Adrian Collins's Blog, page 102

REVIEW: Gothic by Philip Fracassi

Philip Fracassi’s new horror novel Gothic opens with its protagonist Tyson Parks trapped in an untenable situation. Twenty years ago he was a New York Times bestselling horror author, hailed as Stephen King’s heir apparent. But times have changed and his more recent books have been commercial and critical failures. His smug Manhattan agent—lounging in the posh corner office Tyson’s labor and talent financed—berates him like a child for falling out of step with the fickle tastes of the fiction market. Tyson’s latest manuscript is both late and diverges significantly from the book he pitched to his anxious publisher. The creative well is running dry and his business partners are growing impatient while his debts mercilessly compound.

Tyson’s fortunes change, however, when his supportive partner Sarah buys him an ornate Victorian Gothic writing desk as a present for his 59 th birthday. A smoothly polished stone slab supported by decadently engraved rosewood, the monumental antique is intended to reignite Tyson’s creative spark. And it works, beyond Sarah’s wildest hopes. From the moment Tyson sets fingertips to keyboard, he is drawn into a fugue state in which the words flow easily and the hours slip by, leaving him pages of disturbingly compelling tales of witchcraft and human sacrifice. Publishable pages. But while his writing career makes a dramatic recovery, his personal life takes a drastic turn for the worse. After receiving the desk, loyal family man Tyson finds himself growing distant and dismissive towards his friends and loved ones, even gradually becoming paranoid and outright violent. A new, malignant Muse is his constant companion. If that wasn’t enough, in addition to the desk’s dark influence, Tyson finds himself targeted by Diana, the mysterious and ruthless last scion of the aristocrat who originally owned the artifact. For the desk is, in reality, a repurposed altar dedicated to blasphemous occult rituals.

The clever conceit at the heart of Gothic is that it is an unabashedly old school horror novel about an old school horror novelist. It’s a book that the reader can easily envision Tyson Parks writing himself at the height of his popularity. Tyson may be struggling because he’s behind the times, but Gothic celebrates the era when writers like him were most successful, when names like Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, and Peter Straub adorned every drugstore paperback spinner rack. Fracassi wisely avoids directly aping King’s voice and tics, but King in particular is referenced multiple times in the book. The writer’s descent into madness immediately brings to mind The Shining, and the seductive, haunted artifact that gives with one hand while exacting a terrible price with the other reminds the reader of a certain cursed possessed car. In fact, this parallel is amusingly lampshaded by Tyson’s best friend, Billy: “Can you believe it Tyson? It’s like Christine…but wood!”

While Gothic is clever and occasionally referential, it doesn’t go overboard on postmodernism or irony. It takes a somewhat silly premise—haunted furniture—and combines it with familiar (some might even say played-out) gothic horror elements like warlocks, moonlit ritual sacrifice, and devil worship, and then proceeds to deliver a serious, straight-faced horror story. Fracassi uses these well worn tropes not to mock them from the smirking perspective of an “evolved” 21 st century horror writer, but because they are still COOL.

Gothic, as they say, goes hard. The book limits itself to an intimate cast of characters and imbues them with a great degree of interiority, making their insecurities, fears, and struggles relatable to the reader. Fracassi then tightens the screws, subjecting each of them to an inexorably escalating sequence of horrors. Moments of outright violence are infrequent, but are graphically and squirm- inducingly described. While it is handled with what I felt to be appropriate gravity, there is one scene of sexual assault that may be too intense for some readers. Gothic is a novel that draws the reader in and makes them care about the characters before absolutely devastating them. As demonstrated in the shocking climax, no one who comes into contact with the demonic desk survives completely unscathed. Gothic concludes with an extended denouement that hints at even grimmer implications for the world at large.

While plot and characterization are generally quite strong, the character of Diana was the weakest aspect of the book. Her ancestry and its entanglement with the desk’s origins are important to the narrative, but despite the cold-hearted tenacity she displays throughout most of the book, she appears uncharacteristically careless at a crucial moment. Gothic has an uncommonly strong cast of characters, however, and this one false note does little to tarnish the book as a whole.

The horror genre is currently blessed with an abundance of talented authors all pushing in different directions, innovating and deconstructing and elevating, but it’s gratifying to see one newer writer recognize that the classic tropes became classic for a reason. Sometimes an old-fashioned spooky story about possession and devil worship just hits the spot. Gothic is an immensely satisfying love- letter to the golden age of paperback horror.

Read Gothic by Philip Fracassi

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What to read when you need a break from Warhammer 40,000

At its core, the Warhammer 40,000 universe is a story centred on a stricken empire in decline that’s desperately shoving every resource at its disposal between it and its own impending doom. One of those abundant resources is an endless supply of human beings religiously devoted to the Emperor, most of whom are willing (some, not so much) to throw themselves into the myriad battlefields of the galaxy for what they see as right. Be it fighting alien species, rooting out traitors, burning heretics who have thrown their lot in with the dark gods, or battling each other in gangs under continent-sized cities, the people of the Warhammer 40,000 universe provide the perfect unending perspectives for so many stories.

