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Royalty and Power in Fantasy: Heavy is the head that wears the crown

Pick up a fantasy book at random and odds are, there will be royalty in the story. A sneering prince looking down on the commoners, a king or queen struggling with the burden of their responsibilities, a princess doing her best to play the role expected of her whilst plotting in the shadows the ways of earning true power. What is the obsession with royalty in fantasy? Why do writers feel the urge to use these characters in their stories?

The birth of fantasy is a topic debated frequently by its readers. Whilst there are arguments for different starting points for the much-loved genre, it is clear that it has strong links to the fairytales that many of us grew up with; fairytales that stem from medieval times with dark castles, kings, queens, princes, and princesses. Fantasy’s obsession with royalty goes hand in hand with its love of the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Western Europe fell into a decline known as the Dark Ages. It was a time of chaos: war and bloodshed, plague and depression. It was grim as hell. The perfect period for writers to mine for ideas in the hope of creating conflict and drama. Throughout it all, monarchies rose and fell. Beheadings, hangings, treaties, alliances… the Dark Ages had it all. Whilst the Islamic world was going through a Golden Age, Western Europe’s Dark Ages inspired some of the greatest writers in western literature, and the lives of the kings and queens of this period were full of intrigue and scandal.

George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is famously influenced by the War of the Roses – civil wars fought in England between the houses of Lancaster and York. He had read history books about the important events but wanted his story to focus on the juicy parts: the war, betrayal, assassinations, and murder. His fascination with the history of the kings and queens of that period even led to him compiling his own history book of the Targaryens aptly titled Fire and Blood which is soon to be a series on HBO.

One of Martin’s inspirations, JRR Tolkien, looked to the mythos of Britain and was inspired by elements of King Arthur and his infamous legend (though he found it all too connected to Christianity for his liking and ended up developing his own story with its own cultures, languages, and mythos – he was quite successful with it too…) and William Shakespeare lived through the transition of Elizabeth I’s death and her enemy’s son, James I, taking the throne. Shakespeare was able to see the workings of the royal family and felt the pressure of leading an organization called the King’s Men, working to produce incredible plays that needed to be performed nightly. His work during this time is interesting in that through plays like King Lear, he looks at the effect of a divided Britain. His work becomes a warning without being hollow propaganda. A clever move, as King James was king of both Scotland and England at the time. Whether writing about the monarchy, or for the monarchy, it is clear to see that some of the greatest writers have been inspired by those in power.

That’s the key component: power. The stories we read often involve characters with power, and characters without power. This divide can be what drives the story – the goal can be for a character without power to obtain it. Stories with royalty allow for that epic scope. They lead whole nations, call for armies to head into battle, and require men and women to die for their country. Adding royalty often creates plots that lead to world-changing events.

Peter McLean’s War for the Rose Throne gives a thrilling example of what happens to a person when they gain power. Starting with Priest of Bones, the character Thomas Piety returns from war to rebuild his criminal empire. There are different levels of power that Piety either achieves or witnesses throughout the story and it is the power of McLean’s writing from Piety’s perspective that gives the reader an insight into his incredible worldbuilding. When the story moves to the capital, Piety witnesses power on another level. People in the capital feign reverence to the Queen knowing that it is important to at least be seen to be fawning over the monarch. Those who do not are often taken away and never seen again or used as an example to ensure the masses obey.

This social construct of subjects having to be seen obeying a monarch draws parallels to Shakespeare’s time and the anxiety people felt when they were uncertain about the balance of power. The powerful using fear to ensure obedience isn’t something confined to the annals of history. It can still be seen today and great writers use such injustices to add depth to their stories and enrich the experience for the readers. Piety is a brilliant character for a reader to follow in this regard. He has lived as a common man. His father’s actions towards him and his brother show the abuse of power within a family. The abuse of power and lack of empathy for their fellow man is shown on a grander scale through the actions of the leaders in Piety’s world. Of course, Piety himself questions his actions when he realizes that he has brought about so much death in his homeland.

Fantasy has its heroic royals. Shining beacons that show us the way things should be done by those with enough power to influence the masses. Lord of the Ring’s Aragorn is a reluctant leader who cares for those around him and would willingly die for them. Princess Leia in Star Wars is a badass leader, unwilling to just wait for others to rescue her and Queen Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones is all kinds of awesome. However, some of the best royals in fantasy, and in grimdark especially, are those leaders who struggle in their role. In King Henry IV Part Two, Shakespeare writes, “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.” It is easy to be envious of kings and queens. Power. Wealth. Powerful alliances. The world seems easy. But fantasy sometimes scratches the surface and shows us what is beneath.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie introduces Jezal dan Luther, an arrogant, handsome, smarmy noble who doesn’t realise the privilege he has when he mocks those beneath him. When he is suddenly thrust into the office of king, he feels it is his right to rule. Little does he know that his new role is suffocating with everyone watching his every move, no chance to choose who to speak to, where to go, who to love. Jezal comes to realise that life as a king means sacrifice and that the higher you climb, the more people you serve. By the time readers come to see Jezal years later in the Age of Madness trilogy, he is no longer the charismatic and smart-talking young man we were introduced to. There is a weariness to him, as though the crown is a literal burden weighing him down until he is almost unrecognizable. The burden of power has robbed him of his vibrancy and it is something that Abercrombie delves into even further with his son, Orso. Abercrombie also plays with an idea touched on by McLean, that true power can be wielded from the shadows through fear and manipulation. The scheming Bayaz understands that royals can be killed either by assassins or through revolution. Figureheads are sometimes just the puppets being played by a greater master.

Great stories take characters on a journey. They change. They evolve. Characters rise and fall and it is easy to see that when reading about royalty. Whether it is characters overcoming obstacles to rise to the position of king or queen, or royalty falling and learning to live away from the trappings of their former position, it is always interesting to follow them on that journey and see how the characters behave when their lives change so much. It is the study of power and the lack of it. Human history is one of conflict and the struggle for power. Fantasy shines a light on such dynamics. It gives an insight into the corruptive nature of power and the strength needed to shield oneself from it. Tolkien displayed this to perfection in Lord of the Rings and it will be a focus on Amazon Prime’s upcoming The Rings of Power. As a famous character once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” It is that incredible responsibility that makes regal characters in fantasy so captivating and powerful to readers and writers.

