Adrian Collins's Blog, page 8

REVIEW: Seven Recipes for Revolution by Ryan Rose

Original is an over-used word in fantasy… principally by me. Everything can seem original, though nothing really is, of course. Except, maybe, Seven Recipes for Revolution by Ryan Rose, from Daphne Press, out 22 July? The author’s very own comparisons suggest something thrillingly new: The Bear meets Attack on Titan. An intense TV show about a restaurant, creation, and community meets… giant kaiju and a study on the factional cycle of violence? Okay, I’m listening. Turns out, Rose’s ‘commoner chef aims to brings down the elite with magic recipes’ tale is not only blisteringly original but races along like the best action movie you’ve seen all year, albeit with more brains and heart than any blockbuster would dare, and the result is a superb fantasy debut that suggests the future of the genre, at least partly, smells like Roses.

The plot of Seven Recipes for Revolution revolves around Paprick (spice name intentional), a ‘Common’ in the caste society of the kingdom of Ranch, who is a butcher for the rich, or ‘Rare’ of the kingdom, a vicious ruling group who enjoy meals containing the meat of giant kaiju-like animals, which grants them special magical powers. It’s commoners like Paprick who carve the meat, but never enjoy its fruits: these ‘Greater Recipes’ are for the elite only, at least until Paprick manages to create a new one for himself. Suddenly he’s the voice of the common folk’s rebellion, while simultaneously being made into one of the Rare elite and put through culinary school. The rich want his secret knowledge, and the poor want him as their figurehead, but what does Paprick want? His path will bring the whole world down around him.

The first thing to say is that this food and culinary-based society feels thrillingly original; not a gimmick, but a realistic world. I loved the small details: the traditional greeting to a new person is to throw them a food snack; the common folk are named after spices, and some of the ‘greater’ recipes themselves are interspersed throughout the book in their complete glory. It’s a great example of how proper worldbuilding technique can turn a quirk into a fresh new landscape. But more than that, Rose’s deep considerations of cooking and food comes through; there is a deep knowledge of the foundation of cooking—the flavours, the ingredients, the power of knowing how they go together—and it’s expressed with emotion bordering on reverence. 

But even more than that, Seven Recipes for Revolution is a book with a message, conveyed with deep sincerity, of the power of cooking and food. At one point, someone asks Paprick why we cook. He answers ‘community identity’ and this is demonstrated by the book: from the home-cooked meals of Paprick’s moms to the kindness of another chef teaching him a magic recipe that will keep his exhausted self awake, to the narratively crucial idea of the same ingredients making different dishes in different cultures, the power of food and recipes to bring people together shines through powerfully via Rose’s excellent, emotive, yet efficient prose.

Around the food though is the brewing revolution and this is as electric, dramatic, and explosive as you’d hope. Rose isn’t interested in a simple ‘commoners versus the elite’ tale though—Paprick questions the revolutionaries’ methods, from violence to propaganda. Rose also uses well the narrative device of a future version of the main character relating the whole story to another (used here just as effectively as in its most notable recent iteration of Jay Kristoff’s Empire of The Vampire) to create the sense that what you are reading may itself be subject to the fog of war. 

But put aside these meaty themes, and boy is Seven Recipes for Revolution wild, over the top fun. If the first half of the book is very culinary heavy, then the second half is a mixture of spycraft, betrayals, and secrets, and an addictively moreish mystery about the true ingredients for these magic recipes and where they come from. But then… then the promises of those earlier comparisons are kept and things get wild, both Attack on Titan-style and then, in one of fantasy’s most tense, thrilling finales, things zoom back into the tension of The Bear. And then back out into something truly demented from Rose’s glorious fever dream brain. This book felt like being on a narrative rollercoaster where you get thrown off at the end.

Overall, it seems like Ryan Rose couldn’t decide whether to write a stunningly creative ode to the power of good food and cooking or a breathtakingly thrilling page-turner, so he wrote both, and the result is a phenomenal and phenomenally original fantasy debut you have to read to believe.

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Originality and the Importance of Passion in Storytelling

In my last article I wrote of the importance of originality and passion when crafting a story in any medium. Media companies get a taste of success and end up rushing out copycats, sequels, prequels, and more without thinking too much about why the first effort was a success and what truly made it connect with its audience. Often, what we end up with is a mass of titles weaker than the original. Things get diluted and it gets easier to spot a TV series, or a film that has been released to cash in on a current trend instead of being something that has been created with passion and heart. Just after the last article was released, I was left with a dilemma. I love my story-driven games, the darker and more epic the better for me. Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us… the list goes on. I’m happy to give hundreds of hours to a game with a decent story and as a young adult, this is what I’d do—although, getting older meant more responsibilities and less time to play all the games I want.

And then Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion suddenly dropped. It was a remaster for the Xbox Series X of a game that I absolutely loved as a teenager and I couldn’t believe I’d have the chance to play an updated version, knowing that I’d be spending at least 100 hours completing it. But then, something happened that I didn’t expect. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I heard the hype, I saw something growing in the game community around this game that had come from nowhere with incredible voice acting, a story like no other, and a beauty in its design made by a small team making a choice that fans still wanted life in turn-based combat RPGs. Now, I only had time to start one of these games and thinking about that article in the latest Grimdark Magazine, I had to be true to myself and I chose Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. 

And my god I am glad that I did.

I’m not here to review the game (it’s incredible though, just go play it now), instead, I found that the game truly proved the importance of passion in storytelling. The developers spoke of their love of old school Japanese RPGs (in particular Final Fantasy) and that shines throughout every aspect of the game. But Expedition 33 isn’t some knock off or some clone. It is an original story and game wearing those games that have inspired it on its sleeve for all to see. I know there are some who claim that there are no truly original stories anymore and I understand that concept but there are ways of putting a spin on those that have come before. Expedition 33 plays it to perfection. It’s a blend of familiar and comforting and new and exciting.

