Beth Tabler's Blog, page 145

TBRCON 2023!

The Greatest Online Convention For SFF Out There!! Learn More!



TBRCon2023 is an all-virtual sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention, streaming LIVE from Jan. 22-29, 2023. It is absolutely FREE, available to watch live on YouTube here during convention week or to re-watch whenever you have time.





Panels that the BWGB Team Members are Directly Involved in

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Review – Moonrise over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks

As a reader, sometimes I get bogged down in various genres. I am a fan of Science fiction, Fantasy, and every iteration that comes out of that side of the bookstore. But I realize that while I read widely, I don’t read widely enough to get my feet firmly planted in fiction. So when presented with an opportunity to check out this beautiful book by Jamila Minnicks, I jumped at the chance. 

The premise of Moonrise Over New Jessup is thus: “It’s 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion—or worse—from the home they both hold dear. But as Raymond continues to push alternatives for enhancing New Jessup’s political power, Alice must find a way to balance her undying support for his underground work with her desire to protect New Jessup from the rising pressure of upheaval from inside, and outside, their side of town.”  

 In the first few paragraphs, we meet Alice and learn of her predicament. Her mother has died, and a few weeks back, her father passed away, leaving Alice an orphan. Her beloved sister moved out a while ago, presumably to the big city, although Alice can’t find her, and she knows she needs to leave as soon as possible before the landlord figures out a way to get her behind the toolshed. Alice is a protagonist that is bold enough to understand a situation and knows she needs to take action but tender enough that the move will sting. She has to leave everything she has ever known, hoping for something better.

We end up in the thriving town of New Jessup. Alice gets off the bus and looks for a non-white water fountain and doesn’t find any. Or anything of its kind because New Jessup is an all-black community. There is a calm to New Jessup in the way that Minnicks describes New Jessup, a beautiful calm in stark contrast with where she came from. 

‘ The moon rises and sets, stitching eternity together, night by night. Love-spun thread binds family when even years, or blue skies, stand between one and another’s touch. Generations travel the same footprints, reach hands to the same climbing branches, and warm the same brown skin under the Alabama sun. Maybe “family” brings to mind only blood, marital relations, and it’s easy to understand that way of thinking. Love by my hand tethered generations to generations, as well as kin by skin, in this place where all in me, and of me, can thrive.’

The story is slow-paced, at times almost like molasses. But that adds something to the narrative, quiet, slow, and sitting on the porch drinking icey sweet tea. Moonrise Over New Jessup is a character-driven story, so while the pace is languishing, we are getting to know the characters for all their good and evil. This place is a haven against the racial tensions surrounding the town on all sides. 

After reading it, it isn’t easy to sum up how I feel about this book. The first word that comes to mind is stunning. The prose and lyrical nature of the writing are captivating. It takes you to 1957; you feel the heat on your skin and see it shimmering across the blacktop. The bus just drove away, and you smell the exhaust. But most of all, the writing conveys the uncertainty Alice Young feels in this new environment and how that changes over time. It conveys the social state of the world in 1957, and how that is rapidly evolving, it describes how the world viewed women, specifically women of color. 

But most of all, it made me appreciate Minnicks’ beautiful writing and gave me the desire to seek out all their work. 

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Review – No Heart for a Thief by James Lloyd Dulin

This ARC was provided by the author in an exchange for an honest review and will also be published on Goodreads.

It wasn’t enough that they killed her family and took her home. The Gousht had taken away everything her life should have been. She should have grown up in the city surrounded by friends and family. She should have gone to school. She should have become a part of Ennea. Instead, Tayen was trying to escape Ennea before the dying land crushed her beneath its corpse.

Fantasy and sci-fi stories not only have the ability to entertain and enthral us, they are a medium of story telling that can tackle difficult issues that we face in real life. Fantasy books that I have read in the past have dealt with sexuality, persecution, hate crimes, grief, the effects of war, prejudice and violence. When facing these issues through fantasy, it provides a cushion, a means to help us talk about something that we find difficult to confront within our every day lives, or on the news, or in a non-fiction book. That is the power of the fantasy genre, to keep the conversation going, to question ourselves, to question others and to ultimately bring us understanding, compassion or catharsis.

No Heart For A Thief is one of these stories. It is a dark fantasy tale set in a time of occupation by an invading force where your skin colour or the colour of your hair marks you as an inferior or dangerous person. The author has a trigger warning at the beginning of this novel and I am glad that he does. Because even as a white middle aged man, I found some moments of the story quite harrowing and emotionally challenging.

But please don’t you let that put you off. James Lloyd Dullin has written a powerful, visceral but beautiful story that centres on two characters who need each other more than they know.

Kaylo is a man who has cut himself off from human contact, hiding from the legend and myth that surrounds him, he yearns for an emotional connection but ultimately fears it too. He is The Thief and bestowed the power to steal spirit magic from others; hated and persecuted by all other dancers, people who can wield a spirit magic of their own.

Into his life comes Tayen, a young girl torn from her family by fire and violence, whose young heart is consumed by vengeance and yearns the means and weapons to exact her revenge on the Gousht empire that has taken everything from her.

Together they must find solace and understanding to one another as they are relentlessly pursued by the soldiers and trackers of the Gousht, a pale skinned, pale haired race who follow the One True God and will stop and nothing to eradicate the people of Ennea’s beliefs and way of life and enforce their own religion and doctrine on the population.

For me to give you anymore information about the story and it’s characters, would do nothing but lessen the impact that this book could have on you. James has created a powerful morality tale that I found deeply thought-provoking and incredibly immersive and that is in part thanks to his wonderful prose. At times poetic, other times philosophical, there were lines that I read where I had to take a pause and appreciate the author’s craft.

There was an art and a grace to how Jonac managed conflict. He never fought the tide. He addressed the moons, rather than the waters they pulled.

Another aspect to the author’s writing that I really enjoyed and haven’t come across that often, was the fact that the story is written in third and first person. This is because Kaylo is telling a story to Tayen within the story we are reading. Kaylo’s past is critical to understanding who he is; the people he has met, the actions he has taken, the spiritual and moral journey he has been through. This in turn is paramount to how he interacts with Tayen and the moral guidance that he is desperate for her to absorb, before her path to vengeance destroys her.

I love Kaylo as a character and we get to see where he started and the man he has become, which is the beauty of the simultaneous timelines we get. I adored how James connected both those stories through Kaylo’s advice and moral guidance to Tayen, to the very people who made an impression on his younger self, who taught him about their values, their philosophy and way of life. Jonac is one of the standout characters for me and the interaction between him and younger Kaylo is a lovely mirroring of our present relationship between his older self and Tayen. It is done with skill and aplomb and brings those timelines together beautifully.

Tayen is a beautifully realised character whose trajectory mirrors that of our young Kaylo. A child deep in grief, whose emotions are wild and erratic, she is the storm that needs calming. Though we spend the majority of time with Kaylo, I found returning back to the scenes between these two a comfort almost. Her irritation at Kaylo’s moral and spiritual guidance can sometimes be quite comical, but at the same time, as someone who has experienced the grief of losing a family member, I understand that frustration, that anger and rage that you are not in control and James gets this across wonderfully with the character of Tayen.

The magic system in this book is fantastic. When a magic system can excite me and bring something fresh to the table, you know this is an author who has spent a great deal of thought and effort creating it. There is a musical metaphor to the system, the magic users are called dancers, who attune to an energy called, The Song. Ennea, The Mother, created seven spirits, and each of those spirits can imbue itself to a person. There are elemental spirits such as The River and The Mountain and others such as The Shadow, think of it as a stealthy magic, and The Seed, which gives you the ability to control plant life and attune to nature. Lastly of course is The Thief who, when a dancer is charging up, for want of a better word, their ability, The Thief can snatch it and use that ability themselves. It felt fresh and dynamic and with James’ prose, made for some riveting action scenes.

As I mentioned up front, this book deals with some difficult themes. There is violence to children, death of family members, racism and discrimination. These of course made certain scenes deeply moving or even profound and some I found quite upsetting, but none of it was done needlessly or gratuitously. James tells a story of an invading force, attacking, conquering and occupying another races homeland. Historically conquering forces eradicate native history or culture and supplant it with their own and how James weaved this into the narrative I found fascinating and harrowing. History is written by its victors and James really stamps this home with the Gousht.

