Adrian Collins's Blog, page 239

Re-watching the Watchmen: Making the case for Zack Snyder’s Adaptation

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By David Stevens

Alan Moore’s Watchmen is inarguably one of the greatest achievements in comic-book history. It’s a tale of murder, grand conspiracies, paranoia, hope, and betrayal at the height of the Cold War in an alternate-timeline America. It is where superheroes are real, McCarthyism never ended, and Nixon is serving his third term. It is both a love letter to and a parody of the superhero concept as well as the arrogant and overbearing aspects of American Exceptionalism. It has won praise and awards for its engrossing story and for Dave Gibbons’ exceptional artwork.

Over the years, several of Moore’s works have been adapted to film with varying degrees of success – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Constantine, and V for Vendetta – but Watchmen was always considered unfilmable.

Aside from the fact that Moore characteristically hates any films based on his work (regardless of whether he even sees them), Watchmen is flushed with multiple interweaving plotlines, a myriad of secondary and tertiary characters, and many historical references. It was believed by many to be impossible to condense all that material into a coherent feature-length film. Even Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Time Bandits) had proposed a film treatment and was declined.

Along Came a Snyder

Zack Snyder was riding high on a wave of two consecutive hit films, his better-than-pretty-good remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and his excellent adaptation of Frank Miller’s epic sword-and-sandals graphic novel, 300, as Watchmen went into pre-production. Somehow, Snyder had done the unthinkable by securing not only the film rights to Watchmen but also Gibbons’ blessing. All eyes were on this young director. Expectations – and concerns – were running high.

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King of the Fanboys

When the film was released, it was met with equal parts adoration and scorn. As was to be expected, storylines were cut, side characters were relegated to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it walk-bys, and costumes were modernised. But nothing is more controversial with purists than the ending, which is a shame, as Snyder’s ending is actually much less convoluted and more logical than Moore’s original ending in the graphic novel.

I can hear you hissing as you read these words but please hear me out. I swear it’ll all make sense soon. Oh, by the way, spoilers incoming!

The World’s Smartest Man, The World’s Dumbest Plan

So, let’s start with the biggest issue I have with Moore’s original ending: the ridiculous, gobsmackingly impractical rubber alien.

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Cthulhu’s mom’s floppy vagina

In the graphic novel, there is a large subplot in which several artists, writers, and special effects artists go missing, including the artist responsible for the Tales of the Black Freighter story that intercuts with the main narrative. In the third act, it's revealed that they’ve been sequestered on an island by an anonymous wealthy client to work collaboratively on a secret project: a giant rubber hentai sex toy. Rorschach’s investigation reveals that Adrian Veidt (a.k.a. the retired superhero Ozymandias) is behind the whole thing. Ozy tells Rorschach and Nite Owl that his plan is already in motion when suddenly, a giant sentient rubber alien teleports into Times Square and, in a fit of panic, erupts a psychic shockwave that kills itself and millions of people simultaneously.

In the film, Veidt takes a different tack. He duplicates Doctor Manhattan’s energy signature and creates an explosion in Times Square that would frame Manhattan for the crime.

In both versions, the end goal is to unite hostile nations against a common enemy, united in a cynical peace motivated by fear.

Doctor Manhattan’s Glowing Blue Penis is Chekhov’s Gun

"Chekhov’s Gun" is a dramatic principle stating that every memorable element in a fictional story must be necessary and irreplaceable, and any that are not should be removed.

Doctor Manhattan, a former mortal but now a godlike quantum being who exists in nonlinear space-time, is such a plot device in and of himself. He is the only character who is beyond mortal limitations. This is significant for several reasons. The most notable is that he could destroy the Earth on a whim if he wished and is just detached enough from humanity due to his advanced sense of space-time that the consequences would have no real emotional impact. In his words: "A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally there’s no discernible difference."

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Dayglo quantum nihilist

Early in both the graphic novel and film, we learn that Doctor Manhattan and Veidt are collaborating on a free energy project. Their intention is to harness Doctor Manhattan’s energy signature in order to generate free, infinite energy to benefit mankind. This seems like a throwaway plot point, which is indeed the case in Moore’s novel, as it serves no purpose other than to illustrate the genius of both men and cast Veidt as a benevolent character. Snyder, however, used this as a means to take Veidt in a different direction by giving him access to Manhattan's energy signature. This refocused plot point pays off much later in the film, turning a small piece of backstory into a driving component of the narrative.

During Rorschach’s investigation into the death of the Comedian in the opening act, he discovers that the Comedian had been recently in contact with Edgar Jacobi, a former super-villian also known as Moloch the Mystic, who most of the other characters had gone up against during their glory days years ago. Before his demise, the Comedian mentions that he saw Jacobi's name on a list, along with a woman named Janie Slater who had been the girlfriend of Manhattan years ago, both before and after the accident which gave him his powers.

