Beth Tabler's Blog, page 210
November 5, 2021
Hopepunk, Optimism, Purity, and Futures of Hard Work by Ada Palmer
Ada Palmer "The punk movement is anti-establishment, with long ties to political activism and resistance, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate, anti-authoritarian, with a strong ethic of visibility and in-your-face active expression of these sentiments." I’m tired. You’re tired too.
Right now, we’re all more tired than most people have been in our entire lives—studies show this, both studies of our mid-pandemic world and older studies of the neurological effects of trauma and emergencies, the subtle, cumulative damage to brain and body that comes from waking day after day for months on end to find the world still turned up-side-down by crises (hurricane, flood, fire, coup). This affects our sleep, concentration, memory, reading, energy levels; no one in our interconnected Earth is operating at anywhere near 100% right now, and yet the crises—political, global, and personal—still loom. This is why today, even more than when Alexandra Rowland coined the term hopepunk in 2017, stories like Ruthanna 
Emrys’s A Half-Built Garden or Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway, the kinds of tales where futuristic cyberhippies hunt through the refuse piles of consumerism for the upcyclable materials to build their green new worlds, both match and merit the countercultural and protest-associated label punk. It’s also why such tales are—and have long been—as rare as they are needed.
Let’s talk about the term first, then the tiredness, then why we need more stories that don’t end with everything burning down.
Rowland coined hopepunk in July 2017 as the “opposite of grimdark.” Associated terms such as noblebright, solarpunk, greenpunk, or ecotopia join hopepunk to sketch out a body of imagined worlds which are positive but not utopias, because their positivity lies, not in the world already being excellent, but in the world moving toward the better thanks to the efforts of excellent people who work to make a difference. It is a subgenre tied to resistance: as Rowland put it punk = “fight the man” + hope = “we deserve a better world”. Hopepunk stories tend to showcase cooperation, collective action, resilience, partial victories as the world is moved toward, not to, a better state, ending with (re)construction underway and the world changing, not changed. The subgenre has also been described as weaponized optimism, and as rising from a culture of resistance, specifically anti-authoritarian resistance which swelled around the globe in the wake of 2016, connected with what Malka Older has called speculative resistance, the use of fictional worlds to encourage resistance by showing alternatives to the systems we have now (see podcast discussion). In fact, the term hopepunk as first conceived was so linked to 2016 that, when the 2019 Dublin WorldCon held a wonderful panel on hopepunk where Rowland was joined by Jo Walton, Lettie Prell, and Sam Hawke, they had a rich discussion of whether my Terra Ignota series qualified as hopepunk given that it was written much earlier but released in fall 2016, a very informative question I shall return to after a bit why this term coined as an antonym is useful far beyond analyzing grimdark.
One general signature of hopepunk is that its stories counter tales of emotional darkness or rottenness, not just grimdark with its characteristically violent, amoral, and often dystopian/apocalyptic trappings, but also stories whose settings may be less recognizably grimdark but whose plots and character choices either advance zero-sum narratives where achievement requires causing someone else’s fall, or portraits of human nature in which, in the end, people will always be selfish, backstab, let you down, or look out for number one, and in which systems will always be corrupt and unsalvageable. In Hopepunk, people—often ordinary people, including minor characters—take a stand, resist, work together, follow through and help each other, and in the end, while some characters make bad choices, enough make good choices to leave a positive sense of the capacity of humans to choose good. Put another way, hopepunk presents an image of human beings where, in a prisoner’s dilemma situation, not everyone but enough people actually do choose the thing that helps everyone to make it possible to make the world a better place. So many stories teach us that, when crisis hits the fan, it won’t take long for biker gangs bedecked with human skulls to rampage through the devastated streets, and very few depict how studies show people really behave in crisis, banding together to supply pop-up pantries and mutual aid. In that sense, while hopepunk, at its 
inception, mainly included contemporary fantasy and near-future SF, Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor represents it very well, a story where good people treating each other fairly within a political system succeed in improving their world and triumphing over corrupt backstabbers through the power of the rational fact that most people would rather work with people who treat us well and have our backs than with corrupt selfish backstabbers. Amid so many tales of murder games and cutthroat games of thrones, there is a genuinely punk-like in-your-face contrariness to stories where, when crisis looms, people stand by each other and do good, a portrait of human nature which rebels against the ubiquity of the claim that, when the going gets tough, the smart trust no one.
Before it sounds like hopepunk could describe any story where friendship triumphs, or good guys beat bad guys, these are not stories where a heroic champion or pure-hearted plucky team rise to defeat evil. Remember how often the wholesome hero(ine)’s goal is to defend or restore the status quo, whether a recent status quo (you burned my village!) or one lost years ago before the evil empire deployed its evil plans. The punk movement is anti-establishment, with long ties to political activism and resistance, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate, anti-authoritarian, with a strong ethic of visibility and in-your-face active expression of these sentiments. Punk is also messy. While the grimdark hero, forged by a traumatic backstory and strewing trails of corpses through the sunless waste, is one opposite of the Disney Princess, hopepunk is another opposite. The Disney Princess and many hero stories are purity stories. Think of the messiah-hero who passes uncorrupted through temptations, Sir Lancelot whose invincible perfection is ended by the taint of his lust, Frodo who struggles to resist the ring and takes its aftereffects home with him like a scar, and the classic B horror movie where the girl who has sex is killed by the monster while the virgin survives. Performers who play Disney Princesses for Disney branded children’s party services are warned on penalty of termination to never let audiences see them frown, seem unhappy, express anger, or even sweat.
Punk is grungy in aesthetic, and hopepunk shares that, building better among the garbage of the bad. It also expresses negative emotions, not despair but productive anger, as well as kindness which sometimes needs to take the form of confrontation, or calling someone out. Hopepunk showcases resilience by showing failure, setbacks, and compromise, not as heroic flaws or formative backstories, but acknowledging that messing up is an unavoidable part of taking action in the first place. After all, another opposite of both the grimdark hero and the flawless Disney Princess is Barak Obama in February 2019 stepping before the cameras and saying “I’m here on television saying I screwed up. And that’s part of the – your responsibility is not never making mistakes, it’s owning up to them and trying to make sure you don’t repeat them.” Most grimdark heroes make mistakes, but they are giant character-defining mistakes, leaving the person dark and grim, reinforcing the idea that any failure or impurity is a big deal, not a normal part of living a reasonable life.
Messiness and impurity paired with positive change are one core way hopepunk differs, not only from grimdark or heroic F&SF, but from a huge body of narratives, and even political logics. As articulated by philosopher/sociologist Alexis 
Shotwell in her brilliant book Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times, ideas of purity often do harm to action and activism, especially in middle class white America with its Puritan cultural roots. Anxiety about impurity, Shotwell argues, increases white fragility, causing fierce emotional resistance when accepting criticism requires acknowledging impurity. Purity is also used (often strategically) to make ethical choices more difficult, variations on the argument that while company X burned thousands of acres of rainforest, company Y doesn’t 100% reject the use of GM foods, so they’re also impure and you may as well shop with company X. I recently discussed this problem with the head of my local CSA farm co-op: CSAs support buying local, but studies show that if they offer a few items from faraway farms that can’t grow in an area (for me in Chicago this means avocadoes and citrus) local food sales go up as a result, because when people need to go to a grocery store for their avocadoes they are tempted by the convenience to pick up other things (eggs, milk) they would otherwise buy from the co-op—the CSA head wanted to do this, but knew that, if he did, many of his old hard-core supporters would then boycott and attack the co-op for selling out, for not being purely local, even if the result was strictly better for both farmers and climate. Shotwell discusses the impossibility of true purity—practically no foods or products exist that don’t harm something—and the importance of acknowledging harm done in order to be able to evaluate levels of harm, reduction of harm, etc. Purity is especially weaponized against progressive politicians and grassroots movements, opponents harping on one flaw in a candidate, using that to argue that supporting that candidate is a form of impurity or selling out, a very important concept to the punk movement. While concerns over hypocrisy are important, and we must defend against them with tools like Ulysses pacts, opponents of change have learned that, much like greenwashing or the myth of individual responsibility, they can strategically deploy purity language and the accusation of selling out to undermine resistance groups and leaders.
