Adrian Collins's Blog, page 206

MOVIE REVIEW: Halloween (1978)

Halloween (1978) is one of those rare movies that can literally be considered a candidate for the “greatest horror movie ever made.” It isn’t necessarily the first slasher movie, there’s Black Christmas (1974) and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) that took place four years before Halloween. Indeed, there’s a legend that Black Christmas‘ sequel was going to be about Billy escaping a mental institution and going on to menace a bunch of babysitters. Allegedly, writer Roy Moore shared this idea with John Carpenter not long after the original movie’s premiere. It may or may not be true, but Roy was comfortable sharing the story at conventions.

No, Halloween isn’t the first slasher movie, but it is the one that created most tropes that have since become synonymous with the genre. The invincible silent masked killer, the collection of beautiful young women, the seeming indestructible nature of the slasher, the “killer cam” perspective, and the virginal protagonist. While both Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had “Final Girl” protagonists, neither of them were “good girls” necessarily.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) would exemplify the good girl who survives while her pot smoking sex fiend friends are killed. It’s a testament to how good an actress Jaime Lee Curtis is that the “dull” one is charismatic enough that she remains one of the most popular heroines in horror cinema. Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) are about the only people who approach how beloved she is in the genre.

The premise for Halloween almost doesn’t require summary but I’m going to do it anyway. Michael Myers is an eight-year-old boy who murders his sister after she has speed sex with her boyfriend. Institutionalized, Michael grows into a formidable six-foot-tall killing machine. His doctor, Loomis (Donald Pleasence), recognizes Michael is “pure evil” and should never be let loose. Michael escapes in the opening of the movie by stealing a car (how he can drive is never explained despite the movie bringing it up). From there he stalks a group of teenage girls he spies around his old house and methodically kills them one after the other along with their boyfriends.

Part of what makes Michael Myers so terrifying and what many of the Halloween sequels got wrong is the fact that there’s no actual method to his madness. He’s not stalking Laurie Strode because she’s his long-lost sibling, which wouldn’t explain his other victims anyway, but because she’s caught his attention. Michael Meyers is an enigmatic figure that obeys no known pathology and is someone that has frightened his psychologist into believing he has to put down like a rabid animal. His silence is deliberate because we can’t pierce the interior of his soul. Michael, rather than a flat character, is an enigmatic one and thus one of the greatest slashers of all time.

The movie also makes a good decision in letting us get to know Annie, Laurie, Lynda, and other characters are all given ample time to become likable. Unlike the flat characters of imitators, including future Halloween sequels, the movie gives Michael’s victims enough room to grow. It’s not immediately obvious who will live and who will die either. While new viewers may suspect that Jaime Lee Curtis will be the only survivor, they’d not be entirely correct and that’s part of what makes the movie fun.

Above all, Haddonfield, Illinois feels believable (except for the occasional palm tree in the background). There’s a kind of small town feel that isn’t hackneyed enough to be silly but is retro enough to be authentic. The evil of Michael Meyers is something that’s a stranger to the community, even though almost all the teenagers are dying to escape the place. Sheriff Brackett is way in over his head despite his desperate desire to protect not only the community at large but his daughter, Annie, in particular.

John Carpenter is a master of ratchetting up tension and his use of his ultra-simple Halloween piano motif is enough to make the movie. Whenever that few bars start playing, the audience’s fear goes into overdrive. Michael Meyers car is often in the backgrounds of shots, showing that he’s already begun to stalk our helpless teenagers. The fact there’s actual children at risk also increases the tension. Michael is the kind of monster who won’t spare the innocent and Laurie’s concern for them is enough to make her as well as a survivor.

In simple terms, if you haven’t watched Halloween, rectify that immediately.

Buy Halloween (1978)

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REVIEW: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms follows Yeine, a nineteen-year-old who, at the novel’s beginning, is invited to visit her family seat by her grandfather Dekarta Arameri. The family seat is the city of Sky which is the heart of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and includes a beautiful and impressive floating palace. The reason for Yeine’s invitation is soon revealed and is a surprise to all in attendance. Dekarta names Yeine as his heir which I imagine would have been an excellent revelation if two of her cousins weren’t already assigned as heirs. To explain his thinking, Dekarta states the below, which sets up the story nicely as Yeine moves to Sky with her relatives, with its political disharmony, and with its Gods that walk the palace corridors.