Later, Manhattan goes on a live chat show on television where a reporter in the audience ambushes him by bringing Slater out to confront Manhattan with news that she has terminal cancer and that his radioactive energy signature is the cause. His friend Wally Weaver had died of a similar type of cancer and Jacobi is also afflicted. Manhattan is bombarded with aggressive questions and, unable to deal with the ambush and crushing demand for answers by the press, teleports to Mars in a fit of rage. And this is the moment where Checkhov’s Gun is fired.

The End is the Beginning of the (Better) End

For the most part, the rest of the film follows a similar trajectory to the graphic novel from that point on. On Mars, Doctor Manhattan waxes poetic about the nonlinear way he perceives time and his overall inability to remain involved in the affairs of a species he’s too far removed from to feel any kinship toward. Rorschach and Nite Owl snoop on Pyramid Transnational and discover that Veidt is the guy bankrolling it. Veidt congratulates his team and poisons them with the ceremonial toast, stroking his genetically-altered Lynx, Baubastis, like a Bond villain in a purple bodysock.

But this is where things change; The film completely ignores the original ending and takes a sharper turn, one that should be obvious from the moment you see Pat Buchanan in the opening scene verbally fellating Manhattan. The attack goes off as planned but, instead of a giant rubber alien, it’s Manhattan’s signature disintegration blast, wiping out everyone within miles of the Ground Zero. It essentially turns most of the organic life in the five boroughs into subatomic vapor. It’s disturbing to watch but is much more plausible than the convoluted ending of the original novel.

After all, when you have a being who is capable of turning the entire planet into little more than a bad memory, why go to all the extra trouble of creating such an elaborate hoax? You have the perfect patsy at your fingertips. And that’s what happens here. All the plot elements in Moore’s work which are meant to distract Manhattan so he couldn’t interfere are, in Snyder’s adaptation, a means to make Manhattan appear as though he is unhinged and attacks Earth in a vengeful rage. It is a master stroke, both for Snyder and for the film’s version of Veidt.

The remainder of the film rejoins the novel’s story arc. Everyone confronts Veidt and he talks them down and convinces them that his way is the only way. Rorschach martyrs himself to preserve Veidt’s secret but Rorschach's journal is found at the New Frontirersman office, which ensures that Veidt’s plan, in all likelihood, will be for naught. Manhattan decides to roam the galaxy. Silk Spectre and Nite Owl go into hiding to start a life together. Veidt is left to bear the weight of his actions and try to convince himself that he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. It is chilling in both forms but I find the film’s ending so much more satisfying and, from a storytelling standpoint, structurally well-built. It takes all of the cues and builds them to a logical climax that does not feel like Snyder is trying to get one over on us by throwing a curveball like Moore’s ending.

Even if you still hate the ending, one has to at least appreciate Snyder's attempt to adapt and condense the original work for the screen without changing or deleting the majority of important story beats. Given these considerations, I think it's worth taking a closer look to compare and contrast Snyder's film with the original work.

EXCLUSIVE: Cover reveal for The Court of Broken Knives

The Court of Broken Knives is hands down one of the most anticipated books and debuts of 2017 for the grimdark community. Anna Smith-Spark convinced Harper-Voyager to drop the cover on the GdM blog exclusively--and it. Is. Gorgeous.

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If you've been hiding under a rock over the festive season and haven't heard about Smith-Spark's new grimark fantasy whirlwind of a book, here's a bit more about The Court of Broken Knives.

Synopsis

They’ve finally looked at the graveyard of our Empire with open eyes. They’re fools and madmen and like the art of war. And their children go hungry while we piss gold and jewels into the dust.

In the richest empire the world has ever known, the city of Sorlost has always stood, eternal and unconquered. But in a city of dreams governed by an imposturous Emperor, decadence has become the true ruler, and has blinded its inhabitants to their vulnerability. The empire is on the verge of invasion – and only one man can see it.

Haunted by dreams of the empire’s demise, Orhan Emmereth has decided to act. On his orders, a company of soldiers cross the desert to reach the city. Once they enter the Palace, they have one mission: kill the Emperor, then all those who remain. Only from ashes can a new empire be built.

The company is a group of good, ordinary soldiers, for whom this is a mission like any other. But the strange boy Marith who walks among them is no ordinary soldier. Marching on Sorlost, Marith thinks he is running away from the past which haunts him. But in the Golden City, his destiny awaits him – beautiful, bloody, and more terrible than anyone could have foreseen.

The Court of Broken Knives is the first book in the major new grimdark epic fantasy series Empires of Dust. It will be published by Harper Voyager in June 2017, available in the UK and worldwide in hardback and e-book format.

About the Author

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Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.

Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault.  She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.

www.courtofbrokenknives.org

Interview with Snakewood author Adrian Selby

[DW] Hi Adrian, thank you for joining us on the GdM blog!

[AS] Hi there, I could say it’s a pleasure, but you’ve got me hanging by these manacles in this painfully well-appointed torture chamber. Still, I suppose I should be grateful to you for not feeding me the last two days, I needed to lose a bit off my waist anyway…

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[DW] Snakewood comes out in paperback on January 17th; what do you think fans of grimdark fiction will most like about your book?

