Adrian Collins's Blog, page 2

Emmy Award Winning Grimdark

Everyone loves a good award don’t they? The awards shows might be as boring as watching paint dry but the Emmys did at least recognise some of the great grimdark TV series brought to our screen over the last year. So let’s dive into some over the big winners of the awards night (or should that be nights? They are pretty bloated, aren’t they?) and see which of our faves went home with a trophy or two.

The Penguin

Matte Reeves spin off tale from The Batman was pretty brilliant. Starring Colin Farrell as the titular mobster in amazing heavy make-up, the series was dark and brutal and one of the best dark comic TV series to ever hit our screens. The series was nominated for four of the main awards and took home one – a deserving win for Cristin Milioti as lead actress in a limited series for her take on Sofia Falcone. Hopefully this means The Penguin may return to the small screen following the upcoming The Batman Part 2.

Andor

I don’t have many words left to tell people who incredible Andor is. It doesn’t matter if you lie Star Wars or not, the series is one of the best things to have ever hit the screen and that isn’t an exaggeration in any way. The music, the writing, the acting, directing, everything about this show was just perfection. It gave us two of the best screen speeches I have ever witnessed and showed the potential of the grittier side of the Star Wars world. If, for some unknown reason, you haven’t seen this show – sort it out. You’re missing out on greatness. Whilst it missed out wins after nominations for Best Drama and Best Directing, it did win Best Writing in a Drama for the episode Welcome to the Rebellion. It took home some more creative Emmy awards but definitely deserved more.

Arcane

Arcane is loved here at Grimdark Magazine. The second season won four Emmys including Outstanding Animated Program. The Netflix animated series seemed to come out of nowhere and blow us away with its story based on characters from the League of Legends game. The story followed the origin story of sisters Vi and Powder as they are separated and brought back together by a conflict between the city of Piltover and the oppressed undercity of Zaun. With eight Emmys won overall for the two seasons, I’m sure it won’t be long before we dive back into the mesmerising world of Arcane. 

The Last of Us

The second season of the apocalyptic hit series based on the award-winning game was nominated for sixteen Emmys, winning just the one. This is down from the first season which was nominated for twenty-four awards and won eight. Still, this is further proof of the growing recognition of grimdark tales during award season and something that definitely needs to be celebrated.

What is to come? With the amazing TV series and films released recently and with more to come, I’m sure there will be many more awards to come for the work that sits in the darker realms of our screens. I can’t wait to see what is next!

 

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REVIEW: Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson

A rich tide of convergence, Reaper’s Gale is one of the most action packed, heart-breaking, and metal books in Steven Erikson’s Malazan: Book of the Fallen. Featuring new characters and old locations, Erikson’s plot surges forward and the armies march steadily to the end. 

“We left a debt in blood,’ she said, baring her teeth. ‘Malazan blood. And it seems they will not let that stand.’

They are here. On this shore.

The Malazans are on our shore.”

Reaper’s Gale is where the series becomes married. Previously, we had essentially three different chains with Gardens & Memories, Deadhouse & House of Chains, and the seemingly separate Midnight Tides. Bonehunters brought together the first two entities, and Reaper’s Gale is the book that unites all of them, complete with bringing in more Malazan marines, more meddling gods, and a new major character in Redmask: an exile guarded by two K’Chain Che’Malle leading the clans to war against Letheras. 

As with any Malazan novel, Erikson is juggling at tens of plot threads and hundreds of characters. Reaper’s Gale is no different, although the arcs generally center on what’s going on in Letheras. There’s wars coming from both the Malazan marines and Redmask’s Awl rebellion; there’s Rhulad—the immortal emperor—taking on any and all challengers in a manic/suicidal frenzy; there’s gods watching it all and putting their fingers on the scale. 

Reaper’s Gale is bursting with action. Knives in the dark, mages wielding catastrophic magic, and soldiers carrying spears fill these pages. Most of the time it’s intense and keeps you on your toes, especially since Erikson keeps a steady introduction of new characters and isn’t afraid to kill the old. There’s room to kill off so many characters that the fear of losing one you care about keeps you reading every word. 

