And I still adore Cook's (often daft) character names. 'Furious Tide of Light' is such a great name. P.S. You might think that, having now read the last four bloody sentences in the bloody book, I'd want to change my rating to a slightly less despicable one, but I won't. Because the actual ending is even worse than the truncated one reasons and stuff. One interesting thing i did catch from the interview was that Cook's getting into anime. So, when i saw the plot for this book, i thought it felt familiar. I think he watched Fate Stay Night or something, cause it's basically his remix of it. Though, he bungles it by not letting us see anything that happens. I thought he was gonna kinda deconstruct the whole idea, maybe take some jabs at the premise, but outside a few off hand remarks about how stupid the whole thing is, it all just peters out after a while. No big climax, no aha moment, y'know? This would all be compelling enough to watch unfold in third person where we could follow some of these other characters, but instead we get Garrett in first person. Garrett does nothing, NOTHING!!!! Other people do his work for him. Important developments take place off camera. Climaxes come together with all these characters but with zero context, because Garrett's dull as all hell and doesn't have all the pieces cause he didn't do any of the work--we don't have any of the pieces cause we're watching through Garrett's eyes!!!! We're just as frustrated and confused as he is. Perhaps the biggest lost opportunity, however, is that we are finally on the Hill and have a chance to get deep into the aristocracy that has been on the outskirts of so many of these novels and I just didn’t feel like Cook took advantage of that situation.

John Stretch’s ratmen do more investigating than Garrett does in this book. Not to be racist, (ratmen are people too!) but we expect more from you than that, Garrett. Garrett's fiancé, Strafa Algarda, was born on the Hill and his soon-to-be family-in-law is filthy rich. They are all sorcerers too, and that puts them in a tight spot, because someone has it out for them or rather, their children and grandchildren. We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when I mean, it was nice for Garrett, given his absent-mindedness in this book, to have a stray dog bodyguard squad. But do I really want get emotionally invested in Garrett’s dead brother’s dog-turned-loli? I think not. Couldn’t that space have been used more effectively to have Garrett actually investigating something? Not the best of the series, but not the worst by any means. Either way, this appears to be the *last* of the series :-( It's been six years since this was published. In the past, a new Garrett, P.I. novel showed up every 18 months or so. Sad, but every well runs dry, eventually.

Bronze Ambition The Gradual Tan Fake Don't Bake

But I still prefer her MatteTrances – they are bomb. One application over liner (either PMG or Charlotte Tilbury) can last me 8 hours and one lasted through a 1hr hot yoga class where we sweat like pigs. It’s no joke. The pigment is out of this world. But my presence might be a function of my perception that mattes stay on reliably longer than glitter/shimmer/satin formulas. For a novel that had very little real action, at least compared to the earliest novels in the series, this moved pretty fast for me. Lots of delving into characters not given much time in the past, as well as areas of TunFaire only hinted at previously. I enjoyed the by-play of some of the marginal characters who finally had a chance to take Center Stage. Unrelated to the action of the story is the idea that this is a second re-positioning novel for Garrett. Cruel Zinc Melodies (#12) seemed like it was putting the final touches on the Garrett series. Its conclusion had Garrett and Tinnie Tate moving in together. At the same time, Garrett had recurring, steady work that didn't involve him getting beaten up and with enough money that he didn't have to hustle anymore. All in all, a nice capper to a long running series. A grand underground tournament has been set up and is meant to be a battle-royale type: the kids are in it if they want to or not and whether they have actual magic powers or not. This case gets very close for Garrett personally because someone he loves has died and now he is out for revenge.

I think that's all i have to say. This only stays at three stars because i have a lot of respect for what this series was--a chronicle of a hard boiled detective in a fantasy world. Something of a counterpoint, to me at least, to Butcher's Dresden Files. It isn't that anymore, and i don't know if i care to read further. As it is, the previous book felt more like an ending than anything else, and maybe that's telling. Other reviewers have noted that the series seems to have overreached a little. Maybe they're on to something. Some notes: Firstly, while this is a review of WBA, it's also going to pull in my opinions on some of the other books, and the series as a whole too. However, I can't help but like the Garrett series, even if we're now at 14 books with no real end in sight. There's just something oddly charming about them, and about Glen Cook's often peculiar, and quite stylish (not always good, mind you), way of writing.This is going to be one of my favorite Garrett novels once I read it for the second time. It was so stressful the first time that I kept having to put it down to catch my breath. Good interaction between our old favorite characters, an interesting story and more of Garrett bulling through all problems to a solution. So why was it stressful? Finally, the mystery was very weak. The bad guys are inept at best. Their motivation was weak and felt contrived. Garrett seemed to have more problems solving this mystery because of distractions in his persona life and because the bad guys were doing things in a more random (idiotic) fashion than any logical person would do.

This book, more than any other, felt like Garrett being led around by the nose by more talented people i'd rather be following, and being scolded for not being perceptive by everybody and their sister. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen. On the down side: it's a little plodding. Most of the book seems to be different sets of characters walking around stumbling over clues while they try to meet up to exchange information. There are a few threads that are drawn throughout the story that are left unresolved when the novel closes. But instead she's killed off, to literally no effect. No one emotes. Sure, Shadowslinger says something to the effect of 'take time to sort out your feelings' and there's a minor time skip and all, but it isn't enough. Not for me at least. And then she's replaced like fifteen percent of the way by another sorceress off the Hill palling around with Garrett, guiding him through all these various interactions and getting him debugged after his run in's with Relway and company. Why the hell couldn't that have been Strafa!? Maybe let us get to know the woman who ousted Tinnie in the span of one fetching book! First of all, ‘P.I.’ in this book didn’t stand for ‘Private Investigator.’ It stood, instead, for ‘Public Investigation.’ Historically, Garrett has relied on his friends for assistance in his investigations. In this book, Garrett starts the investigation, and then everyone else takes it from there. Another thing that made this book hard to follow at times is the sheer size of the cast. Over the series, a lot of characters have been introduced into Garrett's life. It seems every single one of those characters made at least an appearance in this story. Plus a whole bunch of new characters are introduced.On the middle (?!) side: There are some, er, inventive language choices that I don't think worked all that well. (Mad skills? Really?) and there are some intriguing new mysteries and characters that are only teased at. But there is also quite a bit of character growth; Cook has obviously given some attention to each of the main supporting casts' roles and growth and it plays well. only Garrett’s friends reacted to her death in any way; Garrett and Strafa's family sort of shrugged it off. Which, honestly, was a bit of a disappointment in itself. I mean, hung-over Garrett is a delightful common theme in these books. What is the world coming to when hangovers are just medicated away?) A magical contest is threatening the young of the more wealthy families in Tunfaire. Garret's new family ties have dragged him into the conflict. Now , he and his friends and a few other assorted allies have to stop the madness before too many people are killed. Plots within plots within plots will have to be untamgled to get to the truth. I think what ended up happening was that a lot of little niggling frustrations i'd collected and subsequently forgave throughout the series, just came to a head for me and made getting through this book an absolute slog; it was an almost painful experience. It got to the point where i was looking for excuses not to read.