Hopepunk narratives are genre stories which have depictions of human nature (teamwork, honesty, resilience) but which also counter purity narratives, by having space for partial victories, unfinished projects, compromise, and mundane not-character-defining failures and mistakes. Setbacks in hopepunk tend to be more about the outcome for the world, what now needs to be done to help or fix the problem, in contrast with stories where setbacks or failures are mainly beats in character development, the point where the hero must stand by his vow never to kill again, or prove her leadership skills to keep the team together. And these are stories born, as Rowland puts it, from “a political mood of resistance” where the path is neither Disney perfection, nor breaking and becoming grim and tainted, nor being the pure survivor spared by the horror monster by virtue of your virtue; the path is long, hard, exhausting, ongoing work.
This is why it matters that we’re all so tired.
And this is how it can be true, both that hopepunk was shaped by post-2016 resistance culture, and that it is larger than that, uniting both earlier projects (like my Too Like the Lightning) and later ones, especially in this moment of the dual apocalypses of COVID-19 and the climate crisis.
Recent polls show an increasing number of people are jumping straight from denying climate change to saying they believe climate change is real but that it’s too late and there’s nothing we can do can stop it. It’s the emotionally easiest way out of climate denial. It lets one feel that even if one had believed sooner, the small amount one could have done by now wouldn’t make a difference. It avoids the obligation to take action now, allowing one to continue without any lifestyle change, since it’s too late. It is an easy attitude to mock or be angry at, but I cite it here because it connects to an issue which is even bigger for those who have believed in climate change, and the authoritarian threat, and the dangers of big tech monopolies, and the censorship crisis, and systemic racism, and institutional injustice: we’re tired. Working toward change is exhausting. Continuing to work for change is even more exhausting, as we see in the patterns like the turn-out-the-vote group VoteForward, which in fall 2020 blasted past its goal of sending 15 million volunteer-written letters, but this fall keeps failing to hit targets in the 200,000 range. A lot of people poured their all into the politics and protests of 2020, and are now worn down by the exhaustion-trauma of our up-side-down COVID-19 world, and by seeing day-by-day how very partial a victory those efforts achieved, how small a slice of what needed to change is changing.
Fiction does not give us many stories of continuing to slog on after an unsatisfying partial victory. That makes hopepunk powerful.
Dystopian fiction great at out bad parts of our society, and galvanizing action. So is false-utopia fiction, the kind where the happy affluence enjoyed by some turns out to be founded in something sinister and unforgivable. But recent dystopias and false-utopias tend to end with that cathartic finale where the looming tower of the evil government burns down. That is an emotionally satisfying ending, part of what makes modern dystopian literature a fundamentally optimistic genre, transmitting the message that, even in a world with far worse versions of our problems, revolution can still win. Apocalyptic fiction, which ends with the whole world burning down, is also emotionally satisfying: if not cathartic, at least it is fair (the rich and bad guys also burn), and final; at the end comes rest. All of these tend to avoid what lived political experience shows is the hard part: building the new, better system after the evil tower burns, or the false utopia’s sinister secret is revealed—the part we’re living now. Hopepunk tales of actually building the new thing are a rare form, in part because they aren’t as emotionally satisfying. The 25th century of my Terra Ignota has fixed some of today’s problems but is still working on others, a world build which advances the unwelcome but important thesis that change takes generations, and that all our efforts may achieve neither none nor all of our goals, but some, requiring yet more work. Like Emrys’s titular half-built garden—a new society building amid the effects of climate disaster—these worlds are half-built throughout, their stories rich but emotionally difficult, in a way the Death Star blowing up is not.
Another emotionally satisfying kind of is one where everything is saved by someone special rising to fix it all, a destined savior, or in future SF often a genius who invents the tech-that-saves-everything. As I observed in my half-joking 2013 review of Iron Man 3, Tony Stark not only, as the script jokes, “just successfully privatized world peace,” he also invents an infinite clean energy device, which begins to be deployed instantly and effortlessly, without oil lobbies or congressional obstructionism. This attitude—wait for the techies to save the planet—is functionally identical with the declaration that it’s too late to save the climate, since both prescribe personal inaction. As Cory Doctorow put it in his essay Hope Not Optimism “optimists and pessimists share this belief in the irrelevance of human action to the future. Optimists think that things will get better no matter what they do, pessimists think things will get worse no matter what they do — but they both agree that what they do doesn’t matter… An optimist decides not to equip the Titanic with lifeboats because it is unsinkable. A pessimist doesn’t bother to swim when the ship sinks and is lost at sea. To be hopeful is to tread water because so long as you haven’t gone to the bottom, rescue is still possible.” Both optimism and pessimism—both giving up and leaving the work to others—are tempting when we are all so very, very tired.
Embracing hope not optimism involves recognizing 
that progress is not a natural process which somehow grinds on inexorably no matter what we do, progress is our name for the group consequences of our collective actions. Writing about hope not optimism means writing about the hard and ongoing process of building and rebuilding, not just about the evil tower burning down. In Jo Walton’s Thessaly series, a failed effort to set up a Platonic utopia gives way to the survivors learning from those mistakes and setting up new, less-unsuccessful Platonic utopias, not scrapping it all but keeping the good, and building back better. C. L. Polk’s Kingston Cycle in the books that follow the revelations in Witchmark do much the same. Is my Terra Ignota hopepunk, despite the first three books being written before 2016? Yes, not just in themes, but because hopepunk is fiction about the difficult path of rebuilding, and Terra Ignota draws heavily on Enlightenment France, which literally stormed and burnt down the overlord’s fortress, only to face the multi-century process of building a new system on the ashes. Another profoundly hopepunk novel in that sense is Yusuke Kishi’s 2008 From the New World, which has many twists and surprises for the reader, but the one that stunned me most was when the false utopia’s mask was ripped off and the protagonists… committed themselves to working incrementally within the system to bring about peaceful reform. Kishi’s story is pre-2016, like but Japanese F&SF has for some time had a lot more hopepunk-type tales of incremental rebuilding than Anglophone fiction, since Japan both was and is still incrementally rebuilding after the overthrow of a real lived authoritarian dystopia in World War 2. Thus, I would argue that pre-2016 hopepunk does exist, but shares the characteristic of being born from a real culture of antiauthoritarian resistance, and of rebuilding.
While optimism and pessimism both offer tempting ways out of feeling one must take personal action, Shotwell’s analysis of purity helps expose another such temptation, a third narrative: purity stories where just by remaining pure the protagonist triumphs or survives. All those B horror movies where the virgin lives, or purity of heart expels the demons, the Disney movies where the princess comes through spotless, the moment when the T-Rex eats the bloodsucking lawyer not the hero, or in the disaster movie when the kind protagonist goes back to save the orphan and thus is saved when falling rubble crushes others—these narratives are inheritances of Puritan-influenced providentialist thinking which expects fate to preserve the pure. As we face climate change and COVID-19, the archetype of purity of action offering safety in troubled times offers a strange hybrid between abdicating responsibility and facing responsibility: the idea that by making the right choices to stay personally pure—an end far easier to act on than political reform—one increases one’s chances of salvation, either on the personal scale (the eco-disaster spares your house, the virus spares your family), or on the global scale of feeling that, if enough members of the human race are good at heart, if there are enough good people in the city of Sodom, then God/Fate/Providence/climate change will be more likely to move toward the good ending not the bad ending. For many people, especially in America, the ideological residue of Puritanism and providentialist Christianity means that pursuing personal purity can feel like a way of helping indirectly with crises like climate or authoritarianism when direct action is intimidating or exhausting. Someone who feels guilty doing nothing may feel overwhelmed trying to engage politically, but making grocery store choices that prioritize personal purity feel like taking effective action, because so many narratives tell us that purity makes the optimist ending more likely to come true. There are other varieties of providentialist thinking which let one abdicate a sense of personal responsibility (the new fad for stoicism is one) but pursuing personal purity has the bonus of making it feel like you actually are taking action, while evading the whirlwind of messiness, compromise, and option paralysis involved in choosing among the array of impure political candidates, or the innumerable activist causes competing for our help.
