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REVIEW: The Crimson Road by A.G. Slatter

One of the great things about reviewing is that sometimes you come across an author who clicks for you. This happened to me when a fellow Grimdark Magazine reviewer suggested I pick up A.G. Slatter’s The Briar Book of the Dead to review. I loved it. That was my gateway into A.G. Slatter’s dark fantasy folklore Sourdough Universe. So, when I heard that another standalone tale set in this world was due out, I grabbed it as quickly as possible.

That tale is The Crimson Road, and like all the Sourdough stories, you can read it independently of the others. However, if you have read other tales such as The Path of Thorns, All the Murmuring Bones, and (of course) The Briar Book of the Dead, you will recognise some of the minor characters and be aware of some of the magical lore of the world already. The Crimson Road is a deliciously dark gothic fantasy and an excellent read for fans of Slatter’s writing. It’s got vampires, ancient witches, magic, and assassins, which is always a recipe for a good time.

The Crimson Road is the story of Violet Zennor. Violet has had a peculiar upbringing. At her father’s behest, she is trained as a fighter in underground rings, taught to be ruthless and violent. Taught not to hesitate. Taught to kill. No wonder she fantasises about smothering him with a pillow in the opening chapter of The Crimson Road. After her father’s death, Violet thinks she is finally free of his controlling ways and can finally live her life away from his madness. Her new found freedom lasts a matter of days before assassins attempt to slaughter her in her home, and she realises that if she is ever to be safe she needs to carry out her father’s plan. She must enter the Darklands, the heart of Leech Lord territory, and do what must be done.

I greatly enjoy stories with a blend of creepy and cute. It’s a delicate balance, and authors like A.G. Slatter, T. Kingfisher and Alix. E. Harrow do it exceptionally well. The Crimson Road is another fine example of this style. There are a lot of dark and horrible things that happen in this novel. Violet’s childhood (she is in her twenties as the events of The Crimson Road occur) was more than emotionally neglectful; it was physically and psychologically abusive. There are references to rape, maternal mortality, and stillbirth important parts of the narrative. There’s violence aplenty. But for all of these dark goings on in The Crimson Road, there is a heart to the novel. Slatter balances the dark with some light elements. There is a smidgen of romance, a found family, and a lot of magical lore. Slatter weaves traditional folktale references (like brownies, red caps, trolls, etc.) into the Sourdough world, so when we read them in stories like The Crimson Road, it feels a lot like we’ve picked up a classic tale for the first time, just with Slatter’s twist on it.

I had a wonderful time reading The Crimson Road and flew through the story in a few days. It has complex and enjoyable characters and takes place in a richly detailed world. Thank you very much to A.G. Slatter and the team at Titan Books for sending Grimdark Magazine an ARC so we can provide this review. The Crimson Road releases in February 2025, and Titan will also be re-releasing Slatter’s collection of Sourdough Universe short stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, in 2026.

The Crimson Road by A.G. Slatter

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REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a not-so-old entry into the video game library of Konami games, coming out in 2015. Which is still ten years ago and worthy of giving a retrospective toward. It is mostly famous for being the supposed end of the Metal Gear franchise, the source of Konami’s break with Hideo Kojima, and several questionable decisions related to the franchise’s end like the replacing of David Hayter with Kiefer Sutherland as well as overly sexualized depiction of its female companion, Quiet.

The game takes place in the early 1980s with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire conflict. It was preceded by the ultra-short game, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, which is included in Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience. For the sake of this review, I’m going to count that as part of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain since the games really should have been one continuous story except for corporate shenanigans.

The premise for The Phantom Pain is the complete destruction of everything that Naked Snake AKA Big Boss achieved in Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. The mercenary army that Snake assembled is slaughtered, Mother Base headquarters is destroyed, his child soldier companion Chico is killed, and beautiful (but traitorous) friend Paz is used to blow up the helicopter that Snake is riding on. Naked Snake is left in a nine-year coma and wakes up with a piece of shrapnel stuck in his head among other permanent injuries. He doesn’t get long to recover, though, because the hospital he’s staying in is attacked by the black ops forces of XOF (Fox spelled backward).

