Adrian Collins's Blog, page 23

REVIEW: Avowed

Avowed is a hotly anticipated action RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Hotly anticipated because Obsidian have credit in the bank for acclaimed 1st/3rd person RPGs like Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds.

To add to the anticipation Avowed takes that pedigree and sets it in the established Pillars of Eternity setting of Eora, which Obsidian have produced two successful isometric RPGs in. So we know that they’ve got form for this kind of game and there is a fully fleshed-out setting but does the game deliver?

Short answer, yes but your mileage may vary.

Plot wise, you are a Godlike – a person born with an affinity with one of Eoira’s many gods, but you don’t know which one.* Yes, finding out about that is a plot element that is a key part of the game. You are also an imperial envoy, sent by the Aedyran empire to investigate a spreading illness called the Dreamscourge which seeds to be emanating from a continent called the Living Lands.

* This manifests as having prominent growths on your face/head which the game allows you to turn off for aesthetic purposes but everyone can still ‘see’ that you’re a Godlike.

As your adventure continues you accumulate companions, seek to learn about the Dreamscourge and your relationship with your deity. There are the usual array of side quests from collecting bounties, fetch quests, treasure hunts and so on to help with levelling up and getting enough coin for some shiny new weapons, alongside a crafting mechanic to upgrade your existing gear.

Character and plot development comes mostly through conversations – either with your companions or folk you meet along the way, from the useless Imperial Ambassador, the terrifying Inquisitor Lodwyn, enigmatic Demelgan and the various inhabitants of the living lands. You have plenty of opportunity to choose what kind of character you are – although not enough for some people (and I’ll come back to that) and big choices to make. There was on in particular that I genuinely had to sit and think about which was the lesser evil and I like a game where the line between good and bad is nice and murky at times.

In my first run through I decided to play a good guy, trying to do the right thing even if it seemed outside my orders and I’m currently re-playing as a much more callous character. The early stages are a bit dull on a replay but I’m looking forward to seeing how things shake out when I do choose the more heartless path…

Avowed’s game mechanics are all very satisfying – the crafting is simple, combat is engaging and accessible and everything works really well.

The world exploration is fun but not challenging and it’s quite impressive how the developers have made levels with a relatively small footprint fold in on themselves to make the game world feel bigger.

To address some of the negative responses of the game, it feels like some people decided to hate on Avowed as soon as it was revealed you could choose they/them as pronouns in addition to the usual binary options. I’ve seen a load of review shorts/reels/tiktoks from exactly the sort of creators who are often annoyed at such things comparing Avowed negatively to other RPGS, especially Skyrim on the basis that you can’t attack NPCs that aren’t potential enemies in-game and you can’t pick up and throw items that are sitting about.

The notion is that this is a regression in game design/production and while I don’t necessarily disagree with that, it doesn’t get in the way of playing the game as intended and in these days of extreme crunch for game developers I’m not going to moan about some extra bells and whistles that don’t directly impact the game being omitted. Unless you’re super committed to going murderhobo in all your RPGs or have some ideological opposition to the game.

Visually, Avowed is stunning. The world is bright, vibrant and full of life, with the flora and fauna of the Living Lands dominating every vista, alongside some varied and epic landscapes. It’s not attempting to be photorealistic and nails a consistent fantastical tone that is convincing,

That brightness might not indicate a game suited to the average grimdark-enjoyer but the themes and setting of the game are as grimdark as it comes. You’re the envoy of a colonising empire in a land full of refugees and outcasts from your and other empires. You’re also an obvious outsider to both the people of the Living Lands but even your own Aedyran people given your Godlike mutations. You have to deal with the hostility of the locals, walk through literal sewers and slums, fight with street gangs, deal with religious zealots, make horrible choices over who lives and dies all while a soul plague is turning people and animals into psychotic zombies and the land itself seems to be trying to shake civilisation off at times.

It might not be knee deep in mud or involve much lurking in shadows, but at the very least it’s pastel-grimdark.

All in all, I really enjoyed Avowed and completed the main story in a few weeks (I have kids, so that’s maybe 30-40 hours) with enough interest to go back for a second run. It’s a solid action RPG that looks like it was styled by a botanist into psychedelics and was written by someone who cant decide if they should study theology or revolutionary theory. Great stuff.

Avowed was released on February 18 2025 and is available on XBox GamePass.

Play Avowed

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REVIEW: The Crimson Fire by Abel Montero

In The Crimson Fire, Abel Montero weaves an impressively ambitious tale of political intrigue, rebellion, self-discovery, and divine conflict that burns with promise and potential. It boldly takes the concept of ‘slow-burn epic’ to a whole new level, and those who show faith, patience and trust will be greatly rewarded (with some possible emotional distress and damage) by the end.

Look, as soon as I saw the words ‘gods walk among men’, I was SOLD (okay, and that fire cover might have been a selling factor as well). See, I am always a sucker for some wicked divine meddling, and The Crimson Fire delivers that in spades. We are transported into a breathtakingly epic fantasy world inspired by ancient Sumerian legends, where the gods have reigned undisputed for centuries, until now. The sparks of rebellion have been lit, civil war is close to breaking out, and the fate of the empire has fallen into the hands of a ruthless rebel with a penchant for chaos, a devoutly loyal servant to the Empire, and a troubled young noblewoman and her fiercely protective bodyguard; four mere mortals whose lives are all inextricably intertwined, whether they realise it or not.

Now, while I was instantly enamoured with Montero’s rich imagination, immersive world building, and evocative storytelling, it took me probably about half of the book before I started to feel grounded and engaged. See, similarly to Gourav Mohanty’s Sons of Darkness, The Crimson Fire is not your typical multi-POV epic with evenly rotating POVs. Instead, this book is divided up into 6 distinct parts, of which the first three each introduce one of the POV characters one at a time before leaving them completely behind and moving onto the next one. To me, this almost made it feel like we had a couple false starts, and I found myself desperately looking for any type of tension or main conflict to get me hooked into the narrative. 

But then, BUT THEN!, we hit Part 4, and things just went batshit crazy in the best way possible. Somewhere along the way I started to pick up on the red threads weaving this entire magnificent tapestry together, and soon I found myself in awe of Montero’s boldly unique storytelling skills. Before I knew it, I was completely invested in these characters’ lives, and I absolutely loved going through this entire wild emotional rollercoaster with them.

