Adrian Collins's Blog, page 59

REVIEW: The Way of Unity by Sarah K. Balstrup

Religion and politics collide in The Way of Unity, the dark fantasy debut from Sarah K. Balstrup and a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence’s ninth Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO9).

A psychic priesthood known as the Intercessors oversees blood rites and spiritual purity in the Seven Lands of Velspar. The Intercessor priests can probe individual minds, leveling harsh punishment against those with sinful “red” thoughts. The unchallenged religious authority of the Intercessors leads to their heightened political influence, which puts them on a collision course with the elite Skalen families who rule Velspar.

The Way of Unity is built around a central event known as the Fire, a fateful attack by the Intercessors that leaves Skalen Sybilla of Vaelnyr as its sole survivor. Sybilla rises to power in the painful aftermath of the Fire, intent on religious reform and pursuing justice against the Intercessors. However, a rogue Intercessor is bent on Sybilla’s own destruction.

The Way of Unity is told from multiple points of view, but Sybilla steals the show as the most compelling and well-developed character in the book. She is emotionally complex and may be either lionized as Velspar’s great reformer or vilified as its worst heretic.

Sarah K. Balstrup excels in her nuanced worldbuilding. Of particular note is the Meridian, a magical headband that prevents intrusion into one’s thoughts and also hampers the wearer’s psychic vision and sensory perception. The Meridian is also used as a symbol of personal autonomy.

Balstrup’s prose is beautiful and well-polished, conveying a sense of gloomy mysticism throughout the story. Although The Way of Unity emphasizes religion as its main theme, there is also a touch of romance, which is tastefully done and helps in the development of Sybilla as a character.

On the downside, The Way of Unity is marred by overly stiff dialogue and a disjointed flow, with sudden jumps in time between chapters that make the plot confusing to follow in places. The book would benefit from devoting more time to exposition and building smoother transitions between chapters. Notwithstanding these shortcomings, The Way of Unity offers grimdark readers much to love, especially with its dark worldbuilding and morally gray protagonist.

Overall, Sarah K. Balstrup shows great promise with The Way of Unity, a melancholic tale that explores the darker side of organized religion and its impact on the individual psyche. The series will continue with Balstrup’s second book, A Trail of Stars.

I originally reviewed The Way of Unity as part of the Before We Go Blog team for SPFBO9.

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REVIEW: The Ebon Mask by Richard Lee Byers

The Ebon Mask by Richard Lee Byers is a novel set in the Wraith: The Oblivion gameline. I was never a fan of Wraith while it was being printed but am reasonably familiar with the world. You play as one of the truly dead, a spirit who has found themselves in the Underworld, and must figure out how to deal with the complicated relationship between this world (called the Skinlands) and the politics of the great beyond.

The Ebon Mask, book one of the Dark Kingdoms Trilogy, is divided between living and dead protagonists. On one hand, there is James Graham AKA the Maquis of Montrose, who is a former Protestant rebel against King Charles I. Now a servant of the Smiling Lord, he spends his days hunting down and attempting to destroy Heretics. He sold his soul long ago because he doesn’t believe there’s anything worth pursuing with his soul other than power. Montrose also still pines for the woman who betrayed him to death in life, Louise, who has discovered religion post-mortem and become a priestess of the Norse Gods.

On the living side of things, Frank Bellamy is an FBI agent that is investigating a series of brutal murders of clergymen throughout the American South. “The Atheist” serial killer is obviously something supernatural but Bellamy doesn’t know anything about such things. So much so that when he finally does find out something weird, he is warned off by both his psychologist as well as a mysterious branch of the FBI called the Special Affairs Division.

I really liked the characters in The Ebon Mask with both leads being strong enough that they could have handled the role of lead by themselves. Of the two, I think I prefer Frank a lot more than Montrose. Montrose is deliberately despicable and someone who is the worst sort of Hierarchy slaver. He’s worse than an overt sadist because he genuinely believes all the atrocities he’s doing are justified because the Hierarchy doesn’t offer what he views as a false sense of salvation.

Frank, by contrast, is the classic archetype of a cop who has a case he’s been put off and does his best to solve it anyway. He ends up in New Orleans, the perfect city for an occult investigation and meets a colorful cast of characters each attracted to the supernatural for their own reasons. There are members of the Arcanum, hippie New Age girls, and the leader of a gay night club who aspires to Awakening. All of them provide new and interesting twists to the puzzle that is who wants to cover up these murders and why.

