Scott Batson's Blog, page 2

Diversity Rescued the X-Men Franchise From Cancellation 50 Years Ago

In 1975, X-Men was all but cancelled. A call to make the cast more diverse breathed new life and brought in the bronze age of comics

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Published on April 01, 2025 13:08

Building A Social Media App For Readers by Readers

I’ve been building apps for other people for my whole career. For the past few years, I’ve been building an app I want to use

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Published on March 17, 2025 05:02

Illborn Is A Perfect Indie Book for Epic Fantasy Fans

Let me convince you to read this epic fantasy book with a spoiler-free review and some facts about the author

Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson. Photo by Author

I’m a fan of books. If you follow this blog, that’s no secret. Obviously, I love reading them but I enjoy learning what went into crafting them, the journey the author took, inspirations, etc.

Often at work, I watch or listen to author interviews. I read a lot of critical reviews from reviewers I trust because at the end of the day, I just don’t have enough time to read every book that interests me. So, I gather context to make a more informed decision.

I get that most people aren’t like that. You probably don’t find this all as interesting as I do. But given I have all this knowledge swimming around in my head, I thought I’d try to tell you why you should read Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson

Self-published darlings

Self-published books get a bad reputation. I get it. There are thousands of not-so-good books being published every week. Throw in AI-generated content and it can feel like all we have is a cesspool of mediocre content.

The truth is, there are a ton of great books by great authors being self-published for many reasons. It doesn’t mean they “weren’t good enough” for traditional publishing or that they wouldn’t have found a home with a publisher at some point.

Publishing a book is a grueling, disheartening process. And that’s after the author finished writing the book. As Daniel T. Jackson described it in an interview with PL Stuart (author of A Drowned Kingdom), he found it “a very dispiriting process.”

“ I actually tried to find a literary agent and traditional publisher for the book (in the UK) before exploring the self-publishing route. The traditional route was a very dispiriting process, and I got absolutely no interest from the 10+ UK literary agents who I approached (to this day, I am still not sure if any of them got as far as reading to the end of the prologue!)”

— Interview with Daniel T. Jackson, PL Stuart

Publishing is a business, and there are many reasons why agents or publishers may pass on a book. As I’ve written about before, Epic Fantasy as a genre doesn’t have the same market appeal as it did 10 years ago.

Publishers Believe Epic Fantasy Is On Life Support

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t fans, though. It just means there may not be tens of thousands of them.

I personally think its great that people who dreamed of being authors take it into their own hands and put their work out there. As Jackson said in that interview:

“After that, following a period of self-reflection and self-doubt, I decided to self-publish, because friends and family were telling me that ILLBORN was a good story which deserved a wider audience. I also wanted to find that audience, and did not want my novel to sit as an electronic file on a PC forever, unknown and unloved.”

As an aspiring writer myself, I can say there is value in just getting your work out there. Even if no one reads, at least you put in the work.

And that’s something to be proud of.

For Jackson, though, what came out of self publishing was critical acclaim and commercial success.

Illborn became a semi-finalist in Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) — an annual competition meant to support indie fantasy authors.

But it wasn’t just the acclaim from his peers — fans loved the book. As Jackson said in an interview with Littafi:

“I have been delighted by the reaction to Illborn in its first year after release. I genuinely did not expect my self-published debut novel to achieve the sales and critical success it has had, and it was wonderful to see it pass 500 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.27/5.0 average rating.”

—Littafi X Daniel T. Jackson: Author Interview, Litaffi Books

All of this is to say that if you’re someone who avoids self-published books, you should revisit your assumptions.

Why You Should Read Illborn

So, what is Illborn actually about?

Illborn and Aidule’s Sin books. Photo by author

It’s an epic fantasy set in a medieval Europe-inspired world. There are heavy, religious themes throughout that echo in Christianity — a messiah who sacrificed himself to save humanity — but you’ll see inspiration from a few other places.

Although it is “epic fantasy” I would personally classify it as “low magic.” Our main characters (of which there are 4), who are scattered across the world, learn throughout the book that they have magical abilities.

To the book’s credit, the story isn’t about them learning and using their magical powers. This is no superhero origin story. Instead, they each tackle their own personal, difficult lives while also coping with these new abilities.

Abilities that Aiduel’s Guards (the pseudo-militaristic, religious zealotry) are trying to route out… by burning them at the stake.

I describe it as “low magic” because there are really no major fantasical elements outside of these abilities. There are no wise wizards or dragons (at least not in the first book) and the magic takes a backseat to character-driven stories.

Arion is the third son of a duke, trying to find his place in his family with war looming over their lands.

Allana is coping with the death of her mother — thrust into an impossible situation that forces her to flee her hometown as a fugitive.

Leanna experiences the same shared dream as all the other characters but views it as a religious calling. She’s willing to forsake her old life, her parents, and her fiancee to devote herself to the church.

Corin lives in a Viking-like society where strength and grit are the only things that matter. He’s forced into exile after an act of cowardice and is forced to live in the wild.

Each has their own, unique struggle made worse by these blossoming powers that draw the ire of Aiduel’s Guards. The church’s reach expands all throughout the empire as war breaks out, heretics are dragged from their homes, and new political rivalries emerge.

The magic is not the focus of the story but it adds a level of tension throughout.

The Sequels

I have a copy of book 2, Aiduel’s Sin, (signed) on my shelf but I haven’t started it yet. The fact that I even finished a 700 page book is a good indication that I’ll give the sequel a try.

I have high hopes for it. As PL Stuart said in his own review:

“The accomplishment of making the sequel to Illborn even BETTER was no small feat, but the author delivered. Aiduel’s Sin has cemented Daniel T. Jackson as…one of the most exciting writers in indie dark fantasy.”

The third book, Gatebound, just came out a few weeks ago and I’ve already seen a lot of people on my bookstagram account talking about it. I have a lot of confidence in the author and the plan for the series.

TL;DR

You should read Illborn if you’re a fan of epic fantasy where magic isn’t necessarily the primary focus. If you like authors like John Gwynne, give Illborn a try.

If you aren’t convinced, you should just try the first few chapters and see if it sticks. If you’d like to read the first couple of chapters along with me and some other fantasy fans, you can do so on Threadable:

Read "ILLBORN: Book One of The Illborn Saga" on Threadable

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Published on March 05, 2025 11:56