The dialogue in Reaper’s Gale is hard to capture. At times, it’s his best, and at others it’s his worst. While the wittiest character in the series isn’t quite as prominent as in a separate book, their presence is still felt and every page featuring them is a blessing. The Malazan marines are as entertaining and philosophical as ever, but some of the other discussions from characters fell flat for me. 

From a prose perspective, Reaper’s Gale is as gorgeous as Erikson’s other works. At this point the reader should know what to expect, and he doesn’t let them down. There’s some evocative language and questions here, particularly on themes of colonialism and war. 

I’d argue this is Erikson’s most mysterious book. Reaper’s Gale has an iron grip on plot threads with massive implications, but he never fully dispels the mystery. A few are solved by the end of the novel, but the larger questions and conspiracies are still at play, with the full information being played close to the chest by Erikson and his characters alike. 

One character deserves a special shout out. They can’t be named, but those who have read the book know exactly who I’m talking about. Erikson’s skill at bringing characters to life—despite the huge size of the cast—is shown off in a dazzling way in Reaper’s Gale. This character is brought to highs rarely seen in fantasy, and the climax of the story makes him an unforgettable fan favorite. 

I’d be remiss if I wrote this review without mentioning that my favorite poem comes from this book. I’m not well versed in poetry, but that one is a poem I think of often, even if it does not think of me. 

“Never mind the truth. The past is what I say it is. That is the freedom of teaching the ignorant.”

Unfortunately, Reaper’s Gale is Erikson’s most frustrating novel. It’s got some of his highest highs and lowest lows. There’s a ton to love in this book, but we spend a fair number of hours on plot threads and characters that simply don’t work as well as others. If this book were reduced to 800 or 900 pages it’d be one of the greatest in the series. Instead, Erikson makes us focus on plot threads that don’t have as fulfilling as a resolution as others, or characters who don’t leap off the page like others. 

Still, Reaper’s Gale is a great novel. There’s some filler and some parts don’t work as well as others, but there is so much to love about this heartbreaking novel. Frustrations included, Reaper’s Gale is one of my personal favorites from the series, and if you’re someone who’s read The Bonehunters and are hesitant to continue, I implore you to. Erikson gives you a sneak peek into the heights this series is going to hit, and it hurts and delights in just the right way.

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REVIEW: Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered Edition

In 1996, Crystal Dynamics released a game called Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain for the original PlayStation. This introduced us to the dark, gothic world of Nosgoth, in which a murdered nobleman, the titular Kain, is raised as a vampire and given a chance at revenge. This premise turns out to be but a prologue for an epic journey in which Kain discovers the entire world has been exposed to terrible corruption which can only be purified if he will kill the guardians of the Pillars of Nosgoth. Kain begins a blood-drenched journey in which he gradually comes to think of his vampiric curse as more of a gift, and himself as a god.

This game was followed by the release of Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain (1999) and Soul Reaver 2 (2001), which pick up thousands of years later. “Kain is deified,” Raziel tells us, and has raised other vampires in his eternal, corrupt empire. Soul Reaver opens with Kain betraying his most-trusted lieutenant, Raziel, casting him into an abyss. Raziel does not die, however, but is transformed into an indestructible wraith. After centuries of agony, he is greeted by the Elder God, who calls vampires abominations who disrupt the Wheel of Fate. He tells Raziel to become his “soul reaver” and avenge himself on Kain. All of this is prelude to a much deeper mystery Raziel finds himself embroiled in, with many forces trying to control his destiny.

The Legacy of Kain series as a whole has some of the finest storytelling I’ve ever experienced (in any format, not just games), and had a tremendous impact on my writing—on the stories I wanted to tell and how I wanted to tell them. Anyone familiar with both the games and my work will no doubt spot the homages scattered throughout.

In fact, the story, setting, and voice acting are so pitch perfect I’m still in awe of them after more than twenty years. Amy Henning, the director of many of the games, became one of my writing heroes. Simon Templeman, the voice actor for Kain, is so stunning in his delivery I cannot imagine anyone else filling the role. His interactions with Michael Bell (Raziel) have a Shakespearean grandeur to them.