If you’re not familiar with Wraith: The Oblivion, probably since it was the lowest selling of the World of Darkness gamelines, you should still be able to enjoy the setting as well as its characters. The universal themes of death and afterlife are ones that resonate through the pages. The Ebon Mask is only book one of a trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger, but I think it is worth continuing after finishing. Richard Lee Byers is a fantastic author, and this is a book trilogy that I think really “gets” the World of Darkness without going grimdark.

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REVIEW: The Creator

Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Rogue One, Godzilla), The Creator is a bold and entirely original sci-fi tale set in a future where the Western world is fighting against AI and what they call simulants. It’s an ambitious man versus machines tale made for the modern world whilst calling back to sci-fi classics from the past.

In 2055, AI has detonated a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. In response, the Western world wages war on machines and vows to eradicate them. The people of New Asia continue to embrace AI and protect their allies and harbour their creator, a figure known only as Nirmata who continues to create and help the AI to make further advancements in their technology. Caught up in all this is Joshua, a former soldier. When working as a spy for America in New Asia, he tried to get close to Nirmata and ended up falling in love with Maya, a human woman raised by AI who cared for orphans. His cover is blown when American soldiers attack the village he is in and his wife and unborn baby die in the resulting missile attack. Ten years later, he is brought back in by the army in the belief that Maya is alive and that his help is needed to identify and stop an ultimate weapon created by the mysterious Nirmata. The Creator excels in building a realistic future world with AI ranging from servant bots to bio-engineered human-like robots. It tips its hat to the visuals of work such as Blade Runner and District 9 with a little bit of Apocalypse Now thrown in. It has a slow pace to begin with that builds a solid story with a clear message linked to the beliefs of nations at war (the Vietnam War is a clear influence) as Joshua slowly learns that the people he was fighting against may not be as bad as he has been told and the way his country dehumanised them is the true horror.

The Creator does a good job of showing the various shades of good and evil within the story. There are the clear bad guys (soldiers who threaten animals and children), the clear good guys (those who protect others at all costs), and those who live in our favourite realm of grey (characters doing bad things for what they feel are the right reasons). One of the best parts of the story is seeing Joshua go from a soldier blindly believing that AI is evil and need to be exterminated to a man who will do whatever it takes to save a child AI who his country say must be killed. He goes from an extremely selfish character to one who begins to see how his role in the world can be one that benefits others and though this is mainly well-written, it is slightly rushed towards the end as we get the usual effects heavy finale that we come to expect from sci-fi films. A bit more time with Joshua and his child AI Alphie would have led to The Creator being classed as one of the best sci-fi films this century but as it is, it finishes as a sci-fi tale that I would recommend to all without it reaching the heights of Children of Men, District 9, or Blade Runner.

The Creator is a remarkable film with stunning visuals in an original world that will make you want more original stories from its talented director. It is a sci-fi story with a message of war that is apt for the modern world that will make you care for much of its brilliant cast. Although it may be lacking the depth and time needed to be a must-see film, The Creator is still one of the sci-fi highlights of the last decade that doesn’t shy away from the dark side of humanity.

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Exclusive cover reveal for Clay Harmon’s Into the Rift

Last Updated on February 23, 2024

With Into the Rift, book two in Clay Harmon’s The Rift Walker series, only months away releasing on July 2nd 2024, we are ramping up our excitement for its release. Our reviewer loved Flames of Mira, saying:

With a cool magic system, interesting world, and morally grey characters plagued by tough decisions, it is a story that fans of grimdark will devour.

You can read our full review here, but for now, keep scrolling because it’s time to get a little bit into what the book is about, and then get into this gorgeous cover art by Larry Rostat.

About Into the Rift

A fantasy world like no other. A unique magic system. Into the Rift takes us back to the thrilling story begun in Flames of Mira, and continues the tale of Jakar.

After defeating the mercenary army that threatened his home, Jakar sets out with Efadora – the only person left with the power to bind him – across the Rift. He hunts the cultists who enslaved him, intent on ending their trade in elemental children, but he remembers little beyond that his search begins in the legendary city of Sulian Daw.