What follows is a lengthy story of the rechristened “Venom Snake” seeking his former companions to rebuild his mercenary company, re-christened Diamond Dogs, to get revenge on the rogue intelligence agency of Cipher (theoretically XOF’s bosses). They must disable and kidnap soldiers from Soviet and mercenary forces before convincing them to join their cause. They must also carry out numerous missions to build up their resources that take them up against the real-life atrocities of this time period. They also must deal with XOF’s access to genetically enhanced zombie-like super soldiers, Metal Gear bipedal tanks, and a weapon they claim will surpass nuclear weapons (though they have plenty of those too).

What makes The Phantom Pain interesting to grimdark fans is that it is a much more serious take on the sometimes-goofy Metal Gear universe than previous entries. Multiple characters from the previous games are killed, often in horrific ways, while others are left maimed or a shadow of their former selves. Master Miller, who was Snake’s goofy supporter, is now a broken man with missing limbs that wants nothing more than to kill as many Cipher supporters as possible. The subject of child soldiers, imperialism, and pandemic response all come up in this story. There’s some goofy moments like in previous Metal Gear Solid entries but, for the most part, The Phantom Pain plays it all very straight.

The first half of the game is extremely well done with the slow build-up to face Skull Face and his super-weapon well-done from beginning to end. The story is a bit minimalist, and we lack the usual collection of mini bosses but the Man on Fire, Floating Boy, and Quiet are all memorable characters. Skull Face seems, in part, inspired by Freddy Kruger and is a memorable antagonist despite his short time on-screen. The gameplay is also fantastic and makes every mission worth repeating until you get that coveted “S-Ranking.” If they’d ended the game after its final mission, “Sahelanthropus”, I would have given it a 10 out of 10.

Unfortunately, the second half of the game sucks and feels like it was where Konami cut off Kojima’s funding. Most of the second half consists of NG+ style missions with extra requirements while only a handful meaningfully advance the story. There are some good moments like the revelations regarding Huey Emmerich and the end to Quiet’s story but, infamously, Eli’s (Liquid Snake’s) story is just left unfinished with his final mission never completed. It’s a massive let down after so much build-up. Another flaw is the fact that the game’s story is primarily in cassette recordings that require a lot of sitting around and listening to.

The game is gorgeous and there’s an endless amount of fun to be had sneaking up behind people, tranquilizing them, and then sending them up through balloons to be brainwashed into your followers. The game is hard but not overly so with Snake able to absorb more punishment than any human being other than the Master Chief but not so much that three people shooting him won’t put him down. I love D-Dog, D-Horse, and Quiet with each bringing something new when you bring them along missions. I also think the game has a fantastic soundtrack with “She Blinded Me With Science”, “Maneater”, “The Final Countdown”, and other classic tunes.

However, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the fact that the game’s biggest twist is a controversial one. Without getting into it, a lot of fans felt that it renders most of the game’s character development for its lead pointless. For me, I didn’t mind it but The Phantom Pain is also a story about how legends are lies. Given that misinformation and propaganda are running themes in the franchise, I give it a pass, but others are still furious about it a decade later.

Do I recommend the game? Yes. But once you complete the main campaign, I suggest doing the remaining story missions and nothing else. The Phantom Pain is a game that clearly exceeded its ambitions.

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REVIEW: Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #4 by Jim Zub (W) and Jonas Scharf (A)

Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #4 opens with Conan succumbing to the injuries incurred during his last encounter with the Beast of the Black Stone. Kirowan calls upon his occult knowledge, making a significant personal sacrifice to resurrect Conan and simultaneously allow Brissa to remain in the physical realm. Only half of the Heroes of Man survive, yet the goal remains the same: to track down and destroy the source of the Black Stone’s power.

As promised, this final issue in the miniseries culminates in the titular Battle of the Black Stone. This scene is artist Jonas Scharf’s time to shine, and he makes full use of it. Dismemberments and decapitations abound. And while by now Brissa has been illustrated by multiple artists, in this reviewer’s opinion Scharf’s rendering appeals the most. She appears alluring but tough and physically robust, a believable Pictish scout rather than a pinup model who has picked up a spear. The momentum and violence of the massive Beast of the Black Stone also effectively comes across on the page. Seeing John Kirowan shooting magic mind bolts like Doctor Strange is a little eyebrow-raising, however.

