Adrian Collins's Blog, page 96

REVIEW: The Roamers by Francesco Verso

In his new solarpunk novel, The Roamers, Italian science fiction author Francesco Verso envisions a future where nanotechnology can free humanity from the scourge of famine. The technological breakthrough is provided by nanites, nanorobotic devices that can enter the human body and fundamentally change its physiology, in this case providing the organic molecules necessary for metabolic functioning without the need for individuals to consume food. The nanites thus provide a pathway to eradicate starvation, obesity, and all food-borne illnesses, while also eliminating the negative environmental impact of industrialized farming and food production.

The focus of The Roamers is on the Pulldogs, a group of early adopters of nanite technology who seek to escape their urban lifestyle to create a sustainable nomadic society. The title of the book refers to both the home city of the Pulldogs (Rome) as well as their desire to roam the countryside, freed from the stresses of urban life.

There are several contradictions at the heart of Pulldog philosophy. Although they are enthusiastic adopters of nanite technology, at the same time they reject most other modern technological breakthroughs to live a barefooted, nomadic lifestyle. There is a cult-like quality to the Pulldog organization. Although their health and environment-related goals are certainly noble, they engage in several types of clandestine activities and behave in an overly antagonistic fashion toward the Italian authorities.

The Roamers thus presents the embrace of nanites as fuel for a hippie-like countercultural movement rather than part of mainstream society. The physiological transformation enabled by the nanites is undoubtedly a huge step forward, but in many ways it also sends the Pulldogs back in time.

Francesco Verso mines a great deal of philosophical depth in The Roamers, envisioning the next stages of human evolution to be no longer purely Darwinian but rather enhanced by nanotechnology. Hence, the evolutionary process would no longer be restricted to random genetic mutations, but rather a more intentional, accelerated progression through the fusion of biology with nanotechnology.

Francesco Verso also does an outstanding job imagining the social implications of such drastic change. The near-present-day setting of The Roamers only enhances this impact, making it relatable to our everyday experiences as readers.

The Roamers was originally published in Italian and is translated to English by Jennifer Delare. Delare’s translation feels natural and polished. Verso pulled me in from the first page, building the story based on interpersonal relationships with just the right level of scientific and philosophical musings, although at times the author leans a bit too much toward telling the reader information directly rather than showing us naturally through the story.

Overall, The Roamers is a highly original and thought-provoking take on the role of nanotechnology in biological augmentation and its impact on society. The future envisioned by this solarpunk novel is not the utopian ideal, but rather one full of moral complexity as exhibited by the Pulldogs. In the end, Francesco Verso shows that although technology can alter human physiology, it cannot change human nature itself.

4/5

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REVIEW: John Wick Chapter 4

John Wick: Chapter 4, as you may have guessed, is the fourth instalment in the franchise. If you’re already a fan of the franchise then you won’t be disappointed. Like its predecessors, it stars Keanu Reeves as the eponymous protagonist as he murders his way through what feels like every criminal in the world on his way to his goal. Each sequel has taken the action and the drama to new levels, and this one is no different.

John Wick: Chapter 4 seems to share more with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (what a mouthful) than it does either of the first two; if you thought Parabellum was epic, sprawling and grandiose then strap yourselves in for the ride because it only gets bigger. I imagine the mantra for this film was: ‘why not?’ Should we have a Samurai Duel? Why not? Should we have a horseback battle in the desert? Why not? Pistols at dawn? Why not? A story that travels to Osaka, Berlin, the Sahara Desert, Paris and NYC? Why Not?

The main antagonist in John Wick: Chapter 4 is the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, played by Bill Skarsgård, who represents the authority of the High Table. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects of Ian McShane, Lance Reddick (RIP), and Laurence Fishburne turn up. However, one of the highlights of the film are the new additions. Playing major roles in the story are Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind ‘retired’ assassin, and the ‘Tracker’ (Shamier Anderson), who is playing his own game (and has a dog, more on that later). In more secondary roles are Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama (in her film debut). All are excellent, but Skarsgård takes it for me (some accent quibbles notwithstanding). (I also applaud the costume department for killing it with his suit selection.)

Chad Stahelski returned to direct John Wick: Chapter 4 and he really flexes his muscles when it comes to the action set-pieces. With an eye-opening runtime of 169 minutes, the longest instalment by far, even the biggest action junkie should have their fix by the end. (Is it a coincidence that this is the first film without Derek Kolstad, the original creator, involved in the writing process?) There are some amazing top-down, long take shots in one of the sequences that had me gobsmacked. I’m not sure the action reaches the heights of Parabellum, but it definitely gets close.

For those that get a kick out of the increasingly bizarre mythology that comes out of this franchise, this delivers in spades. Where Parabellum had ‘deconsecrated’ and ‘adjudicators’, John Wick: Chapter 4 has ‘condemned’ and ‘harbingers’. It also introduces the ‘Old Ways’ in a way that is inscrutable and also suggests the ‘New Ways’ are less byzantine and bizarre.

It wouldn’t be a John Wick film without some pro-canine content. For those so inclined, I regret to inform you that John Wick’s pitbull is woefully under-represented in screentime in John Wick: Chapter 4. However, if you liked the badass dogs in Parabellum then I have good news for you. The Tracker (Shamier Anderson) is accompanied by a loyal and terrifyingly dangerous pup. This is pretty much the John Wick of dogs. I’m not joking. Watch the film and then come tell me I’m wrong.

