Adrian Collins's Blog, page 60

REVIEW: The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

It is brilliant to see grimdark main characters in places you don’t expect them. Bethany Baptiste’s debut novel, The Poisons We Drink is one of those stories. The cover is bright pink and shows a pretty girl. So, very much not where you’d expect to find a brilliant morally grey main character – but Venus ticks all the boxes. In a world where magic users are systematically discriminated against, she ekes out a living brewing love potions, in an environment closer to a crime syndicate than to any romantic notions of family and love.

After her mother’s murder, Venus needs to pick up the pieces, make sure her family – especially her sister Janus – are safe. And that means brewing love potions for the rich elite who can afford them. These potions are highly illegal – but Venus is damn good at covering all her bases. Until the Grand Witcher decides that Venus is worth too much to leave her alone. And so, Venus gets pulled into a political underbelly, both one that works subtly to effect change and a more revolutionary one. Murder, manipulation and rebellion are all key parts of this story.

From a grimdark perspective, what really made The Poisons We Drink stand out is its approach to love. Yes, romantic love exists – and plays a part in this story – but love is much broader, and a powerful tool. Venus’ potions can make long estranged family members reunite, relationships and affection often turned into manipulation. The book notes eight types of love, ranging from LUDUS, uncommited love to MANIA, obsessive love or PEITHO, love of ideas, used for persuasion. Love is real, but despite its bright pink exterior, this digs deep into what it is, how love can be used – and shows great cynicism. Love is a weakness, and The Poisons We Drink exploits that to everyone’s detriment.

The Poisons We Drink is thrilling, fast-paced and provides a great reading experience. In many ways, it’s got the pacing of a good Marvel film, lots of action, always a lot going on, but also full of moments you get to know the characters. It is a strong debut – and one that will resonate well with those who have known unfairness and discrimination. It steps away from the reasons our society would consider discriminatory, and instead uses magic and potions as an allegory. This is very effective and will highlight the similarities to even the more unaware audiences. In the introduction, the author writes that she wrote this in reaction to the election of Donald Trump. That rage, that helplessness and desperation, is at the core of The Poisons We Drink. Venus knows that she can’t win, and is selfish enough to try anyway. Her aims, her vengeance shine through in the way she manipulates others, while being used as a tool by people more powerful than her. The Poisons We Drink is all female rage, and I’m here for it.

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REVIEW: Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams

Katharine J Adams’ debut novel Tonight, I Burn has much to recommend it to a grimdark audience. You would think burning at the stake is horrible enough that no one wants to repeat the experience. The coven at the centre of Tonight, I Burn, however, burn on a daily rota. Set in a slightly dystopian community in a world quite unlike ours, this is their way of life, their way of ensuring their safety. Every night, a witch burns, allowing them to walk the lands of death, to reinforce the coven’s protection.

They always come back within the allotted time. But when Penny’s sister doesn’t, she refuses to accept that she’s lost. Making her own way into the lands of death, she soon meets a mysterious man. He offers her a deal: her sister’s return to the land of the living if Penny returns every night for a month and spies for him. If she doesn’t fulfil her part of the bargain, Penny will be forced to stay in the domain of the dead. So, she does. She is very quickly drawn into political machinations full of betrayal and abuse of power. And ultimately, it comes down to Penny to decide what she’s willing to do and risk to make sure she has a future.

Rebellion, resistance, sacrifice, and of course, death are central to Tonight, I Burn. But they don’t make up the whole story. I especially liked the library at the centre of this novel, a looming, partially forbidden, presence throughout. The worldbuilding generally was interesting – on the physical front, it was quite sparse, relying on the reader’s mind to flesh it out. In terms of magic, it is far more defined. There are two actions at the centre of this: burning and gilding. As mentioned earlier, burning allows the witches to access the land of death and be resurrected on their return. Gilding is even more invasive, if that is possible. It is a procedure that fixes a gold mask to the victim’s face, through which they lose all free will and sense of self. This is used as a way of controlling the coven as well as convenient punishment. It looks at what makes someone human, and when people stop being considered as such. At the same time, works as a crucial element of worldbuilding. Having this sort of punishment as part of the community tells the reader much about what kind of society they are dealing with and the dynamics between those in power and those who are not.

While romance is certainly part of this story, the relationships at the centre of Tonight, I Burn are sisterhood and friendship. The changing and strengthening of the bond between Penny and her sisters Ella and Mila is what I enjoyed most reading this. I also appreciated how friendship is the stronger power than romantic love in this novel. I might even say that the romance was one of the weaker elements of Tonight, I Burn. It felt like an inclusion due to current market trends rather than an organic blossoming of love.

As a whole, Tonight, I Burn was a fun adventure with plenty of darkness to enjoy. I look forward to seeing what else Adams comes up with – I’m certainly curious to read more of her writing.

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REVIEW: The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence

The Book That Broke the World? More like the book that broke my brain and shattered my soul.

Mark Lawrence strikes the perfect balance between intellect and heart in this second volume of his Library Trilogy, which began with last year’s highly acclaimed The Book That Wouldn’t Burn. Although The Book That Broke the World follows several major plot twists from the end of the first book, I promise to keep this review completely spoiler-free for readers who have not yet started the trilogy.

