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An Interview with Scott Drakeford, Author of Rise of the Mages

Scott Drakeford’s highly anticipated release of Rise of the Mages has many fantasy lovers buzzing about the intricate storytelling, revenge plot, and gripping fight scenes. Scott was kind enough to sit down with us and tell us a bit about Rise of the Mages and the path he took to get the story released.

[BWG] First, thank you so much for taking some time and answering these questions for us! Rise of the Mages is a fantastic book, and I am happy we get a chance to talk a bit about it with you. 

Thank you! I’m honored by your interest in my work. Thank you for giving me and Rise of the Mages a shot.

[BWG] You have a degree in mechanical engineering, which uses a different kind of logic and creativity than writing and story creation. Do you feel like your experiences in mechanical engineering complement your ability to write and put scenes together?

Honestly, engineering was extremely boring for me. I thought I’d get to solve problems and build awesome machines, but it was so much more mundane than that. Like, imagine studying advanced math and science for years and years just to end up on a team of people designing screws or fancy zip-ties as wiring harnesses. And that’s your life. You spend years calculating the best material, size, thread count and pitch. Then you pray to whatever god you believe in that when the rocket/car/plane/whatever blows up, it was something else that failed, not your screws. God, I hated it.

I did, however, learn to pay great attention to detail. I learned to value extreme consistency, continuity, and logic. Engineers have great use for creativity in solving problems or applying technology but have no use for the implausible. I think that heavily influenced my brand of writing, and certainly it affected how I write. With everything from my fictional magic system and characters to my plot and prose, logic and details matter. Maybe a little too much.

[BWG] What is a significant way Rise of the Mages changed since the first draft? Did the story organically evolve as you worked on it?

This book changed a lot over the years. I learned to write with the first ten or so drafts of this story that only I ever saw. I learned to edit and rewrite when I let my wife, dad, and brothers read it to tell me what worked and didn’t. That probably resulted in another draft or five. I then did another three or four drafts with my awesome agent Matt Bialer and his talented assistants (one of whom is now a bestselling author). Then I did another two or three drafts with my editor Jen and her awesome team (thanks Molly!). It has been a long journey, a ton of work, and I’ve had a lot of help.

Another big factor in the evolution of the story was my own evolution as a person. I changed a ton over those ten years. I completely switched careers, had a child, left a religion, and changed my entire worldview. We moved across the country, and I quit my job two years ago to be my child’s primary caretaker during the pandemic (poor kid) so my wife could take her dream job.

So… yeah. Rise of the Mages evolved A TON as I evolved both as a writer and as a person. I would guess that every single word in the book has been rewritten at least two or three times. I even threw away the middle 50% or so and completely replaced it with a new story at one point. Just about the only constants from beginning to end of the process were Emrael, Ban, and Jaina’s roles as core characters.

[BWG] Did you have to do any research for the story? If so, did you go down any interesting rabbit holes?

I did some research on earth’s magnetic field, what we think causes it, and why ours is far too weak to use as an energy source. I learned how radios in particular work on a theoretical level, which is neat. Human discovery of electromagnetic energy and subsequently using it to create technology like radios, televisions, the internet, etc, is just crazy when you take time to consider all the different discoveries that had to happen. For all the current reasons to doubt the merits of humanity in general, our history of progress is amazing. I hope to see many more breakthroughs in my lifetime. I just hope we can continue to stay ahead of our mistakes.

[GdM] What was your writing schedule like when writing Rise of the Mages?  

Well, it has changed a lot depending on my life circumstances. I started writing in the early evenings when I didn’t have a child. In the thick of raising a child and working long hours at a corporate job, I wrote a lot at lunch when I had time to take lunch off-site. Basically, anytime a normal person would be relaxing or socializing, I tend to be writing, editing, or similar.

[BWG] Scott Drakeford is a nom de plume and an ode to your father. How did he influence you and turn you into a reader?

 Well, my dad reads more than just about anybody I know, and certainly faster than anyone I know. A 400-page book probably takes him a few hours at most. When I was about eleven years old, he convinced me to read The Belgariad. Ever since, we’ve shared a love of reading, fantasy in particular. We still share books and recommendations often.

[BWG] The Rise of the Mages reads like the classic fantasy I read and was excited about growing up. Books like The Belgariad and the Wheel of Time had a significant impact on me as a reader. What classic book influenced you as a writer?

I have to tell you, I’m ecstatic to hear that Rise of the Mages evoked some of the same feelings as The Belgariad and The Wheel of Time. Those two series were really key in my formative adolescent years. I’m pretty open about this, but the Wheel of Time in particular became my happy place. I was very, very into that series and I still love it.

L.E. Modesitt’s Recluce series is another that I consider “classic” that I’ve been reading for decades. He’s very, very good at crafting an entire life for his characters, and at showing the everyday details that go into even figures who end up changing their world. One of the best authors out there.

[BWG] I read that Rise of the Mages took a total of ten years from start to finish. Can you tell me about the beginning? What was the impetus of the series?

 There are many catalysts that resulted in different characters, storylines, and themes in Rise of the Mages. But the thing that got me to put pen to paper in the first place was simply feeling stuck in a career I didn’t love (see: engineering discussion above). I needed an outlet for creative expression. I needed to feel like I was creating something that mattered. And few things have mattered more to me than the wonderful stories that have inspired and influenced me throughout my life. So shortly after I graduated from college in 2012, I started writing the story that would become Rise of the Mages.

[BWG] What did you do to celebrate finishing the final draft of Rise of the Mages after a decade of hard work? 

Well, in publishing it’s really difficult to ever really feel like anything is truly done, I think. When my editor told me I couldn’t change things anymore, it was honestly kind of painful. I did buy a bottle of Glenlivet 18 that I opened that night, but it didn’t feel as celebratory as I would have liked. I’m hoping launch day will be more fun.

[BWG] Can you tell us a bit about the plot of Rise of the Mages?

Two brothers attend a school for engineers and military leaders. A powerful political leader from a neighboring province seizes the school in order to use their technology to bolster his own international war efforts against a technologically advanced nation, Ordena. One brother, an engineer, is captured and enslaved. The other brother, a student of military arts, sets out to rescue him.

