Adrian Collins's Blog, page 30

REVIEW: Out of the Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise

Last Updated on November 24, 2024

I started my “know as little about a book as possible before starting” policy for book reviews with A.C. Wise’s Out of the Drowning Deep, and it led to a lovely reading experience of subverted expectations. I knew it was a fantasy murder-mystery with a former addict detective, and that’s it. As a fellow addict in recovery, I’m sensitive to how we’re portrayed in media. I expected a plot-driven mystery, some cool fantasy set pieces, and crass comic relief from an addict looking for redemption (and some dark shit considering Grimdark Magazine sent the book to me). After reading, though, I wanted to give a round of applause, a chef’s kiss, and a hoot and a holler to A.C. Wise for the addiction plot line. The book turned out to be a through-and-through character story that I really enjoyed.

Out of the Drowning Deep takes place on a solitary planet orbited by a residential space station, in a universe where all gods have made themselves known. Our main characters are Scribe IV (an automaton who records prayers), Quin (the recovering addict and detective), and Angel (an angel who agrees to help solve the murder-mystery). After the visiting Pope is murdered in the Bastion, Scribe IV’s soon to be defunct monastery, the three team up to solve the case before the Sisters of the Drowning Deep (amphibious nuns who punish people with eternal drowning) rise from the depths to exploit the situation for them and their Drowned God.

Honestly, that’s about it for the central plot. There’s not much to say about the murder-mystery aspect of the book, and it doesn’t feel like the characters or the author are terribly invested in it, either. There’s a genuinely interesting break in the case and a few clues to have some satisfaction in trying to solve the mystery, but it’s not page-turning for that reason. The scenes where the plot progresses feel rushed and mostly there to create new contexts for character development, but I didn’t mind at all because the characters fascinated me. The vast majority of the book is dedicated to separate character arcs.

The thing that made this book totally worthwhile to me was the story around Quin’s addiction, his sister Lena, and an angel who embodies his addiction named Murmuration. Wise beautifully shows that addicts crave relief over pleasure. It’s freedom, for a moment, from a deeper suffering, at any cost. Until it costs everything. Quin finds that relief in the broken, possessive, gentle, predatory, adoring, every-shade-of-seduction Murmuration who is able to devour Quin’s memories of his traumatic past—he is left hollow, but free. When Quin returns to Murmuration, I felt seen in his irrational hope for greener pastures. The other side is always dead and barren, but there is also relief in having nothing to water.

The most beautiful, heartbreaking moments that made me teary are with Lena. I thought the book mindfully and lovingly illustrated the confusing, frightening, furious work of loving—or losing—an addict. She shares the same traumatic memory as Quin. If he loses his, then who can bear witness to her suffering? Out of the Drowning Deep has great character arc pacing. In devastating moments of clarity and self-admission, Lena sees through the maelstrom of her emotions, into the ugly truths behind the dark clouds, with lovely narrative timing that broke my heart. Murmuration is probably the most complicated character, and it was an intriguing puzzle to try and figure out his experience of the situation.

The book’s meditation on bearing witness culminates in Angel and Scribe IV’s arc together, which was satisfying, moving, and cleverly tied-in to the central mystery, as well. However, other aspects of their story deflated at the end. My partner endured several of my soliloquies on the truly interesting conversations they raised, but I wish they were more flushed out by the end.

At the end of the day, the main element that propels me through a story is writing style. I’ve DNF’d many books, some which surely had compelling plots and characters, because the sentences didn’t capture me. Wise’s accessible style in Out of the Drowning Deep kept me immersed in the story, but there were some aspects that were worthy of being taught in a creative writing class. The angels we encounter are able to distort perception, both in their appearance and how characters experience them in space and time. Murmuration can at once appear as a flock of birds and a winged man, a human and a nest of hungry mouths. Scribe IV saw Angel as marble and flame, a storm, a kelp-haired god, both engulfing the horizon and rising from the shore. Instead of indulgent poetics, though, Wise can balance her characters’ perceptions in a clear style. Those scenes reminded me of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. Wise can also ratchet up the intensity on a dime, and the darker scenes with Quin had me racing through paragraphs.

Out of the Drowning Deep is entertaining, moving, and gave me a fresh perspective on myself–what more could I want from a novella? It has moments of brilliance, and I highly recommend it to anyone who lives with or around addiction.

