The Grand Dark

With a bit of a slow start for me, I fell in love with this story as it progressed. The ending sealed it's fate as a book I enjoyed immensely. Richard Kadrey's world is perfectly told in a way that you only know what you need to about the world. Bits and pieces are revealed, but there is no unnecessary world prose. We see the world through Largo's eyes as he experiences them. The flashbacks to his younger years are brief. As if, you were standing there, experiencing the moment and having it float from your mind when the next thoughts becomes apparent. The mixture of fantastical elements with pieces of our world make the world feel real, tangible. For war is always a looming force to be reckoned with.

This story is creative, with an interesting plot and a decent depth to the cast of characters.
I did not enjoy the characters. I did not have anyone to root for in this book. I could never relate to the POV.
The story is dark.
The ending was tidy but didn't satisfy. What happened to the dog?!

This was a quite surprisingly rich book that reads light and easy to digest. Full review coming soon.

First half 5/5. Excellent worldbuilding, atmosphere building, characters building. Perfect pace (not at all too slow). Feels like a mixture of “Grand Budapest Hotel” (without the comedy), Kafka and decaying Bioshock (the first 2). Dark, original and fascinating. Somewhat similar to Higgins' Wolfhound Century series, but just in feel (here a German universe, there a Russian one).
Second half 2/5,because it mostly wastes the great worldbuilding in just running around with half-baked, unoriginal action. It feels like the author cannot decide what storyline to go for, so he tries all of them very briefly, not really completing any. It would have been 1/5,but it is somewhat saved by a few good revelations.
So, an average of 3.5. A book I would recommend, but will not read the sequels.

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.

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.

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