[AS] Well, I hope they’ll enjoy the fact the protagonists are stone cold killers, while the antagonists are revenge-obsessed killers. The challenge I gave myself in writing this book was to see if I could get readers to care about all of them, to understand why they are as they are, but still root for the former. A few reviews have pointed out that it wasn’t obvious who they should root for, so hopefully that ambiguity is appealing.

[DW] Much of the action in Snakewood features characters powering themselves up with alchemical brews. The concept has a very comic book superpower feel to it. Were comic books and superheroes an inspiration for the brews?

[AS] The only comics based inspiration was Sláine, in the old 2000AD I used to get every week, him and magic mushrooms, er, according to what friends have told me. Sláine would go into battle and undergo a ‘warp spasm’ which physically and radically transformed him into a huge and strange misshapen abomination of a man that could flatten hordes of soldiers. Quite separately, the revelation that a handful of small mushrooms could alter my, sorry, my friends’ consciousness so much, kind of married with that.

[DW] The narrative in Snakewood is non-linear in that it has large backwards and forwards time jumps in successive chapters. What was your reason for this stylistic choice?

[AS] So the initial version of Snakewood that I submitted had many fewer of these viewpoints, but when my agent and editors got hold of it, they were clamouring to know more about what made the Twenty so great, what made Kailen so clever and why had I only vaguely alluded to it all? This is the great value of passionate editors invested in the detail of your work. I could see where they were coming from and realised that, you know what, I was missing a fantastic opportunity to paint a better picture of the Twenty in their prime, which would also hopefully help the reader to get more invested with the characters in the present day, where they’re old and worn out. It provided a useful juxtaposition with their former ‘band of brothers’ mentality that is now fractured and almost gone, throwing the surviving threads of that mentality into a sharper relief.

Snakewood has a ‘found footage’ structure, where I could put together interviews, reports and journals to piece the Twenty’s demise and its causes together. It was the best way to make sense of the importance of distant past, recent past and present day events, not to mention it was a thoroughly enjoyable challenge to try and write in different voices.

On top of all that, another advantage of this structure was that it lent itself better to maintaining the mystery of who was chasing our protagonists to kill them!

[DW] Many of the point-of-view characters are morally ambiguous, including the character (who for now I shall leave unnamed) who features as the villain of the piece. How did you go about trying to keep readers sympathetic to these morally ambiguous characters?

[AS] I alluded to ‘save the cat’ above (which is taken from the screenwriter’s guide of the same name) where you find moments that show you the protagonists are coming ‘from the right place’. Gant and Shale, in the course of the story, demonstrate repeatedly that they are seeking to resolve their challenges without violence. On numerous occasions they’re looking to threaten and cajole or otherwise buy their way out of situations that they could otherwise murder their way through easily. OK, so there is one scene of mass destruction later on that could feel rather unnecessarily destructive, but to them it was merely the most efficient solution to getting the job done, which was busting a friend out of a jail. The choices that our antagonists make are often gratuitously violent. However, part of the ‘jumping around’ is to present their back stories, which I hope illustrate how they came to this, and why they are capable of and do the things they do.

Thus, as I said previously, there’s enough about Gant and Shale to make them the guys to root for, but there’s also enough about our villains that you realise the only difference between them all is how they choose to respond to the cards they’re dealt. They’re all very capable killers willing to kill.

[DW] I’ve heard that Snakewood took a long time to reach its present form. When did you first begin writing Snakewood and why did it take so long to hit the right spot?

[AS] Snakewood’s original title was ‘Korky’s Twenty’, sometime back in about 1989 up to my signing the deal with Orbit. Kailen was, therefore, originally called Korky (and for me and my agent Jamie, he still is, mainly because our initial preparation of the manuscript had ‘Korky’ in it and we’ve kept calling him that by mistake ever since). I did a couple of chapters back in ’89 for my Writing degree, the first one of which had Gant and Shale killing a ‘magist’ (the closest thing to wizards I have). Then through the 90s I never did much about becoming a writer, though these characters were in my head, reminding me they had a story to tell while I grew up and settled down a bit. I was that guy in the anecdote ‘I’m writing a novel’, ‘How wonderful, neither am I.’ Then, around 2005-6 I had a moment where I just thought ‘You’re either a writer or you’re not Adrian. Write this book, or don’t.’ It was an iron conviction I’d discovered. Great, but I knew also that to do this I was going to give it my best shot, leave everything on the field as they say, so for the next few years I did the groundwork, mostly all the research I’d never bothered to do, and the plot, characters, back stories etc. It took years while holding down the day job and raising a young family of course. I finished the first draft in 2013, having started it properly about 2010. Hopefully Gant and Shale are resting easy now their story’s told, and hopefully they’re happy with it.

[DW] Did you do much historical research during your world-building? If so, were there any things in particular that really helped you in developing the world?

[AS] I’ve got a few articles in the ‘Writing’ section on my blog that fill out some of the detail, and of course the research was and is ongoing. I did do historical research and the errors that remain no doubt richly evidence the gaps!! Books that had a profound influence were ‘Pathfinders’ by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Medieval Cities by Henri Pirenne, The Honourable Company by John Keay, books on medieval archery, organisation of armies and of course Wikipedia, Youtube and various wonderful websites including herbcraft.org for all the crazy plant. Lord knows how much harder it would have been to discover all that stuff before the internet.

