Adrian Collins's Blog, page 178
February 20, 2021
LGBTQIA+ Dark SFF Characters: Where To Start Reading
The world has changed to be more inclusive, and SFF has often led the way by taking us into worlds and people that push our comfort zones and expand our horizons. Many new works that have come out in recent years have main character representation of LGBTQIA+ characters.
So if you are asking questions like, “Where do I start reading characters more like me?” or “Where are the LGBTQIA+ characters in adult dark fantasy?” the Grimdark Magazine team has you covered.
Let’s get reading!
Docile by K.M Szpara
What it is about?There is no consent under capitalism
Docile is a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles.
To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner of your contract. To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents’ debts and buy your children’s future.
Elisha Wilder’s family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family’s debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him. Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family’s crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.
Why You Should Read This?Read Docile by K.M. Szpara“This is a queer dystopian novel that is sometimes uncomfortable to read, extremely graphic in nature, is thrilling, beautifully written and yet is often a mind-fuck and has quite a few trigger warnings to discuss.“
From the Hugo Award–winning author of The Stars Are Legion comes a brand-new science fiction thriller about a futuristic war during which soldiers are broken down into light in order to get them to the front lines on Mars.
They said the war would turn us into light.
I wanted to be counted among the heroes who gave us this better world.
The Light Brigade: it’s what soldiers fighting the war against Mars call the ones who come back…different. Grunts in the corporate corps get busted down into light to travel to and from interplanetary battlefronts. Everyone is changed by what the corps must do in order to break them down into light. Those who survive learn to stick to the mission brief—no matter what actually happens during combat.
Dietz, a fresh recruit in the infantry, begins to experience combat drops that don’t sync up with the platoon’s. And Dietz’s bad drops tell a story of the war that’s not at all what the corporate brass want the soldiers to think is going on.
Is Dietz really experiencing the war differently, or is it combat madness? Trying to untangle memory from mission brief and survive with sanity intact, Dietz is ready to become a hero—or maybe a villain; in war it’s hard to tell the difference.
A worthy successor to classic stories like Downbelow Station, Starship Troopers, and The Forever War, The Light Brigade is award-winning author Kameron Hurley’s gritty time-bending take on the future of war.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley“The Light Brigade is a mind-fuck. In fact, I’m finding it hard to gather my thoughts about it because it’s just… it’s a lot. ::insert reactionary gif of a brain exploding:: It’s brilliant and weird and just fucking brutal as hell. I adored all of the references that were sprinkled throughout, although I’m sure I missed even more. GAH!! I loved this book so goddamn much!”
A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose cynicism is surpassed only by the speed of his sword. Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but when his mother enlists his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one young woman. Grim sorceries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of the Aldrain, a race of widely feared, cruel yet beautiful demons. Now Gil and two old comrades are all that stand in the way of a prophecy whose fulfillment will drown an entire world in blood. But with heroes like these, the cure is likely to be worse than the disease.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Steel Remains by Richard K Morgan“I thought Ringil was a brilliant character and after reading a few of his chapters I decided to buy the next two books in the series as I knew I was going to be fully invested in him. Ringil reminded me of Sapkowski’s Geralt of Rivia with his temperament and I often envisaged grunts or “for-fuck-sakes” before he acted.”
In an empire controlled by bone shard magic, Lin, the former heir to the emperor will fight to reclaim her magic and her place on the throne.
The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.
Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart“There are several points of view found throughout the book. Lin’s storyline is arguably the most important. She is the daughter of the Emperor, desperate to prove her worth to her father and earn his trust. Only by discovering his secrets can she hope to someday succeed him and lead his empire. However, the more she tries to learn, the more dangerous those secrets become. The lies build up, and he has eyes everywhere. He is a dangerous man to cross, and Lin needs to find a way to survive his machinations and figure out what he is hiding. I have to say, I was absolutely stunned by where Lin’s storyline ended up. However, while Lin was technically the main character in the book, I found myself only sort-of invested in her character until about halfway through. Once her plotline got going, it raced along at a breakneck pace, but it took longer to get there than I would have liked.”
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember,
and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood“Her life’s only meaning is in its death. In the last hour of her life, she is approached by the wizard Sethennai, a wizard, he offers her a choice, “serve me, and I will save you. Don’t and accept your fate.” Csorwe, having never been offered a choice in anything, she is offered what could be the most pivotal choice of her life. She accepts life and defies a god. She takes her young life and runs for it. Sethennai needs Cswore to restore his position as ruler of a great city named Tlaanthothe. It is difficult as a reader to make the connection as to why Csorwe, basically a babe in the ways of the world, is essential in this great wizard’s quest to gain his city back. Especially since, again, Cswore is groomed as an assassin and bodyguard, and it takes years to get her ready. And, still, what looks like a choice and an opportunity to live her life finally on her own terms is not what she thinks it is. She is bound to Sethennai by obligation and her honor.”
Live fast, die young.
Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.
When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It’s adventure she wants – and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.
