Adrian Collins's Blog, page 242

Review: THE GREAT ORDEAL by R. Scott Bakker

[image error]

The Great Ordeal by R. Scott Bakker
Review by Durand Welsh
(WARNING: Contains Minor Spoilers)

 

The Great Ordeal, the penultimate novel in R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series, is finally upon us. His fans have been waiting a long time for this one, and it’s a testament to the quality of Bakker’s work and the loyalty of his readership that the wait hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm.

Outside his fan base, Bakker’s novels themselves have had an uneven reception, despite The Prince of Nothing trilogy being what I consider one of the best fantasy series written. However, with grimdark going from strength to strength, one can only hope that Bakker’s novels will get more of the recognition they deserve.

What Has Come Before

Bakker’s fantasy world of the Three Seas is explored in two connected novel series. The first series, The Prince of Nothing trilogy, introduced us to many of the main players: Drusus Achamian, the Gnosis wizard cursed to relive the first apocalypse in his nightmares; Kellus, adherent of the Logos and member of a monastic sect of mentalists who have perfected the art of the probability trance; and Esmenet, the whore who eventually became the Empress of the Three Seas.

Anyone looking to get started with Bakker is advised to begin with The Darkness that Comes Before (2004), the first novel in the The Prince of Nothing trilogy which sets up Kellhus’s ascent to become the Aspect-Emperor and establishes many of the rivalries of The Great Ordeal, including that of Achamian and Kellhus. The coming Second Apocalypse is deliciously foreshadowed in the first trilogy, although if you expect the conflict with the Inchoroi to play a larger role, you may finish it a touch letdown.

Fortunately, the second series, beginning with The Judging Eye (2009), puts its best foot forward in that direction. And now, with The Great Ordeal, we’re finally getting the payoff with the final confrontation between the Inchoroi and Kellhus that we’ve been holding our breaths for.

The Great Ordeal

It’s everything you expect from a Bakker book: gut-shredding violence, big moral dilemmas, grey and grey and grey, sweeping epic scale, detailed historical world-building, and a sense of horror that eclipses anything else in epic fantasy. Boy oh boy, does The Great Ordeal deliver. If you’ve devoured all of Bakker’s other fantasy novels, then you will not regret lightening your purse with this tome.

It should be stated, however, that Bakker’s craftsmanship steers more toward literary than pulp, and The Great Ordeal requires patient, intelligent reading. Many scenes begin with a philosophical dictum. While it’s a bit more highbrow than your usual grimdark fare, it doesn’t detract from the speed of the narrative, even if the philosophical discourse occasionally becomes a bit obscure. His novels touch on freewill (the Dunyain probability trance and their ability to foresee the future), notions of the conscious self, and even the morals of eugenics as practiced by the Dunyain and their self-selecting evolution. Indeed, the last is examined more closely in The Great Ordeal when Achiamian finally reaches the Dunyain stronghold of Ishual. But more on that later.

The Great Ordeal is itself the first half of a duology. The long-awaited final volume in the Aspect-Emperor series came in at such a hefty size that his publisher has split it into two volumes. Therefore, don’t expect a final resolution. For that, you’ll still have to wait until the next book, but The Great Ordeal certainly paves the way in magnificent style.

The Great Ordeal primarily follows Esmenet, Kelmomas, Kellhus (by way of the viewpoint of Believer-King Proyas), Achamian and Mimara, Sorweel and Malowebi. Certainly a few other viewpoints are picked up and discarded for short periods, but the aforementioned are the prime movers.

Esmenet and Kelomomas

The book begins from Esmenet’s viewpoint as Fanayal, the Padirajah of the heathen Kianene Empire, attacks Momenmn. Esmenet is also grappling with the power vacuum created both by Kellhus’s absence and the murder of Maithanet, her main political rival. Her own children offer her no bulwark against treachery either, since anyone familiar with the earlier books knows that her young son Kelomamas is a murderous psychopath given to fratricide. Blind in her love, Esmenet sees nothing of the manipulations of her children and how they control her using the preternatural abilities inherited from their father. Kelmomas in particular runs wild in the crawlspaces and secret passageways of the palace.

Kelmomas becomes infatuated with the White-Luck Warrior, the man who murdered Maithanet. Even as Kelmomas plots the murder of his sister Theliopa, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the one individual who he cannot fathom with his Dunyain abilities. He gradually realises that perhaps the man is something other than human, that some otherworldly power, divine or otherwise, is operating through this individual and, by proxy, has infiltrated the palace’s inner sanctums. This creates both mystery and suspense, and there is no small satisfaction had from watching the diabolical Kelmomas confronting a problem that confounds him.

Malowebi

Meanwhile, Fanayal has entered into a pact with Yatwer, the Goddess of earth and fertility, in the hope this will aid him in breaching Momemn’s walls. We see inside Fanayal’s camp through the eyes of Malowebi, a Schoolman answering to High Holy Zeum and attached to the invasion force as their diplomat.

Of the three characters situated in Momemn, I think Kelmomas and Malowebi’s scenes outshine Esmenet’s. Perhaps they are easier to identify with because their judgement is clearer. Kelmomas is involved in active pursuit of a mystery and Malowebi offers an objective viewpoint in Fanayal’s troubled encampment. Esmenet isn’t as easy to identify with, perhaps because we know Kelmomas is pulling the wool over her eyes and that she is oblivious to the dire affairs in her own house, such as the White-Luck Warrior’s bizarre behaviour. Her scenes are nonetheless compelling, even if some of the enjoyment springs from the dramatic irony of knowing how wrong she is about Kelmomas.