Set in an alternate Belle Epoque France, the story centres around the Gommage, and event where each year, a goddess called The Paintress paints a new number on a monolith and everyone at or above that age disappears. Knowing in advance they would die, those with a year left to live often join expeditions to travel towards The Paintress and work out a way of halting this event and saving humanity. None have succeeded thus far and at the start of the game, you join Expedition 33. It is beautiful, dark, brutal, unforgiving, and just brilliant throughout. There are a lot of elements in the game that I recognise: turn-based combat, levelling up, relationship building, and so on, but every time I noticed someone I had seen before, there was a fresh spin on it that made it feel new and different.

The developers could have taken the lazy (and easy) option and just felt confident in their already brilliant story and then just used the same game mechanics we see elsewhere. No one would have moaned about it, the story would have still been lauded all over but they didn’t just do it. They knew they could create something unique, something special. They took care in developing every aspect of the game and giving the players something that stood out, even beside a juggernaut like Elder Scrolls. They cared about this game and that passion shines through every level you play through, it gives it so much heart and that makes the story even more powerful and memorable. The cherry on top of the brilliant bloody cake is the amazing voice actors. Voice actors who were chosen in blind auditions that landed an amazing cast with experience from Final Fantasy XVI, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Andy Serkis himself! And then they chose to sell the game much cheaper than the stupid prices most new games are released at. So, it is possible to create a much-loved, near flawless game without excruciating prices—it’s almost like they cared about people playing their game…

The reviews for Expedition 33 show that this fresh take has paid off. It is one of the best reviewed games of all time and millions of players have taken it into their hearts and are craving more. Whilst I would love to see more from the interesting world, I hope that as much love, care, and attention goes into anything from this team as it is an antithesis to those lazy games that get churned out quickly to cash in on player demand and feel soulless. Expedition 33 deserves much more than that and I feel like the team know that. At the end of the day, I feel like I definitely made the right choice with Expedition 33. I’ll get around to Oblivion, but after what feels like a thousand versions of Skyrim being released over the last decade, I don’t mind having an extended break from anything Elder Scrolls related.

It wasn’t just the gaming world that came through with a passionate and well-constructed release since I last wrote. In the realm of TV, Andor blew my mind. Now, I’m a Star Wars fan, always have been and always will be. I’ve read the books, played the games, watched all the TV series (and there’s a lot!) and of course devoured the films. As a fan, I recognise that some of that output has been absolute drivel. The latest trilogy had moments that made me smile but overall, it bored the hell out of me. I didn’t mind too much, I could always go back to watch the films I liked and watch the numerous excellent animated series released in the Star Wars world. Some of the recent shows have been good, but nothing has really blown me away.

Then Andor came along.

This is how you create something original and with passion in a world created by others. This is how you expand on what has come before with a well-known intellectual property. Andor is a show that has been put together with passion and love and an awareness that it didn’t have to be like what has come before. It treats its audience as adults and doesn’t fall back on lazy easter eggs for a cheap pop from those watching. The episodes and scenes within are memorable because they are made for this viewing experience and no other. If you haven’t seen anything else to do with Star Wars, you would still be able to follow Andor and witness its brilliance. Every line delivered, every costume worn, every word choice and music played is done with absolute attention to detail. Tony Gilroy, the creator of Andor, pulls everything together like a great conductor and weaves a masterful story that stands against the greatest of TV shows released this century.

Creators who are allowed to use their love, their passion, and their inspirations to bring their work to life always end up creating things that stand out and are appreciated. Andor breathes new life into the Star Wars world. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 seems to have brought back turn-based combat RPGs. Prey did something similar with the Predator universe like Alien: Romulus did for Alien. Passion truly does shine through and something original stays longer in the memory than any cheap imitation. I hope these examples are wake up calls across the industry that show what audiences want with their content. Both George RR Martin and Brandon Sanderson have recently spoken of how Hollywood has a habit of diluting stories with too many writers and differing ideas. Both Expedition 33 and Andor thrived without that stifling environment—Tony Gilroy said that the only note Disney gave him for Andor was to not say, ‘Fuck the Empire’. Stories that resonate come from the heart and passion will always shine through in these original stories. I hope these latest reminders give publishers food for thought when thinking of what to develop next.

This article was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #43

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In the Shadow of their Dying shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award!

Last Updated on July 17, 2025

It’s the little novella that just keeps on kicking goals. The success of In the Shadow of their Dying by Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher saw us able to start an actual novella line of publications, with Casthen Gain by Essa Hansen releasing on the 28th of July and The Scour coming from Richard Swan in October. It was picked up by W.F. Howes and narrated by Emma Gregory for audio production (check out a sample here) and turned in to a 1,000 copy signed limited hardcover with sprayed edges by the legends at The Broken Binding (special edition shown below because it’s utterly gorgeous).

And now, a year and a bit since being published after four long years of development, In the Shadow of their Dying finds itself nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best novella of 2024. And when you consider the other novellas on the shortlist, it’s a pretty awesome achievement to have landed amongst some of the best novella writers in the business.

The full best novella shortlist

The best novella shortlist is an incredibly impressive one, and I am stoked our little book is a part of it. Just look at those authors. Our team stand amongst some amazing authors and publishers:

Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (Tor Nightfire/Titan Books)In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark (Grimdark Magazine)Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom)The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom/Titan Books UK)

We’ve published reviews of books by Nathan Ballingrud, Lee Mandelo, and Premee Mohamed and their works often make our best of and most anticipated lists, so I certainly will be finding something or someone to sacrifice to the publishing gods on Anna and Fletch’s behalf.

Read In the Shadow of their Dying

Haven’t read our awesome little novella yet? Do yourself a favour and grab a copy below.