“It is very simple. I have named three heirs. One of you will actually manage to succeed me. The other two will doubtless kill each other or be killed by the victor. As for which lives, and which die—” He shrugged. “That is for you to decide.”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is presented in the first-person perspective and follows events over a couple of weeks after Yeine arrives in Sky. As a new addition, she has to figure out how things work in Sky, try to make friends and allies, whilst also trying to uncover how and why her mother was murdered which happened prior to her arrival. In addition, she has started having frequent strange dreams and visions.

My favourite aspect of this story was the Gods and the way they mingle with and converse with the inhabitants of Sky. There are four of these Gods and they are essentially prisoners of a great God War. They could be considered slaves or weapons and have to abide by the demands and requests of the ruling family. Yeine included. The way these Gods are presented is similar to the Gods in Malazan Book of the Fallen. I adore it in stories when the Gods have human qualities and characteristics all whilst being much more powerful, intimidating, mysterious and even mischievous. It’s interesting here that the Gods, although still formidable beings, are restrained by mortals. My favourite scenes involved Nahadoth (the Nightlord) and his son Seih. The lore and history surrounding the Gods was a joy to read. This is presented to readers through Yeine discussing what she learnt in history books or from the mouths of the Gods themselves in conversations with her.

“We can never be gods, after all–but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an enchanting and majestic fantasy read. The novel is written in an eloquent manner and is engaging in the way that it focuses on Yeine’s relationships with her family, the people of Sky, and the Gods. Her cousins make fine characters although I didn’t see as much of her drunken cousin Relad as I’d have hoped, but I do have a soft spot for drunks in fiction. With a title as grandiose as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, it was surprising that the majority of the events take place in Sky alone and we are witness to little that happens elsewhere. As Sky is the centre and controlling nation of these Kingdoms though, the title does make sense yet I do hope that in the following books of the series we do visit other cities and sections of Jemisin’s crafted world. Overall, I had an extremely positive experience with this book, my first time reading Jemisin. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was an addictive tale that I devoured within four days and I am definitely planning to continue this series and to check out more of the author’s back catalogue.

“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”

Buy The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

Another of Jemisin’s books Stone Sky appeared on GdM’s best of 2017 list.

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12 SF must reads for grimdark fans

Coming off the back of finishing the brilliant SF romp Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan I asked the Grimdark Magazine reviewer team what they thought were the must read SF books for grimdark fans. With plenty of grit, epic battles, galaxy-spanning stories, crushing government control, mafias, technology that can extend life or tear you to shreds in nanoseconds, and hard as nails characters to drive the stories, these noir and cyberpunk SF stories are exactly what you need to branch out from fantasy and get into the dark as the void stories of SF.

Altered Carbon

It’s the twenty-fifth century, and advances in technology have redefined life itself. A person’s consciousness can now be stored in the brain and downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”), making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen. Onetime U.N. Envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Resleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats existence as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning.

GdM Review: Link

The Horus Heresy

After thousands of years of expansion and conquest, the imperium of man is at its height. His dream for humanity nearly accomplished, the emperor hands over the reins of power to his warmaster, Horus, and heads back to Terra. But is Horus strong enough to control his fellow commanders and continue the emperor’s grand design?

God’s War

Nyx is a bel dame, a bounty hunter paid to collect the heads of deserters – by almost any means necessary.

‘Almost’ proved to be the problem.

Cast out and imprisoned for breaking one rule too many, Nyx and her crew of mercenaries are all about the money. But when a dubious government deal with an alien emissary goes awry, her name is at the top of the list for a covert recovery.

While the centuries-long war rages on only one thing is certain: the world’s best chance for peace rests in the hands of its most ruthless killers. . .

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.

Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard’s assignment–find them and then…”retire” them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn’t want to be found!

Heroes Die

Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.

At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet–and bound to keep his rage in check.

But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds…

Neuromancer

Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he’s ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The Fifth Season

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.

The Real Story

Author of The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, one of the most acclaimed fantasy series of all time, master storyteller Stephen R. Donaldson retums with this exciting and long-awaited new series that takes us into a stunningly imagined future to tell a timeless story of adventure and the implacable conflict of good and evil within each of us.

Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate and a murderer; even the most disreputable asteroid pilots of Delta Sector stayed locked out of his way. Those who didn’t ended up in the lockup–or dead. But when Thermopyle arrived at Mallory’s Bar & Sleep with a gorgeous woman by his side the regulars had to take notice. Her name was Morn Hyland, and she had been a police officer–until she met up with Thermopyle.