It’s a story about relatively powerless individuals banding together to fight against the injustices of the current power structure. Of course, there are political, social, and personal complexities involved, but that’s the primary purpose of the plot. Rage against the machine, as it were.

[BWG] Rise of the mages  has an elaborate magic system. Can you talk a bit about its creation and how it works?

The magic system in Rise of the Mages is very closely related to the primary energy source, called infusori, that powers most of the world’s technology. I’m far from being an expert on biology, chemistry, or physics, but the roles of chemical energy and electromagnetic energy (and even the processes that convert one into the other) were something I wanted to explore.

In Rise of the Mages, the core idea is: what if humans evolved to be able to metabolize electromechanical energy in a similar fashion to our chemical metabolism? And further, electromagnetism being inherently less contained in nature, what if humans could use said energy to affect the world around them?

I think the basic laws of physics as we currently understand them in our world play very well here with what makes an interesting magic system in second-world fantasy, and that just felt right to me. I had to take some further liberties, of course, but I like that the tech and magic are at least somewhat close to obeying the natural laws that govern our current reality.

[BWG] Along with an intricate magic system, you also have political machinations and upheaval of warring factions and cultures. I found the Ordenan culture fascinating. Did you model it after any known cultures or histories? 

The Ordenans are probably my favorite culture as well, and they feature more and more heavily as the series goes into books two and three. I’ll try not to spoil too much for you, but where this first book is very solidly an action/adventure quest, the following books expand to incorporate more political intrigue and larger-scale conflicts.

The inspiration for Ordena wasn’t so much any single culture in our own world as much as it is a symbol of imperialism and the cultures throughout our world’s history that have propagated such philosophies and policies. You could point at Britain, ‘Merica, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Rome, the Crusaders, Japan, China, the Soviet Union, France, the Ottomans, the Egyptians, even ancient American societies; really any civilization that reached a point where they had the power to take advantage of another population, or eradicate them to take what they had, or even those who engaged in such conquest for religious reasons. Ordena is a little bit of all of those: their religion is centered on preserving and furthering ancient knowledge that they believe to be from their two Deities, the Silent Sisters. A big part of that is a holy war against another civilization they believe to be evil, and to some extent they are right. But I hope to explore how such stark beliefs and “justified” conflicts often turn out to be not so purely motivated after all, and why much of such conflict is due to a willful misconstruction of “the enemy” – optics, as it were – to hide the true motives.

Or are their gods really behind all of this mess? Read and find out, I guess. [image error]

[BWG] Have you worked out how many books will be in Age of Ire?

 For now, it will be three books. Book two has been written and is in revisions – it doesn’t have a firm pub date just yet, but will likely be out sometime in 2023. Book three should close this phase of the story, and in a relatively timely manner.

[BWG] One of the most compelling characters in the story for me was Jaina. She was both a master of fighting and war and a teacher and a devout believer; she had a significant depth of character. Was she modeled after anyone specifically? How did her character come about?

I try very hard not to project myself too much on any one character, and I similarly try not to model any given character after a particular person in my life.

That said: I can’t speak for other authors, but I believe that each of my primary characters logically must come from somewhere inside me, or at least from somewhere inside my conscious (or unconscious) experienced reality. At the very least, it’s easier for me to write convincingly when I understand motivations and personalities on some level.

As for Jaina’s character? I can be a very stupid person on occasion, and particularly in my younger years, I was prone to strong (often incorrect) opinions and brash actions. Intelligent, strong, amazing women in my life have always been there to show me a better way, to provide an example of leadership, accomplishment, and relationships done right. My mother and my wife, in particular, are just unreasonably good at life and I am so lucky to have both of them in mine. But I’ve had incredible grandmothers, aunts, female cousins, bosses, mentors, just so many women that have been anchors at various stages of my life. Jaina is all of them, and none in particular.

She is my hero, and so are the women in my life.

[BWG] Finally, what exciting things are you currently working on? 

Book two revisions! I really love how the second book turned out, but now it’s time to make sure that my editor, agent, and all of my beta readers can connect with it as well. I find it best to edit myself to at least the point that grammar is correct, the prose flows well at all levels, and at least the core elements of character and plot are in place and work for me. Then Kailey (my wife), Matt (my agent), Jen (my editor), my dad, my three brothers, and a small group of other superb beta readers all get their turns tearing my soul to shreds. Then I rebuild myself and my book, and hopefully, neither process takes too long.

Interview Originally Appeared in Grimdark Magazine

READ RISE OF THE MAGES BY SCOTT DRAKEFORD

 

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The Books That Made Us – Author Influences by Janny Wurts

Ground Floor

Ground floor, as a child, I would have become a non-reader if not for Walter Farley’s Black Stallion series. As a horse crazy kid in love with the outdoors, those books gave me a reason to read, and opened the gates to a lifelong passion, though as a third grader I had to sneak into the teen section after school hours to check them out. Fairy tales and myths were my first introduction to magical reading, and I could not get enough of that.

After that, I literally read the fiction library in the small town where I grew up. Every sort of fiction: thrillers, historicals, mysteries, authors from every walk of life and background, if the printed page had a story, I devoured it. I read everything from Irving Stone’s Agony and the Ecstasy to Costain, Mary Stewart, Howard Pyle, Robert Louis Stephenson, Mary Renault, Morris L. West, Dick Francis, and everything naturalistic by Daniel P. Mannix. I read Rosemary Sutcliff, Lindsey Davis, romance authors, poets – the gamut. I swiped my father’s books and read the likes of John D. MacDonald, Conrad, Clancy, Hemmingway, and mixed those up with Jane Austin and Ngaio Marsh, and signal works of nonfiction, like Cry, The Beloved Country and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

I did not grow up reading SF and fantasy because the library did not carry those titles, although, rare for them, they did shelve Roger Zelazny. That was my first brush with SF, and it was a thrill beyond the pale of anything I’d ever encountered. I immediately started collecting his work.

The JRR Tolkien smashed the glass. I was transported by the idea that stories could be told in made up worlds, and that shifted my perspective permanently. I fell in love with fantasy before everything else, and after that nothing ever connected the same way again. I pursued Norton, LeGuin, Stephen Donaldson, Tanith Lee and Jack Vance with a will that burned up the pages.