Kellhus and Proyas

Parallel to the above characters’ storylines, Kellhus leads the Great Ordeal into the north to strike at the No-God and the Inchoroi. His army, unified from various factions across the Three Seas, is waging a running war against a seething horde of bestial Sranc, degenerate creatures that rut with the dead and are aroused by slaughter. As the men of the Ordeal push mercilessly north, their food stores begin to dwindle until the only meat to hand are the carcasses of the massacred Sranc…

In The Great Ordeal, Kellhus is an even more inscrutable character than in some of the previous novels. His intentions and motivations are completely obscured, and the viewpoint character in these scenes is primarily Proyas, a Believer-King who is losing his faith in the Great Ordeal and the Aspect-Emperor himself.

Kellhus is one scary man. He now possesses monstrous mental and magical power. Combined with the cold, tactical mindset of his Dunyain training, he is an enigma who might just be the death of them all. Conversely, he is also the only hope the Three Seas has against the horrific No-God, Mog Pharau.

Bakker has elevated Kellhus to divine status. He is a character who truly cannot be understood by the mortals who worship him. Much of Proyas’s angst stems from his crisis of faith and in his inability to truly understand the man who is leading them all to either salvation or damnation. Goaded continually by Saubon, his fellow Believer-King, Proyas knows that he must maintain his faith in order to lead his men. And lead his men he must, because to reach Golgotterath, the Great Ordeal will have to first crush the Sranc horde at the Urrokkas Mountains.

Proyas’s sections are as much about the day-to-day struggle of men at war as they are about his internal strife. Through him, we witness the privations, the death, and the creeping taint of savagery that infects the Ordeal’s ranks as they carry out their relentless campaign. Every day, they battle the limitless legions of Sranc, meeting savagery with savagery, the moral line between them and their enemy diminishing with each blood-drenched yard they push toward Golgotterath.

Sorweel

Sorweel, a hostage in everything but name, is journeying with Kellhus’s children, Serwa and Moenghus, to the Nonman mansion of Ishterebinth. Unbeknownst to his erstwhile jailors, he is an agent of the goddess Yatwer, who is seeking Kellhus’s destruction.

When they arrive, the three travellers find a decaying subterranean labyrinth ravaged by the Nonman plague called the Dolour, whose main symptoms manifest as a form of paranoia and dementia. Ishterebinth is a fallen place, steeped in ageless horror. A vast pit plumbs it to the core, and at the bottom dwell those Nonmen who have fallen so far into the Dolour as to be unfit to reside in the upper reaches. Only a few of those unaffected by the Dolour – the Intact – remain to oversee the mansion.

The king of Ishterebinth, Nil’giccas, is himself hardly a model for strength of spirit. He is a most unsettling individual, given to ladling an oily liquid over his golden armour for some arcane medicinal or spiritual purpose. Sorweel, unfortunately, is at his mercy. He finds himself left to the whims of Ishterebinth’s corrupt officialdom, unsure of whom to trust, unable to tell friend from foe. In the political spheres of Ishterebinth, hidden power plays are in motion and some in the higher castes are seeking to wield Sorweel for their own advantage. Worse, if what he fears is true, then the dread Inchoroi, the occupants of the infamous Ark itself, have already managed to gain a foothold in Ishterebinth.

This city stands so close to where the Ark fell that its innards are cleaved and ruptured by the catastrophic impact. The Inchoroi themselves, the occupants of the dread Ark, are a distant memory to Men but, in the labyrinthine recesses of Ishterebinth and amongst the Intact Nonmen who have kept their sanity over the long centuries, the horrors of the First Apocalypse are still in living memory. Although Men have been complacent about the return of the Inchoroi, Sorweel is beginning to suspect that a faction of the Nonmen have instead been complicit. And if a faction have entered into an unholy pact with the ‘Vile’, as he calls the Consult and Inchoroi, then he is in very great danger indeed.

Achamian and Mimara

Achamian and Mimara, who is Esmenet’s daughter, finally reach Ishual, the home of the Dunyain. This is Kellhus’s birthplace and Achamian hopes to discover the truth about Kellhus and his origins. What he finds instead is death and ruin, for the Sranc and their allies have put the whole place to the torch. In the ruins, Achamian and Mimara discover a yawning hole lined with the bones of Sranc. The Dunyain, it appears, have beat a fighting retreat deep into the maze of tunnels under Ishual, extracting a ruinous toll on the invaders while retreating ever deeper into the maze.

Achamian and Mimara descend into the musty slaughterhouse, the last stand of the Dunyain, searching for survivors and for the truth about Kellhus. And deep beneath Ishual, they will indeed learn some of those harsh truths they seek.

The Final Judgement

While comparisons with The Lord of the Rings are invariably made whenever a fantasy work begets this sort of grand scale, Bakker’s work defies such comparisons because it is so different as to stand outside the yardsticks Tolkien’s work created. What sets these books apart is not just the world-building but also the intensity. In my opinion, there isn’t a single scene in The Great Ordeal that is flat. Every scene is fraught with tension or angst.

