Beth Tabler's Blog, page 217
August 14, 2021
Review – The Children God forgot by Graham Masterton
BOOK REVIEW
THE CHILDREN GOD FORGOT by graham mastertonREVIEW BY BETH TABLER
August 14, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress “How much worse could her life become, if she wasn’t even allowed to die?”The Children God Forgot starts with pain, visceral stabbing pain in a woman’s belly. The woman in question wakes up in the hospital, completely confused. She finds out she is pregnant, which is impossible. There is no way that she could be pregnant: she had an abortion three months ago. The doctors perform an emergency c-section and deliver a horrifically malformed fetus.
One that could not possibly be alive, but it is. This idea of the impossible being possible has a very Lovecraftian feel to it and permeates every page of The Children God Forgot. Then as the story progresses there is a rash of strange births and pregnancies that sweeps through London.
Simultaneously, while London experiences strange births of malformed fetuses, a sewage engineer named Gemma, the owner of the sewage company she works for, and the cameraman make a routine check-in a section of London’s sewers. As they travel through the engulfing and claustrophobic darkness of the London underground, they discover a fatberg.
A stony mound of toilet paper, and grease that has solidified into a substance, not unlike concrete clogging the sewer flow. They also find a women’s severed hand floating in the refuse.
Immediately upon discovery of the severed appendage, chaos happens, lights flash, electricity arcs around them in the oppressive dark, and the three workers are thrown into utter and complete darkness while waist-deep trudging through human waste. To say that the moment is something of nightmares would be an understatement.
Up ahead around the pipe bend, the three workers can see child-like figures glowing amongst the waste. These child-like figures are made of claws and are horribly and inhumanly disfigured. They move with lightning speed. The group makes a run for it, and all make it out except for Gemma’s boss, who disappears only to be found later with his legs amputated and his eyes ripped from the sockets.
This alerts DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel of the supernatural squad team up once again to delve into what is lurking in London’s sewers with the help of the above-mentioned sewer team. Will there be more bodies, more disfigurement, and horror? Of course, there will be more. Because Masterton will be Masterton. He is the author that pokes at all those uncomfortable psychological places in his reader’s minds.
And much like other books in his catalog, it won’t be just one type of horror. He makes you squirm and scream internally. You wonder just how far he can go.
I think that you could have a solid horror story of just the sewer section of the book. The claustrophobic feeling he evokes is terrifying. But, there is a robust supernatural angle to The Children God Forgot. What are these things that look like malformed children, and who is the woman with the knives that keeps appearing?
Unfortunately, I will have to stop the description there because it will give it away if I say anymore. Imagine something like The Strain, but with occult vibes taking place in a sewer. Now top it all off with a police procedural, and you won’t be far off because at this story’s heart is a solid case that needs solving.
The supernatural squad is a competent duo. There is no flash with them, aside from wanting to get to the heart of the case. They appear together in the novel Ghost Virus; if you have read that, you will be familiar with the pair. However, reading the previous novel in no way affects your enjoyment of this one.
The Children God Forgot will not be for everyone because this is some deep body horror. It is terrifying. I’d put some trigger warnings, flaying, abortion, claustrophobic spaces; there is a lot. If you can’t make it through the first three chapters of this book, you would not like what is in store later on. It only gets scarier, darker with a lot more gore.
I love horror, and even I had to put the e-reader down now and then. Because, wow, some of these scenes are dark as hell. A particular scene included one of these monstrous fetus-creatures eating a cat and tearing it apart with a cracking sound of a broken rib cage—bits of fur flying everywhere. You get the point.
If you love horror of all sorts and want to be scared, The Children God Forgot is for you. Masterton is a master of writing horror. If you are new to his books, congratulations, you are in for a hell of a ride! Some of these scenes will be burned on your brain as if Masterton used an actual branding iron, but I promise you will recover from the cat scene and a few others soon.
Originally published in GdM#27
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August 13, 2021
Interview With Author Graham Masterton
Graham Masterton "I thought long and hard before writing The Children God Forgot because of its controversial subject matter, and to be honest I wasn’t sure that any publisher would touch it. In the end, though, I knew I had to write it even if it never saw the light of day." Graham Masterton, known to be one of the lions of the horror genre and one of its most celebrated novelists, is also one of its most prolific writers, with over 40 novels spanning multiple genres.
I had the immense honor of having a chat with the horror legend about his writing, sex-help novels, what he is working on now, and the horror genre in general.
[BWG] Before becoming a novelist, you were a journalist for a few years. Journalism requires a different type of approach to presenting the reader with an idea or situation. There is also a lot of overlap between the two. Could you tell me a bit about what you learned as a reporter and how that has affected your writing later in your career?
[GM] Most of my education was at Whitgift School in Croydon which was an all-boys school. My parents moved and I was supposed to complete my sixth-form education at a mixed grammar school in Crawley. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out in terms of my career) I lost all interest in Shakespeare and Byron and Wordsworth and concentrated all my studies on Jane and Jill and Charmienne. After two terms I was asked to leave. After a short spell as a greengrocer I was offered a job as a junior reporter on the Crawley Observer newspaper. I was lucky that in those days local papers were staffed by semi-retired Fleet Street reporters who really knew their stuff, and so I was taught all the rudiments of writing a good news story, as well as layout and typography. The most important lesson I learned as a news reporter, though, I learned on my very first day. I was sent to interview a woman about her husband’s cycling trophies (not exactly front-page news) but after she had told me all about them and I was about to leave, she said, ‘He beats me.’ I went back into her living-room with her and for an hour she poured out the whole story of her husband’s abuse… how he hit her if she argued with him, how he threw his dinner onto the kitchen floor if it wasn’t what he wanted to eat, how he would rape her in the middle of the night when she was asleep. She had told her mother and her sisters, but they had simply told her that it was her fault for marrying him. There was little that I could do for her except to suggest that she go to her doctor and social services. But as I cycled away that day, I felt like Saul on the way to Damascus. I had learned in that one morning that everybody is bursting to tell you their story, especially if they are caught in a distressing situation from which they feel they can’t escape, and if you listen sympathetically they will tell you everything… right down to the most intimate details. Obviously my horror novels are based on fantasy and mythology, but I still base my characters on real people in ordinary situations… characters who have their own mundane problems like abusive marriages or debt or stress in their careers, apart from having to face up to demons and obnoxious spirits and other mythological perils. I believe that helps to make my novels more realistic and more frightening. The other important thing I learned as a reporter was how to join two contrasting or even conflicting ideas together to come up with an interesting story. As a reporter, if you witness a car crash, you don’t just describe the crash and any injuries that might result, you ask how and why did it happen, and who were the people involved.