While the artwork is first-rate, taken as a whole, Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone feels far from essential. The miniseries was overstuffed with characters. Even with the prologue shorts in The Savage Sword of Conan #4, readers were not allowed much time with the cast, and as a result their individual appeal too often fails to shine through and their deaths fail to have much narrative weight. Either halving the number of heroes appearing in this miniseries or taking another year to feature these characters singly in The Savage Sword of Conan would have given the crossover event a much firmer foundation.

On the more positive side, after a year of teasing across the first twelve issues of the flagship title, the identity of the cosmic entity ultimately responsible for the Black Stone is a fun revelation certain to be appreciated by fans of the original Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian. Writer Jim Zub could not have made a better choice. For those readers lacking that familiarity, the accompanying Jeffrey Shanks essay provides some entertaining and enlightening context regarding said entity.

While the missed opportunities and underutilized characters in Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone are regrettable, the climactic battle is genuinely exciting. The event still feels like a brazenly commercially motivated effort to (re)launch a Robert E. Howard comic universe, but—with the apparently obligatory Conan-facilitated crossover event out of the way—perhaps the characters incompletely showcased in this four-issue miniseries will live up to their full potential in their own solo titles.

Postscript: Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring was announced in late December, to release in March. Writer/artist Patch Zircher previously handled Kane’s appearances in Titan Comics’ The Savage Sword of Conan issues #1-4.

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Exclusive excerpt of Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent

Scott Lynch is back with Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent, a relatively short story told in two parts across Grimdark Magazine #40 and #41. We go back to when Locke is thirteen-and-a-bit, and just starting to make his way out into the world of danger we love to read about in The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and The Republic of Thieves.

With the second half of Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent due for release on the 15th of January, if you haven’t yet checked out the first half, then let us give you a little taste of the story to get you right into it.

Locke Lamora and the Bottled SerpentScott Lynch

Chapter 1

There was a place in the alley where the odorous slops and shards of daily proceedings were to be set, which was Locke Lamora’s job, until the mess could be hauled up the crooked stairs and around the block to the public dross-yard, which was also Locke Lamora’s job. This was never done before the sun was long-buried and the Falselight glass bled of illumination, so every awkward step chanced a painful adventure. Here in the Dregs, light was not so cheap that folk would gladly waste it on the eyeballs of passing strangers. One might catch a break from boat-lanterns on the canal, or from cloudless moonlight, but more often one tripped on stone or trash or bodies. Muttering curses at his own feet in the middle of the night was also Locke Lamora’s job.

How refreshing, then, to find Cyril and Vilius out back wrestling with a corpse while the thin band of sky over the alley was still hazy blue rather than starry black.

“Can’t just throw him in the canal now, too many eyes,” said Cyril.

“Can’t hardly leave the bastard here neither.”

“Cover him up!”

“Think of the smell. Think of the rats! They’re always here for the trash, they won’t miss a proper feast.”

“Bury him, then, under all these slops and scraps and timbers. Cover him tight.” Cyril deigned to notice Locke with a gesture. “Let shit-boy here sort it once the lights go down.”

“I can’t shift something that big in the dark!” Locke kept his voice low and glanced around; here in the Dregs it was one chance in ten thousand anyone might give a shit of the moral variety but getting involved in corpse-business was to put oneself at the mercy of any witnesses and whatever leverage they might desire. “What’d you two do to him?”

“Nothing by our hands,” grunted Cyril. “Found him here. Ain’t even bleeding, just dead somehow.”

“Well, after dark, we can drag him to a canal and give him the heave.” Locke set the pile of trash he was carrying down. “Or roll him into someone else’s alley. Or the dross-yard. Or bundle him over to Solana Casta’s roof garden in the Narrows. A lot of problems go into the soil in those pots, and she doesn’t charge. Or we could string him up, let the blood out, then get a good hatchet and some sacks—”

“Creeping blue fuck, boy,” said Vilius. “How many corpses you worked a disposal on?”

“Hard to remember.” Locke used the back of a forearm to wipe away the sweat dripping into his eyes. “I dunno, ten?”

That was when the corpse came back to life, swearing and flailing. Vilius and Cyril leapt back.

“You know, when it comes to corpse disposal there is a crucial first step,” said Locke.

 

Chapter 2.