However, like almost anything, it’s easy to overdo it and feel a bit burned out. I love pasta. But if all I eat for two weeks straight are variations of pasta, then after a time I’m going to get pretty fucking sick of pasta. The same goes for 40K fiction, in my mind. Sometimes, you still want the things that make Warhammer 40,000 awesome, such as:

Epic space opera full of battles, politics, and SF awesomenessA stricken galactic empire holding on by the skin of its teethAction and brother/sisterhoodAn empire hiding the truth from its peopleThat crushing cyberpunk hive city feelingBadarse inquisition-style characters

… but you just need something that doesn’t include bolters, lasguns, and manic shouts of “For the Emperor!”.

If you get what I mean, and you’re keen to read something with the same overarching themes but set in a different universe, then I’m here to help you with that. If you’re pointing at me and about to shout, “Burn the heretic!” then perhaps move on one of our other Warhammer 40,000 articles, like Where to Start Reading, Top YouTube Channels, or Favourite Artists.

The rest of you, come with me.

Epic space opera full of battles, politics, and SF awesomeness: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A Corey

Us Warhammer 40,000 fans love the big battles, the political intrigue, and the sci-fi / fantasy aspects of the universe we enjoy reading. Those three terms alone provide the Black Library authors with such a broad canvas upon which to play. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (pen name for collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) has all these things we search for.

One of the key things I love most (apart from the space battles and awesome battle tech) are the politics and factions within the universe of The Expanse. In much the same way that every Imperial faction from Holy Terra all the way to The Eye of Terror has its own angle and goals and the ruthlessness to destroy each other and put the Imperium at risk for their own gains, the factions in Leviathan Wakes (and the eight epic masterpieces that follow it) similarly do so. As they uncover the terrifying hidden wonders and history of our galaxy and universe, the characters of Leviathan Wakes and the brilliant series that follow it hyper focus on their own wants, often to the ruin of all.

If you enjoy void conflicts, epic marines and boarding parties, and factional machinations and intrigue, then Leviathan Wakes and every book that comes after it is for you.

Read our review here.

About the book

Humanity has colonised the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew discover a derelict ship called the Scopuli, they suddenly find themselves in possession of a deadly secret. A secret that someone is willing to kill for, and on an unimaginable scale. War is coming to the system, unless Jim can find out who abandoned the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money – and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and Holden, they both realise this girl may hold the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and secret corporations, and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

Start The Expanse with Leviathan Wakes

A stricken galactic empire holding on by the skin of its teeth: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

At its core, the Warhammer 40,000 universe is a story centred on a stricken empire in decline that’s desperately shoving every resource at its disposal between it and its own impending doom.

Plus science fantasy.

Gideon the Ninth is a bit like looking at the original fall of the old Imperium into Old Night, or the lead up to the Horus Heresy (depending on how far you want to stretch the imagination). There are excellent themes of historic betrayal ruining epic plans, of a very old emperor at the centre of an empire in strife testing necromancers and cavaliers to recruit in his elite corps to fight said betrayers, said emperor being a pretty horrible person despite having the fate of a population on his shoulders.

The execution, level of detail, and tone are where these two worlds are different. Gideon the Ninth has a very strong voice, with a lot of humour leavening the darkness and, beneath all the bones and angst, a thread of romance and focus on relationships that probably surpasses the foci on similar themes of the greater majority of Warhammer 40,000 books.

Did I mention it’s necromancers in space and therefore perfect for lovers of space fantasies?

If you’re somebody who loves these themes about Warhammer 40,000, and you are happy to stretch your boundaries a wee bit, then you’re going to love this brilliant space opera.

Read our review here.

About the book

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

Read Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Action and brother/sisterhood: Stormblood by Jeremy Szal

The close relationships built in battle are one the key foundations that most Warhammer 40,000 books are written around. Be it the superhuman Astartes, the Sisters of Battle, or any wing of the Astra Militarum, when you pick up one of those books, you know you’ll be reading about soldiers going into hell and back for the defence of the Imperium.

It can be difficult to find those kinds of military relationships that are written with the right undercurrent of shared pain and terror and loss, with the right levity that comes with years spent by each other’s side and for better or worse, knowing your brother in battle. In Stormblood Szal really nails this feeling of brotherhood and all the fascets it comes in for sci-fi military characters.

For the Imperial purists who just want to scream “BURN” every time they see another alien race, this book might not be your jam, as Szal plays with plenty of pretty awesome alien species. If you can let that little bit go through to the keeper, however, then this might just be the type of romp for you. Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum fans: this recommendation is for you.

Read our review here.

About the book

Vakov Fukasawa used to be a Reaper: a bio-enhanced soldier fighting for the Harmony, against a brutal invading empire. He’s still fighting now, on a different battlefield: taking on stormtech. To make him a perfect soldier, Harmony injected him with the DNA of an extinct alien race, altering his body chemistry and leaving him permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. But although they meant to create soldiers, at the same time Harmony created a new drug market that has millions hopelessly addicted to their own body chemistry.

Vakov may have walked away from Harmony, but they still know where to find him, and his former Reaper colleagues are being murdered by someone, or something – and Vakov is appalled to learn his estranged brother is involved. Suddenly it’s an investigation he can’t turn down . . . but the closer he comes to the truth, the more addicted to stormtech he becomes.
And it’s possible the war isn’t over, after all . . .