For me, the ladies absolutely stole the show in The Crimson Fire, and I loved that the majority of the pagecount was dedicated to the perspectives of the young noblewoman Shadi and her enigmatic yet fiercely loyal bodyguard Darjin (my favourite, I would die for Darjin). Their intense inner conflicts, both torn between duty and desire, had me absolutely glued to the page, and their storylines contained the most satisfying character growth (go Shadi!!) and the most emotionally engaging character dynamics for me; not only between the two of them, but also between Shadi and her controlling mother, and between Darjin and the mysterious Tamer who she goes off on a high-stakes mission with.

Meanwhile, the rebel Eshfen and the Ensin Andik occasionally weave in and out of the narrative and pull at the strings in the background. While I never got very invested in them simply due to the limited time we got to spend with them, I found them both intriguing in their own right and I loved seeing how their (diabolical) actions caused huge ripple effects throughout the entire world in the most unexpected ways (looking at you, Eshfen).

And the more I read on, the more I realised that the scope of this story was truly beyond anything I could ever have imagined. The way that Montero slowly peeled back the layers of this world and these characters was so satisfying to me, and I was deeply fascinated by the intersectionality of the politics, religion, technology and magic in the world of Kenjir. And then add to that the wonderfully evocative prose, which just brought this sumptuous and aesthetically pleasing world to life before my eyes. Seriously, I would never have guessed that English isn’t Montero’s first language if I didn’t know, and I honestly think his beautifully immersive wordsmithery is on a level that most native English writers can only wish to reach.

Ultimately, the highs more than outweighed the lows for me, and I am not kidding when I say that I read the entire second half of this novel in one day. The ending was absolute fire (pun very much intended), leaving me equal parts shocked, satisfied, and utterly excited for the next instalment in the Memories of Kenjir saga. If you like your fantasy sweepingly epic, deliberately slow-burn, and filled with morally ambiguous characters who contain multitudes, then I can’t recommend The Crimson Fire highly enough.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read The Crimson Fire by Abel Montero

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Ellen Ripley, Action Hero

When Alien and Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, first hit cinema screens in 1979, Ridley Scott’s slow-burn space horror, culminating in the infamous chest-burster scene, had cinemagoers scrambling for the escape pods [1]. Alien and Ripley were a massive hit: the character starred in three more Alien films, as well as appearing in novels and video games. Now, more than 45 years later, Ripley remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the first female action heroes in Western cinema [2]. For this article, I’m looking at what makes Ripley a feminist icon and the most important female action hero of late twentieth century cinema.

Femininity and Feminism

Critics often undermine female action heroes, including Ripley, by claiming they lack femininity, and suggesting that women can only be action heroes under ‘exceptional circumstances’ like mental illness or maternal instinct. This overlooks the fact that male heroes are formed in the same ways and, even those who are driven by paternal instincts, this is never questioned. This sort of criticism also relies on upholding outdated gender roles and critics decrying female heroes as not ‘real women’ has the effect of discouraging female audiences from believing they too can be strong and independent. Ripley has not only been criticised for being unfeminine but also for failing to perform certain types of feminism. In the essay “Is Ellen Ripley a feminist?” [3], the character is deemed to fall short as a feminist because she doesn’t perform an excessively mothering, or caregiving, role. The essayist claimed Ripley only demonstrated these care focused ethics in her interactions with Newt. This fails to take into account Ripley’s consistent protective behaviour towards various vulnerable characters throughout the series. Her focus transcends individual identities, emphasising mutual survival in adversity and echoing the principles of intersectional feminism that highlight the vulnerability of the others [4]. She’s plenty feminist in my books.

With all the above in mind, Ripley is important not only for her role as a female action hero but also in the destabilising effect she had on gender roles in action cinema [5]. Ripley’s evolution expanded the definition women’s experiences in the late 20th century, creating space for other heroines to emerge. It seems progress in cinema requires the disruption of existing norms.

Anticapitalism

“Priority one

Insure return of organism for analysis.

All other considerations secondary.

Crew expendable.”

Long-time fans of the series will recognise the directive sent to the Nostromo in Alien. Special Order 937 demonstrates Weyland-Yutani’s priority of profit over personnel, which is a common feature of capitalist corporations. Something, I’m sure, we’re all aware of in this day and age.

Ripley puts the lives of her crew (and humanity at large) above the interests of Weyland-Yutani and strongly believes that the xenomorph must be kept away from the company and the rest of humankind. She knows they want to weaponise the alien for profit and while her primary concern is to protect others, she also works to disrupt the capitalist aims of Weyland-Yutani, making her an anti-capitalist hero.

 

“I don’t know which species is worse; you don’t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!”

Ripley, to Burke, Aliens

 

While there are examples of this anti-capitalist heroism in all four films, Ripley’s interactions with Carter Burke in Aliens definitely stand out. Burke goes to great lengths to stress the financial value of company assets in the film, citing “substantial dollar value” and the “multi-million dollar installation” in objection to Ripley suggesting the entire site of LV-426 should be destroyed from orbit. He also tries to convince Ripley to save a specimen because it would be “worth millions to the bioweapons division” and to do so would mean “we’d be set for life”. Despite his attempts to sway her with the prospect of a massive payday, Ripley rejects Burke’s ideas in favour of saving the lives of the colonists, marines and getting justice for those who have been killed.

 Ripley Recurring

When something works well we like to take that core recipe and repeat it, in the hope that we can recreate the magic we so enjoyed first time around. With Ripley we can see this both within and outside of the wider Alien franchise. Elizabeth Shaw (Prometheus), Daniels (Alien: Covenant) and Rain (Alien: Romulus) all have striking similarities to Ripley. All resemble Ripley physically and in their character progression: none are initially in positions of leadership; and all three end up having to find extraordinary strength and resilience not previously expected of them to survive. With Daniels, the comparisons are even deeper as she is—like Ripley—third in command, whose superiors die during the film. The promotional poster for Alien: Covenant closely echoes the image of Ripley in Aliens heading into the nest to rescue Newt. An image that also recurs in Alien: Romulus as Rain exits an elevator shaft gripping a pulse rifle, in search of her brother, Andy. With Alien: Earth coming this summer to streaming platforms, how will Ripley’s essence be represented this time around?