Now, the movie isn’t perfect. It’s a bit light on story (even for John Wick) and long gone is the emotional weight of the original. Is it a tad too long? Perhaps; although, I found the time flew by. Is Keanu more wooden than usual? Maybe. But you don’t watch these movies to see him delivering well-crafted dialogue. You watch them for slick action-sequences and to see John Wick take apart his enemies in increasingly impressive fashion. And it absolutely delivers.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is a great entry in the franchise and I can assure you it is worth seeing in the cinema. Every punch, kick, gunshot, and car crash is better on the big screen with wall-to-wall sound. I was lucky enough to see it with a vocal and enthusiastic crowd. It really added to the experience.

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REVIEW: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

The Scourge Between Stars is the debut sci-fi horror by Ness Brown, an astrophysics graduate student and former astronomy instructor. Earth has become uninhabitable due to the unmitigated environmental damage of modern human civilization, and repairing the damage to Earth has been deemed too difficult compared to establishing civilization elsewhere. However, an attempt to colonize a faraway planet has also proved unsuccessful. Now the starship Calypso is headed back to Earth in a final effort to save the last of humanity.

Jacklyn Albright is the acting captain of Calypso, filling the role vacated by her incapacitated father, who remains locked in his quarters, unresponsive to the needs of the crew. Jacklyn is left to face an increasingly dire situation with insufficient food and a growing threat of mutiny. But a new and harrowing threat arises when crew members are found murdered in gruesome fashion, purportedly by a hostile alien on board the ship.

The emergence of this sinister lifeform is a scientific breakthrough, the first proof of extraterrestrial life and therefore worthy of study. However, it is also a menace to everyone aboard the Calypso spacecraft, so the crew must debate about whether the alien should be destroyed or preserved for scientific posterity.

Jacklyn Albright is an outstanding character who endeavors to provide steady and capable leadership in a role abdicated by her reticent father. The rest of the crew make for a great supporting cast, especially the android Watson, whose loyalties operate in a gray area.

Ness Brown’s writing is compulsively readable, and her fast-paced plot kept me flipping through the pages of this short novel. The Scourge Between Stars is a well-written debut, despite several awkward word choices scattered throughout the novel which could be polished with a bit of additional editing.

Notwithstanding the strong cast of characters, The Scourge Between Stars is fundamentally a plot-driven novel. Unfortunately, the plot itself is largely a retelling of the classic space horror Alien, with Jacklyn Albright playing the role of Ellen Ripley. In that sense, The Scourge Between Stars is quite predictable, complete with the initial discovery of alien eggs and the one-by-one gorefest of weary crew members returning to Earth. The main plot twist near the end of the novel would also benefit from further development.

While I enjoyed the characters and the setup of The Scourge Between Stars, the horror elements were not developed well enough to leave a lasting impression. The novel would have benefitted from being more thoroughly fleshed out, with emphasis on providing greater deviation from the familiar plot points of Alien.

Nevertheless, fans of space horror will find much to enjoy in The Scourge Between Stars as Jacklyn leads the crew of the Calypso against an existential extraterrestrial threat. Ness Brown shows promise with her debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from this talented new author.

3/5

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REVIEW: Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Multi-faceted, creative powerhouse Leopoldo Gout’s latest novel Piñata is a visceral possession story that brings together supernatural and real life horrors with a keen look at the brutal legacy of colonial violence that persists today.

Described as “A Head Full of Ghosts meets Hereditary”, Piñata follows Carmen Sanchez and her two daughters; Izel, the slightly surly teen, and Luna, the wide-eyed 11-year old open and full of wonder for the world around her. Carmen is an architect from New York working on-site at a project in Mexico refurbishing and repurposing an old church into a luxury hotel. Izel and Luna are along for the ride over summer vacations as Carmen hopes they can connect to their heritage through immersion in the local culture.

What begins as a hopeful quest for exploring their identities quickly becomes a tense nightmare as Luna is targeted by dark and hungry forces intent on bringing about the end of the world. After local Nahua woman, Yoltzi, tries to warn Carmen of the danger Luna is in, things begin to unravel until an accident at the work site means the Sanchezes have to head back to New York.

Heading home is not the end of their troubles as the worst is yet to come for this small family with visions, accidents and misfortune falling on them at every turn. Luna is almost entirely consumed by the ancient spirits intent on using her as a portal into the physical realm. Piñata is full of dark imagery that pulls at the sanity of its characters and, if one word could describe it, that would be ominous.

The story pulls you in different directions; for all that you want Luna and her family to survive, Piñata has been framed in such a way that you can empathise with these spirits trying to exact their revenge on the colonisers who tortured and slaughtered their people centuries ago. These spirits aren’t strictly framed as ‘evil’, and even try to protect Luna from bullies at school; their revenge feels justifiable, which adds something more complex to your average possession story.

Piñata also delves into cultural erasure as a key theme; the concept of a piñata itself being formed through stages of cultural erasure, the Nahua culture erased by colonisers, Mexican culture being erased by widespread violence, and the culture of the Sanchezes themselves seen in Carmen putting up a façade to make herself palatable in corporate America, or Izel wanting to change her name to something “normal”.