Back in Mira, the Foundry’s rhidium – the rare mineral that grants them extraordinary power – has gone missing and is feared stolen by the rebellious faction that seeks to bring down the Sovereign. Ester, fledgling Smith of the Foundry, is tasked with tracking it down.

If she fails, the Sovereign will rain death upon all those who oppose him, costing thousands of innocent lives.

A note from Clay Harmon on the cover art for Into the Rift

Larry Rostant created an absolute banger of a cover for Book 2, and I couldn’t be happier. As you can probably guess from the artwork, the story of Into the Rift leans more into the Lovecraftian worldbuilding that creates the foundation for both the magic system and much of the history that has become lost in the land of Ra Thuzan. Our main characters, Jakar and Efadora, along with a new POV character that you first met in Flames of Mira, will soon uncover part of the mystery behind these eldritch gods, as well as get a taste of their awful, mind-destroying beauty. While reading, you may also get a sense of the influence these gods have had across countries and civilizations that extend far into the past. If a magic system inspired by Lovecraftian horror and hard science sounds appealing to you, this series is for you.

Cover reveal for Into the Rift by Clay Harmon

As with Solaris’ new cover for Flames of Mira this is another gorgeous, moody cover, and with Jeremy Szal‘s recommendation on the top there, you know this needs to be on your TBR.

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REVIEW: Candle Children by M.J. Baker

Gangs of orphaned children provide flickers of light amidst the dark world of Candle Children, M.J. Baker’s bleak paranormal fantasy. The largest of these gangs, the Candle Children, is led by Beth Lansdown, a blind girl with a special connection to the spiritual world.

Candle Children has a distinct Dickensian air with its cast of destitute orphans and plenty of ghosts and spirits. What’s the difference?

“A ghost is the soul of someone from this world originally. A spirit comes from another world. Apart from that, the difference is a little blurred.”

The children know ancient songs that can help placate the spirits, keeping them at bay. However, the Emperor seeks to leverage the children’s influence over the paranormal to weaponize the spirits toward his own ends.

“Never trust a man who feels the need to convince the world that he’s brave.”

The Emperor is also bigoted against the children since a high fraction of them are tainted as Orcbloods. Although only about five percent of babies are born as Orcbloods, they are much more likely to be abandoned by their parents. Hence, the orphaned children in the street gangs have a disproportionally large number of Orcbloods in their ranks and end up being targeted by the authorities.

The world also features a mysterious encroaching Ice that kills people in their sleep and steals their souls. The Emperor believes that the Orcbloods are somehow responsible for the Ice, but actually the Candle Children help keep the Ice at bay through their use of holy candles.

To complicate matters further, the spirits may actually be manipulating the children and the Emperor toward their own goals, painting another layer of gray morality on this already very dark world. Although Candle Children has a lot of intriguing ideas, I found it often pulling in too many directions at once. As a result, the story never quite gels as coherently as I would have liked.

Nevertheless, grimdark fans will enjoy the originality and eerie atmosphere of M.J. Baker’s wordbuilding, as well as his sharp dialogue. If you are looking for a new fantasy world bursting with dark imagination, be sure to check out Candle Children today.

I originally reviewed Candle Children as part of the Before We Go Blog team for SPFBO9.

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REVIEW: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

What Feasts at Night is the latest folk horror offering from the reigning Queen of creepy novellas, the one and only T. Kingfisher. What Feasts at Night is the second story in Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier world and reunites us with some of the main characters of her earlier What Moves the Dead, retired Lieutenant Alex Easton, their long-suffering valet Angus, and mycologist Eugenia Potter. It is no secret that I am a massive fan of T. Kingfisher’s writing; I have loved everything of hers that I have read. So, when I picked up What Feasts at Night, I was willing to bet my house that I would enjoy it, and I did. T. Kingfisher packs a lot into her short fiction, and these flights of fancy are no less fulfilling than a regular-sized novel. What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night are more disturbing novellas than Kingfisher’s darkly heart-warming tales, such as Thornhedge or Nettle and Bone, but still showcase her trademark style. The writing is witty, the characters superb, and the tale will keep you gripped from cover to cover. While reading What Moves the Dead is not essential to the story of What Feasts at Night, I do recommend it as an introduction to the characters.