The Library Trilogy revolves around the Athenaeum, the legendary library instituted by Irad, the grandson of Cain and the great-grandson of Adam and Eve. While Adam and Eve committed the first sin by disobeying God and eating fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge, Cain took sin to the next level by murdering his brother in a fit of jealous rage. Following the family tradition, Irad argued bitterly with his own brother, Jaspeth, who believed Irad’s library to be a temple glorifying the original sin of knowledge and was determined to tear it down.

Subsequent generations have inherited this struggle between Irad and Jaspeth as an epic battle between knowledge and ignorance, a war that is happening all around us today, tearing families and societies apart. The Library has become a literal and figurative battleground over who controls access to knowledge or whether information should be passed down at all:

“An ideological war between those who believe the library should serve as a kind of universal memory. A memory we can easily access after we obliterate ourselves, which is something we appear to do on a regular basis as soon as we discover the means to do it efficiently. And, on the other side, those who believe we should start from scratch each time. Those who think that the handful of ignorant children who survive the periodic calamities should start again in a place like this. Banging the rocks together.”

In The Book That Broke the World, the Library is an endlessly large labyrinth of information containing the collective memory of humankind and other intelligent species. The Library warps space and time in ways that are only starting to become clear to the protagonists of the story.

Enter Livira, an irrepressible young woman who, like the resilient weed for which she is named, simply cannot be kept down. Despite coming from an impoverished background and suffering unspeakable tragedy as a young girl, Livira overcomes the odds to become a librarian in the bustling Crath City.

The second lead protagonist is Evar, a young man who grew up trapped in the Library, surrounded by impossibly tall towers of books, with only his four adopted siblings as companions. The Library children were raised by two android-like figures known as the Assistant and the Soldier.

While Evar and Livira’s stories pick up immediately following the shocking conclusion of the first book, The Book That Broke the World actually begins with a new point-of-view character, Celcha, who was born into slavery alongside her brother, Hellet. While excavating at the Athran dig, the slaves discover a long-lost trove of books. Echoing the Adam and Eve narrative, Hellet is punished severely for opening one of these books, since knowledge is forbidden to the slaves. Celcha and Hellet are also haunted by two ghostlike figures, who might provide a path toward salvation. Mark Lawrence takes the time for readers to establish an emotional connection with Celcha and Hellet before switching back to the characters we already know and love.

Arpix, the intensely serious librarian who tutored Livira in The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, also gets point-of-view privileges in this second book of the series. His lively young apprentice always had a way of testing his patience:

“Arpix led them through the bean fields where he had spent so many months pulling strands of questing livira from the ground.”

I love how Arpix develops as a character in The Book That Broke the World, especially as his path intersects that of Evar’s siblings, who also get more page time in this second volume. Evar’s volatile sister, Clovis, is a particular highlight, developing a great deal of depth in The Book That Broke the World.

Other returning favorites include Yute, the deputy head librarian whose daughter has been lost in the Library for over a decade, and Malar, the grizzled veteran with a tough exterior, wicked sense of humor, and heart of gold. But the real scene-stealer is Wentworth, Yute’s feline of unusual size who, much to my delight, plays a supersized role in The Book That Broke the World:

“Tell us about this Wentworth. It seems a formidable weapon.”

And then there’s King Oanold, the thin-skinned monarch who values affirmation over true knowledge and will never admit defeat:

“Lost to dog soldiers? No, child, we’re going back. My throne’s secure. You’ve fallen for the big lie.”

As in The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, the worldbuilding incorporates both humans and caniths, a race whom King Oanold derogatively dubs “dog soldiers.” The Book That Broke the World also features another species called ganar, a race of furry, intelligent beings whose civilization has had its own magnificent rise and collapse. Ganar are described as resembling small, furry bears; in my mind, I picture them like Ewoks from Return of the Jedi.

As always, Mark Lawrence is a master of blending fantasy and science fiction. Normally the fantasy part comes to the foreground, with a sci-fi foundation hiding just beneath the surface, e.g., as in the post-apocalyptic Broken Empire and Red Queen’s War trilogies, where remnants of lost technology are viewed as magical. Lawrence explores a heavier sci-fi focus in his more recent series, including the Impossible Times trilogy, a pure sci-fi featuring D&D-playing teens in Thatcher-era England, and the Book of the Ice trilogy, which has a strong steampunk (or icepunk) flair.

The Library Trilogy is Mark Lawrence’s most balanced effort yet between fantasy and science fiction. Although many of the sci-fi elements were already evident in The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, these are brought even more to the surface in The Book That Broke the World, often to dizzying effect.

As in Limited Wish, the middle volume of his Impossible Times trilogy, there is a paradox at the center of The Book That Broke the World:

“There is a book that is also a loop. A book that has swallowed its own tale. It is a ring, a cycle, burning through the years, spreading cracks through time, fissures that reach into its past and future. And through those cracks things that have no business in the world of flesh can escape.”

Following this paradox, The Book That Broke the World seems to expand along multiple dimensions and then ingeniously fold in on itself.

The Book That Broke the World addresses philosophical questions while delivering plenty of fast-paced action. Some of the recurring antagonists are the skeer, insectoid creatures that come in both flying and running varieties. The intense level of action here reminds me of that in Grey Sister, the second volume of Lawrence’s much-loved Book of the Ancestor trilogy.

