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REVIEW: Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide by Ghostfire Gaming

If your Dungeons and Dragons group is keen on darker, gritier adventures, Ghostfire Gaming’s Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide might be the book for them. Set in Etharis, a land ravaged by plague, violent superstition, and a pantheon of gods who ultimately murdered one another, Grim Hollow is an explicitly grimdark campaign setting for D&D 5e. Coming in at just under 300 pages, this book contains world-specific lore, maps, and adventure modules along with new monsters, mechanics, and character options that can fit neatly into almost any D&D setting.

Etharis is a bleak world, stricken by thematic (and literal) darkness. The vampiric Crimson Court of Soma rule a kingdom shrouded in permanent night, supernatural mists cover the swamp city of Morencia, and the nordic Valikan Clans spend half their year in a frozen land without the sun.  In this darkness, mud never quite dries, and what meager crops grow come up ‘strange and bitter.’ Elsewhere, the feared Weeping Pox ravages cities, and the questionable plague medics of the Morbus Doctore offer dubious cures at terrible costs. Monsters, inhuman and human, lurk just beyond the torchlight, and the gods themselves have died or forsaken the world. Their angelic and demonic lieutenants stand in their places, answering the prayers of clerics and paladins but also frequently twisting their former master’s ideals.

If I had to compare Grim Hollow to other RPG settings, I would say it’s an interesting fusion of old-school Warhammer Fantasy vibes with a little Curse of Strahd thrown in. Most of the traditional D&D races are present, and the book describes how elves, dwarves, dragonborn, etc. all fit culturally and geographically into Etharis after a relentless, conquering tide of humanity spread across the land. Rather than adopting an outlook of simplistic nihilism (i.e. ‘the world is shite, your characters can’t change anything, and they’ll all die meaningless deaths’), I liked that Grim Hollow explicitly opts for a more nuanced tone (i.e. ‘the world is shite, but through great struggle and sacrifice, imperfect heroes can earn meaningful hope and small victories’). Fraught as the campaign is, I know my players would have heaps of fun dodging Arcanist Inquisition witchhunters or navigating the deadly corruption and intrigue of the Venice-esque Morencia. After reading the book cover to cover, I was left with the impression of a quality grimdark setting with lots of potential for gritty, morally ambiguous, and ultimately memorable adventures.

Getting into the mechanics of Grim Hollow, the book starts by offering players new character options. These include feats, spells, curses, and advanced weapons (gunpowder included). Many of the feats feel unique to Etharis, (‘Weaver of Maledictions’ makes curses more effective, ‘Blackpowder Expert’ goes alongside firearms, etc.) but others are more generic. The case is similar with spells with some seeming specific to a dark fantasy setting and others feeling a bit tacked on. Curses, on the other hand, are flavorful and right at home in a Grimdark campaign. Each of the new spells can be taken by most classes with access to arcane or divine magic and requires a specific talisman of heretical Shadowsteel to cast. The ‘Curse of Uncontrollable Wrath,’ for example, needs a weapon that belonged to the target, a severed hand, and a shadowsteel knife, and a successful casting gradually twists its victim into a demonic Avatar of Slaughter. These curses come complete with some really neat mechanics–namely a table to determine the saving throw against a curse based on the target’s crimes against the caster, how well the caster knows the target, etc. While I can’t see curses replacing fireball or polymorph as a wizard’s go-to spell, they’re a really cool brand of Etharis-specific magic that provide potentially great roleplaying and story material and tie smoothly into the campaign’s theme of vile transformations (more on this later).

One of Grim Hollow’s major offerings is a set of variant ‘Advanced Backgrounds’ that can be applied to almost any campaign. Expanding greatly upon 5th edition’s selection of character creation backstories (soldier, sage, criminal, etc.) this section provides more choices and expanded mechanics on each. Rather than simply taking a background at first level, each has four tiers. Choosing the ‘Inquisitor’ background, for instance, allows players to advance from ‘Initiate’ to ‘Inquisitor,’ to ‘Chapter Master,’ and finally, ‘Grand Theologist Inquisitor’ as they level and meet specific milestones. Each tier comes with benefits–owning property, underlings to command, political power, access to supplies, a levelable profession ability, and so on. As a DM, I really liked this concept. An advanced background gives PCs something to want and work for, and it can also go a long way to getting players invested in a setting as they rise through the ranks of their own profession and find their place in the campaign’s world.

The ‘Transformations’ section of Grim Hollow is likely its most iconic feature and one of its major selling points. After meeting certain rule and roleplaying requirements,the book gives players the choice to transform their characters into a variety of (mostly sinister) creatures. Options include eldritch aberrations, vampires, liches, lycanthropes, fiends, and celestials, and each comes with a unique set of benefits, drawbacks, and roleplaying challenges. Transforming into a fiend, for example, requires a minimum charisma of 13 and an infernal pact, dark ritual, demonic rebirth, or the like in the actual narrative play of the game. In exchange, the player gains bonuses to their intelligence and charisma as well as the ability to make contractual bargains with NPCs on behalf of the infernal powers. These boons come with the negative side effect of ‘Planar Binding’–essentially being easier to kill at 0 hit points as the Nine Hells try to drag the character home. This transformation and all others can be leveled up by hitting specific milestones. This might mean usurping a rival demon on the infernal hierarchy for the fiend, building an undead army for the lich, drinking the blood of a dragon for the vampire, and so on. Higher tiers of transformations unlock new powers, but also increased drawbacks that can include a hideous, twisted appearance, an uncontrollable appetite for flesh, blood, or souls, and worse.