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REVIEW: Silent Hill 2 (Remake)

Silent Hill 2 is a seminal work in the history of video games, basically being the go-to example of most gamers for when someone wants to say that the medium can produce genuine art alongside The Last of Us. Silent Hill 2’s reputation has far exceeded its initial release and grown in the retelling, ignoring a lot of the original 2001 release’s flaws ranging from janky controls to sometimes questionable voice acting from everyone but Guy Cihi and Monica Taylor Horgan. The HD re-release of Silent Hill 2 also got a poor reputation despite the fact that Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was in it and I’d play anything with her.

For grimdark fans, Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic game as it is one of the rare ones that is willing to cast aside the usual hero narrative. James Sunderland (now voiced by Luke Roberts) is an antihero of the classical sort. He’s weak, withdrawn, and possibly doesn’t care if he lives or dies. Certainly, he’s no one’s definition of a hero. I might even go further to spoil the twist of a twenty-three-year-pld game but I’m not going to. To quote the Born from a Wish DLC, “That James is a bad man.” Nevertheless, he’s an intensely relatable one. You’re far more likely to be James Sunderland than you are to be Chris Redfield.

The premise for Silent Hill 2 is one that works incredibly well (so well that it’s copied for Resident Evil VII): James Sunderland is a widower who has received a letter from his dead wife to meet him in Silent Hill. Driving his old, busted car to the haunted town, he almost immediately finds himself confronted by strange fleshy monsters as well as a handful of other survivors. The most important individuals he meets being the beautiful Maria (now voiced by Salóme Gunnarsdóttir) who looks identical to his late wife, Mary, and the mysterious slasher-movie-esque stalker, Pyramid Head.

The remake of Silent Hill 2 wisely sticks closely to the original game and is virtually identical in terms of plot as well as dialogue. People’s issues with the HD Re-Release were that it changed the voice acting and some of the art assets but nothing of the gameplay. It hit an uncanny valley that was too similar and yet too different at the same time. Here, developers have added an entire third new section of the town, updates the levels, and gives everything a graphical overhaul that I feel avoids that. Basically, they don’t fix what’s not broken and make substantial improvements in terms of both gameplay as well as graphics. The new voice acting is on on par with the original’s best and improved everywhere it isn’t.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is a gorgeous game, and I mean that in a way that highlights how hideous the place is. Silent Hill really does look like a town that has been abandoned for decades and is now covered in believable amounts of decay. The fog moves in a terrifying supernatural way, but the best part of the game is probably its subtlety and pacing. I was almost ten to fifteen minutes before I saw even a glimpse of a monster and that build-up is far more effective than figuratively blowing your [insert metaphor] immediately. The tension is thick throughout, and few games can sustain that.

The combat is greatly improved and that is something that needs a few caveats to highlight. A lot of people argue that the original’s janky combat made James feel more vulnerable and highlighted the horror. While true, combat is also unavoidable in places and it’s not a poor decision to make it less frustrating. The terror of the remake is the themes and story not losing hours of progress because there was no autosave in the original game (which has been corrected).

I also want to give credit for the game’s redesigns of characters. Except for James Sunderland himself, who looks a little too much like Leon S. Kennedy, I like how everyone looks now. Even James really emotes well in a way that wasn’t visible in the original game or HD re-release.

I particularly like the redesign to Maria’s character; she maintains her physical allure as a temptation to James but is presented far more appropriately for a woman walking around a monster ridden town. The aging up of the character is also a deliberate change from the developers and feels a suitable one to hint at some of the supernatural shenanigans going on behind the scenes. I know these changes caused some upset in the gaming community, as Maria’s presentation is an integral part of the plot of Silent Hill 2, but the version in the remake is different to, not less than her original depiction.

In conclusion, the Silent Hill 2 remake is a fantastic game that I recommend to both fans of the original as well as those who would like to experience the story without going back in time twenty years of technology improvements. Silent Hill is more than just James Sunderland’s story and being a psychological anvil to beat your protagonist’s head against. However, it is a work that will always be remembered for going that direction.

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INTERVIEW: Jasmine Mas

Author Jasmine Mas writes funny romantasy books, set in dark worlds with villainous men and sarcastic women. She studied double majored in Government and Ancient Classical Studies at Georgetown, which has heavily influenced her latest project Blood of Hercules. We at Grimdark Magazine were lucky enough to get some time with Jasmine to discuss her inspirations, becoming a traditionally published author, and her novel Blood of Hercules.

[GdM] What motivated you to write a gender-bent Hercules romantasy? Why Hercules specifically?

[JM] I love reading fantasy romance books with strong female leads. I also love ancient Greek mythology and have always wanted to write a fantasy romance book inspired by it. Since Hercules was my favorite myth growing up, and one a lot of people are familiar with, it seemed like a fun way to bring the story to life. I honestly didn’t think too hard about making Hercules a woman, it just seemed like a fun twist on the tale, and the way I’d always wanted to read it.