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REVIEW: Conan the Barbarian #21

Emotionally adrift after the death of his pirate queen Bêlit, Conan wanders his way aimlessly through the jungles of the Black Kingdoms. An encounter with a pampered princess from Ophir once again gives him purpose, however. After rescuing her from an attempted human sacrifice, Conan and his loyal tribe of Bamula warriors journey northward, hoping to deliver Princess Livia from the jungle and into the hands of someone who can get her safely home. As they reach the border town of Daynt, nestled between Kush and serpent-haunted Stygia, the party receives an astonishingly gracious welcome. Naturally, Conan is instantly suspicious. In the dead of night, he sets out to uncover the darkness lurking behind the villagers’ obsequious smiles.

In terms of the Titan Comics Conan the Barbarian chronology, the “A Nest of Serpents” story arc that launches with this issue takes place after “The Age Unconquered” (Conan the Barbarian issues #9-12). For readers of the original 1930s short stories by Robert E. Howard, it’s interesting to note that this issue takes place immediately after the events of “The Vale of Lost Women.” Never published during the author’s lifetime (and possibly never even submitted for publication by Howard), “The Vale of Lost Women” occupies an uneasy place in the Conan canon. Not only is it a lesser effort creatively, the casual racism endemic in 1930s America is more prominent here than in the lion’s share of Howard’s work, and there are hints of sexual violence as well. The Conan appearing in “The Vale of Lost Women” is uncharacteristically brutish, and the dismissiveness with which he regards the African-coded inhabitants of the Black Kingdoms also doesn’t make sense if the story takes place after Conan’s extended tenure among the majority Black crew of Bêlit’s pirate ship.

Rather than go through elaborate contortions to salvage “The Vale of Lost Women,” Conan the Barbarian scribe Jim Zub simply uses the events of the short story as a launching pad for his own original tale: Conan is deep in the jungle, surrounded by local warriors, and has a delicate princess that he must escort to safety. The climactic bat-winged “devil from the Outer Dark” is shown in the opening pages of this issue, so readers do not miss out on anything by not receiving a full adaptation. Masterfully handled, Zub!

Conan the Barbarian #21 brings aboard a new artist for the monthly title, Fernando Dagnino. A DC Comics veteran, Dagnino’s work previously appeared in The Savage Sword of Conan #4. I rated his art highly then, and he continues to impress in this full-length issue. While he cites several other Conan artists as influences in the post-issue interview, Dagnino’s depiction most reminds me of Ernie Chan’s. He captures the brawn and ferocity of Chan’s classic representation while avoiding slavish imitation. His costume work in this issue is also worthy of note; newly introduced Stygian sorceress character Athyr-Bast is particularly impressively outfitted.

While the “Scourge of the Serpent” event miniseries doesn’t begin in earnest until September (excepting the Free Comic Book Day prelude), the dark Egyptian-inspired land of Stygia and the snake cult of Set have figured prominently in this year’s Conan the Barbarian issues. As the story arc title “A Nest of Serpents” suggests, this issue continues the trend, also reintroducing a fan-favorite villain previously teased at the conclusion of Conan the Barbarian #18.

Issue #21 takes the best elements of a forgettable Conan short story and sets to work making something more interesting out of them. Fernando Dagnino also makes a strong addition to the stable of Conan the Barbarian artists.

Conan the Barbarian #21 by Jim Zub (W) and Fernando Dagnino (A)

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INTERVIEW: Martina and Hansi from Nerdforge

Who is Nerdforge? If you’re anything like me and roughly 3.7 million other like-minded viewers, you’ve probably tuned in to their wildly popular YouTube channel to watch them bring jaw-dropping creations to life. From crafting a 14,000-page book to building a giant, hand-made set of Brandon Sanderson’s novels, Martina and Hansi spend each episode living the dream of every geeky maker out there. They were kind enough to answer a few of my questions about their builds, motivations, and what it’s like to be full-blown YouTube darlings. And if you haven’t tuned in before? Trust me—you will once you get to know them.

Martina and Hansi from Nerdforge

[GdM] Let’s start at the beginning. Your projects blend art, engineering, and storytelling. What experiences shaped your creative philosophy?

[Both] Most of our projects are heavily influenced by our interests. We don’t necessarily have one creative vision for our videos or projects, but we bounce around the subjects that interest us at a particular moment. Combine that with us having two very different skillsets it opens the door for quite a lot of fun and otherwise difficult projects. 

[GdM] What’s your process like from the initial idea to the finished video? Do you script, storyboard, or build as you go? Do you have a dedicated shooting schedule for each step? A la Monday, we storyboard, Tuesday we write scripts, etc. 

[Hansi] We have many different skillsets, but being organized is sadly not one of them, so things usually happen as they happen for each project. This works when we are a team of only two, but we are definitely working on having a bit more structure! We store our ideas in a project management system, where we write it all down, good or bad, and then we do multiple rounds of filtering before we have an idea to proceed with. 

[GdM] What has been the most technically challenging project you’ve ever done—and how did you push through? 

[Hansi] Our most technically challenging project is probably our Wizard Study build. Being a full scale set required a lot of planning and testing techniques to achieve different faux textured finishes on foam, plus the whole window is a virtual-reality position tracked realtime Unreal Engine simulation, which means that if we shift the camera angle, so does the background! Really fun stuff, but also quite tricky to set up. 

[GdM] You’ve built a huge community online—how do you think audience interaction has shaped Nerdforge over time? 

[Martina] Working together is great, but only being two people in our studio can make us feel isolated from the rest of the world, so sometimes it’s really nice to meet real people that watch our content, like we do at many of the maker conventions we attend (e.g. OpenSauce and Maker’s Central). All the people that show up to say hi really makes our day, and gives us a motivational boost to go back home and make even cooler stuff! 

[GdM] Have you ever made something just for yourself, no camera rolling? How did it feel, and what was it? 