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I liked ‘Transformations’ for multiple reasons. In addition to simply looking like great fun and letting PCs turn into previously unplayable creatures (I found Grim Hollow when I wanted to play as a lich, as it so happens), they tie nicely into the key theme of Etharis: man, monsters, and the often blurry line between the two. With the new curses this book presents also potentially twisting their victims into various horrors, there are some really cool grimdark roleplaying possibilities here–maybe even the potential for Abercrombie-style downward spiral character arcs.

One chapter of Grim Hollow that might catch GDM readers’ interest is the ‘GM’s Guide to Dark Fantasy.’ It presents useful advice on weaving elements of the dark fantasy, grimdark, horror, and dark fairytale genres into your campaigns as well as mechanics to go along with them. We get new rules for grievous/permanent wounds, new poisons, drugs, and diseases, a handful of magical contraband items, and some more general variant rules. In my experience, D&D 5e is a system that’s well suited to tell high and heroic fantasy stories with, for example, players able to rest for eight hours and recover from nearly any wound. I think the tips in this section will prove useful to any gamemaster trying to tweak and tune their game for a grittier experience and make their players feel a little more vulnerable in Etharis or a world of their own creation. If I had one criticism of this chapter, I would have liked to see a few more artifacts and magic items. Earlier in the book, for instance, the regalia of the mad Emperor Leopold I shows up in lore. Leopold’s cruel insanity was so great that it tainted the Bürach Empire’s sanctified crown, sword, sphere, and breastplate and drove the deities who had originally blessed them to slay one another. I was hoping to see the in-game effects for the regalia and other artifacts, and it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to only get four new magic items.

The book concludes with three complete adventure modules, and each one seemed like a great way to introduce your group to Etharis. ‘Tavern of the Lost’ sees the party fleeing to the safety of a strange inn, only to find that they can’t leave. ‘Facets of Darkness’ puts the players in the urban slums of the Pit and in the middle of a drug war between rival factions. ‘The Blood Knight and the Five Relics’ sets players against the gore-smeared revenant of a once-noble warrior and tasks them with solving the mystery of his violent reappearance. For a campaign guide that includes a detailed setting, character options, and so on, this felt like a generous inclusion, and each of the adventures came complete with color maps and plenty of NPC art.

Although this isn’t an officially published Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition product, this book is definitely as professional, polished, and lavishly illustrated as anything Wizards of the Coast produces. The hardcopy was a little pricey when I picked it up (but really only due to shipping–like many of the finest grimdark creators, Ghostfire Gaming is based in Australia), but I’m glad I sprung for it. The pages are generously filled with awesome dark fantasy art pieces–plague doctors, moody landscapes, armored vampire lords, new monsters, and more–that are best experienced in print. In terms of physical quality and production value, Grim Hollow is up there with the best on my TTRP shelf, and my copy has proven itself sturdy in the year and change I’ve owned it

If you’re a player, dungeon master, or someone who just enjoys flipping through RPG books, is Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide for you? I would say yes. While the setting and Etharis-specific content do make up a large portion of the book (and are excellent in their own right), much of the content presented can fit any campaign. The new spells, feats, weapons, monsters, grimdark GMing advice, and transformations slot smoothly into most fantasy settings with little to no modification. In my own Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign, for example, our bard has opted to become a vampire, and the Grim Hollow transformation rules mesh seamlessly into our game. In terms of content, layout, and quality, this book brought to mind the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting supplement (one of my old favorites) from 3rd edition D&D. If it’s any indication of how much I liked it, I’m already planning an Etharis mini campaign over the summer. Taken as a whole, I would give this book a full five stars and crown Grim Hollow the definitive dark fantasy setting for D&D 5e.

Play Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide by Ghostfire Gaming

Click on the image below to head over to the Ghostfire Gaming story to purchase your copy.

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REVIEW: Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

In Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden we see the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000 through the eyes of members of the Night Lords traitor legion who helped drag the Imperium down into ten thousand years of darkness. This is a book that I’ve had on my TBR for years, and as these are one of the few traitor factions who retain their humanity (versus being possessed by daemons to explain their behaviours) I was chomping at the bit to see how Dembski-Bowden would portray the space marines of First Claw, Tenth Company. I waited a long time to pick it up, and I was not disappointed that I did.

Soul Hunter pits us amongst one of Abaddon the Despoiler’s latest black crusade to take the forge world of Crythe. The world houses immense stores of material, weapons, and ammunition, and Abaddon will shift millions of human soldiers, tanks, ships, and thousands of Black Legion astartes supported by the Night Lords and other renegade marines to achieve that.

There are three points of view characters that drive the story in Soul Hunter. Talos, informal leader of the First Claw, is a superhuman traitor to the Imperium and a prophet of Conrad Curze, dead primarch of the Night Lords. He’s afflicted with terrible visions from the warp, seeing the unfiltered brutal future he and his brothers face. Septimus is Talos’ slave, and oddly enough the way Talos shows his humanity and, I suppose, our way to connect with a demi god bent on the destruction of what we, the layperson, would consider civilisation. Eurydice is a navigator, a mutated human who can navigate the hellish warp for faster than light travel. Aboard a rogue trader vessel staking a claim on a asteroid full of valuable adamantium, her life is about to change.