As in The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, every chapter of The Book That Broke the World begins with a clever and beautifully written epigraph. Mark Lawrence demonstrates a lyrical wit that would make even the dour and disapproving Vladimir Nabokov smile:

“One fine day Truth met with Lies upon a mountainside with all of Hantalon spread beneath them: field, and town, and city stretching to the sparkle of the sea. With a disapproving frown, Truth asked of Lies how many she had slain. And true to her nature she answered with a lie. ‘More than you, brother.’ –The Basics of Deductive Logic, by I.P. Franchise”

The Book That Broke the World has plenty of Easter eggs for the seasoned Mark Lawrence fan, including many obscure references to his other work. Those of you playing “I Spy a Taproot” will also be duly rewarded in The Book That Broke the World.

This brings me to the ending. I’ve read close to two thousand books during my lifetime, and I’ve never seen an ending like this. Most novels are largely derivative, employing similar character archetypes, plot structures, narrative motifs, etc., as those written before. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that: it’s just very difficult to write something truly new. But Mark Lawrence does exactly that with The Book That Broke the World, culminating with an ending that left me intellectually and emotionally destroyed in ways I never knew possible.

Mark Lawrence has crafted a tale that is novel in the truest sense of the word. The Book That Broke the World is a triumph of imagination and a deeply thought-provoking meditation on the nature of memory, the value of knowledge, and the degree of self-determination we may or may not have in our lives.

Do we write our own stories or are they written for us? I, for one, couldn’t be happier that Mark Lawrence has written this masterpiece for us all.

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REVIEW: Conan the Barbarian #7 by Jim Zub (W) and Doug Braithwaite (A)

When we last left Conan, he and his surviving comrades from the Gloryhounds were celebrating their narrow escape from the temple of Bel, God of Thieves. After a night of carousing, Conan and lissome rogue Chaundra the Chat tumbled into bed. As Conan the Barbarian issue 7 begins, however, Chaundra has undergone a startling transformation. The loquacious young woman has become a mute killer, with demonic aggression and strength that belies her slender frame. His life on the line, Conan has no choice but to dispatch his supernatural assailant. Battered and rattled, he stumbles out of the inn and into the streets, heading for the Gloryhounds’ secret hideout. As it has so often, his mind drifts back to reminiscences of his romance with slain pirate queen Bêlit, but he now finds his memories inexorably dragged into darker territory, warped recollections of events that never happened. It begins to dawn upon him that he and his fellows may have escaped the three spectres in Bel’s temple with their lives intact, but they emerged far from unscathed.

With this issue, the Conan the Barbarian “Thrice Marked for Death!” storyline begins sprinting towards its conclusion. This issue is full of both action and supernatural menace, giving both artist Doug Braithwaite and colorist Diego Rodriguez quite a workout. This is perhaps the goriest installment of Titan Comics’ Conan the Barbarian yet, with numerous limbs lopped and even a severed tongue. While dialogue is infrequent in this issue, Jim Zub’s breathless narration keeps pace with the artwork, highlighting Conan’s desperation as he struggles against formidable odds. Like all Cimmerian warriors, Conan’s is a life “measured in sword strokes,” writes Zub. It shines “bright and bloody.”

Appropriately enough, the accompanying Jeffrey Shanks essay explores Robert E. Howard’s use of horror in the original Conan stories. In Tolkien-style fantasy, magic and the supernatural tend to be inherent to the world. In Howard’s variety of sword & sorcery, however, he starts with a gritty, history-inspired setting where magic and monsters are “intrusive” elements. When the supernatural appears, something has gone deeply wrong and the protagonist is in mortal danger. This use of the otherworldly, of course, shares much with the horror genre. Howard’s blend of grounded settings with infrequent supernatural incursions made his stories a popular fixture of Weird Tales magazine and launched the sword & sorcery subgenre of fantasy, so it’s safe to say that this fantasy-horror mixture resonates with many readers. Zub’s work on the current Conan the Barbarian comic continues to carry the torch.

Conan the Barbarian issue 7 ends with quite a bombshell. While there’s only one issue left in the “Thrice Marked for Death!” storyline, it’s becoming clear that the effects of the cursed monolith introduced in the first “Bound in Black Stone” arc will continue to be felt in future issues as well. Issue 8 can’t come soon enough for this reader.

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REVIEW: The Beautiful Harpies by Cameron Scott Kirk

The city of Dysael is bustling. New innovations like the millhouse and smitheries pave the way towards industrialization. Available education has started to influence culture. A city that has it all, also has its secrets. And now, the women have started disappearing. Mens’ mutilated bodies are found. Strange creatures are seen lurking in shadow. The law and church both seek to restore order but find themselves mostly at odds. Cameron Scott Kirk writes a gritty and insightful grimdark tale in The Beautiful Harpies.

The world in The Beautiful Harpies is set in the wake of industrialization. While manufacturing is ramping up, social norms are slow to modernize. The characters in The Beautiful Harpies showcase the cultural expectations of Dysael. Cameron Scott Kirk cultivates political intrigue in fantasy with a culture war. In his novel, it is not the battle for the throne but civil unrest that threatens the kingdom.

Constable Vincent E. Thackery is one of the main points of view characters. He lives to uphold his grandfather’s constitution and law, and takes his position most seriously. As the death toll climbs, he becomes dangerously frustrated with outsiders intruding in on his case. Sister Kempson of the Holy Sisters of Conviction is one such outsider. Her genuine kindness sometimes masks her ultimate goal of currying public favor. Readers may easily forget these characters are trying to save the city.