[Hansi] We create stuff all the time without the camera rolling, but not in the same way like we do on our YouTube channel. Martina paints a lot, that’s her thing and she could do it all day, everyday! I am more inclined to text, and I like to work on worldbuilding. fictional writing, coding or game development. Needless to say, my interests fluctuate a lot. 

[GdM] If a fantasy or sci-fi character commissioned you to build something, who would it be—and what would you make? 

[Both] We’d love to help out on a home-renovation project in Hobbiton! 

[GdM] What do you think is the most useful tool you have in your shop, and why? 

[Martina] That’s a very difficult question to answer, as I think it really depends on the project. With the wide variety of things we make we also end up using a wide range of tools—but one tool I always use, no matter the project, is my sketchbook! Every project we do starts with a plan—pencil and paper, or an iPad sketch. It’s also something I keep coming back to during each project, sketching out changes, mechanisms, details, designs, etc. Maybe a bit of a “meta” tool, but it’s my most useful one for sure! 

[Hansi] One tool alone rarely gets the job done, but I’d say the 3D-printer is probably the one I get the most use out of. It can be used for so many things that would be impossible to do just a few years back. 

[GdM] Speaking of specific builds that are beloved, we have to discuss the glorious Brandon Sanderson build. Why Brandon Sanderson? Out of all the fantasy authors to draw from, what made his work the one you wanted to celebrate in such a big way? 

[Both] Brandon Sanderson is just a great guy and his team is fantastic, making that such an easy video collaboration. When we pitched the idea to the team at Dragonsteel they did everything they could to make it happen, they even got us the rights to reprint all the books from the publisher itself. Anyone who’s involved in the book industry knows that is not necessarily an easy task, especially with such a large publisher. Honestly, before we pitched the idea, we thought it would be impossible. Otherwise, the books are great and we love BIG BOOKS (which Brandon obviously does as well) so I think it was a natural fit. 

[GdM] You used a lot of detailed carving and lighting in this build—what part was the most fun, and which nearly broke your soul? 

[Martina] The most fun part for me was definitely stamping the leather and actually seeing that the design I had made on paper, worked in real life. But, making the stamps wasn’t a lot of fun, it was messy work as we used UV-resin to cure acrylic cutouts to a supporting backplate. And we had to make over 20 rather complex stamps…! But, it was worth it! 

[GdM] Were there any Easter eggs or references hidden in the piece that only a hardcore Sanderson fan would catch? 

[Martina] Yes! Both in the colors of the books and the symbols on the covers. 

[GdM] As someone who is obsessed with coffee, your coffee/computer build is the stuff of dreams. Did you have any moments of, “We should NOT be mixing hot liquids with expensive electronics,” when building the coffee computer or was that part of the fun? 

[Hansi] People mix liquids with computers all the time when water-cooling! The comment we get the most on this video is people being worried about cooling, as the coffee-machine obviously produces some heat when making coffee. To all the worriers out there, I will say: The machine makes coffee for around 60 seconds, it’s not running 24/7 (and the thermals don’t seem to be impacted either way, during the brewing). My biggest concern was the hot steam blowing over the components and leaving moisture on them. So we decided to have the computer ventilate out the front instead of back, pushing the steam out, instead of pulling it in and above the motherboard. Unconventional, but it works. 

[GdM] When you had your pinkie accident, was your first thought, “Okay, this is my chance to build a badass cyborg finger”? What was the process like in creating it—was it more difficult than you expected? Do you still use it? And have you heard from any viewers in the disabled community who connected with it or found it inspiring? 

[Martina] I had a lot of people reach out to me after the finger-build video that found it inspiring, which is very heartwarming. I will say, the finger is really cool, but the functionality is very limited, so maybe it’s time for an upgrade! I still use it from time to time, but only when it’s to complete a look. 

[GdM] For the future, what new medium do you want to try? Do you have any dream builds you’re planning that you can share? 

[Hansi]: Larger builds with a purpose are always more fun, e.g. bigatures that will be displayed somewhere, instead of collecting dust in our warehouse. More challenging set builds would be fun as well. The main issue in our studio is we are running out of space to build sets, we already have a Fallout kitchen and a Wizard Study!

[GdM] Martina and Hansi, the heart and soul of Nerdforge, aren’t just YouTube creators—they are magicians of imagination. They turn glue guns, LEDs, and their trusty 3D printer into full-blown nerd magic. Whether they’re building fantasy libraries, creating coffee-maker computers, painting incredible cyberpunk cities, or just inspiring the rest of us to look at our hot glue sticks with newfound interest, Nerdforge continues to inspire the makers, the dreamers, and the builders across the world. We watch, we learn, we make.

If you haven’t subscribed yet… what are you even doing? Go. Now. Build something weird.

This interview was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #43

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REVIEW: Anderson Versus Death

My first foray in the the off-screen world of Judge Dredd is the absolutely wild and very Anna Smith Spark Anderson Versus Death. I went in expecting a kind of brutal cyberpunk police procedural, landed in the head of a psi-judge, and witnessed the world and everything inside it burn over and over again.

And if that sounds wild, then buckle up because Anderson versus Death is—as I find myself saying every time I review one of Smith Spark’s books—an absolute experience.

In Anderson Versus Death Judge Anderson chases a criminal through a building. She reaches out to his mind to scan him and finds an absolute horror that enters her own mind and tries to take over so it can destroy the world through her body. And so starts a tale told almost entirely with the psychic mind of Anderson, as she battles Judge Death to stop him from turning Mega City One and everything else on the planet into the Deadworld he, Judge Mortis, Judge Fear, and Judge Fire so desire.

The story is a psychedelic roller coaster as Anderson wages mental war on Death—a losing battle when Death cannot be killed. We move through city scape after city scape, sometimes with people dying, sometimes with all the people already dead, sometimes with a colleague, and sometimes with a new lost friend. Always, the ever marching Dark Judges try to get Anderson to surrender—to give up so they can take over.

