Grimm: The Killing Time

The first few chapters were only explanations of everything. This is a blutbadt and this is eisbiber. Fans of Grimm would find these constant explanations annoying. Which I did! Once they finally stopped, the story got better.

Let's face it...all readers have that guilty pleasure that they don't want to admit that they read. It might be romance or cheap sci-fi or YA or erotica. For me, it's these Grimm tie-in novels.Well, to be fair, it is this Grimm tie-in novel. This is the third one to be released and all three novels are standalone (from each other, not fom the show) and have different authors. I will admit that I chose not to read the first, The Icy Touch, because every single review I read all said that it seemed like the author had never seen the show. I did read the second, The Chopping Block, and it was fine. It could be an episode of the show except the subject matter was over the line for network television. But, it left me with a low bar for the third book.Well, folks, I was surprised with The Killing Time. This is actually a pretty darn good book! Like The Chopping Block, it is set up like an episode of the show, which is a nice little treat when the show is on hiatus. Waggoner stays true to the characters of the book and uses them all (except Adalind, who is--thankfully--absent from the story) very well--better than the show's own writers frequently use the characters. Every one of the major characters--Nick, Hank, Juliette, Renard, Monroe, and Rosalee--have an important part in the plot and come together in a seamless way. Waggoner also created an interesting new Wesen, a shapeshifter suffering from dementia, that I would love to see in an actual episode.I did have some tiny nitpicks and one major irritation. There were a number of little details that just seemed, well, silly. We're talking a Wesen phone chain and a hug-fest. Really. But, whatever. As I said, I didn't expect art with this. But, here is my irritation--every time a character was introduced, we had to get their entire backstory. This novel is set between the 3rd and 4th episodes of the 3rd season, so there is one heck of a backstory for every. single. character. I felt that it interrupted the narrative and, well, I already knew all of that. I mean, I get it...if someone who has never watched the show read this book, they'd be lost without that. Yet, how many people who have not seen Grimm are reading this book? (In other words, you should be watching Grimm, it's a heck of a show!) I wish all of the backstory recitations had been cut so hat we could just get on with the story.So, even with those things that rubbed me the wrong way, I found this book a fun, quick read. No, it wasn't literature, but sometimes you just need fun. If you've enjoyed the show, I highly recommend checking out The Killing Time. If you don't watch the show, you should!

Exciting, true to the show, and the characters were dead-on (pun intended). This is the real deal! Kudos to the author. I loved it!At last the lovable Grimm and his friends were given the respect due their characters. Yes a I'm a Nick Burkhardt fan, but Monroe is right up there as well. I found this to be a page-turner with almost tasteful levels of gore and violence (not like the last Grimm book which truly turned my stomach with revulsion). I found that I looked forward to what would come next rather than dreading it. The humor that was missing in previous books was back in this one (Wu laughing uproariously at an unintentional joke by the dastardly villain, for example). I hope more books will be issued by this author.Small note--the proof-readers must have been half asleep, but the book didn't suffer from the small words lost here and there. Still, I noticed it, as I'm sure others must have done as well.Regardless, it was a very satisfying read!

If you're a fan of the show, this is just what you need to get you back into that world. I happened to start reading it just at the point of watching the show that Tim Waggoner (the author) stated in the beginning that it took place. It was neat to be able to experience it at the point I was in the show. The funny thing about reading it while watching is that I kept thinking of things that happened in the book while I was watching more of the show and losing track of which was show and which was the novel. But that just goes to prove that the writing in the novel is just as good at bringing you directly into the world as the show is!

I Wish they had 3 more Grimm books in this series. I miss the great TV show and now will miss the Grimm novel series.

A rare Wesen comes to Portland. The creature is very old and is suffering from a dementia. The creature can duplicate any human it touches and absorbs the person's memories. However, it is in the twilight of its life and burns through bodies faster. The heart of this story is it encounters Nick. A Grimm and a creature like this had met in the past, and it caused a wholesale massacre of Wesen as their is an "infection" associated with the encounter of Grimm and the Wechselbahg. The final confrontation between the two is awesome. The action is nonstop. The Wesen and the humans who help them are in great danger. The book is excellent, this would have been a phenomenal episode of the tv series.

Media tie-ins are often suspect in quality, but this an exception I am happy to have read. This is a faithful Grimm story written by someone who definitely has an appreciation for the show. The characterizations are spot-on (I especially enjoyed Monroe and Bud in this), the villain is interesting and sympathetic despite its monstrous nature, and the plot zips along at a nice pace with no lag.As someone who has watched the whole series, I did find some of the introductions to the characters and how they met to be unnecessary. I wouldn't be surprised if the studio behind Grimm insisted on the author reintroducing all of the characters and their backstories for the sake of those unfamiliar with the show.

