Good Guys
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read, Open EPUB eBook)
A snarky, irreverent tale of secret magic in the modern world, the first solo standalone novel in two decades from Steven Brust, the New York Times bestselling author of the Vlad Taltos series
Donovan was shot by a cop. For jaywalking, supposedly. Actually, for arguing with a cop while black. Four of the nine shots were lethal—or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. "Lethal" turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved.
When Marci was fifteen, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn't like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too.
"Hippie chick" Susan got well into her Foundation training before they told her about the magic, but she's as powerful as Donovan and Marci now.
They can teleport themselves thousands of miles, conjure shields that will stop bullets, and read information from the remnants of spells cast by others days before.
They all work for the secretive Foundation...for minimum wage.
Which is okay, because the Foundation are the good guys. Aren't they?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Steven Brust. (2018). Good Guys. Tor Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Steven Brust. 2018. Good Guys. Tor Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Steven Brust, Good Guys. Tor Publishing Group, 2018.
MLA Citation (style guide)Steven Brust. Good Guys. Tor Publishing Group, 2018.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 1 |
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A snarky, irreverent tale of secret magic in the modern world, the first solo standalone novel in two decades from Steven Brust, the New York Times bestselling author of the Vlad Taltos series
Donovan was shot by a cop. For jaywalking, supposedly. Actually, for arguing with a cop while black. Four of the nine shots were lethal—or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. "Lethal" turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved.
When Marci was fifteen, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn't like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too.
"Hippie chick" Susan got well into her Foundation training before they told her about the magic, but she's as powerful as Donovan and Marci now.
They can teleport themselves thousands of miles, conjure shields that will stop bullets, and read information from the remnants of spells cast by others days before.
They all work for the secretive Foundation...for minimum wage.
Which is okay, because the Foundation are the good guys. Aren't they?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.- reviews
- premium: False
- source: Library Journal
- content: "Brust fans and admirers of Connie Willis and Jim Butcher will appreciate [Good Guys]."
- premium: False
- source: Booklist
- content: "Amusing and campy...fast-paced action and witty narration."
- premium: False
- source: Cory Doctorow on Hawk
- content: Praise for Steven Brust
"Brust is one of those natural caper writers, a pulp writer in the Hammett tradition, someone with what William Gibson calls 'wheels on his tractor.' In other words, a writer who can spin a yarn that keeps you guessing until the end, aware of many precise moving parts all meshing in synchrony to drive a magnificent jeweled watch of a story."
- premium: False
- source: John Scalzi on The Incrementalists
- content: "Secret societies, immortality, murder mysteries, and Las Vegas all in one book? Shut up and take my money."
- premium: False
- source: Neil Gaiman on Steven Brust
- content: "Delightful, exciting, and sometimes brilliant."
- premium: False
- source: Roger Zelazny
- content: "Watch Steven Brust. He's good. He moves fast. He surprises you. Watching him untangle the diverse threads of intrigue, honor, character and mayhem from amid the gears of a world as intricately constructed as a Swiss watch is a rare pleasure."
- premium: False
- source: Tad Williams
- content: "Steven Brust may well be America's best fantasy writer."
- premium: False
- source: Publishers Weekly on Tiassa
- content: "Wonderful...Like most of Brust's books, this witty, wry tale stands alone and is very accessible to new readers."
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
December 18, 2017
In this underwhelming paranormal procedural, a trio of investigators working for the Foundation, a secret organization that regulates and monitors magic, set out to find a magic-using hit man. Donovan, Marci, and Susan must figure out the connection among the victims while dodging attempts on their own lives and contending with the Foundation’s bureaucracy and a possible traitor somewhere in the organization. Brust (the Vlad Taltos series) has a clever and complicated take on urban fantasy. The use of multiple viewpoints, including a first-person thread from the killer’s perspective, livens things up somewhat, and the plot takes some unexpected turns, leading to a satisfying if vague conclusion. But the story is hampered by a focus on the mundane details of the investigatory process, including lengthy Skype chats and requests for reimbursement. The detached, almost dispassionate narrative voice and the clichéd nature of the Foundation and the serial killer give the impression that Brust might be intentionally drawing out the details to deconstruct genre tropes, but the book doesn’t succeed either as commentary or as a mystery.
