Greetings to all lovers of good reading. What do you think of when you hear the name Garrett?? I think, since we are on a portal specializing in games, most likely you imagine a cunning and dexterous thief from the Thief series. There was also a series of fantasy novels, The Chronicles of Siala, authored by the Russian writer Alexei Pekhov, where the hero was also a master thief.

But today I want to talk about a completely different Garrett, about a Marine veteran who went through five years of the Cantard meat grinder, about one of the best detectives in Tanfer, and in general about one of the few good guys left in this rotten city. I want to talk about The Adventures of Garrett by the notorious Glen Cook.

A few words about the author.

In Russia, Cook is primarily known as the author of the “Black Squad” series, although in fact 6 episodes and more than a dozen separate novels and short stories have already been published.

An important fact in the author’s biography for our topic today is his service as a Marine in the US Navy. Remember this fact.

The author himself lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked most of his life on the General Motors assembly line.

It was there that his literary career began. The debut was the novel "Swamp Academy". The author’s subsequent works were also written there. As Cook himself stated, the work was quite simple and left a lot of free time, which he spent on his works.

Now the master is already 78 years old, and he has not announced any end to his career, although his last book was published quite a long time ago. But let’s wish the author creative success, and let’s move on to the topic of today’s conversation.

What is "The Adventures of Garrett".

At its core, this is a noir detective story in a fantasy setting, seasoned with excellent dialogue humor, which in itself is a very original and distinctive cocktail, into which the author also regularly adds various flavoring additives.

Initially, the narrative itself is firmly tied to the detective’s cases themselves, and the mystery that he must solve, while not so much attention seems to be paid to aspects of the world itself, the local numerous races and magic. However, gradually, with each subsequent book, the reader will understand better and better the world order of the local universe, which only strengthens the detective component, allowing the reader to rack his brains along with Garrett himself. The author manages to delicately, with small strokes, paint a reliably and realistically working fantasy universe.

The narration is told from Garrett’s point of view, which leaves a subjective imprint on most of the events described in the book. The series is characterized by a rapid development of the plot and a short but succinct language of the author and an unexpected, but with due attention to detail, readable ending. In terms of genre and style, books about Garrett can be compared to classic works in the hard-boiled detective genre. And in general, Cook initially conceived the books about Garrett as a classic American detective story, but his agent dissuaded him from working in this genre, believing that there was no place for him on the market. A few years later, Cook finally decided to start working on detective stories – but in a fantasy setting close to his.

Almost all the books in the series follow the same pattern: a client comes to Garrett (often, in the best traditions of noir, this is a fatal beauty), entrusting him with solving a problem. During the investigation, the detective encounters new dangerous secrets that turn out to be related to the original problem, and with enviable regularity turn it upside down. One way or another, the detective, sometimes alone, but more often with his comrades, manages to unravel the tangle of secrets and intrigues, and to one degree or another resolve the current situation, so that in the next book they will plunge into a new whirlpool of adventures.

One could say that structurally this is a pure procedural, but the books are closely connected by a single plot convoy, and given the general autonomy of each individual story, I would strongly not recommend getting acquainted with it without skipping the previous parts of Garrett’s adventures.

Main characters.

In general, we can say that the characters are perhaps the main treasure of the entire cycle; gradually most of them become really close to the reader. This even applies to such characters as Rokhlya or Playmet, who are absolutely unimportant to the plot, and there is no point in highlighting individual points for them, but every meeting with them on the pages of the novel evokes a warm feeling of communication with an old acquaintance. I’ll immediately add a couple of words about the quality of localization of names for the great and mighty, some adaptations are very good, some are not entirely successful, so when such cases come across in the future, I will draw your attention to them.

The main character of this entire epic and also the most famous private detective in all of Tanfer. It is worth noting that Garrett is a surname, but the character’s name will not be revealed to us until the last book, however, no secret is being made of this, it’s just that the character doesn’t really need it.

According to the book description, he is a very attractive blue-eyed and red-haired man in his thirties, 6 feet and 2 inches tall (about 190 cm) and in good physical shape. Although the form varies from book to book.

