Beth Tabler's Blog, page 167

Review – Ten Sigma by A.W. Wang

TEN SIGMA is a dark psychosexual story of a woman recruited into a super soldier serum as an alternative to dying of cancer. Mary, later renamed Brin, hates being a burden to her husband and niece but is clearly not getting any better while also inflicting deep financial woe on her family. The Ten Sigma program promises to pay off all her family’s debts and also give them a nest egg to survive what is apparently the imminent collapse of the United States.

One of my only problems with this premise is the fact that the book says “all the free stuff” is what’s caused the collapse of the United States. Ignoring the economic questions of this, I’m pretty sure that most countries get away with socialized medicine and don’t collapse. Here, it’s clear that there’s no “free stuff” for Mary regarding her cancer treatment and the plot can’t advance without her financial ruin so I’m going to say this is the book’s only plot hole.

Anyway, Mary finds herself digitally uploaded to a virtual reality world where she has to advance through the ranks of a punishing series of war games against countless scenarios. If she dies during the battle, she’s deleted from the program. This is not Lit-RPG though and it is a staggering story of psychological damage and conditioning as Mary (now Brin) has her memories erased of her past life while being turned into a murderous killing machine.

Her teammates include the psychopath Syd, the old woman now young Suri, and a deeply troubled man named Walt. Everything other than orders is gradually erased from their mind with a large focus given on the fact that they are to be rendered sexless. Removing the libido from a computer program is probably very easy but leaves lasting psychological scars as one of the primary drives of human relationships vanishes from people who were not Ace in the first place.

Much of the book is Brin’s struggle to reach Ten Sigma and “graduate” from the hideous program that seems like a combination of the SPARTAN II program from HALO and John Scalzi’s OLD MAN’S WAR. It is an objectively evil thing, but the author treats their horrific abuse dispassionately, which makes it even more effective. I got some serious SQUID GAMES vibes from the book and if you like the horrifying contests from that series then you’ll almost certainly enjoy this book.

Speaking of which, this is a book that will certainly not be for everyone. In addition to the relentless punishing violence our heroine is forced to endure, there’s also a lot of terrifying scenes dealing with sex, torture, and threat of rape. Syd is a horrific monster and the only one who can experience any form of sexual gratification, which he associates with killing as well. Charming guy. Needless to say, he tries to get our heroine into his clutches several times. If that causes you to nope the frick out then I don’t blame you.

A.W Wang does an excellent job of making you sympathize with Mary/Brin through her horrific ordeal. They have a grasp on how to make the most mundane and normal memories seem like treasures beyond price as they’re gradually slipping away in the deadening monotony of their training. If I have any complaints, it’s the fact that the program isn’t treated with quite the level of abject horror that it should be from most people, but they’ve been brainwashed to serve it so it’s understandable.

This is not the kind of novel you want to read if you don’t want to get in the absolute grimmest areas of the human psyche even with a sympathetic protagonist, but it is definitely well-written as well as exciting for those who like their science fiction dark as midnight.

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6 “Dad Bod” Books – Books With a Little Bit of Extra Padding

Whether you are someone who loves a chunky book or one who loves your tales on the slimmer side, sometimes getting into an epic 800+ page tome is a lot of fun. I approach books of this caliber on two levels. First, the obvious one, I am about to be told a tale of adventure/horror/fantasy. That is always something to look forward to. But I look forward to short books in the same way.

So what is it about these “chonky bois” that make this so much fun? It is the second reason. The journey of completion is, in itself, just as much a reward as the story itself. I have read the unabridged version of The Stand. It has an extra 600 pages in it and clocks in around 1400 pages. Did The Stand need to be this long, no? Absolutely not. Please do not bring the tar and feathers at me, sometimes King needs an editor. And this book badly needed an editor, which it received in the revised edition. But there was this extra level of reward to the fact that I read it. It was War and Peace, but for Horror, and I loved that. I remember plowing through it and my hand getting exhausted from holding the mound of dead tree shavings back that were accumulating as I walked the roads of a plague-stricken United States.

The idea for this came from a conversation that I had with authors Krystle Matar, and Justin T. Call. Both are authors of thick books.

Chonk Size - 1005 Pages Brandon SandersonThe Way of Kings

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

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Chonk Size - 1472 Pages Author Stephen KingThe Stand

Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge – Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them – and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

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Chonk Size - 1104 Pages Author Frank SchätzingThe Swarm

For more than two years, one book has taken over Germany’s hardcover and paperback bestseller lists, reaching number one in Der Spiegel and setting off a frenzy in bookstores: The Swarm.

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island’s water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean’s revenge as the seas and their inhabi-tants begin a violent revolution against mankind. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals, using them to wreak havoc on humanity for our ecological abuses. Soon a struggle between good and evil is in full swing, with both human and suboceanic forces battling for control of the waters. At stake is the survival of the Earth’s fragile ecology — and ultimately, the survival of the human race itself.
The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller. With 1.5 million copies sold in Germany — where it has been on the bestseller list without fail since its debut — and the author’s skillfully executed blend of compelling story, vivid characters, and eerie locales, Frank Schatzing’s The Swarm will keep you in tense anticipation until the last suspenseful page is turned.

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Chonk Size - 500 Pages Author Justin T. CallMaster of Sorrows

You have heard the story before – of a young boy, orphaned through tragic circumstances, raised by a wise old man, who comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil that threatens his world.

But what if the boy hero and the malevolent, threatening taint were one and the same?

What if the boy slowly came to realize he was the reincarnation of an evil god? Would he save the world . . . or destroy it?

Among the Academy’s warrior-thieves, Annev de Breth is an outlier. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the small village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers.

Seventeen years later, Annev struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When he is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must choose between forfeiting his promising future at the Academy or betraying his closest friends. Each decision leads to a deeper dilemma, until Annev finds himself pressed into a quest he does not wish to fulfil.