It’s time to take a walk on the wyld side.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames“Bloody Rose has so many excellent qualities, it’s impossible to include them all in this review (since you should be reading the book by now anyhow). But for the purpose of brevity, let’s look only at characters and themes. Fable comprises Tam, the bard; Bloody Rose, the leader and daughter of the famous mercenary Golden Gabe from Kings; Freecloud, Rose’s rabbit-eared lover, a druin; Brune, a shapeshifting vargyr; Cura, an Inkwitch; and Roderick, a hilarious and horny satyr. Each of these characters is imbued with a distinctive personality and each character has its own arc that is perfectly executed and timed (spread out with) the other characters’ arcs. Brune for example, has always believed he is a bear until circumstances require that he overcome that misperception to survive. Equally as important as the expert development of Fable’s band members is the development and deployment of the very powerful and intelligent villain, the Winter Queen, who has a legitimate motivation to be pissed off—her only son was killed by Rose’s father at Castia. Bloody Rose has an enormous cast of important characters, and they are all intricately tied together, not only by the story’s events, but also by its main themes.”
Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.
Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation – the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan’s new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion’s gravity well to the very belly of the world.
Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion’s destruction – and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?
In the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune, The Stars are Legion is an epic and thrilling tale about tragic love, revenge, and war as imagined by one of the genre’s most celebrated new writers.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley“The world-building in The Stars are Legion is what really pulled me into the story in the beginning. Unlike most sci-fi that I have read, the world of The Stars are Legion is almost entirely organic. The world-ships, of which there are primarily three in the story, are gigantic floating, tentacled living worlds with a seemingly unknown number of levels from the bottom, where people are recycled by terrifying monsters, all the way to the top, where the elite and powerful live and conspire. The entire world-ship is organic, made of some kind of fleshy substance that can be cut through to form new passageways, and eaten, if entirely necessary. It is alive with tubes like umbilici, and growths, and blood, and on the outside, a blackening cancerous rot, evidence that the worlds are dying and will continue to do so. Beneath it all, or at least in parts, are some mysterious metal beams and scaffolding that may have been part of the original structure or used to sure up the dying organic structure.”
Zen Cho returns with a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho“On the surface, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected on Water is a pretty grim tale about hapless, hungry bandits trying to survive amid poverty, war, and tyranny. In this sense, it is like a lot of grimdark novels and novellas and is pretty much standard grimdark fare. But Zen Cho is so fucking funny that the story becomes as darkly humorous it is grim and pathetic. It’s rare balance that I’ve found only a few times in the likes of Rob Hayes’s Never Die, Mark Lawrence’s Red Queen’s War, and several of Abercrombie’s novels. Not only is the narrator subtly humorous, but the characters are freaking hilarious, mostly unintentionally, often delightfully crudely.”
Hugo award-nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.
Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.
Rosie—owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner—caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.
Angel—ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing—is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will affect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try.
Why You Should Read This?Read Persephone Station by Stina Leicht“Persephone Station has everything a grimdark fan could want in a science fiction novel. The characters are outcasts, heavily armed and highly flawed. They face a powerful force on a suicide mission against all odds. Though the main characters are undoubtedly on the side of good in this novel, they are assassins and mercenaries who take the job for the money and for their friend. They fight with spaceships and mech suits and rail guns and pulse rifles and bombs and all kinds of good stuff. People get injured and killed. The settings are grim and perilous. The action is tense and fast, extremely interesting, logical, and vivid.”
Read our review here | Check Out An Excerpt Here
A fantasy epic of freedom and empire, gods and monsters, love, loyalty, honour, and betrayal, from the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.
For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain.
The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.
As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.
Why You Should Read This?Read The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens“It is far more complicated than I can describe here, but at 600+ pages, readers can expect a very deep and engaging read that harkens back to the real doorstopper novels that reward the committed reader with a depth and complexity of characters, relationships, conflicts, and emotions that cannot be achieved in novels and novellas of shorter lengths.”
The post LGBTQIA+ Dark SFF Characters: Where To Start Reading appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
February 19, 2021
REVIEW: The Last Kingdom Season 3
The Last Kingdom Season 3 continues the tale based on Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories. Once a BBC production, Season 3 now has Netflix in complete control and the jump in production and quality is noticeable – even for a show that was looking pretty damn good to begin with. We follow the adventures of Uhtred – born a Saxon and raised as a Dane as he struggles to find his place in the world and reclaim his ancestral home of Bebbanburg.
The Last Kingdom Season 3 kicks off with intrigue and violence. The Danish seer, Skade envisions a bloody battle that instantly promises the gore and bloody violence that the Netflix production can offer. Skade sees the death of King Alfred and uses this vision to convince the season’s primary antagonist, Sigurd Bloodhair, to lead his Vikings on a path to claim Wessex and everything in it, from the smallest pig to the golden crown on Alfred’s head. To the surprise of no-one, Uhtred is once again caught in the middle of his oath to defend King Alfred and the Viking people he grew alongside and embraced as his own.
The Last Kingdom Season 3 improves on the major flaw of the previous season. Where season 2 was split into two mini stories each four episodes, The Last Kingdom Season 3 is able to adapt The Burning Land and Death of Kings (reviewed by James and Edward online) whilst keeping to one longer story arc. The addition of two extra episodes gives the story a chance to breathe and allows some of the minor characters opportunities to flex their chops and display the fragile political games being played throughout the land by Danes and Saxons alike. Aethelwold is an absolute delight to watch playing the scheming brother of Alfred, always with one eye on the throne. His dark plots and clever words to trick the men around him would make the Norse God Loki beam with pride at his mischief. He is a character that the audience just loves to hate and like Peter Baelish from Game of Thrones, he is a one that you enjoy watching cause mischief and mayhem but you long for the day when he will get his comeuppance.