I have written elsewhere about the importance of diversity of narrative structures, that we need not only many kinds of characters but many shapes of stories: heroes and antiheroes, protagonists and teams, kind aliens and scary aliens, false utopias and real utopias, stories where we cure the plague and stories where we accept a lower quality of life. We even need some purity stories since—as Shotwell obesrves—purity is a very useful and positive tool for self-examination and thinking hard about our choices. And we need hopepunk. There is nothing wrong with sitting back sometimes to enjoy blowing up the Death Star—when we’re this tired that’s often what we crave. But because we’re this tired, we also need stories of people who are tired like us. Who are trapped between crises like us. Who are grungy, and sweaty, and compromised, and struggling like us. Who resiliently come together, trusting and supporting one another, as we must. Who screw up, and admit it without being broken or defined by the screw-up, and work on ways to not screw up again. Who make good-but-imperfect choices, and 
are genuinely slowed down by their exhaustion (an important one) yet help one another get back on their feet and keep working.
We need all sorts of stories, but we have a special need for hopepunk right now, because, in many people’s lived experience, this is one of those false-utopias which seemed great but has had its unforgivable underbelly exposed, plural underbellies in fact—climate impact, structural inequality, global inequity, systemic racism, dystopian tech. We need better models for what to do now than just blowing up the overlord’s tower, since that doesn’t fix it. Revolutionary France three revolutions later tells us that doesn’t fix it. As the final volume of my Terra Ignota (Perhaps the Stars) sees print this month, it’s amazing finally feeling how the themes and structure the series already had when I first planned it years ago have a different momentum here in 2021. People often ask if my outline changed as I wrote the books—it didn’t, but my understanding of what parts of that outline were powerful, and needed, that has changed. Speculative resistance is about looking at other ways the world could work (worse, better, mixed), and using that to help us think outside the box and push for new things. The hopepunk subsect of speculative resistance is about depicting how that push requires kindness, compromise, teamwork, resilience, and—tired as we are—a lot more time.
We need those stories, always, but especially right now.
Check Out Ada Palmer's Full Series - Terra Ignota
ADA PALMER is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago, specializing in Renaissance history and the history of ideas. Her first nonfiction book, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. She is also a composer of folk and Renaissance-tinged a cappella vocal music on historical themes, most of which she performs with the group Sassafrass. She writes about history for a popular audience at exurbe.com and about SF and
fantasy-related matters at Tor.com.
November 4, 2021
Short Story Review – Save, Salve, Shelter, by Essa Hansen
Beth Tabler 4/5 
Save, Salve, Shelter by Essa Hansen Purchase Here Essa Hansen, Save, Salve, Shelter About
“The decades had corroded more than those two lines, so she mumbles repetition and hums the melody—a traffic signal jingle from home. She recalls rainy garden walks and green streetlights, a clear umbrella and her mother’s warm hand in hers.”
―
In the wake of genetic mutation and mass extinction, Pasha is one of many collectors roaming the ruined Earth, to salvage DNA from corpses of un-corrupt animal species. When full, her teeming database will secure her passage on one of the last Exodus shuttles to Mars.
Despite firm orders to salvage, not save, Pasha won’t condemn innocent lives to the disastrous climate humanity created. She rescues immune baby creatures she finds along the way—but the United Nations has run out of compassion, and would rather resurrect test tube animals than take unsanctioned cargo aboard.
The shuttles will depart on a strict schedule, with rigid boarding procedures and armed personnel. Pasha is weary, laden with animals that grow heavier, hungrier, wilder each day. If she can’t thaw cold hearts and steady eager rifles, she’ll die on the carcass of Earth with the animals she couldn’t save.
My ThoughtsEssa Hansen’s debut short story Save, Salve, Shelter in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction January/February 2020 is shining a light on the despair of Earth’s ecological collapse. There are still good people who want to help.
“Corrupted babies wouldn’t have survived this long.” Pasha shifts her trembling shoulders and tucks restless leverets back in their pouches. “Not everything out there is dead. And what isn’t ruined deserves our care. The cause of the outbreak was us. Our fault.”
Hansen wrote this story in the wake of the California wildfires in 2017 and 2018. It was a reaction to the global trajectory the world is currently on regarding cataclysmic climate change. In Hansen’s story, the chances for the Earth and all her inhabitants have come and gone. The United Nations is set to abandon the Earth with some humans and the DNA/Genetic sequencing of as many animals as the humans can find.
The humans that set out tracking across the barren landscape of the Earth are called catalogers. Pasha, the story’s protagonist, is one of these catalogers. However, instead of leaving the animals to their fate, Pasha, in a moment of kindness and what I believe it means to be human, pick up the animals and carry them with her. She saves, salves, and shelters them, hence the name of the short story.
As anyone who attempts to save a baby animal can attest to, some make it; some don’t. The point of the story is we should be trying to save them instead of abandoning them. We are stewards to the Earth, and the animal’s fate is our fault. Pasha walks from launch site to launch site, each time trying to come aboard with her small menagerie. She is lied to, coerced, and the animals are euthanized repeatedly.
Her body is hunched and broken from carrying her hoard by foot for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Each time she comes upon an animal that can be saved, she picks it up, does her best, and moves on. It is heartbreaking and frustrating. You want her to succeed, but there is an air of desperation and futility to her struggles.
My only quibble about the story is the end of Save, Salve, Shelter. It is too abrupt and too out of character compared to the rest of Pasha’s actions. I understand someone being at the end of their rope, especially with all Pasha has gone through, but it seemed too much. This is very much a personal reaction to the ending; your mileage may vary.
On the whole, this is a great read. I understand Hansen’s feelings regarding the wildfires as I witnessed much of the same this year. It is a terrifying feeling to be so small in the face of such devastation. She took that feeling and transferred it well to Save, Salve, Shelter. There is hope for humanity in the form of Pasha. Even with the damage humans have wrought upon the Earth, there are still some good people.
Check Out My Other Reviews
Review – The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
Review – Nophek Gloss by Essa Hanson
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love Beth Tabler
Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
November 3, 2021
Review – A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
check it out here BOOK REVIEW
A SPINDLE SPLINTERED by ALIX E. HARROW November 3, 2021 2:00 pm No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPressI am absolutely convinced that Alix E. Harrow can do no wrong. I was introduced to Her writing two years ago when she released the sublime Thousand Doors of January. Since then, I have read many of her works, including short stories: The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, and Mr. Death, and I loved them all. Now, I have gotten the immense pleasure of reading her Novella length fractured fairy tale, A Spindle Splintered.
A Spindle Splintered is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty which is based on the fairy tale “La Belle Au Bois Dormant,” by Charles Perrault, written in 1697. This original story inspired the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Briar Rose. But, most people are familiar with Sleeping Beauty because of the Disney adaptation 1959. The original fairy tale is about a young princess named Briar Rose cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for 100 years once she pricks her finger upon a spindle. Knowing how traumatic awaking alone would be, a good fairy put the entire palace to sleep to awaken once the princess does.
The original version of the story has the princess “discovered in her castle by a wandering king, who “carrie[s] her to a bed, where he gather[s] the first fruits of love.” He leaves her there and where she later gives birth to twins. “Fruits of Love” means she was raped and impregnated.
There are obviously many issues with the original story. The idea of agency, body autonomy, and free will come to mind. It is one of the biggest things I noticed when I watched Sleeping Beauty, the Disney movie, as an adult. Harrow took the original story and put a refreshing take on it, giving the princess a mind, a heart, and desires for something more. It is a perfect place to fracture this fairy tale.