This novel is not processed pap that tries to appease everyone. Hell, there’s enough of that stuff floating around already. This is hard-as-nails storytelling that carves its own trail through the wilds and defies conventions.

If you’re a fan, you’ll still be a fan when you finish The Great Ordeal. But if you didn’t like The Darkness that Comes Before, well, sad to say you’re not going to like this either.

Purchase R. Scott Bakker's The Great Ordeal from Amazon.com below.

R. Scott Bakker is heavily involved with the EVIL IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: An Anthology of Antagonists Kickstarter project. Make sure to head on over and check it out!

[image error]

EVIL IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE Kickstarter video

You've gotta check out the Kickstarter video Pen Astridge put together for Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists. How good is this!

Pen has a brilliant eye for detail, scene planning and has made a brilliant animation based on Tommy Arnold's Artwork and Shawn King's design.

If that's grabbed your attention, then head on over to the Kickstarter and check out the the details!

Dawn of War III

I lost all hope for seeing another edition of one of my all time favourite strategy games, Dawn of War. Gaming studios in shambles. Little to no word on what was happening. I thought we'd seen the last of it. 

At the PC Gamer E3 show, we got a little taste of the glory. Check it out.

It's a pre-alpha, so go easy on it, but I was pretty happy to see the larger scale battles coming back in, though I'm interested in finding out if they manage to keep some of the squadplay in there from DoW2.

Something that I can't WAIT to see, are more of the cinematics they come up with this time. Check out the original release trailer. They are really going for bodycount here!

I mean, with an opening like the one below to DoW1, they know how to do them right and appeal to their audience. (It's one of my favourite cinematics--had to show it off again!)

 I'm hoping for a mix of the first two DoWs, though the gameplay might not show it yet. I'm also a bit sceptical of the leaping Gabriel Angelos in terminator armour, but hey, C.S. Goto had them riding rhinos at one point, so why not? 

Winner announcement for THE GREAT ORDEAL

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

We had 60 entires, all with some pretty damned good reasoning behind their favourite characters. Resident GdM Bakker Super Fan, Durand, read them all and picked the one he thought best.

Congratulations to CaptainCrawdad for his winning response:

Kellhus. Perhaps one of the most original protagonists in a fantasy series, his alien perspective is a delight to read. While other POV characters are sympathetic and rounded, Kellhus drives the whole series and gives me a reason to keep reading: I want to understand the mystery of just what Kellhus is doing and find out what his role will really be.

You're the proud winner of an ARC of R. Scott Bakker's THE GREAT ORDEAL! Drop me a line with your postal details so I can get your prize sorted: Adrian (at) grimdarkmagazine (dot) com

The ARC will come direct from Overlook in the States. A huge thanks to the Overlook guys for putting up such a cool prize.

Congratulations!

Win a copy of THE GREAT ORDEAL by R. Scott Bakker

With the release of THE GREAT ORDEAL just around the corner, I'm sure there are plenty of you deadset ITCHING to get your hands on a copy early. 

[image error]

Looks enticing, right? Well, the fantastic folks over at Overlook have very kindly given GdM a paperback ARC to give away to one lucky fan!

You'll find getting in the running easier than Kellhus would find manipulating you to do exactly what he wanted.

Simply respond in the comments of this blog post with your favourite R. Scott Bakker character from any of his Second Apocalypse works (including Atrocity Tales). Tell us why they are your favourite and you could win.

We'll pick a winner on the 14th of June and get the book posted to you!

If you'd like to check out an excerpt of THE GREAT ORDEAL, click here.

EVIL IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: Interior art first look

[image error]

Jason Deem has just put out his first sample piece of interior art for the Evil is a Matter of Perspective Kickstarter (live June 15). This piece is based on Deborah A. Wolf's Bloodpenny. The artworks will take up the top third of the title page for each short story if we can achieve the first stretch goal. Deborah was pretty damned happy with the image, and I can't wait to see what else Jason puts up when the other short stories start rolling in!

If you'd like to follow us on Kickstarter (your Kickstarter account needs to be linked to your Facebook) so you don't miss the start of proceedings on the 15th, head on over to the GdM Kickstarter profile and give us a follow!

[image error]

EXCERPT: In Midnight's Silence (Los Nefilim) by Teresa Frohock

The hero of Los Nefilim is Diago Alvarez, and much like the Shadow (of the old Shadow pulps), Diago has magical abilities. He and his lover, Miquel, are part of a secretive group known as Los Nefilim (Spanish for The Nephilim--say it like "The Mob" and you've got the right idea). This group of angelic Nefilim monitor daimonic activity for the angels.

The only thing is: Diago is not fully angelic. He is part daimon, part angel, and his very unique form of magic is sought by both sides in the conflict between angels and daimons. Like the Shadow, Diago moves through a world of espionage and partisan warfare with a rogues' gallery filled with angels, daimons, and mortals.

In this excerpt from In Midnight's Silence, Diago has arrived home to find a mysterious package has been left for him. Inside the package is a glass box with a triptych etching of a woman Diago once knew on the first panel, Diago and the woman together on the second, and a boy on the third. Diago quickly deduces that a dalliance with another Nefil has resulted in the birth of his son. Inside the box, is the wedding band of Diago’s partner, Miquel, who is missing. Diago’s only clue is a calling card, which lists the name Beltran Prieto.