To answer specifically the question about how they helped develop the world, I think the key book was Pathfinders, because it showed how the prevailing winds of the Indian Ocean and the relative lack of them in the Atlantic determined the course of world history, i.e. that our environment shapes us (I can bore you with my ten minute presentation of the history of the world using only a badly drawn globe and a handful of arrows whenever you like). So when I then came to look at a plant-based ‘magic system’ and all the various species that make the fightbrews, poisons and cures, I realised that because they were so amped up they were entirely determining factors in battles for supremacy among states. It followed therefore that recipe books for these concoctions would be more valuable than gold and diamonds, that states would effectively be drug cartels when it came to international trade etc. (which is where the history of the East India company comes in). I followed the environmentally determining factors to their conclusions for the societies of the world of Sarun, and the ramifications felt re-assuringly solid.

[DW] The brews in Snakewood do everything from making a person superhumanly strong to improving eyesight. Do you ever plan on releasing a glossary detailing the different brews and their effects?

[AS] Not as such. I have a list I work from and mess about with from my above research, but I’m not that interested in creating something like an ‘RPG’ ruleset or table of the ingredients used in the mixes and their effects unless it drives the story forward in some way. I do ensure that plant used in brews where I reference real world herbs corresponds in terms of climate and look and feel, because I think those things are useful and simple ‘anchors’ that help the reader jump from our world to the new and not get entirely lost and disorientated. Delicate and diminutive anchors of course, but these are the threads that make the worldbuilding easier to absorb.

If enough Snakewood fans ever get cranky enough about it I daresay I wouldn’t want to disappoint them, but I can’t help thinking I’d only end up exposing a fat wodge of continuity errors!

[DW] What can we expect to see next from you?

[AS] Well, I’ve recently signed a two book deal with Orbit for more stories from Sarun, the world in which Snakewood is set (YESSS!!). I would be jumping for joy at this point but these manacles you’ve got me suspended from are making my wrists bleed. Anyway, anyone who’s read Snakewood will understand what The Post is, a kind of global trading guild that’s a bit like the Mafia and the Catholic Church combined. The more history I gave The Post when planning Snakewood, the more fascinated I was with its origins. Orbit agreed! So the next book goes back about 250 years to tell the story of a remarkable woman who would change the world. I can’t wait for you to meet her, but it won’t be until 2018 I’m sorry to say.

[DW] Thank you for joining us, Adrian. Readers, if you’d like to check out Snakewood by Adrian Selby, use the links below to head on over to Amazon, or read my review if you’re not convinced yet!

[AS] Umm, you’re not leaving me down here, are you? Not even a cup of water after all that?

Is THE LAST SACRIFICE Grimdark? by James A. Moore

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Is THE LAST SACRIFICE Grimdark?

James A. Moore

So, a quote to start this off: “James A. Moore is the new prince of grimdark fantasy. His work is full of dark philosophy and savage violence, desperate warriors and capricious gods. This is fantasy for people who like to wander nighttime forests and scream at the moon. Exhilarating as hell."
—Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Snowblind and Ararat

Damned flattering words, and I am very flattered. I recently had someone ask me if I thought The Last Sacrifice qualified as Grimdark. I also had similar questions about the entire Seven Forges series as it stands so far.

Well, let’s look at that for a moment, shall we?

From Wikipedia; grimdark

Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style or setting of speculative fiction (especially fantasy) that is, depending on the definition used, markedly dystopian or amoral, or particularly violent or realistic. The word was inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."

Seven Forges deals with a very long and savage war between a vast empire and a smaller but far more savage gathering of kingdoms. Is it dystopian? Yes. Is it violent? Absolutely. Is it amoral? Possibly as I never once declare one side of the war or the other as the moral north on the compass.

How about The Last Sacrifice?

The story starts off with our hero (If there is technically a hero of the story it is most decidedly Brogan McTyre who is wronged and decides to take the battle to a new level.) trying to save his family from being used as the sacrifices offered to the gods of the Grakhul. He fails. His actions literally trigger the end of the world as the gods decide that the human race must be punished for this last act of disobedience. Brogan and company are on the run, hunted by, well, everyone, and commit several rather heinous acts of their own and that’s just in the first few chapters.

Looking back at the definition offered by Wikipedia, I’m going to go with a resounding “Yes.”  There are dark forces afoot. There are slavers roaming the lands, there is mass destruction and the ruination of at least one kingdom. The gods at play cannot possibly be called benevolent by any sane person, and their previous actions on the planet have scarred the landscape and led to corruption on a scale that will only be properly revealed through the course of the trilogy.

