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Grimdark Magazine #27 is live now!

For the first time ever, I relinquished the reins of GdM for Issue #27.

This quarter, horror super fan Beth Tabler took over the issue production as a guest editor to create our first ever crossover issue–horror and grimdark! The two genres are amazing bedfellows, and you’ll find a superlative issue with plenty of content for you to get your teeth into

The cover reveal

We have yet another dark AF cover from Carlos Diaz to this issue, showcasing an even darker story by Lindsay King-Miller, Gingerbread.

The line up for Issue #27

Beth has managed to pull together some of the biggest names in horror for this issue, and jammed in a lot of excellent fiction, articles, and interviews for you to get stuck in to.

FICTION

Outliers by A.M. ShineIsland of Sin by Jack MurphyThe Tesseract by Evan MarcroftThe Jewels of the Mermaids by Marisca PichetteTubes by Jeremy C. ShippGingerbread by Lindsay King-Miller

NON-FICTION

Crossing the Monster by Kaaron WarrenAn Interview with Chuck WendigAn Interview with Paul TremblayThe Case for Conflict by Sadie HartmanAn Interview with Graham MastertonRead Grimdark Magazine Issue #27

Head on over to our catalogue.

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REVIEW: Vampire: The Masquerade – Winter’s Teeth #8

Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth is a book that we here at Grimdark Magazine have been following faithfully. As a huge fan of the Vampire: The Masquerade series, I have absolutely loved what Tim Seeley, Tini Howard, and Blake Howard have done with the setting. It has managed to get through its first story arc and now is on its second one. Can it keep up the high quality of previous issues? I think so. I should warn you that this will have SPOILERS for previous issues.

Winter’s Teeth Issue #8 deals with the fallout of the discovery that Alejandra is an agent for the Mortician’s Army, a secret cult of vampire hunters led by a coroner who managed to destroy a vampire after it murdered his wife. The Mortician allowed his own daughter to be Embraced and sent her in as a 5th Columnist in the ranks of the Camarilla to bring the whole thing tumbling down. She’s already shown how effective she can be by bringing down one of the Twin Cities’ Primogen and thus making the visit by a Justicar even more awkward.

The funny thing about Winter’s Teeth Issue #8 is that it nicely illustrates how utterly messed up vampire society is without being overt about it. Everyone is more interested in covering their posteriors rather than finding out who killed the dead Elder. They make up alternative parties responsible, lie constantly, and find scapegoats well before anyone thinks to investigate who might have really been responsible. I liked it and it reminded me of Game of Thrones since, well, World of Darkness vampires were backstabbing upper class twits first.

The funny thing is that Cecily Bain is aware of Alejandra’s treachery. While furious about it, she’s also resigned to the fact that Kindred society is vile and doesn’t really care if it’s destroyed by hunters. It is a nice twist that I didn’t expect. The confrontation between the two is the highlight of the issue and goes in a direction that I think fans of the series will appreciate.

As usual, the art of the books is dark and well-realized, bringing to life the Gothic Punk atmosphere. The characters are more realistic looking and grounded than is typical in comic books, which adds an extra-layer of believability to their struggles. Cecily is cute but not beautiful and everyone not looking like CW actors or models is a point in the book’s favor. It can also be genuinely unsettling with the colors and shading. Top points.

In conclusion, I think the second arc of the book is every bit as good as the first and look forward to its coming conclusion. The characters have finally managed to establish themselves well enough that I am eager to see how their arc turns out. I don’t have high hopes for Cecily and Ali’s relationship past this point but vampires betraying each other is about 90% of what they do other than drink blood.

Read Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth #8

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REVIEW: The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

The Pariah is Anthony Ryan’s latest novel and the first in the new The Covenant of Steel series. This fantasy trilogy opener kicks the series off in style and leaves readers begging for the sequel. Following the adventures of outlaw Alwyn Scribe, The Pariah begins with the quick-witted young man following the charismatic Deckin Scarl, outlaw leader and bastard son of a Duke. The tale is told from Alwyn’s perspective as he fights to stay alive through bloody betrayal, torture and imprisonment.

Many grimdark fans will be well aware of Ryan’s previous work (Blood Song, The Empire of Ashes). With morally grey characters doing what they can to survive through a harsh world at war, The Pariah thrives in darkness as Alwyn is forced to endure various difficulties as he flees the life he has grown used to and ends up having to work his way up from the bottom with only his wits and few fellow survivors with nothing to lose. A war for the throne gives a bloody backdrop to Alwyn’s life as a Robin Hood-like outlaw, living in the forest until a shocking betrayal leads to the deaths of characters I had already grown to enjoy. This catapults the story forwards and from here, the story is relentless with its pacing and delightful in its darkness.

It is Ryan’s intelligent prose that makes The Pariah such a joy to read amongst all the bleak, grim, despairing harshness of this war-torn world. From the very beginning, it is shown to readers that Alwyn will rise to be more than a mere outlaw sneaking around the forest and that he will become bloodier than the pretender to the throne and more monstrous. This promise is always at the back of the reader’s mind as Alwyn tells of his life with the bias of an unreliable narrator, often coming across as the wronged party always fighting for justice, even the dark justice of a man raised as an outlaw from a young age. It creates a tension to the story that runs throughout as the reader waits for the promise of the bloody Alwyn to come alive and rise from the depths of his literal and metaphorical darkness.

