Adrian Collins's Blog, page 5

REVIEW: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

There were moments during The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett—author of The Divine Cities trilogy and the Founders trilogy—where I lost track of time and discovered the day had ended, and the only thing I did that day was read this book. A whirlwind of a mystery novel set in a fraught fantasy world, The Tainted Cup is a Holmesian murder mystery that involves genetically modified superpowered individuals, mutating fauna, and kaiju-sized monsters that threaten to destroy everything.

The Tainted Cup follows Dinios Kol, the Watson to his superior Ana Dolabra’s Holmes. Kol is a young assistant to Ana, and he’s an engraver: a person who is genetically modified to remember everything he sees using scent. Set in the Empire of Khanum, in the canton of Daretana, Kol and Ana—an infamous and peculiar detective that always wears a blindfold and doesn’t much care for manners—must solve the mystery of a series of murders where trees burst from the chests of the victims. If that wasn’t bad enough, outside of Daretana’s walls is a titan, a giant sea monster that tries to breach the walls at irregular intervals, so time becomes an enemy of Kol and Ana as well: after all, you can’t solve a murder if the entire city is destroyed.

The world of The Tainted Cup is a mashup of Roman military culture, pre-colonial Britain, and, interestingly enough, the worlds of the video games Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored. Many of the people of this world are genetically modified, called “sublimes”, created to serve certain purposes. There are engravers, as mentioned before, as well as crackers, people modified to have super strength. Everything in The Tainted Cup just bleeds cool, and it certainly helps that Bennett’s writing is whip smart. Ana is weird, funny, and brilliant, while Kol is inquisitive yet reserved. Their dynamic was a joy to read, and I looked forward to whenever they were in a room together, just to see how they’d interact. Those around them are just as interesting: the swordsman and foul-mouthed officer Miljin comes to mind. I could see him being a fan favorite, just as Bennett’s character Sigrud from The Divine Cities trilogy was.

Bennett’s worlds always feel lived in and politically-minded, and that’s no different here in The Tainted Cup. He makes this strange world feel accessible. Early on, he tells you the rules of this world and how those rules affect the characters around them. Part of the fun of a mystery is having the clues alongside the investigators so the reader can also participate, and, even though the Khanum Empire is a world unlike our own, Bennett still manages to get the reader up to speed quickly and simply so that the main focus can be on the mystery.

His pacing, too, feels crafted and intentional. Like any great mystery novel, Bennett manages to weave in clues and dead ends that keep you from solving the case right up until the last minute. The Tainted Cup’s worldbuilding, suspense, and characters all come together cohesively in such a way that will make you want to read the sequel, A Drop of Corruption, as soon as you finish it.

Read The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher has long proved herself to be the queen of the twisty, dark, satirical, genre-blendy fairytale retellings, but I think she truly outdid herself in Hemlock & Silver. Is it a fairytale fantasy? A portal fantasy? A horror fantasy? A cozy fantasy? A romance fantasy? Honestly, who even cares. It’s just a damned brilliant book steeped in Kingfisher’s trademark dark humour and wit that had me intoxicated from start to finish.

“The cat sighed the sigh of the much put-upon. “I didn’t plan to educate a human today,” he said.”

I mean, just read the first line of Hemlock & Silver and tell me you don’t immediately want to keep reading: “I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me he had murdered his wife.”. THAT is what I call a strong opening; the hook is planted, the tone is set, and the intrigue is already just oozing off the page. Then add to all that some strangely haunting mirror worlds, a mysteriously ill princess, addictive toxic apples, a narcissistic cat with a big ass personality, and an introverted bodyguard who is really distractingly attractive (how unfair of him!).

Needless to say, T. Kingfisher has taken the tired, old Snow White fairytale and spun something uniquely refreshing and exciting out of it. But the real magic that makes this loose retelling stand out from the crowd for me is the fact that it’s told from such a refreshing perspective: a blunt, headstrong, plus-size (and autistic-coded?) 35-year-old healer and poison expert who is both (deservedly) confident and embarrassingly awkward all at the same time. In other words, Anja is the woman of my dreams.

“Tact is overrated anyway. And if I started being tactful now, he’d probably die of shock.”

Now, I can see how some people might find the pacing of Hemlock & Silver a bit rocky in places with its slow set-up and very hectic ending, but I personally didn’t care at all as there was truly not a single second where I was not entertained. Anja is just so charming and funny without even trying to be, and processing all the increasingly weird events of this mystery investigation through her pragmatic and deadpan perspective made it all the more fun.

Moreover, Anja is extremely competent and clever without being cocky about it, and I loved how her incredible knowledge of all things poison, herbology, and faith (which she passionately spouts out at the most (in)opportune moments) just made the entire world come to life. Kingfisher’s boundless imagination is truly on full display, and it’s honestly astounding to me how much rich and unique worldbuilding is packed into such a tight standalone novel. Sure, it might have taken me quite a while to wrap my head around the intricacies of the eerie mirror realm magic, but Anja seemed to understand how the logic was logicking, so I was just along for the wild ride and I eventually caught up (I think?).

“After a moment I swallowed hard and said, “I’ve gone mad.”
“That,” said the cat, “is also none of my business.”