After the partial conclusion of 2003’s Legacy of Kain: Defiance, no more games manifested. I held out hope of further games, but with each passing year, that hope dwindled a little more. Then, in 2024, a Kickstarter was announced for a prequel comic book.

Instant backer, here.

As many had hoped and speculated, the Kickstarter tested the waters for the announcement of a remaster, in this case of Soul Reaver 1&2. The remaster improved the graphics and made some minor quality of life upgrades, as remasters do, while leaving the games otherwise the same.

These remasters were released in December of 2024, but I couldn’t play right away as I was abroad. The chance to play these again, to experience the story again, had me ridiculously excited, and they were the first games I got to when I could.

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REVIEW: Pearl by Tim Waggoner

Ti West first imagined Pearl in his A24 film of the same name as a sympathetic yet brutal female antagonist battling against isolation and madness on her parents’ farm. Now, she’s been transcribed from screen to page in Pearl by Tim Waggoner. Waggoner is no stranger to TV and film adaptations with several notable series under his belt, including Terrifier and Alien. He has a knack for putting us inside the characters’ heads, and his books work well beside their visual counterparts rather than against them. Pearl, already a complex, character-driven thriller, is more devastating than we could have imagined as we get an inside look into Pearl’s descent into psychopathy. 

Pearl is a twisted take on the femme fatale story, but rather than getting her way through seduction and manipulation, Pearl uses more direct approaches like, well, murder. Pearl is a young woman from the middle-of-nowhere East Texas — seriously, the town isn’t even given a name — with big dreams of becoming a movie star. However, she faces several obstacles, including a global pandemic, World War 1, an absent husband, a severely sick father, and an emotionally neglectful mother. 

“Pearl lifted her head and looked into Mama’s eyes, making sure to maintain the contrite expression on her face. She wished she could hear the orchestra one more time, but Mama had killed the music—just like she always did.” 

Her hunger for stardom and desperation to leave her bleak situation eventually led to her madness overwhelming her and going on a murder spree. As someone who is from one of these

middle-of-nowhere towns in East Texas, Pearl’s plight may resonate with me a little more than the average person, murderous intent aside. 

In all seriousness, Waggoner truly captures the inner monologue of a character like Pearl, who does violent and terrible things, and it is expressed in such a way that you almost catch yourself feeling bad for her. Waggoner takes the time to get the reader somewhat comfortable with Pearl before she crosses the point of no return. We see her goals, her dreams, her pain, her love, and her desire for acceptance. We see her as a woman repressed and forced to deny her baser instincts. 

“One day you’ll understand that getting what you want isn’t important. Making the most of what you have is.” 

A big part of this is due to the tension that is built up in Pearl through Pearl’s increasingly disturbing thoughts, questionable actions, and worsening hallucinations. Pearl becomes less human as the novella progresses, so rather than humanizing the monster, we see how the human becomes the monster. 

“It was too bad the sheep had to die, but sacrifices need to be made to bring new life into the world. Every mother knew that.”

Waggoner explores the classic question of Nature VS Nurture, as we know how the madness already within Pearl festers and grows as she loses her sanity and fights for freedom from her sad life and entrapment on the family farm. 

Her relationship with her mother, in particular, is a significant point of contentment as the distance between them widens the more confident Pearl becomes in herself. Pearl is the female hysteria trope in literature, but if you gave the woman from The Yellow Wallpaper a pitchfork and anger issues. 

“They will notice eventually, and they will be frightened. Just as I am.” 

Pearl’s world is no doubt bleak, but the central conflict in the novella stems from such an internal battle that I would not classify the novel as grimdark. It leans heavily into the psychological thriller/horror genres, but man, was it such a fun ride. I also went into this having watched all three movies several times; Pearl has a special place in my heart, so I can’t say if the novella stands by itself as such a knock-out success. I will say Mia Goth’s heart wrenching monologue at the very end did not translate as effectively onto the page, but that speaks more to her abilities as an actress than to Waggoner’s writing abilities. Pearl is one of the few female slashers we have, and I can’t wait to read the following two books in the series to see Waggoner work his magic yet again.