[GdM] As an ex-Classical Studies graduate, were you trying to evoke the darker side of Greek mythology in Blood of Hercules? How did you envision your dystopian setting to merge with the image of these well known mythic figures?

[JM] In my Classical Studies program at Georgetown University a theme that constantly came up was “Chthonic” gods and mythological creatures who were associated with death in ancient Greece. It was a constant theme in all my studies and were always compared as to the Olympian gods who were associated with life. It was something I always found intriguing, because it was the quintessential good versus evil, light versus dark comparison, in a way that I’d never heard about. I thought a dystopian setting would be the perfect place to feature the duality of these two factions and what it means, because there is nothing with higher stakes then an apocalyptic setting. It felt like a different and fun way for them to clash.

[GdM] The “morally gray” is a popular trope in romantasy (particularly recently). What was it like writing four of them? Do you envision  – Augustus, Kharon, Achilles and Patro – to be redeemable at all?

[JM] I love morally gray characters, and I think Greek myths are the perfect place to tell their stories because they are already full of them (I still have a crush on Ares—help). It was really fun to think through unique character traits, physical and mental, when writing all four of them. All four of them have been raised to perceive themselves as evil because they are chthonic, and that is the role they play in the society I created, but I don’t think that speaks to who they actually are. They’re all redeemable in my eyes.

[GdM] Are there any authors or novels which served as an inspirational touchstone for you?

[JM] I was really inspired by Maximum Ride by James Patterson. It was the first book I ever became obsessed with (when I was 10 years old and I read that Fang kissed another girl, I was so betrayed the entire trajectory of my life changed) , and I re-read the stories more times than I could ever count. I always wanted to write a story about a strong girl with unique powers in a modern world and Blood of Hercules is my attempt to capture that childhood feeling as an adult.

Author Jasmine Mas

[GdM] There are a lot of dark themes touched on in the book (abuse, murder/excessive violence, forced marriages), how did you approach including them in Blood of Hercules – toeing the line between treating them sensitively whilst using them as themes that move the plot forwards?

[JM] I was actually very conflicted about a lot of things while I was writing it, because I didn’t want to offend anyone, but I also wanted to tell the gritty Greek mythology tale that I imagined in my head. Alexis undergoes a lot of traumatic things, just like people in real life do, and she has to cope with them. I tried to flesh out the coping and persevering aspects as much as possible to give homage to the trauma she faces. She’s not unscathed physically or mentally, but she’s also not just a victim. There’s a lot of dualities to Alexis as a whole and I think it’s what makes her feel more realistic and relatable.

[GdM] Which character was your favourite to write about, and why?

[JM] Achilles was by far my favorite. He’s a very unique character because of the fact that they’ve muzzled him and he’s in love with Patro. The fun part was trying to write someone as having a lot of depth, while being unable to write dialogue from their perspective. I constantly had to be thinking of body posture in a way I don’t usually have to.

[GdM] What was your thought process behind deciding to include Alexis’ inner thoughts to the reader in your narrative, especially in such a grimdark, dystopian setting?

[JM] I think Alexis’s inner monologue is crucial to the story because sarcasm and dark humor help make grim stories so much more enjoyable as a reader. Since she was able to make light of the dark setting, I think it’s easier for readers to also make light of it.

[GdM] You’re well known for keeping in a layer of humour within dark romantasy novels (I.e with your Cruel Shiftverse series). How did you find balancing the dry humour of Alexis’ inner thoughts with the dark and dangerous world she lives in?

[JM] I think sarcasm actually lends itself more to dark and dangerous situations. Whenever I’ve dealt with trauma in my own life, I always turn to humor to help myself cope. I think Alexis doing so makes her feel more like a real person.

[GdM]  Our readers love all things dark and morally grey in stories – what parts of Alexis’ journey as a mutt Spartan was the most important to communicate to your would-be readers?

[JM] The initiation massacre to get into the Spartan War Academy, after Alexis’ blood test reveals she’s a Spartan, is extremely important because it shows how she acts under pressure. It shows the lengths she’s willing to go to survive, letting her pet venomous snake bite everyone, and shows how tough she can be. She’s been thrust into an entirely new world, but she doesn’t break down. It really captures her resilience and how morally grey she can be.

[GdM] Did you always envision Blood of Hercules to have a sequel when you first started writing?

[JM] Yes, I always imagined Alexis’s story as a duet. There’s so much she still has to discover about herself and her powers, and two books I think is perfect to do that.