Will he finally embrace the doctrine of his tutors, murder a stranger, and abandon his mentor? Or will he accept the more difficult truth of who he is . . . and the darker truth of what he may become . . .

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Chonk Size - 662 Pages Author Krystle MatarLegacy of the Brightwash

John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit.

It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time.

Desperation has pulled him back to Afghanistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.

Read Our Review

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Chonk Size - 1005 Pages Author Thomas Howard RileyWe Break Immortals

A drug addict who hunts sorcerers down by tracking their magick, the most renowned swordsman no one has ever heard of, and a thieving magick-wielding woman hellbent on revenge collide during a last ditch effort to stop an insane superhuman serial killer from making himself a god.

The Render Tracers always say magick users deserve to burn. Aren couldn’t agree more, Keluwen would beg to differ, and Corrin couldn’t care less either way.

In a world where most people use swords for protection, Aren uses tools that let him see what no one else can see, and he takes advantage of loopholes that can undo magick in order to stop the deadliest people in the world. He is a Render Tracer, relentlessly pursuing rogue sorcerers who bend the laws of physics to steal, assault, and kill. But his next hunt will lead him to question his entire life, plunging him into a world where he can’t trust anyone, not even his own eyes.

When Keluwen finally escaped her fourthparents’ home and set out on her own to become a thief, she never thought she would one day be killing her own kind. She honed her magick on the streets, haunted by her past, hunted by Render Tracers, and feared by a society that hates what she is. Now she joins a crew of outcast magicians on a path of vengeance as they race to stop an insane sorcerer who has unlocked the source of all magick and is trying to use it to make himself a god.

Corrin is a sword fighter first, a drinker second, and a…well, there must be something else he is good at. He’ll think of it if you give him enough time. He is a rogue for hire, and he has no special powers of any kind. The most magick he has ever done is piss into the wind without getting any on himself. He is terrible at staying out of trouble, and someone always seems to be chasing him. When he gets caught up in a multi-kingdom manhunt, he finds himself having to care about other people for a change, and he’s not happy about it.

They are about to collide on the trail of a man who is impossible to catch, who is on the verge of plunging the world into ruin, and who can turn loyal people into traitors in a single conversation. They must struggle against their own obsessions, their fears, ancient prophecies, and each other. They will each have to balance the people they love against their missions, and struggle to avoid becoming the very thing they are trying to stop.

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Review – Seekers: The Winds of Change by Troy Knowlton

I feel like this the perfect book for readers who want to dip their toes in the fantasy genre

If there’s one thing I love about reading fantasy, it’s coming across a new to me or debut author , with a fresh voice to give to the community. Recently I was offered an ARC of Troy Knowlton’s self published debut novel in exchange for an honest review and all I can say is that I’m really glad I accepted.

Told through two main POVs, The winds of Change follows a cast of characters as they attempt to find a Conduit and stop a secret war from brewing. All the while, chaotic and relentless winds of change are blowing through the land of Tiarna, tearing through not just the landscape, but also the minds of those who inhabit it. Full of dangerous enemies, treachery, betrayal and romance, this is a solid debut from an author who I strongly feel has true potential to be a popular author in the fantasy genre.

My favorite character in this book would have to be Oren. I really admired his character arc and how he grew throughout the novel. When we first meet Oren, he is a quiet and reserved character who doubts himself and his purpose. By the end of the book we see Oren truly come into his own and his bravery and smarts really shine through. I think Troy Knowlton did some amazing character work with Oren and really explored who he was as a person. The setting was also well layered and I thoroughly enjoyed the tidbits of lore we got throughout the book. The story didn’t feel dense or overly complicated; in fact it was a pretty light read which was perfect for the tone of the book.

To be quite honest, I wasn’t the hugest fan of the romance side plots but it really didn’t deter me from enjoying the heck out of this book. Troy Knowlton knows how to make his characters POP off the page and they have real human interactions. They hurt, they love, they rage. It was fantastic to see.

One thing I wasn’t expecting in this book but that I really appreciated was the gender issues and LGBTQIA+ themes that were discussed in the book. One of our female characters is the daughter of a High Commander and as such, there are things she is expected to do and things she’s not allowed to do. However, she challenges this every step of the way and doesn’t hider her feelings on how dumb and outdated she thinks those rules are. There is also a male character who is her guard, and who secretly is gay. he is forced to hide that part of himself because there’s blatant homophobia where he’s from, but the other characters encourage him to love who he chooses and to not be shamed of his true self. there were some very good discussions about these topics littered throughout the book.

Overall, I feel like this is the perfect book for readers who want to dip their toes in the fantasy genre, or readers who like their fantasy to be more on the simplistic side. I believe Troy Knowlton shows true promise, and I am more than eager to continue this series and to pick up more of what he writes in future.

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Review – The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil by Seth MacFarlane

“Is a crime defined by the act itself? Or by the harm it does to others?”

THE ORVILLE: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL is a novella by Seth MacFarlane that is based around a really good concept and was meant to be an episode of the show. However, Covid-19 happened and they weren’t able to finish it. Seth has stated he would make it into an episode if they ever get a season four but we don’t know if that’s going to happen after New Horizons. I also think they should make some major revisions to the story if they do it.

It’s impossible to discuss the book without spoiling its major twist but it’s a good twist so if you want to be completely surprised, don’t read further. However, if you don’t think spoilers are an impediment to enjoying a story then continue on. Okay? Everyone got that? Everyone ready? Good, let’s go on.

The premise is that Otto is a young boy abandoned in America that is adopted by a German couple in the 1910s. Well, they return home and Otto is gradually radicalized by a certain National Socialist Party that proceeds to make him an SS officer. Yep, we’re dealing with Nazis here and no metaphor or symbolism. Otto is genuine scum who has a wife and child that he loves but is the kind of guy who regularly kills Jews for a living. That’s when we find out he’s lived his entire life in a holodeck. Or whatever The Orville calls their holodecks.