The characters in The Pariah all feel fully formed and of use to the story. There are no wasted moments and passing characters early on are sometimes seen to have a big impact on Alwyn’s life later in the story. This makes The Pariah an exciting book to re-read and pick up on all the earlier hints that Ryan drops in leading to greater events towards the end of the story. The tough but loyal Brewer was one such character that I enjoyed whenever he was on the page, reminding me of Gunner Broad from Joe Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred. Elements of magic are dotted throughout The Pariah, sprinkled in and in no way overwhelming. This light touch of magic makes characters like the Sack Witch and the terrifying Chainsman stand out from the crowd and adds weight to all scenes they show up in.

The Pariah is Anthony Ryan at his best. A fast-paced, brutal fantasy novel with larger than life characters and a plot full of intrigue and suspense. With bloody twists and turns aplenty, this novel is destined to become a favourite of the grimdark community.

5 Stars.

Read The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

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REVIEW: Sidewinders by Robert V.S. Redick

Sidewinders by Robert V.S. Redick is an ambitious, impressive novel that rightfully takes its place within the halls of classic desert fantasy.  Sidewinders, which will be released on July 6, 2021, is the second novel in a planned trilogy called The Fire Sacraments. Grimdark Magazine received an ARC of Sidewinders in exchange for an honest review.

After the murder of the Prophet’s favorite son in a case of mistaken identity, brothers Kandri and Mektu Hinjuman have become two of the most infamous people alive in war-ravaged Urrath. Kandri and Mektu attempt to escape the Prophet’s immense force of religious fanatics, facing hardship and avoiding death at every turn. This review contains mild spoilers for the first installment, Master Assassins, which should be read before Sidewinders.

“We have just entered the desert, this great killer who dispatches even the best of us, the most sage and seasoned, indifferent as the rag that wipes the soot from the kettle. Now you appear and we must accept you, share our camels and our water and our way. They are rationed, life is rationed, why should we die that you might live?”

Sidewinders begins right where Master Assassins leaves off as the brothers Hinjuman travel with a caravan across the deadly deserts of Urrath. They must not only flee their hunters but also deliver a letter with earthshattering repercussions regarding a lethal disease that has plagued the world for generations. As the brothers traverse the arduous desert roads to the purported safety of the fortress city of Kasralys, disaster upon disaster befalls them. However, the vast desert is only one of their most dangerous foes.  Some of their fellow travelers also covertly seek the brothers’ demise. A bejeweled weapon is coveted by all and brings ruin to any who carry it. And unconquerable Kasralys might be about to face its most dangerous opponent yet.

New characters are introduced as the plot expands from a heart-pounding chase through the desert to complex political intrigues, but the brothers Hinjuman still take center stage. Kandri’s point of view occupies the majority of the novel. In addition to a few new third-person limited perspectives scattered throughout Urrath, there are some interesting first-person interludes to add variety and insight to Kandri’s journey and the mythology of the world.

Redick’s world-building is top-notch. Sensory details are excellent, and the author makes the desert into its own character. Anything other than devouring Redick’s fantastic prose for yourself is inadequate to describe just how concrete his world feels. Realistic details of the difficulties of survival in the desert contrast fantastical elements like the horrifying sky jellies, large jellyfish-like creatures that nest in the desert and can envelop a man and dissolve him alive.

“The wise brother undone by the idiot, the idiot saying what no one else dares to say. And the madman, the believer in he knows not what: flailing, falling, drawn to death like a salt lick […] I don’t like human beings. And I’ll ask you not to judge me unless you’ve done as I’ve done. Unless you’ve lived among them, worn their skin, dwelt in their sternums, felt the constant stabbing signals that race from brain to stomach to fingertips, listened to the gurgling advance of waste gasses down the coiled tubes in their abdomens, learned their names, sipped their terrors, attempted that bludgeoning exchange they call communicating, glimpsed the lake of fire they call love.”

Redick has undeniably evolved as a writer and storyteller since his Chathrand Voyage series.  The Fire Sacraments is very firmly in the adult grimdark category, while Chathrand Voyage is more lighthearted YA. So great are the differences in prose, character, setting, and intended audience that The Fire Sacraments series almost feels like it could have been written by an entirely different author than Chathrand Voyage.

Sidewinders is a lyrical, feverish novel that requires the reader to slow down, take a break, and jump back in. A binge-read doesn’t necessarily allow for the necessary time and space to absorb the well-plotted tragedy and terrific prose. Redick deftly sidesteps expectations and takes the story in unexpected directions while still honoring the desert fantasy genre. Redick’s writing in Sidewinders often reads more like a prose poem than a novel. His word choice is precise, and his sentence construction is effective in its turns of stuttering, rambling, and flowing smoothly.

“He caught the sword of the next rider with the flat of his blade and let his arm give way until both hilts were near his face and then seized the other’s wrist in his teeth and bit down grinding through veins until he choked on blood and there was another dead man, another soul to taste and swallow and forget.”