[GdM] How has it felt to go from being a self-published author, to getting a deal with Harper Voyager?

[JM] It honestly feels surreal, and I don’t think I’ve fully processed it. It’s been amazing to work with the team at Harper Voyager to help bring Blood of Hercules to stores. It’s so exciting that they love the world as much as I do and I can’t wait for everyone to get to read it.

 

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REVIEW: The Penguin

The Penguin  is a series that I did not initially pay much attention to, despite my mammoth Batman fandom. I felt that The Batman was an okay movie and Robert Pattinson did a good job as “Bruce Wayne who listened to the Cure growing up.” Still, I felt that the Penguin was an odd choice to make the star of his own series. Previous “Batman series without Batman” like Pennyworth and Gotham suffered for the absence of the Caped Crusader.

There’s also the fact that this is a review for Grimdark Magazine, so the question is whether the subject is grimdark. After all, it is a comic book from a well-known family friendly property. Batman is many things but one of them is a hero and grimdark thrives with moral ambiguity, if not outright villain protagonists.

So, it’s weird that The Penguin is probably the best Batman property since the Animated Series if not ever. No, seriously, this show is fantastic from beginning to end. Colin Farrell puts on a ludicrous amount of costuming and a fake Italian accent yet somehow delivers one of the best performances I can remember. Co-stars Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone) and Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar) also turn in amazing performances. Indeed, of The Penguin’s many talented actors, Mark Strong is probably the only weak performance, and even he does a serviceable job as Carmine Falcone.

The Penguin’s premise is that Oswald “Oz” Cobb (not Cobblepot) is a mid-level Italian mobster in this universe as opposed to being the criminal mastermind he usually is. He’s a working-class crook this time around instead of a fallen billionaire’s heir and even envisions himself as a man of the people. It’s a change from the comic books but the Penguin has had multiple origins so it’s not as big a change as one might think. Besides, the fact that the Penguin is centrally tied to ideas about wealth and class in America comes through well in these eight episodes.

The short version of what happens is that Oz lets his temper get the better of him during a discussion about who is going to inherit the late Carmine Falcone’s throne. This one impulsive action sets off a domino effect of events where Oz is constantly forced to scheme as well as plot to dig himself out of the hole that he’s dug for himself. This includes recruiting a disabled young man to be his No. 1# henchman and dealing with the return of Carmine Falcone’s daughter, Sofia, who has spent the past ten years in Arkham Asylum.

For the most part, The Penguin benefits from the fact that it could be any other mob movie rather than a superhero movie. The show never acts ashamed of its superhero roots, though, and gradually the story ramps up until it starts becoming more obviously something taking place in Gotham City. Certainly, it’s not that much different than the Gotham of The Batman (2022) onscreen and has several important references to the movie. While Batman’s lack of presence throughout the show is a bit disappointing, I felt the show more than made up for it with the final shot of the show. No, I won’t spoil it but it recontextualizes a lot of the show’s place in the larger iteration of the franchise here.

Part of what makes this show grimdark is the fact that Oswald sells his idea of being a mobster of the people extremely well. Someone who was respected by the community and a friend despite the fact he wants to flood the streets with narcotics. Except, the show never forgets that this is Oswald’s opinion of himself and we get numerous reminders that he is ultimately an utterly ruthless gangster. Some of which are genuinely shocking right up until the end.

Sofia Falcone is almost the co-protagonist of this film as we follow her own journey from victim to villain and discover numerous twists as well as turns regarding her past. Cristin Milioti is someone that manages to keep you guessing as to who her true allegiance even as we discover how hideously wronged she was by her father as well as mobster family. Sofia also has a fabulous wardrove throughout the show and the costume designers deserve kudos.

Feliz’s Vic is also a character that I think a lot of us can relate to, particularly in our teenage years. He’s someone who knows better than to be involved in organized crime but is quickly swept up in the excitement as well as lifestyle of Oswald Cobb. This Penguin has some serious, uh, issues, as they’ll come out but he is also friends with a prostitution ring madame as well as owner of a wealthy nightclub. At eighteen, I would have been rather easily swept up as well.

In conclusion, The Penguin is just a damn good show and everyone should check it out. You should definitely watch The Batman (2022) before you watch it, though. While you can follow events pretty well without it, it ties together in several surprising ways.

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REVIEW: Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #2

As Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #2 opens, a spectral vision of the Texas writer James Allison appears to Conan, Solomon Kane, El Borak, Agnes de Chastillon, and the other Heroes of Men across time and space. As his body disintegrates before their eyes, Allison provides some much-needed guidance. The strange dark eye sigil each of the heroes has individually encountered is a mark that signifies that they are hunted by the dark force that inhabits the Black Stone.