[BWG] You are a sex instruction manual writer, 29 so far. I read that you got into that through writing a column for Mayfair, then through Penthouse magazine. I would love to know how you got from Mayfair to Penthouse and then on to writing the instruction manuals. And what continued to draw you to write on different topics in the genre?
[GM] After four years training on the Crawley Observer I wrote a very arrogant letter to the newly-launched Mayfair magazine, and they were so impressed by my arrogance that they gave me the job of deputy editor. The staff included the publisher, the editor, me, the secretary, and the publisher’s dog. Our office was the size of a wardrobe. But I was given free rein to write features and to organize fashion shoots and I also had the arduous job of going to the photographers’ studios and interviewing the girls who appeared in the centre-spread every month. Most men who casually visited the studios would simply gawp at the girls, but I always got to talk to them in the same way that I had talked to that woman whose husband had abused her. They told me just as much: about their boyfriends, about their ambitions, about why they had decided to pose nude, about their sex lives. I just listened and nodded and took it all in. At that time Penthouse was outselling Mayfair by a considerable number of copies and one of its most attractive features was the famous Penthouse readers’ letters, which were all very frank accounts of sexual encounters. I suggested that we start a regular column of verbatim interviews with girls about their sex lives… what they wanted and how they went about getting it. I called it ‘Quest.’ Of course I wrote all the girls’ responses myself, but they were based very closely on the personal stories that had been given to me by our models, so they were realistic and not misleading, and hopefully quite informative too. After three years at Mayfair I had an argument with the editor and simply walked out. I phoned the editor of Penthouse, and he gave me a job as deputy editor the following week, for twice the pay. At that time, Penthouse had just started publishing an American edition, and so I was sent to New York fairly regularly to help out. While I was there I met Howard Kaminsky from Warner Paperback Library (who happened to be the cousin of Mel Brooks, whose real name is Mel Kaminsky). He suggested I write an anecdotal sex instruction book and so he commissioned me to write How A Woman Loves To Be Loved. I wrote it under the nom-de-plume ‘Angel Smith’ and there was a photograph of Angel on the cover in a wet T-shirt. It was hugely successful, since most sex books those days were very medical. The only trouble was that Angel received a lot of fan mail. One letter included a condom which the sender said he had rolled on and off himself as a tribute to Angel. After that I insisted on writing sex books under my own name. The first was How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed, published by Signet, and it sold half a million copies in six months. For various personal reasons I eventually resigned from Penthouse but my sex books were easily making enough money for me to live on. Sex is a varied and interesting subject, and I got to know many of its most famous (or notorious) practitioners. I became friends with Xaviera Hollander, the Happy Hooker, and with the late Monique von Cleef, the dominatrix, and I learned a lot from them about what men wanted and how women could give it to them, and vice versa. Eventually, though, the market became flooded with similar books, and it was time to move on.
[BWG You have had a hand in writing many types of novels. You have an extensive repertoire of horror stories. But you are also a prolific crime novelist and an author of non-fiction sex instruction manuals. Is the creative process different for each of these types of books?
[GM] Obviously the research is very different for each type of book. I try to make the characters and the background as believable as possible, which is why I usually set my stories in real locations, rather than invented ones. You can visit almost all of the locations that you read about in my books, including pubs and restaurants. I don’t have a ‘Castle Rock’ for example, although I have no criticism of Stephen King. My horror novel The Children God Forgot is set in Peckham, East London, which I know well; and my crime series featuring Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire of the Cork Gardai was based closely on my experience of living in Cork for a few years. In the same way my horror novels set in various American cities are all based on personal observation—like The Manitou in New York and Walkers in Milwaukee and a new horror novel I have just finished, The Soul Stealer, set in Hollywood. Essentially, though, the creative process is much the same. The story has to grab the reader from the very first line, the writing has to be tight and clear, and the dialogue has to be believable. It is important for the characters to sound as if they know what they’re talking about, and in the case of the Katie Maguire novels I used a certain amount of Cork slang, although not as much as the real Corkonians use, or nobody would have understood a word of it. ‘That langer would break your melt’ (that dick would test your patience to breaking point); or ‘That’s the berries’ (that’s excellent.)
[BWG] As a reader, which type of horror resonates the most with you? Has there ever been a horror novel that you have had to put down for a bit because it was just too intense? And if so, why?
[GM] I don’t read horror fiction. In fact I read almost no fiction at all. I regret it, because I used to enjoy it a great deal, and I learned a lot about developing a direct and involving style from American writers like Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny, for example) and Nelson Algren (The Man With The Golden Arm). One of the reasons I don’t read fiction is because I am severely critical of my own writing, and I am too quick to pick holes in other authors’ fiction. I think the day I stopped reading fiction was when I was reading a Len Deighton novel and realized that I knew he was hungry and was rushing to finish the chapter so that he could go for his lunch.
[BWG] When you create a horror scene, how do you know where the tipping point is when a scene’s horror is too much? Or does such a place exist?