[image error]

Exclusive excerpt from In Midnight’s Silence

 Diago switched on every light in the loft. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed, and there were no signs of a struggle. Miquel’s gun was still in his suitcase, along with his bowie knife. Diago closed the suitcase and shoved it back under the bed.

In the front pocket of Miquel’s pants he found a crumpled theater bill. The heavily creased paper advertised a new bar not far from the Villa Rosa, where Miquel usually played. A large black scorpion had been drawn to dominate the top of the page. The tail formed the “S” within the club’s name and swirled to encircle the words: Club d’Escorpí.

The bill announced Beltran Prieto as the singer. The dancer was unnamed. Miquel de Torrellas was listed as the guitarist. That couldn’t be right. Miquel had made no mention of working in a new club, and the artwork indicated the handbill had been weeks in the making.

Diago refolded the advertisement and pushed it into his back pocket. He would begin his search at the Villa Rosa before moving to the Club d’Escorpí. Perhaps one of the other performers had seen or heard something about this new club. Any information might help him circumvent more of Prieto’s surprises.

He switched from his shirt and tie to a worn sweater with frayed sleeves, so he would blend in with the mortals that frequented the area. From beneath the bed he yanked out his suitcase and opened it. Inside, concealed beneath a false bottom, were his Luger and a long wicked knife.

His hands no longer shook. Initiating a course of action steadied him. He checked his magazines. One was full, the other half full. Diago emptied a box of silver-tipped bullets onto the bed and added rounds to the second magazine.

Yet, even though he had a plan, it didn’t change the fact that he had no idea what was going on. He considered the clues he had so far, but he could find no way to connect them. Candela had never mentioned anyone named Beltran Prieto—but to be fair, they hadn’t spoken beyond murmurs of passion and her whispered lies.

Another spasm of guilt twisted his stomach before he shut Candela from his mind. Think, God damn it. The etched triptych indicated supernatural skill. That was a start, but Diago had no idea whether Prieto was angel or daimon. His motivations were just as veiled as his character.

What can he possibly want?

“He needs me,” Diago murmured. Specifically, Prieto needed skills that only Diago possessed. But what? The answer to that question required a meeting. One that Beltran Prieto was about to regret.

Diago pressed bullets into the magazine and thought of the hourglass. They used to mark time with hourglasses. There was a clock ticking somewhere. Whatever Prieto needed, time was of the essence. “Okay.” Diago inserted the fresh magazine into the Luger, then tucked the gun into his holster. “Let’s not keep him waiting."

* * *

Diago withdrew the playbill and read the address for the Club d’Escorpí. The bar was located three blocks deeper into the Paralelo’s tangled backstreets. At least I’m close. He crammed the playbill into his coat pocket and hurried down an alleyway. The noise of the main avenue fell behind him. Here, the fog thickened until Diago could barely see a metre ahead.

The quiet was too heavy to be anything other than supernatural. The hair on his arms rose in response to the power around him. Barcelona was behind him, along with the mortals and their everyday worries. Diago had stepped into a different realm. No matter how many times he moved between the spheres of mortal and angel, he never got used to the insidious slide from one reality to another. He paused to get his bearings. 

In the same way that earth was an echo of other realms, this new place was a mere reflection of the Paralelo. On a superficial level, everything seemed the same: the walls were brick, the fog was blue, yet this new place was smaller, paler, less complete than the original. The handbills and advertisements were faded, nearly illegible. The scent of the sea became a memory embedded in the fibers of Diago’s clothes. Sounds of the Paralelo’s revelers diminished until the clamor vanished. Time stood still and soft, like the moments embedded in midnight’s silence.

Diago drew his Luger and held the gun close to his thigh. Not even silver tips would stop an angel, but holding the weapon comforted him with the illusion of protection. The skin on his exposed hands tingled. He paused, his palm damp against the grip of the gun.

The distant strains of a guitar drifted out of the fog. In those notes, Diago recognized one of Miquel’s favorite falsetas. This one began por arriba, high along the frets, shifting rapidly through the notes. A wedge of hope pushed back his fear. If it was Miquel, then he might be all right.

The tune picked up speed. The player missed a chord. The song halted.

Diago froze.

The music began again—louder, closer—although Diago had not moved. Whatever approached was coming to him. The fog became electric. Drops of moisture sizzled against the black windows and shadow doors that lined the alley.

The strings hummed when the player missed his next chord. It was Miquel. Any doubt was erased by that error. When he grew tired, he always failed to make a smooth transition between F and E. Judging from the screech of his fingers along the strings, he was exhausted.

But he’s alive. He’s alive, and that’s what matt—

The song ended abruptly. 

Diago thought he heard voices. He cocked his head.

A man spoke a command.

Miquel answered. “I can’t.”

The man spoke again. His tone mocked Miquel’s pain. “You will.” 

Miquel began to play.

Rage flared through Diago’s chest and into his head, almost blinding him. He clenched his jaw and pushed down his anger. He needed his mind clear.

The sounds drew closer still. Miquel’s ring was warm on Diago’s finger. Diago searched the gloom. A door appeared in the wall on his left. Cold blue light spilled across the threshold and shouldered the fog aside. Over the open door, an electric scorpion writhed and blinked in neon splendor.

Diago crept toward the entrance and peered inside. The room was gray, like the walls and the floor had been sculpted from the mist. The same lack of color that diluted the details of the bar enhanced the three figures within.

