Glen Cook is best known as the creator of the Black Company series. His Instrumentalities of the Night series is in-progress, and his Dread Empire series is back in print in nice omnibus editions. He has written other series over the last 30 years, including Darkwar and the Starfishers. Yet since 1987 there’s been one constant to Cook’s writing: Garrett, P.I.
Garrett debuted Sweet Silver Blues. That book introduced readers to the human investigator in a fantasy world. He was a modern character, based on the hard-boiled dicks of American 20th Century detective fiction. His city, Tun Faire, and the surrounding kingdom of Karentia, were similar to 17th Century London and Britain, only with the existence of magic and non-human races such as Elves, Dwarves, and Ogres. Thus, familiar elements were made fresh by an unusual setting and the mixing of genres.
Cook has been writing about Garrett ever since. He has mentioned in interviews that he generally has a Garrett book in progress all the time, no matter what he is focused on writing at a given moment. The series continued in the late 80’s, through the 90’s, and into the new millennium. The twelfth volume, Cruel Zinc Melodies, came out in 2008, and the thirteenth is under contract for eventual release.
Most of the earlier titles have been reprinted recently, and Cruel Zinc Melodies is on its fourth printing in a little over a year. The series has benefited from Cook’s latest round of popularity, which was touched off by the Black Company and Dread Empire omnibus versions. In fact, there’s a visible correlation between how successful Cook’s other books are, and how well Garrett sells. Cook’s success grew through the 80’s as the Black Company books became word of mouth successes. This led to the continuation of the Black Company series, with three new books coming out in 1989 and 1990. The first five Garrett books were available by this time, and each had several printings. The final four Black Company volumes were released between 1996 and 2000, and so 1999’s ninth Garrett book, Faded Steel Heat, went through at least four printings. Cook then didn’t write much for several years, so that 2002’s Angry Lead Skies and 2005’s Whispering Nickel Idols each had but a single printing (the latter was recently reprinted). But as mentioned above, the success of the Dread Empire and Black Company omnibuses, which debuted in 2006 and 2007, respectively, helped renew interest in Garrett, and helped the latest Garrett book sell very well.
Cook was ahead of his time in writing the gritty, militaristic fantasy of the Dread Empire and Black Company books. Just as those helped influence a generation of writers such as Steven Erikson, the Garrett books helped set the stage for the current poularity of urban fantasy. Authors such as Jim Butcher wouldn’t be writing their own fantasy detective stories if Cook hadn’t shown that it could be done successfully.
Why does this mix of detective and fantasy work? In Garrett’s case, it is because Garrett IS Glen Cook, just as Croaker is in the Black Company. The stories are told first person by Garrett, as if he was relating them to some buddies at the bar while downing a few pints of ale. Garrett is a good guy who means well, but who sometimes makes mistakes and falls prey to his weaknesses. He likes to sleep late, chase redheads, and avoid work as much as finances allow. He has a sarcastic sense of humor, and interesting friends such part-Elf rogue Morley Dotes and a physically dead (yet psychically alive) elephant man. Garrett’s cases involve murder, kidnapping, and a criminal underworld.
The cast of supporting characters grows and evolves over the course of the series, and becomes quite large. By the time of Cruel Zinc Melodies the actual plot isn’t as important as simply spending time with all of these familiar inhabitants of Garrett’s world. I thought Cook mixed them all together successfully, though some reviewers wanted more action in the book. But the Garrett, P.I. series has never really been about action. It’s about showing how fantasy can be fun even without the clichés of swords and dragons and faux-medieval settings. If you like Cook’s other books, or think this premise sounds promising, don’t hesitate to give Garrett a try. I predict you’ll soon be like I was a year ago, frantically trying to hunt down all twelve books in the series.
See Wikipedia for a good summary of the individual books.
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