Though there is humor, most of it is best suited for the gallows, and though there are a few heroes in the story I wouldn’t go so far as to call them knights in shining armor. Brogan McTyre is a damaged man. He’s had his family slaughtered to appease the gods. He has been forced by the laws of his country to accept a payment, as if his family is little more than cattle. He is not forgiving and he is wanted for his crimes against the Five Kingdoms and the very gods themselves. The gods refuse to accept that he was hurt by their actions and instead demand that he be found and brought to them to face their brand of justice if the world is to be spared.

I’ve looked to some of my idols in the fantasy field for inspiration here. Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Glen Cook, whose amazing Black Company books should be required reading, Robert E. Howard and David Gemmell, these are a few of the names. There are more. I think it’s fair to say that each and every one of them managed to write their fair share of Grimdark before that phrase even existed in the common parlance. Sword & Sorcery, Dark Fantasy, Grimdark, by any name it is the prevalent in the flavor of The Last Sacrifice. As to me being the new prince in that field, I’m beyond flattered by the praise. Time will tell if I can live up to that title.

About James A Moore

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JAMES A MOORE is the award-winning, bestselling, author of over forty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, The Blasted Lands and City of Wonders both part of the Seven Forges series. In addition to writing multiple short stories, he has also edited, with Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, The British Invasion anthology for Cemetery Dance Publications.

Moore’s first short story collection, Slices, sold out before ever seeing print. He is currently at work on several additional projects, including the forthcoming The Last Sacrifice, book one in the Tides of War, series. Along with Jonathan Maberry and Christopher Golden, he hosts the Three Guys With Beards podcast and currently he lives in Massachusetts.

Meet him on his blog and @jamesamoore on Twitter.

The Last Sacrifice synopsis

Since time began the Grakhul, immortal servants of the gods who choose who lives and who dies when it comes time to make sacrifices to their deities, have been seeking to keep the world in balance and the gods appeased. When they take the family of Brogan McTyre to offer as sacrifice, everything changes.

Brogan heads off on a quest to save his family from the Grakhul. The decision this time is costlier than they expected, leading to Brogan and his kin being hunted as criminals and the gods seeking to punish those who’ve defied them.

To purchase The Last Sacrifice use the Amazon link below.

 

The GdM team's favourite reads of 2016

This year saw an absolute truckload of grimdark material hit the shelves and now that the year's wrapped up, it's time to once again go to the GdM team for their picks of 2016.

Matthew Cropley | Red Tide by Marc Turner

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Red Tide is a flawlessly executed fantasy novel. The first two books in Marc Turner’s Chronicles of the Exile were fantastic, but Red Tide exceeds them by drawing both discrete plot-lines together in a perfectly structured adventure. It’s my top pick for 2016 because I simply can’t think of a single criticism. Red Tide is a page-turner from the very beginning, filled with moral ambiguities, grit, visceral action, deep characters, wondrous magic, and horrifying monsters. It also succeeded in genuinely surprising me several times, and by the end all I wanted was for the next books in the series to be out already.

Kristy Mika | Those Below by Daniel Polansky

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The best I've read from 2016 is Those Below (The Empty Throne #2) by Daniel Polansky. You know those photographers that go into complete disaster zones, where something absolutely catastrophic is occurring, yet they can take photographs that are stunningly beautiful? "Oh! See how pretty that nuclear bomb looked as it destroyed a civilisation! How spectacular!" is the best way I can describe it! The juxtaposition between Polansky's beautifully written prose, and the utterly ugly destruction perpetrated by the characters within the plot, made it the most disturbing book (duology really...) I've read in a long time.

Cheresse Burke | Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

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Crooked Kingdom, the stunning second half of the Six of Crows duology, is not just my favourite Grimdark read of the year, but possibly one of my favourites of all time. Bardugo gives us six compelling, emotional characters, who sacrifice morality, secrets and goodwill to settle their scores and pull the heist of a lifetime. The heist is also impeccably put together, making for a tight plot and deft writing that made the book seem far shorter than it actually is. If you don't like your bitter with a dash of sweet, the Six of Crows duology may not be for you. But I can't think of not recommending this book to anyone.

Durand Welsh | The Great Ordeal by R. Scott Bakker

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The Great Ordeal, definitely. It's an assault on the senses, grimdark style. The prose is exquisite, the characters mean as starving pitbulls, and everyone is yoked to events spiralling towards apocalypse.

Mike Myers | The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence

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Amazing conclusion to one of my favorite stories. Snorri and Jalan return from Hell and, oh, the places they’ll go. The conflicts get more complicated, the foes get more terrifying, the settings and situations get weirder, and the Wheel rolls on. Lawrence just keeps getting better. Superb writing, grand ideas, wide scope, great characters. Vivid and memorable. Can't wait for Red Sister.

Shawn Mansouri | The Vagrant by Peter Newman

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While I kept to short form and manga the majority of this year, I was struck by the image of this cover when Newman’s new novel hit the shelves (reminding me so much of Koike and Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub). Newman’s post-apocalyptic world is mostly science fiction with bursts of dark, gritty fantasy. A goat and baby soften the sometimes somber and stoic lone wanderer on his way to the Shining City. Did I mention he doesn’t speak and carries a sword that sings and has wings and a newborn in his arms all while the world is teeming with demonic/alien forces? This book has it all. Cleverly written, cerebral at times, and just the right length (400 page I believe) to not worry about completion of a long series in the future. The ending leaves room for a sequel but doesn’t promise anything. With a cast of characters for just about any reader, The Vagrant hit the top of my list for best Grimdark read in 2016.