Read Stormblood by Jeremy Szal

An empire hiding the truth from its people: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Empires hiding the truth from their soldiers and their citizens is probably one of the most human societal experiences out there. The price paid for that deception by the common grunt is the basis for so many books that giving you a scope for it would be like waving at the air–if you’re a Warhammer 40,000 fan, then every game you play, every book your read, every model you paint is based upon a ten millennia storyline started by a tiny group in power hiding the truth from their military leaders. So, you get what I mean.

Hurley’s The Light Brigade is a brilliant military sci-fi story that is perfect for fans of the Imperium’s military might, the reason behind the wars, the grunt’s perspective of it, and, importantly, the human impact of it all.

If you loved Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts then this book is for you. If you care about the human cost to the military sci-fi battle awesomeness, then this is the book for you. If you want to read about the human cost of the wars driven by those in power like the Imperium’s many selfish factions, then pick up The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley.

Read our review here.

About the book

They said the war would turn us into light.

I wanted to be counted among the heroes who gave us this better world.

The Light Brigade: it’s what soldiers fighting the war against Mars call the ones who come back…different. Grunts in the corporate corps get busted down into light to travel to and from interplanetary battlefronts. Everyone is changed by what the corps must do in order to break them down into light. Those who survive learn to stick to the mission brief—no matter what actually happens during combat.

Dietz, a fresh recruit in the infantry, begins to experience combat drops that don’t sync up with the platoon’s. And Dietz’s bad drops tell a story of the war that’s not at all what the corporate brass want the soldiers to think is going on.

Is Dietz really experiencing the war differently, or is it combat madness? Trying to untangle memory from mission brief and survive with sanity intact, Dietz is ready to become a hero—or maybe a villain; in war it’s hard to tell the difference.

Read The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

That crushing cyberpunk hive city feeling: Neon Leviathan by T.R. Napper

One of the most awesome things about the Imperium in Warhammer 40,000 are the hive cities in which untold trillions of people across billions of worlds live and die. If you stacked the entire population of earth in a city the size of England, with the rich at the very top in the clear air above, and the rest crushed into the ever debilitating layers below, your head would be in the right spot to appreciate these locations for stories.

Napper’s stories are about the outcasts punching up. They are very human, with our limits and failures and crushed hopes and dreams laid bare for all to see. Napper’s varied characters and cyberpunk locations mixed with danger, violence, and a sense of moroseness that just at times reaches into your chest and squeezes is going to land really well for the more character-focussed fans of settings like Necromunda and Imperial hive cities.

As I’ve said above in the discussion on The Light Brigade and so many times before, for me, it’s the human characters that make Warhammer 40,000 what it is. It’s not the super soldiers or the tanks or the kilometres long void ships waging silent war above, it’s the people fed into the meatgrinder not only of war, but of the living body of the Imperium itself.

Read the reviews of Neon Leviathan over on Goodreads. You should also check out his novel set in the same universe 36 Streets–that underworld gang feel in a brutal cyberpunk setting just keeps getting dialled up.

About the book

A collection of stories about the outsiders – the criminals, the soldiers, the addicts, the mathematicians, the gamblers and the cage fighters, the refugees and the rebels.

From the battlefield, to alternate realities, to the mean streets of the dark city, we walk in the shoes of those who struggle to survive in a neon-saturated, tech-noir future. Twelve hard-edged stories from the dark, often violent, sometimes strange heart of cyberpunk, this collection – as with all the best science fiction – is an exploration of who were are now.

In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett, Philip K Dick, and David Mitchell, Neon Leviathan is a remarkable debut collection from a breakout new author.

Read Neon Leviathan by T.R. Napper

Badarse inquisition-style characters: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

One of the most brutal, clandestine, and action packed factions of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is the Inquisition. Characters like Dan Abnett’s Gregor Eisenhorn and Jurgen from Warhammer TV’s Interrogator have created this awesome kind of far-future grim AF Jack Bauer character. A levelled up version with blanket approval to torch entire planets to root out heresy.

The best example I can think of that stars a super badarse character with that amazing mix of detective noir, military action, and brutal cyberpunk is Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon. Even better, Altered Carbon has been turned into a Netflix series to further immerse you in the kinds of worlds and stories that us 40k fans love to read about.

If the military action is more you jam, then worry not. Read this book and then immediately pick up book two, Broken Angels, which is essentially Vietnam war on another planet.

Read our review of Altered Carbon here.

About the book

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold.

Read Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

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The Toxic Side of Fandom

Being a fan of fantasy is awesome. Dragons, magic, epic battles: I love all of it and have done for as long as I can remember. Growing up, enjoying fantasy and sci-fi felt like I was part of a subculture and I was overjoyed when I found fellow fantasy fans geeking out over the books, films, or TV series I devoured. Trips to comic book shops, Warhammer shops, or conventions opened my eyes to the sheer amount of people who were passionate about fantasy and it was always fun to discuss ideas and theories of what might happen next in a book or who should play certain characters in the latest film adaptation. Some people would mock us but if anything, I felt that brought the community I was in together. There was a sense of belonging. A team spirit. Over the years, being a geek has become cooler and more mainstream. The growth of all things geeky and the changes in how we communicate have led to certain pockets of fans sprouting up full of negativity and the loud toxic nature of these vocal groups is off-putting to both newcomers and older fans, sometimes tainting experiences that would otherwise be enjoyable.