But one person in Mallorys Bar wasn’t intimidated. Nick Succorso had his own reputation as a bold pirate and he had a sleek frigate fitted for deep space. Everyone knew that Thermopyle and Succorso were on a collision course. What nobody expected was how quickly it would be over–or how devastating victory would be. It was common enough example of rivalry and revenge–or so everyone thought. The REAL story was something entirely different.

In The Real Story, Stephen R. Donaldson takes us to a remarkably detailed world of faster-than-light travel, politics, betrayal, and a shadowy presence just outside our view to tell the fiercest, most profound story he has ever written.

The Diamond Age

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.

Babel 17

Babel-17 is all about the power of language. Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is involved in a war with the Invaders, who have been covertly assassinating officials and sabotaging spaceships. The only clues humanity has to go on are strange alien messages that have been intercepted in space. Poet and linguist Rydra Wong is determined to understand the language and stop the alien threat.

Neon Leviathan

A collection of stories about the outsiders – the criminals, the soldiers, the addicts, the mathematicians, the gamblers and the cage fighters, the refugees and the rebels. From the battlefield to alternate realities to the mean streets of the dark city, we walk in the shoes of those who struggle to survive in a neon-saturated, tech-noir future.

Twelve hard-edged stories from the dark, often violent, sometimes strange heart of cyberpunk, this collection – as with all the best science fiction – is an exploration of who were are now. In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett, Philip K Dick, and David Mitchell, Neon Leviathan is a remarkable debut collection from a breakout new author.

Looking for more SF recommendations for grimdark fans?

T.R. Napper, author of cyberpunk SF collection Neon Leviathan just so happens to have completed a doctorate in cyberpunk. Head on over to his cyberpunk primer and get right into the nitty gritty of this brilliant SF sub genre.

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REVIEW: The Last of Us 2

Ever get the feeling that you’re not in the majority of a public opinion? I feel like Grimdark Magazine‘s review is going to be this way because the rating I’m giving The Last of Us 2 is an extremely high one. 9 out of 10 and it would be higher if not for the fact that it is being compared to its predecessor. I’m a fan of the gameplay, the visuals, the stories, and the characters. The game is a real gut punch in places but that’s exactly what the developers were going for and they achieve it. I’m going to talk about what I think some of the reviewers have a problem with and why I think it makes the game better (at least to grimdark fans).

One thing to discuss before we begin with is the fact that this is a direct continuation of The Last of Us, which is a bit different than a sequel. Many of the themes, ideas, and storytelling beats depend on you having a familiarity with the first game. If you’re unfamiliar with The Last of Us, you basically shouldn’t play this game. That’s not necessarily the case with many other franchises as nothing really hurts you if you play Uncharted 2 or Dragon Age 2 separately from the first game. If you want to play The Last of Us 2, boot up the original game and play it first. If you don’t care, then I’m going to spoil the hell out of the first game and how it relates to the continuation below.

Do you consider yourself warned?

Okay then.

The ending of The Last of Us is a delicious use of what literature teachers like I used to be call dramatic irony. Joel and Ellie travel across a post-apocalypse Earth overrun with fungus zombies (called cordyceps) to deliver the latter to a group of scientist-terrorists called the Fireflies. Ellie is the sole human immune to the zombie plague and in her brain lies the secret to the cure. The Fireflies then reveal that to make the cure, they must chop up poor 14-year-old Ellie’s brain. Joel, in a fit of paternal instinct, murders all of them and carries Ellie away to a walled town called Jacksonville. It’s one of the best endings of all time and equally one of the most controversial because both sides believe they’re the right side.

Before we continue, I should state I’m with Joel and I hate every one of the Fireflies with a passion reserved for Walder Frey or the Southern Union in Mafia III. If you subscribe to Utilitarianism, then it’s a perfectly valid decision to chop up a little girl to save the world. If you don’t, then they’re a bunch of murderers. A lot of good science fiction has been made from this very premise including Cold Equations and Those Who Walk Away from Omelas. Joel’s act that restores his humanity is the same act that may doom humanity, but I don’t remotely condemn it.

The game picks up immediately after this as Joel does his best to reconnect with Ellie despite the gulf existing between them. Eventually, Joel manages to win her over and they forge a life together as father/daughter. Unfortunately, Joel can’t escape from his actions and he’s eventually tracked down by a girl named Abby (Laura Bailey) along with her friends. They’re here for revenge on the sonofabitch who murdered all the Fireflies. I won’t spoil what happens next but Ellie proceeds on a mission to murder Abby and her friends in a decidedly cyclical act of revenge.

