The Walrus & the Warwolf (Trade Paperback)

Thank for Eric Mona for making sure this was published. This book turned me onto Hugh Cooks writing, and my literary life was enriched for it.

This is sword and sorcery at its grittiest, and the writing and plot are superb. I second the notion that fans of the Dying Earth will enjoy this; I read this and Cugel's Saga each for the first time, back to back, and thoroughly enjoyed Cook's bizarre and intriguing world and writing. I'm now in the process of reading the rest of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness and have yet to be disappointed! If only Planet Stories had a production schedule that would allow them to reprint all of the books in this under-appreciated series....

if you love cudgel the clever, you'll like drake the teenage pirate. in other words if you loved dying earth stories you'll find the walrus and the warwolf utterly delightful.

dialogues are brisk and fun, wit is crackling dry, action is great and let's hope paizo continues with some 80's love. i hope that invasion from down bellow (cook was a kiwi) continues with some oz goodness. like for example keith taylor's bard series.

What can I say about this book? It is difficult for me to sum it up. I started a subscription to Planet Stories based on what I read about it. I had really high hopes for it, that being said, perhaps my hopes were set a bit too high. This book is not a great book, as far as books go, I'm waffling on even calling it a good book. It's not to say that there weren't some really great parts of the book, but over all it was lacking and left me wishing it could have been better.

Part of the problem is it didn't have a real overall story format, as least not what I was expecting. I went in to it thinking it wasn't going to be a heroic Bildungsroman story, which in the end I actually think it turned out to be in some respects. I didn't expect the wandering personal journal that it felt like though. The story skips around from one adventure to another, sometimes unrelated, with seemingly no real point. While it does fit the chaotic life of a bunch of pirates, at times the adventures drag on and I found myself bored by them. These slow parts were difficult to read. Just about the time it would get almost unbearable, something interesting would happen and I would fly through a couple chapters. Overall I found this a difficult book to read, not because it is written at a high reading level, but because of the boring parts. I found myself wanting to finish it none the less. I think the story could have been told just as well with 100 fewer pages. I don’t want to have to read about being held captive again for quite some time.

Now for the good stuff, there were parts of the book I really enjoyed, in particular I loved the part about Drake's Goulash. It's not often that something I read will have me laughing out loud, but I couldn't stop laughing reading that section. With all his flaws, he is a likable character. His remembrance of those who died is also surprising and shows his humanity. I also really like Jon Arabin, Walrus Mike, and even a couple of the other minor characters. I did end up feeling a certain kinship with them after finishing the story, and mourned the losses the characters experience. At times the repartee and interaction between the characters is very engrossing. I can easily imagine pirates would really act, interact, and react to the things going on around them the way the characters in the book do. The unique monsters were also a nice change of pace. This is not the place to find Tolkienesque monsters.

Mr. Miéville says that Drake doesn't learn from his mistakes or mature, but I think he does both by quite a bit by the end of the story. The book covers about 5 years of his life from 16 to sometime in his early 20s, and while you definitely see some of the 'nothing can harm me' attitude and stupidity of a teenage boy, he has grown up by the end of the story. It makes it quite ironic and poignant when Drake makes comments about some new shipmates near the end of the story.

Some may be turned off by the vulgar callousness of the pirates, or incest (which is quite mild and doesn’t go into any details on), or even a rape scene (which holds nothing on the Thomas Covenant rape scene in the book Lord Foul’s Bane). If you can’t handle these kinds of things, this book definitely is not for you.

The author does not hold punches characters die unexpectedly, cities are destroyed, valuable gear is lost and destroyed, and nothing is sacred. Ultimately I liked the book, but it is not one I’m likely to read again, or even recommend to others without a strong warning about the above points I make. I would definitely have a hard time making room in my reading list for other books in the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series. If I could give it 3 1/2 stars I would, so I gotta give it a 3 as it doesn't deserve a 4 in my opinion.

I’ve noticed a tendency among book reviewers (and movie reviewers and game reviewers…) to make sweeping judgments on their subjects. There’s little taking into account differing tastes between individuals. If the reviewer didn’t like the book, then by Gum, no one should like that book.

That said, I’ll start by saying that I found this book very unsettling. It hit on many sensitive spots: what some today might call ‘puritan values’ spots. I’m a religiously and family minded person and I honestly was not comfortable with a lot of subject matter in this book. A few times, I was tempted to do with it what I’ve only done on three other occasions before and put it down for good.