As a book set in an established IP, there is definitely some nuances that flew right over my head—as my exposure to that world is limited to two awesome movies and one comic I think I remember reading when I was 15—that I’m sure fans of the wider franchise would pick up on and probably love. As always with Smith Spark’s work, there is a level of her books that are accessible to everyone, but there are always multiple layers under that you can pick up on if you care or dare to look.

Overall if you were to ask what would any SFF IP look like if Anna Smith Spark were to put her undeniably recognisable stamp on it—then this would be exactly it. Worlds dying. Epic scope and a feeling of being small against the scale of the story. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Drowning in blood and bodies. Deep moral questions and characters taken beyond their breaking point throughout. Desperate need for a drink, or a cuppa, or a popcorn read to reset immediately after.

Anderson Versus Death is a wild ride. You should get on your Lawmaster and go check it out.

Read Anderson Versus Death by Anna Smith Spark

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A new GdM short story on YouTube: All the Lovely Brides by Kelly Sandoval (narrated by Laura Brent)

After the success of our first short story reading by Black Sails actor Luke Arnold, we are back with another Grimdark Magazine short story brought to life on YouTube! This time, Australian actor Laura Brent (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Mortal Kombat, Winchester) breathes new creative life into author Kelly Sandoval’s grimdark fantasy short story from Issue #3, All the Lovely Brides. Laura’s regal and haunting delivery brings this story of a desperate will to live in the face of death to the screen.

Check it out in the player below, or head on over to our YouTube channel.

Haven’t caught wind of what we’re doing?

That’s okay. It’s a big ol’ internet and it’s almost impossible to catch everything cool hitting the screen. Even when we wipe our entire channel and start over.

Let me catch you up.

At the start of the year, the Grimdark Magazine team and I decided we had two options with our YouTube channel. We could (a) continue putting out pretty epic interviews (with people like Patrick Rothfuss, Anna Smith Spark, Steven Erikson, Brandon Sanderson, etc), book reviews delivered in my monotone with the screen presence of a potato, and some excerpt readings, or we could go with (b) swing for the fucking fences.

And if you know us and what we do here at Grimdark Magazine, you know there was only one option we were going to go for.

We wiped our channel and started over with a new idea. We are working with screen actors to breathe new life into the short story market by doing readings on our YouTube channel.

Go on, check it out. With some hard work and a slice of luck or three, we think we can build something really cool that elevates short stories off the page.

If you’re picking up what we’re putting down, head over to the channel and give us a subscribe so we can keep making more of these videos.

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First look at Casthen Gain by Essa Hansen: read the entire first chapter!

With only a few weeks to go until Casthen Gain by Essa Hansen hits the shelves, it’s time to get a look inside for a bit of a sci-fantasy entree before the main course hits on the 28th of July 2025. I am so excited for this book to hit the shelves–available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover–and I can’t wait to see what our reader community thinks of this non-stop action romp through the most dangerous planet in the solar system.

In Casthen Gain, a wayward culinarian investigates the wrong secret and finds himself dropped on the strangest and most dangerous planet in the multiverse. He’s here alongside murderers, exiles, and adrenaline-seekers to participate in a battle royale race, forced to hunt for an eons-buried mystery or die trying. The prize? Being allowed to live…and join the cruel organization that put them all here, which might just mean the creative freedom Sentace has craved all his life.

1Rough Crowd

Head swaddled in sensory deprivation veils, body in aggressive multi-species restraints, and crammed in a prisoner dropship with… he could smell at least twelve others despite the veil… this wasn’t the worst outcome Sentace Ketch had imagined after being taken captive. He hadn’t been tortured or murdered yet, and he hadn’t found Evi dead before he could fake her death himself.

Upside: he was finally free of his attending “team” whose imbecility had gotten him captured in the first place, and whose oversight had meant he’d have to assassinate Evi for real. Everything would be easier now, alone, if he survived whatever this was.

The ship hit atmosphere. A blast of resistance gripped the vessel. Wailing tones transferred to Sentace’s skull through the restraints, barely dulled by the material of the veils. The rumbling juddered his teeth. His brain hit a panic switch: stomach acid rose to the base of his throat, urgently swallowed before it reached his tongue. Planetary arrivals and departures were yet another new experience for him, coming from a backwater homeworld galaxies away. This re-entry wasn’t helped by the fact that the dropship felt extremely budget, a cacophony of rattles, buzzes, and engine strain.

Eventually the descent evened out and velocity waned. Sentace’s stomach continued to argue. He summoned calm. Endure, be patient. His kitchen had taught him patience: dough rising, stock simmering, meat marinating, egg whites stiffening. A rhythm of action and waiting.

In a swift motion, everyone’s sensory veils were husked off.

The prisoners exploded into reactions as intense as the restraints allowed. Sentace flinched, his extra-keen human senses assaulted by growling and argument and groaning steel and stomps and one creature wailing what was either despair or a war cry. Sentace was familiar with many species—dining patrons, tourists—but the immense diversity in the multiverse beyond his little planet had shown him just how small his life experience truly was.

Some prisoners recognized one another. A gigantic chketin erupted in uncontrollable laughter while barking out the words, “In here with the scum and scraps, eh, Molinar!”

The chketin’s spittle crossed the way to an elderly woman with dark, leathery skin and classical beauty, whose expression remained completely unbothered. Golden jewelry wound her head and neck, and metallic paint sketched expensive flowers around her eyes. High-ranking; someone for whom this capture was a humiliation. Perhaps, in her case, being marked as an expendable utility was the worst possible punishment. All damned, what had Sentace been hurtled into?