We don’t have to look far outside the Alien franchise to see the effects of Ripley’s success as a female action hero. Roles played by Milla Jovovich, for example, have followed Ripley’s path; Leeloo (The Fifth Element) and Alice (Resident Evil franchise) are both key as action heroes. How about Laurie Strode in the Halloween series, Sarah Connor from the Terminator films, and Furiosa of the newer Mad Max films? Where would they be without Ripley’s pioneering rise to action hero stardom? Even some of Weaver’s own roles outside of the Alien-verse also strike the image of a Ripley-esque, formidable woman, e.g., The Cabin in the Woods, Avatar or Rakka. Weaver has even reprised Ripley for the videogame Alien: Isolation as a voice-over artist.

Without the appearance and repeated success of the Ellen Ripley character, it may have been several more years before a female action hero was able to break through the boundaries of a traditionally male character type to allow for others to follow [6]. Without Ripley’s success proving that women can be action heroes and still attract revenue we may never have seen the likes of Leeloo, Alice, Laurie, Sarah or Furiosa [7].

Ellen Ripley is an iconic, gold-standard [8] badass [9], ‘the first action heroine’ [2], and a ‘boundary-busting’ feminist icon [6] to this day. Her longevity and continued relevance are testament to her strength as a character, and to her importance in cinema. She is a role model to many for her bravery and strength and is difficult to contain within one single set of rules or definitions. She can effectively wield a flamethrower and comfort an orphaned child; confusing both critics who would write her off as too manly and those who would complain she is too motherly and soft. Ripley’s impressive footprint in sci-fi history raises her to the status of legend and qualifies her to be counted among our grimdark ilk. Her many successes cement her as the most important female action hero of the late twentieth century, and long may it continue.

This article was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #42

References:

[1] The Beast Within: The Making of Alien, 2003

[2] Brooks, X. (2009) The First Action Heroine. The Guardian, 13 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009....

[3] Christian, A. (2017) “Is Ellen Ripley a Feminist?” In Ewing, J., Decker, K.S. and Irwin, W. (eds.) Alien and Philosophy: I infest, therefore I am. Hoboken; Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. pp. 166–177.

[4] Cho, S., Crenshaw, K.W. and McCall, L. (2013) Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis. Signs, 38 (4): 785–810. Available at: http://www.jstor.com/stable/10.1086/6....

[5] Purse, L. (2011) Contemporary Action Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[6] Erbland, K. (2017) ‘Alien’ Revisited: Nearly Four Decades Later, Ripley Is Still the Boundary-Busting Heroine We Deserve. IndieWire, May. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/ali....

[7] Sullivan, S. (2020) The Alien Franchise and Feminism. Medium.com, September. Available at: https://medium.com/feature-presentati...

[8] Williamson, J.L. (2017) Ellen Ripley, Alien, and the Rise of the Modern Ripleys. Available at: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/elle...

[9] Marceau, C. (2020) Greatest Feminist Icons in Horror #12: Ellen Ripley. Tilt Magazine, October. Available at: https://tiltmagazine.net/film/greates...

 

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INTERVIEW: Evan Leikam

Today, I’m delighted to chat with Evan Leikam, an exciting new voice in fantasy fiction and the host of the Book Reviews Kill Podcast. Evan’s first novel, Anji Kills a King, will be hitting shelves on May 13th, 2025, and it’s already creating buzz. As a lifelong fan of fantasy stories, Evan shared insights into his creative journey, the unique experience of shifting from reviewer to author, and his love for Powell’s Books.

[GdM] How did your background as a musician and music influence your storytelling approach? Does crafting a song feel similar to crafting a story? Do they occupy similar mental creative spaces?

[EL] I’m so happy I went through the process of learning instruments before trying to write. Trying to get better at guitar or drums etc. involves a lot of sitting with the frustration that comes with not being as good as you want to be. I learned in those formative musical years that you really just need to power through being disappointed with your output, and eventually you’ll start learning more and making things you’re somewhat proud of.

Also, most of the songwriting I did while playing in bands was a collaborative effort, so lots of arguing and compromise. There’s still some of that far into the editing process of putting a novel out, but I much prefer sitting alone with just myself and the manuscript for the bulk of the time the book is getting done.

[GdM] You mentioned being a game fan—how do video game elements influence your narrative style or world-building? What is your favorite game right now, and why?

[EL] My favorite games right now are the FromSoft Souls games (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Sekiro). Aside from the challenge the combat can bring, I love the way those games tell their stories (besides Sekiro, I guess, which is pretty clear). Everything you need to know is hidden in the items you find and the conversations you have, but it’s up to the player to dig deep and unravel the mysteries behind the lore. These games also go all out with their presentation of the world and beings and rules in it. There are surprises behind every corner, and just when you think you’ve got everything figured out a giant monster with eyeballs for kneecaps bursts through a wall. It’s amazing. I’m also a big fan of metroidvanias like Hollow Knight, Castlevania SOTN, and Ori and the Blind Forest, which are kind of like Souls games in their own right with regard to exploration and engagement.

Of course, games like The Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have inspired me to write, considering the vast and tangled stories they’re able to tell while presenting a terrific gaming experience. So much to glean from those ones.

I also enjoy Apex Legends, but I am absolute garbage at it. My main is Bloodhound.

[GdM] Clearly, books are your jam. Can you gush about an SFF novel that captured your imagination and tell us if it shaped any aspect of Anji Kills a King?

[EL] Absolutely. I think the early drafts of AKAK (before it became more my own thing) were largely influenced by Stephen King’s The Gunslinger and Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy. They world and stories aren’t exactly the same, obviously, but I loved the idea of two people traversing a wide and dangerous world (Gunslinger), and a character you love but kind of want to shake because they’re making suck terrible decisions (Farseer).

I was also reading a lot of Abercrombie at the time of finishing up the first draft. I love his dialogue, his realism, the personality he delivers. I don’t think I write anywhere close to Abercrombie’s standard, but his style encouraged me to let loose and pull emotion out of these characters and the situations they find themselves in.