This was an excellent read, well written and executed with dark, visceral themes, imagery, and events. Piñata is a hall of mirrors, reflecting back on itself and its themes throughout to superb effect. The tension is maintained right to the end and even down to the last 20 pages it is difficult to tell which way the ending will go. A tight and vibrant horror novel that will keep you thinking.

4/5

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REVIEW: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

A Day of Fallen Night is Samantha Shannon’s standalone prequel to her acclaimed feminist fantasy, The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Shannon introduces us to an entirely new cast of characters in A Day of Fallen Night, which takes place about 500 years before the events of Priory. As in Priory, Shannon excels at creating a strong cast of female characters with excellent queer representation.

The three lead protagonists represent each major region of the world—East, West, and South—which have very different religions, political structures, and cultures. In the East, the mountain-dwelling Dumai trains as a godsinger, establishing a connection between humankind and the dragons that her society worships. In the West, Glorian is the young heir to the queendom of Inys who struggles with her royal calling. In the South, Tunuva is a warrior from the mysterious Priory of the Orange Tree, a religious organization who follow the Mother and are committed to defeating the Nameless One, an enormous fire-breathing dragon.

While Samantha Shannon already shined at creating strong, emotionally complex female leads in The Priory of the Orange Tree, the male characters were underdeveloped by comparison. In A Day of Fallen Night, Shannon avoids this problem by introducing Wulf, a young man from the North who becomes the fourth main protagonist in the second part of the book. Wulf strives to find his calling in a world that underestimates him, proving to be a multidimensional character every bit as compelling as the three female leads.

The main story of A Day of Fallen Night concerns the reawakening of an ancient evil and its impact on each of our main protagonists and their respective lands. Through it all, Shannon keeps returning to two main themes: the importance of finding oneself and the power of love in all its forms. The author proves especially adept at depicting relationships among her characters, including several queer relationships.

The main problem with A Day of Fallen Night is its inconsistent pacing. After an exceptionally slow start, the plot sputters in fits and starts but never rises to the same level of intensity as in The Priory of the Orange Tree. Every time I felt like the story was gaining traction, it would be interrupted by an ill-timed chapter break and associated change in perspective. Rather than sequencing chapters to help build momentum or reinforce certain aspects of the story, the alternating perspectives give the novel a disjointed feel, compromising the flow of the story.

The latter part of the book becomes more exciting as the paths of our protagonists intersect. However, the payoff is not commensurate with the long time invested to reach that point. The ending of the book features several plot twists, but most of these were rather predictable.

Given that both The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night are standalone novels set in the same world, which book is the better place to start? Readers who prefer chronological order should start with A Day of Fallen Night, but otherwise my recommendation is to begin with The Priory of the Orange Tree, which offers a more accessible introduction to the world and a more engaging story.

Overall, A Day of Fall Night is a beautifully written epic fantasy full of nuanced character development, but it suffers from disjointed flow and fails to deliver a story that justifies its 880-page girth.

3/5

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REVIEW: Cold West by Clayton Snyder

Cold West begins as a story of loss and resolve. A weird west story set within a dying wasteland, full of the ruthless and the uncanny. A world where magic births chaos. Clayton Snyder’s Cold West fires on all cylinders.

As a former bounty hunter, Wil Cutter paved his legacy by blood. He was the unrelenting. A professional killer. When he met Ginny, he buried his past. He traded his guns for a plow and a family. And then Ginny died. His farm failing and having no cash to feed his two boys, Wil is left with little choice but to take another contract. There is a path and his family. He’ll destroy all else. He’ll learn he never should have returned to the fold.

“What will they say about me when I’m gone, then? Not much, likely. He was a bastard and a liar. A rotten thief. A killer. But mostly I was fed up. And a fed-up man’s got a lot of moral leeway.”

While action-packed, Cold West is about Wil’s inner journey. We are given flashbacks of Wil and Ginny’s courtship. Ginny’s love had saved him. Now her death threatens to corrupt him beyond salvation.

However, Clayton Snyder doesn’t confine Cold West to a tragic love story. Wil Cutter’s quiet reflection on his life and his cruel justifications for his actions are harrowing. His perspective is damning but offers an intelligent perception about his world.

“I’d never been a good man, so when Ginny’d come along, I’d tried all that much harder to be. Lesser concerns didn’t trouble me on that path. Things like others standing in the way. Though, that had never been the heaviest weight on my shoulders.”

The Waste in Cold West harbors strange magic. Wil Cutter is a Null, someone who can create tunnels through the Empyrean and open gates to other dimensions. This magic reminds me as a cross between The Misery from The Raven’s Mark and the Warrens in Malazan.

Weird West is one of my favorite subgenres. Given this subgenre’s hybrid nature, no two stories are very similar. Everything from HBO’s West World to Mad Max, Papa Lucy and the Boneman to The Songs of Sefate, they all spin their own unique take on western stories. I love seeing the typical West landscape transform into extraordinary nightmare. Cold West is a tribute to fantastical worldbuilding.