The chaotic political landscape of Britain drives The Last Kingdom Season 3 forward. King Alfred is dying and the nobles of Wessex fear that his son, Edward, is too weak to rule. Alfred wishes for Uhtred to help Edward but blinded by his faith, Alfred makes an enemy of the pagan Uhtred and fuels the Danish fire within the warrior torn between his oath to the king and his love of the Viking life. Backstabbing, clandestine meetings, and whispers in the shadows give the show an air of Game of Thrones and to top it off, the final two episodes are choked with a tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The final battle in episode ten is the most visceral and painfully beautiful yet with the perfect blend of acting full of emotion, gorgeous cinematography and music comparable to any of the great epic battles seen on television.
None of the pacing issues of the earlier seasons, ramped up production values, and battles that are bloodier and gorier than ever before. The Last Kingdom Season 3 is a wonderful example of a series finding its groove and really understanding the characters and how to portray them. Intrigue, violence, and wit sharper than a Saxon sword: The Last Kingdom Season 3 is must watch television. Season 4 awaits…
The post REVIEW: The Last Kingdom Season 3 appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
REVIEW: The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens
The Stone Knife is the recently released new novel from Grimdark Magazine favorite Anna Stephens (The Godblind Trilogy). It is the first in her new series The Songs of the Drowned and was published in the US in November, 2020. We usually try to review books before they come out, but I got my copy a little late this time, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tell you about this melancholy but excellent novel.
The Stone Knife takes place in a fantasy version of ancient Central America, which I have to say is a welcome relief from the usual quasi-medieval European fantasy world, and introduces us to the Pecha, an empire on the march, and the Tokob and Yaloh, two nations the Pecha hopes to conquer. The story is rife with conflict and anticipation from start to finish, but where The Stone Knife really cuts deep (yes, I did that) is in its worldbuilding, its characters, and its themes about colonialism and exceptionalism, which should hit home with most Americans, like me, as well as with Brits like the author.
The worldbuilding in The Stone Knife is complex, as original as one can expect from a fantasy novel, and extremely enjoyable. Stephens must have been aware of this when she titled the series The Songs of the Drowned. The empire of the Pecha is the Empire of Songs. Throughout the empire, the people constantly hear some type of song that is transmitted through a special type of stone called, of course, songstone. As they build their empire through conquest, they build pyramids topped with songstone to spread their brainwashing song. Even the Tokob and Yalotlan who travel to Pechacan can’t resist its influence. This presents a problem as ambassadors and refugees travel across the border, as well as the problem the Tokob and Yalotlan will face when the song pyramids are built in their own nations. So, the song is a constant threat throughout the story, which provides great tension to the conflict.
The other element of the series title is the Drowned. The Drowned are the Pecha’s gods. The Pecha call them the Holy Setatmeh. They are also clawed and fanged humanoid monsters who live in the rivers of not only Pechacan but also Tokoban and Yalotlan. This is especially problematic for the Tokob and Yaloh people when they need to fetch drinking water from the rivers like the Swift Water in Tokoban. As if that wasn’t bad enough, during the wet season, the Drowned can get around even easier as the rivers expand and flood their banks. And they are extremely deadly.
One of the Tokob whose job it is to kill the Drowned is Xessa. She has been voluntarily deafened so she cannot hear the song of the Drowned as she approaches them to kill them and protect water fetchers and the Tokob. She is a fearless fighter, who wants not only to kill the Drowned, but ultimately to capture one of the creatures and find out why they kill people. Her husband Toxte as supportive as one could expect of such a venture.
There’s quite a bit of romance in the story. Another important couple are the shaman Tayan and his husband Lilla. Tayan has been chosen by his people, the Tokob, to negotiate with the Pecha to stop their incursion into Tokob and Yaloh lands. His efforts become especially complicated as he starts to get affected by the constant singing of the song in his head.
But the most interesting characters in the book are the purported villains, Xac, who is the Singer, basically the emperor of the Pecha, and his right-hand woman and ambitious lover Enet. They are a complex and terrifying couple, who have no regard for anything except conquest for the Empire of Songs. They want to spread the song by enslaving the Tokob and Yaloh. It is their duty.
Which brings us to the theme that I found most interesting. The Pechaqueh Empire seems very much like the United States’ global empire. They consider themselves to be the most holy people in the world, and they will not debate the subject. They are holy; you are not. In the same way that America brings it’s “democracy” to the uncivilized (despite having civilizations that have endured ten times as long as the US’s) via massive destruction, the Pecha bring their song, their civilization, and their social hierarchy to the inferior Tokob and Yaloh. Though the Tokob and Yaloh are willing to negotiate certain terms to retain their autonomy, the Pecha leaders will not have it. All conquered people must endure a certain duration of enslavement and a period as a dog warrior fighting for conquest, before they can hope to purchase their freedom if they even survive. As often—perhaps always—happens in such one-sided negotiations, diplomacy fails and war ensues.
And that’s about as far as book one of The Songs of the Drowned takes us. Although the story is far from over, and perhaps the ending of the first installment is less than conclusive even for a series novel, it is fascinating journey. It is far more complicated than I can describe here, but at 600+ pages, readers can expect a very deep and engaging read that harkens back to the real doorstopper novels that reward the committed reader with a depth and complexity of characters, relationships, conflicts, and emotions that cannot be achieved in novels and novellas of shorter lengths. So, while The Stone Knife is unabashedly only part of a larger story, it is a very fulfilling read that, when finished, should make readers feel they have come a long way with complex characters they care about.