I do also want to mention Sarah J. Maas’s character, Nesta Archeron, specifically in the book A Court of Silver Flames, which is from her point of view. Nesta has such a depth that I, as a reader, was almost reluctant to see or accept. I thought Maas did a wonderful job showcasing in Nesta how we might bury our feelings, our traumas, and our intentions under a thick layer we think more easy to express, one that would better serve us in a situation we wouldn’t want to be in. So while I wouldn’t comp mine and Maas’s books for their plots (or their romantic tension and release, sorry), I would say both the main characters of my story were inspired by characters like Nesta.

[GdM] Your podcast Book Reviews Kill dives deep into countless stories. Has analyzing other authors’ work ever shifted your writing approach?

[EL] It absolutely has. In order to have an entertaining and informative conversation about a story, you need to engage with it on a deep level. I’ve had to become maybe a bit more analytical than I’d like with some books, but I think learning how to pick them apart and understand why they work (or don’t work) for me was crucial in building my own.

[GdM] Which feels tougher—reviewing someone else’s story or bracing yourself for how readers might review yours? And how do you keep your inner reviewer from taking over when you sit down to write?

[EL] Great question. I’d say reviewing someone else’s work, now that I’m more familiar with the process and how difficult it can be, is much more difficult. I find myself saying “well, I didn’t like that, and I might not have done it, but it’s your book, it must have made sense to you”. As a reviewer, I’ve always been much more interested in debating the character choices, the plot lines, and revelations and climaxes etc. than picking apart the author’s prose or voice or pacing or whatever. I want to critique from inside the world, inside the fandom, more than I want to dissect someone’s approach or the “quality” of their craft, if that makes sense.

As for your question about readers and their reviews of my work: go nuts, y’all. I’m writing to the best of my ability and building stories I want to read and worlds I want to be in. If it isn’t someone’s jam, that’s totally fine. My priority is self-expression through an immersive story, and if people connect with that story and those characters along the way that’s incredible. If they don’t that’s okay too.

My inner reviewer seems to help quite a bit while I’m working, especially when I’m trying to work out a plot hole or character arc, but sometimes I have to tell him to go outside and touch grass while I get some actual words down. The worst thing I can do is get mired in the bog of self-doubt because I ended a sentence with a preposition.

Author Evan Leikam

[GdM] Podcasting and reviewing must be eye-opening. What’s one surprising storytelling lesson you’ve discovered through dissecting others’ narratives?

 [EL] As Vonnegut said: “Make sure your character wants something, even if it’s a glass of water.”

[GdM] What’s been the most rewarding part of creating bookish content online, and does it fuel your creativity, or do you sometimes feel pressure from it?

[EL] It sounds so cliché, but it’s the friends I’ve made along the way. The online reading community is incredible. There are so many conversations I’ve had and stories I’ve read that never would have come my way if not for Booktok and Bookstagram. I owe everything I have to those spaces. I’m still learning from being in them to this day, and I’m sure I’ll continue to do so.

There is definitely some pressure to keep putting out consistent content, but I think influencers and creatives will feel this in every medium for as long as the internet exists. Hell, it probably existed before the internet too. There’s always more you could be doing, better ways of entertaining and engaging with people. That sort of self-applied pressure is kind of always there, but having such an incredible community helps take some of it away.

[GdM] Can you tell us about your new novel, Anji Kills a King?

[EL] Of course. AKAK is about a young woman who works as a laundress in the depths of a castle. By chance, she finds herself faced with an opportunity to not only assassinate the ruler of the country she lives in, but to escape the city with her life. She actually makes it a fair distance from her old home, but she’s captured by a famous bounty hunter who is determined to drag her back to answer for her crimes. What follows is a sort of road-trip story from Anji’s perspective. She, of course, does not want to return with her captor to face torture and execution, and the bounty hunter certainly wants to get her there, but their exact reasons become more murky as we spend more time with them on the road. They’re also being hunted by…well, readers will find out.

I wanted to take someone arrogant yet insecure, passionate yet somewhat ignorant, eager but sort of sheltered, and throw them into an uncaring world and make them face the consequences of their actions, even if their heart was in the right place. It’s a bit of a self insert, and I’m kind of talking to myself sometimes in the book. I’ve felt so correct about things in my life, and it’s taken other people’s reaction to my own actions, in addition to experiences I never thought I’d have, to change my mind about the way I view the world. It can be a painful process, but ultimately so rewarding. That’s the essence of what I’m trying to capture with this book. Watching a character work through inner conflict and change for the better (maybe for the greater good) makes for a compelling read in any world.

[GdM] Tell me about Anji and Hawk—they have such compelling chemistry. How did. their dynamic evolve during the writing process?

[EL] Thank you! Without spoiling too much, the Hawk was initially a pretty one dimensional antagonist. I wanted someone to capture Anji, and that’s about as far as I’d taken her character before heavier revisions. I got a lot of inspiration for the Hawk from Kratos in God of War (2018), the Hound from ASOIAF, and Joel from The Last of Us. These are characters who know much more about the world’s hard reality than their younger counterparts, but they still have their own demons to grapple with.

Anji and the Hawk definitely have a tendency to bring out the worst in each other, and I kept a lot of that in, but they also underestimate each other. It was a really fun dynamic to write and work through.

[GdM] You start the novel boldly and bloodily—with a king’s assassination. Did you always know you’d start there with a proverbial bang or a slice of the carotid?

[EL] I actually wrote that prologue pretty late in the revising process. The book started with Anji in a tavern for the longest time, and I’d played around with giving the reader bite-sized glimpses into what had happened before Anji is caught, but I ultimately decided to have a small chunk at the very beginning just showing it all.

Personally, I like that the book starts with blood spurting all over Anji. No thought, no descriptions of the room or anything. It really lends a lot to how spontaneous and not very well thought out it was of her to do that. I’ll admit, however, that it’s a pretty gross way to start a book, for sure.

[GdM] As a debut author with an established online following, did knowing readers might analyze every detail embolden your writing choices? Or did it ever make you hesitate?

[EL] My mindset has been this pretty much from the beginning: I’m going to be critiqued no matter what, so I might as well do what I want. I hesitate if I think I can do better or squeeze more out of a scene or arc or something, but I try to stay as true to what I want it to be as I possibly can.