Yes, Otto was a baby when his parents left him in the holodeck to look after him while they were being attacked by the Krill. The world’s worst series of coincidences resulted in him ending up in Nazi Germany and becoming a pure example of what is worst in mankind. He’s a mass murderer and war criminal as well as true believer: but he’s never hurt anyone in his life.

Really, this is a fascinating story concept and actually one of the few ones I haven’t seen for something like the holodeck in Star Trek. What do you do with a person who has been living in a video game his entire life but believes he’s a killer of thousands? Is unrepentent about it? That his entire life until this point was a lie. Basically, you discover you’re in The Matrix but you’re an utter piece of crap who awakens in a Trekkian utopia.

The problem is that concept isn’t given room to breathe. We get a bunch of information on how Otto turns from a sweet kid into a Nazi but none of it is necessary. Or interesting. Half the book is about his life growing up in Pre-WW2 Germany but literally, all of this could have been done in one scene instead of five or six.

Otto has a couple of scenes where he’s upset at the Doctor and mad that the Germans lost the war but we really could have gotten a lot more into this. Really, one punch in the face and he’s starting to realize he’s a moron. However, we kind of skip over all the therapy and culture shock the guy had to go into as the book just says, “Yeah, this guy needs to be institutionalized.” I mean, no shit Sherlock, but is that really the best way to write this story’s end?

So, the book is…okay.

But underwhelming for a genuinely clever concept.

3/5

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Review – Dragons of Deceit by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

“I love this book. I love Destina, who feels real both because and despite the fact she is the dumbest person in Krynn.”

DRAGONS OF DECEIT by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the best Dragonlance book since THE SECOND GENERATION. Unfortunately, that’s saying quite a bit since that includes DRAGONS OF A SUMMER FLAME, THE WAR OF SOULS, and THE DARK DISCIPLE books. I haven’t read THE LOST CHRONICLES yet, but I feel like it is hard to capture the magic of THE DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES and DRAGONLANCE LEGENDS.

Anyway, Destina Rosethorn, my one complaint being her name sounds like it came from Harry Potter fanfic, is a young Solamnic Knight’s daughter during the War of the Lance. Her father doesn’t believe in the gods, but her mother does. After a series of unfortunate events result in Destina losing her father, castle, fiance, and self-respect, she proceeds to hatch upon a plan to use the Device of Time Journeying ot save her father from death at the High Clerist’s Tower.

Much of the book’s humor derives from the fact that Destina’s plan is utterly insane and incredibly ill-considered from beginning to end. It is also hypocritical as she spends a lot of the book talking about her disdain for magic and wizards while depending on a device that is unquestionably magic. The fact she chooses to involve the Graygem in this, which many book fans will know from Dragons of Summer Flame, is another layer of stupidity on a stupid sandwich.

This isn’t a complaint about the book because Destina’s plan is actually somewhat endearing. We’ve all lost someone and would love to see them return if we had the right magic to do so. Watching her blunder forward with not one, but two of the most powerful mystical artifacts in existence is even more humorous than Tasslehoff Burrfoot ever was. Especially when she starts mucking with the timeline like if Rosencratz and Guildenstern decided to tell Hamlet’s mother that her current husband murdered her late husband.

Speaking of Tasslehoff, much of the book is about how Destina can’t outwit him. Which is hard to really summarize the full meaning of that sentence. She.cannot.outwit.Tasslehoff. I love Destina and she’s a wonderfully fun girl but while she may have an INT score of 12 or 13, she absolutely must have either the lowest WIS score on Krynn or is consistently rolling 1’s on her Diplomacy or Sense Motive checks. Tasslehoff runs rings around her and that, honestly, is the best evidence I can think of that a character is a complete moron.

How bad is she at this? I mean, beyond trying to alter time and space with an object the gods can’t control to save her father versus, I dunno, calling her father’s ghost up to contest his will or finding Elistan or Crysania to resurrect him? Asking Astinus to confirm that her father left her keep to her rather than his evil nephew?  Straight up murdering her evil cousin and his wife? I mean, still incredibly extreme measures but a little less insane is all I’m saying. Well, Tasslehoff and she end up married. No, I’m not going to explain the circumstances.

Dragons of Summer Flame ended the Dragonlance epic in many fan’s eyes with the assumption being that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were attempting to wrap it all up before WOTC took it away from. Mostly because they’ve been trying to undo the changes to the setting for the past couple of decades. Many fans are assuming this trilogy is going to be yet another attempt and be a bit like DC’s FLASHPOINT PARADOX.

Is Dragons of Deceit going to do that? Honestly, I don’t know, but it’s heavily implied that the Second Cataclysm is something everyone wants to avert. The fact Dalamar and the other High Sorcery mages see it coming as well as desire to stop it is an argument by itself. They certainly didn’t know about it in the original timeline. It’s also described not in “oh, humanity finally can make its own way!” terms but, “Oh my god, a world without gods and magic after we just got them back? That is monstrous!” Which, honestly, I think is how they would react so no complaints from me there.

I love this book. I love Destina, who feels real both because and despite the fact she is the dumbest person in Krynn. We have way too many incredibly clever protagonists. Dungeons and Dragons was founded on people who see the Necronomicon and forget the magic words to use it safely. There’s even a nod to this when the Hand of Vecna is sold to some gullible Black Robe mages with instructions to chop parts off themselves. Yet, I felt her pain and her very real-life problems that were relatable to all of us that struggled after the death of a loved one. Plus, some old favorites may or may not be back from the dead.

4.5/5

Check Our Interview With Margaret Weis

The Books That Made Us – Time of the Twins (Dragonlance Legends) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The Books That Made – Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

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Tour – With Fire In Their Blood by Kat Delacorte

“Packed to the brim with bisexual and queer representation.”