Cold West is an action-packed fusion of horror, dark fantasy, and the wild west. The waste territory in Clayton Snyder’s novel is delightfully hellish. His characters equally so. I hope Clayton Snyder returns to this world.

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An Interview With Mia Tsai

Taiwanese American author Mia Tsai just released her first novel, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy titled Bitter Medicine. It combines myth, religion, and magic with a splash of romance into an engaging story that I believe even the darkest grimdark readers will enjoy. Mia was kind enough to chat with me about some of her writing inspirations, the concept of code-switching, and how her varied language background influenced her writing. 

[GdM] Is there any part of the process of writing a book that you especially like?

Editing! The good stuff happens in editing, though occasionally I’ll have a nice moment during drafting when I look at what I just wrote and go, “Huh, not bad.” Taking the raw material and shaping it is what I really enjoy, even if sometimes the edits are tough and involve significant rewrites. I’m just not a fan of drafting, so the happiest place for me is in line edits.

[GdM] As a professed plant geek myself, tell me about orchids. Which ones are your favorite and why?

My personal favorite is the miltoniopsis, which is the first species I was able to keep alive at home. They’re such great indoor plants that don’t require a ton of care once you find the right light conditions, and a lot of them are lightly fragrant and flower consistently once a year for at least a month at a time. They’re not really trendy, but they’re really steadfast and a joy to look at. I also like dendrobiums a lot—there’s just so much variety with dendrobiums, and a lot of the dendrobium nobiles are fragrant, so you can pick up a bunch of dendrobiums and miltoniopses and have a lovely little garden going.

But I think all orchids are super cool, especially the ones that have evolved little moving parts to attract their pollinators, like bulbophyllums. There’s a bulbophyllum, bulbophyllum graveolens, that has this jiggly red tongue to attract its pollinator, which is a type of fly. It also smells gross, like stale water. I also appreciate the orchids that tape their seed pods to whatever touches the trigger hairs! The glue is pretty strong.

[GdM] Please tell us a bit about your new novel, Bitter Medicine.

Bitter Medicine is an adult contemporary fantasy with romance that has a magic system that’s been inspired by xianxia. So in addition to the flying around that you can get with wuxia, you have a character who can imbue calligraphy with her energy to transform the words into the meaning of the words, who’s able to use traditional Chinese medicine to a degree we aren’t capable of in the real world, who can summon fire, et cetera.

The novel is a romance between our two main characters, but they’re so entangled in their own personal conflicts—Elle with her family, Luc with his incredibly demanding job—that it’s hard to find the space for a relationship, let alone a romance with someone who is likely into you but can’t say it.

[GdM] How did you decide on the title Bitter Medicine?

The original title when I first started querying was A Brush with Love, but it was rightly pointed out to me that it sounded like a dentistry rom-com. So I went back to the drawing board and did a word cloud and after some light agonizing, decided Bitter Medicine was a much better encapsulation of the themes in the novel and was better able to hint at Elle’s roots, being a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine and all.

[GdM] Bitter Medicine is your first novel. What has the publishing experience been like from start to finish?

It’s been a lot of waiting interspersed with heart attacks. That’s one of the worst parts, the waiting. There will be months where nothing happens on your end and nothing is in your control, and it takes some time to reconcile that. It also takes time to internalize how impersonal the feedback you get is, sometimes. Rejections aren’t direct attacks, they’re just vibe checks you failed. And I still get rejected quite often, so I keep that muscle strong.

I’ve been very fortunate to have a pretty smooth publishing journey; I haven’t struggled too much but for the waiting! I’m already an editor, so taking edits wasn’t too difficult. I thought I’d be anxious for launch, and I was, but I calmed down before it and it’s been a good, positive experience.

[GdM] The world you created is so fascinating. It is a combination of myth, religion, and magic. What was the catalyst for the world?

My student had lost a tooth, and I asked if the tooth fairy was coming. Now, my student is first-generation Indian American, so it’s not guaranteed that a tooth fairy will show up at all, and my student said she didn’t. I joked that she must have had a sick day, which then kicked off the idea of the fairy temp agency.

I did then start wondering whether other cultures had any lost tooth traditions, and as it turns out, they do! There are tooth mice, for example. So of course, in the fairy temp agency, the world needed to be expanded so temps could fill niches internationally, and soon I had a globe-spanning agency with boards of directors for each continent and a foundation for many, many stories.

[GdM] Tell me about Luc’s and Elle’s characters. What are they like, and how did they develop that way?

They sort of appeared the way they are! I like characters who are a little goofy and silly, and Elle is definitely that, despite being well over a hundred years old. Maturity-wise, she’s in her thirties, so she’s very capable at doing Adult Things like holding down her job, paying her bills on time, handling the small mundanities of grown-up life. But she also likes being lighthearted and is a curious person. And by curious I mean a person who has retained her curiosity and not a person who is curious and odd, though she can be that sometimes. The levity is important to have for someone in her situation. She’s definitely the kind to break tension with a bad joke, and she hates it when other people are fighting. She’d rather everyone get along or work out their problems in a non-contentious way.