Now, I love discussions and debate. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things. A bit of variety is needed. But it is the way in which some fans (and I will stress that it is a small number) seem to get personal with their insults when they don’t like something that is worrying. It’s fine to not like something but surely there is a better use of time and energy than to sit on a computer and insult cast members, writers, directors and other fans when disagreeing with a decision that will have minimal impact on your life? The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon both had successful first seasons released this year. As a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, I was, like millions of others, very excited to step back into these amazing worlds. The negativity to The Rings of Power was loud. Complaints about the increase in diversity were similar to complaints Star Wars fans made around the same time they forced an actress to quit social media due to their harassment.

The arguments against people of colour and non-binary cast members were upsetting to read and I am well aware as a white male that if I was starting to feel sickened and upset by these horrible comments then other people would be feeling a lot worse. Fans of fantasy who may not have had many opportunities to see people like themselves in such shows would now be feeling hated and marginalized by these vocal ‘fans’ who for some reason felt it their right to argue about what people should look like in a made-up world filled with dragons, elves, and other such fantastical beings. I loved House of the Dragon and I found The Rings of Power enjoyable and comforting. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but I will always have Lord of the Rings to fall back on. When posting mostly positive reviews, it was always interesting to see comments pop up about how much people hated the shows. I’m fine with people disagreeing with me about a series, not everyone is going to love the things I do but I was unnerved by how passionately people hated the show and how they felt the need to get across their hate as much as they could. Reviews should lead to a debate and I love to read about what people have liked and disliked but it confuses me to see so called fans spend their time and energy writing about how much they hate something and then getting personal with their insults. I’m not an Ed Sheeran fan but I’m not going to comment under posts of his fans saying how much I dislike his music. There are better things to do.

Fans are passionate. Channeling that passion in the right way is important. If you have read George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire or Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicles then you are probably, like me, eagerly awaiting the next book in those series. We have waited many years for the next instalments and although I would love to have them in my hands right now, I know that it is something I am not in control of. The abuse some fans have levelled at both authors is, for want of a better word, disgusting. Death threats and foul language fill up any thread I see about The Winds of Winter and The Door of Stone and it pushes me away from communities that I would have once loved being a part of. The negativity can be all consuming. Both authors have commented on the abuse they receive and it is something that is just not necessary. The wait for both books may take many more years. In the meantime, there are thousands of amazing books that could be read and amazing, positive communities capable of signposting readers to comparable books. TBR piles grow and grow so the wait for one or two books shouldn’t become an obsession. Fan complaints have led to a much needed improvement in the design of Sonic and a director’s cut of the Justice League movie that for me was miles better than the disappointing first attempt. Fans should speak about what they would like and discuss what can be improved but at the end of it all, people will like what they like and that’s that. It’s time to just let people enjoy things as they are instead of arguing and wasting time in a futile attempt to force them to feel the same way.

For me, grimdark is at its best when dealing with morally grey characters. I love it when a writer can show the shades of humanity and that everyone makes mistakes but it is how you learn from them that makes you who you are. I hope those fans of fantasy and sci-fi, who spend their time feeling so much hate, have a chance to reflect and think before they post. Our time on Earth is limited and if we don’t want to live in a grimdark world like the ones we read about, then surely we should spend that time promoting positivity.

The post The Toxic Side of Fandom appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

Review: The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

The God of Endings is the masterful debut novel by Jacqueline Holland, a literary dark fantasy that explores the purpose of life through the eyes of a reluctant immortal.

The novel opens in the 1830s with four-year-old Anna growing up in rural Stratton, New York. Her mother passed away during childbirth, leaving Anna behind with her father and newborn baby brother. Anna idolizes her artisan father, who carves tombstones for a living. Anna finds grim solace in the cemetery, despite rumors of the restless dead who may be brought back to life and bring affliction to the living. Anna is soon left alone after her father and brother succumb to illness. She experiences the same fate but then is unwillingly raised from the dead by her step- grandfather, endowed with the immortality of her newfound vampiric state.

The God of Endings jumps ahead to 1984, when Anna works as a teacher at an elite French-language preschool in upstate New York. Despite her reluctance to build any lasting connections, Anna gets involved with the family of one of her gifted but criminally neglected young pupils, whose parents are consumed by infidelity and addiction. Jacqueline Holland is a master at capturing the Northern Gothic aesthetic of rural upstate New York in both the 1830s and 1984 time periods.

The God of Endings skips across time and space, covering Anna’s early days as she crosses the Atlantic to build a new life in eastern Europe, where she learns the practical aspects of vampirism. The European scenes all have a fever dream-like quality to them, as if Anna is immersed in one of Grimms’ fairy tales. Indeed, Holland’s novel is steeped in Slavic folklore, especially the titular god of endings, Czernobog, who haunts Anna from the shadows. Czernobog casts a devil-like figure and also functions as the god of darkness, evil, chaos, death, and night.

As an adult during World War II, Anna becomes a teacher in a small French village and assumes an alternate persona known as the Nachte Bestie (night beast), an inhuman phantom who hunts Nazis under the shroud of night. While a passive character in much of The God of Endings, these scenes convey Anna at her most outwardly assertive, while she simultaneously wages an inner war to control her thirst for blood.

