rich now and and and

(I was expecting the "boinking the Visitors/Garrett is rich now" parts to be some kind of extended mind whammy being done to Garrett, honestly)

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too long, and a bit too predictable, and Cook again gets low marks for failing to differentiate minor characters with proper names or clear descriptions. However, an interesting story of what-if aliens visited a medieval fantasy city. And the Rat-woman shined as up-and-coming supporting character.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

ANGRY LEAD SKIES has Garret find himself in the unwanted position of dealing with a bunch of gray aliens that are misidentified as elves. They are after a boy with the unusual gift of invention and might as well be a mad scientist. Aside from the oddity of Garrett banging an alien, I can’t say this is my favorite of the PI books. It’s just a little too weird.

[Ric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am never sure when authors begin to go off to the supernatural and alien thing. This book is not too bad, it is fun to read and try to see where things are going. Overall a good and interesting read.

[Nighteye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, funny to finally revisit this world. I enjoy this sarcastic and enjoy more than the cases so we what happened to all secondary characters and the development of their lives together with our main.

[Kevin Goodrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wierd but good Garrett and it ends with 1/3 of the pages left. Housekeeping from there on.

[Egidijus Vitkauskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so great as previous ones

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this is #10, there are at least nine in this series that are better. This was long, convoluted, and...well, not terribly good.

[Gustavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is unfortunately "Garrett jumps the shark"... I don't mind formulaic books as long as they're entertaining, but this one was hard to read.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Brandon Mehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little grey... elves! A worthy continuation of the series. I have to admit, it was a twist I didn't see coming, and it was well done.

[Kirby Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one’s a good reason you don’t mix sci-fi and fantasy. You can have aliens or you can have elves, but you can’t have both.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my tenth in this series and all have been amazing. The Noir Detective in a fantasy setting...is sooo good

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of this author's best efforts. Seemed to be lost at times in not knowing which direction Garret should go. Nonetheless an easy entertaining read.