Back in The Wanderer’s Club in 1936 Chicago, Allison’s warning (and the comic’s exposition) is cut short by the emergence of the giant four-armed beast encountered by Solomon Kane in The Savage Sword of Conan #4. El Borak and the occult investigators Professor John Kirowan and John Conrad do their best to keep the creature at bay, but it’s immediately clear they are fighting a losing battle until they receive a last-minute assist from an unexpected ally from another era.

The second issue of the Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone miniseries provides deeper insight into the supernatural struggle in which the protagonists have found themselves enmeshed, and it also brings the heroes together for the first time.

Jonas Scharf’s artwork continues to impress. His renditions of the spindly monster first shown by Patch Zircher in The Savage Sword of Conan #4 and of Conan’s Pictish companion Brissa (originally depicted by Roberto De La Torre) are both excellent, proving he can adeptly handle both beauty and the beast. His action scenes also continue to be dynamically portrayed.

Zub’s narration is appropriately portentous as we learn about the stakes the heroes are up against. The Conan vs. Solomon Kane skirmish advertised on the issue’s cover felt a little perfunctory, however, like it was inserted to fulfill comic book readers’ team-up expectations (i.e., first the heroes rough each other up a little, then they join forces) rather than anything demanded by the narrative. I was also disappointed to see that Dark Agnes was given very little to do this issue as well. Perhaps it would have been best had she been omitted from the Battle of the Black Stone
miniseries entirely; the miniseries feel crowded enough as it is.

With Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #2 the board has been set up and the pieces are in place. Only two issues remain in the miniseries, so it appears we can expect a rollercoaster ride in the installments to come.

 

Read Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #2 by Jim Zub (W) and Jonas Scharf (A)

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REVIEW: Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas

In 2050, the world collapsed. Monstrous beings known as Titans appeared and destroyed the Earth. Immortal and impossibly indestructible, they laid waste to cities and civilization. Their destruction had brought forth the apocalypse. History repeats with Spartans rescuing humankind. A new age dawns and Spartans arise as ruthless gods. An original twist of alternate history and reimagined Greek mythology collide in Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas.

Even by post-apocalyptic standards, Alexis Hert is dirt poor. She has nothing to her name, save the cardboard shelter she and her brother live in. Besides school, she spends her days stealing food vouchers and trying not to smell homeless. Both are equally futile endeavors. Her one hope is to score high enough on the Spartan merit test to secure a better life for her small family. As per usual, fate stomps on her humble dreams. And then on her. After a lifetime of pain, Alexis finds hell.

Alexis’s life is turned upside down when she is discovered as an abandoned Spartan mutt. She is forced into the Spartan initiation test called the Crucible. Participants will either survive and become a god or die. Alexis has no known powers and no training. Her body is broken from abuse and starvation. She fears people, let alone gods. To top it all, Alexis’s assigned mentors may just kill her themselves. Alexis is doomed.

The opposite of the Mary Sue trope is a well-balanced character. Jasmine Mas achieves that with Alexis Hert in Blood of Hercules. Alexis’s viewpoint is incredibly fun to read. She is 100% grim snark in the best of ways. She has the right dose of dark humor to rebel against her stark reality. Jasmine Mas made Alexis feel like a real person. Mas isn’t afraid to show some of Alexis’s naïve side or her vulnerability.

Jasmine Mas stacks a devilishly entertaining and rather deranged cast of characters in Blood of Hercules. Nyx is Alexis’s best friend. As a snake, she is one of the best animal companions one can read in a book. She is sadistically hilarious and equally endearing. Their banter is a top highlight in Blood of Hercules.

While Alexis Hert is the main character, Jasmine Mas offers glimpses of other characters’ perspectives. Kharon and Augustus are guest professors in this year’s Crucible. Their reputation is death. Their chapters tease some dark plan directly involving Alexis. A scheme undoubtedly heinous. Alexis’s mentor Patro also has his own chapters. More time could have been spent between Alexis and her two mentors, Patro and Achilles. Hopefully more to come in book two. The romance in Blood of Hercules is more of a slow burn until everything is on fire and delightfully crashes down.

Jasmine Mas proves romantasy worldbuilding can rival standard fantasy works. Her worldbuilding is thoroughly detailed and sparks curiosity. The book starts with an introduction to Spartan history. While not long, it may feel like a dense start to some readers. While Blood of Hercules is set in the future of an alternate historical timeline, the laws and some of Spartan culture are archaic. Women are not viewed as equals. Meanwhile, sexuality in this world is open and diverse.

