Author Topic: New short story  (Read 20716 times)

Offline morriswalters

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New short story
« on: October 08, 2019, 11:11:39 AM »
In one word. Meh.

Offline Yuillegan

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Re: New short story
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2019, 12:22:46 PM »
What did you find unappealing about it?

Anything interesting catch your eye?

Offline morriswalters

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Re: New short story
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2019, 02:22:30 PM »
This reminds me of a gourmet dinner without spices.  You can see where it could be a taste treat, but without spices it's meh.  It might be fun if he contracted this one out to someone like, maybe Larry Correia, who could run with it.
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Offline 123Chikadee

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Re: New short story
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2019, 07:13:29 PM »
@morriswalters: So, that's the synopsis? Well that is disappointing. I really hope that turns out to be incorrect.   

Offline Yuillegan

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Re: New short story
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2019, 10:30:34 PM »
That's a shame. I thought the Goodman Grey one was out soon and this was it.

But this looks like Harry just being unreasonably difficult to work with while interacting with Marcone.

Offline morriswalters

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Re: New short story
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2019, 01:26:00 AM »
Well, maybe the problem is that Goodman Grey isn't well developed.  Everybody else had multiple books.

Offline toodeep

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Re: New short story
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2019, 06:40:35 PM »
I agree it was meh.  It was the first look into the world of Goodman Grey, and it was extremely uninformative.  It might have had to have been to keep his mystique, but it made the story very bland.  It gave no information about his past, no real additional information about his abilities or limits, and very little about his goals/methods; other than he does generally appear to try to be a "good" monster, and his price of 1 dollar with Dresden wasn't a one-off, it is what he charges all his clients.  The real question is, would he be as easy to hire on a job to go kill a school full of children, or some other "monstrous" act (since he acknowledges being a monster).  We get no idea what his ethical goals/requirements really are.  How does his apparent desire to be "good" square with the immediate feeling that he give the KotC that he is "very bad?"

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: New short story
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2019, 07:31:15 PM »
He claims to be doing good to pay the Rent,
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The story was meh. One thing I noticed was that Grey referred to magazines as such instead of clips like Harry always seems to. This implies that Jim knows the difference, but Harry doesn't.

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Offline Mira

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Re: New short story
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2019, 08:53:45 PM »


So are you saying not to waste my money on the anthology? :o

Offline morriswalters

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Re: New short story
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2019, 10:13:40 PM »
I don't regret buying it.

Offline Snark Knight

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Re: New short story
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2019, 11:34:35 PM »
It was alright, but the lack of revealing any real backstory or lore held it back somewhat. Viti was interesting in a way - I wonder if she might have some superhuman heritage too, with that kind of shooting skill.

Was the line about Marcone's "big dumb Einherjar bodyguard" a hint that Hendricks died and signed on with Monoc to stay in the game / stay with Gard? Or has Hendricks been replaced by an Einherjar? If he was referring to Hendricks at all, it's vaguely amusing that Grey makes the same mistake of underestimating him that Harry does.


That's a shame. I thought the Goodman Grey one was out soon and this was it.
But this looks like Harry just being unreasonably difficult to work with while interacting with Marcone.

Grey's POV isn't really that Harry-like, actually. He's closer to Marcone in Even Hand, trying to bury everything under a just-business veneer, but with the same avenging streak toward child abusers.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2019, 12:10:14 AM by Snark Knight »

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: New short story
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2019, 03:43:23 PM »

So are you saying not to waste my money on the anthology? :o
I didn't pay for it. At some point I must have gone with not two day shipping on prime, so I had a $5 credit available for a kindle purchase. It was only $4.99. It's a pretty common option, and I occasionally choose it when I need the thing by a specific date (a nibling's birthday), and two day shipping is unnecessary.

Also there are other stories because it's an anthology. I haven't read any of them. Has anyone else, and are they worth it?

Offline Arjan

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Re: New short story
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2019, 04:54:36 PM »
I read the first story and I liked it.
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Offline Dina

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Re: New short story
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2019, 08:56:17 PM »
I liked this story more than some of the recent ones, probably because I really, really like Goodman Grey, but I wanted to know more about him. The problem, I feel, is that even when the story is told in first person, it is not really a point of view. He just describes the things he does, more or less like a third person narrator would do. With a few minor exceptions about his appreciation of her secretary's body (ugh) and a couple of suggestions of his fury at the thugs, we don't know any of his feelings. A little more inner monologue about what he was thinking/feeling instead of the plain description of his actions would have helped a lot. Also, I would have liked at least a moment of, I don't know, vulnerability or something like that. He seems just too perfect and accomplished, and that is not so interesting to read.
I still like the character and I want to know more about him and about the new character. I would love to see GG in PT, interacting with Harry again. I wish we could have glimpsed at what GG actually thinks about him.
Many things of the story were great, the small touches, like how he learnt Spanish long ago, how he felt that Viti was doing well and things like that, but as morris said, it was like a gourmet dish without spices.
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Offline Snark Knight

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Re: New short story
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2019, 11:15:10 PM »
Also there are other stories because it's an anthology. I haven't read any of them. Has anyone else, and are they worth it?

I'm maybe 60% through the rest of it. Quality varies widely, but there are some good ones.


The problem, I feel, is that even when the story is told in first person, it is not really a point of view. He just describes the things he does, more or less like a third person narrator would do.

Yep. I wasn't expecting an explanation on The Rent or anything that significant, but a POV short without telling us anything more than we already knew about the POV character seems a bit skimpy. I understand Jim may be saving up his material for the Grey spinoff novel he's talked about in some event videos, but this would have been a good opportunity to drop something that would build a little more excitement for that.