This book was... weird. Mostly good weird, sometimes bad weird, often neutral weird. I can't remember reading a well-written book with so little dedication to metaplot or a continuous storyline. Like ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kaianos termed it, it was sort of episodic, like a long-running TV series with a intermittent metaplot that cropped up now and then and mostly a string of events happening to a couple recurring characters. That was pretty much the only issue I took with it, though it's a big issue; otherwise I would give this book three stars and recommend it based on entertainment factor and how engaging Hegel and Manfried Grossbart wound up being as characters. They were pretty peculiar and stood alone as far as fantasy protagonists go -- it's rare you see main characters of fantasy works who are genuinely stupid. Readers tend to sympathize better with intelligent characters. And so do I, honestly, but for a refreshing change it was interesting to read along with a pair of characters who aren't only naive and ignorant, but just plain don't figure things out, like average people, and don't stumble on a lot of plot elements because they just don't notice them. It's frustrating sometimes, but it's also new, and it makes them more sympathetic for how abominably lucky they are.
The other thing about the Grossbarts is that -- well, speaking trope-wise, most criminal, murderous, or otherwise "bad" characters in fantasy tend to be gritty, hard-boiled, and unapologetically bad. Reading The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart is like watching Fargo or some other movie where people blunder into doing horrible things through force of their own panic and stupidity and justify why they're still good people inside their own heads -- except with more swearing, blood and guts, Black Death, and graverobbing. It's really hard to describe the extremely dumb, extremely flawed protagonists of this book in a way that makes them sound appealing, but the book does a much better job of it.
Aside from that -- some of the same stuff from Enterprise of Death applies, it's Bullington, so it's funny, relatively light-hearted (though it's both darker and more absurd than Enterprise), over-the-toply violent, full of blood and disgusting gore, and occasionally anachronistic. The anachronisms weren't as glaring in this one, though, and there were a few nice touches (like that the Grossbarts never had any idea the language they spoke was called "German" because they'd never met anyone who wasn't from Germany). I think Enterprise was a stronger book, but I don't regret reading about the Grossbarts either: actually, I recommend both of Bullington's books to anyone who is not averse to dark humor and a lot of people dying. They're novel, anyway, and originality is a little hard to come by in publishing.
kaianos termed it, it was sort of episodic, like a long-running TV series with a intermittent metaplot that cropped up now and then and mostly a string of events happening to a couple recurring characters. That was pretty much the only issue I took with it, though it's a big issue; otherwise I would give this book three stars and recommend it based on entertainment factor and how engaging Hegel and Manfried Grossbart wound up being as characters. They were pretty peculiar and stood alone as far as fantasy protagonists go -- it's rare you see main characters of fantasy works who are genuinely stupid. Readers tend to sympathize better with intelligent characters. And so do I, honestly, but for a refreshing change it was interesting to read along with a pair of characters who aren't only naive and ignorant, but just plain don't figure things out, like average people, and don't stumble on a lot of plot elements because they just don't notice them. It's frustrating sometimes, but it's also new, and it makes them more sympathetic for how abominably lucky they are.The other thing about the Grossbarts is that -- well, speaking trope-wise, most criminal, murderous, or otherwise "bad" characters in fantasy tend to be gritty, hard-boiled, and unapologetically bad. Reading The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart is like watching Fargo or some other movie where people blunder into doing horrible things through force of their own panic and stupidity and justify why they're still good people inside their own heads -- except with more swearing, blood and guts, Black Death, and graverobbing. It's really hard to describe the extremely dumb, extremely flawed protagonists of this book in a way that makes them sound appealing, but the book does a much better job of it.
Aside from that -- some of the same stuff from Enterprise of Death applies, it's Bullington, so it's funny, relatively light-hearted (though it's both darker and more absurd than Enterprise), over-the-toply violent, full of blood and disgusting gore, and occasionally anachronistic. The anachronisms weren't as glaring in this one, though, and there were a few nice touches (like that the Grossbarts never had any idea the language they spoke was called "German" because they'd never met anyone who wasn't from Germany). I think Enterprise was a stronger book, but I don't regret reading about the Grossbarts either: actually, I recommend both of Bullington's books to anyone who is not averse to dark humor and a lot of people dying. They're novel, anyway, and originality is a little hard to come by in publishing.
