The Builders

It's as if Quentin Tarantino wrote the script to an animated Disney movie...

The Builders by Daniel Polansky

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I am beginning to like Daniel Polansky. He has a nice, light writing style, with quips and arch observations, that delight the mind. The plots hang together and there is enough tension and conflict to keep the reader engaged.

In this book, Polansky introduces us to a bevy of animal characters who look to avenge their prior loss of the kingdom. Since betrayal was involved, the odds are that the traitor is still around. The animals are distinctive and delightful. The band is led by “the Captain,” a gritty, determined mouse - a Lee Marvin of a mouse. There is a badger, a Gallic weasel, a sharpshooting oppossum, a mole that fittingly runs the underworld, and others. They face insurmountable odds of attacking a fortified position for revenge and to restore the rightful toad on the throne.

It is a fun story, all around.

I adore this story. It's the weird and wonderful blood-soaked love-child of The Wind in the Willows and the Dirty Dozen. It's short and sweet, with not a single wasted word.

The plot - the Captain - a monosyllabic mouse - is re-assembling his old team for one last job - to finish what they started all that time ago.

Don't expect everything to be spelled out - or, in fact for anything to be spelled out - long and complex backstories are implied but rarely explained - but for all that, this book is an absolute gem, brimming with dark humour - and I loved every single moment of it.