Book Review: Whyborne and Griffin series

[teromain]

This is currently a four five book series with a smaller side novella but I'm reviewing them as one singular chunk so there may be mild spoilers. Also I haven't read the fifth one!

Comments

[gaeare]

Hello ! Thanks, that look interesting and i think i will read this series. I saw the book 5 "Bloodline" is published if you not already read that ^^

[teromain]

Oh, I didn't know there was already another book! Thanks for letting me know :)

[writing_toole]

These stories are all very heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's work, and arguably live in the world he created. (I'm half waiting for Cthulhu to show up) On the one hand that's good, since it gives an extra richness to background that the author doesn't have to explain. On the other hand, if you're not familiar with the background it can be kind of hard to figure out some of the stranger bits

[teromain]

Oh yeah, I've read some of Lovecraft's work and am fairly familiar with it (I didn't mention the parallels in this review just because the review was kind of short), although I haven't read the particular story/sonnets that these creatures showed up in so that's why it stuck out as being odd to me. In fact, it still feels really odd even knowing that they fit in with the general Lovecraft feel to the story. Since everything else is generally earth/sea bound and originates from Earth, having these random aliens pop up (and present them as quite powerful and quite a threat but then never mention them again and have them somehow contained to one town) still jarrs the narrative. While every other story in this series connects to others in plot or character or something, this one could be removed from the series without really damaging any continuity. And that's why it sticks out to me and I consider it the weakest of the bunch.

[writing_toole]

Ah, OK, that makes sense. These guys are part of the whole "horror from outer space" theme that Lovecraft is so fond of, if fond is the right word, so it didn't surprise me all that much to see them show up in the series. You're right, though, that everything else that's gone on has been earthbound.

I suppose that might be intentional -- it was the second book, and you're probably not the only person who found the whole squdgy alien thing a bit weird so it got dropped. (I assume the nebulous Big Bad in Stormhaven was either Dagon or Cthulhu, who are both alien, but they're kind of on a different level so don't count)

OTOH, maybe we'll see Great Old Ones and evil penguins in book 6. Which would be kinda cool. :)

[teromain]

I think it could have worked, but it really did feel so random and separated from the other stories in just the way it was done and presented. I also read the first few books all in a row, so it might have been different to someone waiting for each story to come out instead of basically reading them like one combined work. Stormhaven was really the book where the Lovecraft influence got really overt, so maybe if Threshold had been set afterwards it would have seemed less random? I don't know. I don't hate the book, it's just my least favorite of them because the events themselves leave so much unanswered and unexplained and maybe equating them to Native American legends wasn't the right angle and also I couldn't take the word 'yayho' seriously.

Re: your review

[teromain]

It's a great series, glad you're finding it enjoyable! It really gets even better as it goes.