The story starts with Zinnia, our protagonist, about to turn 21. (Also, I love the flower name nod. The original sleeping beauty was Briar Rose; now we have Zinnia.) Zinnia suffers a long-term illness and knows that her life will be ending soon. She has always been a fan of Sleeping Beauty’s mythology and knows how much Zinnia loves Sleeping Beauty; her friend throws her a themed birthday party, complete with a spindle. The spindle slips and Zinnia is whisked off to the world of the actual Sleeping Beauty.
Zinnia is a very modern woman, and although she has a significantly shortened lifespan, she tries to make the most out of her life. This is in direct contrast to the environment she is thrust upon. There is an air of helplessness to everything. Zinnia cannot help her future and impending death, and the princess cannot help the impending curse.
A Spindle Splintered is a coming-of-age story; finding one’s own path, not the way laid before you, is a major theme, as is body autonomy. I won’t ruin the twists and turns of the narrative. I loved what Harrow did here. Plus, a little science fiction multi-verse thrown in always will be a hit with me.
I recommend this story. Again, I love Harrow’s writing, and A Spindle Splintered is another excellent story to add to your TBR.
Review – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review – Autobiography of a Traitor and Half Savage by Alix E. Harrow
Beth Tabler
Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
The Juice is Worth The Squeeze – A Review of Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
check it out here BOOK REVIEW
six months, three days found in Even Greater mistakes by charlie jane anders November 3, 2021 9:00 am 3 Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress Short Story List As Good As NewRat Catcher’s YellowIf You Take my MeaningThe Time Travel ClubSix Months, Three DaysLove Might Be Too Strong a WordFairy Werewolf vs. Vampire ZombieGhost ChampagneMy Breath is a RudderPower CoupleRock Manning Goes For BrokeBecause Change Was The Ocean and We Lived by Her MercyCaptain Roger in HeavenCloverThis is Why We Can’t Have Nasty ThingsA Temporary Embarrassment in SpacetimeThe Bookstore At The End of AmericaThe Visitmothers Six Months, Three Days WHAT IT IS ABOUT?
Doug and Judy have both had a secret power all their life. Judy can see every possible future, branching out from each moment like infinite trees. Doug can also see the future, but for him, it’s a single, locked-in, inexorable sequence of foreordained events. They can’t both be right, but over and over again, they are.
Obviously these are the last two people in the world who should date. So, naturally, they do
REVIEWCharlie Jane Anders is a writer that I discovered last year and immediately fell in love with. I enjoyed The City in the Middle of the Night, and I had to investigate all the other things she has written as a matter of course. I am so glad I did. Anders is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning writer and a Hugo nominated fancaster with her partner Annalee Newitz. You can find her excellent podcast here. I bought a hardback copy of her short stories after checking out and reviewing As Good As New. Now, she has a new book of short stories coming out called Even Greater Mistakes.
As Good As New exudes pure positivity even in the face of tragic or exhausting circumstances. It is a quality that I find quite a bit in Anders’s writing. She has a way of finding the good, the beautiful, the heartfelt in places where finding those things is hard. Even in the direst of circumstances, there is always good and always something beautiful even if you can’t see it, and Anders calls it out; she shows us.
“Well,” Judy says. “There are a million tracks, you know. It’s like raindrops falling into a cistern, they’re separate until they hit the surface, and then they become the past: all undifferentiated. But there are an awful lot of futures where you and I date for about six months.”―
There are many wonderful short stories in Even Greater Mistakes. Six Months and Five days is short story with the same sense sense of optimism that I have come to associate with Anders.
Six Months and Three Days is a love story, of a sort. It is an exploration of what happens when two individuals, one who can see his future, and another who can see all futures meet and fall in love? It is a literal definition of a rock and a hard place.
The story is charming, and we know right from the beginning how it is going to end. But, the ending is not important. It doesn’t matter how Doug and Judy end up getting there; it is the six months and three days of life that happen before the final moment, which I think Anders wanted to highlight.
Yes, we can know all the answers. Yes, we know there will be lots of pain in this relationship. Yes, we know exactly how it is going to end. However, there are many beautiful moments, moments of love, and life that are worth celebrating even if you have already seen them in your mind’s eye; you haven’t experienced them.
The juice is worth the squeeze!
Check out the full story collection, but read Six Months and Three Days for sure.
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55 Books With LGBTQIAP+ Representation to Add to Your TBR
Beth Tabler
Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
If You Liked This - Please Share the LoveNovember 2, 2021
First Chapter, First Paragraph – The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan – First Book of the Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
When The Two Rivers is attacked by Trollocs-a savage tribe of half-men, half-beasts- five villagers flee that night into a world they barely imagined, with new dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.
Check Out Our Other First Chapter, First Paragraph
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
Born below the ever cloud-capped peaks that gave the mountains their name, the wind blew east, out across the Sand Hills, once the shore of a great ocean, before the Breaking of the World. Down it flailed into the Two Rivers, into the tangled forest called the Westwood, and beat at two men walking with a cart and horse down the rock-strewn track called the Quarry Road. For all that spring should have come a good month since, the wind carried an icy chill as if it would rather bear snow.
Gusts plastered Rand al’Thor’s cloak to his back, whipped the earth-colored wool around his legs, then streamed it out behind him. He wished his coat were heavier, or that he had worn an extra shirt. Half the time when he tried to tug the cloak back around him it caught on the quiver swinging at his hip. Trying to hold the cloak one-handed did not do much good anyway; he had his bow in the other, an arrow nocked and ready to draw.
As a particularly strong blast tugged the cloak out of his hand, he glanced at his father over the back of the shaggy brown mare. He felt a little foolish about wanting to reassure himself that Tam was still there, but it was that kind of day. The wind howled when it rose, but aside from that, quiet lay heavy on the land. The soft creak of the axle sounded loud by comparison. No birds sang in the forest, no squirrels chittered from a branch. Not that he expected them, really; not this spring.
Only trees that kept leaf or needle through the winter had any green about them. Snarls of last year’s bramble spread brown webs over stone outcrops under the trees. Nettles numbered most among the few weeds; the rest were the sorts with sharp burrs or thorns, or stinkweed, which left a rank smell on the unwary boot that crushed it. Scattered white patches of snow still dotted the ground where tight clumps of trees kept deep shade. Where sunlight did reach, it held neither strength nor warmth. The pale sun sat above the trees to the east, but its light was crisply dark, as if mixed with shadow. It was an awkward morning, made for unpleasant thoughts.
First Chapter, First Paragraph – The White-Throated Transmigrant by E. Lily Yu
First Chapter, First Paragraph – Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Humour and Positivity in As Good As New by Charlie Jane Anders
check it out here BOOK REVIEW
AS GOOD AS NEW found in Even Greater mistakes by charlie jane anders November 2, 2021 9:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress Short Story List As Good As NewRat Catcher’s YellowIf You Take my MeaningThe Time Travel ClubSix Months, Three DaysLove Might Be Too Strong a WordFairy Werewolf vs. Vampire ZombieGhost ChampagneMy Breath is a RudderPower CoupleRock Manning Goes For BrokeBecause Change Was The Ocean and We Lived by Her MercyCaptain Roger in HeavenCloverThis is Why We Can’t Have Nasty ThingsA Temporary Embarrassment in SpacetimeThe Bookstore At The End of AmericaThe Visitmothers There is Always Hope“Everything out there was white, like snow or paper, except powdery and brittle, ashen. She had a Geiger counter from the panic room, which read zero. She couldn’t figure out what the hell had happened to the world, for a long time, until it hit her—this was fungus.”
About From the author of the Hugo-winning “Six Months, Three Days,” a new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world. My Thoughts I am new to the church of Charlie Jane Anders, but consider me a convert. Earlier this year, I had the fortune of reviewing an advanced reader copy of The City in the Middle of the Night gifted to me by the author herself after seeing me lament my lack of access to the advanced reader copy for review. She was kind enough to send over a copy via her publisher for me to review it. It was an atmospheric and almost ethereal story about darkness and light and the weight of history and tradition. Charlie writes as if words are the only substance that gives her life, and she wants to share that life with you. And this is why I was delighted to find a short written for Tor.com by her about the apocalypse.