As seen in his first novel, The Mad Trinkets, Cameron Scott Kirk’s talent is innovating recognizable characters. The Beautiful Harpies is no exception. Mary Brown and Garth de Silva represent the bulk of society, the folks trying to navigate political extremes. Garth is a surprisingly agreeable character. His desire to escape society by fleeing into the woods is almost too relatable.  The Beautiful Harpies is the inverse of The Mad Trinkets. In place of hypermasculinity, toxic femininity is critiqued. Mary’s journey is compelling and sparked with social commentary.

While Dysael is comparable to our world The Beautiful Harpies is, at its heart, fantasy. Cameron Scott Kirk crowns his novel with his own brand of violent magic. He brutishly mixes dark fantasy and horror. The Beautiful Harpies is bold with gaslamp and grimdark elements. There is no good vs evil in The Beautiful Harpies. What matters is what side you’re on.

The Beautiful Harpies is the second novel by Cameron Scott Kirk. He continues to distinguish himself with his ultra-violent scenes and intriguing characters.

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REVIEW: The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter

The Briar Book of the Dead is the latest novel from World Fantasy Award-winning author A.G. Slatter. Set in the same world as her earlier novels All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead is a standalone fantasy novel that can be enjoyed independently. Although it is a safe bet that if you like those novels from Slatter, you will enjoy this one, too. I went into The Briar Book of the Dead without prior experience of Slatter’s work and enjoyed reading this gothic tale, with all its thorny twists and turns. Slatter is an author whose work I look forward to exploring her ‘Sourdough’ universe further after this first taste.

In The Briar Book of the Dead, we meet the witches of the Briar family. Custodians of a small town called Silverton, the Briars protect the inhabitants with their magic – escaping the usual punishment of burning for their craft. The novel’s protagonist is Ellie Briar, the first non-witch born to the family in centuries. Although she has no magic and has tried to make herself useful to her magical kin, she is sneered at and overlooked by them. This treatment has been internalised by Ellie, who constantly strives to prove her worth, whilst always feeling like a failure. That is until Ellie inadvertently discovers a long forgotten supernatural gift and finds herself part of a dark and devastating plan.

I am so surprised that I have not read A.G. Slatter before picking up The Briar Book of the Dead. Her rich writing and gothic style are features I greatly appreciate and enjoy in my reading, and this novel ticks the same sort of boxes that authors such as T. Kingfisher do. So, her writing was a delightful discovery for me! Although The Briar Book of the Dead’s pacing starts slowly, this truly immerses the reader before Slatter picks the pace up. By which point, we know all the characters and have begun to see how these women interact with each other and the society of Silverton. The Briar witches were fascinating characters and my favourite part of The Briar Book of the Dead.

There is a dark nature to The Briar Book of the Dead, and not just from the blood magic used by the Briar witches – early on in the novel, there is a stillborn baby, postnatal psychosis, and a death by suicide. These and other psychologically dark issues are handled sensitively by Slatter. Still, it is from them that the novel’s darkness stems rather than bursts of vivid and explicit violent acts. The Briar Book of the Dead also has hope. We see how the community rallies and helps one another in the aftermath and how Ellie and the other Briar women try to repair the damage wrought by these traumatic events.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Briar Book of the Dead if you enjoy well-written gothic stories with witches and dark magic. Thank you very much to A.G. Slatter and the team over at Titan for sending me a copy.

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An Interview with Lee Mandelo

Lee Mandelo is the author of SUMMER SONS, FEED THEM SILENCE and the upcoming THE WOODS ALL BLACK. His work ranges across genres in speculative fiction and THE WOODS ALL BLACK especially skews to the literary end of the spectrum. He is vocal in his support for queer SFF, not only writing it, but also looking at it from a critic’s perspective for tor.com. We had the opportunity to chat with him ahead of THE WOODS ALL BLACK release to discuss the novella, writing and queer SFF.

[GdM] Can you describe THE WOODS ALL BLACK in one sentence for our readers, please? (I don’t think my pitch of “literary monsterfucking” is quite appropriate here)

[LM] Our tagline has been, “The Woods All Black is equal parts historical horror, trans romance, and blood-soaked revenge tale, all set in 1920s Appalachia.” But I’ve also been lovingly calling it my t4t monsterfucking book, so you’re not far off, honestly.

 [GdM] Your work shifts between genres effortlessly. This is your third book, each of them vastly different. How has this affected your creative process?

[LM] The creative process stays steady, I think? Maybe because I’m largely genre agnostic. Meaning, I see genres not as strictly-boundaried categories but as loose, collective descriptions of plots, tropes, tendencies, themes, affects, and so on. Playing with (and between!) genres gives me room to draw on whatever elements best serve the story I’m telling—and sometimes to get weird with it. The gothic is already a hybrid genre, smashing together the literary with horror and romance. Why not keep messing around?

Also, I read widely—like, widely, everything from poetry to sf/horror to creative nonfiction to gay erotica to literary fiction to fanfic porn to critical theory, the list goes on. I’m always curious what else I might be able to learn from, draw on, be inspired by, or tackle next myself. Nothing better than reading a mind-blowingly good book and then saying, what the fuck, how’d they even do that?