Miquel played a worn guitar, his fingertips dark with his own blood. Sweat dampened his black curls. Other than a bruise that spread across his left eye like a poison sunset, and his worn fingertips, he seemed to be all right.

Even so, Diago’s heart hammered at the sight of him. Adrenaline flooded his body with an intoxicating mixture of relief and rage.

The loud click of marbles striking wooden trays redirected his attention to the table where an angel in his mortal form sat across from a child. Diago focused on the angel first. He was the same one Estrella had described. To any human who happened to glance at him, he appeared as a beautiful man with long silver hair pulled into ponytail that cascaded down his back. A closer look revealed that he had only four fingers on each hand.

Safe within his lair, he made no attempt to hide his feet, which resembled the clawed talons of a raptor. Thick fur covered his ankles and disappeared beneath the seams of his pants. The eyes were the worst. Great crimson orbs shot through with streams of silver. He possessed no pupils, no whites.

An hourglass stood on the table. Yellow sand trickled from the top bulb into the bottom. The thin line of sand in the top half left no doubt that Diago had arrived just in time.

A mancala board was placed between the angel and the child. They used brightly colored marbles for their game pieces.

The boy chose a tray and scooped up the marbles. He counted them out and frowned at the board, tapping his fingers against the table in a slow rhythm, like a cat twitching its tail. The familiarity of the motion stunned Diago. He often did the same thing when distracted.

He is mine. And on the heels of that thought came the obvious: I have to get him out of here. He glanced at Miquel again. I have to get both of them out of here.

“Come in, Diago,” said the angel. “We have been waiting for you.”

END EXCERPT

 

Frohock has turned a love of dark fantasy and horror into tales of deliciously creepy fiction. She lives in North Carolina where she has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying.

She is the author of Miserere: An Autumn Tale and numerous short stories. Her newest series, Los Nefilim, is from Harper Voyager Impulse, and the Los Nefilim omnibus contains all three novellas: In Midnight’s Silence, Without Light or Guide, and The Second Death in one convenient book.

You can find out more about T. at her website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

 Order Los Nefilim for only $2.99USD on Kindle and pre-order the paperback for only $7.99USD (due for release June 14th).

Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists

[image error]

Starting June 15th the Grimdark Magazine team will be using Kickstarter to raise $19,500USD (just over $27,100AUD) to fund Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists.

Our anthology will put you in the shoes of your favourite fantasy antagonists. We've gathered one hell of a team: seventeen brilliant fantasy authors, two amazing artists, a designer, editors and a team of readers from GdM. The stories will range from epic fantasy to good ol' grimdark fantasy and most things in between.

The Evil is a Matter of Perspective team

Seventeen authors were kind enough to commit their efforts to Evil is a Matter of Perspective:

R. Scott Bakker (The Second Apocalypse)
Michael R. Fletcher (Manifest Delusions)
Jeff Salyards (Bloodsounder's Arc)
Teresa Frohock (Los Nefilim)
Adrian Tchaikovsky (Shadows of the Apt, The Tiger and the Wolf)
Brian Staveley (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne)
Kaaron Warren (The Gate Theory, Mistification)
Marc Turner (Chronicles of the Exile)
Courtney Schafer (The Shattered Sigil)
Deborah A. Wolf (The Dragon's Legacy)
Alex Marshall (Crimson Empire)
Bradley P. Beaulieu (The Song of the Shattered Sands, The Lays of Anuskaya)
Shawn Speakman (The Annwn Cycles)
Matthew Ward (Shadow of the Raven, Coldharbour)
Mazarkis Williams (The Tower & Knife)

Stretch goal authors:

Mark Alder (Banners of Blood)
Janny Wurts (The Wars of Light and Shadow, The Empire Trilogy)

Artists:

Tommy Arnold (cover)
Jason Deem (interior--stretch goal)
Shawn King (design)

This line-up is joined by the experienced members of the GdM team: Tom Smith, Mike Myers, Cheresse Burke, Jewel Gray, Kristy Mika, Diarmuid Hughes, and Adrian Collins.

What you get by backing this Kickstarter

The 15+ stories and associated art works will be on offer in four different formats--three print and one electronic: 

ebook (Kindle, ePub, and PDF)
Paperback
Hardcover (with dust jacket)
Lettered special edition:

Limited to 26
Signed by all the author contributors
Arizona leather cover
Ribbon

There will also be a range of other backing options on offer, such as tuckerisations and editing, for those who want more.

[image error]

Stretch Goals

The best Kickstarters boast killer stretch goals that keep adding content. Ours is no different. As we bust through our funding goal and keep going north, here's our first list of stretch goals:

Interior art by Jason Deem (financial goal)
Additional short story by Mark Alder (financial goal)
Additional short story by Janny Wurtz (financial goal)
Author pay bump from $0.10 per word to $0.12 per word (financial goal)
Open window for 2x unsolicited submissions (financial goal)
eBooks from Ragnarok Publications (backer numbers goal):

Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues

The Heresy Within by Rob J. Hayes


eBooks from Cohesion Press (backer numbers goal):


Into the Mist by Lee Murray
SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest

FUBAR by Weston Ochse

eBooks from Matthew Ward (backer number goal):


A Matter of Belief (novella)

The Tribute (novellette)

First year bundle deal from Grimdark Magazine (backer numbers goal)
Second year bundle deal from Grimdark Magazine (backer numbers goal)

If we bust through these goals we'll be adding further content to keep increasing the amount of value you get for your dollar. Any fiction budget left over will go into sourcing and purchasing more short stories.