Want to see some royalty topple? Grab yourself a copy of The King Must Fall

The post Royalty and Power in Fantasy: Heavy is the head that wears the crown appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

Review: Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emery

Deep Roots is the sequel to Ruthanna Emrys’ Winter Tide and The Litany of Earth. It is a story set in a “perspective flip” Cthulhu Mythos. The basic idea behind the Innsmouth Legacy is the Cthulhu Mythos is not actively hostile but simply different. The Deep Ones are just another race of human beings, the Mi-Go are busy-bodies who want to make humans better, the Yithians (actually the Yithians are much worse). It moves the setting from the realm of horror into that of science fiction.

I don’t mind authors doing this sort of thing and actually think more people should. Basically, there’s no point to trying to ape H.P. Lovecraft’s prose but much benefit to adding your own spin on his universe. It’s why I enjoy the works of Brian Lumley’s Titus Crow, Peter Cline’s 14 and The Fold, Matthew Davenport’s Andrew Doran series, and David Hambling’s Harry Stubbs series.

The premise of the Innsmouth Legacy is the adventures of Aphra Marsha. Aphra is one of the only two survivors of the camps where the population was herded after the events of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. This idea was actually done before with The Doom that Came to Innsmouth by McNaughton but his story took a traditional view that the Deep Ones, victim of a horrible crime or not, were still an evil cult. This group of Deep Ones is entirely innocent of the blood libel they have been accused of.

The first book had Aphra exploring Miskatonic University and the Innsmouth ruins while dueling with both the Yith and FBI. The sequel takes Aphra and her brother Caleb on a quest to New York (as well as Red Hook) in order to find missing members of the Innsmouth Legacy (a.k.a “mistborn”). Along the way, they encounter the Mi-Go who provide Aphra with a different perspective on the religion she’s grown up revering.

I really enjoyed this novel and hope Ruthanna Emrys continues to write books in the setting. While it’s a bit iffy to find so many of the Mythos creatures made harmless and good intentioned, she still manages to make some of them quite terrifying. The Yith (also the Elder Race in this version) are also a people she reveres but this book highlights what a vicious and evil race their actions actually make them to being. The K’nyanians (from “The Mound”) are also revealed to be even worse than Lovecraft portrayed them.

I also like how Ruthanna Emrys plays with the themes of prejudice as Aphra Marsh proves to be outstandingly bigoted and close minded against the Mi-Go. The prospect of defying fate, of exploring the galaxy, and many things we tend to think of as positive are all things that horrify her. She can’t get into the mindset of someone who doesn’t view the Earth’s oceans as the “be end all” of existence.

I also like the follow up from events in Winter Tide with the apexia of Mary, Professor Turnbull struggling to get her life back in order, and Audrey’s love of Aphra that she remains oblivious too. It seems very likely Aphra is asexual with no interest in mating beyond
reproduction (even then that’s because she’s being pressured into carrying on the Innsmouth legacy) and that’s something you don’t see very often in books. I also like how FBI Agent Ron Spector is caught between his desire to protect the United States from supernatural threats and his friendship with Aphra (who is actively hostile to the United States for obvious reasons).

In conclusion, I really like this story and think fans of Lovecraft will enjoy it if they don’t mind switching genres. It’s not horror and it’s not a particularly “alien” version of the Mythos but it’s still a very good take on Lovecraft’s work which I enjoyed for its own sake.

Read Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys

The post Review: Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emery appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

The best dark and grimdark SFF of 2022

With another year pretty much done, it’s time for the Grimdark Magazine review team to pick their favourite dark and grimdark SFF reads of 2022! When I was compiling this list it really dawned on me that even though it was another relatively shit year for a fair few of our team members and followers, on the plus side they have been treated to some absolutely brilliant books.

Across traditional and indie publishing, and authors from many walks of life and perspectives, the world of dark and grimdark SFF was certainly in safe hands in 2022. So, maybe give your TBR pile a call and let them know they are about to be inundated; let’s get stuck into the best dark and grimdark SFF of 2022.

An End to Sorrow by Michael R. FletcherPicked by Tom Smith

THE OBSIDIAN PATH IS IN RUINS

Abandoned by his god and chained in the bilge of Iremaire’s war galley, Khraen has lost everything.
His only friend is dead, his wife beheaded and thrown into the ocean.

In an act of true self-destruction, a shard of Khraen’s heart stalks the islands destroying the others.

His sword calls him home to PalTaq, where it all began.

Only there can Khraen find an end to sorrow.

Our review

Once more I was amazed at the way Fletcher’s mind works in his narrative voice. I’ve read most of his published works to this point and I always wonder what deep, dark well he draws forth these ideas. He never fails to deliver, and An End to Sorrow is another entry in Fletcher’s study of human motivation and need.

Read the full review here.

Read An End to Sorrow by Michael R. Fletcher

Sins of the Mother by Rob J. HayesPicked by Chris Haught

In her darklight the world will burn.

Eskara Helsene is missing. She left her queendom, her friends, her children, even her own name behind. No one has seen the Corpse Queen for a decade.

Someone is murdering Sourcerers, forcing them to reject their magic and opening scars in reality, and monsters from the Other World are pouring through.

When an old acquaintance turns up out of the blue, Eska has no choice but to investigate the murders and the holes in reality. Can she stop the killer before the entire world is consumed? And will the conflict reveal her true nature?

Sins of the Mother is the 4th book in the best-selling The War Eternal Series. A gripping dark epic fantasy perfect for fans of Patrick Rothfuss and Mark Lawrence.

Our review

Two years ago, when I’d finished reading From Cold Ashes Risen, I thought I had finished a brilliant trilogy that would rank among the greats in the grimdark pantheon. I still hold to that belief, but I was pleasantly surprised early this year when Rob J. Hayes released a continuation of Eska’s story in Sins of the Mother. It seems she wasn’t finished with the world just yet.