[GdM] I’m fascinated by the Menagerie, your masked bounty hunters. What’s the story behind their creation, and do you secretly have a favorite among them?

[EL] I knew I wanted more people chasing after Anji (I think the main inspiration for them was from 3:10 to Yuma, though that’s a little different of a dynamic), but I also wanted something different in this story—not just another group of people. Let’s make them legendary and mysterious, but kind of past their prime as well. Give them magical masks—that’s just a good time right there.

My favorite to write was the Bear. She’s just absolutely lost her mind. I literally had to make an effort to make her rants kind of nonsensical in their own way, but also kind of terrifying. So much fun to write.

[GdM] Your action scenes feel effortlessly cinematic. Was there a particular scene in Anji Kills a King that flowed naturally or required wrestling onto the page? Do you storyboard your fight scenes?

[EL] Thanks for saying that. I personally think my fight scenes could use some tuning up. I don’t like to read super technical fight scenes in books, so I tackled my own with maybe too firm of a grip if that makes sense. I don’t storyboard the fight scenes, but I try to remember to make them efficient in the sense that they should be exciting and also move the story or the character forward. A fight should reveal something or change something, not just be there for spectacle (my opinion and preference, of course).

 [GdM] Morally gray characters are the best. Did you struggle to balance Anji’s darker decisions with her likability, or did you wholly lean into the moral messiness?

[EL] It took a while to land on that balance. I think that’s where a lot of the revising went. By my 20th run through, I had a good idea of how Anji would react to things, what she would say, how her feelings evolved over the course of events. I want her to be proactive, but flawed, so dancing on that line took a lot of erasing and rewriting.

[GdM] Finally—and crucially—as a fellow Portlander (I just moved away) at heart, we need to settle this first: Can we officially agree Powell’s is the greatest bookstore on the planet?

[EL] Powell’s (especially the downtown PDX location) has my whole heart. That store was there for me when I moved to Portland and hardly had any friends or family to lean on. I wandered around in there with no money for hours and was never asked to leave. When, on occasion, I managed to scrounge a few bucks up, there was always a cheap used fantasy book on those shelves for me to dig into. I’ll take that gratitude with me to the grave.

This interview was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #42

Read Anji Kills A King by Evan Leikam

Read on Amazon

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REVIEW: The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison is the third novel of the Cemeteries of Amalo series and the fourth of the Chronicles of Osreth series. I was a huge fan of The Goblin Emperor, but I have really been enjoying the sequels that do not star Maia, but Thara Celehar. Thara is a Witness for the Dead, sort of a medium that communicates with the dead to find out whatever unfinished business they have. The world of Osreth is a steampunk fantasy world that is removing itself from the typical pseudo-Middle Ages that typically characterize fantasy.

The premise for The Tomb of Dragons is that Thara is assigned to try to unscrew the incredibly screwed up parish of a neighboring domain. Apparently, the current high priest hasn’t been doing his job for the better part of fifty years and there’s countless sacks of bones waiting to be buried. Given the nature of the world, it is an absolute wonder the place isn’t haunted to Hell. Thara’s problems go exponentially worse when he’s kidnapped by a group of miners that want him to expel a dragon’s ghost.

This is where the actual plot of the book begins, and it is an interesting one: the dragons of Osreth were all murdered by the mining company making use of poison gas. The mining company then proceeded to start mines in all of the dragon’s former territories. As Witness for the Dead, Thara must now get some form of restitution for the victims of the genocide. The problem is that much of the Empire depends on those mines still functioning and a good chunk of its citizens don’t view dragons as people.

These plotlines are just a couple of interwoven plots throughout The Tomb of Dragons. There’s a murder, a missing prince, Thara losing his abilities to talk to the dead, and a discussion of what his role is meant to be in the church. Katherine Addision handles all of these with aplomb, and they all manage to tie together in a satisfying way. Much of the appeal of these books is their ability to bring to life the society of Osreth while also having extremely evocative characters.

Unfortunately, I do have one complaint that a grimdark loving audience will appreciate: the good guys achieve their aims way too easily. Without getting into spoilers, the book makes it clear that there’s a lot of compromises that will have to be made to achieve a sense of justice. All the people who carried out the dragon genocide are long dead and people depend on the land that has been taken. The dragons also have no heirs that can be compensated for what has been done. Indeed, the dragons want revenge more than anything else.

Then everything just sort of works out. Honestly, this felt like a cheat given the heavy subjects of racism and genocide as well as reparations for past sins. While The Goblin Emperor was a bit on the cozy side of things, there was a lot of suffering and sacrifice to get to the happy ending. Here, it just seems to fall into Thara’s lap and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I wanted to. Maybe recent politics have made me cynical, but I would have appreciated an ending where the good guys have to accept an imperfect victory.

The Tomb of Dragons is an enjoyable book and fans of the previous ones will almost certainly enjoy it even more so. Even though I had some issues with the ending, and felt like it could have been a little less “cozy” so to speak, I strongly recommend it.

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REVIEW: Astrophobia: An Anthology of Space Horror

Astrophobia: An Anthology of Space Horror is an indie title releasing 13th May, 2025. Curated by Vesper Doom and featuring thirteen short stories of exquisite space horror by queer authors, there is something in here for all your horror needs. Each story comes with its own cover art, and from first to last all these stories pack a stellar punch.

The tales within Astrophobia look at a variety of aspects of the human condition, such as greed, desperation and loyalty, through differing fear-tinged lenses. The question of life and sentience appears more than once and, each time, it is interpreted freshly, offering an interesting diversity of perspectives on the matter.

With so much to choose from in Astrophobia, and while I can’t list all the contributions here, I’ve picked a few highlights from my read through. Although it is hard to pick a favourite. Gudskomplex by Freddie A. Clark stood out for the clever, twisted way they have asked, “What would sentient AI make of religion?”. The scenes painted in this story reminded me, in part, of the Dead Space game series (that I am a big fan of) and felt darkly cinematic.

Also in the scary-AI camp is Vesper Doom’s We are Here to Help, which feels like it could easily be a scene from something like The Expanse, or a precursor to a desperate, doomed rescue mission à la Aliens. Only with more gore.