A former marine, although as they were taught in the army there are no former marines, who lost his entire family due to the war in Cantard. This creates a tragic past for him, based on which the detective tries to paint himself as a real cynic. But everyone who has been in close contact with Garrett knows that all this cynicism is feigned, and underneath his guise lies a truly good guy, always ready to put on his creaky, rusty armor in order to defend the weak, especially if these weak, beautiful women.

Speaking of women, the detective prefers redheads, although it is common knowledge that he also likes blondes and brunettes. And in general, he’s still a ladies’ man, and you can at least dedicate a separate chapter to his love interests.

Garrett’s favorite food is beer, but he considers wine just spoiled fruit juice. In addition, all the horses in the world are plotting against him, which is why they have mutually hostile relations.

Returning to the chivalrous nature of our detective, he has something in common with another knight-detective, albeit a dark one. Garrett, just like Batman, prefers not to kill his opponents for reasons of conscience, which is why he sometimes experiences difficulties in his professional activities.

Garrett himself is far from a fool, and is capable of unraveling the case on his own, but still the main brain of the entire cycle is his housemate and business partner – Dead Man, let’s talk about him.

The deceased is a representative of the unique Loghir race. No one has seen living logkhirs for a long time, but your humble servant is one of the dead ones. The Dead Man’s back came into close contact with the dagger, which is why he died about 400 years before he met Garrett, but the loghira creatures are very leisurely and therefore his spiritual substance continues to reside in the body, so with death he lost only the possibility of physical activity. Within the framework of the universe, a rather impressive character who managed to measure his strength even with one god, and in addition is able to read minds, hypnotize, move significant objects with the power of his mind and perform other extraordinary tricks. An ardent misogynist, lazy, periodically falls into hibernation for several weeks and even months (sometimes such hibernation continues for most of the book). Often helps Garrett find solutions to complex problems and suggests the most effective way to solve them. My favorite pastime is predicting the actions of Slavi Duraleinik (more about him below).

Dean Creech – plays the role of the butler in Garrett’s house.

We don’t know much about him; he is an old and very good-natured man who is characterized by a certain pedantry. He has a whole brood of not particularly attractive nieces, who, in the conditions of many years of war and a shortage of men, are not so easy to marry, at first he actively tries to bring them together with Garrett, but later refuses such attempts.

Has a strange relationship with the www.drueckglueckcasino.co.uk Dead Man, on the one hand respecting him and on the other, experiencing obvious fear of his paranormal essence.

Dean really doesn’t like his employer’s overly affectionate nature, which is why most new connections are subject to silent or verbal condemnation. Although he is imbued with sincere sympathy for some of the hero’s passions.

Dean’s behavior towards Garrett is similar to that of a stern but loving mother or even wife. He cleans, he cleans, he cooks, but he also grumbles and makes sarcastic comments about the way Garrett runs his business or, conversely, sits around too much, about how Garrett eats, who he dates, or how long he lies in bed in the morning.

That’s it with Garrett’s household and we can talk about his friends. And of course we should start with the hero’s best friend, Morley Dots.

Morley is an extremely charismatic half-blood dark elf who combines two businesses: assassination for hire and work as a restaurateur. Morley’s establishment was originally called the Joy House, but was later renamed The Palms. Morley shares the reputation of Tanfer’s best fighter with Flat-faced Tharp, although they never tried to compete for the championship. Morley is extremely vain and likes to explain his excellent physical condition by saying that he is a vegetarian and leads a healthy lifestyle. Morley also constantly chases women, who most often end up married. With his charm and exotic looks, he usually gets them (and a bit of trouble) but always claims that Garrett has a much easier time attracting young ladies than he does.

Morley tries not to burden himself with an unnecessary burden of conscience and moral torment, which is why he does not hesitate to kill if they will benefit him or save him from unnecessary problems.

It is Morley Dots who can be considered Garrett’s best friend; their relationship develops with the greatest dynamics, thanks to which Morley becomes close to the reader. One day Morley admits that in his entire life he has not accepted only one “custom job” – that time he had to “remove” Garrett. As Morley grows older, he gradually takes on a larger role in running his restaurant – and a smaller one in the criminal world, although he is always happy to take part in Garrett’s adventures.

