A review by cavalary
Grim Work by Jon Hillman

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

2.0

Since I grabbed them for free and noticed that I can read them quickly and without struggling, I decided to continue with the adventures of Marigold the barbarian, now a chief without a clan, seeking vengeance. And I guess that Grim Work can be enjoyable if you pretty much unplug your brain and let yourself be carried away by such heroic tales that don’t shy away from graphic details and focus solely on the action, depicting characters who conquer overwhelming odds thanks to their incredible strength and fortitude, a solid dose of hero’s luck and a fair amount of stupidity on the part of their enemies. I do, however, recommend reading The Crystal Keep first, even though it was released later, since it offers context and some reasons to care. 

The problem is that Grim Work hardly does any of that, the few chapters that depict scenes which took place before Marigold’s solitary attack on the wizard’s tower only briefly showing how he ended up being the only one left and knowing who to take revenge on. Considering his hatred towards wizards and how many he supposedly killed, including some that, by his own admission, weren’t really guilty of anything other than knowing how to use magic, it’s hard to understand how come he and his clan left Cezare to dwell so close to their lands for what seems to have been quite a while. And the action itself requires a completely unreasonable amount of suspension of disbelief, not just because of what Marigold is able to withstand or even all of the hero’s luck, but also because of what he faces. Not that it’s badly written, but the substance is worse than the form, and likely not even enough to set the stage for some tabletop gaming session… Not that it could be, since it depicts a single “player character”.