The basic premise of The God of Endings, i.e., following the lonesome life of a protagonist who defies human mortality, parallels the classic 1820 Gothic fantasy, Melmoth the Wanderer, by Irish novelist Charles Maturin. The idea was explored more recently by V.E. Schwab in her popular romantic fantasy, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Although their initial setups are similar, The God of Endings explores much darker territory than Addie LaRue. Jacqueline Holland wisely forgoes romance in The God of Endings, focusing on weightier themes such as the search for meaning and permanence in a life where everything is transient. Whereas Schwab skips over most of Addie’s life between childhood and the present-day, Holland thoroughly explores the possibilities of what her main character encounters across continents and centuries.

Holland’s writing is beautiful and accessible, with the caveat of having an appreciable amount of untranslated dialogue in French and German. The French and German usage is all very elementary, so I didn’t have a problem understanding these sections. But it could be an issue for readers with no prior exposure to either of these languages.

Although at times it felt like the story had too many disparate plot threads, Jacqueline Holland proves herself to be the god of endings as she ties everything together and delivers a multi- layered emotional punch at the end of the novel that both questions and affirms the nature of life and human existence.

Altogether, The God of Endings is a hauntingly beautiful dark fantasy that serves as a meditation on the arrogance and love associated with bringing new life into the world. Let’s hope that The God of Endings is just the beginning for Jacqueline Holland.

4.5/5

Read The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

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REVIEW: The Sinking City

The Sinking City is a study in contradictions and one that I have many thoughts on both good and bad. The closest game I can think of to it is Silent Hill, which is to say it has achieved something truly magnificent in terms of its setting as well as storytelling but plays like ass. It’s a difficult statement because I want to like The Sinking City and it has many wonderful qualities but it also took me more than a few hours to figure out how its counterintuitive systems.

The game is an investigative action RPG in the Cthulhu Mythos. In the fictional city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, Charles Reed is a private investigator following up on a bunch of missing person’s cases as well as the strange visions he’s having of the town. Oakmont is apparently very isolated and was so even before it was hit by a devastating flood that leaves half of the city underwater.

The developers make an interesting stylistic choice in that Oakmont is mostly aware of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Innsmouthers, refugees from their destroyed hometown, are openly worshiping Dagon as well as looking every bit their fish-monster selves. There’s an ape-human hybrid in charge of one of the city’s oldest families. Also, there’s monsters wandering around the town that the citizens are trying to stay alive fighting. This takes some getting used to but actually adds to the weird and unsettling feeling of Oakmont.

There are some interesting contradictions in the storytelling that are worth mentioning as well. The developers are broadly sympathetic to issues like refugees and virulently anti-racism. However, that kind of makes it awkward that you can call out characters that are viciously racist against the Innsmouthers only to reveal the latter are engaged in plots to end the world with Cthulhu as well as murdering people left and right. Perhaps it’s simply a Discworld acknowledgement that true tolerance acknowledges that persecuted people can be evil bastards too.

Charles Reed is a character I wish we had either more control over his responses or less. He’s unnaturally subdued and I feel a more animated character would benefit the story. As a grizzled Mythos investigating private eye, he doesn’t have quite the same acting range as Edward Pierce from Call of Cthulhu (2018) or Jack Walters from Dark Corners of the Earth. Jack didn’t emote much either but I believed he was genuinely devastated when he failed to save one particular little girl.

The majority of the game consists of traveling around Oakmont solving mysteries. Reed is told to do something by someone, and they have to investigate locations, check archives, interview people, and put together the clues until they have answers. It takes a while to get the hang of this because the game doesn’t explain how the system works very well. I suspect fans of the publisher’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries will have an easier time of it. Also, Reed is apparently psychic and can see visions when he touches objects or a violent crime takes place somewhere.

The problem with the game is the fact that it’s consistently frustrating in its gameplay. It’s structured like a survival horror game so that even on the easiest difficulty with the Aim assist on high, you are better off running from the monsters than trying to kill them. I wish I’d figured this out sooner as some of the earliest sidequests were damn near impossible until I found the grenade. Even then, there’s a lot of quests where you can’t really investigate an area until you’ve cleared it out of bad guys.

The awkward combat is something I could forgive, though, if not for the objective and mapping systems. In simple terms, a large chunk of gameplay is about reading clues and then looking at the map to find out where places are instead of simply pointing out where the next location should be. I don’t know who thought this would be fun but unless you’re right next to your screen, this makes it much harder to reach destinations and artificially lengthens the game. You can add markers on the map yourself, but this just adds to the confusion.

The survival horror elements are also somewhat muted once you realize that crafting bullets, first aid kits, and other necessities aren’t a matter of resource management. All of the lockers and storage containers you encounter on your way through the game respawn their contents while the monsters do not. It was a good feature for dialing down my issues with the game’s difficulty but makes me wonder why bother with the crafting system at all versus leaving behind ammo or other objects like other games.