Interestingly, Redick switches from using the present tense in the first novel to the more standard past tense in the second novel. Redick reveals his thinking in Grimdark Magazine’s incoming interview with him.   Readers may forecast a clever structural reason like N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, which had the unconventional use of the second person that only makes sense in the context of the entire trilogy.

Redick capably manipulates the reader’s emotions throughout Sidewinders. As the characters get deeper into the desert, their descent into madness continues. Redick’s prose allows the reader to experience some measure of that same madness with hypnotic depictions of dreams, nightmares, and the cascading dominoes of chance versus destiny. Sidewinders also has a rare exploration of the structural injustice of the healthcare industry not often portrayed in high fantasy that will resonate for audiences like the U.S. without universal healthcare. Redick discusses this concept in detail in Grimdark Magazine’s recent interview.

Through effective use of the device of the desert as a catalyst, Redick reveals the dark and bright facets of human nature that arise when the trappings of civilization are stripped away by the desert. So too does the desert help reveal universal feelings of loneliness and the idea that one human can never truly know another. His depictions of familial squabbles and the heavy burdens of becoming a caretaker for a loved one feel grounded and authentic.

Fans of Steven Erikson and Bradley Beaulieu will appreciate the elaborate world-building and expansive plots of Robert V.S. Redick. With its well-researched anthropology and devastating conclusions, Redick’s series also feels emotionally similar to that of Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. Sidewinders is a beautiful fever-dream of a novel that is bound to impress. Redick has outdone himself with this second installment, and no doubt the third novel will continue to surpass and subvert expectations.

5/5 stars

Read Sidewinders by Robert V.S. Redick

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An interview with Robert V. S. Redick

Author Robert V.S. Redick is soon to release Sidewinders, the second installment in his dark epic trilogy, The Fire Sacraments. You may recognize Redick from his Chathrand Voyage series. Redick has also contributed to the star-studded Unfettered anthologies. Rightfully praised by fantasy mainstays including Patrick Rothfuss and Mark Lawrence, Redick has penned an impressive sequel that manages to surpass Master Assassins, the excellent first novel in the series.

Sidewinders continues the story of brothers and rivals Kandri and Mektu Hinjuman as they try to outrun the consequences of accidentally murdering the warmongering Prophet’s favorite son. The brothers must travel with a caravan across the hostile deserts of Urrath not only to flee their hunters but also to attempt to deliver a letter with monumental repercussions for humanity. The author was kind enough to have a chat with Grimdark Magazine about his new novel, worldbuilding, human nature, structural injustice, and more.

[JF] What should readers know about Sidewinders?

It’s a long, intricate, character-driven adventure fantasy. It’s a war story that refuses to glorify war. It’s a desert road trip. And it’s a family gothic and a meditation on fanaticism and genius and a few more things. It has a lot of humor, but it doesn’t lie about what violence does to the psyche. The plot’s very easy to follow, but there’s way too much of it to summarize here.

I should also mention that it’s a sequel that can stand on its own legs. While I do recommend you start with Master Assassins, some readers have jumped right to Sidewinders, and they tell me it’s a great read even without the context of Book One.

[JF] The Fire Sacraments series is quite different from The Chathrand Voyage in its prose, character, setting, and intended audience. What motivated this shift?

Above all, a need to stretch my wings. It’s very understandable when readers want more of the same, but writers also want to grow, to learn what else we can do. It’s risky, but if we don’t try, we can end up creating ever-paler, thinner versions of our greatest hits.

That said, I also want to follow my Chathrand characters a bit further through life when I can. And I want to write so many other books as well! Tempus fugit, as they say.

[JF] You mentioned in a previous interview that Master Assassins was “ born as a cry of pain and rage at the stupidity of war.” What inspired and influenced Sidewinders?

All my books begin with some inkling of character, but I have to wonder what puts me on the road to discovering certain characters and not others? In the case of The Fire Sacraments, I’d been reading and thinking and silently raging for years about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. About all the lies we were told, the hundreds of thousands left destitute or dead by our smashing of the country’s infrastructure, all the waste and agony that’s on our hands. And that led me in turn to think about so many other wars, and about the horrific fact that we’re a species capable of this collective madness.

No war was ever prosecuted without lies, coercion, and a silencing of dissent. Few are fought by those who make the cold decisions to start them—to send millions of others out to die in them. And the survivors on all sides: those people are left scarred forever in body and mind. I thought I might be able to write an epic fantasy that was more truthful about this, and yet still fun to read. I hope I’ve at least partly succeeded.

[JF] The setting for this series feels very concrete. How did you build this incredibly detailed world?

My feeling about world-building is not that it’s a complex process but rather an expensive one. Expensive, that is, in terms of time and mental preoccupation. Once the inspiration for a story appears (and who knows what makes that happen), you have to obsess about the place, the time, the circumstances, and just let your subconscious engine run and run and take notes all the while. This can turn you into a zombie in your daily life. It can make you forget important commitments and annoy your spouse and kids and dog. And for a long time, you may have little more to show for that investment than notes in a file and some initial forays into the text. That’s all right. That’s what the process requires. But with our accelerated lives and the demands we put on ourselves, it can be hard to accept that.