But is it grimdark? I almost always ask myself this question at the end of reviews because this is, after all, Grimdark Magazine. With The Stone Knife, I think it might be too early to tell. There are definitely villains and heroes here, but in a grimdark sort of way they all think they are right and righteous. There also seem to be a few characters, one being the High Feather (general) Pilos of the Pecha, who could be on the fence, so to speak, caught in a place in the social hierarchy that causes them to act against their own moral judgment. So, I think there is some room to argue about its grimdarkness, but that shouldn’t put off any grimdark readers because overall The Stone Knife is grim as fuck. The mood of the book is relentlessly dismal, uninterrupted by hope or humor. If you like that kind of grimness, then you can’t do better than The Stone Knife. And I expect, by the end of the series, there will be some hopeful contrast to this sorrowful beginning.
Read The Stone Knife by Anna StephensRead an extract here.
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February 18, 2021
REVIEW: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game that deserves a great deal of attention even if it is a seventh-generation console title that is in danger of being left in the dust. Nevertheless, it is a game that remains, like its predecessor, one of the best cyberpunk works that has ever been created and should be given the accolades it deserves. What made Human Revolution so great, though? Does it still hold up today? Is it worth playing on PC or digital download? The answer is yes but we’ll also talk about more than just gameplay.
Human Revolution is a prequel to Deus Ex (2000) but serves as a standalone as well. The premise is that the world has undergone a “New Renaissance” with technology having advanced by leaps and bounds while wealth inequality has become an even worse issue. The protagonist, Adam Jensen, is the head of security for Sarif Industries in a recently economically revived Detroit. Adam is a former SWAT officer that was caught up in a rare moment of police controversy: he was reprimanded for not shooting a minority under dubious circumstances.
Sarif Industries is a cybernetics firm that began creating prosthetics for those who had lost limbs in accidents but soon made billions due to the realization that people would replace perfectly healthy limbs or organs for better performing ones. Even better, they would pay through the nose for these options. Adam doesn’t entirely approve of this practice but joins because a job is a job and his girlfriend is one of their chief designers. Not to spoil beyond the opening mission but cybernetic terrorists attack Sarif Industries, seemingly kill Adam’s girlfriend, and leave him in a ruined state like Robocop. Thankfully, cybernetic technology has evolved a bit since the 1980s and he isn’t a Frankenstein’s monster.
The real heart of the story is Adam Jensen and his story arc. Elias Toufexis does a fantastic job as Adam Jensen and his guttural growl is accompanied by a truly well-defined personality. No matter what choice you make, Adam always comes off as in-character, which is great writing. He’s a tough as nails but humanized chrome champion and brings a gritty awareness of the consequences that unchecked technology (as well as those who’d exploit it) has had on humanity.
The world-building is also top notch. The developers know that there’s not much they can do in terms of the size of the game world with the technology they have, so they cleverly hid its small size with cramped alleyways and towering buildings. We get the attacks on cybernetics (called “Augments”) come from religious, military, and economic sectors. We also find out that many of the critics have been manipulated into their opposition by business interests using them as astroturf. It is a complicated plot for your typical video game, going above and beyond saving the Princess from Bowser.
Adam will do an international espionage tour of Detroit, a Chinese artificial island, and a supervillain lair that is meant to solve global warming. He’s an interesting take on the cyberpunk hero being a soldier for a billionaire’s corporation on a globe-trotting adventure but also someone with strong ties to the streets. You can solve murders, help prostitutes, and otherwise engage in gritty sidequests that contrast to the International Man of Mystery main quest. The enemies are the Illuminati, which is a theory that has aged badly even as a joke, but the game hints that its members are just using the name for funding purposes. After all, if you’re a billionaire would you join anything less as a social club?
Gameplay wise, Human Revolution is best done as a stealth game. It is possible to just murder your way through the hordes of baddies, but it is better to take advantage of air vents and sneak attacks as they’re much more likely to bring you to victory. There’s even an Achievement for killing no one in the game but that requires you not to kill terrorists murdering your co-workers so I think that’s not worth pursuing form a roleplaying perspective. The game was originally saddled with badly made bosses that required shooting it out with but the Director’s Cut fixed them so there were more options for taking them down.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the great cyberpunk games and I think really manages to nail the feel of unchecked capitalism, organized crime, politics, wealth disparity, transhumanism, and legitimate conspiracy theory (oxymoronic as that may sound). There’s a lot of great stuff here and I think it’s a game everyone should play if they have the opportunity.
Play Deus Ex: Human Revolution
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February 17, 2021
Unusual Threats in Horror: Creating True Fear in Readers
It was Edgar Allan Poe who started me writing horror stories. A motherly lady in Croydon library gave me a copy of Tales Of Mystery And Imagination when I was nine years old and I loved every word of it.
What could have appealed to a boy of that age more than fiery dwarves and homicidal gorillas and collapsing castles and people being bricked up in walls? I had read Frankenstein, yes, but I had found that sad rather than frightening. I had yet to read Dracula, which I found entertaining when I got round to it, but the sting was always taken out of Dracula for me by the absurdity of a grown man deriving sufficient sustenance from the carotid artery of a quivering young maiden, not to mention the mess it must have made of her pillows.
Poe’s great talent was that his stories were absurd but so unusual that they suspended your disbelief, and they created an atmosphere of dread that made you forget about your everyday problems. When I started to write my own short horror stories I always tried to think up a terror so unexpected that my readers would be completely taken out of themselves.
