The Grand Dark
From the bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M John Harrison a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos.The Great War is over The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war s horrifying despair But this newfound hedonism drugs and sex and endless parties distracts from strange realities of everyday life Intelligent automata taking jobs Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can t mask.Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city s streets and its secrets intimately His life seems set He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotion and maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets.But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward Others have a vision of life very different from Largo s, and they will use any methods to secure control And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms. Best Read Kindle ePUB The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey – kino-fada.fr Calling this a DNF page 97 The cover is gorgeous, and the idea is really clever and intriguing, but I found the pacing to be far too slow, and I see I m not the only early reviewer to feel this way so far I think this will be a great book ...Kadrey s The Grand Dark is an expedition into a world of fantasy very different from sword battling rascals and pirate conquests ThinkKafka meets Orwell meets Germanic Steampunk First, of all, the world created in this novel is at once sort of familiar, but in other respects, unique, different, odd The setting is dreary, coal fired smoke filled, war ruined City of Lower Proszawa following a Great War that left Upper Proszawa a world of desolation, ruin, and plague The place names and w Kadrey s The Grand Dark is an expedition into a world of fantasy very different from sword battling rascals and pirate conquests ThinkKafka meets Orwell meets Germanic Steampunk First, of all, the world created in this novel is at once sort of familiar, but in other respects, unique, different, odd The setting is dreary, coal fired smoke filled, war ruined City of Lower Proszawa following a Great War that left Upper Proszawa a world of desolation, ruin, and plague The place names and words used to describe things feel German, or at least Eastern European The setting is a city after a huge war struggling to recover and filled with theaters, actors, dancing, parties, and drugs It feels like the decadence of Weimar Germany after the First World War, but it is not, despite t...Review also found at read with the MacHalos starting June 11, 2019.Release date June 11, 2019 by Harper Voyager Gorgeous cover alert Largo is a bicycle messenger who delivers parcels to people all over the city, whether they are in the slums or live in a wealthy area His girlfriend, Remy, is a performer in a theater called The Grand Dark Largo and Remy hang out with artistic people at parties, do drugs, make love, live hard and fast like the yout Review also found at read with the MacHalos starting June 11, 2019.Release date June 11, 2019 by Harper Voyager Gorgeous cover alert Largo is a bicycle messenger who delivers parcels to people all over the city, whether they are in the slums or live in a wealthy area His girlfriend, Remy, is a performer in a theater called The Grand Dark Largo and Remy hang out with artistic people at parties, do drugs, make love, live hard and fast like the youth.The setting is a post war dystopian steampunk world that I believe is based off Germany and or Russia There are automatons, some people have prosthetic mechanical limbs, there are chimeras, and psychic mediums.I respect that the author tried for something very different here compared to the Sandman Slim and Coop heist books This one isserious and not as madcap and witty This is my third Kadrey book, and I am a newbie Sandman fan only read the first This is a dark, repressed, fearful world where any mi...3 StarsReview I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley Edelweiss This has not influenced my review This was one of those books that had a low thrum of tension throughout the whole thing, that feeling that things were weird and wrong even though you didn t yet know what But since I didn t really know what the plot was working toward, I didn t have this sense of things building, and the book felt slow for about the first 2 3 The beginning of the book also seemed to beworld b 3 StarsReview I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley Edelweiss This has not influenced my review This was one of those books that had a low thrum of tension throughout the whole thing, that feeling that things were weird and wrong even though you didn t yet know what But since I didn t really know what the plot was working toward, I didn t have this sense of things building, and the book felt slow for about the first 2 3 The beginning of the book also seemed to beworld building and descriptions of settings than plot, and the articles and things that were between chapters sometimes only slowed the paceThat being said, once things did really start building and take off around the last third, they got pretty twisty and c...The premise sounded so great I wanted to enjoy this book, but I found out I couldn t care less for the characters or how the story moved The pace of it was off for me, but I can t quite