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REVIEW: Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski

Crossroads of Ravens is a prequel novel in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher book series. Chronologically, the events featured in this entry show the earliest presentation of Geralt, with the UK publisher Gollancz marketing this with the tagline: ‘Every legend has an origin. Geralt of Rivia’s begins here’. 

Having not long left the Witchers’ training school of Kaer Morhen, the young and inexperienced monster hunter Geralt finds himself about to be executed by hanging. The witcher’s crime? On the previous day, he rescued a peasant and his daughter from deserters. The latter was about to be raped. During this altercation, one of the brigands attacked, and in self-defence, Geralt killed him. Luckily, just before Geralt is strung up and left dangling as a warning to other wrongdoers, a mysterious rider named Preston Holt challenges the authority. After a formidable display, a perplexed Geralt leaves the scene with this enigmatic newcomer. From this introduction, the tone is set that this is a dangerous and corrupt environment where power is key. Geralt has much to learn about how this world works and what a witcher’s place in it looks like. 

Crossroads of Ravens is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator. The narrator is thoughtful, candid, and often humorous with comments such as ‘something Geralt also didn’t know’ or ‘He couldn’t know they were the ruins of an ancient shrine’. The effect of this is to illustrate that Geralt is currently a novice and quite oblivious to the intricacies and intrigues that he will understand later in his life. At this time, he will need to adhere to the advice and guidance of his rescuer, Preston Holt. I found Holt to be a fascinating character with an interesting backstory, leaving lots of questions surrounding his behaviour and motives.   

The first half of Crossroads of Ravens reads as a collection of monster-hunting missions, quest-like objectives, and presents excellent insight into the workings of the witcher trade. Holt and Geralt have some training and bonding moments, and, although familiar in origin stories, they are charming and work well. Geralt reflects that some of his first kills were more luck than skill, and we even discover how the banking system works. These elements showcase a raw and vulnerable side to the witcher, creating empathy as we are learning the ropes alongside him. In Crossroads of Ravens, there are more monster-hunting segments than any of the other Witcher novels, and each accomplishment adds respect and renown to Geralt’s reputation. 

Fans of CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher games who have not read one of Sapkowski’s novels before could start with Crossroads of Ravens and find a lot to enjoy. They may feel right at home with the monster hunts, quests, conversations that take the witcher from speaking with peasants to the societal elites, as well as the complex decision-making in this tale. In fact, until about the halfway point, I was unsure where the story was going. Each chapter reads similarly to a mission in the games, but it does work towards an intriguing and enjoyable second half. It is worth noting that there are a large number of characters, and aside from Holt and a handful of others, some of the players were indistinguishable or unremarkable. 

Crossroads of Ravens features some dynamic and memorable set-pieces and many clever easter eggs for long-time series fans. These include foreshadowing that Geralt may have some trouble with sorceresses in the future and revealing where the name Roach comes from. The dialogue in Crossroads of Ravens is excellent. You can almost hear the emotions in interactions with Geralt, whether loathing, distrust, or respect. Geralt builds good favour with some and contempt from others. 

This is a tale worth paying full attention to because, although some parts seem redundant initially, everything contributes towards the novel’s mostly satisfying conclusion. Towards the end, Crossroads of Ravens is gripping and thrilling, and the pacing throughout most of the book is efficient. The ending, however, seemed too abrupt. The finale reads as if a couple of objectives were completed, scores were settled, and then on to the next one. This left me feeling slightly off balance, yet, this could be intentional by Sapkowski, reflecting that this is not a neat world where things go as expected. 

To conclude, I had an enjoyable experience with Crossroads of Ravens, returning to this exquisite dark fantasy world. It was a good standalone reading experience and I enjoyed reading about a young and flawed Geralt in these early adventures. For potential readers who are already familiar with Geralt, either through the TV series or video games, this is a great place to start your reading adventure. If readers are completely unfamiliar with Geralt, I would suggest Sapkowski’s short story collection The Last Wish as better entrance points to this legend of fantasy’s complicated and intriguing exploits. 

I received a review copy of Crossroads of Ravens in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Andrzej Sapkowski and Gollancz.