Anja’s strong (and dare I say, intoxicating) first person narration just had me completely immersed and engrossed the entire way through, and the unconventional way that she interacted with the world and the people around her was honestly beyond amusing to me. Especially her deep despair over having to work with a volatile 12-year-old princess (help, how do you deal with CHILDREN?!), her sharp banter with her unexpected, sassy animal companion, and her undeniable attraction to her wonderful bodyguard who accidentally gets roped into her crazy rollercoaster of an investigation just had me constantly smiling and feeling all the feels (please tell me where I can find myself my own Javier, thank you very much).

In a way, the dynamic between Anja and Javier reminded me a lot of the romances in Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series, except in Hemlock & Silver the romance is just simmering in the background and never becomes quite as explicit. The tender, slow-burn yearning was just sooo delicious, and I loved how that subplot balanced out the diabolical darkness that is packed within these pages. I mean, talk about some horrifying visuals, sickening sensations, pulse-pounding action and heart-wrenching twists and turns. Also, don’t expect Hemlock & Silver to conclude with a perfect fairytalesque ‘and then they lived happily ever after’ ending. Yes, this is a very satisfying standalone, but I would honestly sell my soul to get a sequel someday to follow up on some of the tantalizing threads left dangling.

“That’s humans for you, I suppose. In dreadful danger, with the weight of the world crushing us down, we’ll somehow still find ourselves thinking: I wonder if he likes me?”

At this point I have read almost the entirety of Kingfisher’s catalogue, and Hemlock & Silver is not just one of my top favourites, but I’d dare say it’s also one of her best works yet (which is saying a lot, because she honestly just doesn’t miss). So, whether you love T. Kingfisher mostly for her fantasy works like A Sorceress Comes to Call and Nettle & Bone, for her horror works like The Hollow Places and What Moves the Dead, or her fantasy romance works like Swordheart and Bryony & Roses, I think Hemlock & Silver is a masterful blend of all those styles that will satisfy cravings you never even knew you had.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Hemlock & Silver is scheduled for release on 19 August, 2025. 

Read Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: The Extra by Annie Neugebauer

There’s a moment in one of my favourite horror flicks, John Carpenter’s The Thing, which for me is greater than any of the brilliant gore scenes around it, or even that blood testing scene. It’s very simple. The camera focuses far longer than it should on some of the characters in the besieged Arctic base. Doing nothing. On their own. Looking shifty. Are they human? Are they alien? We just don’t know. It’s a moment of disquieting tension, a sense of the uncanny, a deep knowledge of the not right that we all carry in our primitive reptile brains. In The Extra, out September 9 from Shortwave Press, Annie Neugebauer has taken this sense of the just plain wrong and extended it into an entire novella that will leave you more strung out than God’s washing line, all based around the best horror high concept you’ll read all year: 10 go camping. When they get there there’s 11. Everyone remembers everyone else… who’s the extra?

The head of this metaphysically challenged university-sponsored camping trip is Matt. Matt and his two fellow staff guides are looking forward to some great team-building times with the seven students. But when it becomes clear that someone else is along for the ride, but he and the guides remember every single person there, the entire nature of the trio becomes one of deep paranoia and doubting everything, and trying to work out the ultimate question: who is the extra, and how do they stop them being brought back with them into civilisation?

The important thing to say about The Extra is that this is not a book that deals in massive plot developments, or action, or character arcs. Indeed, if you read this too fast, you might be tricked into feeling you’re shortchanged and I imagine some will be left wanting more. But, at the risk of wading into the minefield of telling people how to read, this is a mood book. And the mood is unbearable, slow-boiling tension. Every line of dialogue or character description is to be mulled over. Every exchange could be with the Extra. It is a book full of normal conversation that is tinged with fear of the unknown, and I felt this growing sense of unease that made it actively unpleasant to read in the best way, a sensation horror fans will understand well.

A big addition to the mood of The Extra described above is the concept of not just an impostor, but an impostor who can change memories. This brings a metaphysical, sci-fi-esque addition to proceedings, and you can sense the growing descent into mini-madness the narrator feels when they can no longer trust their own minds and memories. You thought Invasion of the Body Snatchers was stressful? Try making it quantum. Added to this is the insertion of the sense of the surreal, the paranormal, the unknown into nature descriptions. Neugebauer takes time to have our protagonist appreciate the great outdoors, with some evocative prose, but it’s tinged with a supernatural sense of the uncanny.

All this tension builds to one of the most nail-biting endings of the year, where a small but vital decision creates this time-based sense of unbearable stress and urgency to the point where I genuinely felt a little nauseous. There are two more sequels expected to this, next year and the year after. I don’t know what Annie Neugebauer is building here, but it is something that you need to feel, and The Extra is a fantastic calling card for the author.

Read The Extra by Annie Neugebauer

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: The Extra by Annie Neugebauer appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon is the gritty, action-packed 2006 anime following the Lagoon Company, a motley crew of modern-day pirates based in the fictional Southeast Asian city of Roanapur. As the series opens, the mild-mannered Japanese businessman Rokuro Okajima is taken hostage by the Lagoon Company. After his employer decides it’s not worth the trouble of rescuing him, Rokuro joins forces with his captors as a member of the Lagoon Company and is given the nickname Rock.

As an uptight, white-collared businessman, Rock is a classic fish-out-of-water character among the ragtag Lagoon Company crew. The Lagoon Company is led by Dutch, a Vietnam War veteran with an imposing physique. Dutch provides remarkably steady leadership as his team navigates Roanapur’s volatile world of smugglers and mercenaries. There’s also tech whiz Benny, a Hawaiian shirt-wearing Floridian who loves his vintage computers and manages the engineering side of Lagoon Company operations.