Jinx Strange | Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher

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Beyond Redemption is flawed, delusional and catastrophically likeable, much like its best characters. Starting with the interesting premise that certain people's delusions can shape reality, what Michael Fletcher does masterfully is create people who are damaged and sympathetic without going flat. It is by no means a perfect book, but Beyond Redemption is my top grimdark read for 2016 because I thought about it whenever it wasn't in my hands. The Mirror's Truth comes out in December, and it is going to the top of my list.

Editor's note: I recognise this was published in 2015. Jinx was such a raging fan, and he did read it in 2016, and we all rave about this book, so I just thought, "bugger it" and went with it.

Adrian Collins | A Blade of Black Steel by Alex Marshall

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I continue to be a massive fan of the Crimson Empire series with A Blade of Black Steel hitting all the right notes. It's another barnstorming ride of action, intrigue, hilarity and downright brutality. Marshall's prose continues to crack me up on a regular basis. It's witty, cheeky, silly, fun, and downright brutal. A truly enjoyable voice. As with A Crown for Cold Silver it's downright refreshing for the topics of drugs and sexuality to be dealt with so well. They are there, but not on a pedestal, just a smooth part of this crazy world of Marshall's.

Buy these titles

Interested in these titles? Grab a copy using the links below.

 

Grimdark Magazine #10 featuring Anthony Ryan up for Pre-Sale!

Dust off that imagination and get ready for action because Grimdark Magazine #10 is going to blow you away.

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Pre-Order Grimdark Magazine Issue 10[image error] 

This issue features The Lady of Crows, a Raven's Shadow novella by Anthony Ryan where you'll run into some old favourite characters and see the world through a typically badass protagonist. The Lady of Crows grabs you by the collar and pulls you through a gripping story in the kind of whirlwind story we've come to expect from Ryan. For fans of the Raven's Shadow series, this is a must have accompaniment to the overall story.

Issue #10 also features the first in a new series of author articles with Jesse Bullington (The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart and, as Alex Marshall, the Crimson Empire series) kicking us off with Worlds Without End: Keys to Rich, Believable Worldbuilding.

John Gwynne (The Faithful and the Fallen) and Deborah A. Wolf (The Dragon's Legacy) both stop by for a chat with our bloke in the trenches Tom Smith, and Matthew Cropley has penned another article for this issue, this time on The Future of Grimdark.

Finally, we review The Mirror's Truth by Michael R. Fletcher and The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.

Pre-order for our 13th January release using the below link!

 

Grimdark Magazine Announcement

Some big changes are coming to Grimdark Magazine!

Having been on the market for two and a half years now, we've learnt a thing or two, and as we've grown, so has grimdark and our community! As a result, Grimdark Magazine is making some changes and growing to keep serving you the very best in grimdark fiction, reviews, interviews and genre coverage.

Subscriptions

FINALLY. It is surprisingly difficult to set up a digital subscription service in 2016. We were waiting on Amazon to step up, but it's become clear they aren't going to. Patreon, however, has become increasingly popular as a subscription service to magazines, and we think it will be a great way to let YOU manage YOUR subscriptions and allow us to easily deliver to and communicate with subscribers.

Patreon is growing in popularity, but a lot of people haven't used it before. Here's what you need to know about Patreon:

It's easy to sign up and easy to cancel at any time.
You only get charged when we publish an issue (quarterly) - just like a subscription. You're looking at $16USD/year.
More support means more rewards for everyone!

Click on this link to head on over and check out our new Patreon page to see what we mean!

Price Increase 

Frankly, we've held ourselves back by trying to compete on price with magazines like Clarkesworld and Nightmare, who have thousands of general-interest readers. The economy of scale just doesn't work for us (yet) to keep paying the pro-rates that we do, and constantly striving for excellence. Lowering our quality is not an option, so we have to raise our price.

We love grimdark for the same reasons you do and we're part of the community. Grimdark is still a relatively small, but supportive community, and one that we invest in and care about. This price increase simply reflects what we need to provide at the quality we do, grow our magazine, grow our community, and stay on top of grimdark as it grows and changes.

The fact is, GdM is YOUR magazine. It is here to serve you, cover what you want, and build the community that helps our favorite fiction thrive. That's worth $4 once a quarter.

In our time we've provided short stories from some of grimdark's premier authors including Mark Lawrence, R. Scott Bakker and Michael R. Fletcher, while also getting non-grimdark authors to give our way of things a crack--authors like Adrian Tchaikovsky and Aliette de Bodard, to name just a couple! Let me tell you, we have no intention of slowing down. We are always setting our sights higher; we are looking to dramatically expand our website and non-fiction offerings, and to address grimdark as much as a way of life as a literary phenomenon.

The new pricing will go into effect as of issue #10.