I wrote a story about an abusive husband who eventually dismembered his wife and used her body parts to decorate the outside of his house. That story won me the school magazine prize. I wrote a story about a man who would kill you in the same way that your loved one had prematurely died, so that you could understand their suffering, for a fee. I wrote another story about a boy who burrowed under his bedclothes to pretend that he was a miner, but found himself being pursued by a monster that he found in the suffocating world beneath his blankets.
My first horror novel, The Manitou, was about a Native American medicine man who killed himself three hundred years ago so that he could be reborn in the modern era to take his revenge on the white colonists when they least expected it. It was a considerable success, selling half a million copies in six months and being adapted as a movie with Tony Curtis and Susan Strasberg playing the lead roles.
There were several reasons why this seemingly ridiculous idea found such an appreciative audience. It was totally different from any other horror novel that had been written before. It didn’t deal with vampires or werewolves or zombies. It also dealt with the underlying guilt that many Americans felt about the way in which they had driven the Native Americans off their lands and slaughtered them in such large numbers.
It found an enthusiastic audience among Native Americans, too. Sitting Bull’s grand-daughter took us to lunch at the Russian Tea Room in New York in appreciation, and gave me a framed portrait of her grandfather with the caption ‘I shall see buffalo no more.’
I continued to search for extraordinary demons and frightening monsters, and I found that the world’s mythologies were crammed with more scary manifestations than you could shake a crucifix at. In Japan they have tengus and kappas, and I used them to write Tengu, which was about a demon looking to punish the United States for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In Bali they have leyaks, which are vampiric creatures who were once corrupt human beings, but who now fly around at night as detached heads, with their entrails dangling from their necks, looking to suck the blood of unborn babies.
I wrote about the hideous gargoyles that perch on cathedral rooftops in Poland, and about ghostly djinns from the Middle East, too, in a scary version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
The point about all of these demonic creatures is that they were created specifically to describe a particular terror that people harboured in the days before most of our fears were explained by science. Before viruses were isolated, many people still believed that plagues were caused by devils or witches breathing on us as we slept, and although the existence of viruses was postulated in 1881, it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t until 1931 and the invention of the electron microscope that we could actually see them.
So many other demons were invented to explain tragic events, like cot death and cattle fever and floods and heart attacks and sudden bouts of madness. Unexpected death was explained in Ireland by the appearance of the Dullahan, who drove a black carriage drawn by six black horses which he whipped with a human spine. Drownings were blamed on the kelpie, the seductive mermaids who pulled unsuspecting fishermen into the water.
Personally, I believe that many seemingly ghostly occurrences that we experience today can also be explained scientifically, but we have not yet got around to understanding them. I have a theory that walls can absorb dramatic human crises, like murders or relentless abuse, and that when we feel an atmosphere of dread in a house that we visit, the rooms are simply replaying what has happened in there. I visited a castle called Zamek Gorka in Poland, part of which used to be a 14th-century monastery, and I swear that when I pressed my hand flat against the stone wall, I could hear a monastic choir faintly singing.
Horror stories are finding a very eager market these days, and I am sure that is because of the variety of fears that readers are feeling because of the coronavirus pandemic. They have heard all of the latest information about Covid-19 and its variants on the TV news, but they are looking for stories which go beyond facts and understand their underlying dread and their uncertainty about the future. They want to be reassured that the demons in this world can be conquered if you have enough strength and you have enough belief in yourself.
For instance, my new horror novel The Children God Forgot deals with the difficult and stressful subject of miscarriage and abortion, but also brings in witchcraft to explain how to deal with it.
To horror writers, I would say look for the most unusual threats you can find, and particularly those threats which are manifestations of all the concerns that people are feeling these days, such as poverty and illness and death of a loved one. To horror readers, I am only too ready to assure you that, in my writing anyway, the worst is yet to come!
Read The Children God Forgot by Graham Masteron
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February 16, 2021
REVIEW: The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan
The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan is the story of Ringil “Angeleyes” Eskiath, the hero of Gallows Gap and wielder of Ravensfriend, and is set a decade after the end of the war with the Scaled Folk. We join him at the novel’s beginning in a backwater town where he resides in an inn living off his fame as a warrior. Here he remains, drinking and fucking, until his mother arrives requesting his assistance.
Ringil’s cousin Sherin has been sold to slavers and in accepting the mission to track her down, our protagonist’s fire and fury have been reignited and given a focus. When Ringil puts his mind to something he is unapologetic, unswerving and steadfast. He is heralded as a champion throughout the land for his deeds but to those who know him better, he is often spoken about as being depraved and perverted. The reason for this is that Ringil is homosexual. I can’t think of many gay male leads in medieval history inspired grimdark so I found Ringil’s voice and representation refreshing and great to follow.
I thought Ringil was a brilliant character and after reading a few of his chapters I decided to buy the next two books in the series as I knew I was going to be fully invested in him. Ringil reminded me of Sapkowski’s Geralt of Rivia with his temperament and I often envisaged grunts or “for-fuck-sakes” before he acted. I think the very opening paragraph presents Ringil’s disposition expertly:
“When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic options. You can smell his breath, take his pulse and check his pupils to see if he’s ingested anything nasty, or you can believe him. Ringil had already tried the first course of action with Bashka the Schoolmaster and to no avail, so he put down his pint with an elaborate sigh and went to get his broadsword.”
