Review: The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Publication Date: June 11, 2019


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

There is nothing worse to a reader than a book with a great opening line and a terrible follow-through. And The Grand Dark has a fantastic opening line: "The Great War was over, but everyone knew another war was coming and it drove the city a little mad." That's a line with promise. That's a line that beckons you to read on.

And so I read on . . . and almost immediately, my eyes started glazing over. I'm not sure what the opposite of a gripping story is--a loose story? A slippery story? Words like "tedious" really don't capture the thing--but suffice to say, this is that. Things began happening in the last quarter or so, which isn't a compliment.

I bumped this up from one to two stars only because the writing, though numbing, is at least technically competent. I generally reserve one-star reviews for books that I legitimately believe shouldn't have been published as-is. This book is far from skillfully written, and it wasn't nearly as interesting as it meant to be, but at least it seemed professionally produced.

Overall: not recommended.