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REVIEW: Wanted: Dead

Cyberpunk video games are something that I treasure every time I manage to acquire one. Cyberpunk 2077 is an obvious candidate, but I also love Deux Ex, Cloudpunk, Observer, Ghostrunner, Dex, System Shock, and Shadowrun Returns. They run a gamut of incredibly good to incredibly niche. In this case, Wanted: Dead is a cyberpunk video game is a very hard game to rate as it is an intensely flawed game that, nevertheless, had a lot to recommend it. It’s also a game that feels incomplete and I don’t just mean that in gameplay.

The premise is that in an alternate 2020s, China and Russia defeated the United States in a war that has left the world under the domination of oligarch megacorporations. How? Why? You will not have this expanded on and be left with more questions than answers. But, sure, alternate reality. It’s a good excuse for the fact that Eighties music like “Maniac”, “99 Luftballoons”, “I Touch Myself”, and “She works hard for the Money” are part of the soundtrack. But if that’s the case, why would it be in the 2020s? Nope. Wait, that’s falling down a rabbit hole and we haven’t even begun to deal with how weird this game is.

Our protagonist, Hannah Stone, is a cyborg war criminal imprisoned for life when she and her squadron are pardoned in exchange for becoming special tactical police officers in Hong Kong. Her war crimes seem to be, “kill thousands of people but they were all bad”, which tells you this game is about half Robocop and half Tank Police. Her crew is an oddball collection of misfits with a pervert, a mute but not deaf ASL user, a crazy cat lady, and a drunken medic.

To describe the plot is kind of missing the point because our protagonists are weirdly apart from it. A bunch of terrorists attack their employers, there’s a cybernetic revolt, you go after some human traffickers in a nightclub and then are declared outlaws by another megacorporation before fleeing. Then the game is over. Yes, there’s only five levels in the game and they’re only loosely connected. At one point, a super cyborg revolutionary is set up as the main villain and he just…never shows up again.

Wanted: Dead seems like a game that was planned to be far bigger in scope and then someone realized they’d run out of anime. I’m not even kidding as there’s fully animated anime storytelling sections, live action cooking programs (yes, you read that corrected), and all the licensed music covers but a surprising dearth of gameplay. If you played the game through with no deaths and not playing the minigames then you’ll probably have a total of five hours.

The minigames are also incomplete with a single arcade game shooter, a pair of claw machines (where I wasted a bunch of time), a ramen eating game, and a single karaoke game of “99 Luftballoons.” Not to be pedantic but maybe they should have devoted all more of their efforts on providing the game itself versus side content. The “twist” of the Synth Uprising deserved more attention, which is to say any attention whatsoever.

Despite this, I enjoyed Wanted: Dead. The characters are ridiculously likable with Hannah and Vivienne having great designs. The combat is serviceable and a great mix of both gunplay as well as swordmanship. The only place it stopped being fun was the ending where the enemies become endless waves with a dearth of save points as well as ammunition.

Wanted: Dead is just blatantly bizarre, and I can’t say that I didn’t have fun. I even love seeing Stephanie Joostan (Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain‘s Quiet) doing her hilarious live action segments. It’s not worth it if you want a modern AAA game but it’s a fun time waste for an AA game even with all its flaws.

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REVIEW: You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

Andrew Joseph White has long proved himself to be an unapologetically bold, unflinching,  and provocative author with his young adult works (all of which are absolute favourites for me), but nothing could have prepared me for what he had in store in his adult queer horror debut You Weren’t Meant to Be Human. This is one of those deeply disturbing books that I adore and abhor in equal measure, and I think that is exactly what makes it such a masterpiece.

“Crane doesn’t know this yet, but he’s been pregnant for almost three months already.” That is the very first line/chapter of You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, and if that doesn’t set the scene, then I don’t know what does. There’s no tiptoeing around what this story is going to be about; you better buckle up real quick or get out while you still can, because shit is about to get wild.

“The swarm buzzes. The worms slide over each other in a constant wet undertone, like saliva swishing in the mouth, or – or when intestines squirm about on the operating table. His eyes are adjusting to the dark and some of the worms are watching. Older ones, with dull bodies and heavy jaws.”