Read the full review here.

Read Sins of the Mother by Rob J. Hayes

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea AbdullahPicked by Brigid Ann

Neither here nor there, but long ago . . .

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

Our review

The story was delightful and dark, gritty and compelling, and all-around wonderful. I fell for The Stardust Thief  within just a few chapters, and its many twists and turns kept me engrossed until the very last page. The world-building in The Stardust Thief is lush and plastic, which just adds to the book as a whole transporting you into its realm. The jinn, the magic, every aspect of the lore fits together seamlessly to create a world of stories perfect for a literary escape.

Read the full review here.

Read The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

The First Binding by R. R. VirdiPicked by James Tivendale

All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.

I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.

My name is Ari.

And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.

Thus begins the tale of a storyteller and a singer on the run and hoping to find obscurity in a tavern bar. But the sins of their past aren’t forgotten, and neither are their enemies. Their old lives are catching up swiftly and it could cost them the entire world. No one can escape their pasts and all stories must have an ending.

Our review

In a similar fashion to Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire, The First Binding is about an important character revealing their epic tale, telling the truth about their becoming legendary or infamous and how they ended up in the position they are in at the present time.

Read the full review here.

Read The First Binding by R. R. Virdi

The Shadow Glass by Josh WinningPicked by Jodie Crump

Jack Corman is failing at life.

Jobless, jaded and on the “wrong” side of thirty, he’s facing the threat of eviction from his London flat while reeling from the sudden death of his father, one-time film director Bob Corman. Back in the eighties, Bob poured his heart and soul into the creation of his 1986 puppet fantasy The Shadow Glass, a film Jack loved as a child, idolising its fox-like hero Dune.

But The Shadow Glass flopped on release, deemed too scary for kids and too weird for adults, and Bob became a laughing stock, losing himself to booze and self-pity. Now, the film represents everything Jack hated about his father, and he lives with the fear that he’ll end up a failure just like him.

In the wake of Bob’s death, Jack returns to his decaying home, a place creaking with movie memorabilia and painful memories. Then, during a freak thunderstorm, the puppets in the attic start talking. Tipped into a desperate real-world quest to save London from the more nefarious of his father’s creations, Jack teams up with excitable fanboy Toby and spiky studio executive Amelia to navigate the labyrinth of his father’s legacy while conjuring the hero within––and igniting a Shadow Glass resurgence that could, finally, do his father proud.

Our review

If you ever danced with the Goblin King, if you cried when Artax died, if you were a little bit scared of skesis when you were young – then The Shadow Glass will have you pumping your fist and grinning like an idiot. This book was a love story to the wonderful, imaginative things I grew up with, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Read the full review here.

Read The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning

Spear by Nicola GriffithPicked by Fabienne Schwizer

She left all she knew to find who she could be . . .

She grows up in the wild wood, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake drift to her on the spring breeze, scented with promise. And when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she decides her future lies at his court. So, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and sets out on her bony gelding for Caer Leon.

With her stolen hunting spear and mended armour, she is an unlikely hero, not a chosen one, but one who forges her own bright path. Aflame with determination, she begins a journey of magic and mystery, love, lust and fights to death. On her adventures, she will steal the hearts of beautiful women, fight warriors and sorcerers, and make a place to call home.

The legendary author of Hild returns with an unforgettable hero and a queer Arthurian masterpiece for the modern era. Nicola Griffith’s Spear is a spellbinding vision of the Camelot we’ve longed for, a Camelot that belongs to us all.

Our review

Spear by Nicola Griffith is a gorgeous queer Arthurian novella out from Tor.com in April 2022. And if it sounds even the slightest bit like something you’d enjoy, this is a book to preorder now. It blew my mind as I read it on the day I received it. This slim volume manages to capture its reader and tell a complete story in just under two hundred pages, something which many longer books don’t achieve.

Read the full review here.

Read Spear by Nicola Griffith

Babel by R.F. KuangPicked by Julia Frazer

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

Our review

Babel is the kind of book that you will need to read and reread to fully grasp, and every new read will reveal new details to you, new elements to focus on. This is a book like a university degree – the amount you get out of it is proportional to the energy you put in, and if you’re willing, is infinite.

Read the full review here.

Read Babel by R.F. Kuang

Eleventh Cycle by Kian N. ArdalanPicked by John Mauro

It has been a thousand years since the last Seed abandoned their duty. The mists are closing in. Finally, the Morning Bell tolls. A new Seed is born, but is it too late?
The rot eats away at mortals. The Witnesses pray so that they may not turn into one of the forgotten. And the constricting mists infect the lands with fear.
But there is more to this tale than just the Elders and their Seeds. Four mortals will have a part to play in Minethria’s fate. A farmer girl with only love in her eyes. A warrior born to the life of a refugee. A highborn stuck between the realm of gods and men. And a woman running into front lines and away from home.
Will the cycle finally be completed? Or will the mist swallow all?
A seed is born and the evil is slain, so doth another cycle commence. Yet the last Seed born hath turned traitor, and the mists which had been pushed back, returneth.

Our review

With its epic worldbuilding, hauntingly beautiful aesthetic, and well-realized protagonists, Eleventh Cycle is a tour de force of grimdark fantasy and a bold statement from emerging indie author Kian N. Ardalan. The novel takes place in the mist-encircled land of Minethria as the prophesied Eleventh Seed is born. This offspring of the Elder King may, perhaps, serve as savior to the mortal beings of this war-torn land.

Read the full review here.

Read Eleventh Cycle by Kian N. Ardalan

Leech by Hiron EnnesPicked by Ryan Howse-Meister

MEET THE CURE FOR THE HUMAN DISEASE

In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies.

For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed.

In the frozen north, the Institute’s body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron’s castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again.

Our review

In Verdira, a brutal winter encroaches as a replacement arrives for a doctor who just died. Both the dead doctor and the replacement are part of The Institute, where doctors are trained; they also both share the same hive-mind. Trained doctors are almost exclusively from The Institute, and the entity inside can take over as many bodies as it believes it needs. But the fact that the replacement has no idea how the original doctor died is cause for concern—what could have happened that the hive mind wasn’t aware of?