The Add-Ons list is still being put together, so keep an eye on our blog for more information.

Back the Kickstarter

Evil is a Matter of Perspective is planned and ready to go for a June 15th launch. We need your commitment to get to print and to turn nine months of planning into a reality.

More to come on Evil is a Matter of Perspective from GdM and the authors over the next few weeks! Keep an eye on our social media pages for more!

[image error] [image error]

Interview with TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER writer Andy Hall

Andy Hall is the Lead Writer on the highly anticipated Total War: Warhammer from Creative Assembly. He was kind enough to take a few minutes off to chat with us about the game that has both Total War and Warhammer Fantasy Battles fans collectively throwing their credit cards at him and screaming "TAKE MY MONEY".

[image error]

Andy is a 16 year Games Worksop veteran who worked with the likes of Jervis Johnson, Gav Thorpe and Rick Priestley on many games such as Blood Bowl, Warmaster and Inquisitor when at the Specialist Games studio and then as editor of Fanatic Magazine. After a five year stint on White Dwarf, he left GW and worked on numerous Warhammer-flavoured computer games including Warhammer Quest, Blood Bowl 2 and Vermintide. He’s now full time at Creative Assembly as Lead Writer on Total War: Warhammer.

Let's get chatting about the game I can't wait to set eyes on!

 

[GdM] Throughout the Total War series on loading screens we often see quotes meant to inspire, guide and warn. I always got such a huge kick out of them. With so many books, short stories, and fluff pieces already written in the Warhammer world, were you able to use a few choice quotes that we may recognise or did you need to come up with new ones?

[AH] Wow, I've done what must be well over 50 interviews for this project so far and no one's asked me about loading screen quotes before! To answer - there's a few new ones I've written, but the vast majority are taken from existing material in a scatter gun approach. The loading screen is a good way to show just how deep this world is, and so having a random sample of factoids and quotes from the full spectrum of the Old World alludes to that.

We've also got hints about battle and campaign game play in there, summaries of the spell lores, and keep an eye on the loading screens going into Quest Battles they may offer hints on what to expect as well as a narrative summary of your goal. 

[GdM] What heroes can we expect to hear from?

[AH] Bretonnians, Dwarfs, brave Empire men, Orcs, of course. Mannfred has a few choice select quotes, that guy is a real blow hard.

[GdM] Do you have a favourite quote you can share with us?

[AH] 'Oi, dat's my leg!' - perturbed Goblin.

[GdM] And what about those that you came up with yourself?

[AH] 'Life is a cancer, but I have the cure, death ever-lasting.' I think that's one of Kemmler's.

[GdM] Warhammer is an intensely detailed game and world. In an article on ign.com, Stace Harman discusses the exceptional detail the creators went into to ensure a completely unique playing experience for each race. How much input did you have into the creation of those races and uniqueness, and was it difficult to come up with four initial engaging narrative experiences for the one map?

[AH] Yeah, I was recruited early in the project, I'd left GW the previous year and was just finishing work on Warhammer Quest, Blood Bowl 2 and Vermintide, when CA asked me to join. So I had some influence over how the races worked. However, real credit belongs to Ian Roxburgh, our game director, for really laying down the challenge on our campaign and battle designers to make this more than a mere Total War re-skin. This game breathes Warhammer and I hope that I made a small contribution towards that.

[GdM] Which race was the most fun to write?

[AH] It has to be Greenskins. Writing Orc scripts, there's nothing quite like it. All credit to Rick Preistley, and so many other writers in that early GW era for making Orcs hooligan Milwall fans.

[GdM] Which is your favourite to play, and why?

[AH] Perhaps surprisingly, I've really been enjoying the Dwarfs, it's their Grudge mechanic that really keeps you doing the 'just one more turn' thing. I'm an Empire player on the table top (and Skaven...) but I'm saving Franz's lads for my 'release' play through.

[GdM] With four awesome races coming out with the initial release, and two planned expansions on the way, what other races will be added and when can we expect to see them?

[AH] The plan is to get all sixteen armies (and, yes, I mean 16 despite there being 15 army books...) in the game by journey's end. As to the order in which they appear, well, you'll have to wait and see.

[GdM] Can you give us any indication of what sort of stories we'll get to play through with those races?

[AH] In Total War you make your own stories, that is kinda the point, playing out the 'what ifs' of that race. What if Franz invaded Bretonnia? What if Mannfred does create an eternal, deathless Empire? My own personal agenda is to reclaim Marienburg for the Empire. It's always rankled me that the corrupt Bugomeisters bought themselves secession. That's something I intend to put right on my Empire play through! Saying all that we do have a broad narrative structure - an overarching plot - that is kind of a first for Total War and there are the Quest Chains for the Legendary Lords and that will continue for all the races going forward, with the quests and narratives adapting to the style of each race.

[GdM] One of the things I'm most excited about are the Legendary Lords, described on the Total War Wiki as "named characters from Warhammer Lore". Two come out for each race with the initial release, with more to follow as DLCs and Free Content. Which Legendary Lords did you enjoy putting into the game the most and how did you integrate their storylines and history into the narrative?