In simple terms, I love this story and it reminds me a lot of the Coen Brothers’ version of True Grit. The Last of Us and post-apocalypse stories in general are very often reskinned Westerns. Hell, the title of my second most famous book is Cthulhu Armageddon: A Post-Apocalypse Western. I’m very much a fan of the latter incarnations of the Western like Unforgiven that highlight the hero being barely any better than the quarry they seek. Ellie’s survival in the rough and tumble world of the fallen United States has meant she’s become more like Joel than the child she used to be. I like that as it resonates me a lot with the same sort of themes that I enjoyed in the early seasons of The Walking Dead.

Part of what makes the story work for me is that we do get to follow Abby enough to understand that, essentially, she and Ellie are identical. Both are daddy-loving down-home girls who are forging their lives as best they can in the hellscape they’ve found themselves in. They settle on murdering the people who ruined their families, only to bring holy hell down each other’s lives as more people get involved in their vendetta. If you have any knowledge whatsoever of blood feuds in real life such as the kind that afflicted Sicily, Albania, or other nations then this is true to life. Real life rarely works like John Wick. It’s much more like Taken 2 where you find out that even scumbags have friends, family, and loved ones.

Some reviewers have expressed a disdain for the game’s narrative. They dislike Ellie’s journey from being an adorable innocent (which she never was) to someone who is willing to commit murder to avenge her loved ones. They also dislike the fact that Ellie very consciously chooses revenge over building a life for herself as well as other survivors. There’s also the fact that Ellie is an LGBT+ protagonist, one of the few in modern gaming, who goes through nine different kinds of hell to enact dreadful retribution on those who wronged her. Honestly, I think it’s a credit to Naughty Dog that they gave such a meaty story to not only a woman but a queer one. Arya Stark is beloved because she’s Death’s Chosen, not because she was a sweetie pie. Though she was both now that I think about it.

Gameplaywise, the game is fine. It’s pretty much The Last of Us with the addition of the fact that Ellie can now swim. There’s a bigger focus on mortal enemies than there is on the cordyceps but I’m fine with that. This isn’t a game about the fungus apocalypse but the effects on humanity after the survivors have managed to weather the worst of it. I think humanity will survive without a vaccine but it’s because we’ve become a bunch of hardass brutal survivors. We just need to keep the Ellies and Abbys of the world from killing each other. Visually, the game is gorgeous and a lot of it is just going to be you stopping to look at the “Fallout 4 if it was real” natural beauty.

So, ignore the naysayers and pick this up if you don’t mind a pair of blooded cold-blooded killer gals on a mission to take the other out. I certainly don’t.

Buy The Last of Us 2

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REVIEW: Crossfire by Matthew Farrer

Judge, jury and executioner in the Judge Dredd mould, the Adeptus Arbites act as the long arm of the law on the countless planets of the Imperium. Largely overshadowed in the fiction of the 41st Millennium, Crossfire is an exception, though the Arbites are perhaps to become more notable in light of the upcoming Warhammer Crime line.

Matthew Farrer’s Enforcer novels (Crossfire, Legacy and Blind) are a marvellous depiction of the work of the Arbites. Let’s pick the first, Crossfire to concentrate on.

Shira Calpurnia is our protagonist, a high-flying member of the Adeptus Arbites, promoted to arbiter senioris on Hydraphur, an important harbour for the Imperial Navy. The first chapter has Calpurnia getting an injection from a member of the Order Biologis. It’s a wonderful combination of hard-ish science fiction (transferring to a new planet with a new ecosystem might well require shots, same as travel vaccination) and the religious dogma of the far future. In some ways, this is comic, like having to attend high mass before you can send a parcel at the post office.

Then an attempt is made on Calpurnia’s life, thrusting her directly into the workings of Hydraphur during the lead-up to a religious festival, all before the arbiter can find her footing in a new job on a new planet. She is used to simpler religious practices and a less convoluted power structure. Beside her, we are slowly introduced to Hydraphur.

Farrer, in a brilliant authorial decision, precedes each chapter with an entry from a Hydraphur almanac, covering the events and religious obligations of the day in detail. Days with ceremonial feasts or fasts; days when all motor traffic is banned; days where it is inappropriate to call on naval personnel; days in which the faithful should prepare the correct instrument for self-flagellation. (‘Children too young for scourging should assist in sharpening their parents’ blades as a way of preparing them for the age when they will participate.’)

This is not the only Warhammer 40,000 novel to concentrate on civilian life; Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn trilogy is also worthy of note. But Crossfire is centred on the Imperium. No heretic plot or alien invasion is on the horizon, which, without spoiling too much, rather makes the events of Crossfire that much more depressing.