Another creature said through a voice box, “Oi, I know you, scrap! Second time caught, eh!” The untranslated language was chemical, wafting into Sentace’s nostrils in a cadence of sour prickles and rot-sweet slides.

Face scrunching, he held his breath and tuned out his fellows’ overreactions. There were fourteen others, a mix of xenids—he’d nearly guessed right. Hybrid organic-mechanical restraints served as passenger cradles, holding everyone upright and immobile on both ship walls. None looked to have been disarmed or disrobed, though the restraints made attack impossible. Sentace noted that his bandolier of seasonings still looped his chest, and he hoped his chef’s vari-knife remained strapped on his thigh.

He tried to catalogue all fourteen potential allies or opponents. A human girl hid behind a curtain of dull blonde hair, her body dewy with drug-sweat, and a glaze of trauma over her fish-pale eyes. The chketin: a species that always looked like charred meat to Sentace, with rough, hairless skin wrapping a thick, muscular frame. Next to a human man with two augmented legs and one hundred percent criminal vibes was a fully mechanical, semi-humanoid exoskeleton with no original body inside. The brain-pan contained a small, squid-like organism that must have been controlling the frame. Beside them was a bipedal xenid, a confusing mass of bone and cartilage.

All in all, the majority of the crowd were humans, though Sentace had come to understand that “human” was an almost uselessly broad term encapsulating such variety it was pointless to attempt to group them properly. Sentace bet his Trowan phenotype was distinct enough to recognize—maybe even by his eyes alone—given how isolated and xenophobic his culture was.

As the most worldly Trowan citizen, and transuniversal specialist, Sentace had convinced the administration to choose him for the assassination job, and gained a rare ticket off-world. Upon leaving his planet’s confines, he’d discovered how laughably limited his knowledge actually was of multiversal economy, immensity, and key factions… such as the vast and infamous Casthen organization who now had his life in their grip. They and their mysterious leader, Çydanza, were applauded by some and despised by others. Their ethics were fluid. With one hand, they enslaved and monopolized and destroyed, and with another, they rehabilitated, cultivated, and reversed extinctions. Sentace scanned for clues about which of those hands had grabbed him.

“Ou, big ‘uy,” said a strange little creature in the cradle beside his. The words squished in their wide, froggy mouth. “You w’ the weird eys. I c’n smell wha’ you’re. The spiiiicies.” Besides a bandit strip of pink skin around their ink-drop eyes, and adorable parabola ears, they were all downy white fur. “I know wha’ comes next. Wanna team up w’ Chiidi? I love t’ eat.”

Before Sentace could respond, the bottom of the ship folded apart to reveal sky beneath everyone’s feet. After hours of sensory deprivation, the view was a door to a dream.

Several prisoners shrieked. Sentace’s calm dropped away with the floor. A flare of acrophobia spun his heart rate higher, and his restraints proved unnecessary as his muscles locked up anyway. It was a newfound fear since there weren’t many heights on his planet and he’d never gone up to its orbital station. That had been the sole job of Evi Omai, their only pilot. If she really had sought asylum with the Casthen, was she now flying dropships like this? More rote routine, enslaved to another institution. He hoped she was sent out on multiversal missions, allowed all the freedom she’d incinerated a world to have.

He forced himself to look down. It wasn’t a view he’d expected, and a low whistle of astonishment passed his lips when his breath returned.

The night side of this planet was skinned entirely in dark megastructure, with emerald and gold pleochroism rippling across the surface. A web of lines and window lights scored it. There were enough Casthen emblems and colors to mark this as the faction’s headquarters; the most closely guarded secret in the entire multiverse, impossible to reach. No wonder he’d been unconscious and veiled for the trip. This was a place that no one who saw could leave and live to tell about it. Lucky him.

The dropship banked, showing a ring of twilight ahead and the dawn of a distant, languid sun. Sentace choked down another urge to hurl.

“Nine crimes,” someone swore, voice pitched high by terror. “Hundreds?”

“We’re meat,” barked the man with augmented legs. “Experiments.”

“Now, now, be agreeable,” said the xenid encased in the brainpan of the mechanical skeleton. A vocal emitter parsed its speech into hollow units. The leggy creature splayed against the glass of its container. “Panic aids none but our captors.”

Nice to know some of this crowd was reasonable. Sentace braved another look down to find out what was terrifying criminals as sordid and bloodthirsty as these. Twilight illuminated the planet’s most surprising feature, one that Sentace’s homeworld shared: the surface was blistered with variously sized bubble universes. Some universes scooped into the planet itself, transforming chunks of it, others hovered over the surface like dewdrops, and many stuck together into foam clusters. More must have been buried or encapsulated by the megastructures and ruins. A few universes were skewered by scaffolding and walkways and tunnels. Others, dangerous, were left well alone.

Every universe—whose sizes here ranged from fist-size to small moons—was a space that differed from others with unique changes in physics, as if stepping into a slightly different version of the world. The rinds that separated universe spaces were energy membranes allowing anything to pass through… though not always safely.

Someone quavered, “What in mercy are those?”

Another chortled at them. “Oh, baby thing, you are in for a treat.”

Sentace’s heart skipped. This planet spelled death for anyone unfamiliar with universe bubbles. His home planet had thousands more universes on and around it than any comparable area of space he had learned of until this moment. This Casthen world had what looked like a hundred times more universes on it than Trow. With access to such a wealth of physical conditions, no wonder the Casthen were the heart of economic production, trade, and research in the multiverse, however profit-driven and immoral. And no wonder this Casthen stronghold’s whereabouts were so sensitive a secret that even a whisper of curiosity voiced at the edge of a galaxy could bring soldiers swarming in, as they’d done to him.

There was clearly more environment than the Casthen could explore or use. Occupied megastructure had dominated the dark side of the planet, while out here in the light, ancient architecture was devoured by jungle and sea, giant mountain ranges, distant hurricanes, and plains of building-tall fungal growth. A morbid fascination bubbled over Sentace’s fears, and even the dizzying height felt surreally interesting. A bird’s view of nature reborn from moldering civilizations.