After some time spent recuperating in Paris, Easton and Angus return to their home country of Gallacia for the first time in years. Their friend, Eugenia Potter, noted mycologist, is continuing her study of European fungi and asks for their assistance as her travels bring her to their native land. Ever the gentleperson, Easton reluctantly travels home to host Eugenia in the old family hunting lodge. They find the lodge in disarray, the elderly caretaker recently dead, and rumours of the return of a breath-stealing monster filling the local villagers with dread. Easton tries not to hold too much stock in superstitions, but even they can feel the eerie unease that surrounds the lodge.

One of the best things about Kingfisher’s writing is that her novellas are usually short standalone stories. They all have unique creepy little worlds and give a reader the satisfaction of a completed narrative with only a small amount of reading time to be committed. So, I was really looking forward to returning to Easton and the Sworn Soldier world. There was instantly a familiarity to the characters, which you usually do not get straight off the bat with a Kingfisher story. The dark folk tale of What Feasts at Night was awesome, but it is Kingfisher’s characters that I genuinely love. The camaraderie between Easton and Angus was one of my favourite parts of What Moves the Dead so I loved seeing more of that relationship in What Feasts at Night. Also, the beginning of the romance between Angus and Eugenia adds some sweet distractions to what is otherwise quite a dark plot. Whilst What Feasts at Night might not suit everyone’s tastes, if you have enjoyed any of Kingfisher’s other works, I guarantee it is worth the space on your shelf.

I had a great time reading What Feasts at Night. T. Kingfisher remains one of the top authors on my auto-buy list, so if she ever decides to return to the Sworn Solider world again, I will be there with bells on and raise a glass of livrit in celebration. Thank you to T. Kingfisher and the team over at Titan for providing me with a review copy of What Feasts at Night.

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REVIEW: The Hidden Legion by Snorri Kristjánsson

Rome gets the dark fantasy treatment in Snorri Kristjánsson’s latest release, The Hidden Legion. Full of mythical creatures and action and found family, this is definitely the cozy dark monster hunting fantasy you’re looking for.

In The Hidden Legion Aemilius is a young, well off Roman noble, with few cares in the world. Playing in the hills with his friends, Aemilius is taken from his life of certainty and comfort and thrown into a world of danger when he meets a group of misfit soldiers and they charge headlong into chasing down the growing presence of monsters in Roman occupied Greece.

Aemilius’ found family are the foundation this story is built on. Thrown together from the conquered lands of Rome, and including the gruff and fatherly Quintus, to Rizkah the angry, snarky assassin, to a cold Carthaginian noble, two wizards, and a Gaul barbarian. The soldiers have an easy friendship in that common way soldiers are written—full of rough ribbing bordering on danger, knowing each other in a way bought with blood and survival. This for me is the best part of The Hidden Legion. It feels easy and familiar, and a strong foundation around which to enjoy the rest of the story.

This goes for all but Aemilius himself, who, for me was a bit of a wet blanket to the story. He didn’t feel like he had a lot of agency to the point that where he actually did something it felt a bit forced and not natural. His character is an inexperienced boy among professional soldiering adults, really, and this aspect of the character is really well put together and explains the lack of agency. But when you have this youth amongst soldiers it just seems so odd when he shouts an idea and they all jump to it and that saves the moment. His is definitely the starting of a character expected to grow in books two and three–probably in to some sort of commant and tactician role–and it makes this book feel like it’s aimed at more of a YA or cozy fantasy audience.

The fantasy aspect of The Hidden Legion is really imaginative and a little Tolkien-esque, with a focus on monsters and food and fey-like characters. One scene about food, in particular, had me salivating for lunch a mere 30 minutes after having breakfast. Kristjánsson deserves the very crispest of high fives for his magic system and world building in this one. As a history fan of all things Roman, I massively enjoyed this aspect of the book.

For the grimdark fan, I’m afraid there isn’t much in The Hidden Legion for you. The antagonist is quite comical in the end, the lines are clearly drawn between good and evil, with the only aspect maybe worth looking at being Aemilius’s understanding that the Rome he thinks is the world’s saviour, isn’t in the eyes of those he thinks they are saving. However, if you’re just a fan of Roman legions and history, like I am, and a cozy dark-ish fantasy seems up your alley, which isn’t really my jam, then this might scratch an itch for you.