- premium: True
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- content:
February 1, 2018
Three operatives work to solve a string of murders committed by sorcery, but their investigation leads them to question both their own secretive employers and the ethics of using magic, in this novel by fantasist Brust (Vallista, 2017, etc.).Donovan is a skilled investigator, and legally dead. He leads Marci, a sorcerer who specializes in charms and picking up the lingering signatures of spells cast, and Susan, a gifted martial artist, as an investigative team for the Foundation, a mysterious society that recruits and trains sorcerers and whose mandate is to make sure "civilians" don't learn about magic's existence. But when seemingly random people start being killed by magic, the trio must call upon all their gifts to discover the common thread connecting the victims. In doing so, they're frequently frustrated by their own minimum-wage pay and the Foundation's penny-pinching internal bureaucracy...a conceit that is cute the first time but wears thin as the Foundation's full power becomes clear (it seems like our heroes earn minimum wage for no deeper reason than allowing them to gripe about it). Their investigation raises more questions: what's the connection between the Foundation and their ancient rivals, the Mystici? Is there a mole in the Foundation--perhaps their own enigmatic supervisor? Most importantly, do sorcerers have a moral obligation to use their powers well? Some questions get answered satisfactorily and others less so; the moments of climactic confrontation are often shunted off-screen in favor of reflections after the fact. It's telling that after experiencing personal loss and delving into the Foundation's secrets, the characters' biggest change at the end is simply getting a bonus.An engaging cast can't entirely save this novel from the leaps it asks readers to make. The story often fizzles where it should bang.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
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February 15, 2018
Donovan, Marci, and Susan all work for the Foundation, using their magical powers to solve supernatural crimes and defend the innocent from attacks by the Mystici. Their latest case involves a series of increasingly violent murders carried out with the aid of mystical objects. The victims all had done despicable things, but it's unclear what else they might have in common. Donovan's team has a chance at stopping the killer, if only their penny-pinching supervisor would approve their expenses--because sometimes you need to take a pricey magical short-cut instead of flying commercial to get to the crime scene in time. In his first stand-alone in two decades, Brust ("Vlad Taltos" series) does a solid job of creating complex, likable characters and a world with consistent rules of magic. The rapidly changing points of view can be challenging to follow, but they add to the dramatic tension as the author builds his story. VERDICT Brust fans and admirers of Connie Willis and Jim Butcher will appreciate this twisty and clever urban fantasy.--Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
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- content:
February 1, 2018
The Foundation is a huge bureaucracy dedicated to keeping folks who use magic from doing bad things or leaking the idea of magic to the general population. Donovan Longfellow was recruited by the Foundation and leads a team that investigates crimes involving sorcery. When a series of magical murders threatens to upset the Mystici, a rival group to the Foundation, Donovan and his team jump into the fray to find those responsible. Brust thrusts readers right into the action, but the characters' conversationsand some comical interrogationsfill in backstory and the workings of the Foundation. Some of the most humorous passages occur as Donovan is navigating the red tape of the Foundation, the minimum-wage pay, and the penny-pinching accounting. Best known for his ambitious Vlad Taltos fantasy series, veteran author Brust crafts an amusing and campy urban fantasy with fast-paced action and witty narration. Though it's not as ambitious as his other secret-society novel, The Incrementalists (2013), fans of quirky characters and offbeat stories will find themselves at home here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
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Donovan was shot by a cop. For jaywalking, supposedly. Actually, for arguing with a cop while black. Four of the nine shots were lethal—or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. "Lethal" turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved.
When Marci was fifteen, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn't like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too.
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