The crowd’s reactions ranged from awe to dread. At the row’s end, a musical voice sang, “Bringing us out here… must be a research project too gruesome to house with other operations. Rare physics translation tests, or the like.”

Sentace was willing to bet on that. The prisoners hadn’t been killed outright, so they were headed into forced labor or to be used as a material.

“Translation?” said the fluffy white xenid named Chiidi, beside him. They gaped at the view. Poor thing must be unfamiliar with how universes worked.

The ship slowed over a landscape of cratered hills, close enough to make out herds of animals fleeing through orange copses of scrub brush and quartz pillars. Sentace tried to relax his tense muscles before the restraints pinched circulation. Lightheadedness blurred the view. The hopeful part of this predicament was that, for now, he was still on Evi’s trail, since she’d been headed to the Casthen and might be on this same planet’s dark side. Once he sent home proof of her death—the Trowan administration wouldn’t know if it was faked—he’d be liberated from his old government for good and able to disappear and start a new life.

A fully armored Casthen soldier entered from a door at the end of the bay. Their armor was strangely and intimidatingly mismatched, as if they’d torn the best off of everything, and instead of looking ramshackle they looked optimized. A smooth and mostly featureless mask in dark blue drew his eye up in ways he didn’t want.

Sentace inhaled deep to raise his voice and lie that he was with Evi Omai and this was all a misunderstanding, but the crowd began babbling at the same time.

“Shut it,” the soldier called, louder than the rabble. A material in their mask both amplified and deadened their voice.

Half the group quieted down.

“There’s an energy anomaly, out ‘ere, somewhere. We want it tracked.” The soldier held up a finger-length device like a rod of faceted diamond. “You all’ve been given a touchstone. It’ll glow the closer you get, and activates a beacon once completely charged. Set off the beacon and you’ve won. Winner gets to live. Winning’s the only way off this planet.”

Sentace glanced at the canyons passing below, dizzied by his fraying nerves. He breathed as deep as the chest bands allowed.

Winner gets to live.

The crowd rioted with fresh objections, to which the soldier added, “There can be only one winner, so don’t get friendly.”

The elder woman named Molinar hissed, “Asinine. Do you sincerely have no budget to find this anomaly yourself?”

Another, out of sight: “Nah, the anomaly’s a lie. They wanna watch us kill each other.”

More dissent heaped on. Most prisoners assumed they were going to be free-roaming test subjects. Sentace couldn’t argue with that… he wasn’t buying the setup of an anomaly interesting enough to seek out yet so uninteresting they would only use expendable resources to find it. He’d learned that the Casthen valued utility, could be heartless, that their operations often had little oversight from their leader Çydanza, and that they were rumored to engage in all manner of grotesque experimentation, treating bodies as raw substance.

Chiidi next to him stared at the forest below while wringing their tiny, spidery pink fingers. They murmured repeatedly, “My fur canno get wet.”

The poor creature didn’t fit with the rest of this trash. Neither did Sentace—he wasn’t morally gleaming, but Trowan life was so tightly controlled, it had no room for crime. He asked, “How’d you end up here?”

Their ears flared and their fur puffed on end. “Blew it up,” they squeaked happily. “Blew a lot of ’em up.”

A tiny saboteur, this Chiidi. The likes of Evi, able to take radical action. Sentace warmed to them immediately. There was a whiff of smoke in their fur, the scent burned into his memory along with the fiery silhouette of Evi Omai. She stood atop the steps of administration, still wearing a pilot’s neural halo around her head. She’d torn off her Trowan uniform, down to her undergarments, like shedding an old skin. Her hair was tied high in a long tail that reached her thighs, the mandated style for a woman of her age and position. She held it by the end, straight out to the side. A knife gleamed in her other hand as it sawed the tail short. If you’re going to rebel, do it all the way, eh? Wind full of fire sparks caught the liberated strands and whisked them away along with the years of history they contained, the legacy of Trow up in flames.

The dropship pulled down to a lush green lowland. Flocks of birds exploded off patches of berry canes, filling the air with wings.

Chiidi asked in turn, “Wha’s a chef doin’ ‘ere?”

As Sentace opened his mouth to reply, the passenger’s restraints at the head of his row disengaged and the person plummeted out the open belly of the ship. Their scream dopplered as they swept past.

Oh. Oh shit, they were being dropped dropped off.

Sentace shut his eyes but that let the vertigo loose. Everything spun, which was worse, so he gritted his teeth and stared straight down, letting his vision soften into a blear of colorful texture. As gorgeous universe bubbles and clusters passed by, Sentace tried to convince himself this was like home. This was his element. He pushed panic to the bottom of his mind and hushed it under a swell of confidence.

Some distance from the first, a second competitor was released. They flailed, which made their body whip end over end. The fall was a couple hundred meters at least.

One passenger was hooting, psyched up, loving this. Another raced through prayers at the top of their lungs. The skull-containered xenid with the mechanical body plumped a shock-absorbing material throughout its frame. Lucky.

Another release. They were going down the rows in order. Was it better to anticipate his turn, or not?

The next individual to fall was fully armored, but hit the domed membrane of a universe and incinerated while passing through, incompatible with the laws of physics inside.

No. Definitely better not to anticipate. Sentace’s heart jumped, pulse throttling his neck. He unfocused his eyes again and breathed. The unlucky person’s armor scattered to the swamp below. There was going to be a lot of luck involved from here on.

Poor Chiidi was next. They blinked a nictitating membrane over their eyes and trembled. The cradle opened with a snap. Chiidi’s long, skinny arms flared out. Their clawed hands hooked onto Sentace’s boots.