Legacy and Blind continue Shira Calpurnia’s career around Hydraphur. Legacy has strands of action converging on Hydraphur, rather like Crossfire. Blind manages the feat of setting a murder mystery in a telepathic communications facility, like a grimdark version of Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man –shedding some light on the workings of a portion of the Imperium neglected by fiction. However, the feudal, divided Crossfire, with its ticking clock of almanac pages and dive into Hydraphur’s deadly power struggles remains a favourite of mine, and a worthy addition to your library.

Buy Crossfire by Matthew Farrer

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Cover Reveal: Ash and Bones by Michael R. Fletcher

First, a huge thanks to Grimdark Magazine for hosting all these cover reveals for me over the years! Your support and kindness and patience with that project that I’m so late on finishing (it really is Mark Lawrence’s fault!) is truly appreciated.

Right. On with the reveal…

If you cast your thoughts all the way back to September 1st, 2019 the first thing that will no doubt come to mind is GdM hosting the cover reveal for Smoke and Stone. I babbled as I usually do on these things, whinging about being broke and how that evil genius, Felix Ortiz, tricked me into hiring him to do the cover art.

Well, I’m here to tell you that things have gone steadily downhill!

Here is the problem with hiring an amazing artist for the first book in your planned trilogy: If you want all the following books to look as good and click on a thematic level, you’re going to have to keep hiring them. It really was a terrible oversight on my part. And now this is where I really fucked up. Felix did such an amazing job on Smoke and Stone, that I hired him to do the Black Stone Heart (The Obsidian Path #1) cover. He has now done the cover art for the first books in two different trilogies! I’m stuck with him until I finish writing all these damned books!

To make matters worse, this time Felix did the typography. His work was so much better than what I did for Smoke and Stone, that I’ve since hired him to redo the typography for that book!

Luckily, he is insanely easy to work with and madly talented.

Each time I spew deranged descriptions and shout colours and feelings at him, he comes back with something that completely crushes my expectations.

And so…

Check out the Ash and Bones blurb and get excited!

Smoking Mirror spoke in smoke and stone.

Having returned Mother Death to Bastion, Nuru flees to the inner rings. The Loa heretics seek to turn her to their own ends and topple the nahual from power. Having murdered her husband, Mother Death plots to reclaim the underworld as her own. As Bastion crumbles around her, Nuru contemplates the ultimate blasphemy: A world without gods.

Broken by his battle with Mother Death, Akachi awakens with renewed purpose. He must hunt the blasphemers who would destroy his beloved city. Armed with the Staff of the Fifth Sun he stalks Nuru through Bastion’s rings. The survival of all humanity rests on his shoulders.

Nothing is as it seems. Smoking Mirror, god of discord and strife, plots behind the scenes. He manipulates gods and men alike in a game as old as time.

From the lowest Grower to the gods at her heart, Bastion is once again at war.

Buy Ash and Bones by Michael R. Fletcher

Use the author’s link, here: http://mybook.to/AshandbonesEbook

The post Cover Reveal: Ash and Bones by Michael R. Fletcher appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

An Interview with Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison is a New York Times best-selling author of The Hollows Series, The Madison Avery Series, The Peri Reed Chronicles, and two graphic novels that take place in The Hollows world. Kim Harrison sat down with GdM to talk about her newest addition to The Hollows series, American Demon. 

Kim, thank you for taking some time to interview with me. Your Hollows Series is back with a new story, American Demon. Did you always plan on starting a new story arc with the Hollows crew after The Witch With No Name? 

Hi, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk to your readers! Did I plan on restarting the Hollows after The Witch with No Name? Absolutely not! I crafted that epilogue at the end of WWNN so carefully, so lovingly, just trying to get it the perfect balance of happy ending and satisfaction. Rachel deserved a well-earned peace after what I put her through. But the main reason I wanted to step away from the Hollows was to stretch my writing muscles in ways that the Hollows universe couldn’t give me.

Several years spent on published and non published manuscripts with different characters in different worlds outside of that first-person narrative, however, and I began to feel a definite pull back to Rachel and the gang. I’ll be honest. Stretching my writing muscles was great and I learned a lot, but wow, stepping back into Rachel’s voice was truly like coming home. I hope that the readers feel the step from The Witch With No Name to American Demon is seamless. That happy ending epilogue is not out of reach, just put off for a few more years.