Read the full review here.

Read Leech by Hiron Ennes

Age of Ash by Daniel AbrahamPicked by Angela Gualtieri

Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.

This is Alys’s.

When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why.  But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.

Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.

Our review

This is a great read if you enjoy a “slow burn” style of writing, and luxuriating in a delightfully written story that is character driven and utterly immersive.

Read the full review here.

Read Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

The Martyr by Anthony RyanPicked by Aaron Jones

Times have changed for Alwyn Scribe. Once an outlaw, he’s now a spymaster and sworn protector of Lady Evadine Courlain, whose visions of a demonic apocalypse have earned her the fanatical devotion of the faithful.

Yet Evadine’s growing fame has put her at odds with both Crown and Covenant. As trouble brews in the kingdom, both seek to exploit her position for their own ends.

Sent to the Duchy of Alundia to put down a rebellion, Alwyn must rely on old instincts to fight for his new cause. Deadly feuds and ancient secrets are laid bare as war erupts, a war that will decide the fate of the Kingdom of Albermaine and, perhaps, prevent the coming of the prophesied Second Scourge.

Our review

Anthony Ryan’s latest novel is the sequel to last year’s brilliant The Pariah and is the second book in The Covenant of Steel series. The outlaw Alwyn Scribe survived the events of The Pariah and now finds himself on a journey across a land filled with unrest as religion and rebellion lead to bloodshed. Alwyn does his best to keep a dark secret from coming to light as he climbs the ladder from outlaw to spymaster and sworn protector of the Risen Martyr Lady Evadine Courlain.

Read the full review here.

Read The Martyr by Anthony Ryan

Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski BowdenPicked by Chris Napier

The walls have fallen. The defenders’ unity is broken. The Inner Palace lies in ruins. The Warmaster’s horde advances through the fire and ash of Terra’s dying breaths, forcing the loyalists back to the Delphic Battlement, the very walls of the Sanctum Imperialis. Angron, Herald of Horus, has achieved immortality through annihilation – now he leads the armies of the damned in a wrathful tide, destroying all before them as the warp begins its poisonous corruption of Terra. For the Emperor’s beleaguered forces, the end has come. The Khan lies on the edge of death. Rogal Dorn is encircled, fighting his own war at Bhab Bastion. Guilliman will not reach Terra in time. Without his brothers, Sanguinius – the Angel of the Ninth Legion – waits on the final battlements, hoping to rally a desperate band of defenders and refugees for one last stand.

Our review

All in all, Echoes of Eternity was everything I expected it to be and more. Dembski-Bowden has a great talent for describing some of the most viscerally horrible and enigmatically otherworldly stuff, and also for making both nailed-on villains and potential Mary Sue heroes both relatable and compelling. Echoes of Eternity shocked me at times, had me whooping with glee at others and will probably take several re-reads to fully process.

Read the full review here.

Read Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski Bowden

Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna LawlessPicked by Fiona Denton

They think they’ve killed the last of us…

981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son—and herself—but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world—like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians. Fódla is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the gift of healing. Her kind dwell hidden in a fortress, forbidden to live amongst the mortals. Fódla agrees to help her kin by going to spy on Brian Boru, a powerful man who aims to be High King of Ireland. She finds a land on the brink of war—a war she is desperate to stop. However, preventing the loss of mortal lives is not easy with Ireland in turmoil and the Fomorians now on the rise…

Our review

I am so glad that The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is the first in a trilogy because I really do want to read more from Lawless and this world. There was no palpitation inducing cliff hanger but the set is laid for the next novel and I am very excited to read where Lawless will take the story next.

Read the full review here.

Read Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless

The Justice of Kings by Richard SwanPicked by Adrian Collins

The Empire of the Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all challenge the power of the Imperial throne.

Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged the Empire.

When the pair investigates the murder of a provincial aristocrat, they unearth a conspiracy that stretches to the very top of Imperial society. As the stakes rise and become ever more personal, Vonvalt and Helena must make a choice: Will they abandon the laws they’ve sworn to uphold, in order to protect the Empire?

Our review

In Richard Swan’s new fantasy trilogy, starting with The Justice of Kings, a rich low magic world is brought to life through brilliant characters and their arcs. A mixture of detective work, dark fantasy, and low fantasy, I’ll be really surprised if this book isn’t on a few best of 2022 lists this year (Can we call this last bit a successful prediction? – Ed.).

Read the full review here.

Read The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

Previous years’ best of lists

You want … MOOOAAAR? Check out the best of lists from the last few years and fill yer boots!

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The post The best dark and grimdark SFF of 2022 appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Jurgen by James Branch Cabell

Before J.R.R. Tolkien, there was James Branch Cabell (1879-1958), a pioneer in the fantasy genre from Richmond, Virginia, who achieved his greatest fame during the roaring 1920s. Cabell published a series of 23 novels (The Biography of Manuel) based in the fictional land of Poictesme. Poictesme was the Middle Earth of the 1920s, complete with fictional map, history, legends, and swords-and-magic adventure. Unlike The Lord of the Rings, each volume of The Biography of Manuel can be read as a standalone novel, and they can be read in any order. Jurgen is the most popular and, arguably, the best entry in The Biography of Manuel.

The main character, Jurgen, is a self-described “monstrous clever fellow” who “will try any drink once.” His adventures begin as he follows his wife into a cave in an attempt to rescue her and bring her home safely. Jurgen finds himself in a series of magical realms, meeting a succession of beautiful women. Jurgen soon forgets the mission to save his wife, falling in love with every pretty face he encounters.

The novel is full of double entendres. As a result, Cabell and his publisher were sued for indecency. They won the lawsuit after two years, and then published a revised version of Jurgen containing a supposedly “lost” chapter in which Jurgen is on trial by the Philistines for indecency. The chief prosecutor is represented as a dung beetle in the following quote:

“You are offensive,” the bug replied, “because this page has a sword which I choose to
say is not a sword. You are lewd because that page has a lance which I prefer to think is
not a lance. You are lascivious because yonder page has a staff which I elect to declare is
not a staff. And finally, you are indecent for reasons of which a description would be
objectionable to me, and which therefore I must decline to reveal to anybody.”