[JF] The novel explores corruption and injustice that can occur in a health care system. What made you decide to explore this topic through an epic fantasy lens?

First, I should note that this trilogy was well underway years before Covid; indeed Book One came out two years before the pandemic. Of course that just makes the parallels with what’s going on in our world today all the more eerie.

But to answer your question, I was thinking about all kinds of victims of plutocratic empire. About how the Global South becomes the dumping ground for the toxins produced in the north. About how those least responsible for climate change and suffering are dying first. About how we in the north don’t like to admit that our comfortable lives depend on supply chains held at the far ends by cartels and criminals who routinely commit murder, torture, mass land theft, and cultural genocide. And yes, about how even in the medical sphere, the global injustices are vast. Quick example: pharmaceutical companies scour the tropics for useful compounds and genetic material, but tropical diseases remain a low research priority. Why? Because they doubt they’ll make a profit fighting Chagas disease or dengue.

[JF] Master Assassins is present tense with past-tense flashbacks, while Sidewinders is almost entirely past tense. What are the implications of this tense shift for the continuity of the story?

I worried myself sick over this one! I loved the challenge of writing a whole book in the present tense, but it just wasn’t right for Sidewinders. The first book has just one point of view character—Kandri Hinjuman, my long-suffering peasant soldier. I think the present tense helped make the drama visceral and enveloping: “This is happening right this instant, don’t look away.” Sidewinders, however, has six point-of-view characters spread all over the continent of Urrath. Time marches forward for all of them, but not in a uniform manner: the end of Chapter 11 may not be the same instant as the start of Chapter 12. It just felt wrong.

As I say, I worried. But now I’m feeling a lot of trust that readers will get that decision. It may feel odd for moment if you go instantly from Master Assassins to Sidewinders, but I doubt you’ll be thinking about it for long, given how fast everyone gets in trouble.

[JF] The book can be dark and oppressive in content. Does this affect you emotionally during the writing process, and if so, how do you cope with it?

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure it was grim enough for Grimdark! I think of myself more as a chiaroscuro writer, working with sharp bright lights in dark places. The darkness is a world in monstrous trouble. The light is the brilliance in human souls. My heroes, both in life and literature, have always been heroes of perception. They’re the ones who can see what others miss: see a way forward, see the truth hidden in a fog of lies, see the necessity of courage and how to find it in themselves. In real life, that’s Gandhi, Mandela, Carl Sagan, Ursula le Guin. In fiction, it’s Alyosha from The Brothers Karamazov and Mrs. Moore from A Passage to India. And even little Frodo, who perceives the necessity of self-sacrifice in setting out for Mordor—something beyond the power of his mighty friends. When I witness that sort of brilliance, I can’t help but be uplifted. But like any sort of light, it’s all the more striking against a backdrop of darkness.

[JF] Given the somewhat critical look into human nature, do you think the book’s overall message is of hope or pessimism towards humanity? Does the balance of power in the book reflect your views of human nature in our world?

I am an optimist. I made a promise to myself long ago not to tell stories that contribute to despair. And so far I think all my books and stories keep that promise.

Which is not to say that they’re light affairs. In Moby Dick, Melville (a great master of chiaroscuro) writes, “There is a Catskill eagle in some souls, that can alike dive into the blackest gorges and sail out of them again, to become invisible in the sunny spaces.” I hope that’s what my fiction does. I don’t leave anyone behind in those dark canyons.

But why dive into them at all? Because to pretend that they don’t exist is to lie. And what pushes me in the direction of despair is the wholesale flight of people (nations, countries) into the arms of comforting lies. No worthy optimism can be based on lies.

As for the balance of power, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to measure it in my novels. Or for that matter, in real life. My Dad had a tiny cartoon clipped from a newspaper taped to a bookshelf in his basement office. I saw it just once as a kid—wrinkled and yellowed with age, buried behind his towers of books on Latin America and nuclear weapons. It showed Martin Luther King being greeted in the afterlife by Mahatma Gandhi. Both are smiling. And Gandhi’s saying, “The odd thing about assassins, Dr. King, is that they think they’ve killed you.” King had more power than J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI; Gandhi had more power than Mountbatten and his apparatus of the Raj. Who could measure that power, or the power of the movements they were part of, until it was proved?

[JF] The White Child and the sky jellies are memorably terrifying. How did you come up with all the monsters in this series?

In a word: nightmares. As in actual horrible dreams. The creatures’ forms are usually half-hidden in the dreams, but that just makes them more terrifying. The dread is often so tangible on waking that it’s a relief when I detail the creature and pull it out of my psyche. In the case of the White Child, the horror-image was part of my childhood: the dreaded THING that just. keeps. coming. closer. As for the jellies: what frightens me the most is their silence as they kill.

[JF] What can we expect from the third novel in the trilogy?

An ending! I’m not being facetious; I want to assure people that this trilogy really is a trilogy, and will come to a true conclusion in Book Three.