Amongst the overarching story of the assualt on Crythe, Soul Hunter focuses on a war within the ranks of the Night Lords Tenth Company. Talos is seen as representing the past, desperately clinging on to what the Legion used to represent, and the Exalted who sees the future of the Night Lords Tenth Company as a merger with Chaos gods and daemons–much like the damned soldiers of Abaddon’s own Black Legion. The Night Lords have already thrown away their humanity, once in service of the Golden Throne and the Emperor and his Imperium, and second in service of Horus rebelling against the Emperor’s lies. Will the next step be a reformation of the war band under Talos’ leadership or the Exalted’s? And who will survive both the assualt and that reformation?

Something I absolutely love about this book is the logistics of it. Usually these books focus on the logistics of managing millions of soldiers, support, and munitions without much scarcity. The Night Lords have been without the forge world support the loyalist legions / chapters have enjoyed for the last ten milennia. Their armour is used and scavenged. They have run out of the mindless servitor drones who usually manage menial tasks. Half the weapons on their landers and gunships don’t work because there are no servitors to shoot them. Their old volunteer crews are long dead, replaced with slaves and criminals. Demski-Bowden’s focus on the squad level amongst the greater backdrop where somebody else manages the greater war effort really allows him to highlight the personal impacts of those shortages, and really bring the Long War to life.

Septimus’ layman’s approach to interacting with terrifying demigods brings a lot of humanity and understanding to his master. His point of view is key to seeing Talos, and even some of those around him, as traitor marines, and not mindless killing machines as you find with some of the other traitor legions. Without Septimus, there would be no connection to Talos for the reader, making his perspective the most important one in the book for me.

One of the negatives about this book is the jumping point of view. The author consistently changes POV without a scene break, which is a style I’m not the biggest fan of, but if you can move past that, this is a fun book. The author also drops some decent info dumps, with telling instead of showing rife. But, for some reason, I consistently find myself mostly forgiving this in Black Library books. Call it nostalgia. Call it just enjoying a story you’ve been reading since age 12. Call out what you will, but for some reason it seems not to matter near as much as it would to me for another universe or fantasy world.

What this book does have in spades is cool factor. Seeing the 40k world from the perspective of those desperately trying to tear it down, seeing their struggles to stay armoured, and with weapons and ammo, and their struggles to plug the holes in their ranks with new Astartes and hordes of traitor Guard and humans, is just awesome. I’ve immediately picked up the next book based on that, alone. Demski-Bowden is an excellent storyteller, and I am completely hooked by the tale of the First Claw.

Read Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski Bowden

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REVIEW: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Volume 1

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Volume 1 is the first installment of the adventures of comic books ultimate lawman. The satirical British comic debuted in the late Seventies and has been continuing in real time ever since, making our resident antihero roughly eighty-four in 2022. The comic took a deadpan view of the militarization of the police, police brutality, the enshrinement of the law as infallible, and overly violent views of criminals to make a hilarious send up of changing trends. Almost fifty years later, the humor is somewhat spotty because quite a few people hold these views unironically.

Indeed, Judge Dredd’s earliest adventures remain somewhat spotty with the creators having a long way to go until they reach the iconic status they will eventually reach across the pond. In simple terms, the first volume of Judge Dredd’s cases are more the Sylvester Stallone version than the Karl Urban one. It can’t quite agree on what its tone is meant to be: bleakly dystopian, blackly humorous, over-the-top ridiculous, excitingly action-filled, or surrealist. Sometimes the blending works well and other times it doesn’t work at all.

The Judge Joe Dredd of the comics generally is close enough to being the square-jawed hero of other comics that he’s not quite as nuanced or deep a character as he will eventually become. He’s not quite brutal enough to be a complete parody and he’s not quite good enough to be a straight protagonist. Generally, each strip consists of Judge Dredd dealing with some horrible mutant, robot, or street gang criminals in some violent manner then delivers a somewhat stock aesop at the end which is just off enough to not be taken seriously but close enough to real PSAs to be funny.

Ironically, the best strips of Judge Dredd’s first cases are the ones that completely serious. Judge Dredd giving an examination to a rookie judge that must sacrifice his family to become a “true” judge, Dredd confronting a crooked judge that he was friends with from his days at the academy in a duel, and his immortal confrontation with his “brother” Rico are probably the best strips in the collection. These are the strips that are, of course, the ones closest to the later interpretation of the character. They realize Mega City One is inherently funny and satirical enough on its own that it doesn’t try too hard. It also allows the characters to be realistic enough that we can care about their motivations.

The worst strips in the comic are probably the ones from the Call me Kenneth arc where Judge Dredd spends the entirety of his struggle against a murderous robot rampage. Kenneth is a one-dimensional robot Hitler (even called that at one point) who leads a robot uprising before turning against the machines himself. This later results in the creation of an anti-robot KKK called the Neon Knights that is so offensive and stupid it almost becomes hilarious. Accent on almost. It also introduces the baby-voiced robot Walter that is the Jar Jar Binks of Judge Dredd history.

Somewhere in the middle is the extensive Lunar arc where Judge Dredd is assigned to be the marshal of the moon where the entire thing becomes a parody of Westerns. It’s not so much bad as inexplicable since the strip going from proto-cyberpunk to saloons and gunfights on Luna is so bizarre that it defies description. It does at least have the interesting coda where Judge Dredd returns home, refuses to arrest any criminals he passes, and waits until he’s officially reinstated to begin once more cleansing the city of evil.