 [GdM] One of your biggest strengths across your work (in my opinion) is evoking atmosphere and writing strong protagonists. How do you approach stories and what sparks them?

[LM] For me, the characters fundamentally are the story. Without their desires, fears, beliefs, actions, and relationships driving the narrative… whatever plot I might have otherwise imagined would be dead on the page. So, I often focus on the emotional logic for how characters relate to each other and the world around them. The spark for a new project isn’t always a character, though. Sometimes the first twinge of what will become a story is a particular theme, or emotion, that I’d like to explore.

When it comes to crafting atmosphere, I’m a big fan of how the “feeling” genres like melodrama, horror, and erotica work on the audience’s bodily emotions. The more intensities I get to experience through art, the better, and I approach writing the same way. Also, for minoritized writers and artists, horror fiction often allows us to dramatize the visceral experiences of isolation, violence, and “being the Other” that we encounter within our daily lives.

 [GdM] One thing that strikes me about THE WOODS ALL BLACK is its relationship to oppression. When reading, I initially got the impression that there were clear villains – from the perspective of Les and Stevie, at the very least. The more I consider villainy within the story, the more I realise that it is far more complex. Can you talk a bit about writing within a small, remote, community and the morals and mindset that stem from that?

[LM] I’m going to answer carefully to avoid major spoilers, but one of the novella’s central themes revolves around how complicity with systemic, structural violence is no less evil—and perhaps, ultimately, no less deserving of retribution—than enacting the violence through one’s own hands. If we’re talking genres, The Woods All Black draws partly from bash-back and rape revenge stories; in other words, “if they’re going to call you a monster, then show them your teeth.”

Considering the rising hatred and violence against trans/queer peoples we’re experiencing in the present, backed by both religious and state institutions, alongside denials of reproductive justice and the ongoing threat of white supremacy… the conflicts within The Woods All Black still feel, unfortunately, pretty evergreen.

 [GdM] THE WOODS ALL BLACK has such a strong sense of place in the story, rooted in the vast unknown. What role do you see the natural world playing in how we conceive the uncanny?

[LM] Did you know that the Appalachians are older than the existence of bones? Older than the rings around Saturn, too. When you’re in those mountains you can feel the age of them pressing down, towering overhead, surrounding you on all sides. No wonder I find the natural world inextricable from the human experience, always deserving of our respect, and also fairly goddamn spooky. I’ve said it before about Summer Sons, but I’m never surprised by how broadly superstitious people from around these parts are.

On a craft level, I aim for concrete materiality when it comes to a story’s sense of place. The smallest details matter when it comes to how grounded a book feels, and uncanny weirdness grows best from otherwise-solid ground. Take, for example, cicadas. If you live somewhere with cicadas, their noise blends unremarkably into the soundscape of your summers… but if you aren’t used to cicadas, and you travel somewhere that has them, I’ve been told it hits the ear like endless screaming bugs you cannot turn down the volume on. Or, how strange I always find the landscape in California because the trees, grasses, and bushes are entirely alien compared to what I’m used to seeing.

 [GdM] Both of your main characters are non-passing trans men, in today’s terms. I’d love to hear more about how Les and Stevie evolved throughout your creative process and why it is so important to make them read as women.

[LM] So, I’m actually going to deconstruct the question while answering the question—because it opens the door for me to talk about how The Woods All Black wrestles with gender and embodiment, plus the current tendency in American/Anglophone spaces toward straightforward identity categorizations.

Firstly, while Stevie could be understood in contemporary terms as a trans man… Les isn’t one! In the parlance of his time, Les considers himself an “invert,” which might best be translated over into today as a he/him dyke and-or-also butch. When Les juxtaposes his gender(ed) identity with Stevie’s throughout the novella, it demonstrates how they are both working with similar building blocks but are creating something different from one another. Les tries to read Stevie through his own gender/sexuality, but it doesn’t work because Stevie is—loosely speaking—more aptly considered a gay trans man. The friction between how each sees their own gender, how other people see them, and the genders of the people they’re usually attracted to causes tension for our protagonists. Productive tension, sure, but tension nonetheless! And that tension drove my creative process: exploring how we’ve always understood gender and sexuality and their strange interrelations expansively, since these conflicts are unresolvable. Plus, that’s not even getting into how Les wrestles with the expectations he’s onboarded around what kinds of women an invert like himself is “supposed” to pursue romantically and sexually, or how he’s supposed to perform with them.

Secondly, I’m going to trouble how “passing” arises here, or how these characters experience being read incorrectly as women in some circumstances by some people. (An essay for another time, but: the underlying implication with this approach would be that Les and Stevie “are” women merely “passing” as men, mascs, etc., and that is not the case.) For example, Stevie occupies his masculinity such that even Les—who spends all his nonwork time among other queer people—doesn’t clock him initially! One reason he’s been subjected to rape and public censure is that his maleness is otherwise unremarkable, and therefore intensely destabilizing. Even when he’s forced into the church, Stevie serves “boy in a dress” more than “woman.” The trouble only arises because his community knows how he was born. They know he’s trans, therefore no amount of living as the man he is could possibly change their minds. (Like, just go check the Twitter comments of the most jacked, bearded, stereotypically-masc-and-unclockable trans man you can find, and they will be filled with people calling him “she.”) Presentation for Les is more complicated by the gender-fuck space that inversion inherently occupies. As someone who perceives himself to be “a woman with the soul of a man,” woman isn’t outside of what he is. Rather, it’s integrated into the… flavor profile, we’ll say, of his masculinity. He’s putting on fem drag sometimes for work reasons, but that doesn’t cause him the same distress it causes Stevie.

