fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsHe Drank, and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe fantasy book reviewsHe Drank, and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe

Eddie LaCrosse and his tough girlfriend, Liz, are back in Eddie’s fifth adventure by Alex Bledsoe. I’ve enjoyed each one of these stories, especially the audiobook versions produced by Blackstone Audio. The narrator, Stefan Rudnicki, has become the voice of Eddie LaCrosse for me — strong and gruff, but also sweet and sensitive.

The EDDIE LACROSSE books don’t have to be read in order — you could even start with this one — but each book fills in a little more of Eddie’s background and there is an overall story arc, mostly dealing with Eddie’s love life, so reading them in order would probably be ideal. Besides, each story is worthy to be read, so why not read them in order if you can?

In the prologue of He Drank, and Saw the Spider, we meet Eddie when he was 16 years younger. After abandoning his mercenary job, he saves an infant girl from a bear. (Yes, Eddie saves a female in every book). A baby will cramp Eddie’s style, so he takes little Isador to a nearby town and, after facing down a mob of pitchfork-yielding mothers, finds a shepherd family to raise her. As any reader will expect, baby Isador is special (though we don’t know how yet).

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsFast-forward 16 years and Eddie and Liz are making a delivery to mad King Jerry who lives in a city near where Eddie left the baby. Since it’s springtime and Eddie and Liz are now on vacation after this delivery, they decide to tour the nearby spring fairs. When they visit the town where Isador lives, Eddie, who can’t let any clue go by unexamined, notices that something strange is going on. That’s how he and Liz get caught up in a drama involving the mysterious baby (now a pretty teenager), a handsome prince, a jealous king, and a strange sorceress who’ll remind you of Dr. Frankenstein. Though these characters may seem at first like they walked right out of the books next to Alex Bledsoe’s on the Barnes & Noble shelf, they don’t play the roles we expect.

If you’re new to EDDIE LACROSSE, you might be a little surprised at some of Bledsoe’s writing choices. His setting is recognizably medieval, but his language is modern (as just one example, one character remarks “drama, much?”), his women are liberated, there are some anachronisms thrown in for fun, and each of the stories, despite the setting, has a hard-boiled mystery feel. There’s also a bit of humor, much of it involving Eddie’s propensity for being a grammar stickler. Fans are familiar with this strange mix, and we like it.

I must end this review with another commendation of the audio version. I don’t know how many more EDDIE LACROSSE books we’ll be getting, but I’ll be reading every one of them on audio. (Sorry, Tor.)

Publication date: January 14, 2014. For fans of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Glen Cook’s Garrett PI novels, comes the newest installment in Alex Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse series, He Drank and Saw the Spider. After he fails to save a stranger from being mauled to death by a bear, a young mercenary is saddled with the baby girl the man died to protect. He leaves her with a kindly shepherd family and goes on with his violent life. Now, sixteen years later, that young mercenary has grown up to become cynical sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse. When his vacation travels bring him back to that same part of the world, he can’t resist trying to discover what has become of the mysterious infant. He finds that the child, now a lovely young teenager named Isadora, is at the center of complicated web of intrigue involving two feuding kings, a smitten prince, a powerful sorceress, an inhuman monster, and long-buried secrets too shocking to imagine. And once again she needs his help. They say a spider in your cup will poison you, but only if you see it. Eddie, helped by his smart, resourceful girlfriend Liz, must look through the dregs of the past to find the truth about the present—and risk what might happen if he, too, sees the spider.

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  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.