[GM] I thought long and hard before writing The Children God Forgot because of its controversial subject matter, and to be honest I wasn’t sure that any publisher would touch it. In the end, though, I knew I had to write it even if it never saw the light of day. But times have changed, and my publishers Head of Zeus are open-minded and advanced in their thinking and they got behind it regardless. When you consider the atrocities that are committed in real life, there is nothing that you could possibly write in fiction that could come close. I regularly visit towns in Poland where, during the war, scores of innocent children were taken away and gassed. You can’t write anything worse than that. I know that some people prefer ‘cosy crime’ like Agatha Christie stories in which the most dreadful thing that happens is that the bishop gets beaten to death with a badger in the bathroom. But in reality people get raped and tortured and chopped into bits, and left in builders’ bags in a forest somewhere. These killings affect detectives, too, deeply. They don’t sit calmly puffing a pipe in Baker Street or putting on a hairnet when they go to bed like Hercule Poirot. They suffer terrible PTSD. Obviously I try to write entertaining stories, but I believe in representing the horrors of this world as they really are.
[BWG] How has the release pacing of horror novels changed since the introduction of ebooks?
[GM] Ebooks have changed my whole career as a horror writer. They have made it possible for almost my entire backlist to be made available, whereas it is very doubtful that so many of them would have been re-issued if it had been necessary to reprint them on paper and store them in warehouses. I seem to be writing horror novels at a fair lick now. I sometimes think that readers don’t appreciate that a book that takes them three days to read can take three months or more to write. Their appetites are voracious!
[BWG] Can you tell me a bit about the Graham Masterton Written In Prison Award (Nagroda Grahama Mastertona W Wiezieniu Pisane). How did that come about, and how did you end up working with Polish writer Joanna Opiat-Bojarska?
[GM] I first had the idea for the Graham Masterton Written In Prison Award five years ago when I was taken to Wołow maximum security prison near Wrocław to talk to the inmates. They were plainly so interested in writing and reading that when I was having lunch with the prison director, Robert Kuchera, afterwards I suggested that it might be therapeutic for them to write short stories for a small prize. Robert is very enthusiastic about rehabilitation and he got behind the idea immediately. In the first year we received more than 120 entries and even last year with Covid we received nearly 100. It is open to the inmates of every penal institution in Poland and the prizes (DVD players) are now financed by the Polish Prison Service although I used to pay for them myself. Some of the stories are crime thrillers, some are fantasies, but at their core almost all of them have some element of personal experience… pain, and regret, and sadness. I was unable to go to Poland last year to present the prizes in person but I am hoping to go back in October. Joanna Opiat-Bojarska I have yet to meet, because of Covid. She volunteered to help by selecting the best 20 stories, which are then translated and sent to me to pick the 10 winners. The best story receives a brass plaque, and the runners-up receive certificates, as well as prizes. I write a personal letter to every entrant and every entrant receives a souvenir pen.
[BWG] Your first horror novel, The Manitou, came out in 1976, and most recently, The Children God Forgot in 2021. How have things changed in the horror industry?
[GM] Things have changed enormously, especially in the horror writing business. When I published The Manitou there were very few horror novels on offer on the mass market, but these days there is a regular flood. It is partly because the internet has made communication so much simpler, and partly because social attitudes towards horror have become much more relaxed.
[BWG] Can you tell me a bit about your newest novel, The Children God Forgot? For me, it was a book that is difficult to categorize in any subset of the horror genre. It has a bit of everything in it.
[GM] The Children God Forgot is a novel that examines different attitudes towards abortion. On one hand there are people who believe that every life is sacred, from the moment of conception. On the other hand there are people who believe that a woman is entitled to seek a termination if she has become pregnant through rape or incest, or whose foetus has such defects that it is non-viable. It is a book about the conflict between religion and superstition and progressive feminism. I think you can understand why I ummed and aahhed a bit before I wrote it. Not to mention the fact that it describes blocked-up sewers.
[BWG] The Children God Forgot, is a follow-up to Ghost Virus, which follows DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel on a case and combines crime and horror. What important aspects do you think a book needs to straddle the line between the two genres? There seem to be aspects of each genre that compliment each other.
[GM] To me, horror and crime go pretty much hand-in-gory-hand. If somebody gets horribly killed, the police are naturally going to get involved. Apart from which, I enjoy writing about the reaction of ordinary, run-of-the-mill coppers to the appearance of some ghastly demonic apparition. When I started writing horror novels, I had no idea that there was such a thing as a ‘genre.’ To me, a story is a story, and what makes it come to life is the contrast between fantasy and reality. On more than one occasion I have started writing a book that was going to be a straightforward thriller and then found out that it worked better as a horror novel. Blind Panic was one of those… it was going to be a disaster novel about a pandemic of blindness in the United States, but then I found out that it was being caused by vengeful Native American spirits. A similar thing has happened with the novel that I have just completed, The Soul Stealer.
[BWG] Do you tend to model aspects of characters after real-life people? I am especially interested in Jamila Patel. She seems like a powerful and capable character, one that bucks the many female character tropes of the horror genre. Can you tell me a bit about her creation?
[GM] All of my closest friends all my life have been women. When I was 17 I became friends with a young woman reporter on the rival newspaper in Crawley, and we still meet and talk for hours. I had a Burmese girlfriend, too, and she had the kind of inner strength that Jamila Patel has. In fact so many women are strong and clever and capable but do not allow themselves (or are not allowed) to challenge men. I have a woman friend now who is highly qualified but finds it desperately hard to have her abilities recognized. And I am close friends with the brilliant writer Dawn G Harris. We have co-authored two horror stories together and published them in five different countries and we are writing more. Jamila is a combination of several of those women.
[BWG] I think the first thing I googled when I started The Children God Forgot was “What is a Fatberg?” From there, I went down a terrifying rabbit hole. Yes, they are very much real things. How did you come across that this was a thing?
[GM] Fatbergs were shown on the TV news, and it occurred to me that they would make a fairly stomach-churning feature in a horror novel. This is another example of mixing two contrasting stories together (sewers and abortions) to make the whole novel take on an extra sense of reality. Not to mention making editors of horror magazines throw up.
[BWG] Now that The Children God Forgot has released, what do you have in the hopper?