‘Startingly original… Readers will be lured into this tumultuous world of warring families, forbidden power, and heart-searing romance’ – Lyndall Clipstone (Lakesedge, Forestfall)

From the word-of-mouth fantasy sensation Kat Delacorte – the standout debut star of 2022 YA Lit Con (YALC) – comes the first instalment in a new YA fantasy duology.

Packed to the brim with bisexual and queer representation, With Fire in Their Blood is a simmering supernatural romance set in the crumbling Italian city of Castello, where mafia clans make the rules, dark magic pulses the streets and the sins of the past threaten to consume the present. . .

When sixteen-year-old Lilly arrives in Castello, she isn’t impressed.
A secluded town in the Italian mountains is not where she saw her last years of high school playing out.

Divided for generations by a brutal clan-family war, the two halves of Castello are kept from destroying each other by the mysterious General, a leader determined to maintain order and ‘purity’. . . whatever the cost.

Lilly falls in with the rebellious Liza, brooding Nico and sensitive Christian, and sparks begin to fly. But in a city where love can lead to ruin, Lilly isn’t sure she can trust anyone — not even herself.

And then she accidentally breaks Castello’s most important rule: when the General’s men come to test your blood, you’d better not be anything more than human…

Perfect for lovers of Chloe Gong, Renée Ahdieh and V.E. Schwab, With Fire in Their Blood is quality YA storytelling at its best by an exciting new voice in YA fantasy.

Book Info

 

Genre: YA Fantasy

Length: 416 Pages

Publishing: 1st September 2022

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09LLTRMR4/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61267819-with-fire-in-their-blood

About the Author

Kat Delacorte was eleven years old when her family moved from the United States to a small town in central Italy. She soon began writing stories about her new friends developing superpowers, and she hasn’t looked back since. She graduated with a BA in History from Columbia University, and lives in Venice, Italy.

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Interview with Author Wesley Chu

“Taishi is probably my favorite character of all time, even more than Roen Tan. I have a thing for writing crotchety old people. They’re so much fun and layered, and Taishi just owns the book with her sublime skill, sharp personality, and globs of muck and tragedy that she had acquired over her years as a war artist.”

Wesley Chu is an author who needs no introduction. He has been writing in science fiction and fantasy for over a decade and is the creator of the Tao series, Time Salvager, Io, The Eldest Curses, and now the Wuxia series,  The War Arts Saga. Chu was kind enough to sit down with Grimdark Magazine and talk with us about his newest work, The Art of Prophecy, writing in existing fandoms, and so much more.

BT: In another interview , you said you enjoy adrenaline sports and extensive traveling. How are you getting your traveling and adrenaline fix lately?

Hah! That interview must have been before 2016, because I’ve since spawned two upgrades who are now six and three, so now the things that spark joy and excitement are the trivial things in life, like when my eldest successfully builds a complex Lego set (he just finished the Lego Optimus Prime! Boom!) or when my toddler forms a complex  and nuanced sentence or sleeps through the night without pissing in his sheets.

I do want to start traveling again. Things have to be different though. I’m not the same person I was even just a few years ago. I’m in a different place with kids and, ugh, responsibilities. Adventuring can no longer be stuff like summiting a mountain or riding horseback through the steppes and retrace Temujin’s journey a thousand years ago. Now it’s more like let’s go glamping or at best pitch a tent on the truck overlanding in Yosemite or Joshua Tree.

BT: Every author has different processes for writing a novel. Some start with sticky tabs, some draw on walls, and some just sit down and start writing. I am curious about your process. Can you tell me a bit about how you create a novel?

Can I tell you a bit about how I create a novel? This is a very existential question. I’m twelve books in and I’m honestly still not sure how it’s done.

The beginning of new projection is often a bundle of random energy. It’s fresh and exciting and often inspired, but it’s also a drag because you’re wading into completely unknown territory. It’s a complete blank slate, which can be exciting but also terrifying. You don’t know the characters, you don’t know the tone, you may not even be sure what the setting is. You’re probably doubting the first sentence, maybe even the first word, but don’t worry because you are one hundred precent going to be writing and rewriting that opening paragraph twenty times anyway.

I’m normally a pretty methodical outliner, but I always try to pants the first three chapters of a new book and let my freak run wild. These three chapters are when I allow myself to just write uninhibited to see what heady and toxic mixture I can create with the characters and the world. It also allows the story to set its tone with me. By allowing the characters tell me who they are, it gives them the opportunity to inform me who they are, why they’re there, and justifies their place in this ecosystem.

I’m a firm believer that nothing exists in a vacuum, even character traits. If someone doesn’t like Airedale terriers, I’m going to automatically assume he’s a terrible person, but I also want to know why he does not like Airedale terriers. The circumstances surrounding that why he doesn’t like them may influence details about him.

 

BT: What did it feel like to be a part of two long-running franchises? Was there added stress because of the die-hard fan base?

Having the opportunity to play in the sandbox of two iconic IPs was really cool experience. Their fanbases are deeply passionate, so there’s definitely  an increased pressure to do right by them. One of the things that was an amazing resource was the deep well of history these properties already had. The Walking Dead had nearly two hundred comic issues, while Shadowhunters had twelve large tomes of history. There was so much lore to draw upon. At the same time, you had to be extra careful with continuity and create conflicting issues.

BT: How did you approach writing in someone else’s world as you did with Cassandra Clare and Robert Kirkman? Did you research their style and adapt to it?

Skybound gave me full creative control over the process so I didn’t have to adapt to a particular style as long as I got the tone of TWD down. I researched by rereading all the issues of The Walking Dead, and then the story sort of told itself.

Shadowhunters was a different story. Cassie is a fantastic and creative writer, and she has created an amazing and deep interconnected world filled with these strong relationships between the characters. To write in that universe, you really had to study these characters and relationships pretty thoroughly.