Rachel Mariana Morgan is a true heroine. I know leagues of readers consider her to be a role model. She is smart, tough, and loyal to her found family. Did she always start that way as a character, or did she develop over time?

Thank you! I love hearing that Rachel is both identifiable and likable in her sometimes bull-headed determination that the world be fair to everyone in it. I feel that she has evolved a lot over the books, not only making smarter decisions, but more inclined to listen to others in finding a solution that doesn’t involve fists and feet. She’s stronger even as her love for her widening found family makes her more vulnerable. This time, though, she knows it. Her core, though, is unchanged. She’s just being smarter about it.

For me, the aspect of the “found family” is the foundation of The Hollows series. When picking the supporting characters for Rachel, who is a witch, and who became a family for her, what made you decide on a pixy, elf, and Vampire?

Oh, the core of Rachel’s found family was a happy, glorious accident. I wrote the first chapter of Dead Witch Walking as a short story way back in 1999, I think. I was trying to break into print in the short story market, and the stuff making the cut back then was really, really weird at that time. I knew I couldn’t match the brand of odd that was being accepted, so I just threw together the three most oddball characters I could think of to see how they worked. A witch, a pixy, and a vampire in a bar sounded good to me.

Incidentally, the short story didn’t find print, so I stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it while I found publication with a more traditional fantasy at ACE. It wasn’t until Charlaine Harris and Jim Butcher began to make noise with LK Hamilton that I drew it from the dust and developed it into a full manuscript.

Al is one of the most fun characters to read and watch as he changes throughout the series. He was alternating between demon and foe, challenger, partner, friend, and eventually as family to Rachel. Where do you see his character heading now into American Demon and beyond? 

Al is one of my most favorite characters. He began as an almost stereotypical big-bad-ugly with lots of power and a bad attitude. But Rachel, ah, Rachel… When the time came to vanquish or learn to understand him, she took the harder road, and I’m so glad she did. She began to see past his anger, perhaps seeing it in herself. Rachel gave him trust, and he responded in a beautiful way. Unfortunately, overcoming prejudice is often five steps forward, three steps back, he and Rachel are again on the outs. Their relationship needs mending. I have yet to see how. His emotional wounds are eons old, and we will need to see his story in more detail before Rachel can even hope to understand.

In terms of the craft of writing, how do you see your books? Is it a linear progression, a story beat leading into the next. Or do you craft the stories around a specific scene and build out from there?

When Dead Witch Walking sold as a three-book deal, I was delighted. Long series were not the norm at that time, and I tried to structure the trilogy with a good, solid ending—only to find I had to joyfully adjust when the series was extended, and extended, and extended! It has truly been an honor and privilege to take my time within this world.

There has always been the long-time goal of saving Ivy’s soul, but I’ve written the series as a linear progression. Now, with the series restarting, I have a new goal, one that can stretch or shrink depending upon the readers’ desire to keep buying them. But in regards to crafting each individual story? It’s very linear. No jumping around.

You have written two graphic novels, Blood Crime, and Blood Work. How does the story creation differ from writing a regular novel?

It feels like ages since I worked on the graphic novels, but I really enjoyed them. In many ways, creating a graphic novel was much the same as my process for plotting out a novella. Beginning, middle, end all in fairly rapid motion with lots of movement and very little soul-searching character development. Because it’s so fast a medium, character development has to twine tightly with action. It wasn’t a bad exercise. Paring down my dialog was hard, but it’s amazing what you don’t need, especially when there is a visual for the reader to focus on. I enjoyed the chance to tell a story in a new way, and working with Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey was a treat. I don’t think I could ever top the experience, and so I haven’t looked into developing any more graphic novel titles. Quite often it’s not what, but who you get to work with that makes an experience.

Your action sequences leave me breathless. So exciting! How do you structure something like a fight scene or a magic scene? Have you researched fight techniques, or is it more by the seat of your pants?

Okay, now I’m smiling. I’m very much a seat of the pants when it comes to both magic and fight/action sequences. I try to write the fight scenes like sex scenes: know where everyone’s hands are at all times, and for every action, there is a reaction.

I did do some research in the form of getting two, now very dusty black belts in Hapkido and Taekwondo. Lately, my joints can’t take the stress–especially with Hapkido, which is my favorite–but it was a very fun span of my life.

I got to ask about the titles of the books, great puns from Clint Eastwood. How did that come about? I know there has got to be a fun story there. 