Most of the time, when you read books that are about an apocalyptic event, they are dour, wrung in mire, and misery. Death and destruction are not usually topics for polite conversation and joy. However, As Good as New had something that not many stories of the same ilk have that I found outstanding. It has a vein, a kernel of hope shot through it. Hope is what gets people through the tough. Hope for what is better, or right, or honest. It is hope for more. This story was an apocalypse, but it had hope and a bit of joy and humor. Because that is what life often is shitty. But your ability to laugh and find some pleasure in simple things can get someone through it — pleasure, in say, the entire run of The Facts of Life or West Wing.
Marisol is a woman with a lot of time on her hands. She is currently residing in a luxury bunker with a terabyte of television and movies, tons of frozen dinners, and no company. Somehow, this is not explained, Marisol ended up taking shelter in this luxury bunker when all the rest of the world went to pot. She has a whole lot of time on her hands, and she develops an “intense relationship with the people on The Facts of Life, to the point where Tootie and Mrs. Garrett became her imaginary best friends, and she shared every last thought with them.” It had been a couple of months since the last quake had shaken her in the panic room. She felt that maybe it was safe to adventure outside and see what there is to see. What she finds is a world strewn with a white fungus and a bottle.
“The bottle was a deep oaky green, like smoked glass, with a cork in it. And it was about twenty yards away, just sitting in one of the endless piles of white debris. Somehow, it had avoided being consumed or rusted or broken in the endless waves of fungal devastation. It looked as though someone had just put it down a second ago—in fact, Marisol’s first response was to yell, “Hello?” even louder than before.
When there was no answer, she picked up the bottle. In her hands, it felt bumpy, like an embossed label had been worn away, and there didn’t seem to be any liquid inside. She couldn’t see its contents if there were any. She removed the cork.
A whoosh broke the dead silence. A sparkly mist streamed out of the bottle’s narrow mouth—sparkling like the cheap glitter at the Arts and Crafts table at summer camp when Marisol was a little girl, misty like a smoke machine at a cheap nightclub—and it slowly resolved into a shape in front of her. A man, a little taller than she was and much bigger.”
Marisol had found a genie. What does this genie mean for the fate of the world? You know the answer to something like that is never simple.
It is astounding to me that Anders wrote so much about human emotions in only 28 pages. I have IKEA instructions longer than 28 pages. But it works, and it is damn good.
Check it out for yourself. It is at most a thirty minutes read, free at tor.com, and completely worth the time.
Check Out Some of Our Other ReviewsThe Juice is Worth The Squeeze A Review of Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
November 1, 2021
Short Story Review – Rat Catcher’s Yellows by Charlie Jane Anders
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rat chatcher's yellows found in Even Greater mistakes by charlie jane anders November 1, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress What it is about?“A crippling disease has made the body of Grace’s wife a prison for her erratic, reclusive brain. The only hope for their marriage? A video game where she rules over kingdom of cats.”
RAT CATCHER'S YELLOWS
The first thing I thought of when I finished “Rat Catcher’s Yellow” was the Hamlet quote, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
The premise of the story hits home on two levels. First, Anders gives a perspective from the point of view of a caregiver. The exhaustive and neverending task of caring for someone is fueled entirely by the love you have for them. It is like a gas tank full of memories and small moments shared between two people.
You love them, so you need to manage and protect that person. But your love also ties and binds you to that individual, and you have to watch the candle of their life burn down and die away. Being a caregiver is one of the most painful things that you can do. And in this story’s case, the is dementia. Specifically, an illness that is colloquially known as Rat Catchers Disease or Leptospirosis X.
The story is about two wives. One half of the partnership is Shary, and she has Rat Catcher’s disease and is slowly fading away a little every day, like leaves falling from a tree in autumn. The other is her life partner and caregiver, Grace. Grace gives Shary a toy game in a desperate bid of connection and to ignite the Shary of old. A video game shaped like a Cat called The Divine Right of Cats. It is childish. And Grace wants to throw it out the window, “I Feel like a backstabbing bitch. Giving this childish game to my life partner, it’s like I’m declaring that she’s lost the right to be considered an adult.”
This game is supposed to help those with the disease.
An amazing thing happens. Shary slowly slips away, but her incredible mind falls into the game, and she creates empires. She rules the cat kingdoms. Her mind and ability to strategize makes her one of the best rulers in the world. Furthermore, the cats have been solving problems. “inside the various iterations of Greater Felinia, that economists have struggled with in the real world. Issues of scaricity and resource allocation, questons of how to make markets frictionless.”
This idea of Shary slipping into this game even though her mind is slowly disappearing brings me back to the original quote from Hamlet. There is much more to this world than what we can perceive. But that doesn’t help.
Shary might be building empires, but those empires are built without Grace except as a memory.
In a lot of ways, this is a painful story to read. I have seen the effects of dementia; I have been a caregiver. You want everything, a spark, just one moment with the person you love—something you would do anything to achieve. I have read a lot of Charlie Jane Anders. They all have this heart, this connection buried under science fiction. Because at the end of the day, that is all we have.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
55 Books With LGBTQIAP+ Representation to Add to Your TBR
Humour and Positivity in As Good As New by Charlie Jane Anders
Beth Tabler Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
Review – Trailer Park Trickster by David R. Slayton
check it out here BOOK REVIEW
TRAILER PARK TRICKSTER by DAVID R. SLAYTON November 1, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress “Just remember, it’s always darkest right before it goes pitch black.”Let me introduce you to one of my favorite series from last year, the Adam Binder series. Who author David Slaton has released a new book for 2021, Trailer Park Trickster.
In the first novel of the series, White Trash Warlock, we are introduced to the titular character Adam Binder. Adam is a sensitive, one who is aware of the other side of things. The existence of magic, elves, and evils that come from that side of the coin. This sensitivity rules his life, and he tries to work around it, but he is often overwhelmed by the energies and feelings of masses of people.
“Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices.”
White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton
His brother has him committed to a facility, mainly in a misguided attempt to help him, but also because the things that adam believes are scary and might be true. This obviously causes a strain on the relationship between the brothers. Something dark and murderous possesses Bobby’s wife, Adam comes to Colorado from rural Oklahoma to see if he can help. Despite the divide between his family and him and the way he is treated.
This dark thing that is infecting people in the city is a power unlike anything Adam has ever seen, and to survive, he must call on energies above his paygrade. Plus, there is a great love triangle and banter with immortals of all sorts. It is an engaging urban fantasy that has some comfortable tropes that you find in urban fantasy, but author David Slayton has a way of making things seem very fresh.
All of this takes us right to the sequel, Trailer Park Trickster. Adam is reunited with his family after much pain and turmoil. All are completely changed from the events in the first book, but none more so than Adam’s brother, Bobby. The story picks up with Adam returning home to Guthrie, Oklahoma. He has suffered a significant loss that has set him adrift.
This brings me to what I think is the central theme of this story, being lost and untethered. Both Adam and Vic have had some great upheavals in their lives. Adam is trying to find what to do after his great loss, and Vic is trying to make sense of his new life and connection to Adam. It doesn’t help that Adam is a terrible communicator, which leaves Vic even more in the dark.
“Just remember, it’s always darkest right before it goes pitch black.”
Also, to make things more confusing for Adam, Trailer Park Trickster’s antagonist is a dark druid whose identity is one of the great mysteries to be solved. The druid is picking off Adam’s family members one by one. Adam does not have many family members, and those he does have he holds dear for the most part. This allowed Slayton to fill in some essential backstory elements that enriched Adam’s history. I loved learning about his world, painful as it is. It rounded out Adam even more for me as a protagonist.