“Well, that sounds logical,” says Jurgen, “but still, at the same time, it would be no
worse for an admixture of common sense. For you gentlemen can see for yourselves, by
considering these pages fairly and as a whole, that these pages bear a sword and a lance
and a staff, and nothing else whatever; and that all the lewdness is in the insectival mind
of him who itches to be calling these things by other names.”

This above passage should give you a good feel for Cabell’s snarky writing style. For modern grimdark readers, I feel like Cabell’s style could be described as a Jazz Age version of Dyrk Ashton or Clayton W. Snyder.

The lore presented in Jurgen is an amalgamation of various sources, including Arthurian legend, Greek mythology, and Biblical stories. As the novel progresses, the stakes continue to be raised on Jurgen, until he eventually remembers his mission and once again finds domestic bliss with his wife, whom he calls “a high-spirited woman with no especial gift for silence.”

Jurgen is a lot of fun to read. Cabell was one of the pioneers of the comical fantasy subgenre. Jurgen is also full of philosophical musings that will make you ponder and smile at the same time. In that sense, it’s very much in the spirit of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

I should also mention the beautiful artwork included throughout the book. I love how the art intertwines with the text at the beginning and end of many of the chapters.

Jurgen is quite nearly a forgotten masterpiece. Cabell went out of style during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and even more so during World War II. There is no grand battle between good and evil here. Cabell’s fantasies represent darkly humorous escapism, pure and simple.

`4/5

Read Jurgen by James Branch Cabell

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Is it finally happening? Warhammer 40,000 to hit the big screen with Henry Cavill starring and producing

Today, The Hollywood Reporter dropped the news that I, and millions of other Warhammer 40,000 fans, have been waiting for. A company with the cash and capability to do our most beloved sci-fantasy universe proud is on the verge of acquiring the rights to do so. The Rings of Power got the Amazon treatment first. And it looks like we’re next in line.

Warhammer 40,000 is a far future sci-fantasy setting where the Imperium of man spans countless worlds and is assailed on all sides by traitors and aliens. It is an endless meat grinder of war where soldiers in their billions alongside Space Marine supersoldiers create unlimited stories of desperate battles on millions of planets, and are shipped there by kilometres-long spacecraft that tear open gates to hell to access different parts of the galaxy. The setting offers everything from military sci-fi, to more fantasy style stories of psykers and the warp, to hardboiled noir as agents and killers stalk hive cities whose tallest buildings scrape the ozone layer. It is the perfect setup for a big movie or TV franchise.

To be absolutely clear, at this point, this is not a done deal. The Hollywood Reporter reiterates that a couple of times. But the article claims that a deal is close, and we can just enjoy that for the moment.

The next piece of amazing news is that one of our likely heroes of the Imperium will be none other than Henry Cavill. Cavill is a long-established superfan of Warhammer 40,000, with pictures of him painting models, and interviews all over the shop. He’s likely to be a lead character (that block-jawed melon of his just screams Ultramarines or Imperial Fists or Rogal Dorn), and (and I want to put emphasis on this “and” because this is important) one of the producers.

Cavill as a producer, for me is vital. We’ve seen him leave one of his most beloved characters, Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s The Witcher, behind because the writers and producers took too many liberties with the source material. The Warhammer 40,000 fanbase is one of intense passion for the source material. It’s also one that is utterly brutal to creators when they miss the mark. Should liberties be taken, the fanbase will be utterly merciless.

Games Workshop, who own the intellectual property (IP) for the Warhammer 40,000 universe have been making moves towards something like this for a good while–spreading their wings from their tabletop game and book product lines. There are stacks and stacks of video games (including Darktide which just released this month) and Warhammer TV (featuring the utterly amazing Astartes animation by Syama Pedersen). To me, this big budget commitment has always been the next step. If you’re in the fan community, you’ll have seen plenty of commentary over the decades about technology and budget not being able to do justice to the world. With Cavill and Amazon attached, we might just get something wonderful.

I know that articles like these are released all the time, and there is still a good chance that this is all news to Cavill, that the whole thing face plants right at the finish line because Amazon sees something shinier, or that Games Workshop (who are zealously protective of their almost 50 years of IP) pull out, but, if this is all a dream, please don’t wake me up from it just yet.

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REVIEW: Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys is a book which came out last year, I read and I loved, but for whatever reason I didn’t get to review. This is strange and an oversight on my part because it ticks most of the boxes for what I love in fiction: not only is it an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired story but it is also something that reinterprets the Mythos for a modern audience. Like Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, it’s a work which tackles HPL’s controversial elements head on and does something interesting with them.

In the case of Winter Tide, it is a sequel to the novella A Litany of Earth which was originally published on Tor’s website and is actually available at the back of the novel. I suggest readers who want to fully enjoy this work read both A Litany of Earth first as well as H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth, which remains his most famous work as well as the work which this is a perspective flip as well as continuation of.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Shadow over Innsmouth, the premise is a young New England scholar heads to the titular town of Innsmouth. It is a decaying hellhole of a fishing village with the locals all looking grossly deformed with huge eyes, scaly skin, and frog-like bodies. Gradually, the protagonist discovers the Innsmouthers have been interbreeding with a evil race of fish men called the Deep Ones and worshiping the dread god Cthulhu. The protagonist calls the US government down on them and they’re all arrested before being herded into camps.

Ruthanna Emrys takes this rather horrifying ending, if you treat them as people rather than monsters, and makes a series about the camps’ (almost) sole survivor. In this universe, the Deep Ones were just a peaceful aquatic race which was unfairly maligned by both H.P. Lovecraft’s protagonist as well as the US government. The same camps which held Japanese Americans during WW2 contain the leftovers of the Innsmouth Raid. Aphra is traumatized by the event and simply wants to get on with her life–but the US government isn’t done with her.