If I am remembering correctly, it was sort of an evolved, joint decision between me and my editor at the time, Diana Gill. Dead Witch Walking isn’t from a Clint Eastwood film, but we’d done The Good, The Bad, and the Undead, and Every Which Way but Dead, and it just seemed appropriate. Marketing wasn’t paying that much attention, and by the time they were, (and believe me, marketing has a big say in the books that they are interested in) the tradition was locked in. Now, as I continue the Hollows with Ace, and Anne Sowards, I am gratified to announce that the play on the Clint Eastwood titles will continue, and you can look for Million Dollar Demon late next year.

Finally, I love to ask this question. I call it the dinner party question. If you were having a dinner party and could invite any three people alive or dead, fictional or real, who would they be and why?

Oh, squirrels. This is a hard question. Just off the top of my head, I’d love to have dinner with Ray Bradbury as he was the first author (at the tender age of ten?) who showed me the most dangerous monsters are those who live among us. Second, Michelle Obama, to get her take on the world. She’s got stories to tell. And thirdly, I’d want my husband, Tim, there, because he would keep the conversation flowing so I could listen and learn instead of talking and coming away with nothing.

Thanks so much for this. It was a lot of fun to talk to your readers.

Check out Kim Harrison’s recent release American Demon

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REVIEW: American Demon by Kim Harrison

Sometimes the end of something is just the beginning of a new chapter. Things don’t have to end. Characters don’t have to stop because, with some, there is so much more story to tell—case in point, American Demon, the first book in the extended Hallows universe.

I am so happy they are back.

Kim Harrison has brought back our favorite “itchy witch” as well as many of our other favorite characters. I am looking at you, Bis. Things are a bit different, and people are moving on with their lives; some are moving into new phases. But Rachel is Rachel, and where there are mischief and catastrophe, you know she will be right there righting the wrongs and sticking up for her friends. In this story, someone has sent an entity called a Bacu after Rachel and her friends. It is a creature that strips your aura level by level, eventually driving you mad. Who sent it and why are they doing these things is the big mystery. We have a few new characters to enjoy and learn about. One is an elf. The other is a demon; both seem like a lot of fun and should prove more important as new books and stories are written.

One of the best qualities of The Hallows series is consistently good writing and engaging stories. You would think after 14+ books that the writing might become a tad stale or the life might have fallen out of the stories. You would be wrong. Every novel in The Hollows series is entertaining; some books have more pivotal plot points than others. Like any long story, they all flow together in a fun saga that is great for the reader and will have you cheering Rachel Morgan’s antics by the end of the book. However, if you are new to the series and want to come into it from this book, Harrison gives enough backstory and character information that allows any new readers to feel at home. But, I think with a series this big, it is always better to start at the first book so that you won’t miss any of the fun characters’ subtleties or references. Either way, you are covered and will have a good time.

The action is fun, the banter is standard great for The Hollows, and Trent and Rachel are lovely. I recommend this to lovers of urban fantasy and read American Demon, or better yet start at book 1; you won’t be disappointed.

Buy American Demon by Kim Harrison

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REVIEW: Boy in the Box by Marc E. Fitch

I received an advance reading copy of Boy in the Box in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Marc E. Fitch and Flame Tree Press.

A decade ago four friends decided to go hunting in Coomb’s Gulch as their way of celebrating for a stag weekend. Jonathan was getting married and for this getaway, he was accompanied by his friends Conner, Michael and Gene. Lots of relaxing, drinking and hunting ensued and the group were having an excellent time. That was until one drunken evening when they decided to hunt after dark and instead of shooting an almighty stag, they killed a young child who for some reason was alone in the forest that night. Faced with the almighty dilemma of what to do, and not wanting this unfortunate freak accident to ruin their lives, the friends bury the boy in a box, leaving his body hidden in the Adirondack Mountains.

They vow not to speak of this incident to anyone. For the main character Jonathan, guilt and regret have slowly taken hold of his existence. The same can be said for Gene who around the ten-year anniversary mark of the event took his own life. Following Gene’s tragic death and a revelation that a road is going to be constructed through Coomb’s Gulch where the child is buried, Jonathan, Conner and Michael decide to return to the scene of the crime. They are determined to make sure that their secret remains just that but, as the back of the novel says… “they are walking into a trap – one laid for them long ago by something that has watched them for years – haunting, plotting, slowly working to take control of their lives. And it demands a sacrifice.”