While Adam is dealing with his part of the story and the dark druid, Vic has a challenging time with Argent, the Queen of swords. I like Argent as a character, but this section did feel a bit flat to me. It might be because I enjoy Argent and Vic together as a team, and separated didn’t give me the same bang. Their relationship was a wonderful part of the first book, and I look forward to exploring their complicated story in future books.
The Adam Binder series is fast shaping up to be one of my favorite urban fantasy series. Adam’s story has a lot of heart. You wouldn’t think of him as a leading man-type character you find in famous urban fantasy series. Dresden, as much as I love you, I am looking at you. Adam isn’t snarky, and he doesn’t need to be. He is heartfelt, and I respect and want to learn more about his determination and quiet resilience.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review – White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton
Beth Tabler Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
October 31, 2021
SPFBO7 – Finalist Selection
The Before We Go Blog is now down to the final two books from our initial pile of 30: Demons, Ink, and The Forever King. What an exciting trip it has been. As a team we were very fortunate, and also in some ways cursed to have such a good selection of books. There were very few easy choices for us as reviewers. And, we as a team had many discussions weighing out what we saw as the merits for different books. Many of our choices came down to the finest of details that had to sway us one way or another, especially as we neared the end of the first leg of this SPFBO7 journey. While our finalist selection edged out all of the other books in the semi-finals points-wise, this was not a shut-out. Our semi-finalist selections are all excellent books. Books, that had our pool not been so incredibly deep could be going to the final in their own right. And, I know that I can speak for my team when I say that we are better for having read these books.
Now, on to the reviews!
Demons, Ink by clayton snyder
Demons, Ink by clayton snyder Buy A Copy Here What is it about? Jack Nyx is down on his luck. Demons bound to his flesh, his ex’s soul in a jar, and on his last dime, he takes the one job he shouldn’t.But a quick buck never comes easy, and Jack is in the deep end of the fecal pool. Desperate, he enlists the help of street witch, Ivy Sosye.In over their heads, trapped between the demons they know and the devil they don’t, the last thing Jack needs is to fall for his best friend.Hunted, cursed, and in love is no way to go through life. Then again, it’s better than dead.
TEAM REVIEWSJodie – In Demons, Ink by Clayton W. Snyder, we’ve got a pretty solid setup. Jack Nyx is a grizzled kind of character, one who has been kicked around by life but is a sweet guy deep down. Okay, really deep down. He will do pretty much any job if it’ll pay well enough. He is asked to find a missing girl, but the job is a lot more complex than it seems at first. Then again, so is Jack. See, Jack has company of the demonic variety. Demons, Ink was an entertaining read, but I also had some quibbles with it.
I really liked Jack’s smart mouth. It felt very reminiscent of one of my favorite movies (Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, which has Robert Downey Jr. but is devoid of demons). Of course, snark like that has a fine line to walk. It can either add to the story immensely, or it can detract from it. Overall, I felt it added. However, every now and again I felt like it was trying a bit too hard.
Another issue I had was the number of things that had already happened and were just kind of thrown in. In general, I like books that have a predeveloped history, but in this case it sort of confused me. I honestly thought Demons, Ink was a sequel and I had missed an entire book.
The way the demons are bound is incredibly cool and the premise is a ton of fun. I can say with confidence that Demons, Ink will appeal to fans of Harry Dresden.
I rate it a 7/10
Becca – For this book – you need a notebook and a backstory that isn’t there. I was confused at times on some of what was going on, and then trying to read between the lines on other parts. I really did like the demons, they were the true redeeming area of this book.
G.M. – Demons, Ink is a hell of a book. You can take that pun as intended or not. We follow down-on-his-luck Private Eye Jack Nyx as he is drawn through a deadly case involving heaven and hell, as well as the demons that have been tattooed into his body. Along with a street-smart witch, they uncover a conspiracy of angels and demons that involve Nyx’s ex-lover and former mentor that has implications for existence as we know it.
The book reads like a well-written, breakneck mash-up of The Dresden Files, John Wick, Lucifer (both the show and the comic, somehow), Hap and Leonard, and American Gods. If that sounds like a lot, it actually kind of is. I felt the book struggle under the weight of all the various concepts being thrown around, which wasn’t helped by its rapid pace. The book is in a rush to get from one action set piece to another, nearly all of which end with Jack Nyx getting knocked the hell out, and then recovering in a second location. On the whole, the speed causes several interesting concepts to feel like they are glossed over, or like they pop in and out as needed (or sometimes not needed). Additionally, a few characters feel like afterthoughts, as well as the entire background world outside of angels and demons. There is a lot going on in this book, to the point that it has expectations of the reader like a sequel or third installment of a series would. It does not hold your hand as it goes quickly through concepts and backstory that it expects should be old hat to you by now, and I found it difficult to keep up at times. If the narrative pulled back on introducing concepts and instead spent more of its time fleshing out others while sacrificing some of its speed, it would certainly be in a better place.
I’ve heard that Snyder is also known for his humor and, though this is my first read of his, I went in expecting it. Immediately upon starting the book, the narrative tone and voice struck me as brilliant and witty, mashing up typical noir self-narration with dark, sharp wit. However, this doesn’t necessarily continue through the remainder. There are certain asides that feel forced, especially given the grimdark nature of things. And jokey dialogue between character seems out of place, or just pop culture references for their own sake, which took me out of the story a lot of the time. I have no problem with pop culture references (believe me), but I wish these had been integrated better rather than feeling shoehorned in.
Yeah, maybe that’s a lot of gripes I had with Demons, Ink. But that’s only because the story is so intricate and brutal, and the voice and prose so deftly written, I wanted to see it play out in pitch perfection in all aspects. Snyder is a talented writer, no doubt, and if you’re looking for a grimdark fantasy mystery, this is definitely one to pick up. Just be sure to take a deep breath, pay attention to all the clues, and hang on for the ride. 7/10
Eleni – A solid and gritty Urban Fantasy with cool characters and my kind of humor. Magic system is badass and the plot unfolds fast while keeping you hooked. The references to real world pop culture are also very well integrated and pleasant to catch. 8/10
Jason –
Highlights
Dark and brutal urban fantasySarcasm, Wit, SnarkDetective noirFast pacingThemes: Pain, abuse, and demonsContent Warning: Abuse and child sacrificeThe Review
Demon’s Ink is a dark and brutal urban fantasy. There isn’t really any other way to describe it. The protagonist Jack Nyx is something of a private investigator, only he doesn’t just work for people who can’t get help from the police…he also tends to do a lot of work for less than savory characters. Like crime bosses. He doesn’t necessarily love his work, but hey it’s work. The other thing you need to know about Jack is he has demons. Not the metaphorical kind, but the real kind. More than one. He’s learned to “control” them through the use of tattoos (hence the ink part of the title). They give him powers no ordinary person has. There are others out there like him, there are celestials (think angels), witches, the list goes on. They all exist within the regular world, hidden in plain sight.
Jack is down on his luck and nearly broke. His relationships haven’t worked out, he’s been abused, his parents (real and adoptive) are gone, and his best friend’s head is floating in a jar in his apartment. The head can still talk btw. This is the best friend he had killed because…well…there’s a story behind that but I’ll let you read about it. I just mention it to give you a feel for how this story sets itself up. A new job lands in Jack’s lap and he can’t say no to it. Only he isn’t prepared for what’s to come.
Demon’s Ink hits hard and every lesson is one written in pain. Like I said above, it’s dark and brutal. Jack (and EVERYONE around him) is put through the wringer and beat, cut, shot, blown up, you name it. Demons, witches, and celestials all battle it out amid the every-day lives of normal people who are otherwise unaware. And Jack is caught in the middle of it. And poor Jack, he can’t get a break. It’s one bad thing after another, and as you read you discover that’s been his life; one bad thing after another, and every time there’s been a glimmer of hope it’s been quashed. Hard. This current case is no exception as it drags up his past in ways he never expected.