Ultimately, what was important for me was exploring those nuances: the spaces between, wherein one’s legibility (and safety) within a cisheteronormative societal structure constantly wobbles and twists. “Passing” itself, when used as a term of art within the community, often refers to this contingent and fluctuating daily world-experience. I’d say neither Les nor Stevie reads as women, because they categorically are not women—and it is precisely that unreadability, their “failure” to become women despite what’s expected of them based on perceptions and/or interpretations of their physical bodies by straight folks, which makes them targets for the homophobic and transphobic violence driving the narrative.

 [GdM] Throughout the story, you have many references to early twentieth century literature and culture. You pick up the historical style and atmosphere really well. Did you also consciously limit your language to the time period, and if yes, what challenges did you experience? I was also wondering about how much of the setting is rooted in social history, and what may have surprised you during research?

[LM] The Woods All Black is set specifically in 1929 because it was a cusp year, a brief moment balanced between the flourishing of queer/trans life during the postwar ‘20s and the rise of right-wing fascism in Europe and the United States through the ‘30s. An ugly future hovers on the novella’s horizon, just out of sight, and the unsettling resemblances between “then” and “now” are certainly… resonant! So, while I went into the project knowing it would require plenty of research given the historical setting, the amount I actually ended up doing drastically exceeded my initial expectations. We even included a bonus reading list at the end to share some fraction of the background materials, because why the hell not.

As for the language, yes, that was a purposeful stylistic decision. While researching, I immersed myself in the works of interwar-period queer writers with an eye toward their prose styles, and the title itself comes from a line in Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust. The finnickiest challenges probably came with answering questions like, “had we started calling them strap-ons yet in the late ‘20s?” and “how much did a pack of cigarettes cost?” and “wait, when were Band-Aids invented”… questions that were sometimes remarkably hard to find immediate, simple answers to.

But if I had to name one big surprise from the research process, it would probably be unearthing an archival copy of a 1931 silent documentary film made by and about the Frontier Nursing Service. The nurses lugged those unwieldy early film cameras across rivers on horseback then took them into the hollers, creating a short documentary that was both an advertisement to join their ranks and a public health service announcement. Seeing what life looked like, what travel conditions were, how towns were arranged, how people dressed and spoke to one another—invaluable stuff!

[GdM] As both a master of the modern gothic and someone who writes some of the best (fucked-up) queer books on the market, would you be able to recommend other media in these spaces for our readers? I’d love to hear what has sparked inspiration, what stands out to you in your own reading (and watching etc) and what is exciting to you.

[LM] My favorite question—and I take inspiration from all over the place. As for things I’ve watched, I’m always going to bump Hannibal, which I remain surprised was ever aired on mainstream tv… but I also recently saw the 4k restorations of Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy, so those are fresh on the mind. The first film is even titled Totally Fucked Up, come on, it’s a perfect match! Otherwise, I’ve been watching tons of series from Thailand, because the Thai queer media industry has been consistently knocking it out of the park. If you want some gothic horror with a historical bent for starters, I recommend Shadow, a haunting-slash-murder-mystery series set during the late ‘90s at a Catholic boys’ school.

As for reading recommendations, I recently finished The Reformatory by Tananarive Due and it left a strong impression on me. Inspired by the legacies of brutal institutions like the Dozier School for Boys, as well as the Jim Crow era and ongoing anti-Black violence, The Reformatory is an absolute powerhouse of a historical Southern gothic novel. Another book I loved this year was Walking Practice by Dolki Min (trans. by Victoria Caudle), a South Korean sf novel about a shapeshifting, human-eating alien that rang my brain like a bell. Walking Practice has the most dynamic, unsettling, electrifying vision for what queer artists can do with speculative fiction that I’ve seen in awhile. Lastly, Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is a contemporary Appalachian gothic-romance with a big dose of the historical. Honestly, reading The Woods All Black and Starling House back-to-back would be super fun, because they’re definitely in conversation.

 [GdM] If you can tell us – or mercilessly tease – what are you currently working on?

[LM] Currently, I’m editing a short fiction anthology—Amplitudes: Stories of Trans and Queer Futurity—for Erewhon Books, scheduled to be published in summer 2025. I’ve just recently finalized the table of contents, and our contributor line-up should be announced soon! I’m looking forward to it.

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REVIEW: The Dragons of Deepwood Fen by Bradley P. Beaulieu

It is a great time to be a fan of dragons, especially if you like dragon literature, as we at team Grimdark Magazine do. The Dragons of Deepwood Fen, the latest novel from author Bradley P. Beaulieu, is the first part of his epic new series The Book of the Holt and a welcome addition to the dragon shelf. A multiple-point-of-view fantasy novel with some of the coolest dragons I have read about in ages, The Dragons of Deepwood Fen was a great read from start to finish and the cover art is magnificent. The dust jacket felt rough and almost scaly, and the cover art deserves to be framed and displayed so it is safe to say that I was impressed before I had even opened the cover for the first time. This novel not only has cool dragons, there is a unique magical system, multiple layers of political scheming and Beaulieu jumps us straight into the story. I think that The Dragons of Deepwood Fen would appeal to fans of Robin Hobb or John Gwynne.