I give credit to the developers for creating a fantastic looking open world in Oakmont. The place is a post-apocalypse 1920s sort of Venice with rotting whale carcasses, overturned trolleys, and decaying coral-covered houses. There’s nothing in the way of collectibles but you’ll eventually explore everything if you play out all the side plots and main quest.

In conclusion, The Sinking City is a flawed but fun game. If you can get past the first few hours of not knowing what the hell you’re doing until you get some better weapons, then the game becomes much-much better. The story, the atmosphere, and the writing are extremely well done. It’s not traditional HP Lovecraft but there’s a few magical moments like the time you’re in a cave formation surrounded by seemingly normal rock, only to stand in just the right place with a camera as part of the mission quest: which shows you Cthulhu’s statue has been there the entire time.

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REVIEW: The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is an incredible book that gripped me from the very start and didn’t let go…and it still hasn’t, days after I finished it.

It is an African and Arabic inspired fantasy and El-Arifi paints a vivid and rich world that feels different yet similar to other fantasy epics. In many ways, The Final Strife is a story we’ve heard before. The obscenely wealthy live in gilded palaces enjoying a soft and comfortable life, feasting on the labours of those demonised by society. Yet El-Arifi’s depiction of the casual brutality faced by those marginalised souls shocked me, no mean feat in a genre where it feels like every horrific crime that could be committed by a ruler already has.

Grimdark lovers will appreciate the casual brutality of the red-blooded Embers, who chop off the hands and tongues of the clear-blooded Ghostings a few days after they are born to keep them in line. The Dusters, blue-blooded, are one rung up from the Ghostings but still treated terribly by the Embers, who seem to execute whoever they want to on a whim, with some Dusters killed for writing. Oh and they do it in a very creative and bloody way through ‘Ripping’, which involves a rack and the offender’s limbs being stretched until death is a mercy. Yep.

By about page 50, El-Arifi had built the world in my mind and then we raced through events at a pace that felt quick but not overwhelmingly so. I loved her use of blood in The Final Strife and how it divides people into different social classes. It was a great commentary on society without being too overt – and later developments emphasised this connection even more.

We follow three women, all unique and interesting characters in their own right. In classic Grimdark style, they are flawed and imperfect. They have their own agendas and missions and are happy to leave others trailing in the wake of their destructive and ambitious paths. The other characters are even less likable and all seem to have their own agendas which the three main characters have to navigate.

Sylah is a failed revolutionary. An incredible fighter whose spirit was broken when her family were murdered before her. She was meant to be the chosen one but it didn’t happen and by the start of The Final Strife, she has descended into a drug addicted mess. I’m very pleased with how El-Arifi showed the consequences of Sylah’s addiction and didn’t conveniently write them away as the stakes rose. Your heart bleeds for Sylah and you want her to win – yet she makes constant poor decisions throughout and they are both realistic and heartbreaking. She is also more than happy to hurt those closest to her to get what she wants. She has no qualms stealing from the Dustings to feed her addiction and rarely seems to do anything for anyone else. Violence and brutality comes easy to Sylah – as does a giant ego. She makes money by stealing and starring in a fighting ring – despite her biggest secret being the colour of her blood. If she suffered an injury or a cut then her secret would be exposed and everybody in the entire district would attempt to kill her. She doesn’t care.

Hassa is a Ghosting, ignored and sidelined by the arrogant upper classes – something she uses to her advantage to further the cause of her horrifically oppressed people. We are only fed drips of Hassa throughout The Final Strife but it’s clear she’ll have a huge role to play in the series. I would have liked some more time with her throughout the book just to give us a bit more information about her personality and relationships with other characters but I understand why El-Arifi didn’t want to give the game away.

The Final Strife’s third major narrator is Anoor, a sheltered soul who is inquisitive and intelligent but reviled and treated terribly by her mother, one of the most powerful people in the empire. She grew up in wealth and is a member of the ruling class, yet the circumstances of her childhood are truly horrific and it’s amazing seeing her growth throughout The Final Strife from an inconsequential character to a potential reformer and revolutionary. I liked Anoor. She brought an earnestness and warmness that illuminated an otherwise bleak story. However, I found her journey to be a bit unrealistic and her arc and final position didn’t completely work with the character she was described as at the start. Also, she shares a single mind. That being said, the book leaves her in a very interesting place and I’m excited to see what she does next.

Overall, this was a fantastic debut with great world building and a fresh yet familiar approach to empire and discrimination. I loved seeing the Ghanaian mythologies used and El-Arifi did a fantastic job of blending them with classic tropes like fighting trials to create a true fantasy epic. The sequel has jumped to the top of the list of books I’m excited for in 2023, and she could be one of the next big things in fantasy!

FIVE STARS

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REVIEW: Frolic on the Amaranthyn by Chase A. Folmar

After an act of brigandry goes awry, the seductive thief Emrasarie and the hulking swordsman Uralant the Untamable find themselves at the mercy of the masked sorcerer Zelaeus. Their lives at his disposal, he compels the pair to board Numynaris’s Ark in search of forbidden arcane secrets. An enigmatic relic left by an ancient and cruel race, the colossal vessel drifts along the mist-shrouded Amaranthyn river, playing host to a hallucinatory bacchanal: the titular Frolic on the Amaranthyn. Emrasarie and Uralant soon learn that the ethereal beauty of the Ark and its Frolic conceals a deeper rot.