But the star of the show is Revy, a tattooed Chinese American mercenary with a tragic past and an unhinged temper. Known as “Two Hands” for her unmatched ambidextrous gunfighting style, Revy’s fierce and brazenly foul-mouthed approach to essentially all social interactions masks the deep emotional scars from her abusive upbringing in New York’s impoverished Chinatown. As we spend more time with Revy, she gradually becomes the emotional core of Black Lagoon, providing a depth that I would not have expected from the first several episodes of the series.

Black Lagoon leans on the time-honored trope featuring a ragtag crew of morally gray protagonists who take on morally darker gray antagonists. The villains of Black Lagoon are often gleefully deranged, with their own tragic backstories that hit almost as hard as Revy’s. From murderous vampiric twins to a monomaniacal guerilla maid, Black Lagoon has some of the most unstable yet oddly sympathetic villains that I’ve seen in any grimdark fiction.

There are clear parallels between the characters of Black Lagoon and those from the late 1990s series Cowboy Bebop, with Dutch and Revy showing obvious inspiration from the latter’s Jet Black and Faye Valentine, respectively. Black Lagoon could have easily fallen into the trap of being a less nuanced Cowboy Bebop rip-off, but thankfully it defines its own trajectory of storytelling excellence. Whereas Cowboy Bebop excels in style, projecting an effortless aura of cool with its jazz music and laidback tempo, Black Lagoon offers a fast-paced stream of heart-pounding action while achieving surprising emotional depth, especially after the action shifts to Rock’s home country of Japan.

Altogether, Black Lagoon is one of the finest anime series of the 2000s, with an action-packed story, razor-sharp dialogue, and some of the best dubbing I’ve heard in any anime. With its emotionally damaged characters who walk the line between sanity and violent derangement, Black Lagoon is must-see TV for grimdark anime fans.

The post REVIEW: Black Lagoon appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: RoboCop: Unfinished Business

RoboCop: Unfinished Business is a standalone expansion for RoboCop: Rogue City. I was a huge fan of Rogue City and thought it was a fantastic game that fully managed to capture the appeal of one of my favorite sci-fi franchises. RoboCop is a classic of the cyberpunk genre and envisioned a crime-ridden version of Detroit dominated by a corrupt megacorporation and a police force largely defined by only a couple of decent officers. Rogue City had all the violence, dark humor, and world-building that made the original, so great plus got Peter Weller back for the role. So, does Unfinished Business live up to its predecessor? Yes and no.

The premise for Unfinished Business is a variant on The Raid and Dredd with Alex Murphy AKA RoboCop heading to a massive skyscraper apartment building in order to investigate a bunch of mercenaries. These mercenaries attacked RoboCop’s precinct, killed a bunch of cops, and made off with his chair.  The mercenaries intend to use the chair to hijack all of OCP’s technology and take over the city like was the plot of the RoboCop: Prime Directives. RoboCop goes to OmniTower without backup or jurisdiction to destroy everyone standing in the way between him as well as administering justice.

OmniTower is an arcology that consists of a self-contained megastructure that contains apartments, a mall, laboratories, office space, a shantytown, a garbage level, and other locations that provide variety of locations in gameplay. Still, everything is a brutalist concrete design with a lot of environmental storytelling. OCP clearly didn’t finish the “modern living facility” before it began to mass import citizens from its Delta City project into the place that is now little more than a concentration camp. Worse, no one can leave because OCP’s security is entirely automated.

Much of Unfinished Business is straightforward waves of enemies attacking Alex as he eliminates them one room after another until he can move up to the next level. There’s a small variety of new enemies to accompany the mercenaries like drones and Otomo katana-wielding robots. However, I feel like the gameplay does get a bit repetitive. The fact it started as DLC rather than a standalone game also shows up in the fact that most enemies are variants on the late-game mercenaries from Rogue City.

Thankfully, the game does break up its wave combat with safe zone where RoboCop can interact with NPCs as well as investigate a variety of crimes going on in OmniTower. These can range from checking on an old man’s wife that he was separated from to trying to track down a bomb defuser so someone doesn’t blow themselves up. Even so, there’s few characters that provide much in the way of emotional depth with Doctor Miranda Cale and villain Cassius Graves being poor substitutes for the previous game’s use of Lewis and the New Guy.

If I had to make any major complaint about the game, it would be three things: 1:] fact that a lot of the sidequests are difficult to find and there’s no way of knowing whether you’ve found all of them by the time you’re ready to move onto the next level. 2:] There’s no New Game+ or ability to replay old levels, so it feels like a downgrade from the base game. 3:] There’s no bosses in the game like ED-209 or RoboCop 2. I might also add that there’s a fine line between homage and derivative with this being close to the edge regarding Dredd.

In conclusion, RoboCop: Unfinished Business is fantastic content for DLC but undercooked for a sequel. I was a big fan of Far Cry: Blood Dragon, which managed to be a short but fantastic game built on the bones of Far Cry 3. This isn’t quite that level. Still, I can’t complain about the price with it about thirty dollars as a download. Good game but I wish they’d worked on it a little more and made it a full sequel instead of a “standalone expansion.”

The post REVIEW: RoboCop: Unfinished Business appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Only a Grave Will Do by James Lloyd Dulin

Well, I don’t know if I finished Only a Grave Will Do or if it finished me, but safe to say that James Lloyd Dulin absolutely nailed this epic finale to the Malitu series. I mean, THIS is how you write a satisfying and emotionally resonant ending; it’s not perfect, it’s not neat, and it’s definitely not a wholly glorious ‘happily ever after’, but the fact that it is so brutally honest and tragically fitting only makes it all the more powerful and outstanding to me. What can I say, I will always be a sucker for emotional turmoil and destruction.