This is the third book in the series of three and is just as compelling as the two previous books , all three are by different authors. The description of what is going on and what the Wesson looks like and does keeps you reading.One thing I have to remember is that Sargent Wu hasn't met with the Wesson yet so I miss his dry sense of humor that he is known for.I hope that more books on Grimm can be written and keep those of us who have come to love the series can keep reading and keep it alive in words.

Minus the Royals and Adalind, "Grimm: The Killing Time" was better than a common episode of the show. Shapeshifters are always interesting as was the ending. All the Wesen names, however, were not. It's one thing to hear the names on TV, but to read them repeatedly in an English book ...

Great read!

Good summer read

A new deadly Wesen is in Portland, already started to leave a bloody trail of victims. While NIck is also battling his inner demons, he has to face possibly the worst of all his enemies. Not only to save Portland but also his friends ...First of all my apologies for being late. This book was laying on my table since it was published but I never made it behind the first chapter. I wish I could blame my weird working schedules for this, but I have to confess it was more the time Waggoner set his story between: episodes 3.03 and 3.04. People knowing me also know that 3.03 is in my opinion most likely the worst episode of the whole show, while 3.04 for me is more of a shrugging off-episode - and yes, I still believe 3.03 is worse than 3.22. Nevertheless it took me a while to finally take the book and read it.The problem with hired writers is that they tend to ... well not really absorb the material they have to work with. Yes, as a contracted writer you will get some background material about what you are about to write about. How to use this material is up to you. You can be the lucky one who also falls as much in love with this basics as the fans you are writing for, or you can shrug it off, write down the story and take the cash, not really interested in what you just did. For Grimm so far the fans had to deal with both sides of this coin: while John Shirley's Icy Touch was more of an original novel with a really ... open interpretation of what Grimm is about, John Passarella's Chopping Block was as close to the canon as possible. With Tim Waggoner there comes a third author to the playground and it was surely interesting to read his interpretation of Grimm.First of all, the novel's good written, the story is actionpacked and you recognize the setting. When it comes down to the characters they are recognizable too but ... more about this part a little later. Waggoner obviously did some digging, he established a new Wesen (about this later as well) and the story was, talking Grimm-verse, logical in season 3 manners. But, here she comes, the Bad!Hyn, it's not as good as The Chopping Block.Talking about writers there's always one sentence every writer should first keep in mind before even starting his major work: write what you know. As a writer you have to know everything, you have to have reasons and explanations, you have to keep your work as logical as possible. There might not be much but there are readers out there appreciating good and hard work and one thing for sure, every reader will stumble about something that's not fitting right. So the major work for a writer is to KNOW everything and every character he or she writes about. If not, it will come back at you.While there are small publishers out there which are really care for what they are publishing (Stargate's Fandemonium Books come to my mind here, or the German publisher and game developer FanPro) huge publishers like Titan are simply hiring and let the novels approve by the writers of the shows/movies the novels are about. Those writers are often enough also hired and have ... already hard work to do, so they are barely really looking into those novels then - IF they read at all. And even if the hired writer's work is read by an official writer who's carrying for what he or she does, it might be another insight of what's in the novel. At least it comes down to a "it's hired work not original work" and money unfortunately counts often more than the result.To be honest, the novel's good written. If I would have been stumbled about it on one of the fanfic-sites, Waggoner would have gotten tons of kudos from me, only for his work on Nick's character. Unfortunately Waggoner's insight of season 3 Nick doesn't go along with the real deal we all saw during the 22 episodes the season lasted. The Nick on the show was as naive as possible, he didn't had to battle inner demons for what he'd done when he was zombiefied. When did the audience see or recognized remorse? During 3.02 and 3.07 when Nick's going after the Gallumcides. Everything else he was acting like nothing has ever happened, he even made fun out of the fact that his metabolism wasn't human at all anymore.The Nick Waggoner is writing about cares for what he'd done, has a bad conscience that he killed a man while he was zombified. Yes, he's snarky too, acting before he's thinking it through, but he's a bit more reluctant than he'd ever been on the show. That's not a bad thing, as I've said above, if this review was about a fanfiction, I would have loved to read it, especially when it comes down to Nick.Waggoner, as I've said above, did some digging, but obviously he never got really into the show - or at least not in the first two seasons. What he let Nick and the others recall from those events is blurry in best case, completely out of canon at the worst. Juliette forgetting about Nick after Adalind poisoned her is a topic (no wonder with a setting this early in season 3), but the cat is suddenly erased. Bud, who's playing a key-role in the novel, is barely recognizable (but here I feel with Waggoner as Bud Wurstner is really hard to write), the buddy-evenings at Monroe's with beer and the watching the Portland Timbers on TV never happened. Instead Bud is suddenly afraid of Nick, doesn't want to come really close to him. Nick and Hank having heavy conversations about the meaning of life is new to me as I more think Nick would, if only, having those conversations more with Monroe than with Hank.Monroe and Rosalee, we remember, Monroe just asked Rosalee during 3.03 if she would move in with him, are suddenly friends only who are just starting to get cuddly and having a love-relationship (actually a sort of awkward sex-scene is within the novel when Nick encounters both having sex at the SpiceShop). Renard is basically recognizable, as long as he isn't woged. Might be my personal opinion but as long as I remember, Hexen- and Zauberbiests are looking like rotten corpses not like someone had first beat them up and then cut some flesh out of them. Monroe's glowing red eyes never appear and Skalengecks have out of the sudden tails.There are lots of small little flaws which, if they wouldn't have such an amount, not really bother. But as a whole they leave the impression during the reading that the author never actually WATCHED more than, most likely one or two episodes. While Waggoner does work with nitpits which surprised me (for example the fully woges Jagerbaer mother during 1.02) he's surprisingly reckless the most other times, especially when it comes down to details.And of course the German plays a role in this too - or better the pluralization (;)) of the Wesen-names. No, Mister Waggoner, not every Wesen-name is multiplied with "en", for the most of them the good old English "s" does its best. True: 1 Blutbad - 10 Blutbaden. False: 1 Skalengeck - 10 Skalengecken. The Plural of Skalengeck is simply Skalengecks.Geier, if at all, goes the same way, same for Jagerbaer. The desease which is hitting Portland during the novel is called "Ewig Woge", correct it should be "Ewige Woge". Nitpits, I know. but the amount to this nitpits is what finally counts.Now talking about the big bad new enemy. I hope no one gets spoiled when I reveal what's Nick's problem during the novel. It's a Wechselbalg, a shapeshifter. While in the legends a Wechselbalg is a creature which is taking place for a child, while the real child is getting in worst case killed, in best case raised by the otherworlders, Wechselbaelger (see, correct plural again) causing havoc when they are growing up and tend to destroy families. Well, this Wechselbalg is a bit different from those you've possibly heard about. What still makes me think is the ... let us say base form of the Wechselbalg. A silvery shimmering creature without any features, shimmering like liquid metal. Terminator Judgement Day anyone? Sounds to me remarkably like Robert Patrick's T1000, doesn't it? While it's common among writers that you might be inspired by creatures/characters from other shows/movies/books, you should be able to rewrite your inspiration good enough to make it unrecognizable - or maybe the writer thought not everyone has watched Terminator2, who knows?What leads to the resumee. Unless my rantings, The Killing Time isn't bad. It's not as good as it's predecessor The Chopping Block but it's not as far away from everything Grimm as The Icy Touch was. As I've said before, if I'd stumbled about it at one of the fanfic-databases I really would have loved it. Waggoner's strength is to write especially actionpacked scenes, and The Killing Time is filled with different, mostly bloody and messy fighting scenes. The show is mostly recognizable, but the little bit, this loving feeling I had during reading The Chopping Block, this urge need to continue reading, never stopping and starting fresh after reading it once, that's not there. It's an ordered novel, it's base work with a little bit too much flaws that unfortunately tells too much about the writer than about what this novel should be about.So I would put The Killing Time right in the middle between the quality of the first two Grimm tiein novels. Unfortunately it looks at the moment as this would be also the last novelization of the show. So, picking up the Star-system, The Killing Time will earn 3 of 5 stars for me.