Six months since the Orphan’s Moon. If anointment as a secret initiate of the Crooked Warden had yielded Locke Lamora any benefits, they were as yet being kept from him. He was thirteen and a half, emphasis on the half. Half a man, half at ease, half-voiced. Nor was he alone. Calo and Galdo were in the midst of lingering uncomfortable changes, and Jean’s voice had started to warble.

“My broken instruments, all slack-strung and jangling,” said Father Chains. “Your mechanisms are misordered, your bodily humours are jesting at your expense. It happens to everyone but here it seems to be happening all at once.”

Even Sabetha, whose customary poise often seemed like a sarcastic commentary on the chaos around her, had been swept up in the collective fit of awkwardness. Just now she was afflicted with cramps. The boys had together made a sympathetic embassy to her cotside, where Calo squeaked out such a rusty, discordant note that she had burst into giggles and honked at him like a goose. Soon they all broke down in laughter and honking, the Sanza brothers sounding as if their geese had been force-fed wet gravel. It was a rare moment of complete levity and Chains let them have it, before he quietly swept into the room shadowed by his plans for their summer.

“Placements,” said Chains. “It’s more of that tedious, invaluable, life-saving education you’re always whining about, but you won’t be false-facing this time. You’ll be out on loan. Seconded to some of the gangs we’re on better terms with. No complicated scheming, no secrets. Just do as you’re told, watch carefully, learn everything you can. Ripen in wisdom for a few months and perhaps your throats, bones, and bowels will be less at war with you when I gather you back into the fold.”

“So we are to return intellectually and physically perfected,” croaked Galdo.

“No doubt. And bring back five hundred pounds of cut rubies on the back of a unicorn while you’re at it,” said Chains. “Though of you all… the one I might be asking to perform the greatest impossibility is Locke.”

Read the rest of Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent

Read the first half of Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent (and other stories by Mark Lawrence, Anna Smith Spark, Christopher Buehlman, and plenty more) in Grimdark Magazine Issue #40 while you wait for part 2 to be released on the 15th of January! You can pre-order that issue of Grimdark Magazine Issue #41 below.

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REVIEW: Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill

Last Updated on January 5, 2025

Of Blood and Fire from Ryan Cahill is the debut novel that marked the start of The Bound and the Broken series, which is proving to be a break-out favourite in the dark fantasy community. At its start, it feels like classic epic fantasy with a modern interpretation. Though this begins in familiar territory – with three young men, as close as brothers, on the eve of their manhood trial, which inevitably goes awry when the village bully gets involved – it is very much worth the read. As the story expands, many grimdark staples begin to creep in, revealing an unforgiving and dangerous world full, unsurprisingly, Of Blood and Fire.

The three lads in question are ones you can care about and root for. Calen, Dann and Rist are our freshly-proven young men, out celebrating their successful Proving when they befriend the mysterious Erik, travelling incognito with his brother, Dahlen, and father, Aeson. After coming to the aid of their new friends in a swords-drawn fight with a patrol of Empire soldiers, our main boys are landed in the shit. It gets much worse before getting better. Unable to return home now they are wanted by the Empire, they have little choice but to tag along with Aeson, Erik and Dahlen who carry a secret that will change the world: a dragon egg.

Along their journey these three make discoveries about themselves and the world around them. They witness a baby dragon hatching – the first in over 400 years – they meet elves, giants, dwarves and are chased across the continent by a Fade hellbent on destroying the aforementioned baby dragon.

Elsewhere, we also follow Calen’s older sister Ella, who left their village with her beau to start a new life together and as such is blissfully unaware of the tragedies befalling her family. Ella’s life is shattered on the road by another imperial patrol – but only after they hear Ella’s full name – and her only true companion is Faenir, a larger-than-average wolfpine raised by Ella and family from a pup.

Without giving too much more away there are high stakes, there is  tragic, violent loss,  and there is wonder and awe in this book. At times there are some words used that feel a bit jarring or out of place where a simpler descriptor could have sufficed but I think Cahill shows a lot of promise. Of Blood and Fire is the beginning of what will be a five-book series with additional novellas along the way. It is dark, gritty and keeps the feel of an epic fantasy close at hand. Since its release, Cahill has gained a dedicated following for The Bound and the Broken and, while he started out self-publishing, he has now signed a deal with The Broken Binding Press for the whole series.