Luc is someone who, if you looked in the dictionary to find the definition of serious, you’d see his picture there. I always thought of him as impassive but secretly caring; the stoicism and ability to compartmentalize, sometimes to the detriment of his emotional health, was necessary for the job I gave him. He’s long-lived as well and has kind of a hectic career, so he’s more the type to slow down when he’s not working, to relax at home and enjoy the pleasures of life, whether that’s good food and drink or sleeping in half the day.

[GdM] There is a beautiful lightness to the romance in Bitter Medicine. It feels effortless. Did the lightness between Elle and Luc develop organically?

It did, surprisingly! I’m not much of a plotter when it comes to writing. I’ll use tentpoles to get through the story once I figure the characters out, but the first step is to figure out the characters. The best way for me to do that is to throw them into a room and see what happens. To my delight, Elle brought out a humor in Luc that I hadn’t planned for, and when he’s around, she’s able to reach the harmony and lightheartedness that she values.

Elle uses a logographic magic system which seems like dancing when employed. How do you imagine Elle’s movements? Was it akin to dancing or painting? Do you have a reference book of glyphs for Elle?

It’s definitely painting. I did Chinese brush painting as a kid, so all the ink grinding and prepping for painting is taken directly from my sense memories. Calligraphers are magical to me in that they have to be in the correct mindset and confident in their movements prior to painting a character, and any hesitation ruins it. It’s like a performance; the show must go on. I watched a lot, and I mean a lot of calligraphy videos on YouTube to observe how different each artist is.

I don’t have a reference book of glyphs because some of them are simply Chinese characters, but I do have reference books for the etymology of Chinese characters, which was necessary because Elle is armed with that knowledge and can change how her magic manifests by using different scripts and characters from across Chinese history.

[GdM] Can you explain code-switching and how you used that in the novel?

Code-switching is the ability to go in and out of different languages or dialects as you’re speaking to someone who also understands the languages or dialects you’re using. Sometimes, the other language just conveys the meaning better, or you yourself speak differently when you’re using the other language. It’s a daily part of life for a great many people on this planet, including for the characters in Bitter Medicine, who mostly speak English as a second (or third, fourth, fifth, you get the idea) language.

The characters code-switch for multiple reasons, one of which is so that another character can’t understand them. I think most people feel that’s why others will speak in another language, even if that’s not true. The characters also code-switch to purposely bring up memories, as language is intimately tied to time and place, and to express sentiments that English can’t. And of course, the characters will code-switch with each other because they’re most comfortable in a non-English language and that’s the language they reach for first.

[GdM] In the afterword of Bitter Medicine, you spoke about language. Could you elaborate on that? You came from a varied language background; how did that influence your writing?

It’s true that I’ve had lots of experience with languages I don’t understand being spoken around me! I was born in New York City and for a time lived in Brooklyn, so the languages I heard were English and Hebrew, with Mandarin at home. I don’t think there’s ever been an extended period of time when I wasn’t being exposed to languages I didn’t understand—I listened to a lot of international music growing up, including Japanese rock, which I never fully understood but liked anyway. I sang a lot in other languages for choir and had to relearn Mandarin when I was in Taiwan. And they code-switch willy-nilly over there; you can be having a conversation in Mandarin and the other person will switch to Taiwanese Hokkien or start heading that direction by altering their Mandarin accent to get closer and closer to Taiwanese.

So I didn’t really have to think about including it in a contemporary, international story of my own making. It was just there because I do it myself. It’s not a conscious decision to go from thinking in English to thinking in Mandarin, for example. And I long ago learned that language choice is about the speaker’s comfort, not the listener’s, so if you’re eavesdropping on a conversation that isn’t in a language you understand and you get upset that they won’t speak X language, that’s more on you than anything else.

[GdM] I read your blog post about the decolonization of science fiction and fantasy and found it fascinating. “Did it mean consciously removing colonialist and imperialist thinking? Did it mean exploring non-three-act structures and educating Westerners on what they were, their history, and what to expect? Did it mean creating fiction set in post-colonial worlds?” How does this idea of decolonization relate to Bitter Medicine?

I think the most decolonial thing about Bitter Medicine is the code-switching without translation, or maybe the parts where I decline to explain in excrutiating detail what certain cultural elements are. Otherwise, it’s built on a pretty colonial world! English is the lingua franca, with Mandarin close behind; Western systems really dominate. Even the two-act structure I use in Bitter Medicine comes from Western art, like musicals and operas. I’m not saying that being expressly anti-Western is what it takes to be decolonial, though. There’s plenty of colonial and imperialist thinking in non-Western countries. I am saying we should examine ourselves and figure out whether our expectations in fiction come from a colonial mindset, where things exist to be explained or conquered instead of being left to exist without interrogation.

[GdM] You write like someone who loves books. Who is in your bookcase?

I do love books! My bookshelf at home is mostly fantasy, nonfiction, and reference, with some poetry. So I’ve got Robin Hobb on the shelf, a lot of Garth Nix, Anthony Bourdain books, Toni Morrison, orchid care books, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and multiple other mythology books, and my favorite young adult and middle grade books from when I was growing up. At the studio, I curate a 90% BIPOC collection, so it’s a mix of contemporary and speculative fiction in the adult and young adult categories, some early readers and picture books for my students, plus a lot of music scores.

[GdM] What is next for you! Please tell me there is a sequel in the works with Elle’s brother!