In addition to Ringil’s, there are two other main point of view perspectives. That of clan leader Egar the Dragonbane and of Archeth, a kiriath half-breed who is an advisor to the Emperor of Yhelteth. Both were interesting characters yet their sections were not quite as intriguing as Ringil’s point of view. Like Ringil’s, though, they both reflect on the past and their important contributions in the great war ten years before. The further through the book we progress, it becomes evident that the three main characters knew each other well in the past and this definitely sparked my attentiveness to see if these past relations and experiences will have any impact on the current day storylines.
Artwork from: https://vincentchongart.myportfolio.c... – Subterranean Press Version of The Steel Remains
I would certainly class The Steel Remains as epic fantasy and although the novel is quite short by that genre’s standards at around 350-pages it has high-quality world-building, comprising of deep histories, religions, races, magics, and what is and isn’t acceptable in particular cultures. To say it features romance wouldn’t be quite correct as Ringil isn’t shown as being the romantic type, but the novel does feature LGBTQIA+ relationships and some graphic sex scenes.
‘Ringil, I …’ He shook his head. Gestured helplessly. ‘You, you know … if you’d just been … If only you …’
‘Didn’t like to suck other men’s cocks. Yeah, I know.’ Ringil came to life, heading for the door, walking quickly past Gingren so he wouldn’t have to watch his father’s face twitch in revulsion.
He paused at the other man’s shoulder, leaned close and murmured. ‘But the problem is, Dad, I do.’
I was engaged in The Steel Remains from the very start but it wasn’t unputdownable. Around the 60-70% mark, I thought the pace was pretty slow and I was almost slogging through, that I couldn’t really pinpoint more than 3 or 4 exciting moments up until that point, and, honestly, couldn’t see how Morgan could conclude the novel and wrap it all together in a way that would stagger and truly impress me. Yet, he did. I thought the final scenes and the overall conclusion were majestically weaved, featuring a spectacular speech by Ringil, and I will not be completely content until I’ve seen a big-screen rendition of that moment as it was that impactful. Some of the amazing imagery created around the finale and the implications of what could follow in this series means that I am now fully involved in what a few reviewers I respect class as an underrated grimdark classic series. Ringil could become one of my favourite fantasy antiheroes and I’ll be started The Cold Commands this evening. The Steels Remains is a violent and intense grimdark tale with a great lead narrator, a fine supporting cast, and a well-realised gritty and dark fantasy world. Final note: Simon Vance is excellent reading the audiobook. His delivery of certain standout moments gave me goosebumps.
Read The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan
The Lord Administrator of Tidal Watch reached him, and lashed out with his left hand. The move caught Ringil by surprise; it was unlooked for, there was no weapon apparent, just a pair of gloves. The rough patterned leather stropped his cheek, and stung. ‘I demand satisfaction, Eskiath.’
Ringil punched him in the face.
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February 15, 2021
REVIEW: The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston
I’ve been excited about this book at least since the day it received its offer of publication, and now it’s about to come out and I finally got to read it. So to say my expectations were high is an understatement. And I fell in love within a few pages. The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston is the story of Miriat and her Striga daughter Salka. In the rich, Slavic inspired world of this book, Strigas are born with two hearts, and ostracized from society. They are considered monsters, as their second hearts allow them access to magic. But even within the Striga village, this is forbidden, and a Striga who has given in to magic and the impulses of this other heart is called a Stigoi and ostracized even further.
Miriat had to flee her hometown when Salka was born a Striga and has lived a life of hardship among the Striga. But Salka is now nineteen, and when she leaves the village with two other young people, she ends up blamed and banished to a remote mountain region for three months. In order to survive, she has to confront her Striga nature, setting in motion a chain of events which force her and the people around her to reconsider their lives and the way society treats Striga and Stigoi.
The Second Bell is a gorgeously written fairytale about belonging and being different. It works well as an allegory to our current world, where difference is just as much treated as a justification for fear and violence. A central theme is belonging in one’s environment, and Gabriela’s experience as an immigrant in the UK shines through. As an immigrant myself, while one from a place that is considered ‘worthy’, I have not had to struggle with xenophobia, but observing the way foreigners, as well as people different for other reasons, such as neurodivergence or disability are treated, The Second Bell hits home. It dissects these experiences and ultimately shows that banding together and being accepting of each other is what helps society thrive when challenged. This feels like an important book in a lot of ways, while packaged into a second-world fantasy that transports you from your daily life.
This is the kind of book that is extremely immersive, well-paced and unputdownable. I love it with my whole heart and find it hard to pinpoint anything that I don’t love about it. It might be important to point out that this does not have romance at its centre. Relationships are crucial to the book, but neither of the main characters is pursuing romance, which is a refreshing change for me personally. It is not the most action-packed, but it is so beautifully written that I as a reader did not miss any action. This is Gabriela’s debut, and I can’t wait to read more of her writing as her career develops.
Read The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston
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February 14, 2021
REVIEW: The Coming of the Dark by Chris Humphreys
Continuing the saga of immortal beings and clashing worlds that Smoke in the Glass began, The Coming of the Dark is the second installment of Chris Humphrey’s Immortal’s Blood series. As Anazat’s plan to unite the four lands through cunning, religion and bloody conquest bears fruit, Luck, Ferros, Atisha, and other protagonists new and old struggle against the black-eyed monk and his allies, and conflicts rise to an epic scale. A friendly warning for new readers: some unavoidable spoilers for book one are ahead.