Books two and three, Of Darkness and Light and Of War and Ruin, are already available and book four (Of Empires and Dust) is due this Spring – so you won’t have to wait long to continue the story. There are also three novellas and a short story released to keep you sated if you fall in love with this dark fantasy series. This includes The Fall, which you can get for free by signing up to Cahill’s newsletter at his website, and is a brutal account set 400 years prior to the events in Of Blood and Fire and sees dragons clashing in the skies and the world being rent asunder by blood magic.

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REVIEW: The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

The Fortunate Fall is an extraordinary cyberpunk debut from Cameron Reed, back in print from Tor Essentials after decades. First published in 1996, The Fortunate Fall a worthy entry into the cyberpunk canon, one that stands a real possibility of drawing new readers and enlivening the genre, which has been in real danger of calcifying into an aesthetic defanged of political critique, as Lincoln Michel has noted in his essay “The Future in the Flesh: Why Cyberpunk Can’t Forget the Body.” 

Hopefully this reissue will introduce The Fortunate Fall to a new generation of readers. Those lucky few who read and loved it the first time around, meanwhile, can re-encounter the novel through Jo Walton’s excellent introduction, which contextualizes The Fortunate Fall at the time of its publication while emphasizing the ways in which it remains ground-breaking today.   

In a way, The Fortunate Fall is about the experience of re-reading, revisiting a narrative only to have it reinterpreted in a new light. Our narrator, Maya Andreyeva, is a “camera,” a reporter who broadcasts not only the news but memories and sensations to a live audience through assorted implants and networked interfaces. (I have to imagine that if Reed were writing today, she might have reached for a word like ‘streamer’ to describe Maya’s relationship to her audience.) With the help of a “screener,” a highly intimate kind of tech support—Maya’s screener, Keishi Mirabara, offers a beautiful complication of the cyberpunk genre’s smartmouth hacker archetype—Maya’s viewers not only see what she sees, they feel and think as she feels. 

The Fortunate Fall takes the fascinating tack, therefore, of having Maya address an audience that already knows how the story ends. The novel opens, “The whale, the traitor; the note she left me and the run-in with the Post police; and how I felt about her and what she turned out to be—all this you know.”  Decoupled from the immediacy of sensation, readers will know less of her story than they did, watching it the first time. By knowing less, they—and we, who know nothing at all—may understand more. 

This immersive approach does have its drawbacks. The first hundred pages, in which Maya and Keishi attempt to report on a recent holocaust, nearly forgotten or purposefully covered up, can feel like an exercise in learning how to read The Fortunate Fall’s specific vocabulary of Net-rune and moistdisk, Weavers and Postcops. Cyberpunk in general can suffer from proper noun disease, and Reed’s novel is no exception. 

Her prose, however, is stunning, and her characters compelling enough to make the effort worthwhile.  Maya and Keishi’s forced intimacy—not physical, but psychic—slowly gives way to a tentative, prickly, genuine connection. By the middle third, the novel comes fully into its own, serving up a taut political thriller. But then Reed raises stakes once again. How The Fortunate Fall ends—the whale, the traitor, “how I felt about her and what she turned out to be—has been known from the beginning. But in the process of unravelling what each of those pieces mean, and how they fit together, The Fortunate Fall becomes a heart-breaking meditation on love, betrayal, and the cost of knowledge. 

The fortunate fall of the title alludes to the Christian concept of felix culpa. This theodicy—a solution to the problem of evil—tries to find redemption in the fall of Adam. Without it, philosophers of the fortunate fall suggest, humanity could never have experienced the joy of redemption. In the end, The Fortunate Fall is similarly concerned with the moment of betrayal. Reed asks: what is love worth? Not, what would you do for love, but a question both harder to face and harder to answer. And so I think it’s appropriate that the novel ends on the moment of asking, a dangling question that some readers may find unsatisfying. 

What does love excuse? What crimes, what trespasses? What actions, taken in the name of a greater good? Are love, and a righteous cause, enough to undo the shock of betrayal, the sting of hurt? Maya has her answers. Yours may differ, or maybe not. 

The Fortunate Fall ends, not with an escape into the transhuman ether, but with a return to the body: a punch in the gut. 