Aphra Marsh’s story is basically the H.P. Lovecraft version of Wicked where up is down, black is white, and the Mythos is good rather than evil. The US government hideously wronged Aphra and her people but have the gall to want her help in dealing with magical matters. Magic isn’t evil in this universe but it’s not “safe” either and plenty of humans are messing with forces which could end up destroying the world by accident. So, Aphra, heads off to join an FBI team trying to find a Russian spy in Miskatonic University.

The book advertises itself as a spy thriller but it’s mostly a drama about Aphra coming to terms with the appropriation of her people’s books and cultural artifacts by Miskatonic University. She has to go to New England in order to look at her people’s own work and request them from the library which stole them. Meanwhile, she also has to deal with a variety of personages who want to take her religious practices then remove all context from them in order to make a purely scientific form of magic.

I found these elements of the book very timely with things like Trevor Noah talking about how museums in Europe refuse tor return African art taken during the colonial era as well as things like Mindfulness that attempt to remove all Buddhism from Buddhist practices. Some of this is intended by Ruthanna Emrys while other is just happy coincidence I’m sure. The book is never preachy but is definitely written from the perspective of a minority coping with having her culture turned “trendy.” It makes me wonder what she’d think of Cthulhu slippers since he’s their version of Jesus.

I liked the eccentric cast of characters which the author assembles around Aphra Marsh. Spector is a true blue Captain America sort of patriot but you have to wonder if he realizes just how much he’s re-opening old wounds in his attempt to make amends for his country’s crimes. Professor Turnball is a delightful character and I liked the slow revelations about how her relationships (like her maid that the Great Race of Yith drove off). Barlow and his team of idiot FBI magicians also served as fun antagonists, even if I sympathized with them more than I should have. It reminded me a bit of a Mythos version of Agent Carter but with less action and more melancholy.

Does the book have any flaws? Well, I’m going to be remiss if I didn’t say the book is sometimes a bit on the slow side. There’s also the fact Aphra Marsh is not particularly interested in finding out the identity of the Russian spy in Miskatonic University’s library. She gets around to it eventually but there’s never a confrontation or dramatic payoff. Instead, she’s sidetracked by her “fellow” FBI agents and visiting Innsmouth for the first time in years. For those wanting Aphra to get involved in spywork, it’s a bit of a disappointment. This is a small flaw, however. One simply needs to understand what sort of book this is.

There’s also the fact this is a love letter to Lovecraft (Cthulhu, Deep Ones, geometric magic) but not necessarily Lovecraftian (scary unknowable dread) despite its use of the characters. To invoke my Wicked comparison above, this is not a book about how the Mythos is particularly scary to anyone but people who see cosmic insignificance as a sanity blasting thing by itself. Both the religious and arreligious both have often taken the view mankind is a small thing and this is a book where HPL’s creatures are merely weird rather than terrifying. You’ll appreciate this book more if you know the Mythos inside and out but also have to leave your prejudices the cult of Cthulhu eats babies at the door. Aphra isn’t about to find out her people were secretly evil all along like some HPL protagonists did.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and I think your enjoyment will be affected by how much you know (and love) H.P. Lovecraft while also being willing to put up with some good-natured criticism of his concepts. Aphra and the Deep Ones are a bit too nice at times but still likable characters. Besides, you don’t want to give them any sorts of characteristics that might make the treatment of them seem justified (especially when drawing parallels to real life history). It’s, overall, an extremely entertaining novel and good scifi.

Read Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

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Review: Darktide

Warhammer 40,000. One of the biggest franchises in the world, there are more Warhammer video games out there than hot dinners. Some great ones are out there, including Mechanicus, Dawn of War 1 and 2, the Total War Warhammer series, and Vermintide. November saw the release of one of the most anticipated Warhammer games: Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

Happy holidays from Michael at Grimdark Magazine! Today is a special day for Grimdark Magazine, as it’s our first sponsored video game review! First, I want to thank the folks at Fatshark for the review code and the opportunity to try Darktide out.

 

So, I have a couple of disclaimers for today. First, this is an in-progress impressions review of Warhammer 40k: Darktide. I played the pre-order beta before the full release. The game is still in the early stages of launch development, so my views are subject to change. My findings may not be accurate by the time this review is live.

Secondly, I’m not the target audience. I’m more of a solo type of guy, and Darktide is a co-op-heavy game. Unfortunately, solo play is currently unavailable in the present version of the game. Still, this should be a good indicator of whether this game will be for your tastes.

Darktide requires some powerful specs, especially on PC. While the game is available on Game Pass and Xbox, PC players will struggle. I originally played Darktide on my laptop, but the requirements made my machine cry. Fortunately, it’s available on the Geforce Now cloud service, which makes for a more playable experience; so my entire time with Darktide is through Geforce Now. With it, I was able to take advantage of the more powerful hardware Geforce Now provides, allowing me to play Darktide and heavier games with better framerates than my laptop. If you’re struggling with high-end games on your hardware and have a solid internet collection, Geforce Now and other cloud gaming platforms are decent options.

Darktide Early Impressions

Darktide introduces the player to its gritty world with a short tutorial; your character is dragged into a brutal civil war and must survive to fight again. There are four classes to pick from in the game’s current build, each with strengths and weaknesses. After having fun with the varied customization options for character creation, I decided on the Ogryn: a big, tanky dude designed for close-quarter battle and tanking.

The player arrives at the world hub, which serves as their headquarters for the game. After more tutorials, the player may enter the main gameplay loop: randomized missions with other players. Sadly, there’s no way to play this solo: it’s multiplayer or nothing, though bots take up the remaining places on the four-person teams. Several locations and missions are available to play, such as assassinating a mini-boss, cleaning an area of plague, and scanning an area. Sometimes tasks have modifiers or mini-quests, like collecting a particular item for an extra reward. One mission might be utterly dark due to a power cut, or other assignments contain enemies in more significant numbers.

Gameplay and Visuals

One of the best things about Darktide is its visual design. The game is breathtaking. I’ve annoyed several teammates by pausing to take screenshots. Nobody can blame me for that because the environments are stunning. Every map is full of detail and little world-building gems, and while the missions have a linear design, they have plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. It’s worth doing because there might be medkits or extra ammo lying around, though I don’t need an excuse to explore the maps. I play missions in Darktide as an excuse to breathe in the atmosphere.

