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Rating: 
Summary: So bad it went to the used book store as soon as I finished
Review: "Beer and a Shot" book. The writing is done in extremely short chapters,
a page to seven or eight. It reads as if the writer sat down, poured a drink, worked until the drink ran out, and then stopped until the next
day. The first few Garrett books were imaginative and fun, an interesting mixture of Chandler and fantasy. The series has run its course, however,
and it seems time to end it. Garrett the P.I. would have smelled this one a mile away and flushed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Cook proves again fantasy and mystery do indeed mix.
Review:
One of the strengths of Cook is to blend his fantasy with his Chandler-esque late 1930's form detective, Garrett. The result is another fine book in the well-crafted series. Short chapters keep the plot divided into almost episodic moments, much like that of a serial film or a Dickens story. Cook's writing has slipped a little from "Dread Brass Shadows" but everyone is allowed to slouch a little here and there. Overall, if you like to mix gnomes, elves and other stuff of fantasy with your noir, "Petty Pewter Gods" is a book that does it for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing compared to its superior predecessors
Review: A stilted variation on the previous books in this excellent series. I found it difficult to become interested, as for once Cook's easy writing style seems to have deserted him. While this one disappoints, Cook's track record with this series is good enough that I will be eagerly lining up to buy the next in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: This book doesn't inspire you to read the rest of the series
Review: Ever since I discovered Cook's stories of the Black Company I thought I was a devotee of his work. This book is actually my first try at his other writing and frankly I'm disappointed. The first person style of writing is great but when I compare Garrett with Croaker from the Black Company series, I see almost identical characters. They both obsess on different things, Garrett on sex and beer, Croaker on plots and trickery, but they are essentially of the same sardonic and pesimistic personality. The similiarities do not end there but continue with most of the main characters having colorful single word nicknames, Gods that are identical and much more. I think Mr. Cook has pulled one over on us in one form or another. By simply looting his other storylines and worlds he has been able to produce work in an assembly line fashion. Don't get me wrong, his style of writing is what keeps me coming back for more (at least in the Black Company series) but his scabbing of material is disappointing at current prices. As an aside, I also feel that the emphasis on sex and drinking are overdone. I'm certainly no prude and actually feel less quantity and more quality in such circumstances would make a better read.
Rating: 
Summary: Who says politics and religion don't mix?
Review: Garrett, Glen Cook's long suffering detective (usually because he's got a hangover) is hired by rival factions of gods to find the 'key' to their new home. Seems that once the worshippers fall below a critical mass even the gods can get evicted. First one to come up with the key gets to keep their godhood.
So Garrett trots off, maybe not to do what he's been ordered to do but by the time he's kidnapped, gossiped with some of the inhuman (literally) mob members of TunFaire and figured out the redhead he's chasing ain't no redhead, as usual, he and the Dead Man have it all figured out. After a climax with lots of fireworks, the final explanation, including the final double-cross on the part of the gods takes place, left me unsatisfied. Didn't seem finished somehow.
This book was a good addition to the Garrett series but the plot seemed a bit jerky. Glen Cook's cynical observations on religion in general are quite amusing, depending upon your religious leanings. And this book also follows the change in civil temperament that unexpected peace can have on a war economy. Good setup for future squabbles that Garrett will no doubt be drawn into.
Rating:
Summary: Who says politics and religion don't mix?
Review: Garrett, Glen Cook's long suffering detective (usually because he's got a hangover) is hired by rival factions of gods to find the 'key' to their new home. Seems that once the worshippers fall below a critical mass even the gods can get evicted. First one to come up with the key gets to keep their godhood.
So Garrett trots off, maybe not to do what he's been ordered to do but by the time he's kidnapped, gossiped with some of the inhuman (literally) mob members of TunFaire and figured out the redhead he's chasing ain't no redhead, as usual, he and the Dead Man have it all figured out. After a climax with lots of fireworks, the final explanation, including the final double-cross on the part of the gods takes place, left me unsatisfied. Didn't seem finished somehow.
This book was a good addition to the Garrett series but the plot seemed a bit jerky. Glen Cook's cynical observations on religion in general are quite amusing, depending upon your religious leanings. And this book also follows the change in civil temperament that unexpected peace can have on a war economy. Good setup for future squabbles that Garrett will no doubt be drawn into.
Rating:
Summary: Garrett is the key to the survival of two sets of Old gods
Review: Human P.I. Garrett is caught between two rival groups of ancient gods who are desperate to remain on the Street of Gods in TunFaire. Garrett is called in to make the choice as to which group of gods will keep the last open temple and which will sink into oblivion. As usual both sides are lying to him. As usual Garrett does
NOT want to work. As usual both sides are taking advantage
of Garrett's obsession with redheads.
Suddenly a minor spat between minor gods, becomes a
celestial fight that might rend the walls between of
realities. Can Garrett save the day? Can he go an entire day
without some idiot requiring him to get out of bed?
Rating:
Summary: Good book in general, but the series is becoming repetitive.
Review: Raymond Chandler meets J. R. Tolkien. P. I. Garrett lives in a world where saying the mob is inhuman should be taken literally. If you like detective stories with a twist, this is a must read. It's hard not to like Garrett's style of humor; when he "gets religion" it's only because religion got him
Rating:
Summary: Good, But a Bit Disjointed
Review: This is a good book that's fun to read. Unfortunately, it's not quite as good as other books in Cook's Garrett series. In many places, you can see that Cook wrote bits and pieces of the book and then cut-and-pasted them into the final order. It's not a big problem -- it's just that the roughness is a bit disconcerting. A more irritating problem is that Garrett is working with a couple of pantheons of gods which I just couldn't keep straight. The individual gods, and the pantheons they belong to, just blend together and I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. The biggest problem, though, is that the ending just appears out of thin air in the last 10 pages of the book. As I got closer and closer to the physical end, I kept wondering if this was going to be a two-parter: there was just no indication of a reasonable solution. With a sudden flurry of activity, the Dead Man and Garrett take a guess at what's going on and all heck breaks loose (which confirms their theory). Not a very satisfying ending at all. Still, I did enjoy reading the book and do recommend it (but read the earlier books, first).
Rating:
Summary: Latest installment of best series since Leiber's Lankhmar.
Review: This is the latest installment in a series that is the best fantasy without walls (no swordsmen, no feminist sorceresses, no cats) since Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. Can't wait until the next book, and can't imagine jaded science fiction fans not liking these tales. Sure, Garrett is politically incorrect. But so is real life
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