In the end, I’m glad that I didn’t.

In The Walrus and the Warwolf: Book three in A Chronicle of an Age of Darkness, Hugh Cook manages to use a superb literary foil to hold a mirror to our society and say what all it’s doing wrong. He does this by showing you a person, Drake Douay, who holds in high regard many twisted and corrupt values. In his society incest is not only ok, it’s considered a means of moving ahead in the world. Drinking and gambling are forms of religious worship. Destruction of property is worse than destruction of life.

The book follows Drake through a series of seemingly unrelated adventures, but like a twisted sort of medieval morality play, each adventure carries with it a subtle message: one that I can’t help but notice most readers seem to miss because of how fun these adventures are. I know China Meiville didn’t get it. He as much says so in his introduction. Just like it so often is in real life, each adventure has a consequence that is easy to overlook. Over time these add up, and while Drake never seems aware of the changes, he does change. Events do impact him. In the end we are given the moral of our reverse morality play.

In the end, I felt my ‘puritan values’ made more sense, without pointing a finger of judgment on anyone that might not share them. There are a lot of books worse than this one on recommended lists for English literature classes. Cook deals with questions about virtue, loyalty, honesty, fidelity, family, government, leadership, and love. We see Drake as he goes through an epic amount of the human experience in a short time. No play of Shakespeare covers as much in a single shot (no, I’m not saying it’s better than Shakespeare.) For literary value there’s alliteration, foil, satire, irony, and just darn good writing. (Yes, DGW is a real literary term, just like I’m a real book reviewer.)

So, um, Tokoz? Why the four stars?

This book isn’t for everyone. If my second paragraph actually makes you hesitate rather than ask, “But does it have pr0n?” then it might not be for you. People with a highly developed ‘moral compass’ might find the book disorienting and even nauseating. Another type of person that might want to avoid this book is someone that reads for escapism. If you don’t stop and think about it being a mirror to today, it might not bother you, but then again, you might not be ready to look at the reflection that Hugh Cook has ‘cooked’ up.

Enjoy it first and learn something second. Learn something first and enjoy it second. Enjoy it and don’t bother learning anything at all. The rest of the population will still find something they can sink their teeth into.

And skip the introduction. I honestly haven’t read much by Mr. Mieville, but the three f-bombs, the numerous spoilers and his erroneous conclusions about Bildungsroman (Bing is your friend here) in regards to this book, leave me wondering if he’d read it recently and if he had, if he’d read all of it recently. (His definition is fine. He’s just misses the fact that it does happen in Drake’s case.)

Swordsmith's apprentice Drake Douay is sentenced to death by drowning for vandalism and destruction of property. As Drake is swimming back to shore, he chances upon Zanya, a red skinned, red haired beauty, and decides he'll do anything to get into her knickers. Can two ships of pirates, revolution, and all manner of disgusting monsters stop Drake from being reunited with Zanya and giving her the rogering of a lifetime?

Drake Douay is a lying, cowardly, slimy, drunken fornicator. And I love him! This is one of the easier books I've ever had to rate.

The Walrus & the Warwolf isn't your typical fantasy. Drake Douay is no Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins, that's for sure. Drake's a follower of the Demon God Hagon and worships accordingly: drinking and fornicating. His sister is a temple whore so he gets a good rate. Yes, incest is played for laughs in this story. Not only is Drake a scoundrel, he remains true to his lying cowardly self for the entirety of the book. The lies just keep coming and Drake gets into bigger and bigger trouble.

The Walrus and The Warwolf are the names of two pirate ships and the nicknames of the captains that sail upon them. The captains are well rounded and hilarious. Some of the pirate dialogue was so rough that it almost offended me. You have to love a story where one of the milder insults used by the characters is "octopus rapist." The supporting cast is also full of gems, like King Tor, and Muck, a man who's syphilis caused him to start his own flame-worshipping religion.

The world of TW&TW is one of fantasy and little understood technology of a lost age. While some of it is serious, like teleportation gates and a flying ship, I laughed hard when one of the pirates smashed a Rubik's Cube in disgust.

The story is equal parts pulp fantasy and humor. The tone is full of dry wit and reminds me of Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time at times, as well as Glorianna, also by the esteemed Mr. Moorcock.

This was the easiest five I ever stuck on a book. If you like fantasy, British humor, pirates, or really offensive language, this is for you. If you don't, buy it anyway. God knows you don't have enough books with the word Walrus in the title...