Possibly the nicest, best review I’ve ever got…
…and it’s for Grimblades.
Without further ado, here’s the link to the review. To be frank, Grimblades has received some warm to tepid press. It’s par for the course with any book and something, as an author, that you have to learn to live with. But I have to say that didn’t sit too well with me. I kind of felt, what are people missing here? What am I missing? This review and the previous one I blogged have restored my faith a little. You do start to question – definitely – if you think you’ve done something cool and worthy of being read and enjoyed, worthy of praise even, if opinion goes the other way. Obviously, I just needed to wait a bit…
Damn, this feels vindicating. I want to say up front (and I’m repeating myself here, okay): I am very proud of Grimblades.
Not trying to disparaging in any way about any of the other books in the series (and there are some crackers) but this was more than just an Empire Army novel.
At the Black Library, we sometimes have the tendency to pigeon hole books a little bit – they’re part of this series or that series. Sometimes that can be good; sometimes it can actually put people off. It’s weird, but true. The real shame/tragedy is that by doing the latter, a lot of people who might really enjoy reading a novel never will because they’ve not ‘bought in’ to the series, to coin a phrase we sometimes use.
For me, Grimblades was one of those books that felt (as I was writing it anyway) like it was about much more than the appellation of ‘An Empire Army novel’ really summed up. This, in many ways, was my Sharpe – my homage to those great novels and characters – it was about soldiers, plain and simple, a band of brothers that has to try and survive against hideous odds and creatures so terrible they are the very stuff of nightmares.
It was a story about loyalty and what it means to fight on the frontline against monsters when you’re just a man. No special powers, no magic, just a bunch of grunts with their own issues and demons in a war they didn’t fully understand that would decide the fate of their land.
It’s often the case that the book your proudest of as an author is not the one that achieves the most acclaim or garners the most sales. But this is really nice to get a review that is so effusive with its praise.
I thank you so much.







![<a href="http://www.nickkyme.com/?p=747">Women are from Mars… apparently</a> - Okay, so not strictly true. What I meant to say is there's a woman called Mars, Veronica Mars to be precise, and I think I might be a little bit in love with Kristen Bell who plays her.
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I caught a couple of episodes of this show (one... Women are from Mars… apparently](http://www.nickkyme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/060504_veronica_mars-300x177.jpg)