Anyway, I would recommend people start with one of the other stories as their first Judge Dredd tale. These are okay tales but nothing exceptional in terms of introducing someone to Mega City One and its chief enforcer.

Read Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Volume 1

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Cover reveal and excerpt for The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles

Angry Robot are producing some amazing science fiction and fantasy books, and when they reached out to our team to host the cover release of a book called The Last Blade Priest, you know my interest was immediately piqued. Paying the price for your sire’s decisions, internal wars in a fantasy religion, and any mention of flipping old tropes on their heads, all of these themes are what we love here at Grimdark Magazine and I cannot wait to get my hands on the advanced reader copy.

Fortunately, you don’t have to wait to get a little taste of this book and world. Angry Robot have dropped an excerpt on us to go with the cover release, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

Read on to find out more about the book, some notes from cover designer Alice Coleman on the cover, see the cool cover Alice designed, and to check out an excerpt.

About The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles

Inar is Master Builder for the Kingdom of Mishig-Tenh. Life is hard after the Kingdom lost the war against the League of Free Cities. Doubly so since his father betrayed the King and paid the ultimate price. And now the King’s terrifying chancellor and torturer in chief has arrived and instructed Inar to go and work for the League. And to spy for him. And any builder knows you don’t put yourself between a rock and a hard place.

Far away Anton, Blade Priest for Craithe, the God Mountain, is about to be caught up in a vicious internal war that will tear his religion apart. Chosen from infancy to conduct human sacrifice, he is secretly relieved that the practice has been abruptly stopped. But an ancient enemy has returned, an occult conspiracy is unfolding, and he will struggle to keep his hands clean in a world engulfed by bloodshed.

In a series of constantly surprising twists and turns that take the reader through a vividly imagined and original world full of familiar tensions and surprising perspectives on old tropes, Inar and Anton find that others in their story may have more influence on their lives, on the future of the League and on their whole world than they, or the reader imagined.

Designers notes for the cover by Alice Coleman

Designing The Last Blade Priest has been an absolute pleasure! From intriguing anatomical references to incredibly striking environments, W. P. Wiles has created a vivid world which provided plenty of inspiration for this cover. With an arcane aesthetic finished in vibrant red and shimmering gold to reflect the richness of the setting and characters, I hope this book stands out on shelves and does justice to a very compelling story.

Cover reveal for The Last Blade Priest

As much as I love and champion the artwork and artists behind most covers, I’m also a big fan of covers built by designers top to bottom. They see the world in a different light to artists, and often come up with some very eye-catching works–Shawn T. King’s covers for the old Ragnarok Publications verison of the Amra Thetys series by Michael McClung, comes to mind–that really jump off the page. Alice Coleman has come up with something eye-catching and just damned cool for The Last Blade Priest.

Exclusive excerpt: The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles

Around them, the interior of the temple was a rainbow of fabric. Normally this vast space would be open to the sky, but prayer-printed banners in multiple colours had been draped across the peristyle, giving shelter from the winds that whipped across the plateau and trapping the thick clouds of incense that poured from burners in niches. Standards were hung between the columns, sighing and snapping against their cords. And behind the altar was a single vast sheet of crimson, painted with a human heart, superimposed on a stylised outline of the Mountain. All around was colourful movement, as if the ancient, massive masonry was the living breathing thing, and the priests within the stone statues. The heart that dominated them all appeared to beat, caught like a sail by the mistral across the lake.

Why hide the lake, and the Mountain, like that, Anton wondered? The whole high temple had been built to align with Craithe, so that pilgrims would see the object of their journey rising above the azure waters of Hleng, directly behind the altar of the Gift. It was strange – impious, even – to see that it had been hidden behind a curtain.

Perhaps it was this puzzle that distracted him, and caused him to do what he did. He simply forgot himself, forgot where he was, what he was doing, who he was supposed to be. As he and Elecy approached the altar, he had spotted an imperfection in its surface. He reached out a hand and ran his fingertips along the smooth, hard stone, and found it: a mark made by the point of a knife.

The temple held its breath. Even the canvas heart behind him missed a beat. Every eye was on his unrobed hand, its fingers trailing along the altar like a man brushing dust from a bookshelf. On the killing slab.

Trying to avoid unseemly hurry, Anton withdrew his hand and wrapped it once again in the robe.

Not everyone had seen – fortunately, Ramnie, Ving and the others stood with their backs to Anton and Elecy, and while they undoubtedly detected the change in atmosphere, decorum forbade them from turning to see the cause. The moment passed, and eased. The great heart beat again.

A mark made by the point of a knife. It would not be the only one, but it was more recent than most. Anton wondered if it had been made the first time he had stood in this space, the day he had seen a man killed here. Then, he had been standing on the other side of the altar, but only a yard away, no distance. Their eyes had met, wide with terror. What had the man thought, in those final moments? He was frightened, of course – but did he believe himself to be important? To be useful? Did he think his death was in the service of a greater purpose? Or was it just another futile, violent incident in a life filled with futility and violence? Which was better?

Or – he had seen Anton and Elecy – had he died thinking, Why are there children here?

Elecy had seen him touch the altar. She stood impossibly still, and he wondered what she was thinking. Memories of that first time? It was all so clear – the falling blade, the harsh movements of vertzan and Giftmeat, the gouts of red against pure white, the stink of slaughter, the beating of wings – he could not turn away, because he was held, and they would know if he closed his eyes, so he raised them instead and tried to look at the Mountain itself, thinking this might appear suitably pious. And he asked the Mountain, is this truly what you want?