I’d love to tell you that The Book of Tony is coming, but alas, I cannot! I’ve got an adult science fantasy on submission right now called KEY & VALE, which is about an anthropologist with the ability to experience epigenetic memories whose job it is to find lost knowledge and bring it back to the Museum of Human Memory and what happens when she finds a memory that calls into question everything she’s on which she’s built her paradigm. I also have a number of other projects in early development and I can’t decide which one to work on! Maybe I’ll just take a break for a couple of weeks.

READ BITTER MEDICINE BY MIA TSAI

 

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REVIEW: Dungeons and dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves made me tear up a bit at the end. It was an involuntary reaction, I certainly didn’t intend for it to happen, but it’s something that occurred nevertheless. Against my better judgement, I came to care about these characters and whether they managed to make it through the end of the movie. So, in the words of Rick and Morty, “You son of a bitch, I’m in.”

The movie isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it is recognizably and explicitly Dungeons and Dragons. Which is a harder thing to embody than many people might think. Dungeons and Dragons isn’t a setting by itself but a method of creating and playing a setting. This is the problem of previous adaptations because you can play any fantasy setting with D&D rules but you can’t just say, “Dungeons and Dragons is the setting.” Here, it’s the Forgotten Realms and I kind of wish they’d called it Forgotten Realms or Neverwinter Nights because either of those titles would have been appropriate as well.

Energy-wise, this is a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie for better and worse. I honestly compare this most to Paul Rudd’s Ant Man movie in terms of rough mixture between family melodrama, quips, and action. Well, this has a lot more dragons in it and I’ll give that is an impressive boost over Ant Man. It’s a movie about a failed father trying to reconnect with his daughter, a heist, and an oddball crew of misfits. So let’s say Ant Man meets Guardians of the Galaxy meets dragons. Which, yes, is probably why I love this movie against my better judgement. Neither of those films are my favorite Marvel films but throw in an owlbear and the Red Wizards of Thay? Yeah, now we’re cooking with fireballs.

The premise is somewhat overly complicated at the start with, essentially, an entire movie’s worth of backstory in the prologue that could have been the first part of a trilogy. Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) is a Harper who turns to thievery after his do-goodery gets his wife killed by the Red Wizards. He ends up as heterosexual but platonic partners with Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) and raises his daughter, Kira, with her. Hearing there’s a magical tablet that can raise his wife from the dead, Edgin robs the Harpers and gets sent to magical prison with Holga when the heist goes wrong. They break out and decide to get Kira back from their partner who, obviously, betrayed them but is raising the girl as his own.

This is just the prologue.

The movie is mostly a heist film with our leads recruiting bumbling sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and kickass Tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) to help take down Lord Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant) as well as his Red Wizard partner Sofina (Daisy Head). They go from action scene and comedy scene to action scene to comedy scene with the movie never really taking a break. Some of the comedy is stupid like a scene where they waste their Speak with the Dead questions while other comedy is stupid but entertaining as hell (Holga’s ex being a halfling? Eh. Holga’s ex taking up with another Amazonian barbarian? HILARIOUS).

The movie is utterly drenched with fanservice and you’ll be unable to turn off your brain from the, “I recognize that, they said the thing, I recognize that, reference to that thing I know!” Memberberries (i.e. things you remember from your childhood) are a pretty low form of humor perfected by Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Iron Man but it works on the nerd side of my brain. When they mention Simon is Elminster’s descendant, I went, “Yeah, him and half of Faerun” and realized they’d gotten me.

I feel almost bad about how mad I am for unabashedly loving this movie. I am deeply cynical about Hasbro’s handling of D&D and mad at them for a dozen things ranging from the OGL to the novels being abandoned. However, this movie has an morbidly obese red dragon, the cast of the Eighties Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, and Szass Frigging Tam (who is the villain of my current D&D campaign).

What am I supposed to do with that? I can’t stay mad at a movie trying this hard to entertain me. The cast is a bunch of bumbling misfits and everyone looks like an idiot but Doric (Michelle Rodriguez gets a lot of mileage out of being a dumb barbarian), yet I can’t complain about that since it’s my style of humor too.

They’re also competent when it counts. I even like Hugh Grant in this as he basically shows what he would have been like if he’d play Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. Literally my only complaints are the fact that I wasn’t aware Faerun was enlightened enough to have prisons with a healthy pardon system and the fact movie dragged in literally two places.

See the film.

The post REVIEW: Dungeons and dragons: Honor Among Thieves appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.

An Interview With Laurell K. Hamilton

If you have been an urban fantasy reader in the last thirty years, you will have heard of Laurell K. Hamilton. Hamilton’s first novel Nightseer, a stand-alone, was published in 1992. However, since then, her massive influence on the culture of urban fantasy cannot be overstated. She is one of the queens of urban fantasy and in her 29th book Smolder coming out later this month, the eponymous Anita Blake, a vampire hunter, private eye, and necromancer working in St. Louis, feels like she is just getting started. 

There is a definite darkness in the Anita Blake books, so if you want your urban fantasy to have a rawer edge, look no further. 

Hamilton had a lovely chat via email with me, where we discussed her newest novel, Smolder. 

[GdM] I read Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard was the short story that put you on the road to being a writer. Is that true?