Along the way, there have been other significant milestones. My encounter with Dorothy Dunnett’s historical Lymond Chronicles left a major impression, to the point where I am still in awe. Her way of depicting events, places, and above anything, depth of character and shattering plot twists opened the floodgates of deeper possibility. Joseph Kessel’s very fat The Horsemen immersed me into another culture and world view in a stunningly vivid way. Edith Pargeter’s The Heaven Tree and the shaded nuance to her characters involved in the building of a cathedral sketched an antagonist whose downfall memorably earned the readers’ sympathy.

Today, I stand on the shoulders of such giants. They taught me the ropes, and gave me the enriched vocabulary for precision I use in my writing today. While fantasy and SF continue to be my first love, my reading still wanders all over the map. I read debut talents as readily as older classics, and every encounter sparks the insatiable, maverick urge to continuously break the envelope.

 

 

Check Out Some of the Books Mentioned by Janny

About the Author

Janny Wurts is the author of War of Light and Shadow series, and To Ride Hell’s Chasm. Her eighteen published titles include a trilogy in audio, a short story collection, as well as the internationally best selling Empire trilogy, co authored with Raymond E. Feist, with works translated into fifteen languages worldwide. Her latest title in the Wars of Light and Shadow series, Destiny’s Conflict, culminates more than thirty years of carefully evolved ideas. The cover images on the books, both in the US and abroad, are her own paintings, depicting her vision of characters and setting.

 

Website http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts

Twitter jannywurts

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An Interview with John Birmingham, Author of The Cruel Skies Series

Over the years, John Birmingham has had his finger in many pies. He is an author that has penned over 30 books that run the gamut from humor to military science fiction. Recently he has released his second novel, The Shattered Skies, in his wild sci-fi space opera The Cruel Stars trilogy. In The Cruel Stars, a group of ragtag fighters come together and battle against fascists in space.

John was kind enough to sit down with me and discuss his writing career and his newest series, The Cruel Stars.

[BWGB] You have a degree in International Relations; if you had decided not to be a writer, what would you have done with that education?

Nothing good, I’m afraid. I started my working life as a researcher for the defence department. One of my flatmates and good friends from that time is now the secretary of the department. His fingerprints are all over that recent nuclear submarine deal. I imagine if I had stayed in my original lane that’s the sort of shenanigans I would’ve been up to.

[BWGB] When you were first published in the Semper Floreat at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, was that the moment you got the writing bug?

Oh no, I had it years before. I think I had it almost as soon as I learned to write in primary school, but I remember applying myself to the work of writing when I was in high school. I’d sit up late, like really late, on school nights, copying out huge slabs of text from books that I really liked. I was trying to reverse engineer them, to see how they worked. I learned later that Hunter S Thompson did the same thing with William Faulkner. So maybe I shouldn’t be too embarrassed by it.

[BWGB] You have stated that you started as a horror writer and were heavily influenced by Stephen King, and reading your catalog, you can see a lot of that in the Dave Hooper series. I have to ask about your first horror novel. What was the premise, and is your first horror book still located at the State Library of New South Wales?

Hahahaha. I can’t remember the exact premise of the book, but I do know it was a terrible and embarrassing homage to Stephen King’s The Stand. An end of the world novel with demons. I guess, given how the Dave Hooper series turned out, the rotten apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. But God, that handwritten first high school novel was hot, shameful garbage. Anybody who’s in Sydney can feel free to drop into the state library and read it in it’s original hand written form. Especially young writers. They would see then that there is nothing magical about being a published novelist.

[BWGB] Tell me a bit about your site Cheeseburger Gothic. I would love to know how it got its name and the story of how it started.

The origins of the name are lost to time, I’m afraid. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they had something to do with that old TV series, American Gothic. I quite liked it. And I really like cheeseburgers. So, you know…

It started as a diary on an old blog site called journalspace, and I do remember I started writing there because a guy called Steve Murphy had written a review of Weapons of Choice on his journalspace blog. He picked me up on a couple of egregious technical errors, which was fair enough. But otherwise the review was really nice. I guess it drew me into that community.

[BWGB] I have a friend from Sydney who introduced me to Falafel, the play, and the movie. Could you talk a bit about He Died with a Felafel in His Hand and how that came about?

I was working at a magazine called The Independent Monthly, and we were quickly going out of business. The deputy editor took me aside one day and said he had this plan to spin up a publishing company. He wondered if I could write him a funny book as a stocking stuffer for the Christmas market. I shrugged and told him that I had a few flatmate stories, and we were off to the races. It was weird, really. I took it on like a magazine commission, rather than a book. And it totally died in the arse when it came out. Nobody bought that fucking thing for about six months, but there was this one guy an independent book distributor, who really liked it and who kept a box in the back of his car, forcing it onto bookstores everywhere he went. After six months it took off. I reckon that guy was the reason.

[BWGB] How has your writing changed from the days of Falafel to now? Is it the same process?

My process has been, er … refined. It had to be. I had no process when I started. I wrote Felafel in five weeks, mostly after midnight,  on cheap red wine, hot chips and amphetamines. It sounds cool, but it wasn’t. It was stupid and unsustainable. I’m all about the time management now. Pomodoro technique, Cal Newport’s  deep focus, all of that shit. I try to write, and I mean write, not ditz about on Twitter, for at least four hours a day, every day. I track my time. I block my access to social media. I try to know what I’m going to write before I write it, and I execute on that plan like a motherfucker.

[BWGB] Reading Falafel and Stranger Thingies, you seem like a man who can find the funny in every situation—even dark ones. How do you approach comedic writing? How do you take something dark and see the humor in it?

To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know why I see the humour in things, or maybe that I can simply extract the humour in things and put it on the page or the screen, when others can’t. When I realised that I could do something that would earn a bit of money I even tried studying it, buying how-to books by comedians and comic authors. I can tell you mechanically why something is funny, but not why some people are able to engineer those lulz on the screen or onstage and others aren’t.

[BWGB] Is it true that you wrote your David Hooper series because the Movie Reign of Fire pissed you off so much?

Yes. Yes it is. I was promised helicopter gunships versus dragons, and I was really looking forward to seeing some dragons get their asses kicked. I was gravely disappointed.