Through the eyes of our autistic, mute, and transgender protagonist Crane, we’re transported into a dystopianish near-future version of rural West Virginia where festering masses of worms and flies offer salvation to the broken souls of society in return for fresh corpses and unwavering loyalty. And honestly, Crane is grateful for the new life that his hive has given him… until he discovers that his walking red flag of a sex buddy has gotten him pregnant and the hive demands that the child be born. Which, surprise, Crane is not thrilled by, and he will stop at nothing to terminate the pregnancy, even if it sends him and his dysfunctional found family into a tragic spiral that can only end in destruction.

“A total lack of self-image, he’s heard, is an autism thing. Or a trauma thing, Aspen would point out. But he’s not traumatized. A walking collection of bad decisions, sure, and a masochist with way too many messy kinks, absolutely. Traumatized? That is a word for veterans and rape victims, not him. After all, the hive saved him.”

Needless to say, You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is not a fun read, but then I don’t think it was ever meant to be fun in the first place. Initially I was a bit worried that I’d have a hard time getting invested in a story with a protagonist who doesn’t speak, but the opposite couldn’t be more true; Crane’s strong voice and personality drips off every page, and I soon found myself completely absorbed in his (unpleasant) headspace. Moreover, White’s raw, visceral and intoxicating prose is stronger than ever before, which made it simply impossible to put this book down no matter how much it upset me. Or maybe I just kept turning the pages out of a sheer desperate desire for this tragic nightmare to be over as quickly as possible, and I fully realise how privileged I am in saying that.

You see, this might be a fictional tale full of skin-crawling body horror and weird cultish alien (?) worm invasion shenanigans à la Nick Cutter’s The Troop, but Crane’s harrowing journey as a (unwillingly) pregnant transgender man is an all too real and human experience that is grossly underrepresented and unfairly treated as taboo in our society. My heart absolutely broke while reading You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, not only for Crane, but also for all the marginalized people in real life who are forced to survive instead of thrive in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile when all they want to do is just peacefully live as their true authentic selves.

“You pleaded for us to do as we wished with you, didn’t you? To mold you in our image. To give you a place. To make your choices, change your body, make you into something useful. To keep you from being something other than fuckmeat and repulsive lust and fear. To make the outside match the inside. How fortunate, then, that we’ve given you what you want.”

Now, I don’t want to make it seem like You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is all suffering and despair. Yes, this is a story full of nauseating body horror and graphic on-page triggers that explores self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, toxic love and the devastating dangers of unwanted/forced pregnancy in the most gruesome and unflinching way, but at the same time it also offers some beautiful messages of friendship, acceptance, sacrificial love, and learning to embrace the darkest, ugliest parts of yourself. And yes, Crane is one hell of a complicated man full of flaws and scars (both physical and emotional), but I truly love him in all his messy glory.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human just starts with a bang and then somehow only gets more and more intense, leading up to one of the most upsetting yet weirdly cathartic endings I have ever read. And you know what, I love it all the more for it. White accomplished exactly what he set out to do with this story, and I honestly think he is up there with Stephen Graham Jones, Eric LaRocca and Chuck Tingle as one the most talented, subversive and important voices in the speculative horror genre right now. This book is absolutely not for the faint of heart, but I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Daphne Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is scheduled for release on 9 September, 2025. 

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EXCLUSIVE: Extract from Anderson Versus Death by Anna Smith Spark

Grimdark Magazine had the absolute honour of hosting the exclusive cover reveal for Anderson Versus Death written by our ridiculously talented friend Anna Smith Spark back in May.

I was then lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced copy of the novel. It was my first experience stepping in to the off screen world of Judge Dredd and holy smokes, I was not disappointed. Anna Smith Spark is a phenomenal author and her story in Anderson Versus Death is a wild cyberpunk ride that is brutal, bloody, and oh so beautifully written.

Here the queen of grimdark meets a grimdark legend. Anderson Versus Death is sure to be a hit with fans of Judge Dredd and is also totally accessible to newcomers to this world.