“Tomorrow always seemed like a given until today turned bloody.”

To me, this finale just takes all the best elements of the first two novels (and prequel novella), and takes it up a notch. Dulin’s soulful and emotionally evocative prose full of its beautiful metaphors is somehow stronger than ever before, and I think the split timeline storytelling which smoothly travels back and forth between Current Day Ennea and Kaylo’s Story (which he is telling to Tayen) really reaches its peak power here in Only a Grave Will Do. The power of stories/storytelling has always been at the heart of this series, and I loved seeing how the theme of “we are the stories we tell ourselves, even the lies” that was established all the way in book 1 came full circle here. We really get to see these characters fight tooth and nail to take back control of their own narrative, on both a personal and nation-wide level, even if that meant making devastating sacrifices in order to break the cycles of oppression, tragedy and violence.

“It was Kaylo’s own damn fault. He had spent his life getting into trouble, especially when he tried to avoid it. He had made himself into a story. Everyone had this idea that he knew what they didn’t– that he could fight back the daemons. He wasn’t as reliable as the stories.”

But what I appreciated most about this finale, and this series as a whole, is that it never beats you over the head with its core themes and messages. Yes, this is an anti-colonisation narrative, but it never forgets that its Kaylo and Tayen’s story first and foremost. Their individual and shared growth over the year (or years, in Kaylo’s case) that we have spent with them since the start of No Heart for a Thief is one of the most beautiful character journeys I have ever witnessed, especially because it is so messy and frustrating and heartbreaking and heartwarming and just incredibly moving all at once. Like, everyone’s beloved broody trauma magnet Fitzchivalry Farseer has nothing on Kaylo, just saying.

“Every turn under occupation weathered away more of our culture. They enforced ideals, taught their history, and reworked our cities into facsimiles of their own. They didn’t even have to be subtle, just consistent for long enough. In a few generations, my people would forget their heritage. They would become more Gousht than Ennean.”

Moreover, the motley crew side cast that started to build in No Safe Haven also absolutely gets their time to shine in Only a Grave Will Do, and I loved exploring the different lengths that people were willing to go to protect themselves and their loved ones. Even though the Gousht colonisers are indisputably the villains of this story, this is anything but a black/white conflict. The Enneans/the Uprising are never presented as a perfect homogenous group, and I loved seeing the difficult clashes between people who should seemingly be on the same side, simply because they have different lines that they are (not) willing to cross. These are not empty vessels with the popular ‘morally gray’ label slapped on; they are real humans just trying to survive in a world that is out to get them.

“These people weren’t an army. They weren’t a clan or a family either. The cruelty of some pale fucks from across the ocean had driven them together in a clash of pain, trauma, and grief.”

I mean, I think the best testament I can give to Dulin’s incredibly strong character work is that I somehow managed to forget that I usually don’t even enjoy rebellion narratives,  because I just felt so deeply emotionally invested in these characters and their missions. And sure, some of the minor side characters from Kaylo’s past might have gotten lost in my memory a bit, but I think that is more of a me-problem rather than a flaw of Dulin’s writing. For me, the standouts aside from Kaylo and Tayen were without a doubt Nix, Sosun, and our ‘bad guy’ Wal (who gets a few POV chapters of his own, which were SO good and which made me feel all the complicated feels), and I loved how they were just as emotionally complex as our main dynamic duo. Also, Wal and Nix are truly the king and queen of snark, and their sardonic comments constantly had me chuckling despite all the darkness and despair.

“We are fighting a war. Violence is a tool, but we can never become it. We would only turn into another version of the Gousht.”

Now, the pacing of Only a Grave Will Do is maybe a bit uneven with its slower start and bombastic ending, but I personally could not stop turning the pages and I just loved the gradual build-up of anticipatory dread as the Uprising prepared for their biggest and boldest move(s) against their Gousht oppressors yet. Moreover, the way that Dulin was able to interweave all the internal and external conflicts of this story made the intense climax all the more impactful, and please do not get me started on the revelations around the lore of the Spirits and the powerful role of the mystical spirit magic in the unfolding of this war; just masterful storytelling, period.

“The past was nothing more than a story. And like a story, it had ended. Right here and now, he could begin a new story. Kaylo could make this story something different. For Tayen, he had to.”

There’s no denying that Dulin’s vision for the Malitu series was daring and incredibly ambitious, but I think he more than did this story and these characters justice in the end.
It’s both extremely timely and tragically timeless in its honest and confronting exploration of hard-hitting real life issues surrounding war, colonisation, displacement, loss and the depravity of humanity, but then it somehow also manages to provide a safe space to escape into a fantasy world full of beautiful culture and breathtaking wonder. And if that isn’t the true magic of fiction/fantasy, then I don’t know what is.

“Sometimes winning is making sure there is a tomorrow for someone else”

Only a Grave Will Do absolutely wrecked me, and I love it all the more for it. It’s a finale full of painful growth, bittersweet reunions, regretful reflections, brutal sacrifices, and devastating losses, but most of all, it is a finale that showcases the immense resilience of the human spirit. This might be Dulin’s debut series, but I think he already deserves to be up there with Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin in terms of soul-stirring (and emotionally destructive) human storytelling through a wonderful fantastical lens. Kaylo, Tayen and the rest of this motley crew of scarred (but not scared) rebels have left a deep mark on my soul, and they can live rent-free in my heart forever more. What a journey. 

