The builders by Daniel Polansky

A missing eye. A broken wing. A stolen country. The last job didn't end well. Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain's company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain's whiskers are twitching at the idea of evening the score.

It's as if Quentin Tarantino wrote the script to an animated Disney movie...

The Builders by Daniel Polansky

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I am beginning to like Daniel Polansky. He has a nice, light writing style, with quips and arch observations, that delight the mind. The plots hang together and there is enough tension and conflict to keep the reader engaged.

In this book, Polansky introduces us to a bevy of animal characters who look to avenge their prior loss of the kingdom. Since betrayal was involved, the odds are that the traitor is still around. The animals are distinctive and delightful. The band is led by “the Captain,” a gritty, determined mouse - a Lee Marvin of a mouse. There is a badger, a Gallic weasel, a sharpshooting oppossum, a mole that fittingly runs the underworld, and others. They face insurmountable odds of attacking a fortified position for revenge and to restore the rightful toad on the throne.

It is a fun story, all around.

I adore this story. It's the weird and wonderful blood-soaked love-child of The Wind in the Willows and the Dirty Dozen. It's short and sweet, with not a single wasted word.

The plot - the Captain - a monosyllabic mouse - is re-assembling his old team for one last job - to finish what they started all that time ago.

Don't expect everything to be spelled out - or, in fact for anything to be spelled out - long and complex backstories are implied but rarely explained - but for all that, this book is an absolute gem, brimming with dark humour - and I loved every single moment of it.

Why has no one told me about Daniel Polansky until now? Oh, I have been blind. If it wasn't for TOR, and their brilliant series of short fiction, I may never have discovered this extremely talented author. If you'll recall, I promised myself that I'd get back into both Fantasy and short fiction this year. Well, Polansky has made that mission all the more attainable. If this is what I can expect, I have no qualms whatsoever!

When I was a teenager, the Redwall series was one of my favorite things to read. Sentient animals, with loyal blood running through their veins, constantly at war with one another. I ate it up. This took me back to those days. However, I'm pleased to say that this story is infinitely darker than those. It's gritty. It's bloody. There is death and revenge involved. It was like my favorite stories grew up with me, and I couldn't have been happier.

The Builders is like Redwall meets a western featuring John Wayne. The characters are raw. Their pasts are filled with violence, and it is only the promise of revenge that calls them back to those lives they attempted to leave behind. This story is action packed. It's filled to the brim with twists, and turns. At the end of the day, it will leave you breathless. All of that, smashed into one novella length story.

I'm impressed. More Daniel Polansky is definitely in my future.