“Hey!” he cried while the xenid flapped beneath him, fur slicked smooth by wind.

Boom. Sentace’s release was detonation. Metal ruptured around his limbs. All sense of the ship ripped away as Sentace entered free fall.

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REVIEW: A Knight’s War

In A Knight’s War, an indie dark fantasy from director Matthew Ninaber, a knight is betrayed by his brother and enlists the help of a demon to track down the chosen one—a fiery haired young woman the entire kingdom has been trying to burn.

The first thing I’ll say about this production–that I think grimdark fans will really like–is that A Knight’s War has a brilliant gritty feel. The arms and armour are epic. the scenery gritty and gnarly. The movement between scenes and places, a fever dream of locales used to deliver the story. For the spectacle, alone, I tip my glass to Ninaber for the production quality–never an easy thing to achieve in such an ambitious indie fantasy film.

I also need to send some crisp high fives to A Knight’s War‘s costume and makeup design teams. The suits of armour are beefy. The demon characters, in particular, are utterly gorgeous.

The acting in A Knight’s War is pretty good for an indie film, but I do need to give a particular shout out to those behind the demon characters. They were absolutely amazing, and worth the price of admission alone. They are slick, and creepy, and powerful, and the costume, actors, and lighting delivers everything the CGI cannot.

The story has some … interesting choices, some pretty corny one liners, and a ham fisted ending but, again, for an indie film, as far as I’m concerned it kicks the kinds of goals I was hoping for. There are some nice twists and turns, and I was more than happy with my AU$6.99 price of admission.

There’s something that I love so much about indie projects, where people are just doing the thing they’re passionate about for the love of it—to build something awesome with every cent and skill and favour they can pour into it.

Gorgeously produced with demons that alone are worth the price of admission, A Knight’s War is a brutal tale of magic and trickery and betrayal that I thoroughly enjoyed.

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REVIEW: The Gryphon King by Sara Omer

Fantasy is mad, isn’t it. Take The Gryphon King, the first instalment in the new dark epic fantasy trilogy ‘The Chaos Constellation’, out from Titan on July 8. Only in such a genre can you go from reading about a blade-wielding princess on a carnivorous pegasus—in essence a flying murder horse—to being embroiled in the kind of intriguing court politics and plotting that requires 44 entries in the character glossary (I counted).

With this new series, debut author Sara Omer, on record as being inspired by previous epics such as George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books and Samantha Shannan’s Roots of Chaos duology, has decided she wants it all: the monsters, the myths, the court politics, the bi/sapphic/poly slow burn, the battles, the lengthy meal descriptions. But rather than collapsing under its own heady ambitions, The Gryphon King soars into the air like one of its murder horses, offering one of the most original and exhilarating fantasy experiences you’ll have this year.

The plot, heavily inspired by both the myths and history of Southwest Asia, particularly its Turkic peoples, concerns Bataar, known as the Gryphon King, so named after his unlikely defeat of a terrifying gryphon as a teenager which is described in a terrifically tense opening scene. In adult form he is an unstoppable conqueror whose armies expand across the continent, from the Red Steppe of his home to the mighty Ottoman-flavoured eastern kingdom of Dumakra. Despite his successful invasion of its capital, he must now contend with the harpy knights, the irrepressible daughters and attack guard of the previous ruler who ride the pegasuses you met in my opening paragraph. Nohra in particular seeks to get revenge on Bataar for her father’s death, but when monsters and plotters attack the kingdom, she must work together with her enemy while dealing with her mixed feelings for him.

One of the many impressive things about The Gryphon King is how the mix of monster-fighting action with royal court shenanigans is never jarring and balanced well. The monster scenes are electric and written with a kinetic sense of tension and violence any time the gryphons descend from the skies (other monsters of a demonic and seafaring nature also appear, thrillingly) and battle scenes are well-choregraphed awe-inducing spectacles—how can they not be with harpy knights on pegasuses swooping down with sickle blades on the infantry below?

The court scenes, meanwhile, are fascinating, particularly as this is not your old Western royal court but one inspired by the Ottoman harems, i.e. the Sultan’s royal family that included not just his multiple wives and their children but also his concubines and their children. These scenes are also enhanced by an admirable dedication to building the visual sense of an extravagant court life. A good example being one obsessively described meal featuring “cubes of jelly flavoured like roses and pomegranate […] covered in powdery sugar”, “orange yolks glistening in bread bowls full of melted cheese”, “cuts of lamb in a gingery sauce”, and “scoops of ice cream in copper bowls topped with chopped pistachio and drizzles of honey”, and… [okay Ed, we get it, you were hungry when you read that scene]. It’s not just food though; there is a rich tapestry of lore, inspired by Islamic and pre-Islamic mythology and religion. This is immersive epic fantasy.

But the characters in The Gryphon King are a success, too, thanks to a pleasing sense of moral ambiguity immersed with sensuality. Take the two POVs. Bataar is spurred on by the injustices meted out to his people and the wish for peace and a better world. But as usual with such world-conquering figures, bloodshed follows him, and his POV is a tantalising mix of kindness and intelligence with ruthless calculation. Pegasus-riding Nohra meanwhile is vengeance personified, an unstoppable force, yet Omer breaks down her barriers in brief but electric scenes of sapphic tension between her and Bataar’s wife Qaira, a slow burn plotline which will surely explode in book 2 and raises the possibility of an f/f/m poly situation, and if you’re confused at this point I have no doubt Omer is here to educate you. Sexuality is fluid, reflecting not just the historical reality of the empires that inspired this series—being straight, historically, is very late—but a desire to use these relationships to build character and subtlety and give us warmth amongst the darkness.

Overall, The Gryphon King is a majestic melting pot of monsters, Machiavellian moves, moral murkiness, and mouthwatering meals that is a fantastic advert for the power of immersive epic fantasy. A showstopping debut.

This article was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #43

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