[GM] A new horror novel featuring Det Sgt Jamila Patel and Det Con Jerry Pardoe will be coming out in December—The Shadow People. Following that, The Soul Stealer. I have been writing some new short stories, too, and I hope to have a new collection out sometime next year. Thank you for your interest.
The interview originally appeared in Grimdark Magazine
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August 12, 2021
Review – Guardians of Porthaven by Shane Arbuthnot
By Ryan Howse 
guardians of porthaven by shane arbuthnott Purchase Here About On his fiteenth birthday, Malcolm Gravenhurst is preparing to take on the mantle of Guardian, like many Gravenhursts before him. The Guardians are tasked with defending the city of Porthaven, and his family is the only one to possess the superpowers necessary to battle the frequent alien invasions of robotic klek. But power has brought the Gravenhursts more than just responsibility–it has also brought them fame and wealth. When Malcolm meets some teens living and working in secret, he learns that underneath their heroic facade, the Gravenhurst family is hiding some very dark secrets. With the threat of annihilation on the horizon, soon Malcolm must choose between family loyalty and doing the right thing. My Thoughts Disclaimer: I am friends with Shane Arbuthnott. He plays The Best Alien in my weekly RPG campaign.
Guardians of Porthaven by Shane Arbuthnott is a middle-grade/Young Adult superhero story. It follows Malcolm Gravenhurst, the youngest member of a family who all have superpowers. They call themselves Guardians and disdain the term superhero, viewing that as ‘childish entertainment.’
By Malcolm’s understanding, his family are the only ones who gained these powers. An alien gateway crash-landed in Porthaven decades ago, releasing numerous robotic invaders called the klek. The Gravenhurst family, with their new powers, managed to defeat the klek, and become heroes to the town, complete with fawning media and tower. The klek keep coming, appearing at random through the city every few weeks, but they never seem specifically dangerous unless they’re attacked first (even if by accident.) And the town continues to love the Gravenhursts.
Porthaven itself seems like a science fictional city, but none of the inventions that work there can work outside the city. This is a neat bit of worldbuilding that hits the slightly futuristic vibe in many mainstream superhero comics without changing the entire world. These comic books come up a few times, as Malcolm clearly loves them and has taken inspiration from them, but it’s never overwhelming or a replacement for the rest of his personality.
They were his own collection–Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, the classic Claremont and Davis run of Excalibur that he’d worked hard to collect. Ones about heroes who didn’t just do it as a job and tried to do every ounce of good they could in the world.
Malcolm is socially awkward, as he’s never been around many people besides his family and their employees before. He was tutored rather than going to school, and has no friends to speak of. He talks too much and misses social cues. He has to take classes on managing public relations. He is consistently called out as a child of privilege, and that’s true, but it’s also clear that that same upbringing had a lot of its own difficulties, mostly due to his isolation and how his family would stamp down on him for his suggestions.
“Well, um, I’m responsible for keeping the city safe, and that’s where I’d like to focus. I’ve only ever fought the klek in simulations before now, right? So I’ll have to get used to the real thing, I guess. And I have this idea about—”
Felix’s hand came down hard on Malcolm’s shoulder.
When Malcolm first experiences life outside the tower, he meets another youth who also has superpowers. That simple fact alone rattles him. He’s been told all his life that only members of the Gravenhurst family get these powers. Then he meets a couple others, and they’re doing what he wanted to do—using their powers not just against the klek, but to keep the city safe from regular crime as well.
Malcolm’s power is defensive. He can form a powerful set of armor around himself, almost like a force field, to keep himself safe. This lets him take damage and defend others, which is extremely fitting given his role.
Now that he knows what he’s looking for, Malcolm starts seeing plenty of small cracks in his family’s stories. The conflict is organic, clever, and driven by the personalities of the main characters. The pacing is like clockwork, and just when you think a major plot is wrapping up, another twist comes in. The action and mystery complement each other perfectly. A lot of books provide a more thorough status quo before everything gets taken apart, but Guardians of Porthaven hits the ground running.
The ending is excellent as well. If it had had a more traditional ending, it would have been reinforcing Malcolm’s privilege. Instead, it finds its own path and is far stronger for it.
Overall, Guardians of Porthaven is a great, fast-paced book, an examination of privilege, and a love letter to superheroes.
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Ryan Howse I’m funnier without context.
Okay, you want context.
I’m a mid-30s nerd, married, with two kids. Also two cats–Cathulhu and Necronomicat.
I like, in no particular order, tabletop gaming, board games, arguing over books, ancient history and religion, and puns.
I’m unconundrum on reddit.
August 11, 2021
I Know Science Fiction and Fantasy Can be Daunting
“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”
“We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship – to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.”
types of conflict science fiction and fantasy are the "what if" genres like any other genres, they follow one of the seven conflicts 
Person Vs. Person A person finds that they are in opposition to another character. Hello, Luke vs Vader. If you have seen Star Wars and have related to it, you have seen (Person vs Person) conflict in science fiction/fantasy.
Examples Two competitors competing against each other.a battle between two countriestwo gangs fighting over territory
Person VS. Fate A person vs Fate is so common now in fantasy literature is a trope. It is the classic hero’s tale. A person with a pre-ordained destiny that no matter the struggle will come to pass. A very important series for fantasy is the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series that will soon be made into a new show on HBO. This is a classic example of (person vs. fate).
Examples A royal family member, denies their crown. There actually isn’t a lot of things fated in life.
person vs. nature Person vs. Nature is a character against forces that are outside the limits of their control. Nature is the epitome of that. A force of nature. Lucifer’s Hammer is Man vs. Comet. Or, you could do The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein which shows the effects of long term living on the moon.
examples Man trying to stay ahead of a major flood.Family trying to survive a hurricane.Killer birds attacking a small village.Hey lovely people. let’s talk about science fiction and fantasy genres. Science Fiction and Fantasy can be a daunting genres to get into. It is that wild genre that isn’t always based in reality, and that can be offputting and unrelatable to some readers. I mean what are you supposed to do with space battles, aliens, pirates, dragons. These are not relatable things. There is nothing to base it off on, in reality. All we have is a shared commonality of lore and stories. However, with these shared mythoi between cultures, we can relate to the plights of characters.