Amidst all the bloodshed, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas is an unapologetic dark romantasy. It is sure to delight readers looking for characters far beyond the morally gray fence post. As the first book in the Villains of Lore series, readers can hope life becomes progressively worse for Alexis Hert.

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REVIEW: Gladiator 2

Last Updated on November 14, 2024

Gladiator 2 has been a long time coming. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece arrived at the turn of the millennium and made a megastar of Russell Crowe in the title role. Decades later, we are back in Ancient Rome in the glorious Colosseum in a sequel that may have come as a surprise to many considering the first film’s ending. So Gladiator 2 is here with Paul Mescal in the main role with a lot to live up to – do the film gods stand with Gladiator 2 or should it have been killed with a merciful stroke of the sword?

Gladiator 2 is a great film. Paul Mescal holds his own as Lucius, Maximus’s son (bit of a reach following the first one but I went with it), who was sent away from Rome following the events of the first film and now lives in Numidia where General Acacius’s forces arrive to conquer and end up killing Lucius’s wife. Driven by vengeance, he cuts his way through his opponents and rises to the position of gladiator during the Colosseum games thanks to the help of the sneaky Macrinus (played by a film-stealing Denzel Washington who will be making some more room for another Oscar following this perfect performance). Rome is in turmoil and led by brother emperors, both nasty and chaotic and as far away from the dream that Lucius’s grandad Marcus Aurelius had for the great city. Connie Nielsen returns as Lucille, doing pretty much what she did in the first film and looking to convince Pedro Pascal’s (The Last of Us, Game of Thrones) weary General Acacius to overthrow the emperors with his loyal army.

Gladiator 2 lives in the shadow of the original. There haven’t been many performances as good as Crowe’s since and nothing has touched the quality when using Ancient Rome as a setting (Those About to Die being one example). It at times suffers from legacy sequel syndrome where it relies too much on the earlier film for the plot beats and ends up feeling like a parody of itself. With a weaker director and cast, this would stick out like a xenomorph in the colosseum but Gladiator 2 is filled with phenomenal performances from its incredible cast and amazing set-pieces. There isn’t a weak performance in the film and Mescal in particular deserves praise for donning the gladiator gear in the knowledge that he would be compared to such a great. He works alongside some greats of the screen and more than holds his own throughout as a man focused only on revenge to begin with but then growing to see that he could be part of something more. Some of the writing forces the comparisons with Crowe which doesn’t do him any favours but he comes out of this film with his star shining brighter than ever. Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Fred Hechinger play the young emperors well with manic glints in their eyes and again, they make the roles their own whilst trying to distance themselves from the brilliance of Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator.

As expected from a Ridley Scott movie, the set-pieces are incredible. The opening battle is brilliant and brutal as General Acacius leads his troops in an attack against Numidia and the scenes in the colosseum deserve to be seen on the big screen. I never thought I’d see a mock sea battle with sharks in the colosseum but I’m glad I have. The violence in Gladiator 2 will delight grimdark fans as Scott’s direction lingers on the brutality of Rome at its most chaotic and the camera never shies or pulls away from the brutality of life being cut away in an instant. Gladiator is about life and death and actions that live on forever and echo through eternity and the action focuses on this throughout and makes the story better for it.

Gladiator 2 may have a Russell Crowe sized hole in it, but it is another great Ridley Scott film in Ancient Rome filled with great performances from a cast on the top of their game. At times it leans on the original a bit much but when the original is that good, I can’t really blame them. Gladiator 2 is a brutal action film that builds on the legacy of a masterpiece and deserves to be seen on the big screen. You will certainly be entertained!

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REVIEW: House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

Family is everything, even if it means following your family into a bloodbath. House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias explores a blood-soaked, noir-horror world where loyalties between blood brothers are tested and asks how far would you really, truly go for a friend in need? What would you actually do for them? How much blood would you spill for them?

What I loved about this novel was its pacing. Right from page one, House of Bone and Rain brings you into a world of death and revenge. Set in Puerto Rico before the arrival of a deadly hurricane, the story follows Gabe, a young man with a group of friends he’d do anything for. He and his friends Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo follow a simple code: “if you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us”. When Bimbo’s mother, María, is murdered at the club she works at, Bimbo cashes in on that loyalty and asks them for help getting revenge. It’s a classic morality tale that forces the reader to look at Gabe to see where the bar stops: their path to truth leads to murder, which leads to people who might know the answers they seek, which then leads to more murder. It’s a vicious, violent cycle, and Gabe falls into this cycle because that’s what you do for family. I really liked the struggle that Gabe is constantly trying to work through: does he continue helping Bimbo get revenge, even though it may cost him his life and the lives of his friends and family?