Boy in the Box was the first novel of Marc E. Fitch’s that I have read if I had to summarise the story in one word then that word would simply be: dark. It is a creepy and chilling horror tale with a hauntingly foreboding atmosphere that incorporates elements of the paranormal. I read a lot of violent and gritty novels, play brutal and extreme video games, and adore twisted and surreal Asian horror films. Because of this, I believe that my emotions may have hardened and many things that should be sick or shocking have no effect on me. That being said, reading Boy in the Box did certain things to me and I can’t actually remember the last time a book affected me this way. Even typing this whilst thinking about it my skin is starting to go prickly, tingly and raising into goosebumps. Boy in the Box had a hypnotic descriptive manner with poetic delivery, and when I was reading it I often felt as just discussed. I’m dramatically aware that when reading it, in certain sections, the pace of my heartbeat changed. Boy in the Box raised many emotions from my stone heart and led me to truly think about what was happening.

Although it may seem to have a simple premise, Boy in the Box is multi-layered and deep. It’s an intelligent novel. Some parts were a tad too clever for me as I didn’t understand them completely but I think that is part of what is intoxicating. The meaning is just behind the veil, under the surface, behind the curtain and I’m nearly there, nearly getting it but not quite. This is synonymous with certain themes presented in the narrative. I’d love to know what Fitch’s inspiration was for Boy in the Box and how it got so emotive, dark and full of despair and what, if any, personal demons influenced his writing leading to the harrowing finished product. Fitch is a gifted wordsmith and he has admirable deftness for crafting sinister imagery.

To conclude, Boy in the Box is a very good novel but did I enjoy reading it? I really don’t know. My mind really hasn’t quite computed what happened to it when reading this story. I can safely say though that Boy in the Box is something both unique and special.

Buy Boy in the Box by Marc E. Fitch

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REVIEW: Shattered Hopes by Ulff Lehmann

Shattered Hopes by Ulff Lehmann is the sequel to Shattered Dreams and the second novel in the A Light in the Dark series. I very much enjoyed Shattered Dreams because it was a nice harsh piece of military fantasy that showed just how the introduction of magic to war would result in a complete transformation of how it’s fought. It is an interesting mix of gritty on-the-ground action and a “return of magic” scenario that reminds me a bit of Jon Snow’s part of A Song of Ice and Fire combined with the War of Five Kings.

The sequel picks up immediately after the events of the original novel, which I understand is because they were originally one larger Tolkien-esque omnibus. The primary protagonist, Drangar, is recovering unnaturally fast from his injuries in the previous adventure. The others are struggling to repulse the Chanastardhian army that has shattered every single defense they have up until this point. They now have the power of a single sorceress, Easlisaid, that is able to do incredible damage to their enemies’ forces but is a resource that could easily kill herself through overexertion.

We get a lot more insight into the Chanastardhian forces this book with the introduction of Mireynh. The commander of the forces is a Stannis Barthaeon-esque fanatic who has nothing but contempt for any soldier who surrenders or (worse) switches sides. This causes a severe issue for his army as he wants nothing to do with those who might join his cause. His own followers are appalled by his actions as he forces the conflict into one where the only option is to utterly crush their enemies.

The big appeal of Ulff Lehmann’s writing is that he takes A Song of Ice & Fire approach to the conflict. No one, not even Drangar, is so central to the conflict that they will decide it on their own. Instead, much of the book is about getting perspectives from each side as well as multiple classes. We know what it’s like to be a soldier defending the walls, a nobleman plotting the attack, and peasants just caught up in events.

I think my favorite part of the book is the unusual friendship that emerges between Kildanor and Drangar. Kildanor comes from a society where magic never went away and is an immortal wizard. His perspective on the conflict going on is that it’s just a battle between men and completely unimportant. He’s much more interested in the dark side of magic’s return and how it could potentially change the course of life on their planet. Drangar is a traumatized PTSD-suffering soldier who doesn’t really care about the larger matters at work. It’s an interesting contrast to Easlisaid who is using that very world-changing power to affect the “petty war.”

If I have any complaints about the book, it’s that Ulff Lehmann doesn’t particularly care to fill you in on the events of previous books or remind you of who is who. Characters show up and you are expected to remember who they are as well as what they did in the previous chapters. There’s no hand-holding going on and it can be a bit disconcerting if you read the previous book months ago.

In conclusion, Shattered Hopes is a solid piece of dark military fantasy. I think fans of Ulff Lehmann’s first book will enjoy the sequel and want to carry on to the next book. It is an old fashioned epic and benefits from avoiding the cliches of good vs. evil in the battles within. Mireynh may be a bastard but no one’s hands are clean.

Buy Shattered Hopes by Ulff Lehmann

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