Sidewinders also implies that a very, very big event is coming, and that event is certainly the center point of the final volume. The nature of that event is hardly a secret: the last book’s title is Siege, after all.

Beyond that, I can say that the book attends as much to the micro as the macro: yes, there’s war and cataclysm and renewal. The whole world changes in Book Three. And yes, there are personal endpoints, as the characters we’ve followed through hell and back meet their individual fates.

Read Sidewinders by Robert V. S. Redick

Keep an eye out for our review of Sidewinders dropping tomorrow!

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REVIEW: Dead Acre by Rhett Bruno and Jaime Castle

Dead Acre is a Weird West Audible exclusive audiobook written by Rhett Bruno and Jaime Castle. It is also narrated by Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2). I’m fond of all three of these individuals and recommend their work individually. However, I’m going to say that it’s really Roger Clark who is the big appeal here. I am fanatically devoted to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Roger Clark dipping his toe into something similar plus the addition of supernatural elements.

The premise is that James Crowley is an undead outlaw. Killed while trying to prevent the assault of an innocent woman, God has raised Crowley from the dead before giving him the mission of hunting down evil supernaturals. Unfortunately, it’s a bad deal since Crowley will not be allowed to Heaven if he atones for his crimes in life. Instead, he will just not go to Hell and that is a pretty ambiguous fate.

Crowley is sent to the small town of Dead Acres and immediately picks up the feeling that something is terribly wrong in the town. There have been disturbings of graves, there’s a local gang abusing people, and one of the town’s citizens has gone missing. Suspecting the forces of evil are at work, Crowley sets to work interrogating the locals while dealing with the fact that he is strongly attracted to a local woman. Well, that’s not going anywhere because undead revenants are not capable of “performing” but the longing is still there.

Dead Acre isn’t a very long audiobook. My superhero novels are usually about seven hours and this is less than half of that but it’s hard to complain about the price (free with an Audible subscription). It feels more like the pilot to a television show than it does a full experience. I feel like they could have easily expanded the story to twice its length without slowing down the pacing. The ending wasn’t great with the “revelation” of the villain being underwhelming but I was otherwise quite impressed with the story.

I appreciate Crowley as a main character as Roger Clark successfully brings to life the cyncical, hardened, and resigned mercenary. He doesn’t particularly like working for Heaven and doesn’t expect to be rewarded for it but it is better than Hell. He also has the opinion Heaven isn’t particularly better than Hell but less overtly awful. It reminded me a bit of Geralt while not precisely grimdark, it’s definitely of the antihero dark fantasy genre (bordering on horror).

I recommend those who enjoy Weird Westerns, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, or supernatural adventures to check this one out. It’s in audiobook format only but I think any format without Roger Clark’s narration would lose something. I definitely recommend checking it out but only if you do like listening to audiobooks.

Listen to Dead Acre by Rhett Bruno and Jaime Castle

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Grimdark in Dark Times

How can reading or watching grim, dark and often violent stories help people confront the chaos of life?

The last eighteen months have been unpleasant on a global scale. Life in a pandemic is difficult for everyone. Death, illness, the worry of what is to come and the lack of knowledge of how things are going to play out have created a tense world. In such times, people look for relief; something that can take their minds away from the grim reality round them. To the surprise of some, many find solace in the grimdark genre – a genre known for its grim, brutal characters and plots often filled with bloody violence and death. So why would anyone wish to get lost in such dark stories when life isn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows?

One possible idea thrown about is escapism. Fans of SFF, not just grimdark, speak of loving the genre as it distances themselves from reality and allows them to escape to other worlds and become lost in what has been created by the numerous talented authors weaving their interesting tales. Stories allow their audience to take time away from whatever difficulties they face in life and follow characters on their various journeys as they face their own problems and challenges. However, grimdark stories are seen as darker than reality, or at least darker than most people’s lives (thankfully!). This means that the audience is escaping to a world that is darker than their own. Such stories give people hope. They can read or watch characters face incredible difficulties and despite the odds they face, they trudge on and force themselves forwards, even if they may fall at the end. There is a resilience to characters in grimdark worlds that can inspire people and give them confidence to face their own, hopefully smaller, challenges. Following Logen Ninefingers (Joe Abercrombie, The First Law) as he attempts to be a better man after all he has done or Arya Stark’s (George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire) rise from scared, wide-eyed child to infamous assassin is inspirational and is not just a respite from reality, but a chance to learn and grow. These characters may stumble and fall as they make it past the obstacles in their way but they dust themselves off and carry on, not knowing if there is an end in sight.

There is a clear element of catharsis within the grimdark genre. Writers take their audience on a journey that involves many horrors and dark events that push the characters that we love to the limit. They break them and reshape them into something new. The audience can follow them every step of the way and take hope in the way the characters keep coming back for more. Characters in the genre face the difficulties in recognisable and sometimes relatable ways. They get scared. They make mistakes. They regret things in their past. They aren’t bulletproof superheroes flying around above the rest of humanity. They are human and they behave like humans – for good, or bad. This allows the audience to witness a reflection of their own feelings and problems and think about how the story relates to their own experiences. Stories in the genre do not shy away from tackling important issues around the world, nothing is off-limits in the grimdark genre and that level of freedom, when used with a talented and sensitive writer, allows for a safe space for readers to explore complex issues that they may be affected by personally, or to give an opportunity for some who are ignorant of such issues to learn something and better understand the people around them.