New Website 

We've been running our e-commerce store for a while now, but with the introduction of Patreon have made the decision to move from the e-commerce platform to a simpler platform that works better for online content and links directly to either Patreon, Amazon, Apple, Kobo, etc for your purchases.

Keep an eye out for this in the future.

Conclusion 

There's plenty happening at GdM, but you can sip your beer safe in the knowledge that the customer experience remains forefront in the goals of our business model. GdM will provide more articles, more voices, and keep putting out our brand of dark and cheeky awesomesauce.

2016 / 17 Xmas and New Years submission closure

From the 15th of December to the 31st of Jan, GdM will be closing its unsolicited fiction submission window. Our team have worked their guts out for another year and it's time to give them their evenings back for a bit.

Same as the last two years, we'll be wrapping up the stories already submitted as best we can before putting the feet up on the stilled chest of a vanquished foe (who was probably a friend until three minutes ago when they made a lighthearted joke about our BBQing skills), cracking a beer pulled fresh out of the ice in our dragon skull esky, and enjoying the sun (or snow) for a bit.

All submissions received between 00:01 15th December 2016 AEST and 23:59 31st January 2017 will be deleted, unread, no exceptions. Submission queries for submissions made prior to the closure will be addressed accordingly.

The team and I would like to thank all submitting authors for sending their work to us this year. Thank you to those whose stories we purchased for trusting us to do your story justice. Thank you to those who waited for us to respond. Thank you to those who found value in the feedback efforts of the GdM reader team.

Happy holiday season, authors!

Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

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Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Review by Adrian Collins

 

Spoiler alert: If you haven't read Six of Crows, don't read this review.

After enjoying Six of Crows so much, I leapt straight into book two. With what I do here at GdM meaning the series on my to read list are often broken up by ARCs, it's a rarity that I get to do it, but I couldn't help myself on this occasion. I'm so glad I didn't wait.

We pick up almost immediately where Six of Crows left off. Inej is in trouble. Kaz is trying to pick up the pieces of his last failed heist and get his crew together to get her back. Jan Van Eck has put a target on Kaz's head and is leveraging Inej's imprisonment to get Kaz to hand over Kuwei Yu Bol and the secret to Jurda Parem so he can control the grisha (mages), the farms that make Jurda, and hit new heights of power in the economic instability he will create in Ketterdam.

The story once again jumps between Kaz's crews' points of view, giving us insight into each character's view of the world, hiding and revealing plot points to some and not others, and--importantly, as a point of difference between Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom--delves far deeper into the lives of our protagonists than previously shown. This, I think, is where some readers will be irreversibly hooked, and where others who loved the relentless pace of Six of Crows may find themselves not as engaged in the reading experience. For me, I found myself in the "irreversibly hooked" camp as we found out more and more about why these broken people are who they are. 

This slight change of pace peppered throughout provides some breathing time for a longer read than Six of Crows, as when we're not in these reflective moments, the story progresses at Bardugo's standard breakneck speed. Overall, the story is gripping, reminiscent of Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series in nature, but darker, with more broken and engaging characters struggling, fighting to grow. There is plenty to get your teeth into plot-wise, and when Bardugo brings it back together at the end I finished the book completely satisfied. A bit crushed, by a certain twist she snuck in there if I'm being honest, but I loved the ending even more for having my heart stomped on a bit--that sort of thing is a reason people like me love to read this kind of fiction (tip of the glass, Leigh, for that one).

Bardugo's writing is clean, easy to rush through because of it (I had to back track sometimes because I got too excited to find out what happened next), and full of imagination. She definitely knows how to get her hooks in to you.

Crooked Kingdom is a brilliant read: engaging, well-planned and wonderfully written. I highly recommend it for lovers of dark fiction, and think most grimdark fans will thoroughly enjoy it.
 

Review: Cthulu Armageddon by C. T. Phipps

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Review: Cthulhu Armageddon by C.T.
Matthew Cropley

To begin the foreword to Cthulhu Armageddon, C.T. Phipps poses the question ‘what would you get if you crossed Mad Max with the Cthulhu Cycle?’ The book to follow well and truly delivers on the answer.

Cthulhu Armageddon follows the story of Captain John Henry Booth, a world-weary ranger in the ‘United States Remnant’ some two-hundred years after ‘The Rising’, the event in which the Great Old Ones such as Cthulhu rose from their ancient slumber beneath the Earth, ushering in the fall of civilisation and a new age of horror and magic. The world is a blasted desert, filled with mutants, gods and monsters, and Booth braves it all for vengeance upon the dark sorcerer that stole his life. Booth is accompanied by a reformed torturer, a little girl, a tribal priestess, and a trusted comrade.  It feels a lot like an old western, or King’s ‘The Gunslinger’, and there are clear influences from the Fallout and Wasteland game series.