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REVIEW: Stay in the Light by A.M. Shine

From the depths of The Burren crawls Stay in The Light – A.M Shine’s terrifying sequel to The Watchers. Escaping the forest was just the beginning. After destroying Professor Kilmartin’s life’s work at the university as instructed, Mina is urged to leave her home in the city. Now holed up in a seaside cottage on the west coast of Ireland, Mina is left to deal with her fears alone. Feverishly waiting to shoot down any mention of the Watchers on the internet, Mina has made it her mission to keep humanity safe. What’s new in this second instalment is the introduction of a very unexpected character – Professor Kilmartin’s son, Sean, who desperately wishes to continue his father’s research and legacy; much to the dismay of poor Mina.

Diving into this sequel, there was no denying that the world and its characters would expand drastically, widening the reach of fear and horror into society. Like the first book, Stay in the Light is also set in Ireland, promising a similar chilling atmosphere. It also addresses much of the lore that we missed in the first book, which I’m sure is pleasant news for fans, myself included! One note to make is the slight change in Shine’s prose, which leans a little more into its Gothic charm. While I found it unexpected at first, Shine brilliantly marries the novel’s themes of deep rooted paranoia and gloom with his beautiful and piercing narrative.

Stay in The Light exposes a very vulnerable Mina, one who has so much to fear after the months spent in those dreaded woods. Her fears are dismissed as delusions by the people around her, isolating her character even further. The novel definitely adopts the mood of its predecessor, though with one very interesting addition – Sean Kilmartin. Standing on an excavation site above The Burren, Sean is plagued by an unrequited love interest, Ashleigh. I felt Ashleigh was an excellent addition, although I am usually loath to romance. It added an extra layer of bitterness to the cold, building up the tension further, because what better circumstances to be falling in love in than on an excavation site? Sean’s desperate need for recognition and egotistical air makes him an easy character to dislike. And, coupled with the fact that his very goal in life is to unearth Mina’s worst living nightmare, I was hooked from the very beginning.

The thing I found most interesting about Stay in The Light is that although the story world had changed, Shine maintained the depth of introspection for each character, something that is particularly challenging with multiple POVs. With so many sinister details and facts to reveal about the Watchers (which I found absolutely tantalising), readers still manage to dip in and out of each persona. I will admit though, that Shine’s slowburn style still carries through into the second book – not that there’s anything wrong with that. He makes up for it with punchy action scenes and even more claustrophobic encounters in the dark. Shine surprises us with new scenarios that we can add to our list of places we do not want to get murdered in.

Stay in The Light captures desperation and helplessness masterfully, leaking terror and infecting readers with a pervading sense of paranoia that comes with knowing the truth. If you loved the first instalment, Stay in The Light is a must read. I desperately await the third book, and I will be sleeping with all my lights turned on.

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REVIEW: Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

In Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, Rae lays in a hospital bed, dying of cancer. Her sister Alice is reading from her (read: “their”) favourite book, A Time of Iron. Rae can barely focus on the story, keeps forgetting the characters and the plot, annoying the hell out of Alice. But this book and story matter so much to Alice, and while Rae may be running out of time and things she wants to spend that time on, listening to her sister read the story one last time is one of the last things she wants. And then a mysterious woman appears at her bedside and tells her she is going to die, but slowly, wasting away everything her family has in the coming months as she withers to nothing herself. Unless she enters the the Time of Iron dark romantasy world and somehow survives the story as the evil sister—who is rather inconveniently meant to die tomorrow.

Long Live Evil is told through the eyes of Rae–somebody who has watched the people around her abandon and start to dislike her as her cancer took hold of her body–as she gets pulled into a world where nobody is real. Nobody is a human being she has to care about, and she treats them just so–as pawns to be manipulated into getting her what she needs to get back to her life: the Flower of Living and Dying. She’s easily the star of the show of the three points of view, and I think she’s a character that grimdark fans are likely to enjoy for her callous disregard and manipulation of those around her and the way she changes over the course of the books. Her relationship with Key was a very interesting read and kept me glued to the pages.

The second point of view, Marius, was an interesting take on the stoic, vow-restrained bad arse character with a tragic backstory and a merciless heart—yet somehow a hero. I started out quite liking this take on a hero, almost a little bit Ned Stark-y in the way that the world is so black and white in his eyes and damn the consequences of him ensuring the right things happen around him. However, his relationship and history with the Golden Cobra and its evolution across the book just never landed for me at all, which kind of put a kink in my enjoyment of the book, because it’s an important relationship.