Although there are multiple points of view in The Dragons of Deepwood Fen, the main two perspectives are that of Rylan Holbrooke, dragon singer, bastard, and thief, and Lorelei Aurelius, an incredibly astute inquisitor working in the city of Ancris. Lorelei uncovers a plot between the Church and the Red Knives (who, depending on your viewpoint, are either a band of rebels or freedom fighters), which could have devastating consequences for the entire empire. Her investigation leads her to Rylan, who is also trying to solve the same plot but for very different reasons. Neither can trust the other entirely, but if they cannot cooperate, there will be shattering consequences for both Rylan’s forest home of The Holt and Lorelei’s beloved Ancris. 

I liked that in The Dragons of Deepwood Fen, Beaulieu puts you straight into the story, and although it took me a little while to get the world-building straight in my head, it meant I was learning as we went along. This learning-as-you-go is needed as the novel’s intricate plot is more like assembling a puzzle where things slot into space over time, than a fast-paced unravelling of a spool. As with all puzzles though, the more I put together, the quicker the rest went. I also really liked the complexity of the characters, not just the leads of Lorelei and Rylan. There are so many agendas at play, and some are so compelling that they feel to be the ‘right’ cause, even if somewhat underhand things happen later. However, the dragons are my favourite part of The Dragons of Deepwood Fen. There are so many different types, with different abilities and magical properties, not to mention the dragons’ personalities shown through the bonds they share with their riders, and I loved it. I know this is a popular time for dragons, so it was lovely to read something where they were shown in a new way. 

The Dragons of Deepwood Fen is a solid start to a promising new series. One that I, for one, will be looking forward to continuing. Thank you very much to Bradley P. Beaulieu and the Head of Zeus / Ad Astra team for sending me a copy to review. 

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An Interview with Jay Kristoff

Last Updated on February 8, 2024

Jay Kristoff needs little introduction. He is the author of the Nevernight series, the Empire of the Vampire series and a range of YA novels. He also looks like Dave Grohl’s literary alter ego and regularly breaks bookstore websites when new editions of his work are released – a rockstar in the SFF world, if you want to put a label on him. His latest novel, The Empire of the Damned is the follow-up to the best-selling The Empire of the Vampire and out in spring 2024. Grimdark Magazine was able to snag one of the coveted interview spaces in the run-up to publication.

[GDM] Is no horse safe in Empire of the Damned? Is this your way of disposing of all the ponies you demand from your readers asking you silly questions?

 [JK] … It’s strange to think that “Horse” turned out to be the most dangerous occupation in a medieval vampire apocalypse. Funny thing is, I actually like horses irl! The way I write them, anyone would think a gelding murdered my parents in a mugging gone wrong when I was a kid.

[GDM] The relationship between religion and faith, and how mutually exclusive they can be, is a prominent theme in Empire of the Vampire and are some of my favourite parts of the novel. Will we see this continuing or expanded upon further in Empire of the Damned?

 [JK] … Faith is a central theme of the whole trilogy. Gabe’s struggle with the idea of a benevolent creator presiding over a world gone so horribly wrong is a constant. But nothing in this world is what it seems, and our heroes have a few rude awakenings in DAMNED.

  So yes, much God angst. I was raised catholic, after all.

[GDM] When you wrote and sold Nevernight, you were a published author with a solid audience. Since, you’ve developed a sort of cult following. How has that affected your writing and your publishing process?

[JK] … I keep seeing people talking about this cult following of mine. Where are my tax exemptions based on religious status is what I want to know.

[GDM] How do you maintain balance between privacy and being a public figure? What are some of your favourite audience reactions – or some of the most surprising?

[JK] … I stay offline as much as possible. And when I’m there, I talk shop and maybe Formula 1 and not much else. I’m not interested in being anyone’s idol. To quote the GOAT, “Never choose to be a hero, because heroes die uncomfortable deaths.”

  The tattoos are my favorite. The idea that a character or phrase I wrote can mean so much to someone they ink it on their body for life is truly amazing to me.

[GDM] Once a book is out there, do you ever have any regrets? Is there anything you wish you’d left in, or taken out, or handled differently?

[JK] … Like the great man said, “Books are never finished; they’re abandoned.”

  I’m proud of all my books, but all books are imperfect. You have to find contentment in that, or you’ll drive yourself pants-on-head insane.

[GDM] Video games like Assassin’s Creed, Skyrim and more very clearly inspire and have strong influence on your work. If you could design a dream game to play through, what would it be and where it would be set?

[JK] … A Souls-style EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE game would be cool. Anyone who knows the FROMSOFT folks, pass on my deets.

  I never played Skyrim til last year, and only for a few days. Then I tried to mod the graphics, broke my game completely and haven’t played since. Probably for the best. I should be writing.

[GDM] Please tell us a bit about your favourite vampires across media! What are some of your favourite tropes and elements of the mythos you really wanted to include (or exclude) in your novels?

[JK] … Claudia from INTERVIEW is my fave. She’s the match to that book’s gasoline. David from THE LOST BOYS was the inspiration from my mullet in the 90s. Not sure if that’s good or bad. You’d not know it to look at me, but I’m an unashamed fan of the VAMPIRE DIARIES. And the new INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE series on AMC is brilliant.