BT: You have written in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Which genre do you feel most at home in?

Middle grade, easily. I learned English reading fantasy books, but the source of my love for reading stemmed from all those amazing middle grade books I read as a kid. One of these days, I’m going to scratch that itch and try my hand at a cool middle grade book.

BT: You have talked in the past about your journey to represent stronger female roles in your novels; based on the characters in Art of Prophecy, you have come very far on that journey. Would you care to share some thoughts on that process?

I don’t intentionally gender my characters until I start writing them down. They sort of tell me on their own who they want to be. Certain characters were, of course, intentional. For example, I absolutely wanted the older female master and the younger male student dynamic, which I always thought was underserved in today’s stories. Other than Taishi and Jian, however, everyone else sort of volunteered their gender.

BT: Clearly, not every story beat you think of makes it into a book. Can you tell us about a scene you had to mull over, and eventually, you had to “kill your darling?” Why did you ultimately decide to remove it?

I’ve killed a lot of darlings over the course of twelve books, but the first and most painful ‘kill the darling’ was with my debut novel, The Lives of Tao. I had submitted the novel through an one-month open submission period with Angry Robot. They had 996 entries that one month of which five received publishing contracts.

The editor at Angry Robot contacted me regarding their interest in Tao. They had a few notes they wanted me to make though, with one removing an entire plot line in the book, which effectively was like cutting and rewriting a third of the book. I loved that plot line, but I also understood the logic behind it, so I killed that darling and rewrote that plot as summary snippets at the beginning of every chapter. In the end, it was the right decision for the book, but it was definitely a tough one.

BT: When you started out as an author, you did not know industry schmoozing was a thing until you went to your first Worldcon. What advice would you give to an aspiring author who has not yet published their first book and does not know what to say or how to schmooze?

Just be cool and respectful Everything else will fall in place. Careers may not be made at a con, but they can get wrecked before they even begin. Make friends, and understand that publishing isn’t a zero sum game. The only real competition anyone has is with themselves.

Bring lots of hand sanitizer, comfortable shoes, and have fun.

BT: Can you tell us about your new novel, The Art of Prophecy?

I could spectacularly fail at describing the elevator pitch to you, because I can’t hand-sell my own books to save my life, but The Art of Prophecy is my most personal work. That’s saying something considering I modeled Roen Tan after myself. Quick segue, when my English Professor father read an early draft of Lives of Tao, he wrote in his notes, “Son, the book is good, except there’s an issue with your main character. He’s likable, but not very likable….is he modeled after you?”

The Art of Prophecy is not only my love letter to the wuxia genre, but also the final product of all of my passions throughout my life squeezed into one epic fantasy. It’s the story I deeply wanted to tell ever since I began writing, combining elements of wuxia and humor, honor and friendship, and high fantasy blended in an Asian setting but in an extremely specific tone that is wholly my most natural voice. This is the most ‘me’ book I’ll ever write.

BT: Did you dream up the plot of Art of Prophecy?

It is true I dreamt the plots for my Tao and Time Salvager series. The idea of Tao came from my alarm clock when my I was training to hike Kilimanjaro. I was in one of those semi-conscious states when the 5AM alarm rang and I dreamt that it was a life coach in my head. With Time Salvager, I had a dream that I was a time traveler who arrived on the Titanic to steal the Hope Diamond. I spent several days on that ship befriending passengers knowing they were all doomed to die, and that I couldn’t do anything about it.

The Art of Prophecy, however, was a dream in the sense that it was a goal. I wanted to tell a wuxia story ever since I began writing. I broke into the industry with science fiction, but the framework around The Art of Prophecy had been simmering in my head since The Lives of Tao ‘s debut in 2013. At the time I had to stay on the science fiction track for a while and, honestly, I wasn’t ready to tackle this project. It wasn’t until 2019, after I had finished the two Shadowhunter and Walking Dead book that I felt like I was finally ready, experienced, and skilled enough to tell this story properly

BT: The cover of The Art of Prophecy is beautifully done, perfectly exemplifying the story’s mood and aesthetic. Were you a part of the art selection process for the cover design?

First of all, big props to Tran Nguyen for the front cover. It’s a beautiful work of art, and such a great ambassador for the book. I also want to credit Sunga Park, the artist who created the map for the series. Both of them just completely nailed it.

As for being part of the art selection, the team at Del Rey consulted with me every step of the way. I’m a fan of subject matter expertise, especially when it comes to artwork. I might have an idea of what I want, but what’s cool inside my head and how it ends up looking on paper are usually vastly different things. There are other factors to take into consideration like how the cover would look on a kindle, or whether the thumbnail of the image would translate well. But really, I also recognize that I often have questionable taste.

Fortunately, Cassie Gonzalez, the art director, and Tricia Narwani, my editor, were the ones who oversaw the process and gently guided and saved me from myself. They listened to my wild suggestions, and reigned me in when I got stupid. It was an extremely collaborative effort from beginning to end.

 

BT: Tell me about Jian as a character. His stubborn nature must have been fun to write about, especially juxtaposed against Taishi.

Jian is probably the most honest character in The Art of Prophecy. Does he have vices? A mile of them. Is he arrogant and haughty while deeply insecure and stubborn? Sure. He’s probably like how any other teenager would be in his position. What makes Jian unique, however, is underneath his layers of bad nurture and entitlement, he’s got a considerate heart and a good instinct for justice. He’s a good kid. I like writing good kids.

Taishi is probably my favorite character of all time, even more than Roen Tan. I have a thing for writing crotchety old people. They’re so much fun and layered, and Taishi just owns the book with her sublime skill, sharp personality, and globs of muck and tragedy that she had acquired over her years as a war artist.

In many ways, Jian and Taishi are opposites, so it was a blast to put them in the same room and let them be themselves.