[BWGB] How many years have you practiced Jujitsu? Has that helped you create and choreograph your fight scenes?

I first started training in my early 20s, for a very sad reason. A friend of mine was murdered. I felt bad I hadn’t been there for her, but I also knew that if I had, I probably would have been killed too. I’ve been training on and off, ever since, whenever I can find a good Dojo. I went about 12 years in Sydney without training at all because the nearest Dojo was four hours away. I got back into it when my kids were old enough to train, about 4 and 6 respectively.

And yes, it really does help with writing fight scenes. A lot of the training we do in our school is scenario based. Fights in stairwells. Attacks in train carriages. That sort of thing. It’s nice being able to understand how the angles work. Although, to be honest, most fights in real life are over within two seconds. And they’re not particularly pretty to look at. But that’s not the sort of thing which sells books or movies.

[BWGB] You have many strong female characters in the Cruel Stars. Women who kick-ass, have swagger, and lead teams of warriors. I also read you have a daughter you are training to be “an unstoppable killing machine of death when she leaves home.” In science fiction, women used to be portrayed as insipid and weak. They would rather scream than beat the monster. Are there any female characters you thought were watershed moments for science fiction? For me, it was Ripley’s “get away from her, you Bitch.”

Yeah, Ripley is acknowledged as occupying an inflection point in popular culture. She is hugely significant. But there were female characters before her, and obviously there have been plenty since. It’s almost a whole genre now. I think the Doctor Who companion Leela was really important in her own way. And obviously Buffy the Vampire Slayer wrote a whole new rulebook. Pity about Joss Whedon, though, innit.

[BWGB] The second book in the Cruel Stars series drops this month called Shattered Skies. Can you explain a bit about the series for the uninitiated and some things we get to look forward to in Shattered Skies?

Hmm, lets see. There are space Nazis, space zombies, which the space Nazis created, to overthrow the ruthless corporate space empires. There’s space lesbians, space marines, angry robots, a Princess, a 700 year old foulmouthed Scotsman, and a young woman called Lucinda who’s in over her head. Until she starts shooting people, and then she’s way more chill. The space Nazis turned up in The Cruel Stars, and they broke a lot of things and hurt a lot of people, but the lesbians, the Princess, the Scotsman, the angry robot and Lucinda opened a whole can of whoopass on them. There’s more whoopass in book two. And consequences. So many consequences.

[BWGB] Was it a unique challenge to write The Cruel Stars with characters who lived such long lives due to recorded consciousness? A character now might not have been the same person 400 years ago.

That was less the challenge than a provocation. This particular trope has been worked over a couple of times now by authors as good as Peter F Hamilton. So I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, I just wanted to gaffer tape some really wicked blades to it.

[BWGB] You do highly detailed research in your books. What are some technology rabbit holes you went down in researching Cruel Skies?

Machine intelligence and neural nets. Like, actual wiring in the brain. Elon Musk is deep into that shit, and with good reason. He’s worried about the machine singularity. At one point I found myself reading, re-reading and taking notes on this insane 45,000 word essay deep diving into Musk’s Neuralink project. And then I would remind myself, dude, just write the book.

[BWGB] What are you writing or have going on at the moment?

The third and final book in the series, natch. The Forever Dead. And some screenwriting, which I can’t talk about, because screen guys are really uptight. But for my own amusement, I have been playing with a TV adaptation of The Cruel Stars. I’ve also been working on a new Axis Of Time series, over on my Patreon page. That should start coming out on Audible sometime in the next six months. And I have an idea for some crime novels. It’s enough to be getting on with.

Interview originally appeared in Grimdark Magazine

READ THE SHATTERED SKIES BY JOHN BIRMINGHAM

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR OTHER REVIEWS

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Review – The Legend of Vox Machina

They are an eclectic bunch

THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA is a twelve-episode animated fantasy series based around the first season of Critical Role’s expansive multi-hundred-hour Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. The title, Vox Machina, comes from the fact the latter is a cast of voice actors doing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign “live” on streaming. Being all professionals, they certainly brought a great deal more acting than the typical college age or adult gamer did. I should note that I was familiar with Critical Role due to Vampire: The Masquerade‘s LA by Night but not the fantasy campaigns that were a bit too intimidating to get in even for myself.

The premise is in the fantasy kingdom of Tal’Dorei, Vox Machina is considered one of the subpar mercenary groups that contracts against goblins as well as other monsters. They are an eclectic bunch including an ex-nobleman with a gun, orphaned half-elves, a horny bard, a rampaging berserker, a priestess failing to keep them on the straight and narrow, and a naive druidess. They also don’t have a wizard. What the hell kind of group is this?

Recruited to go slay a dragon that has done away with multiple adventuring groups as well as the villages around them, Vox Machina quickly proves surprisingly capable when it is their absolute last option. No sooner do they successfully prove their mettle, though, than they find themselves dragged into a much more personal and horrifying story. A vampire and a necromancer have taken over the family estate of one of their own but are well-beloved outside of their home while they’re still distrusted mercenaries.

Overall, Vox Machina is a pretty good mixture of crass humor and drama. The adventurers are a bunch of incompetents at everything but killing but they are very good at the later. The villains are not silly in the slightest but genuinely monstrous and evil. Despite this show being animated, it is targeted at adults and makes no attempt to shy away from gore or traumatizing situations. We see dozens of people killed, mutilated, and savaged onscreen. In addition to the violence there’s copious swearing, sexual innuendo, and a light bit of nudity.

Honestly, the first couple of episodes aren’t particularly representative of the whole. They are the most “try hard” with Vox Machina being portrayed as a bunch of coinless losers who wouldn’t be out of place in a Seth MacFarlane version of The Lord of the Rings. This changes as their most obnoxious qualities are toned down and the R-rated humor is dialed down for genuine pathos with the second storyline. It gave me a bit of tonal whiplash to be honest and I wish they’d stuck to a more even balance between vulgarity versus drama. Frankly, I kind of wish it had remained more of a farce over tugging the heartstrings.

Representation wise, the series does a pretty good job of showing a different sort of society than typical in Western fantasy. Multiple characters in Vox Machina are bisexual (Vex, Vax, Keylith, and Scanlan) and there’s no social stigma against any of it. The monarch of Tal’Dorei is also black, which helps compensate for the fact the protagonists are pretty lily white except when they’re blue.