A briskly-paced 101-page novella, Frolic on the Amaranthyn blends swashbuckling action with nightmarish horror elements in the tradition of Weird Tales magazine. While the ornate diction and cynical approach to sorcery and its practitioners immediately bring to mind Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance, the diametrically opposed protagonists and their heist mission recall Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The lush, phantasmagorical prose reminds the reader of Tanith Lee, late queen of dark fantasy.

Chase A. Folmar takes a broad strokes approach to both characterization and world building. The reader is not told much about the heroes or the world in which they live, just enough to serve the requirements of the story. We learn that Emrasarie is an orphan with a history of exploitation at the hands of men. She has light fingers and has learned to use her striking beauty to her advantage. Her partner Uralant, on the other hand, has a hot temper and the brawn to back it up. The setting of Frolic on the Amaranthyn has a vaguely ancient Greek feel, reinforced by Folmar’s choice in diction: this is a world in which autochthons are beholden to eupatrids, rather than one where commoners are ruled by nobles.

While character backgrounds and setting details are kept brief, Folmar revels in describing the present scene. Like Smith and Vance, he spices the text with obscure and evocative terminology. Colubrine, autolatry, myriapod, incarnadine, erubescent, inuculent, rufescent, amaurotic, etc. Nearly every page of Frolic on the Amaranthyn includes a term that would be at home in a Word-a-Day calendar. This style of prose unashamedly places flavor above accessibility, but during my first read-through of the book I resisted the temptation to reach for the dictionary. As with Smith and Vance, I elected instead to just relax and let the rhythm and musicality of the unfamiliar words wash over me. Later reviewing the book with dictionary at hand provided some additional nuance and specificity, but this extra research was not in any way required to comprehend or enjoy the book.

A world of dark beauty is presented through the poetic prose and exposition. We are reminded repeatedly that, though surface elements may be beautiful—such as the architecture and luxurious finery on display—like Zelaeus’ exquisite mask it often serves to hide a deeper corruption. For all the superficial aesthetic beauty, brutality is never far away. The upper classes subsist heavily on their inferiors, and are willing to use violence to maintain this status quo. Over the course of Frolic on the Amaranthyn, Emrasarie and Uralant learn that humanity is threatened by an even more malicious and insidious parasite.

Numerous dark fantasy and classic Sword & Sorcery elements are present in Frolic on the Amaranthyn, but the choice to have the protagonists be a romantic couple is an uncommon choice for the genre. They don’t fall in love over the course of the adventure, they’re not friends (with or without benefits), they are already dedicated to each other. This intense commitment comes into play during the course of the story, with both of them drawing strength from their bond and using it to overcome both physical trauma and mind-affecting enchantments. This aspect of the characters felt fresh and ripe for further exploration.

A world of dark beauty is presented through the poetic prose and exposition. We are reminded repeatedly that, though surface elements may be beautiful—such as the architecture and luxurious finery on display—like Zelaeus’ exquisite mask it often serves to hide a deeper corruption. For all the superficial aesthetic beauty, brutality is never far away. The upper classes subsist heavily on their inferiors, and are willing to use violence to maintain this status quo. Over the course of Frolic on the Amaranthyn, Emrasarie and Uralant learn that humanity is threatened by an even more malicious and insidious parasite.

Frolic on the Amaranthyn delivers an exciting and fast-paced dark fantasy adventure with appealing protagonists in a distinctive setting. This reader was left hoping that Folmar will return to the duo and their intriguing world in the future.

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REVIEW: Curse of the Fallen by H.C. Newell

H.C. Newell has put a grimdark twist on classic Tolkienesque fantasy with Curse of the Fallen, the first volume of her Fallen Light series.

The heroine of the story, Neer, is a young woman cursed with forbidden magical powers in the land of Laeroth. Neer’s magical abilities make her a target of the Order of Saro, a religious faction who rule the human-controlled territories and have outlawed magic. Neer will stop at nothing to break this curse and begin a new life free of fear.

Neer is an outstanding main character: strong, passionate, funny, and with relatable faults. Her friendship with the witty bard Loryk and the shapeshifting halfling Gil forms the heart of this story. Loryk is a particularly well realized character, so much more than the traditional fantasy cliché of a bard.

The magic system is another highlight of Curse of the Fallen, especially the use of limited teleportation. But the cost of magic is high, leading to profound exhaustion and making the magic user a target of the Order.

The worldbuilding in Curse of the Fallen features classic Tolkien elements, including elves, halflings, and various demonic beings, but in a grimdark world that doesn’t shy away from showing the brutality of violence and its aftermath.

H.C. Newell’s writing is the perfect match for her dark tale. Newell is a natural storyteller, and reading Curse of the Fallen feels like listening to a haunting story over a slowly dying bonfire, waiting for creatures to jump at you out of the darkness. Newell’s pacing is spot-on. She pulls the reader in from the first page and maintains a fast, evenly paced plot throughout the novel. The ending of Curse of the Fallen has a big emotional impact, bringing a satisfying conclusion to the novel while also setting up the series well for the next leg of the adventure.