While Luck, Atisha, Ferros, and a surprise return character still act as the primary 3rd-person POV characters, The Coming of the Dark features a large cast stretching between the four ‘worlds’ featured in book one. Book two presents some great character development, with Ferros leading his land’s defense against invasion, Luck wrestling with his need for knowledge and the drug Sirene, Atisha finding herself in the Madonna-like role of holy mother, and one returning character (who I can’t talk about without spoiling things) having what I thought was the best arc of all.
And on the topic of characters, I also really enjoyed this book’s antagonists. Humphreys writes some great villains, from the charismatic god-king and tyrant Intitepe to the psychotic Peki Asarko, and the cunning mastermind Anazat. As worlds collide, the way these villains work both with and against one another is fascinating to read, and scenes from their point of view are among my favorites in the novel.
In terms of worldbuilding, I also enjoyed how this novel developed some of the more supernatural and mysterious aspects of the four worlds. The plot-central magical drug Sirene, which induces visions and lets users communicate over great distances, for example, is explored and developed in ways I found really cool and surprising. The powers of possession that the immortals of Corinthium wield also get a really neat breakdown as one character in particular experiences their magical and moral implications. This book maintained a good balance of answering enough of the questions established in Smoke in the Glass while leaving sufficient mysteries (like Intitepe’s power) to keep us coming back for the third installment
In terms of plot, The Coming of the Dark’s conflict shifts in scale from the more personal issues of book one to the larger battles between worlds. And if there’s one area where Humphreys’ background as a historical fiction writer shines the most, it’s the battle scenes. If you’ve ever wondered what a conflict between Vikings, Greco-Roman legionnaires, pirates, and Mongolian horseback archers would look like, this is the book for you. What’s more, the book features a really cool twist on the Ragnarok myth that I very much enjoyed. In terms of both concept and prose, The Coming of the Dark features top-notch action and enough bloodshed to satisfy any Grimdark Magazine reader.
To a degree, however, the action and battle scenes in this book are something of a double-edged sword. Out of twelve chapters, six feature major combat taking place. And while Humphreys writes armed conflict really well, the quantity of it approaches the old adage about too much of a good thing (even if that good thing is something as cool as immortal Vikings fighting Mesoamerican god-kings). There were times I found myself missing the individual-level conflicts of book one that got swallowed up in the melee.
All in all, I found The Coming of the Dark to be a bloodier, more fraught read than its predecessor. I thought the ending was particularly strong–bitter and conclusive while still setting up for a great book three. I would give this novel a 4/5 star rating, and I’m eagerly awaiting another thrilling Sirene-fueled voyage into the four worlds.
Read The Coming of the Dark by Chris Humphreys
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February 13, 2021
REVIEW: Vampire: The Masquerade – Winter’s Teeth #5
Vampire: The Masquerade – Winter’s Teeth #5 is the end of the first story arc of the series and possibly the entirety of it depending on sales. I suppose we’ll find out when and if we get a #6 in the story. While the story ends with a few dangling plotlines, I actually think it ends on a mostly satisfying note. While there are a few mysteries left like Alejandra and the discovery of a Ministry (Follower of Set) in their midst, we have a general idea of what’s happening in this world and our main characters’ fates.
The premise of Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth #5 is that the world is full of monsters (particularly vampires) that live among us secretly. In the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the vampires are on the verge of a civil war due to the recent death of their leader. Cecily Bain, a former punk rocker girl, has straddled the line between Anarch and Camarilla for much of her undead existence. Unfortunately, recent events have required a scapegoat and she’s found herself the subject of a Blood Hunt.
Cecily proceeds to slaughter her way through the people hunting her, though. The hunter becoming the hunted. The vampires of the Twin Cities have severely underestimated what a brutal and terrifying killer of the undead she is. Indeed, the only reason she isn’t going after her persecutors directly is the fact she wants to figure out a way to make peace with them. Cecily, you see, has a dementia-suffering sister that is on her last legs. Cecily doesn’t want to abandon her only remaining mortal relative, even if that means putting herself in additional danger.
What I like about this issue is that it understands that there’s very little passion among the Kindred. Cecily is the present “easy target” of the Twin Cities’ undead but that is just as easily passed onto other scapegoats. The vampires of this setting are cold blooded political operators and as soon as there are more expedient targets to pass along their problems then they are happy to do so. It is a relentlessly cynical setting and all the stronger for it.
An interesting twist to the story is the fact that the Anarchs and Cecily turn out not to be enemies as I originally sumised. For the previous four issues, we’ve seen the Anarchs coming closer to the Twin Cities with the implication they’ve been sent to fight in the upcoming war. Given Cecily betrayed the Anarchs in the past and is allied with the Camarilla, I was expecting an inevitable confrontation. Instead, we discover the ties of coterie is stronger than the ties of sect and I really liked the whole anti-climax of it all.
The artwork of Winter’s Teeth remains extremely good and I give credit to the fact they don’t look like any other comic book out today. Really, they capture the kind of Nineties urban fantasy horror that was inspirational to Vampire: The Masquerade in the first place. While not quite Tim Bradstreet, it’s certainly evocative of it. I am very interested in continuing this series and hope Vault comics continues to produce this sidestory to the 5th Edition setting of the tabletop game.
Read Vampire: The Masquerade – Winter’s Teeth #5
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February 12, 2021
REVIEW: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
A Head Full of Ghosts by horror master Paul Tremblay is an experience which I would sum up as, “What the hell happened?”
A Head Full of Ghosts is about the familial strife of the Barret family. The mom, distant and frustrated. The dad, on the brink of religious zealotry. The younger sister Merry, both a part of the craziness and separate from it due to her age and naivete. And Marjorie, a 14ish-year-old young woman who may or may not have a head full of ghosts. The story covers the small amount of time before Marjorie’s exorcism. Yes, I said exorcism. A Head Full of Ghosts isn’t your typical ghost story as it is a story of horror but also one of psychological trauma.
“On the morning of the exorcism, I stayed home from school.”
The story has many distinct parts of a horror possession story. It has plenty of nods to The Exorcist, arguably the most famous possession story in the history of writing and cinema. Like The Exorcist, Marjorie vomits, spews profanities, makes inappropriate sexual comments, dark and sinister voices, and levitation. And, just like The Exorcist, all of the actions terrify Marjorie’s loved ones. They scare them to the point of madness.
The difference between The Exorcist and A Head Full of Ghosts is that while the acts Marjorie performs are terrifying, we aren’t sure what is going on. We are, as readers, able to make a decisive call on whether she is or is not haunted as Tremblay plays his cards close to his chest. He plays every scene both ways. Is Marjorie a person who has an extreme mental illness? Or is she a child that has been invaded by an unearthly demonic presence?
“Ideas. I’m possessed by ideas. Ideas that are as old as humanity, maybe older, right? Maybe those ideas were out there just floating around before us, just waiting to be thought up. Maybe we don’t think them, we pluck them out from another dimension or another mind.”
The story is told, mostly, through the eyes of a no grown Merry. A somber woman living a life of quietude and off the earnings of the TV show about her family. Marjorie’s experience was televised to be consumed by the masses. Television is not the truth. This adds to the unease about the original story of what happened to Marjorie. Merry meets with a writer to discuss writing Merry’s life and experiences at age 8 to be put into a tell-all book.
The book bounces back and forth between the recollections of a now older and wiser Merry and the young child Merry who sees everything through the lens of an 8-year-old. The memories are painful for her to live through again. Because she is an unreliable narrator and children see a lot of what they want to see, we get mostly a child’s view of the monstrous happenings in the household. While Merry talks very candidly about the events that tore her family apart and were filmed for live television, she admits that these were her memories, and things could be different.
“I sneak into your room when you are asleep, Merry-monkey. I’ve been doing it for weeks now, since the end of summer. You’re so pretty when you’re asleep. Last night, I pinched your nose shut until you opened your little mouth”
At the beginning of the story, Marjorie has been acting up. There is strain and tension between the children’s parents. When someone has a mental breakdown, that puts natural pressure on parents, they want what is best for their child. However, what is best differs significantly between Merry’s mother and father. Merry’s mother wants Marjorie to see psychiatrists and be put on medication, while Merry’s father wants Majorie to rely on the church and ask God for help.
As events progressed and the family suffered severe financial hardship, the family agreed to have Marjorie’s exorcism and the preceding psychological trauma that she was inflicting on herself and the household members to be televised. This pain will be televised.
“After your performed the exorcism, how did you know that demon wasn’t still in there, hiding? How do you know it didn’t go in a hibernation state, quieting down to come out later, years and years later when no one would be around to help? Hey, how do you know if the wrong spirit left? What if you expelled the person’s real spirit and only the demon’s spirit was there to take its place? If I believed in any of that stuff, I’d be afraid that was going to happen to me.”
It is a gross sort of consuming and voyeurism that the audience participates in, the blogger/reviewer/reader included. The cut-ins to the blogger’s critiques, which jarring, play an essential role in the narrative. What is truth? What is a ghost story? Merry does not speak the truth, the reality show does not speak the truth, and indeed, the conjecture of a random horror blogger doesn’t. So what the hell happened?
Everything could be true, or all of it could be a lie.
Beyond the terrifying scenes of vomit spewing like fountains and gore, what the hell is going on? I, as a reader, spent many pages screaming, “Please, someone, help this child.” But the only adults in the room seem to want to abuse her in different ways? Is abuse ok if you are trying to save this child’s mortal soul? Or is she faking the whole thing for attention? Is she mad, is she possessed? We shall never know.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, Merry. Only my bones want to grow through my skin like the growing things and pierce the world.”
A Head Full of Ghosts is all about perception. What is horror to one person is entertainment to another. What is psychological trauma to one person is trafficking in demons in another. At the heart of it is either a confused and terrified girl or a mastermind of manipulation. It is levels upon levels. Tremblay showed some serious skills crafting such a meta psychological story.
Also, Head Full of Ghost has terrifying visceral scenes. Terrifying! They are spread throughout the story like one would sprinkle salt on food. Tremblay never lets the reader relax or become numb to the gore. They are surprised on you like a popping balloon. He never lets you forget that, yes, this is a psychological story in a meta form, but he is also a damn fine gore writer and will scare the hell out of you.
I feel trapped by this story in an ethical and psychological spiral, one that can never be satiated. The story is done, the ending has happened, and no conclusion shall be found, which in itself is another kind of horror—ones of the mind, feelings, rationality, and spirit. We readers are dirty in our voyeurism and consumers shoveling the contents of Marjorie’s descent into madness into our minds page by page. If you read this, you will not be satisfied. But, this is a brilliant and compelling story. The ideas will cling onto you like a crusty barnacle that draws blood if you try and scrape it off. That in itself is worth the price of admission.
Was she or wasn’t she? We will never know, but damn, is it an interesting book to read.
Read A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
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