[AH] Heinrich Kemmler was my favourite to write because he's a senile old git, who thinks of his Undead minions as his 'children'. His battle speeches were great fun to write. The Quest Chains are linked to their iconic magic items, that's how you unlock them in the game. The stories themselves for these are either new, or refashioned from their origins in the background. In a few instances we've had to tweak timelines to get it to work, but as the game doesn't advance in years, I think we get away with it. A good example of a new quest, of new material, for example, is Karl Franz's quest for Ghal Maraz. In our game, he's just become Emperor, and so perfectly entitled to wield the Warhammer, so what I did was make Karl not feel worthy of Ghal Maraz until he has performed a great battle - at Black Fire Pass - such a momentous victory there will set the seeds of uniting the Electors behind Franz's reign and so then he does feel he can wield the Warhammer both as a symbol of his office and as a weapon. And so it unlocks in the game. 

[GdM] Will we see such renown characters as the Bretonian Green Knight, Aenarion the Defender, Malus Darkblade, Archaon, or Sigmar (to name but a few)?

[AH] You're not going to see Sigmar! As to the others... Stay tuned. 

[GdM] Will there be more than two Legendary Lords per race in the future?

[AH] Yes, Chaos already has three - Sigvald, Kholek and, of course, Archaon. 

[GdM] With so much lore already existing, were you able to integrate stories of famous battles and other occurrences through easter eggs or simple nods to other storylines?

[AH] Yes, the game is littered with Easter Eggs for the lore-fiend. Keep an eye on traits, achievements, building and tech tree descriptions in the game guide.

[GdM] Were there any bits of lore you wish you could have put in but just couldn't?

[AH] Not couldn't... But couldn't put in yet. By the time we're done I think we'll be very comprehensive! 

[GdM] Tabletop gamers are habitual list-tinkerers and love kitting out lords and heroes, something that seems to have thankfully made it into Total War: Warhammer. There are magic items and huge skill trees to build on the smaller generals' skill trees of Rome: Total War II, which feels far more representative of Warhammer army lists tabletop gamers will be used to. Will these characters have the immense impact on the Total War field of battle that they can on the tabletop?

[AH] Gods, yes! You're effectively dealing with superheroes here. Some of our Legendary Lords are immortal power houses and that's how they play out on the battlefield. Mannfred should be able to walk up to a unit of gobble and wipe them out single-handedly. The fact you can develop them further or create your own from scratch is icing on the cake. You have 30 skill points (gained by committing them in battle) and that allows you to really customise your Lords and Heroes, just like in table top. 

[GdM] The maps in the current play-throughs look gorgeously detailed, far more so that previous Total War games. Were artists known for their previous Warhammer art used in the creation of the scenery and did you get to work with them on creative briefs?

[AH] We have a great stable of artists at CA and they just launched into bringing this world to life whole-heartedly. We obviously have 30 years of artistic endeavour from Games Workshop to be inspired by. More skulls! Was a catchphrase I and our art lead, Chris Waller used a lot, as well as references from the likes of John Blanche and many others.

[image error]

[GdM] Are there any plans to release maps of famous battles as one-offs?

[AH] Not currently.

[GdM] Warhammer and Total War feels like a beautiful match up on the same awesomeness-tier as salt and caramel or beer and the Aussie summer. What are you most excited about with this release?

[AH] So much. This game is what was happening in my head when I was an eleven year old boy pushing miniatures around a table. The static nature of models means they can only be representative. Our game makes it visceral; makes it real. That's why I am proud to have had a minor part in creating it. 

[GdM] Thanks for chatting with me Andy! 

Total War: Warhammer hit the shelves on the 24th of May, 2016 and can be ordered for $59.99USD over on the steam store.

Review: The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence

[image error]

 

Review by Matthew Cropley

In The Wheel of Osheim, the final instalment of Mark Lawrence’s The Red Queen’s War trilogy, Jalan Kendeth, lover of wine, women and slacking off somehow finds himself lost the bowels of Hell itself, in combat with an army of undead horrors, and forced onto a quest to save the fabric of reality. Needless to say, he’s mildly miffed.

The last time we saw Jalan in The Liar’s Key, he was being pulled into Hell after his Viking companion Snorri. The Wheel of Osheim begins after Jalan escapes Hell, and the events that took place there are given to us in a series of harrowing flashbacks. Jalan seeks nothing more than the comforts of home, yet is dragged kicking and screaming into the role of the hero and sent on a quest to stop the titular ‘Wheel of Osheim’ from tearing reality itself apart. The stakes are far higher than the more intimate Prince of Fools and The Liar’s Key. Despite the grander scale, the story remains a deeply personal one, and Lawrence’s flair for nuanced character development soars to new heights.

The Wheel of Osheim is a tale of wonderful paradoxes, with many of them embodied in its protagonist. Jalan started out as a pathetic coward, yet one with enough wit and charisma that you couldn’t help but root for him, and he manages to come into his own in The Wheel of Osheim, maturing and learning from his experiences without losing his core. Jalan has been through so much that, despite still claiming to be cowardly, he seems far braver than many of those around him simply by virtue of being so used to danger that he barely notices it. After spending two books with him I’d assumed that he wouldn’t surprise me anymore, yet he continues to do so seemingly every chapter. He’s selfish and selfless, fearful and brave, weak and strong, callous and caring. In short, he’s one of the most well-realised, realistic protagonists that I’ve encountered. Where Jorg Ancrath was a grimdark protagonist due to possessing characteristics that would make him a villain in any other story, Jalan is a grimdark hero because it’s as if fate plucked a random side-character from his days of drinking and gambling and forced him into the role of the hero just to see what would happen. In Jalan, we get to see how flawed, realistic person might fare in a fantasy quest.