Emer was a bit of a wet blanket of a character for me. I’m not entirely sure on her purpose as a PoV versus a secondary character, apart from reminding us that Rae is evil, but I don’t feel she had much impact or purpose in her role as Emer, or The Iron Maid. I don’t often struggle to retain interest in a POV character, not since some of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, but I kept having to stop myself from skipping sentences and paragraphs because I just wanted to find something I could latch on to and care about.

Throughout Long Live Evil we watch Rae use everything and everyone to try to get back to the life she wants. She tries to manipulate her supporters (such as The Golden Cobra, one of her fellow villains), misdirect her enemies (such as King Octavianus, the hero of A Time of Iron), and survive the constant threat of being executed and thrown into the ravine (by somebody like Marius). All the while she needs to try and remember what her character Raheala did in the books before she arrived to take over Rahaela’s body / character, and how what Rae does changes the storyline and timelines she uses to pretend to be a prophet so that she’s not executed. King Octavianus remains the constant threat to Rae, his power making him all but unassailable, and his necessity to the plot for future books making him irremovable. He creates an ongoing feeling of dread for Rae, and a big bad for the story, a nice flip on all the tropes and standards stacked tall that would normally make him the hero of the book with all his horrors forgiven because of the death of his beloved and perfect Lia.

One of the key themes in this book is what cancer does to you when you are the person struggling through it. When you’re watching the world move on around you while you wilt. Seeing your friends and family start coming in less and less. Maybe even having them care less and less, and perhaps even them wanting it to be over so they can go back to their normal lives. Cancer, in any one of its many forms, has wiped out a significant part of my father’s wider family, and my mother-in-law. While I haven’t experienced its horrible touch personally, I have born witness to what it, and its treatment, does to those you love. The internal commentary on loneliness and abandonment, and the decrepifying of your body around your screaming mind, just hammered itself home. When I opened this book based on naught but a cool title and cover, I had no idea how much impact this part of the book would have on me as I sat there asking myself if I’d done enough, from the perspective of those gone from my own life (and in some fortunate cases, those still here). Reading the author’s note at the end, and realising this was lived experience, explained why it hit so hard. I am glad the author is still around and thriving, and that they received the support they needed to be able to write Long Live Evil.

Overall, I had very middling feelings about Long Live Evil. On the one hand, the cancer aspects of the book really hit home, almost bringing me to tears at times. I also mostly enjoyed the kind of piss-take nature / breaching the forth wall feeling of how we viewed the story through Rae’s eyes. It has a very similar feel to the book I reviewed earlier this year (How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler), but is a lot more cynical, due to the underlying nature of the cancer backstory. On the other hand, it also meant the big moments in the fantasy setting didn’t hit the mark like I want when reading a fantasy novel—which, I think, was kind of the point intended by the author, it just didn’t land for what I enjoy reading.

While I did enjoy some of the forth wall breaking style of delivery, the whole approach of viewing this story through the eyes of somebody who remembered most of the plot, but not all of it, then was living it, manipulating it, purposefully and then inadvertently changing it, then having other characters know what she knew, just became quite confusing for me at times, and hard to buy in to at others. I had to take my suspension of disbelief and stretch it to its absolute limit.

Overall, I’m glad I read Long Live Evil for its horrific undertone and the way the author’s lived experience shaped Rae’s character. I recommend this book as a read worth experiencing, I don’t think I’d pick up a book 2 to find out what happens next. I’ll probably ask Emma, who really enjoyed the first book, to review that one!

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REVIEW: The War of the Rohirrim

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a work that both intrigued and confused me when I first heard it announced. It is an animated adaptation of one of J.R.R Tolkien’s in-universe myths for his Legendarium, depicting the story of Helm Hammerhand and his tragic fall. Except, this story would be a deviation that focused instead on his unnamed daughter rather than the actual main characters of the story. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as plenty of stories have been told from differing perspectives than the ones you might think. Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and several other individuals have provided excellent perspectives on Hamlet’s events other than the Prince of Denmark themselves.

