The Grim Company

Like Game Of Thrones But With A Lot More Laughs

Set in a world in which the gods have been murdered by a cartel of magicians who have since fallen out and now compete for dominion, The Grim Company is a multi-viewpoint fantasy with some distinctly original touches (for example, the decaying bodies of the gods are responsible for freaks of the climate), plenty of graphic violence and a dark but contagious sense of humour. Its central characters, deeply flawed and often thoroughly misanthropic, are boldly drawn and quickly take hold of the imagination of the reader. The result is a compelling piece of storytelling that keeps you listening until the last sentence. A bit like A Game Of Thrones but with a lot more laughs.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Bland and uninspiring... a resounding "meh!"

I picked it up because all reviews rave about how Luke Scull is the "new Abercrombie"... and I thoroughly disagree!

I mean, sure, it's gritty, dark fantasy with some political intrigue and some not-entirely-unexpected plot twists, but the similarities end there for me:

1. Writing style: I cringed at all the clumsily presented exposition: do characters really need to flap their mouths all the time telling each other stories and plot elements that they should all be familiar with, just because the author didn't find any more inventive way of informing the reader? (also, do we really need a painstaking physical description of every character as they enter the scene? HINT: no). Dialogue in general feels forced and unnatural, again more like the author talking to the reader than the characters talking among themselves.

Also, the characters' vocabulary is all over the place, switching from low-class to high-brow with no sense of continuity; thesaurus abuse is also evident in the use of "erudite" words such as "coruscation".

2. Characterization: I guess the author tried to break some clichés, but in my opinion tried too hard... the characters feel more like a collection of quirks with a backstory than actual living beings, and their reactions to events feel awkward and forced, as if you could see the Plot holding every character's strings and forcing them forward (the ridiculous battle and ensuing dialogue with the Shaman at the end of the book comes to mind).

3. World-building: nothing earth-shatteringly new in the setting (mage wars, magic fading away, ancient evils emerging...), so I will simply give this a pass and see what the author comes up with to tighten it up in the future.



Finally, about the voice acting:

I had quite liked Joe Jameson' interpretation of "Prince of Thorns" by Mark Lawrence, and I was expecting more of the same; instead, I found the delivery quite stilted and weak, and the voices unsuited to the characters at times (especially women).

19 of 23 people found this review helpful

If you're a "GrimDark" fan...

I'm 60% through this and loving it so far - deceptively simple cast of characters turn out to have much deeper sides to their nature with back-stories to match, plus a non-stop plot that pulls you along from one exciting set-piece to the next. What's not to like? It's been said before I know (sorry Luke!) but if you like the Joe Abercrombie style of fantasy you won't go wrong with this. It's maybe not as polished as Joe's work has now become but it's a fine start. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

BTW Very well read by Joe Jameson - I'd not heard his narration before but I'm impressed. Bodes well for the Mark Lawrence titles I have cued up to hear next.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Dull, tedious and uninspriring

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the writing style was better and the story moved along at a cracking pace it might have been interesting.

What will your next listen be?

anything not by Luke Scull! The next in the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Would you be willing to try another one of Joe Jameson’s performances?

No - his voice was really annoying.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Grim Company?

Anything with the 'hero' in it!

Any additional comments?

The writing was amateurish and the author was not as clever as they thought they were.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Brilliantly narrated

Not sure if it was just mine but Part 2 was labelled Part 1 and vice versa which made it hard going to get into. Joe Jameson made this story. His narration is second to none. I'm not going to go back and go through the hero development with the usual mix of magic and monsters but straight to Book 2. Joe has a voice for each character making it so easy to follow and picture. I'll be looking for more read by Joe after this.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Don't Bother

AWFULL. Gave up reading this book, something almost unheard of for me. Grusome imagery but slow, pointless story to the point I abandoned it.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

not a bad yarn

atypical hero's mixed with obvious ones. a world with a lot of back story and lots of baddies. it read to me like a young adult romp, but with swearing and drug use thrown in to make it more grown up. that said, I really enjoyed each storyline and wanted to find out what happened to each character, and the most obvious hero of all, the sword of the north was bloody good fun! I picture him as a dolf lundgren type, only with more soul. am going straight onto book 2 on my kindle and will be waiting for book three to see where this ends up, although I wouldn't be surprised to see this world occupy another 20 books, there are enough threads to it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Uninspiring teen fantasy

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I picked this up following many rave reviews of the book, but could not relate to it.
Its certainly a dark, gritty sword&sorcery epic with mean mages but, in my view, adds nothing to the adult genre. It may work better as a teen piece

Would you ever listen to anything by Luke Scull again?

No! The book has attracted some good reviews but for me its the weakest attempt at an s&s epic that I have read for a long time

Would you be willing to try another one of Joe Jameson’s performances?

Possibly. On this occasion I found his voice acting to be rather stilted. I found it difficult to connect the voices to characters, particularly women

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

For me the writing style was slow and stilted and the characters simplistic and juvenile. I thought the world building was better but certainly not enough to redeem the rest

Any additional comments?

Its been said before many times, but yet again seems appropriate "meh!"

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fantasy fictions best kept secret!!

I stumbled across this book by accident and having never heard of the author I didnt expect much! Im now happpy to say I was very wrong!

Luke Scull had me gripped by the first chapter as he builds a world full of ruthless wizards and barbaric anti-heroes that you cant help but love. In that regard it reminded me alot of Joe Abercrombie's Blade Itself.



The narrator does a five star job of bringing the story to life. Each characters voice is very distinct and brings to the fore their personality as the author intend it.



Its very rare to find a hidden gem such as this so it makes it all the more enjoyable when you do.

10 of 13 people found this review helpful

The grim company 5*

Slow to start but good characters decent story I loved it can't wait to start book 2 narrator also very good

1 of 1 people found this review helpful