Germination by Juniper Lake Fitzgerald made me wonder whether we, as humans, will be doomed in any first contact situation by our inherent fear and violence towards that which is different from us, while making me root for the non-human entity in this claustrophobic tale.

My last highlight, We Give Our Bodies to the Beautiful Dark by Joe Butler, takes some of the machinations of Moon (2009) and dials the grim factor up to eleven. Imagine waking up everyday for over a thousand years, knowing that you’ll only live for that one day, out on the very edge of space, and finding a message coming from the deep unabiding void you’re tasked with monitoring. Add in some body horror and this is what you get.

Across the book there is cosmic horror, cannibalism, body horror, death, blood, gore, violation of control, medical horror and more. Ultimately, in Astrophobia, it doesn’t matter which story you pick, you are guaranteed some juicy squick. These are some disquieting tales from the edges of humanity, out in the vast dark of space, that will interrogate some equally dark corners of our collective experience. Expect discomfort.

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The Case of Cozy Versus Grimdark

I have a confession to make, and I hope I’m not ejected from the GdM family for it: I like cozy SFF and I indulge in a good novel now and then. I know, I know, but honestly, Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) was like a Band-Aid on my heart and soul, and I eagerly await the release of the audiobook for the third and final novel in the Miss Percy series. Lighter novels make up about a third of my reading.

So, let it not be said that I’ve maligned our cozy brethren. Rather, I admire them and their ability to find a shining beacon of gentleness in the current climate. I appreciate the skill it takes to hold fast to the goodness that they find in their communities, and offer it back to us in literary form so that we can feel the glow of their affection through their pages.

And yet, my most recent review for GdM was for the recently launched novel Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen (thank you Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC) and it encapsulated everything I love the most in Grimdark. Without reiterating my review, Blood on Her Tongue was very much a book that celebrates women’s wrongs. As the world spins ever deeper into what feels like an IRL grimdark plotline, I find myself more stubbornly committed to seeking out stories like Blood on Her Tongue. Stories that have sharp, brittle edges. Stories of survival at any cost, stories that have split knuckles and bruised ribs because they’ve been fighting for their very existence against overwhelming odds. Stories that suffer that existence in a hostile environment, stories that spit in the face of the status quo.

Cozy offers an escape, and I do need the escape now and then. Reading cozy SFF is kind of like taking a vacation. The reader is invited to step out of their lives and into an indulgent bubble for a little while. The real masters of cozy, like Quenby Olson, are able to infuse that bubble with earnest emotion, nail-biting stakes, and well-earned happy endings. I appreciate the opportunity to sidestep my anxieties about reality.

Grimdark, on the other hand, is the ultimate comfort media. Grimdark is the genre of my heart and soul, because only in Grimdark can I find such broken, imperfect heroes as I found in Blood on Her Tongue. Grimdark makes space for my reality, wherein simply the act of existing feels like a rebellion against the suffocating system that tries to smother all resistance. Real life forces us into making impossible choices as we struggle to make ends meet, and Grimdark crouches down in that gutter with us to offer us a hand. Here, in this genre, we can find the clearest reflections of ourselves. We get to see the echo of our own impossible choices playing out in fiction, and we get the catharsis of hard-won victories on a personal scale.

On Grimdark pages, said victories are not guaranteed. Sometimes the price paid for them is devastating. Sometimes the heroes are so shattered by their journey that they are unrecognizable from the character we met on the first pages. Call me crazy, but that shattering is where I find comfort. After all, I am not the same person I was back on my first few pages. Life has pressed down on me from so many sides that there are fault lines in my assembly, sure to leave me quaking when they knock together too hard. But Grimdark tells me that I can still be the hero of my story, even though I am so imperfect, even though the options available to me may in fact leave only the possibility for a Pyrrhic victory.

So, I offer this from the pages of GdM: thank you to the cozy novels that let me take a vacation in your gentle worlds. Your genre gives me the rest and recuperation I need. But I can’t vacation from myself forever. Eventually, I have to come home to the detritus I’ve accumulated on my path through life.

And that home is built on a Grimdark foundation. I surround myself with Grimdark fables that acknowledge the inevitability of chaos, but celebrate the stubborn core of humanity and survival even in the whirlwind of entropy.

We do not go quietly, or softly, into the status quo. Thank you, fellow Grimdark fans, for being such good company.

This article was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #42

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INTERVIEW: Voice Artist Jeff Hays

I listen to many audiobooks; as someone juggling family life with an endless passion for reading, any chance to sneak in a good story is precious. Last year, I dove headfirst into the phenomenon known as Dungeon Crawler Carl. The book itself is amazing, but the audiobook series truly takes things to another level, thanks mostly to the incredible talent of voice artist Jeff Hays. Jeff is like a one-person theater with over 200 audiobooks to his credit; he brilliantly brought characters like Carl and Princess Donut to life with his voice acting.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff where we chatted about his approach to voice acting, his company Soundbooth Theater, and the voices he’s crafted to vividly bring Matt Dinniman’s story to life.

[GdM] Do you ever hear a character’s voice in your head when you’re not working? For instance, do they comment on your grocery shopping choices?

[JH] Haha, no. Fortunately the voices in my head get plenty of time to come out and play when I’m actually narrating. They’re content to keep to themselves and rest otherwise.

[GdM] What’s the longest you’ve ever had to record in one session, and how did you manage to get through it?

[JH] I’ve done 8-hour sessions before. That’s including small breaks of 5-15 minutes. As long as the voice I’m narrating with is close to my normal voice, I can do that with little issue. Never tried to narrate longer, but once I’m done with an 8-hour session, my voice is pretty tired but not painfully so.

On Dungeon Crawler Carl, I max out at about 5 hours. Carl’s voice is significantly deeper and more gravelly than my natural voice, so it fatigues my voice much faster. In fact, I really need to build up to sessions that long. When I narrate for DCC, I can feel my throat get uncomfortable, and it deteriorates in quality rapidly once I do.

[GdM] Vocal fatigue is real. What’s your go-to remedy when your voice is shot?