  The trope of morality eroding over time is a favorite. But I also like playing with the traditional vampire banes—not being able to enter unless invited, not crossing running water, repelled by holy symbols, all that awesome nonsense. For a wargamer like me, playing with those weaknesses on an epic fantasy scale with vampire armies is a lot of fun.

[GDM] Empire of the Vampire (and, I expect, Empire of the Damned) has taken a lot of influence from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire – how did you first discover this classic take and what made you go “this is what I want you to write next”?

[JK] … There would be no EMPIRE without INTERVIEW. I probably discovered that book when I was 19. I’d loved vampires before that (I read Salem’s Lot when I was 11) but Anne’s take was transformative. She brought the Sexy along with the Horror and Tragedy.

  I’d wanted to write a vampire novel since I started trying to get published. My first (trunked) novel was a vampire story. But it took a lot of practice for me to get good enough to write a book like EMPIRE. I couldn’t have pulled that novel off ten years ago.

[GDM] Let’s talk Lemon Fresh! With the rise of AI concern on the horizon, is there anything worryingly prescient about your Truelife series?

[JK] … The idea of Created destroying Creator is a theme through those books, so yes. if I were a gambler, I’d bet our destruction won’t take the form of nuclear war, but I do truly believe social media and algorithmic recommendation systems are deranging our society in fundamental and unsustainable ways.

  Presuming we survive, people 40 years from now will look back on the way we use social media today the same way we look at the way people smoked in the 60s. It’s insane.

[GDM] Many of your YA books are written with Amie Kaufmann as a co-author. Can you tell us a bit about how you develop ideas together and how the drafting process differs to your solo work?

[JK] … Amie and I usually got together at the pub to kick around ideas. The magic usually happened around drink #4. Thank you, Jack Daniels.

Writing together is more fun than writing alone. It’s also easier—it’s a cliché, but two heads are always better than one. Having a co-author is a lot like being married—if you choose the right person, it’s just brilliant. But my time writing YA is done. Boobs and blood is my brand now.

[GDM] If you can tell us, what are you working on next?

[JK] … I’m deep into EMPIRE 3 at the moment, and it’s going well. Pray for me!

  I’ve a 6 part epic fantasy miniseries coming out with DC Comics in 2024 called ALLWINTER. It’s set in the DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL universe my buddy Tom Taylor wrote. Grimdark! DC! Vikings! 

 After that, I’ll be getting to work on my next dark fantasy trilogy. We’ve sold that to my publishers already, and I’m super excited. But we don’t announce details until next year.

  Sleep when you’re dead!

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REVIEW: Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

Faebound is the latest novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Saara El-Arifi. Here at Grimdark Magazine we are already big fans of El-Arifi’s previous releases The Final Strife and Battle Drum. Although I have not yet read those two myself, the team hyped El-Arifi’s writing up enough that I picked up Faebound with no hesitation. Faebound is the first in a new epic fantasy trilogy and I raced through it, so I am quite glad I still have El-Arifi’s other books to get on with whilst I wait for the next Faebound instalment.

In Faebound we meet Yeeran, a legendary Elven warrior, who has risen up the ranks to become the youngest colonel their army has ever seen. She has been a warrior for so long, from such a young age, that Yeeran knows nothing different. She must succeed because then her people might know peace. Lettle, Yeeran’s younger sister, follows a different, more peaceful path, as a diviner. One day a prophecy of Lettle’s influences Yeeran’s battle tactics and causes a fatal error. Yeeran is spared execution, but instead sentenced to exile from the Elven lands. Lettle refuses to be left behind and follows her sister in to the dangerous wilderness. Here they come across the fae – a fellow magical race thought to be long extinct. Captured by the fae and taken to their secret home, Yeeran and Lettle must do all they can to survive, and find their loyalties tested as they learn more about their captors and the truth about the Elven leaders back home.

I enjoyed Faebound; I found it to be a very easy read, and read it very quickly. It is what I would call a popcorn read – entertaining whilst I have it and very easy to get on with quickly. I liked many things about the Faebound, I liked that it is a queernorm world, and that humans feature very little in it so for the most part Faebound is about the differences between two magical races. El-Arifi has put a lot of effort in to creating the different magical lore and mythologies in Faebound which I found new and refreshing. I have not come across a similar presentation of elven or fae characters before, so I found this really interesting. I also liked the contrasting presentation of Yeeran and Lettle and that, although the sisters clearly love each other very much, they struggle to understand and accept the choices the other makes.

However, I would say Faebound fits much more into the romantic fantasy genre than it does the epic fantasy and from what I have been told there is much more romance in Faebound than there is in El-Afiri’s more military fantasy of The Ending Fire Trilogy. This may be worth knowing if you are picking up Faebound with some preconceived idea. Although there are some dark elements in the novel, I would not describe it as a dark fantasy and it would not be shelved near my grimdark books. The fact that I was able to read the novel so very quickly (which is unusual for me when reading new worlds) suggests that although I found this world interesting and entertaining, it was not an overly challenging or complex read.

That being said, if romantasy is your thing, there is a high chance you will enjoy your time spent reading Faebound and knowing that about it I will still be happily continuing this trilogy. If you are looking for something darker or a more epic military style fantasy, then this is probably not going to be the right choice for you. Thank you to Saara El-Arifi and the team at Harper Voyager for sending Grimdark Magazine a review copy.

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