It did not say no.

Censers had been lit in concealed niches, and the air was hazed with scented smoke; the harsh sun of the plateau, filtered through crimson and purple fabric, was stained a bruised pink. All the altzans in the audience had travelled long distances, some extremely long, by ship and trail, through war-crossed and uncertain lands. It had been sixty years since the last such gathering. Anton hoped that the scene that greeted them was sufficient reward for their hardships, that it lent proper gravity to the gathering. Again, he wondered why God had been blocked from sight.

The altzan-al was speaking, illuminating the rarity of a full Conclave and the crucial importance of the next few days. He spelled out a few facts of schoolboy theology – the impossibility of error and schism within the Tzanate, which served a single, visible God. He smiled and praised and even ventured into wry humour; it was a marvellous performance, a reminder of the skills and qualities that had helped Ramnie to his supreme rank and maintained him within it for decades. But even in its fullest flow, Anton saw the glances that came towards him and Elecy, the last two blade-priests.

How did they appear, Anton wondered? The imposing, inscrutable bearers of a ghastly sacrament? Or young and disappointing, nothing special, an anticlimax after weeks on the road?

A novelty, anyway. A sign that this was indeed the place – the epicentre of the faith. At the last meeting of the Conclave, this ceremony would have included the giving of the Gift. Today, it would not. After much discussion, it had been decided that Anton and Elecy should not carry blades. They would be blade-priests in name only – and, depending on the events of the next few days, they would be the last. Elecy had been furious at the decision, and Anton joined her in a few protests for the sake of appearances, but he was profoundly glad that he did not have a weapon as well as a mask. By Augardine’s Tomb, the strap at the back of his skull was a trial. He should have taken more time in replacing the mask, to make sure it was comfortable, but Dreyff’s glance had put the fear into him. Never mind the blade, the hard leather was going to take the top of his head right off. Thankfully, the bulk of the altzans were in their elder years, which placed certain constraints on the ceremonials. They had rehearsed four times. Ramnie would make his remarks, conduct a short blessing, and they would retire while altzan Yisho emptied the temple and began the immense job of ferrying everyone to the Brink.

That had been the plan, but Anton sensed deviation. Yisho, the Tzanate’s strategos, was nowhere to be seen, when she should have been on the stage with the rest of the leadership. An emergency? Anton rarely left the Brink, and he had to admit that being outside the walls of the vast fortress made him uneasy, even though they were well inside a natural fortress of far vaster proportions. Nevertheless, there it was, a sparkle of concern. The Tzanate, so magnificently lonely for so long, played host to many strangers this day, and in front of him was the top echelon of the whole religion. Thousands of Zealots ringed the alshiel Hleng, and beyond them, thousands more. Gathering and protecting the Conclave had been the largest military endeavour conducted by the Tzanate in decades. But such efforts only reflected how high the stakes were, and the risks.

Deviation. Ramnie was ending his remarks. “The age of Augardine has passed,” the altzan-al said. “He is gone, his successors are gone. We can wish for another age of greatness to emerge from Miroline, but we cannot wait for it. We must remember that Augardine did not found our faith, he refounded it; we can be reborn again. We must remember what endures and will always endure, and place our trust in it.”

The Mountain, Anton thought, apt words. And they might have made a fine introduction to the blessing that would conclude proceedings. But no blessing came. Instead, altzan Ving rose stiffly to his feet, leaning on his cane, and took the few steps towards the altzan-al. Anton held his breath, unable to imagine what Ving was doing, interrupting such an important moment. But Ramnie was not dismayed, or even surprised.

“Altzan Ving, my friend,” he said. “My brother.” He held out his hand to his ancient doctrinal enemy, and the two men, who had dissolved decades in mutual hate, embraced.

No one spoke, or applauded. The leaders of the Tzanate’s two factions, men who had not shared a civil word in many years, now stood hand in hand on the stage. Their heads were held high, and they smiled warmly on the hundreds of faces turned to them. Slippered feet shuffled against the flagstones, a tzan tried to stifle a cough. The banners sagged against their lines, suddenly slack, abandoned by the wind.

A chill entered the air – not a chill felt on the skin, but in the soul. A winter in the part of a person that is warmed by the presence of other people.

Anton knew what approached. He knew why the banner had been hung between them and the Mountain. He need not have worried about making the delegations afraid, fear was coming. They never approached in sight, always hidden. Predator instincts. He briefly wondered if he should say something to Elecy, but if he had detected the change, surely she would as well. Anyway, there was no time.

Behind them, the crimson heart billowed, and sprouted talons. In a blur of movement, the canvas was slashed left and right, up and down, its tatters blown into the temple by the thumping of wings. On that blast of air came the scent of death.

With the utmost effort of mind and body, Anton prevented himself from crying out or falling to the ground. He had learned that much at least, he was not the child that screamed in terror, not any more. Very few others held their composure. The assembly swayed like a field of grass under a strong wind, and emitted a collective howl of astonishment and fear. A few voices proclaimed praise to the Mountain, although it was not clear if they were giving thanks for what they saw, or pleading to be protected from it.

Claws scraped onto the altar, pushing aside remnants of the banner entangled in them, and Anton saw that not all the marks in the stone had been made by the point of a knife.

A Custodian had arrived.