Read Only a Grave Will Do by James Lloyd Dulin

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: Only a Grave Will Do by James Lloyd Dulin appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca

At Dark, I Become Loathsome is the echoing refrain that creeps through Eric LaRocca’s latest novel like a vine seeking you out, intent to pull you down into the undergrowth. In a tribute to grief, loss, self-loathing, identity and desire, LaRocca has written a darkly emotive story that looks to bring out some harsh realities of the human experience around these themes.

The novel is primarily narrated by Ashley Lutin, a man who has lost his wife to cancer and lost his young son in an abduction outside a grocery store. Since then, Lutin has mourned in some unconventional ways, delving deep and fast into body modification to wear his grief and convince others of the ugliness he feels inside. He is submerged in self-loathing and despair, often repeating the phrase At Dark, I Become Loathsome to part-explain, part-justify his behaviours. Convinced he is a foul and evil man, Lutin has given up on any joy he once had and instead leans into the darkness.

Lutin has carved himself a niche online as someone to go to if you’re desperate to change your outlook on life; to make yourself want to live again. He’s devised a ritual that his clients can pay for, a ‘fake death’ that aims to reset a person’s mind and mitigate their suicidality. At Dark, I Become Loathsome is also told, in part, in an epistolary format featuring extracts from Lutin’s instructional guides on how to carry out these rituals.

As grief, violence, desire and lust continue to blur for our narrator, his grasp of right and wrong also becomes hazier as he engages in more extreme activities all while wrestling with monumental self-loathing that permeates every other aspect of his existence. LaRocca expertly dances along and crosses these emotional themelines to highlight how close some of these experiences can become, especially in the face of repeated adversity and horror.

Ashley Lutin is a queer man trying to understand and process recent tragedies against a backdrop of deeply internalised homophobia and the shadow of childhood abuse. He hates himself for his queer desires and for his attraction to the suffering of others. This man is a rich stew of self-hatred and some scenes may be difficult to read. For this, At Dark, I Become Loathsome has been described by some as ‘transgressive’, and for the close intertwining of death and sex among its pages.

I’m glad this has been successful as a traditionally published fiction, despite the uncomfortable nature of the topics it deals with. At Dark, I Become Loathsome will offer you a challenge, not least to recognise that art is there to do more than just entertain us.

Read At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

REVIEW: Of Empires and Dust by Ryan Cahill

My favourite indie author du jour, Ryan Cahill, returns with the fourth novel in his runaway success of a series, The Bound and the Broken. Of Empires and Dust is here to astound and amaze you, not just with its scope and prowess but also with a few sharp blows to the gut when you weren’t expecting them. Cahill has taken the series to new heights – and new page totals – once again with Of Empires and Dust, building on the foundations laid in the previous three novels (and three novellas). As it’s the seventh book to be published in the series, some spoilers may seep into this review, so be aware before you continue.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews for The Bound and the Broken, this is a story of epic proportions. I didn’t think it could get any more epic yet, somehow, Of Empires and Dust proved to be the most expansive of the lot. I was genuinely flabbergasted at how Ryan Cahill has managed to keep all these threads, weaving intricate patterns into this epic tale, straight in his head. The growth of story, characters and author that this series is demonstrating is a wonder.

Of Empires and Dust is officially the longest book I’ve ever read, but don’t be intimidated by the page count as Cahill’s effortless prose flows so smoothly you’ll be sailing through it. This is also one of the very few books that has made me cry – twice! Once through tragedy and once through a deep recognition in the excellent character work Cahill has achieved.

There are a lot of themes running through Of Empires and Dust, the old familiars of loss, loyalty and hope remain, and are joined by ideas of monstrosity, godhood and identity. Despite the complexity of the tome, it is still a joy to read and never feels convoluted or burdensome. Ryan Cahill is a deft hand at exploring a lot of ideas and revealing intricate story details at just the right moment.

Of Empires and Dust continues to give attention to so much more than just our chosen one, Calen, and his dragon, Valerys. All the characters show growth and depth across the series and this latest instalment is no different. This is an immersive story that will swallow you whole and spit you out, back into cold harsh reality, when it’s done with you. It is the warm embrace of old friends, as daggers flash in the darkness just out of sight.

Read Of Empires and Dust by Ryan Cahill

Read on Amazon

The post REVIEW: Of Empires and Dust by Ryan Cahill appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

8 Indie Grimdark Novella Recommendations

Indie and self-pub has been exploding lately. Whether it be Ryan Cahill, Rob J. Hayes, M.L. Wang, Michael R. Fletcher, or anyone else, the gap between indie and trad is closing rapidly. If you’re interested in dipping a toe and trying an indie—but also want something a bit slimmer—I’ve put together a list of eight indie grimdark novellas.

The World-Maker Parable by Luke Tarzian

Evocative, gorgeous prose and some gloomy, grief-heavy imagery, this novella is perfect for fans of Anna Smith Spark, Elden Ring, and Steven Erikson. The plot does not hold your hand and the main strength of this novella is its prose, so it’s not for everyone, but The World-Maker Parable is a book I could not put down and think about often. If you’re looking for something poetic and obscured by shadow, The World-Maker Parable is a perfect fit.

Read our full review here.