For example, when talking about dragons, cultures around the world have a general idea of what a dragon is like. The details differ from region to region. But, generally, they are the same. Thanks to Tolkien we have the shared commonality of Orcs. They have become pretty extensive in fantasy. Elves come from Germanic and Scandanavian lore. Their stories disseminated through the various cultures of northern Europe. Fantasy writing is essentially taking these cultural stories and mythos and making new tales with them. It is a loose definition because there are outliers in all genres where stories don’t quite fit into standard type.
Now take these stories and put them into the seven types of conflicts, you have relatable stories. Example of Person vs Person Star Wars Aftermath by Chuck Wendig
New York Times Bestseller • Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens
“Star Wars: Aftermath [reveals] what happened after the events of 1983’s Return of the Jedi. It turns out, there’s more than just the Empire for the good guys to worry about.”—The Hollywood Reporter
As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance—now a fledgling New Republic—presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy’s scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. But above the remote planet Akiva, an ominous show of the enemy’s strength is unfolding. Out on a lone reconnaissance mission, pilot Wedge Antilles watches Imperial Star Destroyers gather like birds of prey circling for a kill, but he’s taken captive before he can report back to the New Republic leaders.
Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, former rebel fighter Norra Wexley has returned to her native world—war weary, ready to reunite with her estranged son, and eager to build a new life in some distant place. But when Norra intercepts Wedge Antilles’s urgent distress call, she realizes her time as a freedom fighter is not yet over. What she doesn’t know is just how close the enemy is—or how decisive and dangerous her new mission will be.
Determined to preserve the Empire’s power, the surviving Imperial elite are converging on Akiva for a top-secret emergency summit—to consolidate their forces and rally for a counterstrike. But they haven’t reckoned on Norra and her newfound allies—her technical-genius son, a Zabrak bounty hunter, and a reprobate Imperial defector—who are prepared to do whatever they must to end the Empire’s oppressive reign once and for all.
Example of Person vs fate The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
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.
Example of Person vs nature Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival–a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.
Person Vs. Society Lately, the dystopian genre has exploded. For good reason. Many believe we are living in a weird dystopia. Not long ago I wrote an article on the rise of the feminist dystopia, and why it is important and relatable. Again, I will mention it. It is a type of conflict. It pits a person against society and social norms. It is relatable. Although dystopia falls more under speculative fiction than science fiction, the lines of all these genres get a bit murky. There are many examples of this: Hunger Games, Wool, Anthem, and The Handmaids Tale.
My favorite book from this genre is Farenheit 451. The opening line is probably the greatest opening line ever written in literature, “It was a pleasure to burn.” Fight me.
Examples Women fight for the right to votenon-violent protestingkids struggling in middle school
Person VS.the unknown Person vs. The Unknown is pretty popular in science fiction and fantasy. War of the Worlds, The Shining, The Stand, and pretty much any horror novel you can think of. The protagonist vs. something they don’t understand, Animal, vegetable or mineral. My two favorite books from this are Childhood’s End and World War Z. Childhood’s End is about an alien culture that has come down to the world and gotten rid of all conflict. No war, disease, and famine. It causes great ennui. World War Z is about zombies, and so much more. Both are relatable if you look at them through the scope of humanity. Without a struggle in life, do humans become soft and complacent? in World War Z it is as much about Zombies is it is about the sociological effects on different cultures throughout the world when faced with something like zombies. That part fascinated me. Forget the stupid movie. It is like comparing apples and a fax machine.
Examples Ghost haunting a buildingOutbreak of influenzaSomeone goes missing on a deserted road
person vs. Technology Science Fiction finds a lot of it’s home in this genre, but not always. Classic example Asimov’s Foundation or 2001 Space Odyssey. Especially 2001. Man versus sentient computer. This has become almost a trope. What happens when we turn over the reigns to automation. The entire Terminator franchise is built around this literary concept.
examples A sentient computerA world where data is kingCameras that spy on your every move.Science Fiction usually has to deal with technology in some way. I say usually because it is a broad genre with many subclasses. But for the sake of discussion, I am going to say it has to do with technology, the future, and space in some way. All of us deal with technology daily. If you are reading this you are utilizing technology. It is a part of our lives. Science fiction is taking the technology that is constantly changing and developing and taking it one step further.
So…How does a regular reader get into something like science fiction and fantasy?
It is the “what if” genre.
What if cell phones run amok? – Stephen King’s The Cell.
What if androids went rogue? – Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
What if in the Metaverse Hiro Protagonist is a Warrior Prince? – Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
The important thing to remember about science fiction and fantasy is that it is based in the same sort of themes that any other type of fiction relies on. The human condition. It is how we as people relate to something.
For example, there are seven types of conflict in literature. This holds true for fantasy and science fiction as well. Here are some examples and how they pertain specifically to fantasy and science fiction.
Example of society Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television ‘family’. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.
Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”
Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.
On the Moon, an enigma is uncovered.
So great are the implications of this discovery that for the first time men are sent out deep into our solar system.
But long before their destination is reached, things begin to go horribly, inexplicably wrong…
One of the greatest-selling science fiction novels of our time, this classic book will grip you to the very end.
Science fiction and fantasy can be relatable. It all goes back to what humanity is. That can be true for speculative fiction in general, the great “what if.” There is no magic dictionary of terms to know, or crib sheet needed. So really, just dive right in. It is full of amazing worlds and so much to discover. If you have questions on anything I am always here.
Person Vs. self This is a classic example of a person against their darker nature or weaker nature. If you want a fantastic example of this to look no further than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry must battle with who he is inside, is he a Griffindor or is he a Slytherin? Although Harry Potter can easily fall within a few of these genres due to the changing nature of the tale. Harry grows and develops and the conflict changes from more of a (person vs self) to (person vs person).