The post-apocalyptic world, inhabited by the biggest and baddest creatures H.P. Lovecraft ever dreamed up, is definitely dark and hopeless. The nihilistic, horrifying reality of the Cthulhu Mythos has burst forth from the deeps and squashed humanity underfoot, and seeing the way in which the world has dealt with that is compellingly grim. There’s a lot of grit, and the level of violence feels appropriate. However, while the larger cast have their fair share of morally ambiguous traits, Booth himself is actually quite morally upstanding and righteous, despite his claims to the contrary. He’s the type of hero who seems to be the last good man in a world gone mad, and while he’s certainly violent and aggressive when prompted, he always tries to do the right thing, and values friendship, inclusiveness, and human life, and he often thinks things such as ‘cavalier disregard for human life bothered me more than their reverence for the Great Old Ones’. This means that, as a huge fan of grimdark, I didn’t find myself drawn to Booth as much as I would have liked, and there were occasional tropes, such as sparing the life of an enemy only for him to return and mess everything up, that grated.

Booth does have his share of badass moments, and he’s incredibly skilled with firearms, close-combat and explosives. He’s also a good leader, pilot, and even, when he needs to be, magic-user. While this often makes for good reading, at times he can seem almost too good to be realistic. For example, when confronted with six aggressive fish-men, he narrates that ‘the average hybrid possessed twice the strength of a normal man and was three times as durable. Sixty seconds later, they were all lying on the ground with broken kneecaps and shattered jaws.’ For me, this was one of a couple of instances where I would have liked to experience the blood, sweat and pain that should come with fighting against such overwhelming odds. It makes Booth a less human, sympathetic protagonist in these moments, and lowers the stakes. However, on other occasions the fights can be tense, edge-of-the seat affairs, and some readers appreciate larger than life heroes. Booth’s primary motivation in the story is his squad, and these characters are introduced at the beginning, and all succeed in feeling like genuine people, despite the fact that many of them appear only briefly. This ability to create attachment to a character is a great asset to the book, and little details such as one character’s seemingly feigned southern accent disappearing when she’s surprised endeared me to them. None of the side-characters are expendable cannon fodder, and one in particular, Richard the Hawaiian shirt-wearing ghoul, is a riot. One thing I found strange is that at certain points Booth claims to have ‘only one desire and one desire only: to return to [his] family’, yet he seems to dislike his wife, and his children never appear in the book except for one short vision at the end. As motivating elements, their absence felt odd. However, it doesn’t get in the way of the story, since Booth is already adequately motivated by his squad mates and anger at the world which has wronged him.

The world was, for me, the best part of the book. It’s like a crash-course in the Cthulhu Mythos, from shoggoths, to elder things, to the outer gods. I’d only read a few Lovecraft stories before reading Cthulhu Armageddon, but the book made me excited to delve deeper into the twisted world of nihilism and horror. Cosmic horror doesn’t seem like it would mesh well with a Mad Max style wasteland, but it actually fits perfectly, adding plenty of colour to the post-apocalyptic setting, many of which can often be too bland and boring. Post-apocalyptic stories are something we’ve seen a lot of lately, and the addition of the Cthulhu Mythos as the world-ending event and constant threat make it so much more interesting than the classic nuclear war or undead scenarios we’ve seen a thousand times. Even when Booth passes through areas that stray close to the generic wasteland of the pop-culture apocalypse, it differs with the inclusion of gigantic statues to honour the Great Old Ones, or an otherworldly cathedral. My favourite setting of the novel was Kingsport, a town reminiscent of something out of the Fallout game series, with cobbled together buildings made from mismatched fragments of the old world. A district of Kingsport is run by Deep Ones, humanoid fish-people who Phipps casts as gangsters involved in a turf-war. The transplantation of unknowable horrors from Lovecraft’s mind into the roles traditionally filled by seedy humans works well, and Phipps’ wasteland is positively teeming with splashes of colour and magic not present in others.

Structurally, the novel is solid, but I did feel as if the magic and mystery was emphasised too much at the end, at the expense of full comprehension. The ending happens quickly, and didn’t present as many answers as I would have liked. However, a sense of mystery is certainly a key part of Lovecraft’s work, and perhaps other would feel cheated if it wasn’t used liberally in Cthulhu Armageddon. The book isn’t a particularly long read, but doesn’t feel too short either. It’s the perfect length for the stand-alone, action-packed wasteland romp that it is.

It’s written in first-person, which is a form I feel there’s not enough of. As such, we get a lot of Booth’s world-weary inner monologue, which is an interesting lens through which to view an awe-inspiring pantheon of twisted creatures. Occasionally, things can be over-explained, and the writing could be more concise. I also would have preferred it if more emotion was revealed through dramatic action rather than internal monologue, although this is perhaps more about my personal tastes. The only other minor issue I had was that there are a couple of errors speckled throughout, but not enough to significantly interrupt the flow of reading. Aside from all this, however, there is a lot of good writing and tight, gripping action scenes underpinned by serious emotional themes.

Overall, Cthulhu Armageddon by C.T. Phipps is a unique book, and definitely worth checking out. It’s a good introduction to the Cthulhu Mythos for those unfamiliar, and is filled with references that veterans would no-doubt appreciate. So, what would you get if you crossed Mad Max with the Cthulhu Cycle? You’d have to read it to truly find out.