 

BT: This story is written in three distinctive voices. Was it easy to switch between them? Or did you spend one day writing Jian, another as Taishi, and so on?

I hear character voices in my head, so it’s usually not too difficult to settle into their narrative and tone. They just start talking, and we just pick up where we left off. I’ve tried writing both ways. Sometimes, I just draft straight through chapter by chapter. Other times I will write an entire act one character at a time. Sometimes, for clarity and continuity’s sake, I’ll write in one character’s POV for several chapters. Other times, I’ll go straight chronological by chapter, which allows me to keep my tabs on the pacing. Both methods have their merits.

 

BT: Now that Art of Prophecy is releasing, what is next on the docket?

First on the docket is handing in the sequel to The Art of Prophecy. That should be done by the time you read this (hopefully!).

Next on the docket after finishing a book is usually a couple of months off. I always crunch near the completion of the book, so I’d like to pay my family back for that lost time. After that, I usually need to alternate IPs as a palate cleanser, so I may finally try that middle-grade book that keeps kicking around my head. I also need to finish the Io books, so we’ll see. It should be a fun few years!

Interview Originally Appeared in Grimdark Magazine

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Review – The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

“He remembered the moment when his thoughts had inverted themselves—that shift from not being able to please everyone to not trying—and the way that change had enabled him to see past the maneuverings and histrionics of the representatives to the deeper structures of the problem; it was the same with the Corazhas.”

THE GOBLIN EMPEROR by Katherine Addison is a book that I’ve had on my TBR list for some time but never quite got around to actually reading. I am regretful of this because this is a book that reads easily, was consistently entertaining, and is wholly unlike the vast majority of fantasy that I have read. It is a little steampunk, a little Netflix’s THE CROWN, and a bit of GAME OF THRONES on top but remarkably nonviolent or falling on traditional fantasy tropes. The two races may be elves and goblins but they are wholly unlike their traditional depictions in fantasy.

The premise is that the Emperor of Elfland has been killed alongside all but one of his heirs: Maia, the half-goblin Prince that was banished to the outskirts of the Empire from the day he was born. Crowned Emperor mostly because he’s smart enough to realize that if he’s not before someone objects then he’s likely to become a loose end, Maia proceeds to deal with all of the issues of running a government despite the fact that he was never properly educated on how. His story is a bit of a combination of Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, and a handful of other unexpected monarchs.

Before I continue, I should point out that Katherine Addison does something clever here and makes it clear that Elf and Goblin are pretty much just human beings. They live the same way, they are differentiated primarily by skin tone, and have no appreciable biological differences. I feel she did this as a way to play with readers’ expectations.

Certainly, I’ve long believed the only good goblin is a dead goblin but I’ve also noted that plenty of writers have picked up on the Master Race overtones some people ascribe elves. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF ELVES was something my gaming group nicknamed “Mein Alf” with its ludicrous over-the-top portrayal of sidhe superiority while SKYRIM outright made the High Elves into Nazis. Here, they’re more like a combination of the British Empire and Hapsburg Empire. There’s a lot of racism and sexism but the primary quality of

Maia is that he is the Royal Heir (and later Emperor) in everyone’s eyes.

Maia is an excellent character and painfully relatable to anyone who suffers social anxiety or is of an introverted bent. He wants to be the nice guy in a society that is founded on hierarchy, misogyny, and racial supremacy but that turns out to be harder than it sounds. He’s also terrified of his former teacher who, ironically, he could have thrown out a window with a word and no one would care.

It’s a time of change in his society with airships, pneumatic tubes, and other devices as well as the beginnings of anarchist as well as socialist movements. Nevertheless, educating noble women is still unheard of and there’s no sign of any sort of Parliament. It is an absolute monarchy and the buck stops with Maia. It’s a subtler version of steampunk but one that does deal with the changing of the world. Ironically, Maia being completely uneducated about what he’s supposed to be doing as a royal allows him to avoid some problems opposing the changes that got other monarchs in RL killed (and may have gotten his relations slain).

The book is almost completely lacking in violence and is really about the troubles of administration. It’s really much closer to THE CROWN and VICTORIA than GOT but that’s hardly a bad thing and helps distinguish it. There are some things that I think certain readers will object to. Katherine Addison fully embraces “weird fantasy names vs. normal names” when I usually prefer the Joe Abercrombie alternative of, “call a priest a priest and a horse a horse.” The names are also all but unpronounceable and bizarre to even look at. It wasn’t impossible to read but occasionally verged on the overwhelming: the Arch-Prelate of Almo speaking to Emperor Maia Drazhar, Edrehasivar Zhas, seventh of that name.

On a slightly more critical note, I wish the women of the book hadn’t been regulated to the role of wife, mother, daughter, or potential mistress as their only real roles. That seems to be a plot point, though. The book’s pace is very slow and more interested in soaking you up in the atmosphere than any plot developments, which isn’t a bad thing. I think some readers will also have an issue with the fact that Maia has a somewhat easy time of it with advisors who are mostly on his side and the right thing usually being the moral thing. I’m okay with this message, though, and have no problem with not every good king ending like Robb Stark or Tommen.

In conclusion, I think this is the best book I’ve read this year and that is high praise given I read FEVRE DREAM and ANNO DRACULA just this past month. This is a strong story that hits on a lot of beats I enjoyed and doesn’t read like the majority of fantasy out there. It’s a comedy of manners, only the stakes are the throne and the life of whoever sits on it.

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Interview with Foz Meadows, Author of Strange and Stubborn Endurance

“Stolen me? As soon to say a caged bird can be stolen by the sky.”

Foz Meadows is Hugo award, Nora K. Hemming Award, and a Ditmar award for their essays, reviews, short fiction, and stories. They have appeared in everything from Uncanny Magazine to The Huffington Post. Foz will be releasing their queer fantasy novel A Strange and Stubborn Endurance in August.