The art is exceptional for the series with the character designs being both memorable as fluid in their animation. I think Vex (Laura Bailey) and Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) are particularly well-designed characters. All the cast are well-established voice actors, though, with most of them likely to be memorable to you if you’re an established gamer like myself. I particularly liked Ashley Johnson’s Pike who was the most soft-spoken as well as, well, “sane” member of the group.

It’s a shame this is not an official Dungeons and Dragons adaptation, but the differences are minuscule. The blue dragon still shoots lighting for example, and they call Vecna “The Whispered One” but that’s one of his nicknames anyway. The action is fluid, and you’ll see a lot of it in each episode. It’s like if someone combined Slayers and Hellsing, which is entirely my jam as a Nineties anime fan. If they could get this kind of voice talent for other animated projects, we might finally see proper adaptations of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

Dungeons and Dragons has suffered for the fact it has never been able to make a really good adaptation of its material for the big screen. The best one: Record of Lodoss War was an anime that pretty much ignored its gaming origins. Here, it is very obviously Dungeons and Dragons with the serial numbers filed off, and all the better for it. It has some bumps, hits, and misses but I would say this is a solid 7 out of 10 class levels.

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

Good books crawl into your heart. Great books leave a piece of themselves behind

Books are such powerful things. They can do more than just entertain. Sometimes they educate, sometimes they share someone’s experiences, and sometimes they grab you and never let go. These are the books that become part of who you are and inform your identity a little bit. I spend a lot of time wondering why certain books become that special part of someone. It’s not just a “favorite book” or even a nostalgia-laden read (although those are great too); there’s more to what forms an identity than just happy memories and good times.

I’ve always loved books, even before I could read. Books were an important part of my house growing up. Every week, my mom would take our old rusted wagon (it used to be red and it might have even said “Flyer” on the side at one point, but it was more rust than anything when it saw most of its use) and pull it several blocks away to the little neighborhood library. My siblings and I would pile as many books as we were allowed to check out into that wagon, which we would then pull home. It was a weekly routine and, looking back, it’s not at all surprising that I love books as much as I do.

I gravitated toward fairy tales and Arthurian legends, especially St. George and the Dragon and The Kitchen Knight (look up the illustrations from the Margaret Hodges books- they’re gorgeous). I really can’t tell you why stories of epic battles and dragons have always drawn my interest, they just have. Over time, fairy tales were replaced by The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Narnia books, The Dragonriders of Pern, and Redwall. These are all great books, but I wouldn’t say they’re books that made me who I am. That distinction goes to the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

This is the part where everyone who has ever interacted with me at all sighs and thinks, “There she goes again” and that’s absolutely justified. I talk about them a lot. But these books are such an integral part of who I am that it’s hard not to mention them on a pretty regular basis. At the time that I stumbled across them, there was a lot going on in my life that I couldn’t control, and much of it was frightening. The Dragonlance Chronicles helped. When life felt gray and I couldn’t find the motivation to move, there was Sturm who also saw life as a dark shroud at times. When I felt small, alone, and impotent, there was Tas, doing the small yet important things. When I felt at war with myself (it was only later that I would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder), there was Tanis who also fought against himself. Not only that, but the books showed that happy endings don’t always come easily. There is sacrifice. There is loss. And sometimes a “happy ending” isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

I reread The Dragonlance Chronicles at least once a year, more when things are difficult. You can imagine how many times I’ve opened the pages over the last few years. Sometimes I need that reminder that, hey, I’ve made it this far. I’m still doing the small things like Tas. I’m still sometimes fighting against myself. I still sometimes feel surrounded by darkness. But, like Laurana, another character in the series, I know I’ve grown and have hidden strength.

Good books crawl into your heart. Great books leave a piece of themselves behind. They shape you. And sometimes, they help make you.

Purchase a Copy for YourselfCheck Out More Stories From This Series

The Books That Made Us: The Cleric Quintet by R.A. Salvatore

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Five More Indie Cyberpunk Novels to Check Out

Cyberpunk remains one of my all-time favorite genres. The wonderful juxtaposition of mankind’s ever greater technological accomplishments against the corporate and government-run dystopias that turn out achievements against us. Also, the (anti)heroic rebels who fight the system even if it’s only to look after themselves.

Cyberpunk is a genre that has a history of being considered past its sell-date at the best of times and outright dead at its worst. I tend to think its a genre that thrives best when you don’t read the big corporate releases but focus, instead, on what’s coming out of the indie scene.

I did a recommendations list of indie cyberpunk before (link: https://beforewegoblog.com/5-cyberpunk-recomendations/) that managed to get the word out about some of my favorite releases by lesser-known authors. Now I’m going to share some more that I absolutely love. I hope you enjoy.

1. The Blind Spot by Michael Robertson

The Blind Spot is a cyberpunk political thriller, which is rare enough. In the future there’s two communities living side by side outside the Outlands: Scalia City and the Blind Spot. Scalia City is a corporate-ruled seeming utopia with everyone constantly monitoring each other via an ap that lets you check what people are saying about you. The Blind Spot is a decadent Red-Light District of cybernetically enhanced rogues living off the grid. Someone is trying to frame the Blind Spot for terrorism in hopes of getting it shut down. I really enjoyed this book and think it’s a surprisingly taut and well-written work.

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2. Mercury’s Son by Luke Hindmarsh

Mercury’s Son is a dystopian post-apocalypse story about a cyborg investigator in a Luddite theocracy that reveres Mother Earth. Aware that his position in society depends on pleasing his masters, Valko investigates the murder of an important member of their society but he’s not sure if his superiors want it solved or covered up. Mercury’s Son is a rich novel full of fascinating twists and turns as the protagonist struggles to navigate the no win scenario of trying to be a good man in an utterly corrupt society.

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3. Drones by Rob J. Hayes

Drones is the story of Garrick, a man who has decided to numb himself to all sensation his emotions on the black market. Drones are the slang term for those people who have almost no feeling left in them but provide cheap thrills with the drugs made from them. Unfortunately, the drugs are about to be legalized and that could result in an entire world becoming like Garrick. But it’s like he actually cares, right? I really enjoyed this tale of dystopian capitalism gone amuck and recreational pharmaseuticals sold as medicine.