Read on for our exclusive extract:

Grimdark Magazine’s Exclusive Extract from Anderson Versus Death by Anna Smith Spark

Teeth. Old bones scavenged from a garbage pile and gnawed yellow grinning teeth. And they are grinning, at her, at everything. Skin around them strained, on the edge of ripping. The skin of something pulled back for surgery. The skin of an old man’s hands, dry and cracked, too thin, too old, fumbling at the zip of his piss-soaked flies. Green and putrid, too taut, too dry, yes, but also there’s a sense, if she… touched it, shoved her hand into its face, it would be soft, waxy, cheesy, yield, let her crunch and squeeze it, running fluids, because of course it’s dead, dead, dead. Gangrenous. Collapsing. Dead.

 There’s a mercy that it doesn’t realise—its helmet covers its eyes. She’s never seen Dredd’s eyes, rarely sees even friends’ like Neirn’s and Winstanley’s. But. Its helmet closes with a visor like a barred gate, and what it doesn’t know is that it’s a kindness—that it’s stopping her from seeing into where its eyes should be.

It grins at her. Stretching the skin around its mouth tighter. Its gums are grey and red. She imagines its teeth opening. Biting. 

It has too many teeth. It’s in her skull, and she thinks of teeth chewing their way out of her. Its claws following where the teeth bite. Ripping. 

Its fingers are very long, and its hands are too big. Its fingernails are yellow and filthy as its teeth. Nicotine stains. The ceiling of a Smokatorium. Its fingers twitch and waggle like insects. She can feel them running across her skin, peeling her face back. Probing at her brains, her lungs. They’re too long and awkward for living hands, couldn’t touch, hug, eat, drink. Barriers again, from being or doing anything living. 

It’s dressed in a parody of her own uniform. 

She looks… pretty drokking hot, actually, in her uniform. She’s not stupid, she has eyes and everything, she knows perfectly well she looks hot. [Also the thoughts broadcast loud as a Lawmaster revving its engines full throttle pretty much everywhere she goes.] “Practical, these skintight uniforms with the easy-open zipper front.” Dredd looks gruddamn terrifying in his uniform, like he’s made of solid rockcrete. Hard to think there’s an actual body with bellyflab under there. Winstanley looks so smart and neat you really would trust him to help your granny cross the road or your kids find a lost kitten.

  This thing, this sick twisted parody of her and Dredd and all of them, it manages to make the uniform look…

the only word for it is…

…obscene.

It’s dead. Vile. Dead and dried up and crusted and rotten. If it ever was alive, it can’t remember that life. Like a dead stuffed animal from the olden days, as she said, sickly-unreal like that. But it lolls in its chair, its too-long fingers, too-big awkward hands it can’t use to touch or hold or live with, its dead smile, its dead face, its red gleaming gums, and the way it moves its body, the thrust of its limbs… Its body is obscene. 

It reeks and runs with its desire for death. 

She—Anderson, Judge Cassandra Anderson of Psi-Division—stares at the visor hiding the dry holes it must have instead of eyes. Its fingers curl, opening and closing. It lounges in its chair. Judge Death, it calls itself. 

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REVIEW: Demon by Rob J. Hayes

Blood-soaked, horrific, and gritty, Rob J Hayes’ Demon is a novella that pulls no punches and doesn’t shy away from showing off Hayes’ vivid imagery. Brutal ‘till the end and supremely fast paced, Demon is a book that demands to be read in a single evening. 

“Consequences are like your shadow. Sometimes they’re before you, and sometimes behind, but they’re always there. You can never escape your shadow, no matter how far you try to run from it.”

Demon starts off in a village where people are afraid to use fire in fear of garnering the attention of demons. Dien, our protagonist, is a girl who’s learning her father’s trade and dealing with bullies and friendships. While page one shows us her father allowing himself to get beaten for a perceived mistake in his crafting, it’s mostly a quaint and peaceful setting. 

And then demons come. 

An absolute massacre occurs. The survivors are forced on a brutal march where they are occasionally forced into cannibalism. They’re weak, they’re tired, and they’re ready for a break. 

They get no reprieve. The suffering continues in Demon where characters are forced into the servitude of their captors. Torture and death are fairly commonplace in the dank cave they exist in, and it’s breaks more than a few of them. Still, there’s a certain unbreakable resolve in some of the characters. The tenacity of the human spirit is a trope that always sits well with me, and Hayes has that in spades with Demon. 