Flat-faced Tharp.

Flatface Waldo’s real name, so it’s no surprise he prefers the nickname. In appearance, Tharp is an unusually large and ugly human being. He is much taller than Garrett and incredibly strong. It would seem that such dimensions hint at the admixture of the blood of giants or ogres among his ancestors, but Tharp himself gives assurance that there were only people in his family.

Professionally deals with raids and security. His day job is a cross between his friends Garrett and Morley, beating people up for money, but not accepting orders for murders. He is a little thick-headed, but has the highest degree of decency and values ​​his reputation. If he accepted money for an order, he will definitely make sure that the order is fulfilled, or, in extreme cases, he will die without retreating.

Oddly enough, Tharp prefers to date tiny and very grumpy women. In the later episodes of the series, he falls in love with Garrett’s acquaintance, Tornada. Let’s talk about her.

Here is just an example of a very successful name localization. In the original, her name is Winger, which emphasizes her character, and the localized version of the name copes with this no worse.

Tornada was tired of family life in the village, and decided to abruptly and thoroughly change her lifestyle and type of activity. The type of activity is very diverse. She tries to engage in private investigation, however, more often she is trusted with only minor assignments. Sometimes works as a bodyguard. Often gets involved in quarrels due to the lack of a basic sense of self-preservation and ingenuity. At first glance, a little narrow-minded and straightforward, she constantly tries to play her game in order to earn more, but usually nothing works out for her.

The two-meter-tall blonde is undoubtedly very attractive, but her height, physical strength and manners scare many men away from her. As a fighter not much inferior to Morley Dots and Flatface Tharp.

It is from Tornada that we can move on to Garrett’s women, since their relationship went from purely friendly, no no, but also fell into the horizontal plane.

And in general, the section about women could be perhaps the largest, because in each book Garrett has a new passion, or even several at once, but here I will try to highlight only a few of the most important.

Tinny is the very first love interest of the detective that we are shown, for she appears already in the very first book. Their relationship can hardly be called ideal; it constantly breaks down, then flares up again after a short break. It is Tinny Garrett who introduces himself as his bride, however, he does this for certain circumstances, and this ultimately leads to nothing. The relationship with the hero ultimately reaches a dead end from which they do not strive to get out, which leads to the final separation.

Tinny is in her mid-twenties, a short, fiery-maned beauty with the kind of curves and figure that men would fight to the death for. She lives at the Tate estate with her cousin Rose, Uncle Willard and all the other numerous short relatives.

It is highly controversial that she can be placed here, because she died before Garrett was born, but nevertheless this did not stop him from meeting her spirit, after the disappearance of which the detective will take for himself a picture drawn by an insanely brilliant author depicting Eleanor. He will regularly communicate with this picture.

Strafa Algarda.

Not much can be said about her, she is also known as Windwalker, Furious Tide of Light. The first magical girl with whom Garrett falls completely and completely in love, and eventually marries her. That’s the only reason I added it to this list.

Next I’ll list a few more characters who are difficult to categorize, but who are also extremely important to the story.

Chodo and Belinda Contague.

Father and daughter at different times headed the Organization, a local mafia group. Chodo crossed paths with Garrett several times, and he unwittingly helped him, because of this he considers himself Garrett’s debtor and assists him.

Chodo is no longer young and confined to a wheelchair, he plays a very, very prominent role. The cruelty attributed to him is such that his assistant guard dogs, professional killers, look like domestic lapdogs against this background. Without a doubt one of the most powerful men in the city. Like a Mafia Don, Chodo has his own ideas about duty, honor and respect – so it’s safe to assume that goodwill towards Garrett will end as soon as their goals intersect. At a certain point, Chodo turns into a vegetable state, and the organization, as a result of internal struggle, is headed by his daughter Belinda. The girl is extremely attractive, which is why she and Garrett even begin a relationship, which, however, is interrupted when she takes the place of her father, defeating Krask and Sadler.

Crask and Sadler.

Exactly this way and in no way separate, these comrades are like Askold and Dir, the whole work is closely connected with each other.