Read The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles

 

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REVIEW: Temple of No God by H.M. Long

H.M. Long’s sophomore novel, Temple of No God, follows up on 2021’s Hall of Smoke, though it is billed by the publisher as a standalone novel in the same world rather than a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed both books – I loved Hall of Smoke’s approach to the concept of deities and Long’s detailed world building, as well as Hessa’s unusual character as a warrior priestess. To me, Temple of No God feels more like a delayed sequel rather than a true standalone novel in the same world. I would have struggled to understand many of the references made to details in the world building – which is one of Long’s greatest strengths as a writer – if I had not read Hall of Smoke before diving into Temple of No God. Thus, I would recommend treating them as a series and reading in order if you can.

Temple of No God sets in a dozen or so years after the end of the first book, and while Hessa is still our main focus, her life has changed quite a bit. She is married – again – to Imnir, an Algatt and High Priest of Thvynder, a relationship that is ultimately at the centre of this story. They live in more of a political alliance than a truly romantic relationship when we meet them. The world is still changed due to the events at the end of Hall of Smoke, the relations between Gods and Men irrevocably changed after Hessa slew Eang, the Goddess she had been dedicated to. Temple significantly expands the scope of the world by having Hessa, Imnir and their companions travel to the Arpa Empire to the south where a dangerous cult is rising and various factions are vying for political dominance.

The story is once again full of action, drama, strongly written characters with depth and nuance and, of course, fabulous world building and interactions with the divine. Hessa is both impulsive and capable of great forethought, and as a warrior priestess, she is a wonderful and unusual leading character. Set in a Viking-inspired secondary world, Long’s novels are epic fantasy at its best, combining quests with a good dash of grittiness but also heart and charm and always putting the characters and their relationships at the centre of the stories. Very much a recommended read.

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REVIEW: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher caught me from the opening. Uncle Earl owns a museum, one of those strange museums of oddities that appear in random rural locations. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed those sorts of museums despite not believing in them. It’s a very particular brand of excitement trying to unravel cryptozoological mysteries.

Uncle Earl’s museum is called the Glory of God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy in Hog Chapel, North Carolina. Right from the opening he’s a character who oozes personality:

Uncle Earl believes strongly in Jesus, Moses, the healing powers of crystals, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the aliens who landed at Roswell but the government is suppressing it, secret histories, faith-healing, snake handling, that there is an invention that will replace gasoline but the oil companies are suppressing it, chemtrails, demon-possession, the amazing healing properties of Vicks VapoRub,  and that there’s proof that aliens contacted the Mayans and the Aztecs and probably the Egyptians but the scientists are suppressing it. He believes in Skunk Ape, Chupacabras, and he positively adores Mothman. He is not Catholic, but he believes in the miracle of Fatima, visions of Mary appearing on toast, and he is nearly positive that the end times are upon us, but seems to be okay with this, provided it does not interfere with museum hours.

Kara, his niece, takes her uncle up on an offer of a place to stay after her overly amicable divorce. She gets to live in the Wonder Museum, a place she has worked in while growing up, and that she seems to view as home more than any other place. When he gets called up for surgery she is to take over running the museum until he’s rested and ready to return.

This would be great, except that after he leaves, a hole to another dimension appears behind one of the walls. It doesn’t seem like that at first. It looks like an extra room, but the hallways on each end keep turning and twisting. At first Kara and Simon, the barista from next door, assume it’s bootlegger tunnels, but as it keeps going and twisting, they stumble into an alternate, hellish reality: one of the eponymous Hollow Places.

This is entirely a case of personal preference, but when I like horror, it’s usually slow-paced as hints of dread creep through. The Hollow Places is the opposite of a slow-burn; Kara and Simon dive headlong into this parallel dimension. There are some horrific scenes in this section, most of which relate to the willows or the extremely eerie school bus they find, but it felt a bit like jumping straight from the inciting incident to the climax.

The sections that take place after they return to the normal world and try to prevent further incursions felt stronger to me. The horrors were more attached to reality, which I’ve always felt more unsettling, and what place works better for such horrors than one of these museums of oddities?

The writing throughout was strong, and there was a lot of solid comedic banter between Kara and Simon. This could undercut the horror tone, but using humor as a reaction against horror is normal and human.

If I have an issue with this novel, it’s this: Uncle Earl should clearly be the narrator.

Get rid of the surgery plotline and you’ve got an old but boisterous man trying to protect the museum of oddities he’s built. He’d also be fascinated by the strange alternate world that proves so many of the theories he loves are correct. Kara and Simon exploring the strange reality rather than retreating felt like a head-scratcher; it wouldn’t have for Uncle Earl.

The Hollow Places was inspired by Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows, the story that Lovecraft declared the finest supernatural tale of all time. The influence and inspiration is obvious, even if The Willows has significantly more tension between its people trapped by the eldritch willows. The Hollow Places can stand proud in that lineage even as it has very different tone.

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REVIEW: Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds

One-part fantasy and one-part historical fiction, Marion Deeds’ new novella, Comeuppance Served Cold, intertwines the lively atmosphere of the late 1920s with a complex mix of characters. The narrative begins in medias res with a masked thief making a getaway, leaving a dead body and an endless amount of questions behind. Most pointedly of these: how did we get here?