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4. The Finder at the Lucky Devil by Megan Mackie

The Finder at the Lucky Devil is another fantasy and cyberpunk hybrid I really enjoyed. Though it’s a bit more urban fantasy than cyberpunk, I still enjoyed it a great deal. It is the story of Rune, a woman who has the unusual ability to find anything that has been lost. Having escaped an abusive ex-husband and his corporate masters, she finds out she’s inherited a mystical bar called the Lucky Devil. This puts her square in the crosshairs of numerous enemies as well as those who would overthrow the current corporate dominance.

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5. Psychodrome by Simon Hawke

My final recommendation is cheating but Psychodrome was a traditionally published author that has since been re-released as a self-published novel. In the future, the world’s most popular sport is Psychodrome. You can upload yourself to experience all the thrills and insanity of battle royals on distant worlds as well as simulated environment. The “actors” may get killed but that just adds to the experience. Our protagonist joins because it’s either that or being murdered by his creditors in the Yakuza. Fantastic book.

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Review – 36 Streets by T.R. Napper

36 Streets, Napper has created an engaging, vibrant, and deadly vision of the future

 

“36 Streets is an intense and violent cyberpunk thriller that’s set in a futuristic Vietnam and mainly follows the point of view perspective of the 24-year-old gangster and formidable martial artist, Lin Thi Vu – “the silent one”.

In 36 Streets, Napper has created an engaging, vibrant, and deadly vision of the future. The story is gritty, with elements of mystery, and follows members of a crime syndicate as they operate within the 36 Streets. The novel presents a period in time that incorporates memory wiping, brainwashing, and possibilities that the state could be using computer games as a weapon. A quick summary on 36 Streets could be that it’s clever, beautifully written, the world-building is top-quality, and it presents a plausible and frightening take on the future.

Napper is an excellent short story writer and I enjoyed Neon Leviathan a lot, so it’s good to see that he’s succeeded with crafting a commendable full-length debut. It features well-developed characters, who aren’t always likeable, but they are gripping to follow. The majority of the main characters are relatable and engaging and I liked the references back to old songs or movies that we’re familiar with, as well as to popular culture references that are set in Napper’s future but are part of the now to Lin and the 36 Streets.

36 Streets mainly follows “present-day” happenings but there are also flashbacks to earlier periods in Lin’s life (with her family, and when being trained by her master in martial arts) which adds to our lead’s layers and reasonings for her seemingly cold demeanor. One of my favourite scenes is regarding the previously mentioned computer game phenomenon, which is called “Fat Victory”. This lengthy segment could have been one of T.R’s standalone short stories for its impact and completeness, but it fits finely with the overarching themes and adds to the happenings of the main story.

I had a mostly enjoyable reading experience with 36 Streets. My only semi-negative is that some of the villains seemed a bit cartoonish. This might just be the way my mind pictured them though, possibly because of strange mannerisms or quirks, and in the grand scheme of things, these characters have their place and are integral to the plot.

To conclude, with short, sharp chapters that are presented with a dark tone, and also a fitting pace and voice for the story, 36 Streets displays that Napper has huge potential to be a big deal in the adult Cyberpunk scene. This full-length debut, like Neon Leviathan before it, shows that the author has bags of talent and I’ll follow his career closely.

PS. Some of the technology utilised by the characters in this advanced technological age reminded me of those featured in Louise Carey’s Inscape which is another fine, newish cyberpunk novel that has similar vibes and is worth checking out too.”

Purchase Your Copy HereCheck Out Some of Our Other ReviewsReview – Mazarin Blues by Al Hess#FEBRUARYSHEWROTE REVIEW-; NEGLECTED MERGE BY EVE KOGUCE

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The Books That Made Me: The Cleric Quintet by R.A. Salvatore

A young, idealistic cleric of knowledge.

I got into fantasy novels in a roundabout way. As a child, I’d utterly loved the first Final Fantasy game, and spent hours pouring over the game guide looking at bestiaries and lists of spells and maps. When I got older I fell into comics and swapped some with my friend, who gave me a Forgotten Realms comic.

The next time I was at the book store and saw that logo, I knew I had to try it out. And while those first few Forgotten Realms books were of varying quality, one of them stood above the pack: Canticle, by R. A Salvatore.

In his foreword, Salvatore talked about how he’d planned a five-book series around a monk until TSR told him monks weren’t even in the second edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and then asked him to write a series about a cleric instead. His response was “Face it, the cleric is usually the guy who shows up last to the gaming table, a big, stupid smile on his face, saying, ‘Hey, guys, I want to play. What’s the party need?’ To which everyone replies, ‘We need healing. You’re the priest. Shut up and sit down.’”

But of course, it didn’t stay that way, the more he thought about it. A slow-burn character arc of a youth becoming a man and an agnostic’s spiritual journey. A character horrified by violence, one who thinks his strengths are weaknesses because they’re not the strengths of your typical hero, and his gradual realization that they’re far greater.

Cadderly Bonaduce was a priest of Deneir, god of knowledge, but he wasn’t particularly concerned with any of it. He loved books and inventing and he had a girl to kiss. He got to live in a massive library dedicated to knowledge and the gods thereof. He was supposed to take combat training and claimed that a yo-yo was an ancient weapon, mostly so he could play with it. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, after all.

His belief in Deneir, too, was one of a shrug. After all, he knew magic clearly existed in the world, so how was there proof that healing magic was divine in nature rather than just another spell? He wasn’t antagonistic towards faith, but he didn’t see the fuss.

A priest of Talona, goddess of poison, snuck into the library and tricked Cadderly into opening a potion called the Chaos Curse that would remove the inhibitions of the inhabitants, forcing Cadderly and his few friends unaffected to head into the catacombs and stop it.

There were five books in the series. The second, In Sylvan Shadows, put Cadderly and friends into an elven forest to repel the same forces that had attacked his library. The third, Night Masks, was a fantastic culmination of his journey to that point, a true epiphany as Cadderly turned from questioning novitiate to true believer, while also contending with powerful assassins. The fourth was Cadderly taking the fight to the villains, entering their fortress, and facing them down. And the fifth was as close to a horror novel as the Realms ever did, as former ally turned traitor Kierkan Rufo became the unliving embodiment of the Chaos Curse and desecrated the library they had both grown up in.