As a bit of a history buff, these aspects of the story really interested me but the heart of the book is of course our two main protagonists and the how their lives intertwine. There is an element of found family here, a real universal need to help another divert from a destructive path that you once took, to ensure a life with some contentment and happiness. I found some of the scenes between Kaylo and Tayen deeply moving and that is helped hugely by knowing what the younger Kaylo has been through.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pacing is sublime, the authors prose is wonderfully engaging and the characters memorable. Because of the difficult themes the book covers, it may not be for everyone, but that’s the beauty of fantasy, there is so much diversity out there. For me personally, I engage with fantasy that challenges me, challenges my beliefs, my thoughts and actions towards others and really makes you think about the world around you and I love that.

No heart for a thief, no safe haven, only a grave will do.

As the first entry into a series, James establishes the world confidently, presents us with deeply flawed characters whose journeys have just begun, and a dark fantasy story brimming with possibilities and promise. Bring on book two Mr Dulin!

5/5

Check Out Some of Our Other Reviews

Review – THE BINDINGS OF WOE by Connor Jackson

Review – Pearl by Josh Malerman

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Review – THE BINDINGS OF WOE by Connor Jackson

The world of Gaia is in turmoil. Humans, goblins, and dwarves try to live their lives as best they can under the rule of the sovereigns—the strange and powerful race whose empire stretches to all corners of the known world—but order and stability seem to be fading

Sometimes a young, debut author comes along and wows you with their initial novel. Such is the case with Connor Jackson, and his first installment in “The Chain of Worlds” series, entitled “The Bindings of Woe”! This one REALLY impressed me!

In the vein of “full of tropes”, but it’s tropes done really well, with some really inventive turns that take it away from the tried and true frequently-used plot devices that can be found in so many fantasy novels, I’d classify “The Bindings of Woe” as true classic fantasy, with a huge splash of darkness.

As such, Jackson welcomes us to the land of Gaia, a tumultuous setting, where the oppressive and mysterious Sovereigns, a wondrous and uber-puissant group that dominates the entire world, controls the lives of all its subjects, through fear. That said, there is relative peace under the rule of the Sovereigns throughout their vast empire – an empire that contains creatures such as goblins and dwarves, living alongside humans. Relative peace, that is, with the exception of a burgeoning renegade force, called the Lost Seekers, who strive to destabilize the Sovereign’s iron grip on power.

One of our main characters, the teenaged Carver, lives under the shadow of the Sovereigns, in the isolated village of Verrel, located in the Isles. Carver and his best friend Helena, with their parents, journey to the marketplace of the capital of their province, called Caswen. While there, a terrorist attack by the rebel Lost Seekers strikes, throwing the world of the youngsters, and Gaia itself, into chaos.

Meanwhile, a shrewd, pragmatic, and sometimes ruthless military commander, Aellia, tasked with keeping order in Caswen, is under immense pressure from her sovereign masters to bring the Lost Seekers to justice. In a stunning move, she elects to lay the blame for the attack in Caswen on the innocent villagers of Verrel. With Verrel’s residents as a scapegoat, Carver and Helena, who barely make it out of the attack in Caswen alive, are thrust into even greater danger when Aellia’s forces come to exact retribution for the Lost Seeker’s actions on their harmless village.

Fabulous characterization in this book, which is much more than a coming of age story. We get several other POVs from mature characters besides Carver and Helena, from all sides of the conflicts. I have to say Aellia was my favourite – you know how I love those morally grey characters. I found the volatile dynamics between her and the Sovereign overlords fascinating, and many of Aellia’s choices as governor, intriguing. We also get to see a bit of her vulnerable side, and some of her personal relationships, that no doubt will bring complexity to future installments.

The themes in the book were very compelling. Racism, elitism, intolerance, oppression, subjugation, trauma, grief, found family, and more can all be found in the novel. The privations the teenagers and their companions like Sebastian and Nina endure are horrific. Barely more than children themselves, our central characters must grow up quickly, experiencing shock and loss, physical and emotional pain, a whirlwind of life and death decisions, fight for their survival, protect one another, use their wits to navigate the complicated, and very adult world they find themselves thrust into.

Their struggles are at times utterly heart-wrenching, and their courage and tenacity is inspiring. They are guilty of making some immature and questionable decisions, and none of them are – realistically – perfect people. Yet the innate goodness of the primary players shines through, and the readers will be rooting for their survival, and tensely witnessing every danger they encounter, hoping they can make it out alive.

This is a dark book, and reader be warned, as indicated above, Jackson does not spare his characters the worst tribulations and horrors. There is plenty of violence and cruelty in the novel, against adults and children, and some scenes can be disturbing.

The worldbuilding was exceptional in this book, and one of its strengths. Jackson paints a vivid picture of a decaying empire, coming apart at the seams, ruled by the Sovereigns, who are just as concerned with the appearance of being in control, as they are worried about actually maintaining their rule. The reader is exposed to a variety of races, cultures, traditions, and regions, during the youngsters’ sojourns.

The Sovereigns’ superior magic, and control of any potential technological advances, allows them to be feared, loathed, and keep a sense of mystique about them, over the populace under their heel. There are some fascinating reveals about the origins and evolution of Gaia, and some great lore and tales of the past, stories within stories that further expand the scope of the world. Clearly, Jackson has a much broader world that will be explored in future novels, beyond the settings in “The Bindings of Woe”, that promises to be awesome.

Overall the prose was very good. My only minor criticism of the book was some word choices that seemed inconsistent with the general tone of the narrative, that sometimes I found slightly jarring. But I believe those issues will be smoothed out as Jackson continues to hone his craft. There is PLENTY to like about this thrilling, brilliant first book. It’s exciting, well-executed, poignant, and a highly recommended read.

Fans of another breakout fantasy star, also named Jackson – Daniel T. Jackson – and the stunning “Illborn” will relish the similarities – all the amazing ones, not just the surname of the authors – between “Illborn” and “Bindings of Woe.”

Four and 3/4 stars for this excellent book, and I can’t wait to see what Connor Jackson does with his follow-up. If he continues to improve as an author (and I have no doubt he will) this is a writer who’s going to be on fantasy TBRs everywhere.

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COVER REVEAL: Legacy of Brick & Bone by Krystle Matar

Follow the law and you’ll stay safe. But what if the law betrays you?

It all started with the girl from the river: mutilated, tattooed, murdered. Tashué couldn’t help but look for answers and in the process, he uncovered the ugly truths being hidden by the very law he used to believe in—the law of the Authority.

Now he’s fighting for his life. Mere survival isn’t enough; he desperately wants to save his son from the Authority, and he wants revolution. At any cost.

Davik Kaine has been gathering power under everyone’s noses. Ruthless, ambitious, with a rebel army backing him, he wants revolution, too. He’s probably the only person powerful enough to protect Tashué from the looming implosion of the political field. And he’s the only person with the connections to save Jason.

He may also be responsible for the death of the girl from the river.

Is making peace with Davik worth it, if it saves Tashué’s son from the Authority?

If Tashué plays along with what Davik wants, can Tashué get retribution for the girl from the river?

It’s finally here! After much suffering, a lot of pulling out my own hair, way too much paper, fountain pen stains everywhere, Legacy of Brick & Bone is finally almost ready. Due to release April 25th, it’s high time for a cover, isn’t it?

Well here it is.

Are you ready?

C’mon, I’m not going to give it to you THAT easy. I’m gonna make you scroll a little.

 

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Is that enough of me being a jerk?

Okay okay, here it is, my beauty, my cover, Brad’s latest brilliance.

Isn’t it amazing? Brad knocks it out of the park yet again!

Make sure you check out Out of This World SFF where Nick has a portrait of Lorne Coswyn, and FanFiAddict where Boss TBR has Davik Kaine. You guys NEED to see my trash villain, TRUST ME.

Goodreads pages for Legacy of the Brightwash and Legacy of Brick and Bone are at the bottom of this post, along with a buy link for Brightwash on the off chance you haven’t read it yet!