About the Book

Guilt will always call you back…Rhona is a faithful servant of the country Jemoon and a woman in love. Everything changes when her beloved sets the ravenous Vulture goddess loose upon the land. Forced to execute the woman she loves for committing treason, Rhona discovers a profound correlation between morality and truth. A connection that might save her people or annihilate them all.You are a lie…Varésh Lúm-talé is many things, most of all a genocidal liar. A falsity searching for the Phoenix goddess whom he believes can help him rectify his atrocities. Such an undertaking is an arduous one for a man with missing memories and a conscience set on rending him from inside out. A man whose journey leads to Hang-Dead Forest and a meeting with a Vulture goddess who is not entirely as she seems.

Read The World-Maker Parable by Luke Tarzian

Read on Amazon

Cold West by Clayton Snyder

Unforgiven meets grimdark fantasy in Clayton Snyder’s Cold West. While the first half of this tale follows the plot of Unforgiven pretty much scene by scene, Snyder adds in more character work, more violence, more depravity, and just more grimdark. With a twist in the middle, a few Easter eggs, some elite character development and backstory, and unhinged demonic violence, Cold West is an all time entry into the Western Fantasy subgenre.

Read our complete review here.

About the Book

Bastard. Killer. Husband. Father. His wife cold in the ground, and two young boys to feed, Wil Cutter turns to what he knows: Violence. But a bounty is never just a bounty, and blood is never spilled in drops. Forced to ever more violent acts, he’ll have to ask himself: Is Hell too far to ride?

Read Cold West by Clayton Snyder

Read on Amazon

War Song by Michael Michel

One of the most exciting voices in the indie sphere, Michael Michel’s War Song shows his skills as both a master of characters and a master of imagery. This novella centers around a prisoner and his days of chains, back-breaking labor, and interactions with a leader whose eyes are on revolution. It’s bleak-but-hopeful, slow-yet-action-heavy, and all around engrossing. War Song is a prequel novella for Michel’s Dreams of Dust and Steel series and while it’s not necessary to read before reading the series, it is a wonderful novella for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Richard K. Morgan.

About the Book

Admar’s future is a path paved with broken glass. Each step forward living under Scothean tyranny cuts away another piece of his humanity. Right down to the very bone.

But even a meager life as a miner is better than a pointless death. A sister, a mother, a lover, all lost at the uncaring hands of the Scoths, have left him with nothing but memories and ash for comfort. While stories like his are all too common, they still aren’t enough to stoke rebellion among the oppressed.

If Admar is to find hope amid the brutal occupation of his homeland, he’ll have to question how deep his convictions go. For with every crack of the enemy’s whip, he’ll know torment. With every swipe of their axes, he’ll know suffering. And every moment he refuses to act will drag him further from his destiny.

Maybe there are no more heroes left…or maybe they’re waiting to be made.

Read War Song by Michael Michel

Read on Amazon

The Whisper That Replaced God by Timothy Wolff

The Whisper That Replaced God absolutely blew me away and established Timothy Wolff as an auto-buy author. This novella is delightfully sardonic, a bit unhinged, and full of fantastic lines. It centers on Lord Mute, a prince and assassin gifted (or cursed) with the ability to bring silence upon all. He’s partly insane, he’s in love with a prostitute, and he’s an absolute blast to read. On top of the humor and the blood is a surprising amount of poignancy that balances—and sharpens—this novella to a finely crafted weapon.

Read our full review here.

About the Book

Murder is just, so long as it serves the crown.

Hidden behind a mask and with a dagger in his sheath, Mute serves the crown with pride. A fair life, if not a monotonous one. But his next contract nicks too close, for murder within a brothel is always nasty business, especially the one which Mute frequents. The brothel his Dorothy works, his Dorothy who awaits Mute and only Mute. Surely none would dare touch her, for if they did, royalty or not, they would fall to Lord Mute, the Silent God’s chosen one. They would scream…

And not a sound would be heard.

Read The Whisper That Replaced God by Timothy Wolff

Read on Amazon

In The Shadow of their Dying by Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher

No, Adrian did not pay me to put this one on here. In the Shadow of Their Dying is my favorite novella of all time and was my favorite book last year. Anna Smith Spark & Michael R Fletcher’s co-written books brings out the absolute best of them as they write about the lives and deaths of assassins, mercenaries, and a bound demon in a city under siege. Fletcher handles the majority of the novella, driving the plot forward and lacing in witty dialogue from the POV’s of soldiers and the “third best assassin” while Smith Spark goes absolutely bat shit with demonic imagery and some electric, gorgeous prose. In my mind, Fletcher is a black crown, heavy and iconic, while Smith Spark is the rubies set in the crown that gleam like blood. To sum up: my favorite novella of all time. Go buy it.

About the Book

The third best assassin. A second-rate mercenary crew. One terrifying demon.

As Sharaam crumbles under siege, a mercenary crew hires an assassin to kill the king. For Tash, it’s a chance at glory-to be the best blade in the dark Sharaam has ever known. For Pitt, it’s a way to get his cutthroat crew past the Tsarii siege and out of this hellhole, maybe even with some gold to their name. For Iananr the Bound One, it’s a dream of shadows and human blood.