Answer: Almost, I already knew I wanted to be a writer, but reading this anthology made me decide that I wanted to be a writer of  fantasy, dark fantasy, heroic fantasy and horror. I’d written several stories but never finished one until after I read these stories, then I started a new story and finished it. It was horror and from that point on I never looked back.

[GdM] At its heart, Anita Blake is a hard-boiled detective fiction. Have you always gravitated toward these kinds of novels? Were you reading hard-boiled detective novels as a child?

Answer: I actually didn’t read much mystery until I was in college. I didn’t fall in love with hard-boiled detective novels until I graduated and moved to Los Angeles. We’d moved there because my first husband had gotten a great job offer. It took me longer to find a job, so I used the local library a lot. I discovered Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series first, which led me to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I wondered if there were any female writers or detectives in the genre and found Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone  and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski. This was the 1980s so they were pretty much it for women in the field.

[GdM] Have you ever thought about going back to Nightseer and writing a second book?

Answer: I have, and if Nightseer had sold well enough for my publisher to want to publish the second book and then help me finish the series I might never have written the first Anita Blake novel and jump started the career I have today. Ironically my current publisher bought my first publisher so I might still get a chance to finish the series someday.

[GdM] You are a practitioner of Filipino Martial arts. Has your martial arts education helped you write fight scenes? If so, how?

Answer: Absolutely. In research I always find that if I can do even some of the physicality of what I’m writing that I learn things I could never have learned by reading or interviewing people about a topic. But FMA in particular is a combat arts system not a martial arts system made for tournaments. It’s helped me look at blade work and fighting in general in a way that no other system I’ve tried over the years ever has. I was good at fight scenes before, but my seven years in FMA has helped me reach deeper on paper and off.

[GdM] As a long-time reader of your novels, you unflinchingly create characters that deal with various forms of mental illness. Your audience can always look at your characters and feel seen. How have you approached the representation of mental illness in your stories? Do you ensure accuracy through research, sensitivity readers, or other means?

Answer: I’ve been in therapy off and on for decades, so some of it is personal experience. Researching to understand my issues and my family’s issues led me to research other things. I have also had the honor of people sharing their own painful truths with me. All of that has made Anita and the characters in her world richer and more real than they would have been without it.

[GdM] The expression of characters’ sexuality is something you have always written about that feels open and honest. Has the way you approached sex scenes and sensuality changed between the first novel and now, and if so, how?

Answer: When I started writing the series my plan was to have every kiss, every caress so amazing that we wouldn’t need to ever complete the act. What actually happened was that I built up the anticipation higher and higher so when it came to the point where Anita was finally ready to have full blown sex I had to live up to all the amazing foreplay. I was incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of doing it on paper, but I’d written crime scenes and fight scenes with extreme violence in them and not hesitated. The fact that sex between two people that cared about each other bothered me more than writing violent murder made me question my priorities. Was sex really worse than violence? No, no it wasn’t, but in America we’re conditioned that it is, and once I realized where the bias came from I was determined not to be trapped by it. I promised myself that every sex scene would be as well written and unflinching as my murder scenes had been. I think I’ve kept that promise to myself and to my readers.

[GdM] Anita and Merry have very different attitudes. Do you need to be in a specific mind frame to write them?

Answer: Not different mind frames, but I have to work to find their individual voices. My newest protagonist Zaniel Havelock was even more of a challenge because he was my first male first person narrator. At least with Anita and Merry they are both female and smaller like myself, but for Zaniel I had to explore a new world from the viewpoint of  a man who was 6’ 3” a foot taller than Anita and myself, and thirteen inches taller than Merry. Not to mention all the rest of the differences.

[GdM] One of the most exciting things for me as a reader of the Anita series is its freshness. Due to the large cast, most characters will eventually have their day in the sun. There are no minor characters; you just haven’t gotten to them yet. Is this one of the ways in how you keep Anita speaking to you as an author?

Answer: I think it is one way I stay fascinated with the world and the characters. I coined the term minor major characters for the larger cast, because every one of them is a new world to explore and add to the existing one.

[GdM] Can you tell us about your newest entry in the Anita Blake series, Smolder?

Answer: I’m really bad at talking about a book without giving too much away, but I’ll do my best. We learn more about Anita’s family and her relationship with them than ever before. We get insight into why she’s never visited them on stage in any book. A major new threat is introduced that will challenge Jean-Claude and Anita as never before. It will force them to reach out for help to an old ally that hasn’t been center stage in the books in a long time. We will see the first of the wedding outfits on stage. We add new world building for my vampires and expand on my magic system in general. We have a first in the Anitaverse for mythology. It was so new that I didn’t include a bibliography in the back of Smolder because I thought it would give the surprise away.

[GdM] Who is Anita now in book 29 versus who she was when she started?