Examples A drug addict abstaining from drugsSomeone attempting to mourn the death of a family memberA person afraid of snakes, petting one. Example of person vs. self harry potter and the sorcerers stone
Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.
Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.
Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.
Note: No link is included with this book. For obvious reasons.
Check Out Some of Our ArticlesAugust 9, 2021
2nd Round Pick – Stranger Back Home by E.L Haines
By G.M Nair 
"Strange Back Home might have a few bumps in the road, but it’s fun, funny fantasy, that I enjoyed reading and I’m giving it the push forward." stranger back home by e.l haines 
Stranger Back Home by E.L. Haines Buy A Copy Here What is it about? One day, your father is a renowned diplomat. The next day, he’s an infamous terrorist.
When Sparrow is summoned to the reading of his father’s last will and testament, the most he hoped for was a minor bequest. Instead, he inherited suspicion and accusations from the Empire that his father helped unite.
Locked away in a vault are the secrets that will reveal Xavier DuMont’s mysterious past and shine a light on Sparrow’s future. Perhaps even the future of the entire realm.
Of course, these secrets won’t be obtained easily. Especially when everyone in this magical world seems so casually racist.
Social dynamics in this world were already pretty strange. Somehow, Sparrow makes everything stranger.
Stranger Back Home by E.L. Haines is a comedic fantasy that follows a dwarf by the name of Sparrow on his continuing adventures as he returns to his fantastical homeworld following the death of his father.
Technically, Stranger Back Home is part of a series of novels about Sparrow, but works well enough as a standalone, since most of his real backstory is fleshed out here. There were occasional references to earlier books, but nothing too jarring to take me out of the moment or narrative.
And what a narrative it is. Sparrow is a well accomplished entrepreneur in the fantastical city of Dragonsmouth – filled to the brim with ghosts, vampires, goblins, dwarfs, and kobolds – and he’s got a lot of plates spinning at once.
Those plates include managing an all-girl rock band, dealing with the annoyances of the stage actors guild, managing his estate that he stole off some vampires, managing the power struggle between the various ruling groups in Dragonsmouth, leading a small group of mercenaries, and struggling to educate the fantasy populace on the injustices of blackface while simultaneously running a kobold day spa in kobold-face. And that’s just off the top of my head.
If you think that’s a lot, you’d be right. There’s a sort of loose feeling to the narrative that keeps Sparrow bouncing around, ping-ponging between different things that all ultimately tie back into the overarching plot of him being summoned due to his father’s death and his step-mother’s kidnapping.
Does it work seamlessly? Not always. Some threads seem more consequential than others while others only have the most tenuous of links to the main story.
But is it fun? You bet it is. There’s a lot of wild fantasy concepts thrown around in a bizarre mishmash that becomes a thing of beauty. The language is crisp and tight and has occasional glimmers of Pratchett (who, as everyone knows, is the only author to ever write humorous fantasy). When Haines ventures into social commentary, things get a bit clumsy, and I’m not sure some of his theses fully lands as the book believes it should, but it is a valiant attempt at best and the rest of the book is so enjoyable that it’s not that big a deal (to me, at least).
But how does Stranger stack up in terms of SPFBO?
The thing about humor is that it doesn’t tend to fare well in these sorts of competitions (yeah, yeah Orconomics), because judges either don’t like the jokes (humor is subjective), or they feel the humor takes away from the narrative, or they don’t think direct humor belongs in books of this nature. All are valid opinions. I, personally, have written copious amounts of humorous sci-fi/fantasy fiction and have encountered these views (and reviews) often. But this isn’t an advertisement for my books*. The point is that as an SPFBO judge, I’m now in a position to be the change I want to see in the world.
Strange Back Home might have a few bumps in the road, but it’s fun, funny fantasy, that I enjoyed reading and I’m giving it the push forward.
*This, on the other hand, is! Read the Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire series today!
Check Out SOME OF OUR OTHER REVIEWS#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Deathless One by Niranjan K.
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Hand of Fire by Roland O’Leary
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love G.M Nair
G.M. Nair is a crazy person who should never be taken seriously. Despite possessing both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a job as an Aviation and Aerospace Consultant, he writes comedy for the stage and screen, and maintains the blog MakeMomMarvel.Com. Now he is making the leap into the highly un-lucrative field of independent book publishing.
G.M. Nair lives in New York City and in a constant state of delusion.
August 8, 2021
#SPFBO Review and Cut – Old Cold Cannibal by Todd Maternowski
By GM Nair "Old Cold Cannibal is a unique book with an amazing voice." old cold cannibal by todd maternowski 
old cold cannibal by todd maternowski Buy A Copy Here What is it about? 1849. Two men —professional con artists on the run— cross the dangerous deserts and plains of Texas and New Mexico, on a quest to find and slay a Dragon that has laid waste to the countryside.
G.M's ReviewOld Cold Cannibal is a unique book with an amazing voice. I have a soft spot for harsh 1800s white narrators whose doubling down on arrogance and (historically accurate) racism wrap around from being awful to weirdly and unsettlingly charming. Old Cold Cannibal delivers on that 100%, and allows it to infuse some humor into what is otherwise a very dark and disturbing narrative that follows a journey across the pre-Civil War U.S. to find and slay a dragon.
Maternowski’s story is incredibly detailed and feels true to the sort of wandering frontier life you would expect from mercenaries and fortune hunters on a ‘gold rush’ in the 1800s. At least, as ‘true’ as I can tell without any research. He touches on a lot of social, political, and philosophical issues of the time, that for better or worse are still relevant today. And our protagonists are rarely the heroes of the story, making unpleasant, disturbing decisions at several points in their journey. While that means this might not exactly be a joy to read, it was certainly gripping enough for me to want to see the story through.
And that’s where Old Cold Cannibal stumbles a bit in terms of SPFBO. The majority of the book is this twisted, intense dark journey through the badlands of American history, with several branches into period-appropriate ‘side quests’ that don’t fuel the main quest but add further color to it.