Read In The Shadow of their Dying by Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher

Read on Amazon

Your Blood and Bones by J. Patricia Anderson

Your Blood and Bones is a dark fantasy horror about two young souls going through a nightmarish metamorphosis. Fighting against time and distrustful citizens, they embark on a quest to search for a cure to prevent them from turning into monsters. Anderson brings her two proganosists to life with a sense of resigned-but-desperate hope. Two people fighting against everything, even though they’re so tired of it all. There’s some fantastic, horrifying Ghibli-esque imagery, well-balanced romance, interesting magic, and an all encompassing sense of tension.Your Blood and Bones is ultimately like a mix of the horrors scenes of Howl’s Moving Castle and the feeling of forced tenacity in The Road.

Read our complete review here.

About the Book

Kill the monsters when they’re found.

No matter who they used to be.

The girl with secret feathers in her skin and strange bones jutting out beneath her clothes is resigned to her fate. Her deformities mark her a monster and the stories say monsters must die.

When her family finds out and turns on her, a village boy saves her and leads her on a frantic escape. The girl believes her death has merely been delayed—until he mentions a cure.

With the world against them and the monstrous change progressing, they must cross water, forest, and field to chase the rumor that fuels their desperate hope. But is hope enough to keep them going?

Read Your Blood and Bones by J. Patricia Anderson

Read on Amazon

As Born to Rule the Storm by Cate Baumer

Part war-story, part dark sci-fi, part timey wimey, and part romance, As Born to Rule the Storm flies high with some gorgeous prose and imagery. Charlotte Amsel is a soldier with a gift that will cost her everything: she can move through time at the cost of her own lifespan. She uses this power to try and prevent the cold war she’s living in from exploding into a nuclear hellscape, but she has to juggle this with the cost of her own life. She ruminates on the time she loses, as well as the family members and her romantic pining. Baumer’s prose is gorgeous, and this novella is a superbly written time-travel based story.

About the Book

The star-crossed temporal romance of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR meets the vintage setting and yearning of DIVINE RIVALS in AS BORN TO RULE THE STORM.

Cadet Charlotte Amsel will trade her life to win a war- but not all at once. As part of an elite group of experimental soldiers, she can move through time, with each jump taking months from her own fated lifespan as she struggles to prevent the cold war from boiling over into an apocalypse. With her own side just as untrustworthy as the enemy, the only thing she cares about is keeping her best friend and fellow soldier (and in some timelines, lover) safe. But each time loop adds violent complications, and saving anyone before she runs out of life to give may prove impossible.

Read As Born to Rule the Storm by Cate Baumer

Read on Amazon

An Inkling of Flame by Z.B. Steele

As a grimdark author, I have taken this opportunity to betray your trust and do a self-recommendation. However, as an honorable man, I’ll instead copy and paste Arina’s summary from our Best of 2025 So Far… post:

Z.B. Steele’s An Inkling of Flame is a wonderfully crafted novella, a masterclass in short-form storytelling. It introduces a captivating cast of characters—a found family forged in the years leading up to a war—and a brand new world brimming with conflict. The characters quickly grow on you, their banter and loyalty gradually giving way to a thoughtful exploration of the horrors of war and the enduring strength of the bonds that sustain us through adversity. Fun, clever and witty, An Inkling of Flame is a fantastic introduction to the world of Song of the Damned, which I plan to dive deeper into as soon as possible!

Read our full review here.

About the Book

Tell me how it happened…

Layne was a soldier, conscripted to fight under the Fox in a vengeance fueled march. He, and his friends, were due for a fated confrontation, one that has ended in blood and loss. Now, the inquisitors want to hear every detail of his conscription, his training, and the duel against the assassin in grey.

A backwards narrative full of banter and blood, Z.B. Steele presents An Inkling of Flame, a Song of the Damned novella.

Read An Inkling of Flame by Z.B. Steele

Read on Amazon

Looking for more great grimdark content? Check out our other lists:

Top 10 Standalone Grimdark NovelsThe Best Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction Books of 2025 So FarRising Stars of Grimdark SFF 2024Ten Cinematic SFF Novels for Grimdark FansTop Ten Horror Novels for Grimdark Fans

The post 8 Indie Grimdark Novella Recommendations appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

INTERVIEW: author Anna Stephens

We got a chance to sit down with Anna Stephens, the author of the epic fantasy series Godblind and Songs of the Drowned. Read along as we talk about writing, Marvel, martial arts, and all things dark and depraved.

[GdM] Hey Anna, thank you so much for doing this interview! To get things started, can you give a quick pitch of your works for the lovely sickos reading this?

[AS] Sure can. Hi, sickos! 

I’m the author of the Godblind and the Songs of the Drowned trilogies, both epic, military, gritty fiction dealing with invasion, conquest, colonialism and mad gods. 

The Godblind trilogy follows the lives and fates of people on both sides of the conflict as the country of Rilpor, whose people follow the Gods of Light, is invaded by the Mireces, who follow the Red Gods. What follows is a titanic struggle for control as battles are fought, sieges are laid, heroes are killed, and even the gods go to war. 

In the Songs of the Drowned, I took the concept a step further, with the war-mongering Empire of Songs attempting to colonise the entire peninsula of Ixachipan, and the last two free lands standing against them. Again, we follow people on both sides of the conflict, but this time with added shamanic magic and horrifying water monsters. 

[GdM] The Dark Feather, the conclusion of The Songs of the Drowned trilogy came out last year. How’s life been since then? What are you working on now?

[AS] It’s been great, thanks. I’m working on two new things, neither of which are military fiction because that series really wore me out. I was mentally exhausted by the time I’d pulled all the threads together to finish Songs, making sure the ideas around religious freedom/zealotry, class and caste, and colonialism and collaboration were all done justice. 