To help alleviate the dark and brutal aspects of the story Snyder weaves in a lot of sarcasm, wit, and snark. I’ve only read one other book by Snyder, but I feel like this is something typical of his writing. Some readers really don’t like stories filled with these elements, but I think they serve a real purpose here. Without the banter associated with them the book would feel very, very heavy. The sarcasm, wit, and snark help to make things a little lighter, and keep a bit of hope and sunshine present when things get really bad. It’s always good to have a little laugh to break the tension.
Demon’s Ink takes detective noir fiction and adds a fantasy element. Nyx fits that down on his luck, surly, victimized investigator who has some addictions and habits that make him the kind of person the police don’t wish to associate with, and throws in some demon possession, magic, and supernatural climactic battles for thrills. That, and Nyx’s clients are often the bad guys. The narrative follows the typical noir pattern, random stranger brings a case, detective doesn’t want it but needs to pay bills, detective takes the case against his better judgement because bills and he wants to help the innocent, things go sideways really quick, more bad things happen, plot twists and turns, and then climax. It’s told in the first person from Nyx’s point of view, partly in the present to move the story along, and partly with flashbacks that help to explain he got to this point.
The book isn’t long (the paperback is only 220 pages) and the pacing is fast. The scenes in the present tend to move along quickly with lots of action. Snyder throws in those flashback scenes to give some background, but they also help to slow things down every so often to allow the reader (and the characters) time to catch their breath. The back and forth between the two work well together, dashing forward with the narrative and slowing down to build some depth, without which you wouldn’t have the emotional tie to, and investment in Nyx’s character.
Those emotional ties and that investment come through some of the themes in the book. I’ve already mentioned them above, but they deserve additional comment because they are woven throughout the story. Pain and abuse are both significant aspects of Nyx’s life. He was abused as a child and the pain of that abuse has carried forward into his adult life. He can’t escape from it and it informs his actions and decisions. The pain and abuse are also large factors in what makes this a dark story. And though the demons are very real and not meant to be a metaphor it’s easy to see how they can be read as a metaphor to real life in our world; to see how abuse and suffering can lead to struggles with our own personal “demons.” This is one of the ways I think fantasy does a great job of allowing us to explore our lives through metaphor.
Demon’s Ink doesn’t break new ground in detective noir fantasy, but it is a solid read. Snyder hooked me in the first couple pages and I was invested through to the end. I was never bored and I never felt pulled out of the narrative. I tend to like detective noir and like any well written version of it I was dying to know what would happen next, where the next plot twist would come, how Nyx would overcome it, and who the real baddie was behind it all. Add in the demons and all the other supernatural elements and it just got more tense and exciting. While the darker elements may turn off some readers (there’s even some off-screen child sacrifice) I felt drawn more to Nyx’s character because of them, and found myself thinking about how we treat people, especially when they are young, and the lasting impact such actions have on their lives.
Beth – Demons, Ink is a fantastic urban fantasy. It is the perfect blend of brutal and unforgiving, but with engaging characters. I loved the tattoo angle, as I am a fan of ink myself. It might be too dark for some readers, but for me, it was just right. 8/10
the forever king by ben galley
the forever king by ben galley Buy A Copy Here What is it about? Revenge loves company.
Mithrid Fenn wants nothing to do with magick. Magick is a curse word, banned by the vast Arka Empire and punishable by death. Its purging has finally brought peace to war-torn Emaneska. Only a stubborn rebellion, led by the warlord Outlaw King, raids and pillages the empire’s northern fringes.
To cliff-brat Mithrid, this is an age of tranquility and childhood games. That is until an illegal spellbook washes up on her shores, and she finds herself thrust into a war she never knew existed.
Now hunted by daemons and mages, she is dragged inexorably north to Scalussen and its rebels fighting doggedly to preserve a memory of freedom. Mithrid holds no such ideals. She fights for revenge and nothing nobler. If spilling blood means helping the Outlaw King, then so be it. Even if it means all-out war.
Jodie – First of all, I need to point out that every author I’ve read so far in the contest has been extremely talented. Every single one. So, if you happen to be an author whose work was cut this year: please keep writing. If you happen to be a reader following this contest: the list of contestants this year would make a really awesome reading list.
The Forever King… ah, where do I start? This is the beginning of a new series that takes place in the same world as some of author Ben Galley’s previous books. I haven’t read the original series yet, so I was concerned that I would be a little lost. I wasn’t at all! While I am sure that the book will seem even richer to those who have experience in the world, I was still completely immersed in the story.
I was a little unsure about the main character, Mithrid, at first. She is (understandably) distrustful and it took me a while to really get a handle on her. I ended up really enjoying her development, which was completely believable, especially as it didn’t happen in one fell swoop. I am a big fan of characters that develop and grow in a book.
Of course, I have to mention the many races that make an appearance. Dragons!!! Need I say more? The creativity of the races was a joy to read.
One thing that I was slightly less than thrilled about is the appearance of Loki. It seems that he has been popping up pretty much everywhere lately and I have gotten rather tired of that. Oddly enough, his addition actually pulled me out of the narrative a bit, probably because he is so ubiquitous. However, he was used well, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.
Aside from the slight quibble, I found The Forever King to be an engrossing read and a promising start to what looks to be an epic series. 8.5/10
Becca – LOVED THIS BOOK! I sat and read through it in one sitting! This is the book that everyone needs to have on their list – and share with their fantasy loving friends as well. Ben Galley does not disappoint with this thrilling tale! 9/10
G.M. – The Forever King is a book that grabs you from the first pages and shakes you so hard that you have no choice but to say “Now THIS is fantasy!”. Several staple fantasy concepts and characters are introduced in the first few chapters and in such a colorful, beautifully written way, that they will hook you instantly. And it’s quite clear that there’s a rich backstory and lore to the world that – while not necessary to deep dive into – just scream at how well put together the whole thing is. There’s a well-thought-out vision for this saga and I am here for it. 9/10
Beth – I loved this book. It pretty much had me in the first chapter and got better from there. The Forever King has a richness of storytelling. It is round, if that makes sense. The characters are rounded out, the background and worldbuilding is detailed enough that I can get a mental picture going, but not so much that my imagination isn’t fully engaged. It is the kind of book that makes me excited and clamoring for more. 9/10
So who is our finalist going to be?
Points totaled, our winner, and the selection as our finalist for team Before We Go Blog is The Forever King.
Congratulations to Ben Galley. Final Score 8.9/10
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October 30, 2021
SPFBO7 Two Semifinalist Cuts – Sword of the Scarred and The Inner Lands – Something Stirs
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SWORD OF THE SCARRED by JEFFREY HALL October 30, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress What it is about?The price of becoming a legend is more than most are willing to pay.
Requiem Balestone is the last of the Scarred, a group of warriors with tremendous power that when wielded leaves cruel wounds upon their skin. After a lifetime of battling monsters, he’s gathered enough scars to become a ruined version of his former self.
But before he can lay down his blade, one last mission calls him to battle. A mission that pulls him into the middle of a civil war that threatens to destroy the world. And as both sides close in around him, and a mysterious evil begins to stalk the land, Requiem must decide if he’s willing to sacrifice the rest of himself to become the savior of the realm, or walk away from it for good.
G.M – Sword of the Scarred delivers an interesting grimdark premise with interesting worldbuilding. But, unfortunately, by the 20% mark, I can’t say I was compelled to continue. Stakes and a quest are set up for the titular scarred warrior, but given that the person he’s charged himself with protecting is still unconscious, I had a tough time grasping where this would go in the next few chapters. Still, it’s a well-written book and may appeal to dark fantasy fans. 7/10
Jason – I had no idea what to expect from Sword of The Scarred as the author and story were totally new to me
which is one of the great things about this competition. I’ll admit now that I haven’t finished this book, but I did read enough to say I like it. The protagonist Requiem is interesting. He’s wanting to end his long hard life but can’t because he rescues someone and then feels responsible for her. The thing driving the narrative then becomes a desire to get this girl (who he’s dragging around because she’s unconscious) to safety while teasing out the threads of what is going on with her and the new events unfolding in the world. The world-building is well done presenting a rough and difficult setting with lots of dangers lurking around the corner and some back history that begs for further detail and fleshing out. The magic system where a stone gives power to it’s wielder and then puts scars on their body as a reminder of its cost is interesting.