Onto the mission design: while I found the objectives repetitive, they are enjoyable and easy to digest. An average mission can take between twenty and thirty minutes per round to complete, which is great for short bursts. One of my problems with multiplayer games is that I get burnt out quickly, so Darktide’s emphasis on fast, sweeter missions is a significant advantage for me. Missions usually consist of a linear path through a map, with a few small objectives to unlock a way forward, deal with a major enemy attack, and move on. My favorite objective is the Assassination, as the final part requires the least micromanagement. However, I’d like to see more varied objectives and boss fights.

Fortunately, the gameplay itself is a good time with this much repetition. Combat is meaty and addictive; my favorite setup with my Ogryn tank was a shield/mace combination as my melee weapon and a grenade launcher to lay suppressing fire on enemies from afar. Darktide plays like Left 4 Dead and its predecessors in Vermintide, with large swarms of cannon fodder making up the meat shields and specialized, powerful enemies to keep players on their toes. With a broad mix of ranged and melee enemies to fight, it’s crucial to have all ranges covered. While the mobs are weak, they can easily overwhelm teams in large numbers. There’s also a great mix of specialized foes, such as the Trapper’s immobilizing nets, the Bulwark’s formidable defenses, and the Sniper’s deadly attack from long range.

There’s excellent voice acting in Darktide; throughout missions, player characters will comment on the situation with plenty of story snippets and lore, which help the immersive aspects of the game, although there isn’t a concrete story. For example, there’s a rebellion, and your player avatar needs to prove themselves to the organization to develop trust, but it doesn’t go into more critical details. With randomized missions rather than a handcrafted campaign mode, all this emphasis on the story felt slightly out of place.

Things to Consider

For all of Warhammer 40K Darktides’ current strengths, there are several things to consider. The first thing is performance: Darktide is a heavy game to run. Even with the help of Geforce Now’s cloud systems, I ran into occasional frame drops and several disconnects during play.

I also ran into several glitches, such as enemies sticking out through doors and collision errors. None of these bugs were significant for me, though it didn’t help. Several hotfix patches have improved performance slightly, though it’s an ongoing process, and Fatshark needs to keep that going. Currently, there are no dedicated servers or crossplay between PC and Xbox, which is a shame because Darktide is on Game Pass.

Despite a solid gameplay loop, progression in Darktide is a slow, grindy experience. More things unlock in the hub world as you advance in levels, but it’s a slow process, and many achievements often require long-winded methods to complete. If the combat weren’t so fun, I would have a more significant issue with this, but the publisher could do work to improve progression and offer more generous rewards.

At full release, They introduced a cosmetic cash shop that did not appear during beta. This was unpopular with the fans, and I agree; the decorative items are expensive, and there’s a way to purchase the optimal amount of credits, wasting money. (Disclaimer: Fatshark might have a patch addressing this by the time this review goes live) 

With only a few classes at launch and a lacking crafting system, it’s frustrating that They prioritized this microtransaction shop over lacking features. The items to purchase are cosmetic only, with no bonuses affecting gameplay, but this is still a concern for myself and many players. Even if you don’t need it, this is a controversial part of the industry and requires more transparency. Fatshark is improving this, so time will tell how the shop will become.

Final thoughts on Darktide

Warhammer 40K Darktide has been in the making for years, and despite the several issues, I’ve been enjoying my time with it. It has a stunning visual design, and the combat is enjoyable enough despite the repetition. As a live service game, Darktide is in this for the long haul, so there will be more content, updates, and DLC. In addition, they should continue to add new maps, modes, and missions to the game while improving the multiplayer experience. While the performance, extensive grind, and questionable cash shop are causes for concern, I still found myself pleasantly surprised. I don’t play multiplayer games often, but Darktide got me interested.

If you’re a fan of Warhammer lore and have the tech requirements, Darktide is a solid pick if you’re willing to deal with some niggles.

Score: 3.5/5: A buggy and grindy experience doesn’t take away from the fantastic visuals and addictive combat, yet it might be worth waiting for more patches before diving in.

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REVIEW: The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

Chelsea Abdullah’s debut, The Stardust Thief is a rich, epic fantasy set in an Arab-inspired world. Loulie al-Nazari is known as the Midnight Merchant – she hunts and sells magical artifacts. In that, this is a classic quest-oriented fantasy, though one in a more unusual setting. The story was delightful and dark, gritty and compelling, and all-around wonderful. I fell for The Stardust Thief  within just a few chapters, and its many twists and turns kept me engrossed until the very last page. The world-building in The Stardust Thief is lush and plastic, which just adds to the book as a whole transporting you into its realm. The jinn, the magic, every aspect of the lore fits together seamlessly to create a world of stories perfect for a literary escape.

https://amzn.to/3hmTyFd

This is the sort of fantasy that takes its cues from mythology and stories, but turns them into something wholly its own. The focus is laid on character development and platonic relationships, with romance being very much on the backburner (which I really appreciated, especially as the most obvious comp to this is S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad series, which is wonderful, but also very focused on its romance). The main story is interwoven with in-universe tales, which I loved too, as it added another dimension to the linear storytelling which you don’t see too often. The characters are varied and amazingly well-developed, from Loulie, a merchant of stolen magical artefacts, to Qadir, her bodyguard or Aisha, the resident thief. Each of them brings something unique to the table as they are somewhat unwillingly thrown together on the book’s central quest – and I’m excited to read more when books two and three come out, as The Stardust Thief is announced as a trilogy.

One of the elements I loved most as a reformed historian was the inclusion of magical artefacts, old, valuable and highly sought after. I adore old things, and it’s catnip for me if they’re used as a plot device in books… Combined with the inserted stories and nods to A Thousand and One Nights, this was a book I was always going to love – and what is not to love in a thrilling story based on Arab mythology, with a fantastically diverse cast of characters and an epic quest? The Stardust Thief is a debut that introduces a strong new voice to the genre – I look forward to seeing what Chelsea Abdullah does in the future, and I believe that she has earned her place on shelves next to well-known names such as Tasha Suri or S.A. Chakraborty. One to watch!