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REVIEW: The Builders by Daniel Polansky

In Daniel Polansky‘s The Builders, the Captain is getting his crew back together for another tilt at the job they failed to complete ten years ago during the war of two brothers. The last time they were betrayed. This time, he’s going to find out who did it, and finish the job. In this magnificent Tor.com novella, Polansky delivers an almost perfectly paced and weighted story that every grimdark and dark fantasy fan needs to pick up.

Set in the The Gardens, and seen through the eyes of a series of animals, each more vicious than the last, The Builders is The Magnificent Seven set in a fantasy world. The Captain, an angry, bitter Mouse with a face of granite, wants revenge and calls his crew together at Reconquista’s bar, a tavern owner who followed the Captain into battle last time and now has had half of his body replaced with machines to keep him alive and moving. Bonsoir the Stout is a heartless, soundless killer with a savage sense of loyalty to the Captain. Boudica the Opossum is a sniper who just wants to be left alone in peace and quiet. Cinnabar the salamander is unbelievably fast and stacks corpses in a way few others can. Barker the badger (and his machine of destruction) has been manipulated back in for one last mission. Gertrude the mole can read minds and has built her own criminal empire. Elf the owl with a broken wing wants revenge on her ex-lover.

On the other side of the story, Mephetic the skunk is the high chancellor of The Gardens. He’s bored looking at numbers and ledgers and reports, the spoils of winning the war of two brothers. When news of his old foe, the Captain—who he beat to put his own patsy on the throne—being back in town ready to finish the job reaches him, it’s pure excitement. He gets Brontë the fox, Puss the cat, and The Quaker (a black snake and Elf’s ex-lover), three of the most vicious killers he knows and his problem solvers in The Gardens, ready for a fight.

The story Polansky writes in The Builders is a simple and fun one. The Captain gets his crew back together and goes to take out the winning brother, the one Mephetic put on the throne of The Gardens. Mephetic and his traitors have grown rich, while the captain has just grown more and more bitter. The two slides clash in a novella of badarsery, awesome one liners, treachery and betrayal, and, importantly, friendship and sacrifice.

The Builders is written in Polansky’s short punchy chapter style, with plenty of scene switches, snappy one liners, and neat twists to wrap up scenes. This is how a novella should be written, with the bigger character investment novellas have versus short stories, and without the 12+hr time investment of the normal fantasy book. What Polansky does really well is make you care about a cast of cut throats in a very short period of time–and with how vicious they each are, he does this brilliantly.

The Builders is pure reading enjoyment for the grimdark fantasy fan. I rarely read books twice anymore, but I have now read this twice and am thinking of lining up another re-read in 2025. I cannot recommend this novella enough.

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REVIEW: Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

Senlin Ascends is the masterful debut novel by Josiah Bancroft and the first volume of his Books of Babel tetralogy. Initially self-published, Senlin Ascends is one of the greatest success stories from Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) competition, achieving widespread critical and popular acclaim.

The lead protagonist of the book is Thomas Senlin, a recently married headmaster who plans a honeymoon at the Tower of Babel with his beloved bride, Marya. Senlin prides himself on his knowledge of the Tower, accumulated through years of scholarly study. But he is woefully unprepared for the chaotic reality of life in and around this architectural marvel.

Senlin’s honeymoon turns into a Kafkaesque nightmare as he immediately loses his wife at the crowded bazaar outside the Tower. The bulk of Senlin Ascends is devoted to our hero’s search for Marya, believing that she will meet him at the famed third-floor baths, where they had intended to spend most of their honeymoon.

The Tower of Babel itself is massive, significantly larger and taller than any skyscraper from our own time. The outer wall alone is a quarter-mile thick, and no one is quite sure about the exact height of the Tower. The Tower itself is constructed like an enormous labyrinth, giving it the feel of a verticalized version of “The Library of Babel” concocted by Jorge Luis Borges.

In Senlin Ascends, the Tower of Babel is divided into levels called “ringdoms,” each with its own distinct culture, economy, and politics. In terms of literary structure, Josiah Bancroft draws a clear inspiration from Italo Calvino’s classic Invisible Cities, in that each ringdom evokes a different aspect of our greater human civilization, and we must put these pieces together to construct the whole picture. The absurdities and baffling bureaucracies that Senlin encounters at each stage of his journey are also reminiscent of The Castle by Franz Kafka. Part of the thrill of reading Senlin Ascends is making sense out of the chaos and finding the greater purpose of the seemingly random events happening throughout the tower.