While at times the writing seemed a little overdone (opening battle scene for example) for the most part the prose was balanced and fitting to the scene.
There’s a good balance of action scenes with those that move the story forward. The pacing seemed on point with little reveals here and there to keep my interest.
I think there are many readers who will enjoy Sword of The Scarred and I hope they give it a shot.
I enjoyed my time with it and look forward to more from this series, but it was one I still voted to cut because I enjoyed the book that did become our finalist a little more. Rating: 7 out of 10
Becca – I enjoyed reading through this one, although some of the characters fell a little flat. This had a fabulous premise, and this is one that I think many will enjoy, especially those that love a good military read!
Beth – Sword of the Scarred was my pick as a semi-finalist. I loved the premise of this book. The idea of Requiem and what forces him to act was a very new twist on a fantasy idea. The writing for the most part was clean and crisp, kept the book moving from page to page, it had great battle scenes, and had a dark edge. But the writing was not so dark that it would alienate some readers. It toes the line just enough to show that this world is not a great place for Requiem, but it isn’t extremely grimdark. If you are a fan of darker fantasy then this is a great pick for you. 7.5/10
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THE INNER LANDS - SOMETHING STIRS by A.J. AUSTIN October 30, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress What it is about?For centuries, the mountainous borders of the Inner Lands had kept the monstrous Grinth at bay, and people had finally found peace. But their complacency would be their undoing, for everything was about to change. As their world falls apart around them, an unlikely bond between a young girl, beaten by her father, and a conflicted warrior, haunted by his tragic past, could well seal the fate of all humanity.
As they fight for their survival, a final battle looms. But before they can stand a chance against the Grinth, they’ll first have to conquer their own pasts. Will friendship and strength prevail? Or will the cunning and cruelty of evil twist the world into turmoil? Nothing is certain in the Inner Lands.
When Fallor called a meeting for the entire Hillock village, little did Sill know that it was just the beginning in a series of events that would reshape everything she knew about their small world. The banishing of her abusive father frees her to embark on a journey of her own. One in which she encounters incredible natural wonders like the Moonmirror Peak, mysterious people like Draneth the shaman and his hawk Tamarellin, strange men with stranger eyes; and the mighty Rydan Fort, built into the side of a mountain.
It could have been the adventure of her dreams, were it not for the monstrous creatures that pursue her all the way; bringing death, destruction and tragedy to everything and everyone she grows to cherish. The power she kept a secret for so long is too much for her young mind to handle but she’ll have to learn how to wield it, and quickly, if she’s to survive in this harsh new world.
Dylan – The Inner Lands is primarily the story of two young protagonists with tragic upbringings and experiences who come to understand they have crucial roles to play in a world where the return of a looming threat that has lain dormant for centuries is imminent. The main protagonists, Sill and Kallem are tasked with coming to grips with their own traumatic experiences in order to meet the challenges of the increasingly tumultuous world around them.
The novel immediately drew me in before the story even started with the foreword from AJ Austin about his own personal journey, seeking to draw from his suffering and heartache to channel toward his creative process. He dedicates the book to anyone who has gone through difficulties, hoping that this novel reminds them that they are not alone. It’s a truly poignant foreword that sets the tone for the kind of story he tells.
The book has a psychological and character-driven tilt to it that shines through in its main cast and their internal struggles. Indeed, it feels that the title of the Inner Lands refers not only to the setting but also to the introspective nature and journey of our protagonists. The main character, Sill, is a twelve-year old with a horribly abusive father. Austin depicts her as having retreated into herself making her a thoughtful, introspective child with a vibrant personality hidden beneath an initially demure exterior. Being in her point of view allows us to experience the substantial depth that exists for her beneath the surface.
Kallem is the other main point of view in this book. He is dealing with the ramifications of having witnessed the death of family members. He’s a character that has tried to close himself off to any emotional experience in response to this horrific event. Throughout the story, we get well-acquainted with his personal conflict, as well as the intricacies and nuances to him that underly his gruff exterior. Kallem’s complicated relationship with his mother feels very authentic, and there are dramatic moments between those two that served as highlights to my reading experience.
The worldbuilding has interesting elements and lore through evoking the trope of the looming threat returning to the world. This might appeal to fans of that element of A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. I enjoyed the pacing at which this part of the story was revealed and unfurled. Aspects of magic, monsters, and mystery grace the Inner Lands in a way that I believe can entertain those who lean toward reading high fantasy and/or epic fantasy.
There were some parts of the book that I could see keeping it from working for everyone. The prose felt somewhat standard to me in the sense that it generally conveyed what was needed to tell the story without particular flourish or too many turns of phrases that stuck out to me. The plot could feel slow at times, especially in the middle of the novel. There were also some occasional spelling errors that took me out of the story. The other area that felt weakest for me was the lack of a well-fleshed-out villain or antagonist. The villains in this book are the Grinth, but they come off seeming like mostly mindless creatures and more a part of the world than characters in themselves. The lack of a fully realized antagonist could feel apropos for the Inner Lands, given that the true enemies for our characters lie within their own personal efforts to reconcile their internal struggles—in this case, the world-threatening enemy serves toward laying the stage to force them to grapple with these preexisting conflicts within themselves. In other words, it’s the inner demons rather than the outer ones that feel the most pertinent for our characters to address, even though the outer ones present an existential threat to the world. As a character-focused reader, I appreciated the internal struggles, while also wishing that they could’ve been brought out for our characters by a more personified enemy.
In all, I enjoyed the Inner Lands to the extent that I’m making it my choice to move on to Before We Go Blog’s next round in SPFBO! I’m excited to see how it fares against the other books our team has chosen for that round.
Eleni – Heavily expositional and meandering. I struggled to go through it. Kept feeling as if something were missing to make some things make sense. The pacing was all over the place 5.5/10
G.M – The Inner Lands has the makings of an epic, sweeping fantasy, with some interesting concepts but ultimately, I did not feel like the narrative made me all too concerned about the stakes. And although the characters do grow and change by the end of the book, I did not feel like the build-up delivered a satisfying finale. I would be interested to see how this gets built upon in the next books. 6/10
Jason – When the list of books were assigned and Team BWGB got The Inner Lands I was excited. I’d already scoped it out as a potential read because I liked the cover and the book blurb. So when Dylan recommended it as a semi-finalist I was even more excited. I read The Inner Lands all the way through and I enjoyed it.
It’s a slow burn of a novel which is something I like if done well. Where I think A.J. Austin succeeded in this area is by making the focus on the two protagonists Sill and Kallem. The narrative is a mix of their inner turmoil reacting to external events. That inner turmoil is driven by the abuse and trauma each has experienced in their short lives and gives the story added weight that requires a slower pace to carry it through to the end.
Speaking of that personal trauma, this story is really about dealing with it, and how one copes with both sudden and extended traumatic experiences. This is probably the element I loved most about the book.
Where it lacked some depth in my opinion is with world-building and a clear antagonist. The story is set entirely in a secluded valley surrounded by mountains that humans have retreated to after almost being annihilated by The Grinth, and the people have forgotten much of their history. We never see anything outside that valley, which is fine if looking for a localized story, but we only get bits and pieces from within it. And though The Grinth are an enemy they are somewhat faceless and leaderless. The true antagonist isn’t revealed until very late in the narrative and then there’s a very quick resolution. The ending felt rushed once the big baddie was revealed. Dylan’s comment that perhaps the villain(s) are the demons in the character’s own heads has some merit to it, but I think the story would have benefited from more depth in the antagonist and world-building areas. Still, I really did enjoy this book. Rating: 6/ 10
Becca – While I enjoyed part of this book, it just failed to deliver the amount of oomph needed to keep me fully engaged.
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