And it had an absolutely perfect ending.

Now, back then I did not play D&D—I didn’t have any of the sourcebooks, nor did I know anyone else willing to play. But when I started? You’d best believe I played a cleric first, and it’s the class I come back to most. And my current character in D&D, the one I’ve been playing for years and well over a hundred sessions?

A young, idealistic cleric of knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

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Canticle by R.A. Salvatore

In Sylvan Shadows by R.A. Salvatore

Night Masks by R.A. Salvatore

The Fallen Fortress by R.A. Salvatore

The Chaos Curse by R.A. Salvatore

 

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Review – Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

#FebruarySheWrote Review Sairō&’s Claw by Virginia McClain

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Review – Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore

In Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore, the lead protagonist Eric is truly a dark son-of-a-bitch. 

If Dead Things is anything to go on, I would have to guess the whole series has a noir urban fantasy vibe reminiscent of Felix Castor or John Constantine. There will be obvious comparisons to Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files, but Eric is cold and ruthless, whereas Dresden is snarky. Either way, Dead Things was a gritty urban fantasy done well. 

We start the story by being introduced to Eric after he is called home. His sister has been murdered, and Eric is home visiting old haunts. He is also looking for information, and the only way he can get it is by talking to the dead. Through ritual and blood, Eric speaks to the deceased. They are a swarming mass of life-sucking souls held at bay by Eric’s will and attitude alone. This story does not make the paranormal world look charming. There are no hugable and misunderstood souls here. Dead Things’ creatures want to tear you limb from limb and feast on the bloody bits that are left. 

“Magic’s like Fight Club that way. You don’t talk about it. Can’t have the regular folk knowing this shit’s real. We might have to share.”

With the bits and pieces of information that Eric gets from the ghosts and the old friends and new enemies he meets up with along the way, Eric begins to pick apart why his sister got killed. 

There is a ton of positives about this story. Firstly, Eric doesn’t have a swagger. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good quip and a well-placed swagger, but it has gotten formulaic across urban fantasy. It seems like every new series I read is a clone of Harry Dresden. Not every series needs to be cheeky. Secondly, how necromancy is described hits home how dangerous and otherworldly it can be. This kind of power shouldn’t be taken lightly and isn’t in Dead Things. And while this is a fantasy novel, it does add a gritty realness to the story. I think fans who like their fantasy with a side of grimdark will appreciate this series. 

“There’s a difference. Like I’m complex, you’re complicated.”

Eric is a violent person; he has no qualms about throwing down with humans or with the undead. There is a lot of violence and action scenes in the story, and they are done well. Blackmoore writes with a gritty scalpel, and he does not mince words. 

Dead Things is a solid start to what looks like a dark and entertaining series for my grimdark-loving heart. I plowed through this book and can’t wait to get to the second book in the series, Broken Souls. 

 

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Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations For March 2022

Kindle Unlimited is a service that can theoretically provide you wuith limitless numbers of books for the price of one normal release every month. For those of us who are fast readers, this is a tremendous blessing. I pretty much have read every single Red Sonja comic ever written thanks to Dynamite Entertainment putting almost all their comics on the service.

However, what we here at Before We Go want most is good Kindle Unlimited books. As such, here is a recommendation of a bunch of entertaining ones that I’ve enjoyed and can say rise above the dross.

If you wish to see previous recommendations, go here:

1. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for January

2. Five Kindle Unlimited Recommendations for February

1 Paternus: Rise of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

Paternus is a fantastic trilogy that is about a secret war being waged between two races of godlike beings behind the scenes. These are the inspirations for humanity’s religions and demons with both sides having multiple beings based on them. It is a fascinating and well-researched set of books. Dyrk Ashton has a gift for making memorable and fascinating characters too. It is a fantastic mythology he’s set up and worth reading for that alone.

Check out Our Review

About

Described as American Gods meets The Avengers and Supernatural meets The Lord of the Rings, Paternus combines myths from around the world in a modern story of action and intrigue that is “urban fantasy on the surface, but so much more at its core!”

Even myths have legends. And not all legends are myth.

When a local hospital is attacked by strange and frightening men, Fiona Patterson and Zeke Prisco save a catatonic old man named Peter—and find themselves running for their lives with creatures beyond imagination hounding their every step.

With nowhere else to turn, they seek out Fi’s enigmatic Uncle Edgar. But the more their questions are answered, the more they discover that nothing is what it seems–not Peter, not Edgar, perhaps not even themselves.

The gods and monsters, heroes and villains of lore—they’re real. And now they’ve come out of hiding to hunt their own. In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must join up with powerful allies against an ancient evil that’s been known by many names and feared by all. The final battle of the world’s oldest war has begun.

Paternus: Rise of Gods, is Dyrk Ashton’s critically acclaimed debut novel and the first book in The Paternus Trilogy. It has been compared to works by Neil Gaiman, Scott Hawkins, Roger Zelazny, China Miéville, Joss Whedon, and Kevin Hearne.

2 Scattered, Smothered, and Chunked - Bubba the Monster Hunter Season One by John G. Harkness

Bubba the Monster Hunter is one of the funniest, most entertaining urban fantasies you’re going to find among indie authors. Bubba is the strip club loving, monster-hunting, shotgun wielding redneck working for the Catholic Church. Bubba’s first book is an irreverent and hilarious story that I absolutely loved from beginning to end and immediately purchased the sequel to.

About

“Cross Larry the Cable Guy with The Dresden Files, and you have Bubba the Monster Hunter”

“Reminds be a bit of Ash from Army of Darkness”

“Hartness spins another tale of redneck mayhem full of his usual sarcastic humor.”

Scattered, Smothered and Chunked collects the entire first “season” of Bubba the Monster Hunter, from his first graveyard-splattering adventure in Voodoo Children to the stunning cliffhanger at the end of Final Countdown! Fans of the rollicking redneck monster hunter will find plenty of value in this massive collection of monsters, strippers, beer and bullets! This collection includes ten Bubba shorts, a Bubba prequel novella, and a bonus Black Knight Chronicles short story!