I’ve always been a fan of Gabino Iglesias’s writing; he does bloody noir in such a compelling way that you’re obliged to keep turning pages, long into the night. That trend continues with House of Bone and Rain. The second a chapter ends, the second I wanted to turn to the next one. Iglesias strategically allows the pacing to slow down for just a moment, only to whisk you away in the next bloody conflict. It’s brilliant stuff.

As House of Bone and Rain continues, Gabe and Bimbo’s quest gets more complicated and much darker than it starts. Watching Gabe and Bimbo’s friendship strain under the circumstances makes for an interesting character study and fantastic fiction. Time and time again, they are brought together under the auspices of “family”, but how far can that excuse take them? How many people have to die for them to call it quits, if they even can?

My time spent with House of Bone and Rain didn’t feel like spent time at all; the second I opened the book, I was finished with it. Iglesias weaves a world that’s full of murder and questioning moralities, brotherly ties and familial obligations, tradition and loyalty. It asks if what we do for our closest friends is ever enough, and if, sometimes, they may just ask too much of us.

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REVIEW: Grave Empire by Richard Swan

Author Richard Swan takes us back into the Empire of the Wolf with Grave Empire, the dark flintlock fantasy horror with sweeping epicness, an intense and building sense of dread, and characters grimdark fans are going to really enjoy. Fans of The Justice of Kings, The Tyranny of Faith, and The Trials of Empire are in for an absolute treat, and new readers can pick this up without having read the previous trilogy.

Renata is secretary to Sova’s diplomat to the Stygion underwater empire, an unimportant bureaucrat to an unimportant nation. Having never actually seen or spoken to the mer-people, she’s about to be thrown into the deep end of diplomacy. Peter took a commission in the Sovan army hoping for a role away from the front lines, but ends up marching to the ends of the empire. As the very lands around him become more alien and dangerous, he starts to quickly question allowing his father to purchase a commission for him. Von Oldenburg is a noble playing outside the laws of Sova to try and return magic to the empire, where it is now outlawed 200 years after the events of The Trials of Empire wrapped up Swan’s first fantasy trilogy in this world. When he discovers signs of The Great Silence, he sees opportunity for victory and profit.

In Grave Empire, Swan takes us on a bloody adventure across the vast empire of Sova in all of its crumbling glory. Sova’s forces are losing a war to the Casimir on one far border, and a new evil rears its head on another, threatening to destroy not only Sova but all the peoples in this mortal plane. The dark magic system from the first trilogy remains–though its use in anything other than the science-ish based nature of construction is now illegal–and we are pulled into a world of musket and cannon, man-o’-wars and empires under the waves, and terrifying beings come back from the burned and hidden pages of history to wreak havoc on the people of Sova.

The sense of growing dread Swan builds through Grave Empire is brilliantly crafted. Swan uses the sheer scale of the frontiers of Sova–with immense dense forests where humanity has yet to tread creating a feeling of emptiness and the unknown–in the way only the best exploration horror cinema does. The expansive travels of the protagonists help the reader experience not only a series of cities and geographies which change as you reach the borders of civilisation, but the terror of discovering they are, in fact, not alone. This feeling is one of the key drivers of making this book incredibly difficult to put down.

Fans of the epic dark fantasy procedural trilogy The Empire of the Wolf and the space opera The Art of War (Reclamation, The Ascendancy War, The Empire of the Fallen), can expect new themes rooted in the old in Grave Empire. There is plenty of crumbling empire (cynically commented on with each chapter’s usually darkly funny starting epithet), very human characters dealing with their fears and foibles while desperately trying to both survive and succeed, a massive sense of epicness in world of scale and consequences, and a brilliant feeling of agency across all of the competing factions that only the best fantasy brings to the table.

Absolutely crammed with imagination, horror, epic scale, and characters I simply could not put down. I’m calling it now: Grave Empire is going to be one of the best dark fantasies 2025 has to offer.

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REVIEW: The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent

Okay friends, when I tell you that Carissa Broadbent is on FIRE in The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, I mean she set my heart and soul aflame and then remorselessly left them burnt to a withered crisp by the end. Get ready to sink your teeth into a brand-new exquisitely soul-stirring and divinely epic slow-burn fantasy romance full of death, desire, treachery and heart-wrenching emotions that just bleed off the page.