The shared experience of stories is something that is a vital part of the human experience. Throughout history, dark tales have been incredibly popular. The original Brothers Grimm’ tales are shockingly dark and gory and humanity has never shied away from exploring the dark side of our species. The episode in grimdark’s jewel in the crown of TV, Game of Thrones, that sparked the most talk and excitement across the world was The Red Wedding. The brutal and devastating events of that episode brought people together, all eager to take part in the huge, shared discourse full of shock and amazement. The same can be said of the current biggest franchise in movie history: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Packed cinemas fell silent as the credits rolled on Avengers: Infinity War. Half of the universe had been wiped away and the villain had won. Such devastating acts bring people together and get them invested in a story and spark animated debates in schools, offices, and workplaces around the world. The internet lights up with possible theories on what happens next as complete strangers end up discussing the events over a shared love of the story. For a moment, people are able to forget about their worries and problems. Instead, they become lost in conversation with others over this shared experience and more often than not, they long for the villains in the tale to fall and for the heroes, grey though they are sometimes, to succeed and win out the day.

This shared experience is what makes cinemas so important. A Quiet Place Part II was recently released in cinemas around the world. Due to be released over eighteen months ago, it was delayed due to the pandemic. Its recent release is a sign that things are moving back to something that resembles normality. The horror film soaked in grimdark is a film that simply had to be seen in the cinema. The film is directed and pieced together to ensure the silence of the audience and there is a palpable sense of tension throughout the two hours as the audience watches a world that is going through its own issues of disconnect, worry, and loss. The audience reacted together, screaming, jumping out of their seats, and cheering as one. Good grimdark stories, like the best horror, forces its audience to feel something. Like a jolt to the heart, it awakens us and breaks us free from our worries and the challenges that we face and re-energises us. It can seem ironic that such dark stories regarding broken worlds and people can be enjoyed so much in dark times but that doesn’t make it any less true or vital for the readers and audience devouring such media. The darker the darkness is, the more powerful even the smallest ray of light becomes as it penetrates that darkness.

And that’s what grimdark is. These stories are filled with a darkness that is soul-crushing and tormenting but then it offers a glimmer of light that keeps us going. It teaches the audience to keep going and creates moments for us to come together as a community and discuss the things we love (and hate) about the characters and the story. It brings people together and in the darkest of times, isn’t that what we need more than anything else? Grimdark stories can distract us from life, teach us about life, or just keep us alive at times. In dark times, grimdark can be the light that shines through.

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Read-a-long for Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness Trilogy

When Gollancz reached out to me to be one of 13 sites doing a re-read of Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness I of course pretty much committed to whatever it was before I opened the email. Let’s not pretend I’m not a raging fan.

Book 1 of The Age of Madness

I first encountered Abercrombie’s writing while walking through Sydney airport, bored as all hell, wondering what I was going to do for the few hours (I’d arrived stupidly early for some reason). The UK paperback cover of The Heroes caught my eye and the blurb, “Three men. One battle. No Heroes.” had me hook, line, and sinker. I’d fallen out of reading SFF, or reading at all, if we’re being honest, and all I needed was one small spark to reignite my interest (and, eventually, get Grimdark Magazine rolling)–and Joe Abercrombie was that spark.

The start of a new trilogy set a couple of decades after the original series and follow ups, A Little Hatred is utterly brilliant. In the Age of Madness the North is invading under a new vicious leader. The Union is under threat both on its northern border and from within as the Breakers try to destroy the progress large scale machine manufacturing is bringing. Refugees from the lands beyond the Union’s borders stream in looking for a better life and cities swell with people. Mayhem is building–diminishing jobs for diminishing pay; an invasion of cultures clashing with the locals; an unhappy populace frothing under an inept, uncaring, and brutal leadership; mountains of money to be made by the few and privileged; a protectorate begging for help–and in the gritty guts of it all are a new generation of characters grown a little soft in the last couple decades of peace and about to get a very rough awakening in Joe Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred.

This book was everything I’d hoped for from Abercrombie, and here’s a quick breakdown of the first nine chapters to get you interested, before you head off to the next blog next week to follow on!

Chapter One: Blessings and Curses

Rikke, daughter of the Dogman, is cursed with the Long Eye. And in her visions she sees Uffrith burning, and plenty of battle and blood. Then she finds out that Stour Nightfall is looking to unite the North against the South in bloody glory. So a solid bit of scene-setting for the book for those not quite sure yet what to expect from an Abercrombie book, and a pretty standard year for the North, all things told.

Chapter 2: Where the Fight’s the Hottest

Leo dan Brock, The Young Lion, is relishing the heat of combat against Stour Nightfall’s Northmen. What he isn’t relishing, is the tedious, boring reality of running an army with all of its numbers, and figures, and supply lines, and similar things less heroic people should be managing. His mother, Lady Finree, gives him a dressing down for his recklessness in charging a worthless farm where he could have been killed, but damn if it isn’t hard to just not enjoy the moment when you’re a bloodied god amongst men.

Chapter 3: Guilt is a Luxury

Rikke and Isern-i-Phail lament the death of a young man while pretty much setting the path for Rikke for the book. Isern believes there is a free north in the future, where men like Scale, and Black Calder, and Stour Nightfall no longer hold sway, and Rikke’s long eye will guide them to it.

Chapter 4: Keeping Score

Savine dan Glokta has a big stake in the modernisation of industry. Machines replacing people. Production lines. Efficiency. And so much profit. And with her latest business move driving new construction to her old investment properties, business is good. To protect and grow it she must be both innovative and ruthless.

Chapter 5: A Little Public Hanging

Crown Prince Orso is waiting on his inheritance—the entire Union. And while he waits, he’s decided to drown himself in pearl dust, drink, spectacle, and women … and definitely not marry to complete his dynastic duty of reproducing. Life is very boring and hard for a 27 year old directionless crown prince who can never seem to pick the right moment to do the right thing.

Chapter 6: The Breakers

Vick’s father used to run the Royal Mint. Then Inquisitor Glotka took him and sent their whole family to the mines in Angland for penance and now she’s out of the mines and she’s stuck doing dirty work (as angrily as possible). She’s got a bone to pick with the authorities, and joining the Breakers to fight against workers’ rights suppression is her way to do it.

Chapter 7: The Answer to Your Tears

Rikke and Isern need to go cross country to find their way to the Dogman at his seat in Uffrith. But the long eye has shown Rikke Uffrith burning, and she has a lot of hardening up to do if she is to survive. Good thing Isern-the-hard-as-nails-hillwoman is there with her to guide her and help her grow up quickly. And slap her round a bit when she’s being soft.

Chapter 8: Young Heroes

Leo and his band of brothers—all keen as mustard for glory (except war weary Barniva whose “war experience” was eight months in a generals tent)—are itching to get at Stour Nightfall’s Northmen. This slow, steady retreat business while the Northman watch and laugh from their defences is doing nobody any good. We get the impression Leo’s on the verge of doing something very impatient and very stupid. Something you’ll have to go to next week’s blog to find out about, I’m sure!

Chapter 9: The Moment

Clover has hung up his bloody chainmail and is relaxing into a life of teaching the sword to well-off idiots. Life’s good, but he has a chief, and that chief is Black Calder, and Black Calder has a son named Stour Nightfall who needs some direction from an old hand to get back into line with Black Calder’s plans to take the South. So off Clover goes to see what he can do about the meanest, angriest young killer in the north (who also happens to be an absolute prick, according to fan favourite, Wonderful).

Thoughts on the first nine chapters of The Age of Madness

Joe Abercrombie’s storytelling magnificence lies in his characters. Their unique voices roll off the page so well you can tell who you’re reading about before ever seeing their name. His use of point of view to create problems and plot twists, and to see those twists from multiple, sometimes intersecting, sometimes not, perspectives is what makes him so good, in my opinion. That tradecraft is in full view here, with a world, overarching and personal conflicts, a book and possibly trilogy story arc direction, and some immediate danger all laid out in six engaging points of view across nine chapters.

There is plenty to get your teeth in to, but I love the introduction of a new generation of characters alongside the references to the old ones (and with Clover walking in both camps, he’s of course automatically my favourite here). Having completed the book previously, I know that some fan-favourite faces show up in A Little Hatred–and in true Abercrombie fashion, nobody is safe. The world has a solid familiarity about it, with all the lands and old hatreds we’re used to, a small amount of low magic, a feeling that some things don’t change, but then a new technological layer over it all to not only advance the people, but the age.

I feel safe in saying that despite this series being seven books and a bunch of short stories deep before you even pick up book one of The Age of Madness, that somebody who has read the book before will feel something new in the industrious layer overlaid upon a familiar world, while new readers will be able to wrap their heads around what Abercrombie is putting down quickly. For them, the world and the fact they have missed over a million words of awesomeness prior to starting A Little Hatred won’t be an obstruction to getting into the story.

Read our full review

Well, that’s where we stand at the end of chapter nine, and if that hasn’t whet your appetite I’m damned if I know what will! Check out the full book review, here. I hope you read on through the whole Age of Madness trilogy!

Read A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie

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REVIEW: 13 Assassins

13 Assassins is a 2010 Japanese samurai film directed by the brilliant Takashi Miike – best known to western audiences for his cult horror The Audition and twisted crime epic Ichi the Killer.  The film is a remake of the 1963 period piece of the same name and allows Miike to paint his incredibly violent and stylized storytelling onto the epic samurai canvas and prove that he is a director capable of more than shock horror.