The pacing in Demon is mostly rapid, excluding a slower lull in the middle. Hayes has always had an ability to keep readers engaged, but Demon was frustratingly difficult to put down. Without the responsibilities of life I’d have easily finished it in one sitting. 

What truly makes this story shine is the gruesome imagery and action. Visualizing the setting to the highest degree is unavoidable in Demon. Guts and viscera coat the ground, blood coats the wall, and suffering fills the air. Still, Hayes adds a dash of human connection and bonds. He uses it like a lever: at times frustrating in the bullies’ cruelty, others deeply tragic when the characters we’ve grown to like suffer. This is a novella that makes you feel a wide gamut of emotions. 

Dien is a nicely created protagonist. She mostly clings to rage, but every once in a while you see the mask slip. Her shoulders slip as the weight of being the beacon of hope for her friends becomes too much to bear, but after a breather, she’s right back up and trying to make escape plans. Dien is the heart of Demon. An angry, bitter heart with teeth instead of veins, but a heart all the same. 

“If you can retain enough pride to do the right thing, even in the face of scorn and ridicule, you can inspire that same pride in others.”

One of my very few problems with Demon is that I found most of the side characters fairly one-dimensional. That’s probably to be expected in a story of this length—and certainly doesn’t apply to all of the side characters—but I could have used a bit more nuance in some of the humans. My other problem is that the ending feels a bit sudden. There’s angels in this world and some sort of war going on between the divine forces, but we see very little of it.

Ultimately, Demon is a gritty, heart-breaking, viscerally horrifying story that should delight any and all grimdark fans. It’s book one of one of the three trilogies that Hayes is writing for Godeater, and something about the series feels special. Hayes is calling his homerun here, and Demon is a deliciously dark story that shows he’s living up to that promise. 

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REVIEW: The Feeding by Anthony Ryan

Anthony Ryan, best known for his dark fantasy novels, branches out into horror for a second time with The Feeding. After reading Red River Seven I was chomping at the bit to get another of his horror books to read, and once again it made me feel like the author has come up with another fun concept and story that would transfer amazingly to the silver screen.

In The Feeding, the world as we know it has ended. What started out as random acts of violence and some murder has become a wilderness of savage, animalistic vampires who have hunted humanity to the brink of extinction. Small fortresses of humanity remain behind high walls, with scarce resources to feed their people and few bullets left with which to protect them from the planet’s new apex predators.

Facilitating trade between the settlements are the Crossers—an elite group of people brave or desperate enough to venture out beyond the walls in the hope of reaching another settlement and trading for what the people need. An added incentive to become a crosser is the ability to claim an item for yourself, and when Layla’s father figure comes down with a horrible illness, she finds out that her settlement does not have the medicines he requires to live. When a crosser team is wiped out by feeders and the remaining crosser needs a new team, Layla puts her hand up to help her adopted family.

This post apocalyptic horror was an easy and fun read, with light themes of distrust, found family, and what you’d do at the end of the world at the fore. Themes that you could lean into easily and just enjoy the book for what it is. This allows Layla to shine as the main character, as she deals with trying to help her family, protect her friend / adopted brother, and then, once she’s out past the walls, protect herself so she can save her adopted fathe. At times we are asked if it’s okay for others to die so that those we love may live, and I quite enjoyed that aspect of Layla’s internal monologue and actions.

The overarching world is a nice mix up of some of my favourite end of the world-style IPs, creating an eerie and enjoyable backdrop to the story of the Crossers. I really enjoyed the way Ryan provided the colour of what the cities have become over the 15 years since the end of the world, and how the Feeders survived and thrived in those environments. I’ll certainly be peering deeply into any shadows on late night walks for the next few weeks.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the book was the last part of the last chapter. It seemed an unnecessary and unlikely wrapping up of a story arc that I didn’t realise was in play at all, but clearly mattered enough to the author to finish the book that way.

Overall, Anthony Ryan’s The Feeding is fast, comfortable, accessible, and just flat out fun to read. I don’t read many horror books, but I will 100% pick up anything further Ryan releases in this genre.

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