These two are professional assassins. They grew up in the slums, in terrible poverty, served in Cantard and entered the service of the king of the underworld, Chodo Contague. Recklessly carrying out any tasks of Chodo, they cherished the dream of taking the organization of criminals into their own hands after the death of a disabled person. And they almost succeeded, but as I wrote above, Belinda won the fight.

Later, Crask and Sadler kidnap Belinda and try to kill her, but Garrett tracks them down and puts them behind bars. A couple of thugs will manage to escape, but they will still be killed.

Slavi Duraleinik.

Another example of an extremely successful name adaptation. In the original, his name is Glory Munkold, so the Russian name perfectly reflects what the author wanted to say, but neither name reflects the essence of the character himself.

A brilliant mercenary general who first fought on one side, then on the other, and then completely declared the independence of Kantard. A character whose storyline will develop in absentia throughout the entire narrative. The whole of Tanfer will constantly buzz about his exploits at the front, and wait with bated breath for new rumors about them, the reader will also wait for them, because I wonder how his many years of struggle will end.

And it is from this character, whose role is to increase the reader’s involvement in the world, that we move on to the scene of action.

The world of "Garrett’s Adventures".

The world of "Garrett’s Adventures" does not have its own name, and in general it is not capable of striking with any of its breadth; it is rather impressive in its depth of elaboration. For the author fully reveals only those details of the world that are relevant to the narration in the books.

The action of almost all books takes place in the capital of the kingdom of Karenta-Tanfer. The dominant and nominally main race of Karenta are people, but many non-human races also live on the territory of both the city and the state. There is also an interesting feature: non-humans are not required to serve in the army, while absolutely the entire male population is required to undergo military service. Why is the number of representatives of other races constantly growing, but people are falling. What will result in certain upheavals for the kingdom.

It is also worth mentioning that for several generations Karenta has been firmly mired in a conflict with another power, the Venegat (about whom we know almost nothing) over the territory called Kantard. It is there that all young men go to fight and it is there that Slavi Duraleinik accomplishes great things.

At first, the war is just a distant background that has little to do with the main characters, but gradually we understand how strong its influence is on Tanfer’s life, and what a powerful catalyst it serves for a number of cases that Garrett has to unravel.

Now a few words about Tanfer himself, the prototype for him was St. Louis, where Glen Cook himself has lived for many years. According to the author, when working on books, he keeps in his head a map of St. Louis reduced by about half with the main roads and areas, but does not strive to adhere to it meticulously. Some locations in the books can be compared to certain places in St. Louis.

Tanfer consists of several districts. The Hill is the home of the aristocracy and wizards. The peculiarity of the magic of this world is that when casting especially powerful spells, you have to spend silver, so the whole policy of the powerful lies in intrigue and struggle for sources of replenishing the treasury with silver. It is precisely in silver that the lands of Kantard are rich. Garrett does not like to interfere in the affairs of the “powers that be,” but his investigations often lead to the Hill, where dark things are going on behind the façade of aristocratic mansions.

At the foot of the Hill are neighborhoods where the commercial and industrial elite live – for example, the clans of the brewer Vader and the shoemaker Tate.

The center of the city’s religious life is the Street of a Thousand Temples: religious cults and their pantheons are fighting for a place on this street.

Further from the center there are poorer neighborhoods that become slums. The most disrespectable area of ​​the city is the Bottom, where the poorest citizens live. Representatives of non-human races live in enclaves: Goblin City, Dwarf Fort and others. It’s often unsafe for a person to go there, and if the investigation leads Garrett there, it usually gets him into serious trouble.

Outside the city there are farmsteads and aristocratic estates. Garrett visits them only sporadically. The world outside Tanfer is practically not described in books

Here is such a small and not too complex world at first glance, which, however, quite copes with its function of drawing the reader into itself. I would compare it with the first Gothic, absolutely nothing superfluous, every moment is important and every moment plays its role.

To be honest, I myself don’t know why I decided to write this text, I just read the whole series and I wanted to talk about it so that maybe more people could get acquainted with it. And when you mentioned the name Garrett, not only the game image popped up in your mind, but also the image of the glorious detective from the books. Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

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