Comeuppance Served Cold takes place in late autumn of 1929 in Seattle, Washington. The city is divided in a multitude of ways including clashes over class and magic. At its center is a wealthy magus with a daughter dead set on countering him at every turn. To curb her bad behavior, he hires a lady’s companion. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a widowed speakeasy owner whose want of revenge for her husband’s death and fear for her shape-shifting brother are just a few of her worries. Finally, an infamous thief finds themselves in the midst of the brewing violence and conflict in Seattle’s streets all for a job that threatens to overturn everything. As all three stories intersect, one thing becomes very clear: comeuppance comes for everyone in its own time.

Deeds masterfully crafts the atmosphere of the historic 1920s from the language and tone to her descriptions in Comeuppance Served Cold. The setting comes alive and asserts itself as a dominant force in the narrative. This, combined with the novella’s structure, increases the tension until the very last chapter. The characters take shape in a unique way; Deeds utilizes dialogue and the setting to enhance each one’s particular traits, making them feel real. She also intersperses significant themes like classism, prejudice, and sexism in a way that fits with the world she has created while still relating to current times. The novella is light on magical elements, but how Deeds incorporates them makes sense for the story.

Though not under the grimdark label, do not let the jazz and smooth ambience of the gin joints fool you. Comeuppance Served Cold works up to moments of darkness, especially in regards to violence and oppression. Deeds tells her story with nuance and subtly, luring you into a false sense of pleasantry. From the first page to the very last word, I was enthralled with this tale of thievery and lies. In a world where everyone wears a mask, actions and consequences will strip them bare: “We miss all the things we leave behind a little bit, don’t we?” (118). Some will be in pieces, and others whole, but all will be left with exactly what they deserve.

Thank you to Tordotcom for sending me an ARC of Comeuppance Served Cold to review.

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REVIEW: A Night of Flames by Matthew Harffy

A Night of Flames continues cleric turned warrior Hunlaf’s journey as he heads to the wild lands of Norway in Matthew Harffy’s (The Bernicia Chronicles) latest historical adventure. Throwing himself into the life of the warrior following the events of the amazing A Time for Swords, young Hunlaf and his Viking ally Runolf head to the Viking warrior’s homeland in the hope of finding answers to the questions left at the end of the previous novel.

Told once again from the perspective of Hunlaf in AD 794, A Night of Flames picks up where things were left off in A Time for Swords. One battle may be over, but Hunlaf is a warrior now and his sword will be needed many more times before his God calls for him to rest. Hunlaf is an interesting protagonist to follow in the series for many reasons. Caught between his life of a warrior and his love of his God, the decisions he makes are always dissected with the impact it has on his soul as a God-fearing man and someone who wants to do what is right. Hunlaf has a diverse group of friends as the novel opens with his bond with the violent but caring Norseman Runolf growing whilst he is still looking for the approval of Brother Leofstan, his mentor. Every action that Hunlaf makes in A Night of Flames is given extra weight due to the fact he is torn between the two sides fighting for dominance inside him. He questions every action whilst searching for the reactions and approval of those he cares about. Hunlaf’s struggle guides the story as he grows into the person he wants or needs to be.

Wanting to find missing kin across the water, Hunlaf uses his wit and powers of persuasion to convince the king of Rogaland to fund a search party. Runolf displays his legendary ship-building skill and a band of warriors make their way to Norway in the hope of making an allegiance to prevent any more bloodshed. Hunlaf makes some mistakes on the way, adding to the burdens already on his soul. His actions are of a brash, young man acting with more freedom than he is used to. The journey to Norway is a tough one but once there, the magnitude of their job grows as a slave has broken free and is leading fanatical followers on a path of fire and destruction across the lands.

Harffy is a master of the historical thriller and A Night of Flames is continued proof of that. Historical aspects are well-researched (love the mention of Bayt al-Hikmah thrown in – a side series in this area of the world would be insanely cool) and he clearly understands the world he is writing in. Characters behave with emotion and logic and the twists bring a sense of shock without confusion. Like Harffy’s The Bernicia Chronicles, this series is crying out for a TV adaptation in the style of Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom (Netflix).

A Night of Flames is a thrilling, wild ride of a novel full of violence and Vikings. Harffy has created a wild group of characters who are just as capable of having deep conversations about the meaning of their existence as they are at slicing the throats of their enemies. A Night of Flames is proof that this series is heating up and I can’t wait to read more!

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REVIEW: The Free Bastards by Jonathan French

The Free Bastards from author Jonathan French concludes the Lot Lands trilogy started in The Grey Bastards and The True Bastards. The pig-riding half-orcs attempt to finally attain true liberation as they wage war on the humans standing in the way of freedom. The Free Bastards, like the novels before it, is a gritty fantasy masterpiece that proves orcs are not just for the world of Middle-earth.

The Free Bastards switches the story to the perspective of fearsome but loveable half-orc Oats. The big difference with the change of perspective is how Oats is much humbler than his best friends, Jackal and Fetch. In The Grey Bastards, a cocky Jackal introduced readers to the Lot Lands and the brutal life of the half-orcs who lived there. His path led to him becoming a legendary god-touched warrior able to inspire those around him. In Free Bastards, it was Fetch’s turn to become something more as she learned about her heritage and struggled on the path to being a great chief. Oats, a thrice-blood (son of an orc and a half-orc) is one of the largest characters in his group but he is also one of the most caring. Though there is as much action in the conclusion to the trilogy as the other books, Oats’ perspective allows the reader to see more of the effect that the brutal way of life has on the vulnerable people just trying to survive. Not everyone is strong, blessed with magical powers, or even remotely healthy. Oats is a character who is always looking out for the people who aren’t able to look out for themselves (like the beaten and abused boy Muro) and that instantly makes him an interesting character to follow. This is Oats’ story now and following the emotional, caring thriceblood is the perfect way to end this incredibly dark but touching trilogy.