Grimdark fans who enjoy world cinema simply must follow Miike’s work. They are often, violent, bloody tales with a clear message and despicable characters that stay long in the mind. 13 Assassins, though different to his earlier work, still has that Miike stamp to it though it is placed on a 2 and half hour epic based in the waning years of the Edo period in Japan. Lord Naritsugu rapes, tortures, mutilates, and murders commoners and nobles at will. Protected by his half-brother Shogun, his actions threaten to cause a civil war and so a plot comes together in which older samurai band together to assassinate the evil lord. Word gets out of the secret plan and all hell breaks loose, ending in a battle that stands up against any of the best and bloody of the battles to have been seen on screen.

13 Assassins is a beautiful film with grim, disturbing scenes and characters. It opens with an act of seppuku – a ritual sacrifice for those dishonoured – the film never shies away from the horror of Lord Naritsugu’s actions and Miike is more than willing to let the blood spill across the film’s long running time. As grim as some of the actions and characters may be, every shot is put together with care and directed to evoke memories of even Kurosawa’s best work. Miike proves to be an incredibly talented director capable of handling this historic epic and working with intimate scenes full of impressive character work and somehow managing to make the audience care about each of the 13 assassins as they band together to face an insurmountable force waiting for them.

From the war-weary and honourable Shimada Shinzaemon who is tasked with bringing the band together, to the mischievous Loki-like Kiga Koyata who enters the film suspended from a cage in the forest, the characters all have their own identities and reasons for fighting. The interaction between the warriors in 13 Assassins allows enough time to get the audience to know them and understand who they are before they eventually end up in a fortified town facing a force of over 200 trained warriors. The battle is worth the price of the film alone. Beautiful choreography and great use of the stunning northern Japan location of the Yamagata Prefecture adds to the incredible dance of blades that is the film’s climax.

There have been many stories recently that play with the plot device of weary warriors banding together to fight a greater, malevolent force (A Time for Swords by Matthew Harffy, The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston) and they all owe a debt to the work of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Miike understands the importance of Kurosawa’s work and has produced something that pays homage to those old samurai epics that put Japanese cinema on the map whilst also carving his own style into the movie and ensuring it stands alone as an incredible piece of violent historical cinema.

13 Assassins is a gory, violent epic film that honours the past of Japanese cinema whilst producing something that will arguably be seen as Miike’s easiest film to convert western audiences. This heroic samurai tale is a grim, beautiful classic with a bloody battle that will live long in the memory.

Watch 13 Assassins

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REVIEW: Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar

Gunmetal Gods is a novel focused on a fantastical analog to the Crusades. It’s told through dual points of view of both Kevah, a janissary soldier, and Micah the Metal, a paladin.

Kevah’s an old man now, forced out of retirement by his Shah for one last job. Over a decade ago he became famed as the only man to slay a magus, but in the process he lost his wife. (That’s literal: he has no idea where she’s vanished to.) Now he spends his time as a blacksmith, isolated from society. In addition to asking him to deal with another magus, his Shah asks him to consider remarrying. He also reconnects with his father figure and his adopted daughter in Kostony.

Micah is looking to take over Kostony, the holy city and seat of the janissaries. To this end he makes a deal with a different magus, a mysterious woman named Aschere.

Both main characters in Gunmetal Gods have a fascinating dynamic with one another. They both have similar mysteries surrounding them, both pieces in the same puzzle. Both want to protect the city of Kostony from the other. Kevah’s blacksmith history feels as if it’s a piece of Micah’s nickname of The Metal. There are several other pieces that fit together as the story goes on and revelations unfold.

Both characters get their own alternating chapters, which is common enough. Those chapters are both from a first-person point of view. The characters are separate enough that there was never any confusion.

The cultures of both groups feel fleshed out, with a few small traditions and commonalities working to fill in for numerous others. In addition to Kostony, we get a lot of setting with desert horse-riders and their culture. There’s also Labyrinthos, a massive labyrinth that also seems to be a gateway for otherworldly spirits and demons to enter the real world.

Religion is a huge part of Gunmetal Gods, but it never felt like there was quite enough to differentiate the worship of Lat from Angelsong. That could well be an attempt to show the duality and how underneath it all they were quite similar. I liked a side character, Jauz, and his discussion of the Wheel as his religion, which felt from its brief mention far more distinct than the other two. A few more rituals or discussions of holidays or history or any of the many reasons people believe could have made them stand on their own more, and I hope they get further exploration in future installments.

Religion also includes miracles, and I had a few problems with that integration into the plot. To be clear, these weren’t deus ex machina, and they didn’t solve problems for the heroes. They just felt like they stuck out. It didn’t help that that was the only section of the book where the POV switched from both Kevah and Micah to a new character, at the exact moment I was most interested in Kevah and Micah’s dynamic.

That said, the payoff of all of that worked very well. If you’ve read much modern fantasy, you’ll be familiar with the Sanderson Avalanche, the last few chapters where everything becomes revelation after revelation, plot twist after plot twist. That happens with Gunmetal Gods, filling in all the missing pieces between Kevah and Micah, how maguses work, Labyrinthos, and even religion.

The ending sets up a lot of fascinating plot threads, (and the sequel, Conquerer’s Blood, arrives June 20th) but also works as a stand-alone.

If you’re looking for a dark action-filled fantasy with a strong hook of an ending, give Gunmetal Gods a try.

Read Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar

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