[JH] Whisky. Now, this is specifically the answer to the question AS WORDED. If my voice is SHOT, meaning it’s to the point it hurts or sounds bad, whisky can help me make it a few more minutes. But I haven’t done that in ages, and I don’t recommend it. I don’t recommend EVER narrating while your voice is shot, or recovery takes longer, and you may even damage your instrument.

To MAINTAIN a healthy voice for LONGER as you narrate, I recommend green or otherwise lighter colored hot tea, honey, and lemon.

[GdM] LitRPG, fantasy, sci-fi—you’ve done it all. Which genre feels the most like home for you?

[JH] LitRPG without question. I’ve done so many books in the genre, and so much of my business is catering to the LitRPG reader/listenership, that I’m always expecting stats, loot, game chat and snark in books that I read now! Though I love the genre, I do wish I worked more in different genres, just to change things up. As a reader, genre is not usually something I look for because I like it all and only really care about quality. But I am disproportionately attracted to noir and horror.

[GdM] Are there any dream books or series you would love to narrate?

[JH] The Aldair Chronicles by Neal Barrett Jr., The Reincarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony, Dragonlance by Weis and Hickman, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, anything by Dashiel Hammett…

[GdM] Jeff, let’s talk about Soundbooth Theater! Please give us a general overview for those unfamiliar.

[JH] Soundbooth Theater is the audiobook and Cinematic Audio production company that I started about 4 years into my narration career, in 2017.

As this company has grown—much faster than I could’ve possibly imagined, btw—my philosophy as a narrator and producer has spread throughout all the productions we now put out.

Fiction is made up. If I want listeners to stay engaged: as a narrator I have to convince them it’s real by feeling the way the author intends for the reader, whether broadly for the work as a whole or from one scene to the next, and channelling that to the listener.

Characters are the most important part of any story, so they need to be brought to life for the listener by the actors portraying them. The more closely the actor can believably sound how an author intends, or how a listener might imagine a character of that description, the more easily they can see those characters interact with each other within the work.

It wasn’t too long until I brought my true love, music, into our productions, and then sound effects. We’ve been practicing and slowly incorporating more and more of these elements into our productions, until the point we finally started making full-on audio drama. (Cinematic Audio sounds sexier, which is why we use that term, but we know audio drama is nothing new) And then, of course, when we got to a point that we wanted to produce more in this style, that’s when we made the decision to start our own distribution platform!

[GdM] Did you always envision it as the powerhouse it is today, or did it evolve organically?

[JH] Absolutely not. I figured the brand would help other narrators find success by giving us all a banner to share. Instead, it became a brand that meant quality, excitement and sincerity amongst listeners. Authors and publishers have noticed this, and now see our involvement in a project as a significant value-add, since throughout the years we’ve recognized our flagship titles and served them fantastically well by associating voices and sounds that resonate for listeners with them. Combine this formula with something as brilliant and widely appealing as Dungeon Crawler Carl, and now we’re almost a household name in the world of audiobooks, and I never would’ve imagined such success in my early-to-mid career.

[GdM] What was the catalyst for starting Soundbooth Theater? Was there a particular moment when you thought, “We can make this bigger and better?”

[JH] I was getting tired of working alone. I was happy to finally be creative in my work, but missed the social and cooperative aspect of being in a band. It wasn’t so much a business decision, as just a way to make my work more fun and exciting, and also to help other narrators find more success. Also… I was getting kinda sick of doing female voices. I got really good at them. That was one of the little tricks I was able to do to get a little extra attention back then, but not something I wanted to be known for the rest of my career. And of course, I believe that the best actresses are always just going to sound better. So, I found Laurie Catherine Winkel eventually, and recruited her to replace me in a series I was narrating in first-person as a female character (A Witch’s Path), then I found Annie Ellicott, I convinced her to stay at my house so she could do some female characters in my latest project, I directed her and trained her, and the rest is history.

[GdM] Soundbooth Theater is known for its full-cast performances, sound effects, and original music. What inspired you to push beyond traditional narration and create something more theatrical? Were you influenced by any specific full-cast audiobook or program?

[JH] There were some initial inspirations in audio drama. Locke and Key was pretty big when I first started narrating. I’d listened to Neverwhere in college. And as a toddler, I listened to a lot of storybooks on cassette from the library. But the real inspiration—for both audio in general and acting—has always come from film and TV, as the Cinematic Audio moniker implies. As a musician, I’ve always been obsessed with sound, so it was only natural that my desire to incorporate more sound into our productions would eventually result in this direction for me.

[GdM] What’s the ultimate dream project for Soundbooth Theater? What would you LOVE to produce without limitations or budget constraints?

[JH] Legends and Lattes! I’ve read both books in Travis Baldree’s series, and not only do I think we can bring it to life beautifully, but I think the format of the stories lend themselves really well to our production style and an episodic release. Plus, we could work with Travis on original stuff, make a sort of cozy sitcom out of it. (please don’t take that word with it’s often negative connotation, I think we could make a really compelling and heartfelt “sitcom”)

[GdM] Dungeon Crawler Carl has become a phenomenon. I powered through the series (books 1-5) and barely slept for two weeks, and “God Damnit Donut” has now entered my permanent lexicon.

[JH] Thanks for being obsessed! Apologies for the ear worm.

[GdM] The audiobooks are developing a cult-like following, primarily due to your incredible narration. When you first read Matt Dinniman’s work, did you immediately know it was something special? Did you think, “Yes… a talking cat with a Mid-Atlantic accent?”

[JH] I immediately knew I wanted to work on it, and that it fit my own tastes perfectly. However, that’s not often a good indicator of commercial success! I had no idea it would do even close to as well as it did, so for that I will always be bewildered and incredibly grateful.

[GdM] How did you develop Carl’s voice? Did you go through multiple iterations, or did he just come to you fully formed?

[JH] It was pretty much instant. I saw the picture of him on the cover, noticed he was a big, chill dude, and I’d been using my Patrick Warburton impression as a character voice for a long time, so that was already pretty well developed. He’s been in so many roles I loved, but always type-cast in this way, so it was a no-brainer.

HOWEVER, you will notice that Carl’s voice has developed even more over time, and he sounds pretty different from what he did in book 1. I would attribute that to me becoming more familiar with the character as the series went on and just naturally adjusting along the way.