The world in The Free Bastards opens up and allows French to showcase his brilliant worldbuilding skills. Divine warriors, magical beasts, wizards, and the ever-faithful barbarians fill up the interesting and diverse world that French has created. The focus in The Free Bastards is wider than the previous novels but the writing is just as tight and the action bloody and visceral. The language is as hilariously crude as it always has been and any excuse for a half-orc to whip his ‘cod’ out is jumped at. The camaraderie between the rebels and the strong bonds between the main cast of characters is written with such care that it is impossible to not cheer with every victorious battle and wince with every strike that lands on our heroes. The Free Bastard takes you on a ride worthy of Ugfuck and by the end of it all, you’ll be exhausted but glad for the experience.

The Free Bastards is a fitting conclusion to a brilliant trilogy that breathes fresh life into the world of orcs. French’s novel is proof that writers have come a long way since orcs and goblins were always the mean, snarling bad guys and humans the bright heroes we had to root for. The Free Bastards is a gritty but touching novel that closes out this magnificent trilogy in bloody, curse-filled style.

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REVIEW: Malice by John Gwynne

Malice is the debut novel from epic fantasy writer John Gwynne. It is the first of the four novels that make up The Faithful and the Fallen series, and when it was published in 2012 it won the David Gemmell ‘Morningstar’ Award for Best Debut. The next three books in the series, Valour, Ruin, and Wrath, were also all nominated for the David Gemmell ‘Legend’ Award novel in the years that they were published. As a reader it can sometimes take me years to get to read the books that have been waiting on my periphery and to this day I use the nominations list for the now closed David Gemmell Awards as a barometer for good fantasy writing. I had very high hopes for Malice and I was not disappointed. If as a reader you like your grimdark complex, well built, and utterly engrossing, then Malice is a perfect choice for you.

Like a lot of other authors of epic fantasy novels, Gwynne has used a third person multiple point of view style for Malice. However, there are no less than seven different perspectives being used here, and the points of view span the whole continent of the Banished Lands. As well as a vast range of characters, Gwynne includes their religions, different races, family structures, and two thousand years of prophecy and traditions. In the hands of a less skilled writer, this would easily have become very dry and boring but Gwynne’s words are magical. I will admit that it took me longer than normal to be able place all the characters and how their stories related to one other and the wider novel, but I enjoyed the learning curve and accepted it as par for the course in a novel of this magnitude. It is also worth noting that the perspectives are not evenly split. The majority of chapters are from the point of view of Corban, a teenager from Ardan, and there are huge variations in chapter lengths. Sometimes they are a single page, sometimes twenty, sometimes the perspective stays the same for a few chapters, and sometimes you get five different points of view one after the other. Malice is never a boring read, and Gwynne never failed to surprise me. What I also really appreciated about Gwynne’s style is that he is clearly aware of the potential perplexity of this world. I would say that at least the first two thirds of the novel are spent establishing the characters and world building with a slow escalation to the mind blowing finale.

A really reductive summary of Malice could boil it down to two main themes. The first and all-encompassing is the age-old fight of Good vs Evil and the second is as a coming of age narrative. However, readers should not expect such simplicity. With one notable character exception, the lines between Good and Evil are not clear-cut with the remaining characters making very human choices in this ever-darkening world. The intentions of some of the key players in Malice remains a mystery. Most perspectives seem to genuinely believe that they are following the “right” path, so as a reader it is almost impossible to identify on which side of the impending god war a character will be on. It is not until almost the very end of Malice that I had an ‘aha!’ moment, suspecting I had successfully identified the prophesised Black Sun and Bright Star; yet, even now that prediction is not confirmed. It is also unfair to suggest that Malice is merely Corban’s bildungsroman. As the majority focus of the novel, Corban’s arc takes up a significant proportion of the narrative; dealing with growing up, family struggles, navigating friendships, encountering bullies, and his warrior training in the Rowan Field. But other characters also have to deal with family conflicts, making difficult choices, and dealing with their own heart breaking losses or euphoric victories. There are many likeable characters in Malice and not all of them have a happy outcome. I would go so far as to say that most do not, and for the others it is at best an uncertain future. After an unusually happy and hopeful start the story has a bleak and violent ending.

After Gwynne had spent so long building the world of Malice, I did have some doubts that the conclusion would be satisfying. However, I need not have worried. There is a significant pace shift and some of the shortest chapters in the novel make up the final third where an intense and emotional denouement takes place. Malice does not end with any huge cliff hangers, but the key character arcs are setup to continue in the next instalment of the series. There has been a lot of focus on the potential devastation of the imminent god war and I cannot even begin to predict how it will impact the remaining characters.

I found Malice to be a hugely satisfying read and it is well worth the time invested to understand this massive world. Some of my favourite parts of the novel were the detailed duels and battle scenes, especially the focus on technical aspects such as weapon choices or fighting styles which suggests that Gwynne himself is very knowledgeable of such things. I also really liked that Gwynne has included some exceptional fantasy beasts in Malice, with draigs, wolvens and wyrms to name a few. One or two of these animals prove to be quite loveable but most add another layer of violence and fear to the story. I look forward to continuing the wonderful Faithful and Fallen saga with Valour. 4/5.

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