The fact is that this takes up a large swath of the book to the point where it could technically be labeled historical fiction with a dash of light fantasy. While I was still enthralled with the book, it does feel like a case of ‘When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?’, as the most interesting fantastical elements don’t come into play until 60%-70% of the way through.
Now, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would (and will) give this book a 5/5 elsewhere. But it felt to me as too light on the fantasy to push forward in the competition, so I’ll, unfortunately, have to recommend for it to be cut.
Check Out SOME OF OUR OTHER REVIEWS#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Deathless One by Niranjan K.
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Hand of Fire by Roland O’Leary
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love G.M Nair G.M. Nair is a crazy person who should never be taken seriously. Despite possessing both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a job as an Aviation and Aerospace Consultant, he writes comedy for the stage and screen, and maintains the blog MakeMomMarvel.Com. Now he is making the leap into the highly un-lucrative field of independent book publishing.
G.M. Nair lives in New York City and in a constant state of delusion.
August 7, 2021
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Demons We See by Krista D. Ball
By Adrian Collins "The Demons We See is worth a look if you’re a big SFF romance fan. The two key characters are engaging and enjoyable, the key supporting cast likewise a fun read" The Demons We See by Krista D. Ball 
The Demons We See by Krista D. Ball Buy A Copy Here What is it about? Society was rocked when the Church asked Allegra, Contessa of Marsina, to negotiate the delicate peace talks between the rebelling mage slaves and the various city states. Not only was she a highborn mage, she was a nonbeliever and a vocal objector against the supposed demonic origins of witchcraft. Demons weren’t real, she’d argued, and therefore the subjection of mages was unlawful.
But that was all before the first assassination attempt. That was before Allegra began to hear the strange whispers in the corridors. That was before everything changed. Now, Allegra, and her personal guards race to stabilize the peace before the entire known world explodes into war with not just itself, but with the abyss from beyond.
So much for demons not being real.
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Deathless One by Niranjan K.
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Hand of Fire by Roland O’Leary
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love Adrian Collins Adrian Collins runs Grimdark Magazine and loves anything to do with telling darker stories. Doesn’t matter the format, or when it was published or produced–just give him a grim story told in a dark world by a morally grey protagonist and this bloke’s in his happy place. Add in a barrel aged stout to sip on after a cheeky body surf under the Australian sun, and that’s his heaven.
August 6, 2021
Review – Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale
By Ryan Howse 
catch me if you can by Frank W. Abagnale Purchase Here frank w. abagnale, catch me if you can About ‘I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world’s most famous beaches’.Frank W Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams and Ringo Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious career, Abagnale donned a pilot’s uniform and co-piloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as a member of hospital management, practised law without a licence, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks all before he was twenty-one. Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as ‘The Skywayman’, Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the run – until the law caught up with him. Now recognised as the nation’s leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades and ingenious escapes – including one from an aeroplane – make CATCH ME IF YOU CAN an irresistable tale of deceit My ThoughtsWhat bothered me most was their lack of style. I learned early that class is universally admired. Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there’s a touch of class involved.―
Catch Me If You Can is ostensibly a memoir about the con artistry of Frank Abagnale Junior as he invents numerous personae, cons corporations out of money, and evades the law. It was turned into a film by Steven Spielberg back in 2002, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Frank Abagnale Jr, Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent (renamed in the film) trying to catch him, and Christopher Walken as Frank’s father. But the movie diverged quite a bit from the book, which is all from Frank’s point of view. After the opening, we never see his father again in the book (and Abagnale claims he never saw his father again in his life), unlike the film, and we never see things from the perspective of law enforcement.
Before we go any farther, let’s put the cards on the table. People have claimed that all of his tales are fabrications. Supposedly, Abagnale was in jail during most of his supposed escapades. That puts the story in an odd place; as a memoir it’s a fabrication, but a fabrication by someone who’s open about how much they lie to everyone. If it’s treated as fiction, it reverts to being entertaining.
The prose of the story is genuinely delightful, with all the strange patter of some over-the-top charming thief from an old film. Quotes like, “Slipperier than buttered eels,” or “Modesty is not one of my virtues. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues,” feel like they’re coming right out a black and white film.
Frank starts by talking about his home life. His mother and father split up, and he chose to live with his father, unlike his other siblings. His father is the victim of his first con, as he begs him for a card he can use for gas and other automotive expenses to get to work, but then uses it to buy and re-sell tires, lights, batteries, and other cart parts to make money.
Through the book all of the cons are perpetrated against corporations and banks. He even makes a point of this late in the book. But that’s skipping over his own father.
The first part of the book is how he learned to fake being a pilot. Swindling the suit was the easy part. He never learned how to fly the planes, constantly claiming to be ‘deadheading’ or riding for free from one place to another so he could get to work in the latter place. The key, in his mind, was the suit and knowing the lingo. He’d call up captains and administrators posing as a high school student doing an article and get information that way, or eavesdrop on others talking with each other.
After a near-miss with the law about his fake piloting, he tried to live quietly. He rented a place in a singles resort. Needing a job on the application and trying to avoid piloting, he wrote ‘doctor’ with pediatrician as his specialty, thinking no one would need a pediatrician at a single’s resort. One of his neighbours was also a pediatrician, and kept inviting himself into Frank’s life. Frank was then put into contact with a nearby hospital that needed a supervising doctor for the night shift for a week that turned into two months.
His final escapade was pretending to be a public relations person with Pan-American Air, who hired eight stewardesses to travel with him, believing that having that many people along with him guaranteed that no one would look twice at the cheques he was cashing.
The details on how exactly he pulled off these cons was fascinating. His explanations on how cheque routing can be used to give swindlers a few more days before the cheque bounces, how he managed to get fake transcripts and how he made his own licenses were some of the best parts of the book.