The secondary characters are equally as well realised, even if we only get small glimpses. For example, our time with the Red Queen is brief as ever, yet when reading about her I felt as if I was staring into a lake and could just make out the suggestion of great depths. On one level I’d love to read a series following the Red Queen’s life, but on another the glimpses we get convey so much. The trilogy is aptly named The Red Queen’s War since while we follow Jalan, the Red Queen and her struggle against the Lady Blue are always at the heart of things. Snorri, of course, is Jalan’s tortured but heroic Viking companion, and while Jalan spends time apart from Snorri this time round, his influence remains important. Snorri is another paradox since while he’s a hulking muscle-bound warrior, he’s perhaps the most vulnerable character in the book. He’s what a hero might become after he’s lost everything, dead-set on the impossible task of rescuing his family from the afterlife. He and Jalan are polar opposites which is probably why their unlikely friendship is so touching and their banter so entertaining. Snorri’s heroism and equally heroic expectations are what bind Jalan to his quest: he just doesn’t want to let Snorri down. This, along with a variety of external pressures, provides a very human reason for Jalan to even attempt the ‘save the world’ quest. Kara and Hennan make reappearances, along with a variety of other secondary characters from the first two books, and their characters remain compelling.

The certain doom of the Dead King and the destruction of reality that has been creeping up on Jalan, and indeed the whole Broken Empire, is no longer the far-off threat that it has been, but explodes violently into the present. Jalan, always seeking to escape from his troubles, finds that there is nowhere left to escape to, and this realisation, along with the epic battles that accompany it, make for a fantastic ending to the trilogy. The emotional threads that have been woven through the series all culminate in a satisfying finale that links closely with the Broken Empire trilogy. Throughout the book, Jalan traipses around the edges of Jorg’s story and provides an explanation for the forces behind Jorg’s struggles. Where the previous books in The Red Queens’s War crossed over in minor ways with the Broken Empire trilogy, this time the links are significant. Rather than feeling like a tacked-on addition to a pre-existing story, The Wheel of Osheim slots in and adds to the Broken Empire trilogy seamlessly. However, at times, especially in the slower first third of The Wheel of Osheim these comparisons reminded me just how fantastic Jorg and the Broken Empire trilogy are, and made me yearn for those books. This effect was short-lived and by the time The Wheel of Osheim picked up, I was so swept up in Jalan’s story that thoughts of Jorg were far from my mind. The Broken Empire trilogy is larger in scale and perhaps more epic, with a deliciously dark tone and clever subversion of fantasy tropes, but The Red Queen’s War stands firmly on its own merits, providing more humour, heart and an equally entertaining, though wildly different, protagonist.

The central dilemma of the novel, whether it’s worth the effort of even trying to save a world from certain doom, is compellingly encapsulated in the world of the Broken Empire. Hordes of horrific undead monstrosities storm kingdoms while corrupt rulers consolidate their own power. Undead have been portrayed frequently in fiction in general, not to mention fantasy, but Lawrence presents fresh horrors that exceed anything he’s shown us yet. The battles with undead hordes are well thought out, with the actual logistical challenges of fighting undead clearly considered and used to create an atmosphere of hopeless dread. We’re also given greater insights into the Broken Empire, including the history of the Builders and the bizarre nature of the Wheel of Osheim itself, all filtered through Jalan’s supremely entertaining viewpoint.

Lawrence’s prose succeeds in being both unpretentious and beautiful, with genuinely deep insights into human nature wrapped up in Jalan’s wittily cynical commentary. A single-narrator first person perspective is rarely used in fantasy in favour of multi-viewpoint third person epics, but Lawrence utilises its intimate nature and internal monologue to great effect, and looking out at the world from inside Jalan’s head is far more entertaining than simply watching him would be. It’s with novels such as this that one realises just how much more engaging books can be when compared to other media, such as films. There’s just no substitute for being transported into another person’s mind, and Mark Lawrence is a master of the art. The plot begins relatively slowly, compared at least to the cliff-hanger ending of the last book, but ratchets up steadily, peaking with several nail-bitingly suspenseful scenes. Jalan’s antics are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny at times, and act as good counterpoints to the dire stakes. His humour doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the situation, but is derived from it with his hilariously realistic reactions to horrific events that would see a traditional hero square his shoulders and raise his weapon. Despite his lack of apparent heroism, Jalan really does rise to the challenge in a way he rarely has before.

Overall, The Wheel of Osheim presents everything our followers could want in a fantasy book, which is no less than one would expect from Mark Lawrence. Fantastic character development, an intimate and entertaining narrative voice, and a plot that manages to be both deeply personal and world-shaking. It’s a wonderful end to The Red Queen’s War and a rich addition to the world of the Broken Empire. Read it.

Purchase The Wheel of Osheim in paperback from Galaxy Bookstore or as a signed, lined, first edition from Quill and Claw Signed First Editions.

Galaxy Bookstore Purchase Link (paperback)

Quill and Claw Signed First Editions Purchase Link (Signed, lined first edition)

Purchase on Kindle: