#116: Slow Horses by Mick Herron

Source Material, Vol. 14

Hello readers,

Let’s cut to the chase: I had a blast with this book! It took me completely by surprise. The show is a lot of fun too. I want to say a few words about how my “year of fantasy” is going and then stirrup some trouble with the slow horses. Off we go!

Quick review of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season

As you may recall, I made a list of fantasy authors that I wanted to read in 2023. I started with Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn and then read N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, book one in the Broken Earth trilogy. This is a highly acclaimed, Hugo Award winning trilogy found on many “best fantasy” lists.

But I didn’t like it.

The car was well built and had nice features, the road was in excellent condition, the sites and destination were all interesting, but I didn’t enjoy the ride. I was expecting an escape from the real world to a place where I’d want to spend time, but I didn’t want to be in that world. It was bleak from start to finish.

If you liked The Fifth Season or if I need to read the full trilogy to appreciate its excellence, please let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts and discuss.

I’ll give fantasy another try, but for now I’ve jumped in feet first to a new series (not fantasy) and really enjoying it.

Why Slow Horses is great

The Book

The “slow horses” are a crew of disgraced agents of British intelligence agency MI-5. Each made a serious gaffe and has been relegated to “Slough (rhymes with cow) House,” the not-so-affectionate nickname of this arm of the secret service.

Slough House was a branch of the Service, certainly, but “arm” was pitching it strong. As was “finger,” come to that; fingers could be on the button or on the pulse. Fingernails, now: those, you clipped, discarded, and never wanted to see again. So Slough House was a fingernail of the Service…Slough House was where you ended up when all the right avenues were closed to you. It was where they sent you when they wanted you to go away, but didn’t want to sack you in case you got litigious about it.¹

Their leader is Jackson Lamb, who is part Michael Scott in his tactlessness, part Ignatius J. Reilly in his laziness, and part magician in the way he seems to conjure cigarettes from thin air. He smokes and farts and belittles his team of screw ups, but I somehow ended up liking him. A lot. I think he’s playing an entirely different game than what appears on the surface.

Lamb’s frenemy is Diana “Lady Di” Taverner, Second Desk at MI-5. Their cat-and-mouse maneuvering results in some snappy dialogue. Both know how to play the game and are trying to play 3 to 4 moves ahead of the other.

Don’t underestimate this team of slow horses. Herron takes some time setting up the game board, but then it’s off to the races!

I’ve already finished books 2 (Dead Lions) and 3 (Real Tigers) and am halfway through 4 (Spook Street). I’m listening to the audiobooks and am chomping at the bit to finish the entire 8 book series!

The Show

Here’s what I liked:

• Solid adaptation. Season 1 follows book 1 pretty much perfectly with a few exceptions (I talk about one in more detail below). Where it deviates, it does so for the better.

• The theme song has grown on me and I really like it! It has the right vibe. I like all of the music.

• The casting is great: Gary Oldman is Jackson Lamb! He’s having so much fun. Seeing him go tit for tat with Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays Taverner, is why we’re in the golden age of television.

I do want to talk about one of the changes from the book in more detail so don’t read on if you haven’t read the book or watched the show!

**Spoiler Section**

One of the major changes is the finale - the show amped up the tension significantly and put everyone together.

I think the book ending works well for that medium because of the structure Herron utilizes of jumping from one group of characters to the next. You feel like you’re with them all and that no single group is too set apart from the action. Lamb and Cartwright are at Regent’s Park dealing with Taverner CUT TO Ho, Guy, Standish, and Harper figuring things out at the diner CUT TO Hassan fighting for his life. I thought the book ending was great and I’m usually someone who doesn’t like endings.

But in the show, you couldn’t have everyone separated like that. The team had to be converging on Hassan, the hostage, for a dramatic conclusion. I was worried it was heading for a boring shoot out, but what I loved was the subversion: The slow horses were there to rescue Hassan, but the big moment where they function like a team is to save the captor from assassination and hijack the attempted cover up. Fantastic change and tons of fun to watch.

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Let me know if you decide to check out this series — I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Kyle

1. From Spook Street, book 4 in the series