It was an absolute treat to talk to them and find out a bit about what makes inspires them.

[BT] I read that you decided at age 12 to become a writer. How did that happen? What led you to that discovery?

[FM] It’s hard to remember my exact thought process, but I’d been writing stories for fun since I was six or seven, and at a certain point, I realized that was a job people had, which meant I could do it, too. I was one of those kids who was always reading, always writing, and while I went through periods of wanting to do other things – most notably archaeology and journalism – it was always as well as, not instead of. It probably helped that I grew up in a house full of books: my parents both wrote for a living, and they always encouraged me, so it never felt unachievable. But at the same time, I had no idea how the industry worked, which was its own learning curve once I got older!

[BT] Which stories have had a considerable effect on you? I know you are a fan of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison; who else do you love?

[FM] I’d be here for days if I tried to list everyone, but some of my favourite authors right now are Martha Wells, N.K. Jemisin, K.J. Charles, Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Yoon Ha Lee, Lois McMaster Bujold, June Hur and Django Wexler. At this point, there’s so much brilliant work being written in SFF that I feel like everything I read is affecting me, because I’m constantly in awe of the field. Tamsyn Muir’s use of language and voice in the Locked Tomb series, Shelley Parker-Chan’s incisively mirrored internalities in She Who Became The Sun, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s nuance and versatility, Lee Mandelo’s sense of place and deep understanding of people – it’s all just breathtaking. I’ve been reading Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s work as the installments come out in English – I did try the unofficial translations, but I struggle to read long works on my phone – and there’s these moments with her characterization where I want to bow down, it’s so good. Right now, I’m reading an ARC of The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon and it’s just phenomenal: the prose, the pace, the concept. I’m spoiled for choice!

[BT] You have a deep love of webcomics. Which one is your favorite, and why?

[FM] Oh man, webcomics! There’s a few I’ve been reading for literally twenty years now, which feels insane to say, because what even is linear time? Of the ones I follow currently, I don’t think I could pick a favourite, because they’re all too different; I really love Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas and Dresden Codak by Sen Diaz,but if we’re including comics that have wrapped up, I think my all-time favourite is Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu, which aside from being a truly wonderful story is also responsible for getting me into ice hockey.

[BT] What is the biggest difference between writing Solace and Grief and The Key to Starveldt to now with A Strange and Stubborn Endurance?

[FM] Honestly, the biggest difference is who I am as a person. I started writing Solace & Grief in 2007 aged 21, which means there’s fifteen years of life experience between me-then and me-now; coincidentally, we’re also coming up on my fifteenth wedding anniversary. Since Solace, I’ve moved internationally three times, lived in four different countries, become a parent, figured out some gender stuff, had my health get fucked up, clawed it back, and been through an arguable rollercoaster re: the industry and my place in it. I’m a stronger writer now than then, which feels trite to say on one level – I’ve had an extra decade and a half to work on my craft; you’d hope I would’ve improved a little! – but it’s also because I know myself better. I understand what I want to write and why in a way I didn’t back then, not because me-then had no convictions, but because me-now has had longer to develop them and figure out how they intersect with fiction. Which is funny, because inevitably, me-now will eventually become a different me-then to look back on. You know? There’s no end point to identity any more than there is to craft; it’s just a mix of changes all the way down, some big and some incremental, until we all turn into Theseus’s ship.

[BT] You are a lover and prolific writer of fanfiction. What was your first brush with fanfiction? And how has fanfiction influenced your work as an author?

[FM] Way back in the mists of early adolescence, long before I ever knew there was a word fanfiction, I co-wrote Zelda: Ocarina of Time fanfic with my friends, though I can’t now recall if this came before or after writing Final Fantasy VIII fanfic for myself. Either way, it was never posted anywhere; it was just for us, because we had feelings about the characters in the games we played and felt moved to tell our own stories. As an adult, I still had the same impulses, but I’d lost the sense of play I’d had in my tweens and teens that made me feel it was something I could indulge in outside of daydreaming on the bus to work, so I didn’t do anything with it. And then – and this is basic, I know, but basic is basic for a reason – I wound up in the Supernatural fandom, saw what friends and fellow fans were making, and realized, “Hey, I can do that!”

I posted my first fic to AO3 in 2014, and that opened the floodgates. Sharing in a big fandom like that, writing things specifically because a single friend wants to read them or because you desperately want it to exist and nobody else has done it quite right yet – it was honestly a transformative experience. It made me completely rethink the way I wrote, not just in terms of showing me that I could write romance as a central narrative focus – and more, that I enjoyed writing romance as a central narrative focus – but by totally recontextualizing my understanding of tropes. Once I’d learned what tropes were and how they applied to SFF, I’d honestly been kind of paralyzed by it, because I’d started thinking tropes were the same as cliches – that is, simplistic concepts to be avoided rather than distilled descriptions of common narrative building blocks – and been struggling to avoid them, which isn’t actually possible. And then fanfic came along and made it clear that none of us is a creative island. You don’t have to find some totally unique, hitherto untapped perspective or develop a brand-new concept of language or voice or setting in order to be original; you just have to write as yourself, giving your own perspective on the ideas that interest you, where an interest can be anything from a deeply-felt political passion to a random thing that makes you happy. It was just… nice, to be reminded that stories – and the act of writing them – can be joyful, and that their joy doesn’t detract from or come at the expense of depth. We can all contain multitudes.

[BT] Which fandoms are you a fan of?

[FM] Right now, my main fandom is still The Untamed, aka Chen Qing Ling, the live action adaptation of Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It’s such a rich, powerful story with so much to say about people, power, violence, history – every time I come back to it, I find something new. I’m also completely obsessed with Beyond Evil, aka Goemul (Monster), a Korean crime drama; it subverts and critiques the genre in a way that makes me feral, and the chemistry between the lead actors – and the performance of Shin Hakyun in particular – is phenomenal.