Voodoo Children – In this first Bubba the Monster Hunter story, everybody’s favorite redneck is chasing zombies through the hills of Tennessee. Follow Bubba through beer joints, strip clubs and graveyards as he and his best helper Bertha (a .50 Desert Eagle Pistol) make sure that what’s dead, stays dead.

Ballet of Blood – In Ballet of Blood, Bubba has to investigate a mysterious touring dance troupe that of course turns out to be more than he expected.
Bubba, backed up as always by the hilarious Skeeter, has to make do with his wits and what weapons he can find backstage at a theatre to get out of his most dangerous adventure yet.

Ho-Ho-Homicide – Everybody’s favorite redneck monster hunter goes undercover as a mall Santa to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious murders. Along the way he encounters snotty kids, annoying mothers, a smokin’ hot elf, the spirit of Christmas and a tribe of fairies that would rather make war than toys!

Tassels of Terror – Bubba’s back, and this time it’s personal! A mysterious fire destroyed a topless club in South Carolina, and Bubba must get to the bottom of the mystery and rescue a missing stripper before more bloodshed ensues.

Cat Scratch Fever – Bubba the Monster Hunter returns in a love story for the ages! Okay, not really. But there are big guns, bar fights, cheap women, cheaper beer, even cheaper one-liners, and a six-foot tiger taking a leak on a headstone. No really, that last part happened.

Love Stinks – Bubba’s back! There’s a cupid on the loose in a nursing home, and he’s wreaking havoc with broken hips, high blood pressure and horny octogenarians! Can Bubba and his pistol-packing nun sidekick save the day before the cupid plants a magic arrow in our favorite Monster Hunter?

Hall & Goats – Bubba’s back, and this time he’s chasing a creature he can’t even pronounce! A mysterious creature called a chupacabra is attacking livestock in Florida, and Bubba’s on the case! But there’s someone else investigating this chimichanga, too! Who is it? Is she hot? Will Bubba get her naked before the story is over? And what the hell is Bubba doing hunting chalupas in a dry county?

Footloose – Bubba hunts a bigfoot in Virginia mountain country and finds so much more, including a hottie federal agent and a blast from his past that will change Bubba’s life forever. And probably not for the better!

Sixteens Tons – Bubba’s back and he’s another day older and deeper in debt! Well, not really, but he’s butt-deep in goblins and running low on bullets! Little green monsters have climbed out of a coal mine in West Virginia, and Bubba’s here to save the day.

Family Tradition – THIS is the story Bubba fans have been waiting for!
How did Bubba become a monster hunter?
What happened to his father?
What will he and Agent Amy have to deal with when they find him?
Join Bubba, Skeeter, Bertha and a lot more of the Bubba clan as we go deep into the past of eve 

3 The Skald’s Black Verse by Jordan Loyal Sort

I am a huge fan of dark fantasy as anyone who reads my work for Grimdark Magazine. However, while the word grimdark comes from Warhammer 40K, there is precious little grimdark in space aside from it. The Skald’s Black Verse takes place on a dark and isolated world where humanity has devolved to barbarism but been reconquered by a expansionist but decaying empire. It has many fascinating characters and truly great writing. Perfect for fans of fantasy or scifi.

About

Brohr has been lied to, abused.

All he wants is to live in peace, away from the ignorance of his village, to outrun the raging ghost which haunts him.

But a hidden evil seeks to harness Brohr’s fury.

Accused of murder, hunted by ruthless soldiers, Brohr delves the way of the Skald, unlocking forbidden blood magic as he unearths terrible family secrets.

When the red moon is broken, and all is lost, it’s up to Brohr to lead a rebellion, or face the end of the world

4 Child of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin

Andy Peloquin is one of the most underrated indie authors out there. His Darkblade Assassin series is fantastic, and I love his Cerberus sci-fi assassin series. However, I have a special place in my heart for Child of the Night Guild. It is a fantastic series following a young woman sold as a slave to the Thieves Guild of a city and put through a punishing series of tests before unleashed onto the rest of the city. All she wants to do is escape her life of crime but is that really any better in a city as corrupt as her’s?

About

They killed her family. They ripped apart her home. But to repay her debts, she’ll have to sacrifice her innocence.

Robbed of everything she loves, Viola mourns the sudden loss of her mother. Now burdened with an impossible debt to the Night Guild, she’s forced to train as a cunning thief. Subjected to cruelty at every turn, the scrawny criminal apprentice vows to survive long enough to become the kingdom’s best.

Thrown together with unlikely allies, her burgeoning skills draw the attention of sadistic bullies and jealous rivals with dark intentions. But fueled by grief-filled rage, Viola won’t let anything distract her from preparing for The Guild’s most treacherous test.

In a cutthroat den of thieves, can Viola rise to power and outrun a brutal death?

Child of the Night Guild is the first book in the gripping Queen of Thieves epic fantasy series that’s not for the faint of heart. If you like grimdark battles, improbable heroines, and graphic scenes, then you’ll love Andy Peloquin’s unflinching coming-of-age tale.

5 A Wizard's Forge by A.M. Justice

A Wizard’s Forge is a fantastically subversive fantasy that starts with the plucky bookish heroine on an island that knows the truth of a planet’s lost origins being kidnapped then sold into slavery where absolutely none of those qualities matter. She struggles with brainwashing from a charismatic ruler and even escape provides little recourse from her PTSD. It is a book that deals with difficult subjects but has a lot of charm regardless.

Interview With A.M. Justice, Author of A Wizard’s Forge

About

Wizards are forged, not born.

Victoria of Ourtown lived through a nightmare to become the ruthless soldier known as Vic the Blade. Once she wished to explore the world settled by her spacefaring ancestors; now she thinks only of revenge.

Prince Ashel’s carefree days are filled with music, revels, and dreams of a life with Vic. Those hopes die when the thrust of an assassin’s knife drives him to war.

The target of Vic’s and Ashel’s wrath is Lornk Korng, a tyrant whose schemes stretch across a continent and a lifetime.

A mysterious alien race holds the key to a legendary—and lethal—power. Whoever possesses this power will hold the world in their hands. Will they save it, or doom it?

A gripping tale of empowerment and revenge plays out against a breathtaking backdrop of dark fantasy and science fiction.

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