And if you’re still here looking for that EXCLUSIVE chapter out of Brick & Bone? Well, I guess I’ve made you wait long enough…

Lorne

Edgar Hale—or, at least, what remained of him—hung from the window of his apartment, rope tied to both his ankles so he hung upside down, swaying in the wind that came off the Brightwash. Scavengers had peeled bits of him away layer by layer. A stray dog walked in slow circles beneath the corpse, snarling at anyone who walked too close even though the meat was several stories above its head. It paused, now and then, to lick the old clotted blood and brain matter from the cobbles beneath Hale, where pieces of him had been oozing out of the massive hole through his skull. The shot to the head that had probably killed him. 

Lorne wasn’t sure how long he stood there, watching the corpse sway. Watching the crows and the turkey vultures gather in the windows and the rooftops, their heads bobbing as they each tried to figure out how to get to the hanging meat. 

Lorne had decided he didn’t want to be found for a while. The aftermath of the fight left his ears ringing more often than not, and delivering the news to Jason that Keoh was dead had splintered something in Lorne’s soul. Sometimes at night, when he was wandering through the city, looking for a safe place to sleep that didn’t cost anything, he looked north up the river to see the ominous glow of the Rift and he wondered how hard it would be to just walk right into that fucking place. Climb a wall or something, just so he could hug Jason again. If he had to be tired and sore and bloody, at least he could do it with Jason in his arms. 

But then he’d heard the news about Edgar Hale, and morbid curiosity drew him to the warehouse. He’d been dead two days, and the late autumn cold kept his meat fresh. If the scavengers didn’t finish him off, soon he’d freeze and he’d likely be there all winter. 

Powell Iwan had asked Tashué to kill this man, and apparently Tashué had found it in him to obey. Lorne told himself he shouldn’t be surprised, but he was anyway. He couldn’t put his finger on why exactly. Tashué had seemed perfectly at ease that day in his apartment, shooting the shit with Powell Iwan, a man who would have killed him if he gave the wrong answer to the questions Powell was asking. And yet as long as Lorne had known him, he’d tried to draw rigid lines around reality, talking about right and wrong and laws as if they were an iron code that was easy to follow. But maybe the reason he’d tried to draw those lines was because he knew life was a slippery fucking slope. Sometimes it didn’t take much to push you down into unimaginable violence. 

And Edgar Hale had killed that child Tashué found, so maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all. 

Vasska came around the corner. He walked right under the corpse like it didn’t bother him at all, hissing through his teeth at the dog who tried to snarl at him. The dog lowered its head and backed off, but as soon as Vasska cleared the corpse, the dog went back to its post, looking up at the body. Lorne thought about leaving for just a moment, about melting back into the alley and going somewhere else fast. He was tired. He was tired of the Hive and tired of Powell Iwan and tired of thinking about the Army of the Red Dawn. But it was too late. Vasska had already spotted him and came right toward the alley. 

“Your face looks like shit,” Vasska said, coming to stand beside Lorne. 

“Oh hey,” Lorne said, as brightly as he could, even though talking still hurt. Hurt his jaw, hurt his lips, hurt his tongue. “Thanks! I appreciate it. I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t told me.”

Vasska sighed. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, turning his face away from the bitter cold wind that came off the river. It caught all his blond hair, mussing it in every direction. The wind stung in all the places on Lorne’s face that were struggling to heal. Stella had helped with whatever was bleeding internally, but that still left the mess of his face and his hands and the clumsy stitches he’d placed himself because his lip wouldn’t stop bleeding. 

“Can we skip the part where you’re all furious with me, like I had something to do with all this?” Vasska asked. “I told you, didn’t I? I told you not to fuck around with the Red Dawn. I told you they would fuck you up, but you didn’t want to listen to good advice. You pushed, and Edgar Hale wanted you dead—and Grandad protected you.” 

“Protected me,” Lorne echoed, his voice going flat with his anger. “That’s what Powell Iwan’s protection looks like, does it?” 

“Yes it does,” Vasska said. “Hale wanted you dead, and now look at him. Everyone knows he asked for that fight. And you’re still walking around in the Bay with that big fucking chip on your shoulder, so now the whole Bay knows you’re untouchable. So yes, this is exactly what Powell Iwan’s protection looks like. I’m sorry you got hurt so bad, I really am. I’m sorry it went the way it did. But you’re in the middle of it now.”

“Fuck off,” Lorne muttered, pulling his collar up around his face in a poor attempt at shielding himself from the cold. “I’m not in the middle of anything. I’m done. I’m sick of the Red Dawn and I’m sick of fighting. Maybe I’ll take the job General Wolfe’s been offering me—go to Highfield and keep running spies for him.” 

Vasska sighed, opening his coat to pull out his cigarillo case. He flicked it open and offered one to Lorne, and habit made Lorne take one, even though he knew the smoke would hurt all the cuts in his mouth. Vasska leaned in real close, using both of their bodies to shield the match as he popped it on the side of the building, huddling low over the flame to light his cigarillo. And then it was Lorne’s turn, and the pair of them stood so close Lorne could feel the heat of Vasska’s body, which only highlighted how fucking miserable it was outside. The wind and the rain and the frost that crawled across everything at night—it was a shit time to be out on the streets. In the summer you could almost forget how bad it was, so long as you found a way to keep hydrated. But the winters killed. He’d never imagined he would still be on the fucking streets of Yaelsmuir this long after landing here, but he didn’t regret putting Alys through school. And he didn’t regret tying his life to Jason. It’s just that it meant his whole life was just fucking stuck. Building a life for his sister that he’d probably never get to see, waiting for a life with Jason that would probably never come. 

“It’s too late to back off now, Lorne,” Vasska said, and his voice was softer now. He’d lost the confrontational edge now that they were standing closer, huddling against the wind and making ribbons of smoke between them. “You stuck your foot in it and now this is your life. Grandad said whoever won the match was going down to the real fights to be the Bay’s first tourney pugilist. You beat Ijaz, so you get to go learn how to box.” 

“Sure,” Lorne muttered. “Sounds great. Sounds like a real treat. Are you going to leave out the part about who’s running that pugilist club? Were you just going to send me down there and hope I didn’t notice I was going to work for Davik fucking Kaine? I thought I was supposed to stay away from the Red Dawn, and now you’re sending me right into their headquarters?”

“I told you, it’s too late for you to stay away,” Vasska said. “I was hoping you would go down there knowing exactly who you’re working for, but also knowing that I’ve done my best to take care of you in a city that’s all to happy to chew up guys like you and spit them out as nothing but fucking gristle and bone. And I was hoping you’d keep an eye on Davik fucking Kaine for me, because I think my grandfather is going to die this year and I think Davik is going to try to kill me once Grandad is gone.”

All the layers of information sucked the rage out of Lorne’s chest. It took him a moment to parse out each one, separating them like threads in a vicious knot. 

“You took care of me, did you?” Lorne asked. 

Anger flashed across Vasska’s face for a moment, bright and powerful and threatening, twice as potent with Hale’s corpse swinging behind Vasska’s head. “Out of all the things I just said, that’s the one you want to talk about?” 

Lorne opened his mouth to say something to make it better, but no words came. He hadn’t meant it the way Vasska was apparently taking it—it wasn’t an argument or a denial, it was just surprise. He didn’t exactly feel taken care of, but then again, he’d survived this long, and made enough money to take care of Alys, when the Bay was notorious for doing exactly what Vasska said—eating people whole and coughing up the parts that couldn’t be consumed so that they were just empty eyes and a body that moved without really being alive. 

“Yes I took care of you,” Vasska said. “Yes I fucking did look out for you. Yes I did put in a good word with Grandad for you when you turned up to the fight hall, looking for income, and yes I did make sure people didn’t fuck with you while you were coming up. And now here you are, with all that money, and all that ego, like you still think you’re alone in this world. But that’s what happens to your enemies.” He turned to face Hale, blowing smoke into the street. “You took a shit beating but Hale got his head blown open. So yes, this is what being taken care of looks like in the Bay. I’m sorry it went the way it did. I’m never going to forget what it was like to watch you go down, and then keep getting up like you didn’t care—I don’t know how you do it. Maybe you honestly don’t care, but that means the rest of us have to fill in the gaps and care for you. Orix had to beat the crowd back while you were still fighting, because people wanted to get up there and defend you. Grandad said you had to go down to shut Hale up. And then when you were done, eight people dragged you off that stage.”

Lorne shook his head, touching the tender spots on his face when they gave a dull flare of pain, as if to remind him of the beating. “I don’t remember that.” 

Vasska shrugged, flicking ash toward the street. “This quarter loves you, Lorne. People love that you don’t take any shit and you don’t back down and even though you’re making good money in those fights, you never left the Bay. No one knows the reason you never left is because you’re sending all that money to your sister in Teshii and you feel trapped and you resent the Bay for it. And it’s a good thing all those people who love you don’t know that or they’d feel so betrayed. You’re their hero—they rioted for you. And Grandad let them because he was proud of them for standing up for you. So now’s your chance to pay some of that back. Go down to the pugilist club and fight for Davik Kaine, and let the city love you even more. Davik will have a healer for you to fix you up, and three square meals a day of whatever it is that athletes eat to look so good, and a roof over your head this winter. And all I ask is that you keep an eye on shit. Let me know if Davik is making plans to come for me.” 

“What makes you think Iwan is going to die?” Lorne asked. 

“Have you talked to him lately?” 

Lorne grimaced, and a jolt of pain passed through his lip as it split again. Started to bleed. “The last time I talked to him was at Tashué’s apartment, when he asked Tashué to get rid of Edgar Hale. I had other shit on my mind than keeping an eye on his health. Did Tashué really kill Hale? I mean, he’s obviously dead but—it was really Tashué?” 

Vasska turned his face away, blowing a long line of smoke into the wind. “Grandad is collecting new soldiers. I think he’s trying to find people who will be loyal to me when he dies. Maybe he’s betting on Tashué Blackwood’s paternal instincts, hoping some of that ferocity will spread to me since I’m about the same age as you and Jason. Maybe Grandad is hoping that if we get Jason out, Tashué will feel like he owes us. Either way, Tashué promised to stand with Grandad once Davik is dead.”

“Is that a yes, Vasska? Did he kill Hale?” 

“Don’t sound so surprised. The man was a soldier for ten years.”

A crow fluttered down from one of the windowsills, catching ahold of Hale’s trousers with both feet. It’s beak went searching through a hole in the wool that had been ripped open by some other carrion eater. All that effort was rewarded by a glistening chunk of thigh meat, red and white with blood and fat. Lorne shuddered, turning his back on the corpse so he didn’t have to watch anymore. “So Iwan wants to off Davik, but you think Davik is going to kill you and Iwan?” 

Vasska didn’t turn away. He watched the crow and smoked one leisurely breath at a time. “No, I think Davik is going to let the fucking weather kill Grandad, and then once Grandad is out of the way, he’ll come after me next. But I don’t know for sure. This fucking election is going to go Myron’s way, and then we’ll have the police force sticking their nose in our shit, and our best bet is to stick together. The best thing for both of us would be working together. I’ll hold the Hive, and he can hold the Red Dawn, and together we can hold the Bay and keep the police force out, just like we kept the Authority out. But I don’t know what Davik wants to do. So I’m hoping you’ll go down there and keep an eye. For me.” 

Lorne dabbed his lip, watching the dark blood spread across his sleeve. “How come Iwan doesn’t just have someone off Davik, if you’re so worried?” 

“Because Davik is the only person with the resources to get Jason out of the Rift.” 

Lorne’s eyes snapped up to Vasska’s face so fast, it made him dizzy. He had to stand still a moment just to let the words sink hooks into him, had to breathe slow just to make his heart stop hammering enough that he wouldn’t faint. His mouth moved but words failed him. 

“There it is,” Vasska said softly. “You weren’t sure about getting involved for me, but you’ll do it for Jason, hey? I guess I can’t be insulted. It’s funny how things kind of draw themselves together, isn’t it?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lorne asked.

Vasska shrugged. “I still remember the first time Kaine came down to the Bay to make a deal with Grandad. Must have been fifteen years ago, now. He came with a few of his northerners and sat down with Grandad and my mother and they all made a deal that Davik would run his smuggling road through the Hive. Guns, opium, and salt, all headed east across the mountains. And my mother, she liked him a lot. I don’t remember why exactly, or what happened, but she pushed Grandad to make the deal, said it was an opportunity to be more than we were. She said Grandad was getting complacent, growing stagnant, and it would be the end of him if he didn’t start growing new opportunities. And then all that shit happened up north, and Davik left Cruinnich permanently, and he came down here to keep building.”

“All that shit—I heard the Red Dawn set off bombs up north.” 

Vasska nodded. “That’s how the story goes. Bombs and riots. The Authority lined people up in the streets in front of firing squads. They say the Red Dawn chased Davik out of Cruinnich, just to end the violence.” 

“And then he came here. Why’s he still going by Davik Kaine?” 

Vasska shrugged. “He built his roots here under that name. And then after he was chased out of Cruinnich, he disappeared for a while, and rumours said he was all over the Dominion. So then when he drifted back here, he just kind of folded back in. My mother thought he’d planned it—he knew it was going to get bad up here so he set up his backup plan here. And then she died. Davik scooped up control of all the whorehouses she ran, and suddenly he was more powerful than Grandad ever intended him to be. Back then they were kind of… in a standoff. Davik acted like he was real fond of me, like him fucking my mother a few times made us something. But if I was close to everyone who fucked my mother, well… she had a type. At least Davik is smarter than my father ever was. It left the balance precarious, after she was gone. We’ve all been holding our breath since, you know? Waiting to see who would fuck up first. And then, a couple weeks ago, Tashué Blackwood finds the body of a little dead girl on the riverbank, and suddenly people are sticking their noses in business that never used to concern them.” He glanced pointedly at Lorne, blowing smoke up over Lorne’s head. “And all the cracks and flaws and vulnerabilities in the Bay are blown wide open.”

Lorne glanced back over his shoulder at Hale. Three crows had joined the effort, one of them ripping open Hale’s shirt to peck at the flesh over his ribcage.

“If we don’t step carefully, it’s going to be war down here,” Vasska went on. “Davik’s people against the Hive. And the piece in the middle of it all, the thing that keeps Grandad and Davik from finally ripping each other apart, and a lot of blood flowing in the streets of this quarter, is Jason Blackwood. A kid that didn’t matter last month. No one really knew his name. He matters a whole hell of a lot now. And I bet he has no idea.” 

“Leave Jason out of this, Vasska, or I swear—” 

“I can’t leave Jason out of this,” Vasska interrupted. “Jason is right in the middle of everything. He is the thing pulling everyone together—that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Wolfe wants Tashué to run for Mayor at the next election, and the price Tashué asked for is Jason’s safety. So Wolfe sent Ishmael down here to make a deal with Grandad, except Grandad can’t be arsed to fuck around with the Rift. He decided it was worth it to make Wolfe owe him another favour, and doubly worth it if Tashué takes the Mayor’s office, so he kicked it to Davik because he knows Davik is trying to get a few of his people out of that place. Adding Jason into their plans won’t change much, and Grandad gets to offer Kaine a way to do Grandad a favour. And for approximately two days, none of it really mattered. It was just a thing everyone was doing for the politics. We’ve done it before. The Bay and the Mayor have to work together or none of this works. But then word got out that Jason is the one who broke suppression at the Rift and now he matters so much that everyone wants him. Grandad wants him on my side, Davik wants him in the Red Dawn, the Breeding Program wants him to make tainted babies with that much raw power, just like his mother did. And Tashué made his deal, and Wolfe wants to know why nothing’s happened yet. Eventually, Davik will finally get Jason out, and then the fight for Jason’s loyalty kicks off. So I just think you should be down there. I think you should be involved with whatever Davik’s planning, and I think you should be there to hang on to Jason when the storm hits. And since you’ll be down there for him, I would appreciate it if you were also looking out for me, so that I can protect both of you when everything goes to shit.” 

“You’ll protect us, hey?” Lorne asked. 

“I’ll try.” 

The fight-tremble rolled through Lorne’s bones, making everything feel too sharp and too violent even though they were just standing here talking. Talking about war, talking about bloodshed. Talking about Jason. Lorne turned to watch the crows eat Edgar Hale, but that only served to make his heart beat faster and make his head feel too far away. “Why me, then?”

Vasska snorted, flicking ash into the wind, watching it skitter across the cobbles until it hit a puddle that swallowed it whole. “What do you want me to say? That I’m so devoted to you because we’ve been through too much together? Get your head out of your ass, Lorne. Why you? Because you and Jason and Tashué Blackwood are fucking up my whole damned life, but maybe you’ll be the ones who save me.”

“Isn’t Davik going to know I’m there for you? Isn’t he going to want retribution for…” He waved at Hale, whose carcass swung like a clock pendulum as the crows jostled him more and more.  

“Probably,” Vasska said with a shrug. “But if he kills you, he fucks the balance of the standoff, doesn’t he?” 

Lorne laughed. “So you’re betting my life on the fact that he probably won’t fuck up the standoff. Great. Thanks. I appreciate it, Vasska.”

“It’s worth it though, isn’t it? For Jason.” 

“Fuck you.” 

“Is that a yes?” 

Lorne dabbed his lip again. For Jason. He would do fucking anything for Jason. He would rip his heart out and lay it on an altar for Jason. He would walk into the Rift himself if he thought it would help Jason. And a little part of him resented Vasska for knowing it and using it, but a much bigger part was just so fucking relieved that someone was doing something. Finally. And a part of him was guilty that he hadn’t been the one to set any of this in motion. He’s been so wrapped up in being stuck that he hadn’t been able to see any way out. “How am I supposed to get word back to you if I’m down there learning how to be a pugilist?” 

Vasska reached into his pocket again, producing a scrap of newsprint that had been clipped from a larger page. Small and tattered, the ink half-smudged like it had been touched before the ink had the chance to dry. “Remember this?” 

Lorne took the scrap—from one of the Bay papers, because it talked about the tenement fire that killed that woman from the Breeding Program, and the only papers that cared about Bay disasters were Bay papers. Lorne could almost smell the ash again, hear the screams of the dying. And he could see that woman again, and the wild look in her eye, and the things she told him and Tashué about the children from the Breeding Program. “Yeah. I remember.” 

“You fought it, people say. You were there, trying to put it out.” 

Lorne nodded. Fat load of good him fighting it did. It felt like his whole life was just him fighting things that wouldn’t change anything. “The rain put it out. What’s this got to do with Davik and his club?”

“Nothing,” Vasska admitted. “But it’s your excuse to come talk to me even though you’re training. I heard some rumours about the fire and I want to know if they’re true or not.” 

“What kind of rumours?” 

“Someone set the fire on purpose. I want to know if it’s true, and I want to know if anyone saw who did it. So I was hoping you can get your people on it, and maybe we can find out for sure.” 

Something cold and hollow and heavy rang like a death knell in Lorne’s chest. Someone set that fire on purpose—what were the chances it was a coincidence and it had nothing to do with the woman from the Breeding Program? Probably fucking slim. It defied reason to think that the two things weren’t connected. And he’d put her in there, trying to help her, but it only brought death. Death to her and just about everyone else who lived there. 

“Yeah,” Lorne said. “I’ll see what I can drag up. I’ll let people know you’re looking, and then I guess I’ll go down to Davik’s club.” 

Vasska nodded. “Tell him Grandad sent you, like they agreed.” 

Lorne took a long drag of the cigarillo, wishing the smoke would wash him clean of all the guilt that sat like poison in him, making everything taste foul. “Sure. For you and Jason.” 

 

Check out Ryan’s review of the first book, Legacy of the Brightwash

Add Legacy of the Brightwash on GoodreadsBuy Legacy of the Brightwash in any formatAdd Legacy of Brick and Bone on Goodreads

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Review – House In the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

A Beautiful and Moving Story

House in the Cerulean Seaby TJ Klune
Purchase Here

“Humanity is so weird. If we’re not laughing, we’re crying or running for our lives because monsters are trying to eat us. And they don’t even have to be real monsters. They could be the ones we make up in our heads. Don’t you think that’s weird?”― 

About

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

My Thoughts

The House In The Cerulean Sea is a lovely book incorporating unique world-building and Characters. It is a cross between Mrs. Peregrins Home for Peculiar Children, 1984, and a bit of Umbrella Academy. It is a captivating read and has been making the rounds amongst readers this past year with solidly five-star reviews, and it is wholly deserved of its praise; this is a gorgeous book.

“Humanity is so weird. If we’re not laughing, we’re crying or running for our lives because monsters are trying to eat us. And they don’t even have to be real monsters. They could be the ones we make up in our heads. Don’t you think that’s weird?”

The story’s main protagonist is Linus Baker, a gentle soul living a life of quiet desperation. He is a caseworker for a department that is in charge of Magical Youth. While Linus is calm and obedient in most aspects of his life, he is a champion of children and will defend those who can not protect themselves. This sentiment may sound a bit twee, but it comes off as a very authentic aspect of Linus’s personality. Linus loves kids and as a caseworker who audits orphanages and makes sure that the children are receiving adequate care.

“Change often starts with the smallest of whispers. Like-minded people building it up to a roar.”

Because of the organization Linus works in, it is essential that Linus reports and observes the orphanages with objectivity. He needs to remain impartial and not get attached to the children. Linus generally does this well, as he is a more effective advocate for children when he is an impartial witness. But, even with all that he does for children, Linus is a lonely, unfulfilled person. He leaves the office every night, comes home, argues with his busybody neighbor, and goes to sleep. The only passions he allows himself are a love of music and a grumpy cat that he shares his life with.

On a rather ordinary day, Linus’s life changes. Extremely Upper Management summons him. I love how the author creates this level of bureaucracy. Instead of just upper management, we are talking Extremely Upper Management—the people who aren’t typically seen but who pull all the levers. They want him to evaluate Marsyas Island Orphanage, home to six special kids who aren’t human. In this world, Linus is very familiar with the non-human population and has worked with them many times. Even so, this is a strange project to be given.

“Sometimes our prejudices color our thoughts when we least expect them to. If we can recognize that, and learn from it, we can become better people.”

Linus arrives at the orphanage, and this is where the magic happens in the story. The interactions between the six children: A wyvern, a gnome, a weredog, a green blob, a sprite, and the child of the devil and Linus are charming. It is also an exercise in acceptance. While Linus is unnerved and sometimes terrified by these children, especially in Baby Lucy, he sees their innocence and wants to protect them. He wants to teach them as an elder about courage and kindness, even in the face of townsfolk who don’t want their kind around here. Linus has a month on this island, and while he tries to keep his typical objectivity, it isn’t easy in the face of the beautiful interactions with the kids.

Additionally, Linus needs to interact with the headmaster of the school. A Mr. Arthur Parnassus, whom Linus is intrigued by, but again tries to remain impartial as he is there to evaluate Arthur as well. The relationship between Arthur and Linus is written as if they are dim lights circling each other, but they get brighter as they get closer to each other. It is a beautiful thing to read.

The entire story is uplifting. I know that many who read fantasy like it dark; I mostly look for morally gray characters and dark fantasy myself. The House in the Cerulean Sea seemed quaint and not something I would typically read when I originally read the blurb. But, there is something about TJ Klunes writing that is wonderful. It isn’t quaint or cutesy, but something far more elegant and lovely. The relationships that Linus has, first with the children and then with Arthur, have a healing quality that extends past the character and affects the reader. Marsyas Island Orphanage was healing for Linus’s soul after years of stagnation and repression, and it feels healing for readers like me after this long year of suckage. This story is like a warm mug of hot cocoa with a shot of whiskey in front of a fire. This story’s message is powerful, and it goes to the top reads of 2020 for me.

Even people who love the darkest and meanest fantasy will get something out of the story, and it is well worth the journey to read it.

Check Out My Other Reviews

Review – Battle Ground by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #17)

Review – The Ikessar Falcon by K.S Villoso

Review – Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Review – THE ADVENTURES OF KIRK ROGERS: INSIDE THE MOON by C.J. Boyle

“That, is the equivalent of a tar pit”

THE ADVENTURES OF KIRK ROGERS: INSIDE THE MOON by CJ Boyle is a book that I’d had in my TBR pile for a long time. I am a huge fan of classic sci-fi, humor, and over-the-top space opera action. The title and cover promised all of this and more. However, my TBR pile is a mountain and I never got around to reading it. However, I heard the author was releasing an audiobook so I decided to listen instead.

Lauren Rogers is the sister of the square-jawed Air Force pilot and astronaut-to-be Kirk Rogers. Unfortunately, she has few dreams of her own due to the fact that she’s dying of kidney failure and has been for most of her life. Circumstances change for them both, though, when she’s kidnapped by a mysterious force and finds herself in the hollow jungle-like paradise of the moon! 

Kirk, desperate to get her back, takes advantage of recovered alien technology to journey up to the mysterious alien structure that had been built long before humanity crawled out of the primordial ooze. There, they will unlock a fantastic mystery alongside their oddball and quirky associates. Hopefully before the Sun explodes in a few days. 

It’s a surprisingly more serious book than I expected. I was expecting something verging on parody but instead got a deep and thoughtful science fiction novel that explored its deliberately silly premise in a serious way. This is a story about our protagonists discovering the moon is hollow and full of alien artifacts but has a lot of fascinating personal moments between the protagonists. Rarely do I encounter that in traditional fiction let alone indie and I want to give the author props for it.

Despite Kirk Rogers being the titular character, I actually believe Lauren Rogers is the real protagonist. A character who has struggled with a debilitating and (eventually) fatal condition, she perseveres with quiet inner strength. You want her to find some kind of miracle cure inside the moon and go on to live a normal life.

There’s a lot of fun in the book as well, including plenty of references subtle and otherwise to past science fiction properties. These are never disruptive to the narrative and are special treats to those who are long term fans of genre fiction. I especially loved all the references to the old Buck Rogers TV show.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book and think fans of science fiction in general will enjoy it. The narration is done by a fantastic voice actor and while it was a bit disconcerting to have the story open on him with Lauren, he does a great job with all the other voices. I also recommend the audiobook over the ebook version due to that stellar performance.

Buy from Amazon
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SIX ELEMENTALS AUTHOR INTERVIEW – SEAN CROW

Six Elementals Author Interviews will introduce prospective readers to some of the best writers in their genre you may, or may not, have heard of, via a series of six questions. I encourage you to check out the work of these phenomenal creatives! Links to their websites and purchase links will always appear, accompanying the interview. Check them out!

Today I get the honour of speaking to Sean Crow, an amazing person and great author of epic fantasy and sci-fi!  Sean’s current published works include: Godless Lands, Valhalla Steel, Quenched in Blood, Wrath of a Hungry God, Pipes of Clan Maclaird (in the anthology Tales from the Magician’s Skull 8) and Tainted: Lineage of the Damned.

P.L.: So honoured to be able to interview you, Sean, for Six Elementals Interviews! For those reading this post who may not be as familiar with your work as I am (I read Godless Lands, and it was an amazing read) can you please tell us, in some detail, about your books, your writing style, what we can expect to read when we delve into a book written by Sean Crow?

Sean: Well, I have four books out so far and I started publishing in the summer of 2020. My work is a pretty far cry from the likes of Tolkien and Jordan, so if you love vast worldbuilding and intricate descriptions of everyplace the story takes you, then my work probably isn’t for you. That said, if you love character focused stories and moral/philosophical dilemmas in violent worlds, then I’m your guy.
 
Godless Lands and Wrath of a Hungry God: These books take place in a medieval world ravaged by a disease known as ‘the Blight’ which wiped out the vast majority of all plant and animal life. These stories follow the survivors and the generations that come after as they struggle to carve a life in a dying world.

Valhalla Steel and Quenched in Blood: Gun-running Vikings caught up in a turf war with chem-dealing Fae. This series is a combination of mythology and tech, where beings of Power hold sway over mega-corporations that rule portions of the world. Follow Valhalla Steel as they try to rebuild their people from the ashes of a brutal defeat in Europe.

Pipes of Clan Maclaird (Tales From The Magician’s Skull Magazine): A short story about a clan champion who takes on a silent youth whose ability to play the pipes belies belief.

Tainted: Lineage of the Damned: I removed this from Amazon. It was my first attempt to publish something on KDP and it wasn’t up to snuff. Loved the concept I was developing, but it can sit on the backburner for a while.

P.L.: That sounds like an amazing body of work so far, early in your writing career! How did your writing journey begin? Have you always wanted to be an author? What made you decide to self-publish?

Sean: My journey began back in my teens. I got into a little bit of trouble and ended up grounded for a few months. Sitting on a couch during winter break, unsure of what to do with myself, my father tossed me The First Chronicles of Druss The Legend by David Gemmell. That was the day my world changed and my love for literature began. I enjoyed writing and found that it came easier than most subjects in school, but I had other plans and other goals in my youth.

As we all know, most plans don’t go accordingly.
 
It wasn’t until my first child was born that I decided to take writing seriously. I cut out a lot of old hobbies that I had and focused my time developing my craft. Since then, it has become a huge passion of mine and I have absolutely loved putting my work out into the world.

I decided to self-publish after I went through the ringer of trying to find an agent or publisher interested in the novel I had completed at the time titled Gods Reborn. Learned a lot of hard lessons that way and turned to the authors I loved to read for guidance. While most never responded, Anthony Ryan and John Gwynne both gave some wonderful advice during that time. It was Anthony, who started out as a self-published author, who convinced me to go that route and I don’t have any regrets.

P.L.: Can you please share any books you’ve recently released, or are about to release, or any projects that you’re currently working on?

Sean: My most recent release was Wrath of a Hungry God which came out during the summer. At the moment I have a few irons in the fire, but my big goal is to have the last Godless Lands novel out by the summer of 2023. After that… I’ve got some dark, flintlock fantasy that I’d like to dive into, but Valhalla Steel is always an option as well. I tend to have a few books rolling around in my head, even while I’m working on a different manuscript.

P.L.: I am really looking forward to reading Wrath of a Hungry God as a follow-up to Godless Lands! Who are some of your writing influences?

Sean: As mentioned before, I am a true Gemmellite. I have read all of his books multiple times, save for the two he wrote as Harding. I’m saving those for a special occasion. When Gemmell passed, it left a hole in the literary world.

Jim Butcher was pretty impactful as well. Back when I was consuming a book every few days, I would get excited for winter because that meant another release. I’m really excited to see where he goes with his Aeronaut series.

Gwynne, Winter, and Ryan are three I came into later in life and I think they are at the top of their game. Anthony Ryan’s Covenant of Steel series, however, is easily some of the best literature on the market. He has always been a solid author, but his most recent work just shows how hard he has worked at his craft. When I read those books, I’m hooked. I haven’t felt that way since I was a teen, so I make sure to take notes.

P.L.: You and I have been fortunate enough as authors to have many author friends that we’ve met through social media. How do novice authors network, find their “tribe”, and build a community on social media? Why is this so vital? Any advice?

Sean.: That’s a tough one. I’m not sure I’m the best to give advice in that regard, so I’ll just say what has worked for me.

I’ve always felt that, if you know what you want, put in the work, and  look hard enough you’ll eventually find it. For me, part of that meant finding people willing to give honest feedback. In my mind, if I wanted to improve my craft, I couldn’t associate with ‘nice folks’ who blow smoke up my ass and tell me my work is ‘amazing’. You never improve that way. So I reached out to authors who were more successful in the indie business than I was and realized that they had a similar mindset.

Now I’m part of a great collection of authors called the Marmite Gang. I can’t tell you how helpful it is to discuss my work with people who understand the struggle and want to improve just as much as I do. Having people like that in your life is hard to come by but extremely beneficial.

P.L.: I’m honoured to get to know you and some fabulous people who’ve become so dear to me through the Marmite Gang! Marmites forever! You’ve had a lot of very popular and successful authors such as Anthony Ryan endorse your work. You’ve built strong sales, and a social media presence. How are you enjoying all the success you’ve experienced fairly early in your writing career, and how do you plan to sustain and grow this type of success?

Sean:  Well, I’ll sit back on my laurels whenever they arrive… Until then, I just keep my head down, hammer at my craft, and try to stay disciplined.

While I personally haven’t found the level of success I am aiming for, I have been happy with the victories I’ve achieved so far. I think a lot of that has to do with the rate at which I have put out content. Four books in two years has kept my name circulating in reading groups online. Bringing Godless Lands to a close should really help, as readers tend to like complete series.

Outside of that, 2023 will be my year to start setting up vendor tables at larger events. There are a few Comic Cons I have lined up and some local events that I plan on attending in the neighboring towns and cities where I live. If I can get my fifth novel out by the deadline I’ve set for 2023, I think it’ll grow my reader base significantly.

Lastly, and I can’t express this enough, I stay clear of politics on any of my social media. It’s really easy to fall into that trap, especially with how divided folks are these days, and scream into the void along with the rest, but that’s all it is. Screaming into nothing while alienating readers who would otherwise enjoy your work. I’m here to tell stories not to preach my beliefs. I think my readers appreciate that and it keeps them coming back.

P.L.: Sean, I have truly enjoyed our chat and I truly appreciate you joining me on Six Elementals Interviews! Thank you so much!

Sean: Happy to take part! Thanks P.L.

Buy Godless Lands here

https://www.amazon.com/Godless-Lands-Sean-Crow-ebook/dp/B088Z7H7PL
Buy Wrath of a Hungry God here

https://www.amazon.com/Wrath-Hungry-Godless-Lands-Book-ebook/dp/B0B5BCBKBR

Buy Valhalla Steel here
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G3QBCVD

Buy Quenched in Blood here

https://www.amazon.com/Quenched-Blood-Valhalla-Steel-Novel-ebook/dp/B0996CJ5J1

Buy Tales From The Magician’s Skull (The Pipes of Clan Maclaird) here

https://www.amazon.com/Goodman-Games-GMG4507-Tales-Magicians/dp/1956449183

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Review – Pearl by Josh Malerman

“Pearl rolled to his feet and trotted towards them.
“Fuck,” Mitch said, “He’s coming.”
“It’s just a fucking pig.” Jerry said half breathless.”

Last year, when Pearl dropped, I had been on a quest to read as many Josh Malerman books as possible. There is a sharp edge to the horror he creates, an assault on the reader’s psyche that may or may not be too far. Malerman has a deft understanding of what makes some readers climb the walls and tear at their hair in dismay. Opening one of his books is thrilling and slightly terrifying because you never know which part of your abused mind he will assault. 

Then he created Pearl. 

“Go to the farm just outside of town and you’ll hear it.

A voice. Inside your head.

Or is it?

Come to me…

Pearl never minced on the edges of horror; this is Malerman stretching his metaphorical razor-tipped claws and sinking them into your unsuspecting brain. Pearl is the stuff of childhood nightmares. 

Pearl is a pig; if you know anything about pigs, know they are crazy intelligent, massive in size, and will eat anything. They tick all the “other” boxes compared to humans. Pearl is also a pig with only one good eye, but this psychotic pig sees everything. And Pearl uses his mind to wreak havoc and control everything. 

Pearl by Josh Malerman is gory and psychotic. It touches on that part of the primal brain that hides in the corner, quivers from things bigger and worse than you, and is up to no good. The pig is a wonder of creation, so subtle, Malerman’s prose is unadorned, but explains just enough to allow the author’s imagination to take over. 

If you read this story, and I wholeheartedly believe you should, you are going to go through some shit—Because Pearl is going to get you.  

5 out of 5 gore smeared stars

 

Read our interview with Josh Malerman

Buy from Amazon
Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•Pearl•

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Stable Diffusion: AI puts “artificial” in “art” by Bjørn Larssen

Once upon a time, there was a profession that thrived. Highly valued professionals provided essential services that nobody else could, and charged for them accordingly. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, something new appeared, and things changed. People who devoted many years to perfecting their craft found themselves limited to few, mostly mundane things. The value of their work plummeted. So did their numbers. Nowadays, you can only do it if you either branch out and have other sources of income (or rich parents) or you actually want to be that starving artist.

This profession is called blacksmithing.

Before the industrial revolution, a smithy was the centre of every town and village that had one. A good sword cost a fortune; a chainmail shirt required months of producing tiny rings, then linking them by hand with tiny rivets. Today, there’s very little need for blacksmiths. A few get jobs at movie sets. Some become specialised at producing expensive, intricate swords or knives for collectors. There are still farriers who shoe horses, although mostly the horseshoes come from China. Very few are actually so good and educated that in the blacksmithing world they’re basically Gods, and can amass, oooh, up to 0.001% followers on Instagram than a Kardashian can. But really, who cares if my gate is one out of 50 thousand identical ones, when it costs me $500 rather than $5000? It’s not like anybody can tell.

Look at this guy. Holy monopoly, I so would.

 

Unfortunately, he doesn’t exist. What exists is “wide portrait of a young tattooed man in Iceland on a rainy day, wearing open leather biker jacket, longhaired, bearded, blonde; muscular, handsome, resting on a tough day, profile picture, stormy seas, documentary, oscar winning; perfect face, anatomy, eyes; skin detail, wrinkles, 8k; sharpened; high resolution, denoise”

In the style of Greg Rutkowski

In October 2022 I started to see articles about AI stealing digital artists’ jobs. Someone called Greg Rutkowski complained about it in multiple interviews. I became very curious and googled those AI websites, and found one called Stable Diffusion Web.

I couldn’t stop obsessively using it over and over, because it was hilarious. I mean… don’t you just love this Viking warrior surrounded by fire in the style of Greg Rutkowski?

The monstrosities it created “in the style of Greg Rutkowski” made me declare digital artists really had nothing to be afraid of and that he definitely got a lot of publicity from that, so well done, Greg.

I said that on October 26, 2022. Which, as I’m writing this, is two months and eight days ago. Let’s generously round that up to 10 weeks. Boy, those words aged worse than Musk’s Twitter Blue.

Here’s a “Viking warrior surrounded by fire” I generated earlier today on my own Macbook Air. (The prompt is very long, honed for days, so is the negative prompt, an option that didn’t exist when I produced the art above, but yes, the words “Greg Rutkowski” feature in it.) The word “earlier” is important.

Ten weeks later.

I’m not chuckling anymore. The lighting isn’t great (but this was earlier today, remember), the forearms and the flames don’t quite work together, it’s still not exactly what I want, but I am really not chuckling anymore at all.

 

Artists are screwed sideways with a chainsaw

As an indie fantasy author, I originally wanted to commission an illustration for the cover of Children. I looked around and found out that good artists 1) are booked for many months in advance, 2) their prices begin at $1000 if you don’t ask for too much detail. They’re popular, pricey, and busy for a reason: they’re that good, and it did not happen overnight thanks to a magical talent-sprinkling fairy.

Digital artists don’t just create fantasy book covers, of course. They work in gaming industry, both for computer and card/board games. There are graphic novels, record covers… That’s just off the top of my head (I have never paid a lot of attention to what digital artists actually do until a few months ago…) I didn’t pay $1000, partly because I didn’t have $1000, settling for a composition of stock images I put together/filtered/layered/transformed myself. If you don’t count the cost of Photoshop subscription and a few weeks of my own work I think it cost me about $100. It’s not what I originally wanted, but I’m happy with it. I have also worked as a graphic designer for over 15 years, studying my craft, practicing, learning.

Those artists have studied their craft for years, practiced, and learned too. I used to be – past tense – one of the best designers in Europe. Since my burnout ten years ago I haven’t done much apart from my own book covers and banners, but I still know what to do in order to achieve the exact result I want (unless it’s ice – you’ll see later). Similarly, those artists are in demand, because they know what to do and how to do it. A part of that $1000 is the price of the years or decades it took them to get where they are professionally.

Then, suddenly, there is a piece of software that renders (sic) them obsolete. They’re being ripped off, too. The algorithm doesn’t actually enter Greg’s brain while he is asleep, cause him to create a masterpiece and upload it online together with an invoice. The algorithms are not “artists.” They use databases of images “found” on the Internet. Rutkowski has a large portfolio to steal, I mean – learn from. My subscription to Deep Dream Generator costs $19.99 a month. Every time I produce another image Rutkowski receives $0. And so does Rembrandt, Randy Vargas, Van Gogh, Tom Bagshaw, who apparently collaborate these days (for free!) once you add all their names to the prompt – the description of what you want.

The implications of this are vast, both ethical and legal ones. First – who is the author of my Viking warrior image above that I created earlier today? Second – who is its owner?

The Blue King

We’re going very, very far back in time (one month), to December 3, 2022.

I have a very specific vision for the cover of my sixth book (I have published three so far and I’m nowhere near finishing the fourth, but apart from that). A Black man with an ice crown on his head, sitting on a broken wooden throne, crying tears of ice, in, you might have guessed, Iceland. Here’s what DALL-E gave me.

That wasn’t exactly it. Especially the ice bit. And also the crown. But apart from that, I had the pose, which I then ran through another AI website, Deep Dream Generator.

The throne changed into fur and I suddenly discovered I loved that much better. While you might notice his hands are slightly off, just a tad, he has a rather realistic face. (It helps that his eyes are shut.) I used Photoshop to get rid of the warm colours, then ran it through DDG two or three more times.

Later I added layers of ice to obscure the, uh, extremities, used filters to change his facial expression, placed an ice tear in the corner of his right eye, did the typography, logo, etc. Here is The Blue King:

There are a few things that don’t look the way I’d like them to, for instance the ice – turns out that you can be a designer for 15 years and struggle to create something looking vaguely like ice. This, however, is THE cover. This is what I want. I would never be able to explain it with words or draw a sketch myself. The only changes I need from an actual artist is to fix the hands and make the ice look realistic. Which isn’t completely unlike blacksmithing being reduced to shoeing horses.

But.

Here is my Deep Dream Generator prompt: “hyper-detailed hypermaximalist epic fantasy digital art; accurate anatomy and eyes; weary grizzled bearded scarred blackskinned king in iron crown, leather boots, fur cloak, sitting on frozen ice throne; frozen lake, frost, glacier mountains in the background; trending on artstation; oil on canvas; fantasy book cover; greg rutkowski, randy vargas, diego gisbert” I don’t remember the DALL-E prompt that gave me the original crayon drawing.

Suppose I now ask another artist, Jane Smith, to paint exactly this for me, just fix the ice and the hands. Now it’s no longer AI-generated, right? But is it original work or plagiarism? I don’t want something in the style of, I want this exact image with some touch-ups. If Jane agrees to do it and I pay her $1000, does she contact Greg, Randy, and Diego to ask how much of their style, percentage-wise, they see in this image, so that she can pay them a percentage of that $1000? How much of it should go to artists whose works trended on Artstation on December 2, 2022 around 10pm CET?

I’ve read an article suggesting that if I work with long, elaborate prompts, adjusting them, that means I am now a creative, an artist working with tools. Who defines “long, elaborate, creative” though? Should it be a particular number of words? Versions? I’ve spent a lot of time with Photoshop, surely I deserve some credit? Or should the prompts and generators get credited? If I put “illustration by Jane Smith” on the copyright page, is that really true? Deep Dream Generator’s terms and conditions are very vague about the question of ownership and can be summed up with “we’re not responsible for anything.” Can I sell this image?

Some do.

Fractal Noise

Not long ago, the cover for Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini was revealed by its publisher, Tor. It didn’t take The Internet long to figure out the illustration wasn’t human-made. (Mind, that was over a month ago. The Internet would need a bit more time now.)

Tor’s defence makes sense and doesn’t. They didn’t know it was made by AI when they bought this image from “a reputable stock house.” It’s hard to believe that having to add the other leg didn’t alert the uncredited “house designer” that maybe this wasn’t actually human-created artwork, but sure, Jan. “Due to production constraints, we decided to move on with our current cover […] Tor Publishing Group has championed creators in the SFF community and will continue to do so.” Some called this tweet “a weak apology,” but nowhere does it feature the words “sorry” or “apologise,” nor does it say this won’t happen again. There is no legal definition of “championing creators.”

But who is really at fault here? Tor bought a stock image from a “reputable stock house.” Legal. The stock house bought the illustration from a person named Ufuk Kaya. Unless that stock house explicitly states that AI-generated imagery is not allowed there, that is also legal. And now we enter the grey zone of the question whether Kaya is the owner of this image. What was entered in the prompt? Did it feature any artists’ names? Did he repaint something before selling it?

A member of Reddit’s forum (subreddit) /r/stablediffusion used a SD database created by another Redditor to generate illustrations for his game. When he moved to a gaming subreddit to show his game to people, he was yelled at for using AI illustrations. He could never afford to commission them all, even if he got a 50% discount and only had to pay $500 for each. Interestingly, this is the same argument “pirates” use to explain why they won’t pay $3 for a book. But that book already exists. Someone, say – me, spent lots of time and had lots of nervous breakdowns writing it. Those illustrations hadn’t existed before the Redditor generated them. But elements of them had.

It could be said that there is no such thing as 100% original art. My own writing is influenced by Michael Cunningham, Marian Keyes, Terry Pratchett, Joanna Chmielewska. In Why Odin Drinks I use lots of 80s pop culture references and the sequel features Queen Taylor – and as many Easter eggs (Taylor Swift’s song titles) as I can cram in without getting sued. Can I really say, though, that I am the sole creator of this 100% original work? I made up a few words, so those are definitely 100% mine. I’m also a human, though, so I deserve compensation (although “pirates” would disagree) for my work. However, I am also a human when I keep tweaking my prompt and switching models to get the just right image of my Viking surrounded by flames – like I got the just right image of The Blue King. I need to find the right combination of words in the right order, i.e. the prompt, and the right model.

Model headaches

Stability.ai, the creators of Stable Diffusion – the best known generator – have announced model (version) 2.0 not long ago, following it almost immediately with 2.1, because in their attempts to avoid anything that could lead to producing pornography they accidentally made it nearly impossible to produce an anatomically correct, fully clad human being in possession of a non-scrambled face.

Those models are trained on databases. A database is a massive collection of images. Stability.ai’s code is open-source, meaning that anybody can modify it and train it on their selection of photos. Unsurprisingly, there are already models “specialised” in porn. I’ve only seen naked adult women so far – I won’t link to the gallery (you can probably find it at /r/stablediffusion) but they’re… photographs. Child porn models either already exist, or will appear within weeks. Or days.

I have been playing with Redditors’ altered models. There is one that creates manga, another – pencil drawings, etc. The one thing they share is that the resulting images are small – 512×512 pixels, or for version 2.1 – 768×768. However, in my quest for the perfectly lit Viking I created one that I almost liked, then googled “upscaler,” doubled the resolution, put the larger image through “face restoration” and this happened:

He’s gorgeous, the quality is shockingly good, and it’s not what I want to see.

Where with The Blue King I got what I wanted and now that poses a problem, I don’t need this Viking for any particular purposes. All I want is for him to be illuminated only by a bonfire. (He’s supposed to be sitting by it, but even I have difficulties figuring out the logistics, since I want to see the face, the body, and the fire in front of him. Also, apparently “sitting” is not the word you use to make the model sit down.) I don’t want a bright studio light or daylight through trees or even a cloudy evening sky. Night and fire.

It has taken me a few days to find out (from a Reddit post, obviously) that in order to get rid of daylight Stable Diffusion 1.5 requires the exact phrase “outside at night” – not “starry night” or “midnight” or “dark night,” etc. But I already moved on from Stable Diffusion to something called Protogen V2.2, which was uploaded to the model database this morning. You remember when I said “earlier” in the beginning of this post? This image was generated during me writing the post.

He has too many fingers and that left leg is somewhat… long, but I finally got the result I wanted, which is a man at night with the only light coming from the bonfire. He’s even almost sitting! I can now boost the resolution four times, use Photoshop to remove the extra finger and shorten the leg, and run it through Deep Dream Generator, producing the perfect result. Gods know it’s taken long enough! (Two days. It’s taken two days.)

But wait. Turns out that there is also Photogen 3.4… download, install, tweak prompt, and so… this is how the quality evolved over the last ten weeks.

What will I be able to render on my little MacBook Air another month from now?!

Maybe a godsdamn anvil

Here are a few examples of what AI thinks an anvil looks like. The prompt for every single one was “photorealistic blacksmith’s anvil.” (That fairytale village is also a “photorealistic blacksmith’s anvil.”) There seems to be no combination of words that can produce a blacksmith’s hammer, an anvil, the process of forging, or the inside of the smithy. Nobody trained a model yet to do that. I will admit it’s quite a specific request and there is a chance that more people want to see naked women than anvils, but still…

BUT.

Using a model released yesterday I suddenly produced this. The first blacksmith was supposed to be holding a sledgehammer. The second – to stand outside his smithy.

Anvil or not, sledgehammer or not, those are very clearly blacksmiths wearing leather aprons. You could even argue that the first one is simply using a gas torch (this is not what a gas torch looks like).

In part two…

…of this already disturbingly long post I’ll try to cover more problems that the AI generators pose – for authors, musicians, celebrities, politicians, photographers, and you personally. By the time I get to writing it we’ll probably live in a completely different world. One where digital artists without much experience get paid $10 to remove an extra finger or shorten a leg, and some really rich authors/companies/publishers boast that they were so invested in their product they actually splashed out on a non-AI image.

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