‘The Killing Time’ does a very good job of capturing the atmosphere and style of the television programme it is based around. It plays it safe a bit by sticking to the basic format of the show but it does it so successfully that it comes pretty close to feeling almost like it could be an episode.There is a good division of the action between the main characters of the show, each receiving a decent role to play in events. It certainly utilises all the characters. Even Bud receives a role to equal his most substantial onscreen ones. They are all considerably well characterised as well and read like their onscreen counterparts. Some of the dialogue is perfectly composed to fit that associated with the speech patterns and inflections heard onscreen.One of ‘The Killing Time’s best elements is in the wesen the author has invented to serve as the enemy to Nick and his colleagues. The Wechselbalg is an original opponent that hasn’t been seen onscreen and is based upon the ideas that surround the mythical stories of doppelgangers and changelings. As a foe for a Grimm it works very well and allows for the novel to expand a bit upon the relationship between Grimms and wesen in a community. It also provides scope for some of the novel’s amusing moments that fit in successfully with the humorous aspects of the show.The Wechselbalg is also interesting because there is a substantial chunk of the novel written from its perspective. This provides an intriguing and fairly rare insight into one ‘monsters of the week’ that Nick faces.It might not be incredibly original and all sort of what you’ve seen before, but if you want a solid and entertaining story that emulates the experience of watching the programme then this novel does the job.