First things first, let me share an important message: The Songbird and the Heart of Stone might be the first book in the new Shadowborn Duet, but you do not (I repeat, DO NOT) start your journey into the Crowns of Nyaxia world here. Sure, Broadbent’s writing is absolutely strong and captivating enough that you could be a rebel and skip the preceding Nightborn Duet, starting with Serpent and the Wings of Night, but why would you do that and miss out on a lot of important context as well as deprive yourself of another phenomenal blood-soaked love story?

Okay, with that out of the way, it’s time to let the gush fest begin! From the moment I met Mische in The Serpent and the Wings of Night, she immediately became one of my favourite characters of the entire series. Although she could come across a bit vapid and shallow at times, I had a feeling there was a lot of pain and trauma hiding behind the mask of giddy smiles and relentless optimism, which I could not wait to dig into in The Songbird and the Heart of Stone.

Now, when Mische set off to discover the world on her own at the end of the Nightborn Duet, I was not expecting to meet her again as she is thrust into the underworld together with the bastard heir of The House of Shadows (and his spirit wolf, Luce, the true MVP of the show) on a deadly quest to resurrect the God of Death. But holy smokes, did this end up to be exactly the adventure that my dark hole of a soul wanted and needed; to my huge surprise, there wasn’t even a single moment where I missed Raihn and Oraya, and I am now just as (if not more) invested in Asar and Mishe’s story.

First of all, these two are quite literally the perfect embodiment of the grumpy/sunshine trope, and I absolutely loved how their effortlessly amusing dynamic added so much heart and humour to this otherwise dark and emotionally draining story. Broadbent really is the queen of the slow-burn for me, and the way that Mische and Asar semi-reluctantly started to bond throughout this harrowing journey and eventually help each each other understand what honest love and devotion is supposed to feel like just tugged on my heartstrings in all the best ways. The reason why their romance feels so believable and intimately vulnerable to me, is because the physical/sexual attraction comes second to their emotional attraction and bonding; this is exactly what ultimately makes The Songbird and the Heart of Stone stand out in the crowded romantasy space for me.

Moreover, while there is plenty of action (of both the fighting and the steamy kind, hello delicious blood sucking scene!!!) to satisfy the plot-driven readers, my character-driven heart was truly sucking up all the inner turmoil, unpacking of trauma and the unravelling of all the complex interpersonal relationships. Especially Mische’s complicated dynamic with her god Atroxus had me in an absolute chokehold, and I really appreciated the authentic and deeply vulnerable exploration of themes of (childhood) trauma, faith, devotion, vengeance, forgiveness (of others and oneself), and the dangerously thin line between love and hate.

The emotional character journey in The Songbird and the Heart of Stone is honestly more multi-layered and tear-inducing than an onion, and I absolutely loved how Broadbent meticulously heightened the stakes, increased the tension, and peeled back a new layer of complexity and emotional depth every time these characters progressed to a deeper level of the underworld. In both flashbacks and the present, we see Mische and Asar as they are quite literally being hunted and haunted by the ghosts of their pasts, which not only unveiled their intriguingly dark backstories in the most enticing way possible, but also established such a deep emotional connection for me that was honestly not safe for my own sanity.

Now, while this book started out with immediate ‘new favourite’ potential for me because its vibe and aesthetic reminded me so heavily of other deliciously dark fantasy favourites like Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff or Asunder by Kerstin Hall, I do personally think the second half is where the true gold can be found. Especially parts 2 and 3 felt slightly hectic and oddly paced to me, with some important character/relationship progression happening off screen and side characters not getting the development I was hoping for.

Those little nitpicks didn’t stop me from obsessively devouring this book like nobody’s business, yet it was in part 4 (of 7) that I think Broadbent just fully hit her stride; from that point onwards, we just go through the wildest emotional rollercoaster, leading straight up to a brutally bittersweet ending that I could/should have seen coming yet which still ripped my heart out of my chest and left me staring blankly at a wall for a few minutes. The audacity to end with such a diabolical cliffhanger of an ending, and then make me wait for book 2… unacceptable, but I love the heartache.

In my humble opinion, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone is not only Broadbent’s best work to date, but it also just raised the bar for every other dark romantasy to come. With its deeply flawed yet lovable morally grey characters, cutthroat vampire politics, haunting imagery, blood-soaked history and rich lore, fickle meddling gods, dangerous necromancy, and exquisite levels of emotional destruction, even the most cold-hearted grimdark enthusiasts will find much to love in The Crowns of Nyaxia series; also, it’s got a loyal skeletal spirit wolf companion, what more could you ask for?!

Thank you to Tor Bramble for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The Songbird and the Heart of Stone is scheduled for release on November 19, 2024. 

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