Adrian Collins's Blog, page 182

REVIEW: The Mandalorian Season 2

Yes, it’s Star Wars and yes, it’s Disney, but The Mandalorian Season 2 veers closer to the grimdark underbelly that *must* exist beneath the Star Wars universe more than anything since the heyday of the old Expanded Universe.

Helmed by Jon Favreau and George Lucas, with an impressive budget and all-star cast, the first series set the stage as more of a western that happens to be in space than the flamboyant space opera of the main Star Wars series. This was a good decision, playing off the successes of Star Wars Rebels and that’s an influence that would be even more prevalent in the second series.

Beloved tropes like a taciturn outsider who is humanised by an attachment to a cute sidekick might seem pat, but they’re cliche because they work.

The Mandalorian Season 2 sees Mando/the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) seeking out the mysterious Jedi to help find the Child (that’s Baby Yoda) someone who could both protect him and develop his Force powers. They are still pursued by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and their attempts to keep ahead of him are not exactly successful.

Along the way, they get help from familiar figures like Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) while bumping into legendary figures like Boba Fett (Temura Morrison) and a group of other Mandalorians, let by Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff.)

There are a lot of high profile actors making guest appearances, including Timothy Olyphant, Michael Biehn, and John Leguizamo, but Rosario Dawson’s turn as much-storied Jedi, Ahsoka Tano (best known from Star Wars Rebels and the Clone Wars cartoons) stands out.

The setting of The Mandalorian Season 2 places it on the Outer Rim of the galaxy and in a time of great change as the New Republic tries to exert its authority while the Imperial Remnant tries to hang on. This frontier which is as much fought over by criminal cartels and folks trying to get by as it is by the Republic or Imperials leads to a lot more shades of grey in the storytelling and gives a glimpse into the inner workings of a universe we’re all too used to seeing from the top down and through the lens of one particular family.

In a lot of ways The Mandalorian Season 2 owes more to Firefly or Kung Fu than the Empire Strikes Back or the Rise of Skywalker and in my eyes that’s unquestionably a good thing.

The Mandalorian Season 2 is beautifully shot, well-acted and relies on simple storytelling to craft both fun monster-of-the-week episodes and a compelling series-long arc. Most importantly, we come to care about the main characters–which is impressive when one of them wears a mask and the other is animatronic.

It’s not really grimdark, but it is arguably the best live-action Star Wars we’ve had since the 1980s and one of the most fun, if not exactly challenging science-fiction series available to stream at the moment.

4/5

The Mandalorian Season 2 (and Season 1) can be streamed, along with almost the whole Star Wars canon on https://www.disneyplus.com

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REVIEW: The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

I received an uncorrected proof copy of The Library of the Dead in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to T.L. Huchu and Tor Books.

The Library of the Dead is the first entry in the Edinburgh Nights series. Throughout the book, we follow a 14-year-old dreadlocked punkish youth called Ropa. Ropa works as a ghostalker, using her unique skills and her mbira (an African musical instrument) to converse with the many deceased of this alternative Edinburgh. Passing messages from the dead to the living and banishing unruly spectres are just a few of the tasks that would appear on a professional ghostalker’s CV. She has to get paid for such duties after all as her caravan’s rent, where she lives with her gran, sister and her pet fox, doesn’t come cheap.

I was particularly impressed with Ropa’s voice as the MC. Her thoughts and feelings are expressed in the first person present tense and, although it took me a little while to get used to this style, I found it kooky and a joy to read. Ropa’s a witty and likeable protagonist who often uses Scottish dialect and slang in a similar way to the style that charmed me as a youth when I would read Oor Wullie comics. Ropa being young, energetic and using some youth-speak makes her an endearing lead to follow.

The Library of the Dead features dark themes, gruesome happenings, otherworldly monsters, and supernatural horrors yet, because of Ropa; I believe that it could be enjoyed by both adult and YA readers alike.

The action takes place in an alternate Edinburgh that features slums, violence, poverty, and magic. It is set after an event known as the catastrophe and although it is hinted at that this could be slightly in the future, the whole atmosphere has an almost 80’s vibe to it, but with mobile phones.

With the paranormal, the unknown, and magic lurking within the novel, there are also other planes of existence that can be frequented by those with the necessary skillset. One of these is known as the EveryThere which has a definite Stranger Things’ Upside Down feel to it. There are some moments that take place there that stood out in my mind but I am hoping to see more of it in future books. It’s a distorted and stifling place where time and gravity don’t exist and it is full of shuffling forlorn spirits and guardian demons know as Voykors. Another standout section in this well-crafted and sometimes warped world is later on in the novel. It’s a great segment that has trippy modern-day Grimm fairy tale feel to it and introduces the incredibly creepy sounding Midnight Milkman. The titular Library of the Dead is pretty intriguing too and in the next books, I want to find out more regarding what happens there and the exclusive individuals who frequent the establishment.

My reading experience with The Library of the Dead was mostly positive. After I got used to the writing style I found that I really enjoyed the tale’s feel. One minor criticism I have is that I found some of the chapters at the beginning, when the novel’s groundwork was being set, to be a bit stuttering and plodding and I wasn’t completely “all in” until the 90-page mark.

To conclude, I’ll say that The Library of the Dead is an enjoyable dark urban fantasy tale that is set in a nicely depicted alternate Edinburgh, with a great lead character and a vibrant supporting cast. To say that this is a debut release though means that a lot of plaudits should go to Huchu here for what he’s accomplished. There are many great elements to this novel which I’ve mentioned throughout the review but it doesn’t quite live up to the lofty heights of the concept and what the blurb presents the book as. The Library of the Dead works perfectly as a standalone with everything wrapping up expertly with enough intriguing hints and ideas of what is to come in the follow-up. Will I continue reading this series? Yes, probably. Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would as I give it a well-earned 7/10 rating.

Read The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

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REVIEW: Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Following on from his novella Dogs of War, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s novel Bear Head is a brilliantly observed, drily funny and deeply grim science fiction story of biotech, artificial intelligence and political greed. Despite living on Mars, life for construction worker Jimmy Marten is pretty dull, but that changes when the digital awareness of Honey the bear takes up residence in his headspace wanting to make contact with her old friend Bees, the Distributed Intelligence who laid the foundations of Hellas Planitia (or Hell City, as the locals call it). These days Bees is something of a digital bogeyman however, and while Honey tries to put her fragmented memories into order, back on Earth the tide of political opinion continues to turn ever more extreme, led by the relentless, loathsome presence of World Senate hopeful Warner S. Thompson.

Set a few decades after the events of Dogs of War, this is recognisably the same version of our world, just developed along a natural – if somewhat grim – line of progression in terms of technology, politics and characters. While Bioforms (biomechanical fusions of humans and animals, from dogs and bears to lizards and mustelids) are integrated into much of society, questions of ethics in technology are being swept aside in favour of commercial gain and extremist political rhetoric. Meanwhile Hellas Planitia is being built on Mars for the benefit of Earth’s richest by poor, biomodded workers who won’t be able to reap the benefits of their labours. All this world building is utterly believable and (despite the sci-fi stylings) entirely plausible, and while there’s no requirement to read Dogs of War first as all the core elements are neatly woven in throughout, it’s worth doing if you can to really get the most out of this.

Into this combustible mix comes the erudite, sophisticated personality of Honey searching for answers, much to the confusion and irritation of Jimmy who just wants his head back (although to be fair it was his own foolishness and desperation that led to this situation in the first place). A more conventional narrator than Rex in Dogs of War, Jimmy’s tone of voice is nevertheless engaging and honest, his constant craving for a fix gradually giving way to a dawning awareness of what Mars really means to him. While Jimmy’s POV covers the action on Mars and Honey pieces together the events of her recent history back on Earth, we also see Warner Thompson through the eyes of his PA, Carole Springer. Thompson proves worryingly relevant as an antagonist, clearly influenced by a certain prominent US figure, and from Stringer’s perspective he’s a truly horrifying (yet somehow pitiful) figure, especially as the wider implications of her role become clear.

Tchaikovsky keeps up a brisk pace by rotating through these viewpoints, each with its own distinct voice and representing unique angles and perspectives on the narrative, between them covering slightly different time periods which converge over the course of the book. Right from the off it’s interesting to see the realities of life on Mars through Jimmy’s (biomodded) eyes – especially if you’re familiar with characters and events from Dogs of War – but as the main thrust of the plot is gradually revealed it becomes evident just how cleverly this world and the developing narrative are tied together. Life is tough for all of the POV characters here, but Stringer in particular has it bad despite the veneer of glamour and power – beware that there are a couple of scenes that amount to sexual assault, which are uncomfortable to read to say the least – and while we mostly only see Thompson through her eyes, he proves to be a genuinely disturbing antagonist.

While (as mentioned earlier) this would work perfectly well as a standalone story, anyone who has read Dogs of War will recognise it as a natural, smart extension of the themes and ideas from the novella, expanded upon and developed still further. It’s a more conventional story this time, with a broader remit and less focus on pulse-racing action, but it’s no less powerful for that. In fact, while there’s considerable entertainment to be found as Jimmy and Honey bicker within a shared headspace, this humour is balanced out by a real sense of darkness that goes deeper even than it did in Dogs of War. Far more than just a pacy sci-fi adventure about a digital bear stuck in a man’s head, this is a story tackling big issues – questions of consent, technological ethics, free will and what constitutes ‘human’, along with a horrifying illustration of the abuse of power – without losing sight of an essential core of humanity.

Many thanks to Head of Zeus and Adrian Tchaikovsky for sending me an advance copy of Bear Head in exchange for this honest review.

Read Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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An Interview With Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire, an author of multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning books, was kind enough to interview with Grimdark Magazine, where we discuss her past, writing, and her different series.

GdM – Could you tell me about your beginnings as a stand-up comedian and an animal rescuer? You had mentioned that stand-up comedy and writing are things where you are constantly throwing yourself into ridiculous situations? What kind of effect did comedy have on your creative pursuits, obviously writing, but writing music and cartooning as well.

I think that everything you do will influence who you grow up to be–or don’t grow up to be, as the case may be.  So stand-up and animal rescue both taught me that it’s better to risk looking ridiculous in the moment, if it means you get the laugh, or the lizard…or, in my current life, the story.  The only real downside of having started where I did is that I’ve had to stop telling stories about animal rescue and rehab, because anyone who hasn’t worked with animals would then promptly call me a liar.  Animals don’t know when they’re being ridiculous.  They’re just animals.  And you can’t always get photographic proof.  The phrase “pics or it didn’t happen” makes me grind my teeth, so my dentist says stop.

GdM – I love that on your website you said, “She […] can be amused for hours by almost anything. “Almost anything” includes swamps, long walks, long walks in swamps, things that live in swamps, horror movies, strange noises, musical theater, reality TV, comic books, finding pennies on the street, and venomous reptiles” If you got more hours in the day, what are some other “almost anythings” you would like to be amused by and learn more about?

I’d like to be amused by more of my local area–I’m charting it a little bit at a time, with long walks through swamps and forests, but I have to write, and that means I can’t constantly be out there in the wilds.  I’d like to learn how to bake really fancy cakes, and I’d like to run more D&D, not just play it and strain my local network of DMs, and I want to see the parts of the world I haven’t seen yet, of which there are quite a few.

GdM – You have emphasized the importance you place on having clearly defined rules for your worlds. When creating a new story, horror, fantasy, urban fantasy, or other, do you list out for yourself the rules of how the magic or science fiction works in that world and go from there? Or do the rules develop organically.

I tend to develop the rules organically and write them down as I go, then make sure I don’t contradict myself.  I do want to stress that this is how things work for me.  That doesn’t mean it’s how things will work for you.  Everyone is different, and that’s the way things are supposed to be.  So please don’t take my process as a commandment.

GdM – In your Fifty Rules for Writing, you talked a bit about how writers ought to talk about writing as much or as little as they need to. You suggested to “find tolerant friends,” and have said, “If I tried to work everything out in the privacy of my own head, I would explode, and nothing would ever get done. You may be on the opposite side of the spectrum. There is no wrong answer.” Do you think that due to the pandemic, authors are utilizing social media to get more of their ideas out and communicate with other writers more so than before?

Not really, because the fear that someone will steal their ideas, or that they won’t be able to accurately articulate something, or that their idea will turn out to be inherently problematic in some way–I once had an editor propose a Mira Grant book to me that was built on an inherently racist premise, who hadn’t realized that the premise was racist until I echoed it back at him very carefully (and no, the editor was not white).  So there’s still an aspect of caution when it comes to talking things through with people we don’t know well.  I think a lot of writers have taken to Zoom and Dischord for necessary talk-through spaces.

GdM – I read an article where you talked about the research you did for your Paristitology series where your study of tapeworms was – incredibly – empirical. It is a fantastic story! Could you talk a little about what you learned from Timmy the Tapeworm and how it (he?) impacted the Parstitology series? Have you gone to similarly extreme lengths in your research for other books?

Timmy was technically neither male nor female, being a tapeworm, but I use male pronouns for him, because it seemed to fit, and Timmy didn’t care.  Feeling like I really understood what it was like to share my body willingly with something non-human made the trilogy easier to write, and a lot more fun, if only for the horrified expressions.  Sadly, most of my books haven’t leant themselves easily to that level of hands-on research.  I’ve been vaccinated against unusual diseases, visited medical facilities, and gone to university for a folklore degree as part of book research, but that’s about it.

GdM – Your novel Feed is a zombie medical thriller whose premise was that a zombie plague breaks out, and accurate information was disseminated, not from news agencies, but from micro-bloggers. Do you see a shift in the publishing world now, ten years after publishing relying on microblogging more to get the word out for books?

I mean, yes?  Because micro-blogging wasn’t really a thing yet when I wrote those books, and so they couldn’t be using those channels.  Now, if you don’t have at least a little micro-blogging in your channel of distribution, people won’t notice your book exists.  There are a lot more platforms involved in successful book promotion than there used to be.

GdM – When I first read the Newsflesh series, one of the things that I appreciated was the realism. Often when you read a zombie novel, the zombies are just there for the sake of being zombies; the dead get up and walk because that’s what zombies do. It makes no sense from a biological standpoint. Instead, you created a plausible backstory of two viruses coming together and making a virus baby named Kellis-Amberlee. Do you think that adding that element of realism changed the universal zombie mythos?

Not really, because there hasn’t been a movie yet, and without a movie, we don’t get the penetration we need to be fully assimilated into the gestalt.  I hope there will be a movie someday, but if there’s not, I needed that realism to accept that the world I’d created could actually function, and without that functionality, I couldn’t spend four books and multiple short pieces there.  I needed the virus to make sense in order to accept my own zombies, if that makes sense outside my head?

GdM – Ten years after Feed was released, the world is now struggling through a plague. Some of the plot details that you wrote into the world-building in the Newsflesh series included things like blood tests to enter buildings, a change in architecture to be more defensive, and the importance of being very aware of your virus load at all times. How did you come to those remarkably prescient details?

I talked to a lot of the people currently involved in trying to manage this pandemic; I did the reading and I did the research, and I am very, very good at putting pieces together.  It’s sort of like being a television medium.  Can they talk to the dead?  Probably not.  Can they put together all the clues they get about someone’s life and find a shape that fits in the holes?  Yes, absolutely.  So I just found the holes and made something that fit into them.  None of what’s happening right now is a surprise.  The doctors told us it was coming.

GdM – October has developed quite a bit throughout the series. When you started writing October, did you have a plan for her character arc?

Yes.

GdM – Historically, myths, tales, and folklore weren’t the warm, happy fluffballs that Disney would make them out to be. One of the best aspects of the Wayward Children and October Daye is its more classical balance of dark and light. Characters can be beautiful but also terrifying in that beauty. Have you ever gotten backlash for the stories being too dark?

I’ve gotten people saying that Toby’s troubled relationship with her mother and her own daughter is unrealistic, and that she has no reason to be depressed at the start of the story.  As a person who grapples with depression and has a very complicated, strained relationship with my own mother, I found those comments troubling, because for me, those are the most realistic aspects of the story.  They’re not always fun, but they’re always true.

GdM – Across the Grass Green Fields, your newest Wayward Children story features a child named Regan who finds a door to the Hooflands, a land of centaurs and unicorns. How did you decide on the Hooflands as the newest realm for a child to visit?

That’s where Regan went, and so that’s the world I wrote.  Regan is something of a gift to a friend of mine who complained, as people sometimes do, that they never got to see themself in story.  (Regan is she/her, my friend is they/them.)  And since that friend is a friend from the My Little Pony community, it was time for the Hooflands.

GdM – The Wayward Children series is written as books that can be read as standalone novels or read as a series. For someone new to The Wayward Children, would you recommend that they start with book one? Or could they jump right into Across the Grass Green Fields?

I will never recommend reading anything but in order, and the books are not actually written as stand-alones, ever.  Some of them require more or less background, but all are informed by what comes either before or after.  I don’t know why people keep saying the series contains stand-alone installments.  It’s a series.

GdM – Regan was a joy to read as she developed as a character. Without going into spoiler territory, is there anything you’d like to say about her emotional arc throughout the story?

She needs to figure out who she is, learn to like that person, and come to accept that liking who she is isn’t wrong.  Writing that took a delicate hand, and it was very important to me.

GdM – As long as we’re having fun with unicorns and magic horse worlds: who is your favorite My Litte Pony? I am also a huge My Little Pony fan.

My all-time favorite is Little Flitter, a Summerwing Pony from year six of Generation One.  She was the original October Daye in my bedroom Pony games.

This interview was originally published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #25.

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An Interview with Essa Hansen

Essa Hansen, whose debut novel Nophek Gloss, a science fiction space opera and the first novel in her The Graven series, debuts at the end of 2020, and is already making many reviewers “best of 2020” lists. We got the great opportunity to chat with her about writing, Nophek Gloss, Falconry, and sound design at Skywalker Sound.

GDM: First off, tell me a little about yourself. You have one of the coolest jobs out there, aside from being a writer, by working with Skywalker Sound. You also have one of the coolest hobbies, being a falconer. How did you end up working for Skywalker Sound, and how did you start working with falcons?

I stumbled on sound design while trying to figure out how to mesh too many interests into one career: storytelling, composing music, psychoacoustics, linguistics, cognitive sciences, and…a lot more. I loved science but still gravitated toward the arts more than academia. Sound for film seemed like the perfect blend of technical and artistic, plus storytelling. I attended an intense 12-month program at the Vancouver Film School, learning all things audio, and was snatched up by Skywalker Sound out of graduation. I’ve been there ever since—almost twelve years now!

I always thought falconry was so cool, and as a kid I had a brief experience rehabilitating a young grounded Cooper’s Hawk, but I didn’t have the resources to pursue it until years later. In California, a falconry license requires a two-year apprenticeship among other hurdles, but once I got started, I found an awesome community of fellow bird nerds. I’d love to get back into falconry and hunting soon, but it’s an art/sport that takes a great deal of time and attention. With an animal involved, you can’t just set things aside when you get too busy!

GDM: You work in two creative fields simultaneously, one as a sound engineer and a writer. Are their aspects of the creative creation process that overlap, and are their parts that are very different creatively. 

Both fields focus on story, immersion, and sensory information. Sound editing can be treated like language or music, sounds strung together like words into syntax that conveys meaning and emotion. I spend a lot of time rearranging sounds, moving them in time, and layering them, just like I would with word choices, phrasing, or ordering in writing.

The technical execution of this creativity is very different—not just the software and hardware, but the process. Writing might be dynamic but it all happens very contained with a few pieces of software (I use Scrivener). With sound design, I’m all over the place. I might be out in the field with recording equipment collecting raw sounds, or at my workstation with plugins turning those sounds into weird things, or at a mixing console blending a scene together. Both jobs feel equally dynamic to me, but in different ways.

GDM: When you were writing Nophek Gloss as part of the world-building, did you start matching sounds to characters, ships, and places? Do you have an idea what a Nophek sounds like?

I definitely have sounds in my head for specific things, like the nophek, but they came up organically rather than through conscious world-building. It can be helpful to tag particular sounds or colors to something to make it recognizable, such as the Azura’s singing when she flies, or the blue masks of the Casthen—those were definitely intentional. I think even when I’m not describing a sound specifically, I tend to use sound-related words to describe visuals, feel, or motion–that’s just a reflex of my film sound design brain! 

GDM: Having talked to you a bit and read up on your interests, you seem like someone steeped in science fiction. Your novel Nophek Gloss reads like a love letter to all the science fiction lovers out there, myself included. What parts of the science fiction genre do you love? What aspects of it do you gravitate towards?

As will be no surprise, I love the new frontiers! I love science fiction ideas that stretch my understanding or that make me think critically about my own nature and the cosmos I live in. Most often, these stories are set in universes different than our own, but I also love when weirdness is shown on Earth and comments on the limitations of our understanding of what is “natural” or known.

Funny enough, I read more fantasy than science fiction in my younger years, but all of my studies during that same time were in sciences and technical fields. I think this is what ended up making my fiction feel a bit unusual in the genre while still appealing firmly to genre fans. It’s steeped in the same loves but isn’t emerging from the usual classic source material.

GDM: I can see that with the story. It has elements of hard science fiction, space opera, and fantasy, especially with how you handled some of the creatures. Read any good fantasy books lately?

I have, and it’s a 2020 release that may appeal to your readers! The book is Under The Lesser Moon, a grimdark fantasy by debut author Shelly Campbell, launched recently from Mythos & Ink Publishing. She’s created a brutal Stone Age type world, intimate and dangerous, packed with lore and religion that’s lost its way over time. Similar to Nophek Gloss, it focuses deeply on character (I love the protagonist, Akrist), with many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. Shelly’s writing is lush and sensory like mine, and she’s done something with her dragons that I’ve never seen before.

GDM: Nophek Gloss is releasing on November 17th, 2020; how long has this book been in the making, and what has the writing and publishing process looked like for you?

I began working on Nophek Gloss around the end of 2016, I believe, but for a long time the actual draft only existed as the first few chapters—a prologue? a short story?—while I worked on other projects. I didn’t expect it to become a novel, but a year later, it expanded. My main manuscript was still something different, so Nophek Gloss’s draft meandered, stalled for a while, then picked up again in earnest. When I finally polished it and queried literary agents in summer 2018, it got me an offer of representation quickly. The publishing deal after that took quite a lot longer to manifest, but I feel it found the perfect home!

GDM: How did you create the character Caiden? Was there a specific inspiration that helped you shape him?

My characters tend to crop up organically without drawing from other influences. Or you could say they’re inspired from a starting kernel of traits or concept and grown from there. Originally I imagined Caiden older: already in possession of his starship and having lived in the multiverse for a while, adventurous and a magnet for danger. When developing his backstory, I immediately had the idea of this agrarian world where he grew up without ever seeing the sky. At the same time, I had the twisty concept of the farmers becoming feed for the beasts that they were raising feed for. Once I got my young protagonist through the traumatic culmination of that situation, the scars it left in him and the special ship he’d crawled into to be his grave—before rescue—stamped in the person he would grow up to be as the story progressed.

GDM: What were the most fun and most painful scenes to write in Nophek Gloss?

Any scene with En in it turns out fun to write! Other than that, I enjoy writing the scenes that have a big sense of wonder, like showing off new technology or environment. There’s a fun challenge in trying to describe these things, and I feel like I’m experiencing the thing fresh too as it takes form on the page, outside of my mind. Has anyone tried to describe being inside the core of a star before?

The most painful scenes to write are spoilers…but what also comes to mind are the many quiet moments where Caiden is wrestling internally: he really, really wants to make the right choice and heal and reach out and accept the love of his new family, but his guilt and low self-worth and complicated sense of justice is just that much stronger, so he turns himself away.

GDM: Caiden’s journey is painful. The grief he experiences is like raw nerves sparking with pain. Did you have his arc decided when you started writing the novel, or did it develop organically?

At the start, I had the beginning plot events and one image at the very end of the novel, which I feel made for a nice bookend of symbolism. The events in between developed organically. I built Caiden’s arc out from his initial grief, too large to overcome, which he’s constantly trying to grow to contain. At the same time he’s focusing himself on the much more manageable idea of revenge, while also discovering his identity and wrestling through where he belongs in this new world—or if he belongs in it at all. This whole combo could never be a gentle journey.

GDM: One of the aspects that I thought was incredible about Nophek Gloss was the level of creation and imagination you used when character and world-building. You stepped outside many of the typical characterizations we find in science fiction, i.e., humanoid and breathes air. Was that a conscious choice or your imagination running wild? 

Both! I’m always wanting to seek something new in the genre, as I find that sense of discovery exciting as a writer, which hopefully makes it exciting for the reader as well. I did use familiar frameworks—like some humanoid aliens and familiar technology—as tools to balance out the harder-to-grasp elements, but when I spot an opportunity to insert something new, I let my imagination spin its wheels outside of the box until I hit on something that feels cool and multifaceted.

GDM: I noticed, that goes along with the original question regarding world-building, is your attention to detail out food, flavor, texture, consistency, and who was cooking it. It seemed like food became a character in itself. I view food as a pathway to understanding another culture. Everyone eats, and there are deeply ingrained traditions about how someone eats, what kind of food, and why. Is this why food description was so essential and beautifully detailed, as a means of connection to the different cultures? 

Exactly—food says so much about culture, is a way of sharing culture, and nonverbally shows bonding or conflict. This is why we have the phrase “breaking bread together.” Caiden is officially inducted into his new family and home by sharing a meal: gathered together, the crew’s feelings mingle and you really see where they match up or butt heads.

At the same time, each of these foods is a new experience for Caiden, who grew up with no sense of the ritual of cooking and eating, nor any strong sense of family. He had a “parental unit” designed to train him, and bland ration blocks designed for optimal nutrition. I not only got to describe some luscious new things, but the crew gathering and mixing cultures over a meal became a support net for Caiden, and the offering of food became a symbol of extending care. The crew’s gastronomer, Ksiñe, likely won’t verbally say he likes you, but he’ll feed you or worry over your nutrition as a sign of affection.

From another angle, physical wellbeing is a big element in the story, and whether Caiden is being “nourished” or not relates directly to his psychological and emotional nourishment/wellbeing.

GDM: The characters of Nophek Gloss are inclusive and boundless. I loved that in the Nophek Gloss universe, the possibilities for sex, gender, self-expression, and being neurodivergent are limitless. Can you talk a bit about that?

From the start I really wanted to try to create a world where diversity is the norm and there is no “typical.” To me, that just makes sense in a multiverse that is physically so vast and variable. I visualize the “humans” to span a wide spectrum of being, from sex and gender, to skin tone, build, and neurotype. One character comments that, “With so much variety, species haven’t homogenized, but technology has.” I liked this idea that it’s technology which has had to adapt creatively to accommodate everyone and make inclusion and accessibility more possible.

The fact that inclusivity and diversity is normal means that it often doesn’t get made a point of in the narrative, but neither do the characters need to perform their identities. They’re allowed to live their lives and adventures as accepted beings.

GDM: I think this last part is a compelling idea. It is not enough to have included characters that are “atypical” because there is no typical. They are beyond that; there is no need to point out differences because it just is beings living their lives. I think science fiction is moving in an amazing direction regarding being inclusive, but Nophek Gloss is one of the first books that I have read recently that made it seem effortless. In preparation for writing neurodiverse characters in Nophek, did you research how your characters would react to stimuli? As someone who has neurodiverse family members, I found your descriptions of being overstimulated spot on. Was sound something you connected to because of your experience working with sound?

I’m also thrilled to see more diverse SFF and diverse voices being represented! I feel that’s one of the biggest changes in the genre from when I was reading in my youth.

In terms of the sensory elements, I’m autistic and a synesthete (primarily with sound, which cross-wires to other senses), so some of the neurodiversity and stimuli reaction in the story is from lived experience. Of course, every neurodiverse individual will have a unique experience, so I won’t be representing everyone accurately with these characters, but it’s definitely one manifestation of a non-neurotypical way of being. The sequel will have an autistic POV character, so I’ll really get to illustrate a unique sensory world on the page. I’m excited to have “no holds barred” in that respect.

GDM: Besides your new release of Nophek Gloss, I read your short story, “Save, Salve, Shelter” in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I felt like Nophek Gloss expounded on many of the ideas in “Save, Salve, Shelter.” Creatures are worthwhile to save, even though they may look different, and life is what we make of it. Did you write “Save, Salve, Shelter” and Nophek Gloss concurrently? Or did one lead you into the other?

I had just been through the devastating 2017 and 2018 California wildfires, so the apocalyptic imagery and emotional impact of that was still raw when “Save, Salve, Shelter” came about. Nophek Gloss was already written (but not yet sold) and in a holding pattern at this point. The themes were still kicking around in my heart for sure, and maybe at this point they live there now: environmental justice, compassion, fighting against bad odds and a huge opponent that seems insurmountable as one individual. Who would attempt such a fight? What pain is it worth? Who would throw in the towel, and when? Pasha and Caiden are fighters, even when everyone else would try to tell them the fight isn’t worth it. In their stories, they destroy themselves in different ways for what they believe is a cause worth all of their body, mind, and heart.

GDM: I think that the California fires, and in my case, this year’s Oregon fires will have a lasting impact on how we see the world. And keeping that in your mind, and part of the lense that you create stories through is a way to communicate with your readers. Whether it be Australia or the Pacific North West and California we are all being impacted by climate change. “Save, Salve, Shelter” seemed connected to environmental change and how it impacted creatures big and small. All creatures are worth saving. How did you get the idea to create Pasha as a cataloger? 

Those horrific Australian fires were near their peak and in the forefront of media in January when my story released. Oregon and the Amazon and elsewhere caught fire this year, and it all feels like a new season here to stay.

As often happens with my ideas, the cataloguer aspect started small and grew from there. All creatures are valuable, but what is their value to a vast and impersonal organization? Their DNA. Not the spirit of them, not their flesh and feel, not their history. Not their lives, as Pasha discovers. My secondary concept was that transportation to Mars would be earned by cataloguing species. This seems noble on the surface, incentivizing saving the biodiversity of the Earth. But Pasha takes compassion literally, and through her view of this edict conflicting with how the organization executes it, I was able to explore more of those limitations of the definition of value.

GDM: What is next for you? Are you taking a break or diving into book 2? 

I’m deep in Book 2 already, and starting to wrap my head around Book 3!

GDM: Ohhh. Anything juicy you can share?

The sequel will expand the scope to multiversal conflict, and expand the world into new dimensions of consciousness. We’ll dig deeper into the intentions of the ancient Graven and discover the true form and meaning of the Azura, Caiden’s special starship. I’m also excited that there’s a neurodiverse point-of-view character, a new found family, and some twisty four-way plot stuff going on.

GDM: Being that you have some love for science fiction, do you have a favorite book? And the most important and final question which franchise is your favorite, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, or Battlestar Galactica?

Favorite book is too hard to say, but the last science fiction series to hook me and suck me straight through was The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. A friend first recommended it to me by saying, “This main character is you.” I was really drawn to the main character, and loved just about everything from the weirdness and layered mystery of it, to the intimate focus on how we perceive and interconnect with reality and the natural world.

Favorite franchise! I feel like this question is a trap! My first gut reaction is Star Trek, probably because my family watched The Next Generation when I was a growing up (then Voyager and some Deep Space Nine) and it remains my earliest memory of a science fiction franchise. But Firefly I watched in the last decade and it was on my mind when I was trying to figure out where to head with my initial seed idea of Nophek Gloss: managing an ensemble cast seemed like a great challenge I’d never tried before, I wanted to improve at dialogue and humor, and I also wanted to attempt something more commercial. My book turned out a lot more grim than Firefly, but I think you can still feel some of that early influence in the warmth of the crew dynamics.

GDM: The franchise question, “It’s a trap!” I noticed the same sort of spirit in Nophek Gloss as there was in Firefly. Obviously, vastly different characters and settings. But the same sort of interconnectedness and the found family dynamic is reminiscent of it. It was one of my favorite aspects of the story. 

Thank you! Found family is one of my favorite tropes: the idea that we can be bonded together by aspects other than blood—whether it’s shared purpose or experience, mutual goals or mutual understanding. Caiden is wary of being worthy of family, and second-guesses his worth even as he’s trying his best—as I think a lot of us do—which I hope makes the iron-clad bonds he forms even more rewarding.

This interview was originally published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #25.

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REVIEW: The Last Kingdom S1 from Netflix

The Last Kingdom S1 is based on Bernard Cornwell’s series of historical novels which have all been reviewed favourably on this site. It was introduced to me as a show that would fill the bloody, grim-shaped hole left by Game of Thrones. Such high hopes often feel like a sure-fire way of heading down a path of disappointment, but I am pleased to say that the show took a blade to any such thought and chopped its head clean off.

The show follows Uhtred Ragnarson played by Alexander Dreymon with a smug confidence that steals every scene. Born a Saxon but raised as a Dane, Uhtred is the heart of the story, caught between the two factions warring over Britain and torn between the life he was born into and the one he grew to love.

The Last Kingdom S1 is bookended by two excellent episodes. It opens with a bloody battle as Uhtred’s home is invaded by cunning Vikings displaying their brutal and unique strategies. It ends with a battle that ranks up with one of the best seen on the small screen. The incredible cinematography and setting become characters of their own as the two armies march to face off in the middle of the British countryside. There is a tension before the final battle that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and when the shield walls clash and the blood begins to flow, the excellent camera work creates a visceral, chaotic fight that you can almost touch. The music and use of sound in the battle adds another layer to the wonderful construction of the scene and as the sun rises on the bloody battlefield, the first arc of Uhtred’s tale may be wrapped up, but the audience is aware that this is only the beginning.

Between these two excellent scenes, The Last Kingdom S1 is pulled along by subtle character moments – the budding friendship of Leofric and Uhtred; the care of Father Beocca; the strength of Hild the warrior nun. There is political intrigue with the rise of King Alfred and the ambitious Danes. Each character is given clear, understandable motives, whether they are heroic or villainous and this grounds the story and keeps the audience on their toes as they guess which fatal plot will be played out next. If you need another reason to watch the show: Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, Hobo with a Shotgun) playing an old, blind Viking is worth the Netflix payment on its own.

Historians may argue about some of the liberties taken in The Last Kingdom S1, but the world built and fleshed out over the eight one-hour episodes feels realistic and close enough to its time for the audience to engage with the struggles of the characters.

Rich characters, a vivid historical setting, and brutal, bloody battles: The Last Kingdom S1 stands as one of the best shows available to stream right now. In a period of great television, The Last Kingdom S1 does more than just fill a hole left by a beloved show – it stands on its own merits as an unmissable show.

Watch The Last Kingdom S1 on Netflix

Watch it here.

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Grimdark Magazine Issue #25 is here!

Welcome to a new year and a new… no, not quite yet. A new world is still a little off and many of you are still stuck in your apartments soaking your Weetbix in beer to get through the day. Hold fast, because on the written entertainment front the GdM team and I have you covered for the next few hours at least (hint: this issue is a big one).

This issue is something a little special: a prime example of the generosity of the publishing industry and successful authors’ want to see others do well. This issue includes not one, but two stories from the Matthew Ward Pay it Forward Writing Competition we ran last year. Two new authors you’re unlikely to have seen published: Hûw Steer and Jack Van Beynen. At the end of this issue I think you’ll remember the names, because their stories are absolute crackers.

And secondly, I think Carlos Diaz has absolutely knocked this cover out of the park in his representation of Sacred Semantics by Nichola Eames. I’ve put the unbranded version of the art at the very bottom of this post so you can revel in its full glory.

Before I wish you well on your grimdark journey through this issue, I’d just like to give Matthew Ward a special mention and to dedicate this issue to his generosity and willingness to help out new authors.

What’s on the back cover of Grimdark Magazine #25?

Grimdark Magazine presents the darker, grittier side of fantasy and science fiction. Each quarterly issue features established and new authors to take you through their hard-bitten worlds alongside articles, reviews and interviews. Our stories are grim, our worlds are dark and our morally grey protagonists and anti-heroes light the way with bloody stories of war, betrayal and action.

FICTION:

Sacred Semantics by Nicholas EamesThe Only Cure by Hûw SteerThe Dead Man by Jack van BeynenStiff’s Standoff by Jamie EdmundsonWinter Sweet, Winter Grieve by Kaaron Warren

NON-FICTION:

An Interview with Seanan McGuire by Beth TablerCyberpunk 2077: Working for the Man to Spite the Man by Charles PhippsReview: The Stone Knife by Anna StephensMichael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone: The Anti-Conan by Anthony PercontiAn Interview with Essa Hanson by Beth TablerHow Not to F–k Yourself Over Self-Publishing by Ben GalleyRead this issue

Grab yourself a copy of Grimdark Magazine #25 by heading over to our webstore.

Full unbranded cover art for Grimdark Magazine #25

Carlos Diaz has just created one of my favourite pieces of cover art for GdM. He’s a brilliant artist well worth checking out if you’re in the market for some cover art, love watching art being created, or just want to see the cool end products. You can find him through his website, his Twitch channel, DeviantArt page, and his Artstation.

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REVIEW: King of the Hollow Dark by Cat Hellisen

The blurb for King of the Hollow Dark, shown below, reads like it should come with a record scratch and a voiceover that says something like ‘I bet you’re asking how it all came to this?’ In a lot of ways, it’s exactly that sort of self-narrated young adult coming of age story that Netflix absolutely loves. However, King of the Hollow Dark is a far darker tale than those tend to be and there’s not an obvious love interest to sell to the marketing department.

“Georgina Skyler Carey is not a necromancer. She’s the daughter of one.

And now she’s dead.”

The story sees Georgina, a girl of college-age going through the motions of a painfully mundane life while dealing with the after-effects of her mother having been killed for necromancy when she was seven years old. To make things worse, she has headaches and memories from her mother’s point of view, which are getting more frequent and severe. Oh, and she seems to have a stalker who might be a ghost.

Her best friend Thalema is the lead dancer of the Umma festivities and this allows a neat exposition of the core worldbuilding tension between the Empress of Life and King of Death.

It turns out that George isn’t nearly as mundane as she thinks but is in fact, a pawn in the schemes of various powerful beings, including the Empress and her mother.

Along the way, we visit slums, witches, the islands of the dead and baronial courts in disused tube stations while being pursued by human-faced death hounds, shadowy government agents and do battle with multiple immortals-cum-anthropomorphic entities.

The worldbuilding in King of the Hollow Dark is simply delicious with the city of Umma-Lukaya being rendered beautifully with it’s winding streets, distinct districts and colourful festivals being conjured in evocative prose. Less definite but all the more otherworldly for it are the less-visited lands of the dead, from the grey beaches and burned out Baronies to the amorphous central city of Misterten-Next.

For all that King of the Hollow Dark appears like a cute coming of age tale on the surface, this is a deeply unjust world with slums and an authoritarian dictator who kills people’s parents, and where it is believed that ghosts can eat the souls of the living, a world where the stars themselves seem to be going out. Oh, and this is all before we get to the REALLY nasty manipulation and inevitable fight against entropy stuff.

While the core metaphysical concept of deities of life and death is by no means original and I can feel hints from a load of real-world mythologies and civilisations, nothing here feels wholly cut and pasted and there is a final twist to that cosmology that results in King of the Hollow Dark feeling like a fresh imagining which is very pleasant indeed.

On to our protagonist, Georgina who fills the role of feisty, somewhat unwilling and definitely not (to start with) aware of what’s going on heroine to a tee. Her mediocrity is torn between grief and duty and fear and you can see how she WANTS to be more but is both scared and bound into not being. Her best friend, Thalema is almost a polar opposite, confident, respectable and bright but also brave and generous to a fault.

Nobody else is so well realised, be it the Empress or the King of Death, her father or the various accomplices that end up helping Georgina along and that is absolutely fine because this is ultimately a story of one girl coming to terms with her place in the universe. As such, King of the Hollow Dark is quite a universal story, being about entropy, grief, loss and manipulation but also friendship, agency and sacrifice.

I said earlier that there isn’t an obvious love interest and to be honest, there’s no real romance in the book but there is an understated and awkward attraction alongside some of the most frantic action as well as a delightful depiction of platonic, queer relationships that might well be a lot more if we didn’t have to concentrate on the end of the world. There’s also the worst possible parental manipulation imaginable, so there’s that for balance…

Cat Hellisen writes beautifully with evocative descriptive prose that paints her world across the inside of your mind and makes you feel every ounce of emotion that Georgina experiences, whether through poetic deception a blunt piece of youthful snark.

I can see comparisons to Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, the Sandman by Neil Gaiman, the DOMINION OF THE FALLEN series by Aliette de Bodard but also elements such as similar worldbuilding to the DARK SOULS series of games, all of which are high praise indeed.

King of the Hollow Dark is a wonderful story that will tear your heart out and ask you if you’ve got the will to put it back together.

4/5

Read King of the Hollow Dark by Cat Hellisen

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REVIEW: The Expanse Series 5 Episode 7 – Oyedeng

It’s Wednesday and that means more from The Expanse. As always, we’re going to talk through this week’s episode, so if you don’t want to know what happens, then it’s time to make for the escape hatch.

The past few episodes have been quite slow-paced as we build the tension in the aftermath of the asteroid impacts on Earth and Marco Inaros’s power play for primacy amongst the Belters.

This episode’s title is Oyedeng which means goodbye or farewell in the Belter creole. Given that no episode of The Expanse is titled without meaning, that’s a worrying omen.

Before the title sequence, we see a quick recap of last week and how Naomi is starting to get through to Filip while still a prisoner of sorts on Marco’s ship. Then we see that Marco is watching and listening to their conversation.

We see Naomi recalling Filip’s childhood and happy family times between her and Marco. Meanwhile, Filip is reading up on the Behemoth and Naomi’s actions during the activation of the Ring Gate. Marco comes to visit him and asks if he can use the ship that Naomi gave to him and Filip agrees readily.

Marco goes to speak to Naomi and they have a tense conversation where their differing viewpoints bounce off each other. Marco still believes that Naomi betrayed him, their son, and the belt while Naomi feels that he had gone too far and she realised how he uses people.

Speaking to Filip afterward Naomi admits that she almost spaced herself when she realised she had to get away from Marco, but Marco kept Filip from her and she couldn’t find him. She was so desolate that she almost killed herself, but she realised that it wouldn’t change anything for Filip.

Cyn finds Naomi in the mess and emotionally admits he helped to hide Filip from her back on Pallas before she left. Naomi asks him to help her.

The Rocinante with Holden, Bull, and Monica on board is pursuing the Belter ship with the protomolecule. They make contact with Alex and Bobbie who are en route back from Mars and swap information about the protomolecule, Naomi, and the Martian ships in the Free Navy.

Monica speaks to Holden and suggests that Inaros is paying for the Martian ships with the protomolecule and Cortezar (the scientist) as there is no way he could get his hands on enough to justify at that point they get a sight of the ship they’re chasing and make a hard burn in pursuit.

Marco is angry that the Rocinante has located the protomolecule and has a very tense confrontation with Cyn about how sentimentality regarding Naomi has put their plans at threat.

Getting within weapon range, the Rocinante misses with torpedoes and has to move sharply in order to avoid defensive missiles and take them out with their PDCs. They incapacitate the Belter ship with a railgun shot. There is some tension between Holden who wants to board and get information and Monica who wants the ship and the protomolecule safely blown up. The point seems moot when the Belter ship refuses to power down and then self-destructs.

Filip confronts Marco and asks for more responsibility, a command of his own. Marco says that his weakness cost them so much. Marco tells him that he is nothing without his father who’s name is chanted by loyal Belters across the Belt. Marco goes on to tell him that he played a part and those who matter know that. One day, if he follows his father’s path then people will be chanting his name–a chant that is taken up by the bridge crew.

Naomi is brought to the bridge and told she is free to leave, once Marcos uses her ship to lure the Rocinante and destroy it. Marco says it’s Filip’s plan–Naomi appeals to Filip who slaps her and calls her an Earther-loving well wall. “You are everything that I’m not.”

Marco follows up with, “Did you really think you could get my son to betray me?” and Naomi is marched to her cell.

As Naomi’s ship is set to autopilot and detached from the flagship, Cyn decides to check on Naomi and sees that she is not in her cell but is at the door of an airlock.

Naomi steps into the airlock and Cyn squeezes in just as the door closes, intending to talk her out of apparent suicide. Naomi says that he shouldn’t have gotten into the airlock and reveals that she has palmed a syringe and opens the airlock, leaping into the void. Cyn asphyxiates in the airlock as Naomi leaps into the void, and with the help of her syringe, manages to make it over to her ship and gets into the airlock as the episode ends.

So, what do we think about Oyedeng?

For all that it held to one plot thread (minimal amounts of Holden and Alex and nothing of Amos this week), Oyedeng absolutely flew past, feeling like a fraction of its runtime.

The emotional weight of the intensely personal plot between Naomi, Filip, and Marco is immense, for all the wider space opera playing out around it. The actors–Dominque Tipper, Jasai Chase Owens, and Keon Alexander respectively–all turned in exquisite performances that stand out in a series that is packed with them.

I have to give a quick nod to Brent Sexton’s performance as Cyn, as he’s been a key player in this pivotal relationship and he’s played the line between an old friend, adoptive uncle, and loyal soldier with aplomb. He’s regularly been the sounding board through which the main players have been able to expose their internal thoughts and if there was any justice he’d have had a better end than being almost inadvertently spaced. It’s a very Belter way to bid Oyedeng, though.

That episode title–Oyedeng–is so fitting as much of the episode deals with farewells, both reminiscing about Naomi’s long-ago farewell to partner and son and this second farewell from the Inaros boys. In both cases, Naomi had an option to be reactive and allow others to chart her path, but she chose to be stubborn and take a long shot at achieving something.

Marco is every inch the narcissistic master manipulator. The way he plays Naomi, his son, and his crew off one another to ensure loyalty and adherence is quite terrifying to behold.

Filip is delightfully portrayed as the young man on the edge of adulthood, so keen to be his own man but so easily swayed by both the impassioned entreaties of his mother and the artful manipulations of his father. The scene where Marco breaks down Filip only to build him up again is sublime and horrific.

Aside from this emotional pressure cooker, Oyedeng contains one of the finest space combat scenes we’ve seen since in a few seasons as the Rocinante engages with the Belter ship containing the protomolecule. Once again, the commitment to realistic space physics and engagements that so characterised the early days of The Expanse is front and centre. Furthermore, it offers some contrast to the high drama of the rest of the episode.

So, with the Rocinante on an intercept course with the Free Navy and Naomi possibly now free to be a factor in that confrontation, it seems like we’re heading towards a high stakes encounter sooner rather than later.

What did you enjoy in Oyedeng and what are you looking forward to as the story continues?

Episodes 1-7 of Season Five and all prior seasons of The Expanse can be streamed via Amazon Prime  – https://www.primevideo.com and new episodes are coming every Wednesday.

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REVIEW: B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs Vol. 1 by Mike Mignola

In the beginning (IE, 1994), there was Hellboy. And even before publication, some of the first sketches by his creator Mike Mignola had him as part of a team. Then, the first storyline – Seed of Destruction came, and we saw something of his mentor, something of his colleagues and something of the organisation that directed him: the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. But successive stories made it clear that Hellboy could work alone as a character, and the nature of his relationship with the BPRD changed over time, as his destiny was uncovered (Hellboy: Wake the Devil is a suitable example of this, but that doesn’t make it a bad story!). By the end of Conquerer Worm, Hellboy had left the Bureau.

The nature of Hellboy’s story had changed, turning towards the more fantastical: a wanderer between magical realms. The comparatively grounded, sensical Bureau was out. However, his old teammates – the pyrokinetic Elizabeth Sherman, the fishman Abraham Sapien, the bulky homunculus Roger, scholar Kate Corrigen – did not deserve to be discarded.

Hence, BPRD: Hollow Earth – this would introduce the disembodied medium Johann Krauss as a newcomer to whom things could be explained, and spin an atmospheric story involving a slow descent into the caverns of a sunken civilisation. Further stories would follow, producing two collections of shorter material – Hollow Earth and Other Stories, The Soul of Venice and Other Stories – and the longer piece, Plague of Frogs. Mike Mignola – by now, among other things, attached to the 2004 Hellboy movie – would no longer write or draw the many of these. The material in The Soul of Venice is by a variety of authors and artists. This shows as a mass of different styles and plots, with BPRD agents who would never appear again (most notably the former seminary student who apparently returned from Heaven!)

However, among these, Guy Davis would emerge. His distinctive style was more detailed than Mignola’s: taking up detailed, crowded backgrounds and lined features in place of atmospheric single-colour backgrounds and blocky, shadowed faces. The reader almost feels the pen scratches in some panels. His take on the material, first seen in Dark Waters, was used going forward and made a good match for the mundane settings and human scale that BPRD: Plague of Frogs would exist in.

In fact I’d like to note now just how fittingly plain the BPRD looks. Their headquarters are in the small city of Fairfield, Connecticut rather than New York or Washington DC – or, indeed, Langley. That headquarters is a set of imposing blocks, straight out of the ‘concrete box’ school of government architecture. Think Three Days of the Condor rather than Skyfall. Their uniformed personnel wear a less-than-flattering mix of yellow-ish ochre and brown. Even their initials are fairly drab, another tongue-wrenching government agency rather than something pat like U.N.C.L.E or SHIELD.

Hollow Earth made for a good character piece, reviewing those characters Hellboy had left and dealing with a mix of esoteric legend and pseudoscience, starting at the monastery of Agartha. The Soul of Venice provided variety. But Plague of Frogs would set the tone for the series to come. The plot draws on apocalyptic elements more from Lovecraft than Milton to set up a remote town and a sinister cult, drawn to break into a BPRD laboratory and set lose, well, a Plague of Frog monsters. The forerunners of these had caused Hellboy trouble in Seed of Destruction: a mass of them in North America would have dire consequences.

The story by Mignola is sold very well by Davis’s art: the frogs themselves are terrifying brutes, the town of Crab Point, Michigan, looks shadowy and decaying and the various scenes of supernatural violence are captivating. Plague of Frogs would provide an ongoing problem for the BPRD to address, as well as providing some hints of Abraham Sapien’s background that would lay fertile ground for later issues. Even in isolation, it holds up very well indeed.

Read B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs Vol. 1 by Mike Mignola

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