[BT] Can you tell us about your newest novel, A Strange and Stubborn Endurance?

[FM] It’s a queer fantasy romance centered on the diplomatic marriage between two noblemen: Velasin vin Aaro, who’s from the homophobic nation of Ralia, and Caethari Aeduria, from the more liberal nation of Tithena. Vel, a gay man, is originally slated to marry Cae’s sister, but when he’s outed under ugly circumstances, the Tithenai envoy proposes that he marry Cae instead. Though Vel’s father is opposed to the new arrangement, as the alternative is to let the alliance fail, he allows it to go ahead, though not before effectively disowning his son. So Vel starts out the story in a very dark place, but his arc is ultimately one of healing – and at the same time, there’s political shenanigans afoot when he gets to Tithena, because not everyone is thrilled about the alliance.

[BT] What was the genesis for the creation of A Strange and Stubborn Endurance?

[FM] I started writing the first draft in 2015, after I’d handed in my edits for An Accident of Stars, but before I was set to start work on A Tyranny of Queens, when I had a free moment and my brain, somewhat predictably, leapt at the chance to work on something new. I’d been enjoying writing queer romance in a fanfic context, so I wanted to try my hand at something original in a fantasy vein, and this was what came out. I didn’t plan the story: I just opened up a new document and Vel’s voice flowed onto the page, and suddenly I had this whole concept in my head that needed a home.

[BT] How did you select the name of the novel?

[FM] The original working name for the book was The Killing Choice, in reference to a fictional queer fantasy novel I made up to include in a Supernatural fanfic. I wasn’t trying to write the story as described in the fic so much as riffing off the name I’d given it, and in the end, the title didn’t fit. So I went back into the text to look for inspiration, and settled on A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, which is what Vel is described as having at one point, and which feels much more representative of the story.

[BT] How did Velasin vin Aaro’s character come about? What was his inception?

[FM] Honestly, he just showed up! I started writing and there he was, which is how it often feels when my creative hindbrain gets an idea but doesn’t deign to enlighten my conscious mind about all the underlying hows and whys. There’s just something there, and I know it’s mine, but it’s come from the black box part of my brain rather than the cockpit, if that makes sense, and when that happens, it’s generally best to just run with it.

[BT] A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is a lot of things: a love story, a story about healing, friendship, cultural roles and the damage they can do, and recovery from trauma. How did you balance everything so well? Did the story organically grow as you wrote it?

[FM] I do sometimes plan out my novels, but this one was purely organic. I wrote the first half in about two months, sending day by day updates to my friend Liz Bourke, who was cheerleading me through it and continually asking for more – but then I had to stop and work on A Tyranny of Queens, for which I was contracted at the time, and after that, life got in the way for a while. I kept nibbling at it and tweaking the early sections over the next few years, but I didn’t actually come back and finish it until 2020 – at which point, the whole second half came out in about three months. So depending on how you measure it, the book either took five months or five years to write!

[BT] What is next for you? What have you been working on?

[FM] The first book in my Manifold Worlds duology, An Accident of Stars, is getting rereleased in June, which is really exciting, and in addition to working on the sequel to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, I’ve got a novella, Finding Echoes, coming out from Neon Hemlock in 2023. There’s also another couple of novels on the backburner, one of which I’m particularly eager to get to; working on it is going to be my reward for finishing the Endurance sequel. It’s a sort of reverse murder mystery in a setting where magic comes from being touched by gods, and I can’t wait to finish it!

The interview originally appeared in GdM

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Review – VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: VOL. 2: THE MORTICIAN’S ARMY by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, and Tini Howard

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: VOL. 2: THE MORTICIAN’S ARMY by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, and Tini Howard is the second installment of the entertaining graphic tie-in to the World of Darkness gameline. It finishes up the main story started in Winter’s Teeth and while there is a three issue follow-up, I think this is mostly a complete arc by itself.

For those unfamiliar with that, well, this isn’t the comic for you. But for those who remembered the Nineties, you might recall a Goth themed tabletop roleplaying game called Vampire: The Masquerade. It is a game about the world being controlled by vampires who keep their existence secret while feuding with one another.

The premise of the comic line is former Anarch vampire, Cecily Bain, has adopted a stray vampire named Alijandra. The city is under assault by a group of hunters called the Mortician’s Army. Cecily has become the scapegoat for the murder of both the Prince of the city as well as everything else going wrong as her (former) best friend, Calder Wendt, is trying to impress a visiting undead dignitary. Simultaneously, a group of Anarchs led by a Nosferatu named King Rat and a Thin Blood named Colleen Pendergrass are struggling to escape their own hunter problems.

The politics and writing of these comics is really impressive. Tim Seeley is already the author of one of my all-time favorite comics with Hack/Slash. However, this is something that is almost up there. I think the only reason it’s not is the lack of gratituous fanservice. Which I probably shouldn’t admit to but, what can I say, I really love me some sexy vampires and would have appreciated some more here.

The art is, as always, fantastic and I love the Gothic Punk sensibility that has been updated to the 21st century. The vampires are a wide variety of appearances with very few being the impossibly pretty people of paranormal romance. While I miss the fanservice this entails, everyone looks like they might actually be able to pass themselves off as human beings.

The action is also good with the use of Disciplines as well as weapons being something that gives all of the violence a hardened realistic edge to it. Humans are very squishy when exposed to the Kindred and I like that element. We only have the advantage against the undead until we squander it out of pride or a belief in “fair” combat.

The ending is suitably bleak and ironic with it having much of the appeal to be found in a Vampire: The Masquerade story. The worst are destroyed, the good are slain, and the only slightly evil are allowed to prosper. I wish this had remained an ongoing but, for what it is, it is an exceptionally good story.

4/5

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