Unfortunately, it seemed the choice to depict the newly named Hera as an action heroine akin to her relative, Eowyn, is something that almost immediately poisoned the well. Grimdark Magazine maintains a progressive view of fiction while also acknowledging that tinkering with authors original work to “improve” on it tends to backfire (see The Witcher and the changes to A Song of Ice and Fire in the final seasons). Still, I was going to give it a shot and I have to say that I’m more interested in whether a work preserves its inspiration’s themes rather than strict fidelity. I enjoyed the video game, Shadow of Mordor, for example, even if I felt its sequel was a hot mess.

Is The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim any good? Err, that’s a somewhat complicated question. I would say it’s good, not great. I would furthermore say that its association with the legend of Helm Hammerhand hurts the story more than it helps because a lot of the changes here seem to genuinely miss the mark from what Tolkien was saying. I wouldn’t say this was a full-on bastardization of his work but the changes distract from what is an otherwise excellent animated epic. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim ‘s final score before we begin explaining why, B-, with it being a B+ if not for the fact that it changed so much.

The original story of Helm Hammerhand is that it is a tragedy akin to Hamlet. There’s some racial conflict and royal dynastic issues going on in the royal house of the Rohirrim versus their rivals, the house of Freca. Tolkien depicts neither side in the wrong but the result of both sides making microaggressions that eventually explode over after an accidental killing. Helm believed Freca’s family were upstarts after his throne while Freca believed that a dynastic marriage between their houses was reasonable given their position as having royal blood themselves. A fist fight breaks out where Wulf’s dad is killed in one blow and a war of revenge ensues. It is a tragic waste of life.

This isn’t a movie about that. No, Freca and his son Wulf are complete scumbags from beginning to end. Freca throws the first few punches before he’s killed by Helm and Wulf commits constant war crimes by the standards of Ye Old Times. There’s no tragedy here. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim depicts a clear conflict between good versus evil. Hera is also elevated from the subject of the marriage pact to a heroine battling against her former childhood friend. It’s fine, it’s a good story, but it’s not what Tolkien wrote.

The rest of the movie is well-animated with a nice fantasy anime vibe. The animation is a bit choppy in places and not quite as smooth as it could be. However, I love the designs. It’s a pretty good action piece from beginning to end and fun to watch. Still, the designs are something that some fans will undoubtedly be put off by as it makes no attempt at realism. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an anime after all.

In conclusion, this is a fine movie. Fine. Not great. It’s hampered by so many changes and ultimately changing the nature of the story until it becomes the opposite of its intended meaning. Hera is a great character and clearly inspired by Eowyn. However, the story would have been much better if it had been honest that it was inspired by Tolkien versus claiming it was one of his story. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a good fantasy movie but it’s not a good adaptation.

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Grimdark Magazine Issue #41 cover reveal

Last Updated on December 31, 2024

With the release date of Grimdark Magazine Issue #41 just around the corner (15th of Jan–not long now!), I think it’s time we let you know what you’re in for!

After our fantastic 10th-anniversary issue, we present the conclusion to Scott Lynch’s short story, Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent. We also have Justin Lee Anderson’s grimdark twist on cozy fantasy titled Bastards and Baguettes, along with Moses Ose Utomi‘s The Imbibing of Inggid Sel, and Josh Rountree’s body horror Christmas tale Black Goat Parade.

Lastly, we have three incredible reprints from Andrea Stewart, Renee Stern, and Kaaren Warren.

Following up on all the delicious dark stories, we have our non-fiction pieces for you, which include interviews with Ed McDonald, Richard Swan, and our editor-in-chief, Adrian Collins. John Mauro continues his series that explores the intersection of real-life science and science fiction in Project Starship: Glass Technology Advances in Dark Science Fiction. Additionally, Aaron S. Jones reflects on The Eternal Appeal of Vampires.

Beth has put together another absolutely banging issue, and I can’t wait to show you what’s going to be inside on January 15th. You can pre-order over on Amazon, here.

Cover art for Grimdark Magazine Issue #41

Locke Lamora himself graces our cover this quarter thanks to the art direction of Beth Tabler and the exquisite work of Carlos Diaz. Keep an eye on our socials for something really cool based on this cover over the coming days.

Pre-order Grimdark Magazine Issue #41

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