[GdM] Does Matt ever play the “let’s stump Jeff” game with unusual accent combinations? For example, an Icelandic rugby player with a New Zealand accent and a lisp? Or perhaps a thousand-year-old surfer in the body of a teenager who is both Zen and keen on tasty waves?

[JH] Several times a book, now! Just listen and you’ll notice. I say BRING IT ON!

[GdM] Do you have a favorite moment or scene from the series that was particularly fun or challenging to narrate?

[JH] When Donut gives Bea the business. Listeners who’ve made it that far will know exactly what I’m talking about. The Butcher’s Masquerade is my favorite from the series, both in the story and my performance, and it also happens to be the only one I narrated cold. Meaning, I didn’t preread it before narrating. That scene caught me off guard, and made me tear up REAL bad. But the moment is incredible, and I still sometimes watch myself in the youtube video that’s out there and remember the feeling.

[GdM] Fans love your ability to make the humor hit just right. Comedy is generally tricky, but it seems like it would be doubly hard in an audiobook. How do you handle comedic timing when it’s just you and the mic?

[JH] It’s never just me and the mic. The scenes and characters are alive and vivid in my mind when I perform. Timing in a scene is an organic thing that happens between speech and thought for characters, so it emerges from the vision I have of them.

[GdM] With the series growing in popularity, would you be up for reprising your role if Dungeon Crawler Carl ever got an animated series or video game?

[JH] Hell yea!… for the right price. I’m VERY busy.

[GdM] Finally—be honest. Do you ever randomly slip into Donut’s voice when you’re off the clock? Maybe when ordering coffee?

[JH] Honestly, no. My character voices are for entertainment only! I keep my work and my personal life as separate as possible. At least when it comes to my voice.

Jeff Hays is a voice actor with tremendous range, a producer and narrator of over 200 audiobooks—including the beloved Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—a musician and composer and Founding CEO of Soundbooth Theater. His creativity coupled with unrelenting ambition led him to launch Soundbooth Theater at the crossroad of these mediums.

This interview was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #42

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REVIEW: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

There’s dark academia, and then there’s The Library at Hellebore, the latest dark fantasy horror from the mind of two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Cassandra Khaw. Modern fantasy literature is rife with magic schools, but none as grim or as brutally dark as Khaw’s Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted.

The Hellebore student body consists of world-eaters and apocalypse-makers known, respectively, as Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks. With a campus environment like that, it’s no wonder that the primary means of student recruitment is through abduction.

Although Hellebore promises its students a normal life after graduation, the school harbors a much darker secret: on graduation day, the faculty embark on a hungry rampage, feasting ravenously upon their students. A small group of students escape to the school library, forced to work together if they want any hope of survival. However, the sanctuary of the library proves to be short-lived.

The ensemble cast is led by Alessa Li, the first-person narrator of the novel who, like many of her peers, was kidnapped and forcibly enrolled at Hellebore. Alessa’s narration shifts back and forth through time, building suspense while creating a disorienting feel that deepens the unsettled mood of The Library at Hellebore.

As someone who is usually left unsatisfied by the dark academia aesthetic, I appreciate how Cassandra Khaw cranks the darkness nob to its pitch-black setting and then splatters it with blood and a heavy dose of entrails.

Cassandra Khaw’s prose in The Library at Hellebore is their best since The Salt Grows Heavy, a darkly beautiful nightmare of a novella that weds Han Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid with a cannibalistic apocalypse. While The Salt Grows Heavy reads like a hallucinatory nightmare, The Library at Hellebore feels more grounded in its vision of unforgiving horror.

The Library at Hellebore packs a surprising amount of nuance for a body horror, a subgenre that I wouldn’t normally associate with subtlety. Cassandra Khaw also makes effective use of unreliable narration, building up to a conclusion that left me floored and speechless.

Altogether, The Library at Hellebore’s marriage of dark academia and body horror delivers just the right balance of physical gore and psychological dread. Cassandra Khaw blurs the line between the monstrous and the humane, while delivering a gut punch of a story that serves as an allegory of survival in a world of pain. The Library at Hellebore is highly recommended for readers looking for a new twist on grimdark.

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REVIEW: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

V. E. Schwab is a chameleon author. All their works, whether standalone like the awesome The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, novellas like the charming Gallant, or a longer series like The Fragile Threads of Power, are very different sorts of stories, linked only by the fact they are all in some ways a dark fantasy and all written by Schwab’s masterful pen.

V.E. Schwab’s latest literary offering is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, the story of three young women linked through the centuries, their lives twisting together like the roots of vicious flowers growing in the same patch of soil. Maria is wild, headstrong, sure there is more to the world than her tiny town, and desperate to escape. Charlotte is sent away to the city and feels herself being wedged into a life of conformity that she does not want. Finally, there is Alice, who crosses the ocean to escape her grief and start anew, not realising that heartache is not so quickly left behind.

It is so hard to go into a read when you have sky-high expectations; the risk of it not being quite what you dreamed of feels very real. Everything I had heard about Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil made me want to love it. V. E. Schwab writes a toxic lesbian vampire fantasy? I started reading it, expecting it to be awesome. Luckily, it was. This is Schwab’s writing at its best. Beautiful prose, characters that feel so real they could be just behind you, whispering their life in your ear, and a plot that danced across the pages. I am slightly in awe that I read over 500 pages in just over a day without it feeling like a chore.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a modern gothic novel with some light horror. Schwab masterfully handles themes of loss, love, loneliness, and many others in a delicate way. Schwab’s characters are the most central part of this story, rather than it being an action-packed plot, and stepping into the world was so easy. This is helped by the fact that at the start, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil reads like a historical novel, and we have Maria’s perspective fully established before the reader has any fantastical elements. It also feels hauntingly familiar because vampires are a foundation stone of dark fantasy. But Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil isn’t a retelling. Schwab has written an entirely new and entirely brilliant story.

This is the sort of book that will speak to people’s souls. It might not have epic battles, political manoeuvring, or a quest to save the world, but it will make people feel seen. Readers will see little pieces that are like them, dotted across the three narratives. It feels like Schwab has put their everything into Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and reading it was an excellent experience.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is due for release in June 2025. Thank you to V. E. Schwab and the team at Tor Books for providing us with an ARC of the novel.

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