Answer: Anita started out as Episcopalian, nearly celibate and looking for Mr. Right, monogamy, raising zombies as her main job, and being a supernatural consultant for the police. She believed utterly that vampires were walking corpses and that it wasn’t murder to kill one. The last line of the first book, Guilty Pleasures, summed it up, “I don’t date vampires, I kill them.” In the twenty-ninth book, Smolder Anita is still Episcopalian, but almost everything else has changed. Raising zombies has become her part time job, because she’s now a US Marshal with the Preternatural Branch of the regular US Marshal Service. She’s polyamorous and part of a large, complicated poly group that includes women as well as men. All the members of the group are either shapeshifters or vampires. In fact she’s engaged to be married to Jean-Claude, the newly proclaimed vampire King of America. Some fans keep asking if marriage will suddenly make Anita and Jean-Claude monogamous, but they are polyamorous and that won’t change just because of a wedding.

[GdM] How would you describe Anita’s relationship with her father?

Answer: I can’t really answer that without giving too much away. Let’s just say, it’s a rocky relationship.

[GdM] Is there a happily ever after for Anita? Her story seems ever-evolving.

Answer: I think where most stories end with their happily ever after is where real life happily ever after begins. That’s what I believe in real life and that’s how I write my fiction.

[GdM] Is there any news on a new Merry book?

Answer: I’ve started making notes on it, and building the plot on paper.

Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series; Zaniel Havelock series; and the Merry Gentry series. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family. Learn more online at www.laurellkhamilton.com.

READ SMOLDER BY LAURELL K. HAMILTON

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Classical Mythology Inspired Fiction: Where to Start Reading

Over the last few years, stories inspired by mythology have become an integral part of fiction, spawning off a sub-genre of retellings. Personally, I’m here for all of them and have been devouring any and all I’ve been able to get my hands on – but if you haven’t, where to start? I’ve sat down with the team and put together a list of great books to start reading stories based on Classical mythology! This is the first part of a multi-part series on books inspired by myths and legends, with Arthurian novels to follow next.

 

Circe

Madeleine Miller is the original queen of this wave of retellings. Her The Song of Achilles and Circe are classics for a reason – and especially Circe is a brilliant story giving a woman agency rather than being a footnote in someone else’s story. Circe had always been fascinating to me through her small role in the Odyssey and reading this when it came out some years ago is what drew me to retellings. A must-read if you’re getting into retellings!

Read Circe by Madeline Miller

Stone Blind

Medusa might be my favourite female figure from Greek myth. And she has absolutely no time for the mediocre men who make her life a mess – and Natalie Haynes’ Stone Blind nails that sentiment. Told partially by the Gorgoneion – Medusa’s slayed head – Stone Blind has the advantage of hindsight and a snarky narrator who takes no shit. It is compelling and thoroughly feminist. A true story of the gods’ whims and how they favour undeserving mortals and the impact this has on the women around them.

Read Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

Clytemnestra

Constanza Casati’s Clytemnestra is a fascinating portrayal of one of the most complex human women in Classical mythology. A fiercely loving mother, ultimately killed by her own children in a series of revenge acts. This take on her story is written in brilliant prose, taking the reader through Clytemnestra’s life from childhood to the more famous parts and creates a multi-layered anti-hero to root for. The pacing is just right and tension is kept up so well in this, I flew through it and need more. One that stands out from the market – see our full review here.

Read Clytemnestra by Constanza Casati

Ariadne / Elektra / Atalanta

Jennifer Saint has become a cult favourite among lovers of mythological fiction over the last few years. And rightfully so. Her novels are strong, well-paced and compelling. Ariadne is a new take on what happens to the titular character after she is abandoned by Theseus – because who needs weak men like him? – and was a true pleasure to read in a single sitting. Elektra takes the reader on a journey to discover the lives of three women – Elektra, her mother Clytemnestra, and Cassandra, the Trojan princess brought back by her father as his spoils of war. I am looking forward to reading Atalanta when it comes out this spring – I’m sure it will be just as compelling and full of morally complex female characters!

Read Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

The Wolf Den trilogy

Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den series isn’t quite a mythological retelling in the traditional sense. But it is set in Pompeii around the legendary Lupinarium – the titular Wolf Den and its brothel. And that makes it fair game to join this list to me – because this series is great and deserves all the love. Amara, the main character is a prostitute, a slave at the Lupinarium, brought there from Greece. She works hard to find a way out of slavery for herself. It is fascinating to see Pompeii come to life – a place I have always been fascinated by – and to meet so many fleshed out characters, both new and familiar from the pages of history. Read the full review of book one here – and look out for book three later this year!

Read The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

The Silence of the Girls / The Women of Troy

On the more literary end of the list, Pat Barker’s novels, The Silence of the Girls and the follow-up, The Women of Troy, are brilliant contenders to round off this list. While most stories and retellings focus on Helen – who I find to be a hugely over-rated character, especially as her importance is due to her looks alone making her a plaything of the gods – this instead is centred on Briseis. Trojan princess captured by the Greeks, Barker explores her life and the moral conundrums she faces as a slave in the enemy camp right outside her beleaguered home. These novels are slower than others on this list, but more introspective and pack no less of a punch.

Read The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Bonus: Lore Olympus

I decided to add Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus on as a bonus rather than a part of the list itself as it is on the fluffier end of interpretations of Classical mythology. A webtoon comic, it is available online here as well as in a printed edition published by Del Rey. A semi-modern take on the legend of Hades and Persephone, this is a story of love, toxic relationships and the gods we all love to hate. I adore the very limited colour palette, which makes this visually unique. Delightfully gossipy and a favourite of the team!

Read Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

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