I’ve currently got one novel – a stand alone with series potential – out on submission and I’m working on revising another in line with editorial comments. I’m also signed up to contribute short stories to two new anthologies, both of which should be out next year. 

[GdM] This question is a two-parter about The Nail Scene in Godblind. Number one: how dare you? Number two: how many notes of “Anna, what the fuck is wrong with you?” did you get? 

[AS] Ha! To take your question in order: I’m old enough to remember the massive number of “edgy, powerful” films that came out in the early 00s that were considered horror because they didn’t pull the camera back from explicit scenes, whether of violence, torture, or rape. I can’t tell you how many scenes of graphic rape that went on for minutes I sat through as a young person, but every one of them filled me with rage. I wanted to turn the tables, so I thought, what’s the most horrific and also humiliating thing I can think of? And that was the hammer scene. 

As for the number of comments, I still get them! Strangers come up to me at conventions with variations on “WHY?” and “I had to stop reading and go for a walk” which is always gratifying. 

If it’s any consolation, there’s a scene in The Stone Knife, book one of SOTD, that has freaked people out far more than I was expecting. And it doesn’t even involve nails! 

[GdM] If you lived in a world where books cost nothing to write and publish, but also they made no money, would you still be writing? 

[AS] Hell yes. You can pry my pen/keyboard from my cold, dead hands – and I’ll still come back and haunt you about it. 

Writing stories has been the one constant since I was a kid. The dedication in The Stone Knife is to my best friend, also my sister-in-law. We’ve known each other since we were five, and when we were fourteen, she asked what I wanted to do “when I grew up”. I put that in quotes because despite what my birth certificate and my knees insist, I don’t feel like an adult. I digress. She asked what I wanted to do with my life and I said be an author. It took a while, but here I am. 

[GdM] You’ve gotten to write for Marvel before! Can you give us your Mt. Rushmore of superheroes? 

[AS] Oh, that’s a tough one. I didn’t actually know too much about Lady Sif before writing her and Brunnhilde the Valkyrie for two novels, but I really love her now. She’s fierce, independent, reckless, loyal, brave and canny enough to be trusted by Thor… so I’d definitely say Sif. I’ve always had a soft spot for Spidey, because he’s just a kid trying to do the right thing. 

And, while they’re not canonically superheroes, I grew up watching Thundercats, and they were amazing! 

I really don’t like billionaire playboy heroes, so a big no to Ironman and Batman, and Superman has always left me cold. I like heroes who aren’t so superpowered that nothing is difficult for them, basically. I enjoy the struggle.  

[GdM] What are you reading right now?

[AS] I’m currently reading an early ARC of Stewart Hotston’s forthcoming fantasy novel, the announcement for which hasn’t been made, so I can’t even tell you the title! It’s very good, though. 

And I’m listening to Titanchild, book 2 in the Talon Duology, by Jen Williams, who continues to be one of my favourite authors. 

[GdM] What’s the strangest thing you’ve taken inspiration from? 

[AS] The character of Xessa in Songs of the Drowned came directly from a fragment of a dream. Actually, most of the setting of Ixachipan came from that fragment. All I could remember when I woke up was the image of a pair of bare feet standing in fertile soil at the edge of a river. From that, I knew that water was going to be important, and that the climate was warm enough that you didn’t need shoes. The rainforest setting came from there, and so did Xessa, who is an eja – a warrior who faces down the Drowned each day in order to get water to the city to keep it alive. 

[GdM] Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?

[AS] I do! It’s nearly always movie soundtracks, because they’re big and epic and don’t have lyrics to distract me. I’m a big fan of the soundtrack to My Country, The New Age, a Korean historical drama on Netflix that I have watched, uh, too many times? It’s just got everything – warring states, family rivalry for the crown, ruthless princes who will stop at nothing, peasant soldiers rising to greatness, love, epic battles, crushing betrayals, buckets of blood… everything you could possibly want. I love it. It helps, of course, that everyone is extremely attractive and they all look even better spattered with gore. 

[GdM] How’s your martial arts training going these days?

[AS] Ah, unfortunately, I’m not in formal training at the moment. My club closed down some time ago and there’s only so much you can do in the back garden with an excitable poodle attempting to spar with you. We’re also looking to move house in the next year, so I don’t want to join another dojo only to immediately leave depending on where we move. So I’m going to wait until we’re settled and then find myself somewhere to train. I really miss it. 

[GdM] Who’s the meanest, nastiest god in fantasy?

[AS] I mean, I’d like to make a strong case for the Dark Lady herself. Demanding, all-consuming, ever-hungry for love, obedience, power, dominion… she asks much of the worshippers who walk her path, and gives not a huge amount in return. 

I’m going to go slightly off on a tangent here, but the best book I read last year was Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana-Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, in which capitalism was God, and it was definitely the meanest, most brutal deity I’ve read in some time. Everyone should check out that book! 

[GdM] That about does it! Any last messages you want to give to the readers of this interview? Tell them where to buy your book, wish them a horrific day? 

[AS] Thanks so much for the questions, and to you lot for reading! You can find out more about me and my work at https://anna-stephens.com, where I run writing courses, or visit www.thewriteadvice.co.uk if you’re looking for editing or mentoring support. 

If you do pick up my work and can afford to do so, please, please shop independent! If not, go to the library – it’s free. 

The post INTERVIEW: author Anna Stephens appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.