put my finger on why I just felt lost inside the story, like I was missing a bit...The Grand Dark is the tale of Largo, a bike courier, working in a dirty futuristic city, somewhat reminiscent of Blade Runner The technology is a steampunk blend of autonomous robots Maras and chimeras The city seems trapped in between past and future wars, with a police and secret police presence to suppress opposition Largo has a beautiful girlfriend actress named Remi, who is kind of slumming with him, but they seem to enjoy sex and drugs together Sadly, the characters are dull and the The Grand Dark is the tale of Largo, a bike courier, working in a dirty futuristic city, somewhat reminiscent of Blade Runner The technology is a steampunk blend of autonomous robots Maras and chimeras The city seems trapped in between past and future wars, with a police and secret police presence to suppress opposition L...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 mos 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 worl...I so wanted to like The Grand Dark, but it didn t work out that way This is a seriously slow going story, and the pace caused disinterest for me I read and skimmed some because I could not connect with t...I lusted for The Grand Dark from the moment I laid eyes on that cover It looked magical the first sentences promised me war, and it was written by the father of my all time favorite badass, Sandman Slim I thought I d died and gone to heaven Thank you Netgalley for fulfilling my wish My heart thumped when I received notification of approval Please don t hold this review against me.How do I What can I Oh just pull off the bandage already.The Grand Dark is an extraordinarily well written n I lusted for The Grand Dark from the moment I laid eyes on that cover It looked magical the first sentences promised me war, and it was written by the father of my all time favorite badass, Sandman Slim I thought I d died and gone to heaven Thank you Netgalley for fulfilling my wish My heart thumped when I received notification of approval Please don t hold this review against me.How do I What can I Oh just pull off the bandage already.The Grand Dark is an extraordinarily well written novel full of danger and debauchery The main character is fully rea...Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature The Grand Dark is an unpredictable, enthralling read full of thing you won t see coming After finishing the book, I noticed on Goodreads that there are quite a lot of mixed reviews for this and I find that rather disappointing There are definitely some areas for improvement in these pages, which I ll discuss later in my review, but there s so muchin the way of exciting ideas and engaging characters that made this extremely enjoyable for me Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature The Grand Dark is an unpredictable, enthralling read full of thing you won t see coming After finishing the book, I noticed on Goodreads that there are quite a lot of mixed reviews for this and I find that rather disappointing There are definitely some areas for improvement in these pages, which I ll discuss later in my review, but there s so muchin the way of exciting ideas and engaging characters that made this extremely enjoyable for me This is a book that will absolutely keep you on your toes.The world building in The Grand Dark is strong and introduces a rather gritty location on the heels of a The Great War which has left the city rife with dirt, disease, and a slow recovery Based upon the names of various places within this book and the usage of Herr and the like, it also has what seems to be a German influence on the world, though I m not sure exactly what the inspiration for this was Within this book we m...You can find this review andon my blog.Stars 2 out of 5 and that s pushing it because at least the language is good I love the Sandman Slim series, so I really, REALLY, wanted to love this book I was so excited to receive the ARC from Netgalley that I pushed all my other half read books aside to start this as soon as possible Unfortunately, my excitement soon turned into bewilderment, then annoyance, then boredom I finished it only because I was already 75% done and felt like I d al You can find this review andon my blog.Stars 2 out of 5 and that s pushing it because at least the language is good I love the Sandman Slim series, so I really, REALLY, wanted to love this book I was so excited to receive the ARC from Netgalley that I pushed all my other half read books aside to start this as soon as possible Unfortunately, my excitement soon turned into bewilderment, then annoyance, then boredom I finished it only because I was already 75% done and felt like I d already suffered enough torture to stick around and see the ending which was nothing to call home about.So what went wrong with this book Oh where do I begin Get comfortable, it s gonna take a while.First and biggest problem, in my opinion, is the pacing NOTHING, and I mean, nothing happens in the first 3 4 ...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 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...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 mos 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...
- 07 July 2017 Richard Kadrey
- ebook
- 432 pages
- 0062672533
- Richard Kadrey
- The Grand Dark