Senlin is an outstanding protagonist. His passivity and naïveté at the beginning of the novel gradually give way to a more active understanding of what he must do to retrieve his beloved Marya. But he always maintains the good-natured core of his personality, never acquiescing completely to the corrupting influence of the Tower. While other inhabitants of the Tower look out only for themselves, lying and cheating their way through each day, Senlin has a refreshing honesty and authenticity to his character. I love how he always believes the best in others, even when they don’t deserve that trust.

Senlin reminds me a lot of Toru Okada, the similarly timid and naïve protagonist of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. While Senlin and Okada spend their respective stories in search of their missing wives, these also end up being journeys of self-discovery. In a nice touch, Josiah Bancroft even includes a direct allusion to Murakami’s work in the latter part of Senlin Ascends.

Beyond Senlin, Senlin Ascends also has an excellent cast of side characters who float in and out of the main story. I particularly enjoyed Edith, a beacon of feminism in a world where women are terribly oppressed. Edith’s displays of courage and resilience will stay with me long after I’ve closed the back cover of the book.

The worldbuilding of Senlin Ascends has obvious Biblical roots, but with a steampunk flair. What if the Tower of Babel, as described in the Book of Genesis, survived long enough to see airships, steam engines, and electricity? I thoroughly enjoyed Josiah Bancroft’s fanciful melding of antiquity and modernity throughout the novel. Bancroft’s elegant but accessible prose is also a perfect fit for this world, with an understated tone that matches Senlin’s personality.

Altogether, Senlin Ascends has established itself as one of the greatest works of modern fantasy—a book that undoubtedly will be enjoyed by readers and analyzed in university classrooms for decades to come. The Books of Babel continues with Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, ultimately concluding with The Fall of Babel.

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REVIEW: The One Hand #1

The One Hand #1 offers an opening issue that grabs you by the throat and never lets go.  A subtly written story, twisting back and forth on itself, never quite being what it seems, The One Hand #1 offers the reader a superior experience in noir comic storytelling.

Detective Ari Nassar has signed his retirement papers.  He’s a tough old stick, seen it all, done it all yadayadayada.  His patch is a rain soaked city full to the brim with criminals, the criminally insane, and everyone else trying to stay on top before the sewers overflow and the rats claim dominion.  It’s a rain soaked hellhole, and Nassar has policed it for decades.  And in doing so, he’s captured, twice, the serial killer known as The One Hand Killer.

The One Hand #1 happily feasts on all the tropes of detective fiction, especially the sort steeped in noir.  The visuals, by artist Laurence Campbell (channelling the great John Ridgeway in his 80s pomp), have their target firmly set on evoking New York c1942 – grey and grim, windswept and rain battered, ready to fly apart at a moment’s notice, with the criminal underground running rampant and the cops breaking heads (and the law) to keep a lid on a powderkeg ready to go bang.  Buildings lean and totter, figures stagger out of the shadows and back into them.  The sun has seemingly vanished, leaving a gloom haunted twilight in which the most despicable, blood soaked depravities happen again and again.

It’s absolutely glorious.

In The One Hand #1 Nassar does evoke all the usual tropes – hardbitten, dedicated to his work to the exclusion of all else, and out of time outsider in a department ready to move on, in a city that’s sinking deeper and deeper into the mire.  The return of The One Hand Killer breathes new life into Nassar’s jaded old bones, and provides the spark that makes him cast aside his retirement for the thrill of the chase.

Writer Ram Vs masterstroke in writing The One Hand #1 is the setting he has created.  I won’t reveal what those twists and turns are, but he sets up a running theme that may impact the rest of the series.  Let’s just say I was floored by one revelation, then stunned again by the second.

Sure, the tropes of the genre are on display.  But when they are this good, so evocative of a time and place when life was less bland, less smoothed out, less safe, the reader is dragged in so thoroughly they don’t realise they’re holding their breath until the final page is turned.

The One Hand #1 evokes James Ellroy via the movie Seven.  This is one comic you do not want to miss.

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