From its complex heroine to its dark world evoking a Tolkienesque nightmare, Curse of the Fallen has much to offer grimdark fans. My only minor complaint is that some of the worldbuilding is relegated to footnotes, for which I have mixed feelings. I would have liked to
see a broader view of the world within the main text of the novel itself, but perhaps that will come with the subsequent volumes of the series.

With Curse of the Fallen, H.C. Newell has crafted a delightfully dark adventure and established herself as a rising star of grimdark fantasy. Curse of the Fallen is highly recommended for Tolkien fans who are drawn to the dark side.

4/5

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REVIEW: World Running Down by Al Hess

World Running Down is the first traditionally published novel by Al Hess. I first read his self-published novel Mazarin Blues last year for the first Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, and loved it.

Valentine Weis and his partner Ace survive in the post-apocalyptic United States, driving an old ruined bus to various salvage jobs and bickering. They get offered a job that will give them visas, and therefore permission to live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Not only does this offer a drastic increase in security and living conditions, but Valentine, a trans man, will finally have the chance to get the surgery he needs.

Several androids belonging to a wealthy family vanished into the desert. Though artificial intelligence exists in the setting, it is not installed in androids, thus presuming that someone ran off with them. However, these androids are gaining some semblance of self-awareness and do not want to return. This forces Valentine and Ace to decide what they’re willing to do to get the visas to Salt Lake City.

Complicating the situation further is Osric, who is the other point of view character of the book. Osric is an artificial intelligence who had been exiled from the rest of the A.I. overseers who help manage Salt Lake City and input into an android’s body. Osric and Valentine soon start up a romance, which is the primary character arc of the book. It was a very adult relationship, not in the sense of explicitness (though there is one explicit scene) but in that when there were issues they just talked about them. There was no will-they-won’t-they, no artificial drama inserted. It was a very comfortable romance, with no doubt from the beginning that everything would end up all right.

World Running Down is an extremely mild post-apocalypse, far from the brutal, bleak common post- apocalypses. Even the title suggests it wasn’t one huge awful event but just a slow degradation. There are hints at the edges of the book about some of the strangeness seeping through the world that exist out in the desert, and the tensions of the city’s populace getting rid of their more problematic elements by sending them into the desert and forgetting about them.

That said by and large, even the other wasteland scavengers are just people trying to get by and keep their communities safe and intact. Community is a huge part of the book, and Valentine is explicit that he could stop salvaging and go to communities where he knows people and get by, but it would mean giving up on his surgery. Everyone has a place they belong, even in the post-apocalypse.

As a small, final note, the cover of World Running Down was done by Hess as well, as are the sketches of the two primary characters inside. I cannot think of another traditionally published book that had cover art by the author, but it’s great.

World Running Down avoids most of the more grimdark tropes of the post-apocalypse. Even the villains have no reason to believe the androids have gained self-awareness, as it is thus far in the setting unprecedented. But it makes a fine comfort read between darker books.

The plot of World Running Down is delivered like clockwork. It’s lean and fast and the character arcs tie in perfectly with the plot. Hess has a great grasp on character dynamics and building relatable relationships. World Running Down is out on Valentine’s Day 2023.

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REVIEW: Blade Runner ‘Black Lotus’ #4 by Nancy Collins and Enid Balám

Blade Runner ‘Black Lotus’ #4 is the fourth and final installment of the mini-series that is a sequel to the successful Cartoon Network Blade Runner ‘Black Lotus’ anime. It is an intequal set between the two Blade Runner movies and about a young Replicant girl named Elle who narrowly survives a bunch of Replicant-hating bigots. Picking up immediately afterward, she finds herself wandering into a wasteland town built around fracking and the conflict emerging between the settlers with the owners of the fracking plant.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first issue, offput by the lack of Joseph from the anime as well as the shift from cyberpunk Los Angeles to the more Mad Max-esque California desert. However, the next two issues were action packed and at least entertaining from beginning to end. They may not have been particularly deep stories but the art was kinetic and I enjoyed seeing Elle kick as much ass as she did in the anime.

The final issue of the series surprised me by returning to characterization as its primary motivation. There’s very little action as, instead, Elle meditates on the nature of sacrifice and how her friend Joseph got himself killed trying to redeem himself. Sadly, this confirms what the series was already hinting at when the anime left it open-ended over whether Joseph survived his attempted sacrifice or not.

Here, Elle successfully confronts the remaining fracking boss and forces a confession out of him that he attempted to kidnap a bunch of women from the settlers in order to force them into prostitution. Also, that he was the man responsible for torturing and mutilating all of the pleasure model Replicants that resulted in Niander Wallace cancelling his contract. It’s a cathartic moment and well done for showing a certain level of justice can exist in the Blade Runner world.

There’s also an interesting scene at the start of the comic where one of the settlers reveals he was in on the kidnapping plot in hopes of acquiring the village doctor for himself. If the comic had an additional two issues to pace itself (raising it to six), I suspect Nancy Collins would have had more room to get into reasons why we should care about these characters.

Overall, I enjoyed the Black Lotus mini-series even if I was disappointed in places like with the lack of Joseph and lack of character development. The Wild West/Mad Max-esque setting was something that took a little while to get used to but I ultimately think it was an okay shift from Los Angeles. There’s a lot to enjoy here but most of the book is action and feels more like an episode or two of the series rather an entire season.

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