Read The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

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REVIEW: The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

The Silent Companions is Laura Purcell’s unnerving tale of Gothic horror that gradually reveals itself over multiple timeframes. The novel opens during an undisclosed year as the main character, Elsie Bainbridge, finds herself imprisoned in an asylum. She is suspected of murder and arson and has lost the ability to speak. Inexplicably, she is also covered with terrible burns.

The Silent Companions then flashes back to 1865, just before Elsie’s imprisonment. Elsie has been left widowed only a short time after her wedding. She is expecting a baby and travels to her late husband’s family estate, the Bridge, where she stays with her younger brother, Jolyon, and her husband’s reticent cousin, Sarah.

While staying at the Bridge, Elsie and Sarah discover a set of silent companions, i.e., cutout wooden boards with realistic paintings of people, also known as “dummy boards.” Silent companions were introduced as an artform in England in the 1600s. A quick Google search of “dummy board” will show you exactly how creepy they look. The silent companions give Elsie and Sarah the impression of being possessed.

Sarah discovers a diary of her ancestor, Anne Bainbridge, from the early 1600s. The diary tells the story of Anne’s daughter, Hetta. After having only sons, Anne wished for a daughter and apparently brought Hetta into the world through herbal witchcraft. But something went terribly wrong, and Hetta’s tongue never developed enough to allow her to speak. Hetta is strangely drawn to the group of silent companions brought into the house by Anne, and a series of gruesome events soon follows.

The Silent Companions continues along the three timelines of Anne and Hetta in the 1600s, Elsie and Sarah at the Bridge in 1865, and Elsie at the asylum. The Silent Companions is brilliantly crafted for maximum suspense as Elsie tries to understand what happened to herself and to her deceased husband, and to uncover the source of evil infecting his estate. But to understand these mysteries, Elsie must also come to terms with her own haunted past.

All of this leads up to a perfectly crafted climax, until the final word of The Silent Companions drops like a bomb on everything you thought you knew.

The Silent Companions is Laura Purcell’s masterpiece and the original reason I fell in love with Gothic horror. I consider it to be the perfect entry point for readers new to the genre and wanting to give it a try.

5/5

Read The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

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REVIEW: The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys

The Litany of Earth is a short novella, roughly 32 pages, depicting the life of Aphra Marsh. Aphra Marsh is an unusual protagonist as she is a Deep One hybrid and trying to make a normal life for herself amongst humans. While short, The Litany of the Earth serves as one of the best deconstructions of Lovecraftian horror in years.

The Litany of the Earth invokes things like the United States’ attempts to eliminate Native American culture, Japanese internment, and other real-life atrocities to compare how the children of Innsmouth were affected by their imprisonment post-The Shadow over Innsmouth. She never attempts to compare the suffering of her fictional human-fishman hybrids to that of real-life victims but the applicability is there.

The conceit of the story is that Ruthanna believes the United States’ motivation for destroying Innsmouth was a mixture of racism as well as hatred for the non-Christian religious practices of the townsfolk. Which, given the time period, would have been a perfectly valid justification for the all-out assault we saw at the end of the short-story. Much as some fantasy stories have depicted things from the perspective of orcs rather than humans, so is this from the perspective of the Deep One hybrids.

Lovecraft purists may note there’s no attempt at moral ambiguity here. The Innsmouth people are depicted as victims and the story ignores the Marsh family’s reign of terror over regular humans. This isn’t necessarily a retcon as Aphra Marsh spent the majority of her life in an internment camp, so there’s no problem assuming she might be looking at things with rose-colored glasses.

What does the Marsh family’s crimes have to do with her (and dozens of other Deep Ones held prisoner for decades), anyway? That’s a bit like blaming Princess Anastasia for the crimes of Czar Nicholas II and his predecessors. It’s anvilicious but some anvils need to be dropped when dealing with America (and other nation’s) racist as well as culturally dominionist past.  The fact H.P. Lovecraft is virtually a symbol for authors who were really talented but intolerant is what makes the story interesting.

There’s a lot of really fascinating and interesting ideas in this book on concepts like immortality, xenophobia, legacies, othering, and comparative religion. I’ve always maintained Great Cthulhu is nothing more than H.P. Lovecraft’s secret jab at the weirdness of Christianity (which would mean I’m a Cthulhu cultist). For Aphra Marsh, the hatred and loathing she receives from humanity for believing in a god who bring about the end of the world is no different than someone being despised for believing the Book of Revelations.

Moments I liked in the story include Aphra Marsh being approached by a government agent who insists they’re different now despite the fact he’s talking to someone who was victim of a state-sponsored genocide. I loved Aphra’s dealing with the Great Race of Yith who are, perhaps, the only people who will remember humanity when we’ve long since gone extinct. I also enjoyed her struggle with the familiarity of the Cthulhu cultists’ faith versus how badly they’re mangling it.

Aphra Marsh is a likable protagonist but she’s not without her flaws. She’s pretty angry over her horrible treatment, for one, and takes it out on other people. I liked this element as it shows a very human side to someone who has been treated as less than human her entire life. We also get some great moments where Aphra is forced to deal with a guilty-feeling government agent, similar racism towards her from other Cthulhu Mythos races, and even a stab at cultural appropriation.

How would you feel if your religion was adopted by a bunch of ignorant rich folk who think it’s cool but get the details wrong? The idea even Cthulhu-worship deserves respect and honor is something I found quite intriguing. The only real flaw I have with the novella is it ends so abruptly. I was hoping for much-much more. Thankfully, Tor books wisely contracted two more novels of Aphra Marsh’s adventures (Winter Tide, Deep Roots). Unfortunately, it seems that will be the end of Aphra Marsh’s adventures as there was never a third book.

I recommend all fans of Lovecraft pick this up.

Read The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys

Available for free on Tor’s website: https://www.tor.com/2014/05/14/the-litany-of-earth-ruthanna-emrys/

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