Of course, such good times don’t last forever. He is caught, and imprisoned in a French cell that has no light, no bed or chair, just a bucket. He details his miserable conditions, and then explains that he uses his excellent imagination to keep from going mad while there—pretending to fly planes, perform surgery, and other important business.
Given that questions about the veracity of the book, this seemed the most truthful part out of all of it.
Review To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North
Ryan Howse I’m funnier without context.
Okay, you want context.
I’m a mid-30s nerd, married, with two kids. Also two cats–Cathulhu and Necronomicat.
I like, in no particular order, tabletop gaming, board games, arguing over books, ancient history and religion, and puns.
I’m unconundrum on reddit.
August 2, 2021
Read-A-Long for Joe Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred as Part of The Age of Madness Trilogy – Part 2
Beth Tabler 
A Little hatred by joe abercrombie Purchase Here Joe Abercrombie, a little hatred About“When one man knowingly kills another, they call it murder! When society causes the deaths of thousands, they shrug and call it a fact of life”―
The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.
On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specialises in disappointments.
Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.
The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another…
Again, as I am somewhat new to the books of Lord Ambercrombie, his style of storytelling is starting to feel comfortable. It is immersive, descriptive, but not so much that his books feel like one long adjective. He holds the line between character-forward stories and worldbuilding that allows you to paint a picture in your mind. It is why he is considered to be one of the best dark fantasy/grimdark writers living today.
In continuation of my previous entry into the A Little Hatred Read-A-Long that covered ‘Hopes and Hatreds’ to Like Rain you can find here. We will now be concluding this exciting novel with chapters ‘Drinks with Mother’ to the ending ‘Long Live the King.’
As with the first part of this read-a-long, there will be minor spoilers. I have hidden huge plot-changing moments as best I could because this is a story that aught be read.
Read-A-long Chapters Drinks With Mother - Part 1 This chapter has one of the best opening lines/paragraphs I have read in this story, and I think it sums up Savine’s plight and mindset most succinctly.
“Savine had hoped that once she was home with her things about her, bathed, perfumed and safe in her armour of corsetry, she would be herself again. Better, in fact, because adversity builds character. She would be the deep-rooted tree that bends in the storm but cannot be broken. She would be the sword that comes through fire tempered and blah, blah, fucking blah. Instead, she was a dead stick shattered. Pig iron, melted to a slurry.”
No one escapes the ravages of personal trauma. They do and will play out as part of a character’s psyche in one way or another. Often lesser writers overlook this part of humanity. That characters can be bent, humbled on the alter of pain and experience and still find the inner strength to unbend themself enough to move on and get the job done.
Futher into the chapter, Savine meets up with her mother for lunch. It is apparently very quickly the cavern of experience that now separates her mother and herself. They discuss Prince Orso and the coming nuptials between Savine and himself. Savine is told some very important information that changes her worldview forever. We are in heavy spoiler territory here, so I cam going to be very vague in this. But this is a pivotal chapter that will define which path Savine will take in future chapters.
Drinks With Mother - Part 2This chapter, much like the previous chapter is drinks with mother. But in this case, it is drinks with Orso’s mother instead of Savines. They speak a fight he had recently and how Orson has decided, finally on settling down and marrying. This time for love. In the middle of his explanation with his mother he receives a post from Savine with one sentence. “My Answer must be no. I would ask you not to contact me again. Ever.” To say that Orso is in stunned disbelief is an understatement. He realizes that it is not only her that he lost, but the future as a better man, a worthy man.
QuestionsThis is a chapter between Tallow and Vick. There is much grief here on the part of Tallow. Tallow is describing the fallout from the recent uprising. “The Hanging of two hundred souls.” Later in the chapter Vick speaks with Glotka. They speak of the future and future uprisings.
CivilisationRikke is standing on a salt-encrusted deck with sailcloth snapping in the wind above her. In the distance are the cream-colored and massive walls, bridges, and towers of Adua. Adua “The Center of the World.” She speaks to Bayaz, the First of the Magi, she is skeptical and unimpressed. She asks him his business. “What brings the first magi to Adua?” She asks. “I have been detained far to long in the ruined west world by the demands of some most unreasonable siblings.” Later in the chapter the ship lands and is met with a crowd of people. Small talk is exchanged. Glotka has a very intense conversation with the Young Lion about some of his diplomatic shortcomings.
A NaturalThis section starts with Broad wingin the carriage handle and opening it for Savine. Broad realizes that he is coachman now. Savine looks at some of her holdings, as the vultures circle to snap at her contracts while she is indisposed.
“I cannot afford the luxury of letting you and Selest dan Heugan fuck me on this occasion.’ And she glanced over at Broad, and caught his eye.”
Broad Leans forward, very aware of what Savines needs to do. Intimidate, break if necessary this man so that he is not easily up back together again.
“Broad stepped so close to Kort that their knees touched. He leaned down and put his hands on the arms of Kort’s chair, their noses just a few inches apart, close enough that the blur of his face resolved into an expression of extreme fear. ‘You displease me,’ said Savine. ‘And I am in a mood to see things which displease me broken. Broken in such a way that they will not go back together.’ Broad gripped the chair so hard that every joint in it groaned, breathing through his nostrils, like a bull. Bull Broad, they used to call him. He acted like he was only just keeping a grip on himself. Maybe he was.”
Good Times
This chapter starts with Leo feeling like an outsider at his own party. This is a party of political machinations. It is like tip-toeing around in a pool of vipers. This is not quite something Leo is good at. Rikke, also at the party feels out of place and uncomfortable. “Her own skin did not hit her.”
Later Savine sees Orso drunkenly slumped against a pillar. It brings a lot of emotional pain.
In general, this chapter is where are singular characters’ stories come together and start to cross with each other. It is important because it seems like a pivotal chapter where we can start to see the direction of many of the character’s futures, and what I would assume is leading us on to the next book in the series.
A Bit of CourageLeo is walking through the streets accompanied by Jurand. They are looking for a specific house. One of Savine Dan Glotka. This is scandalous, hence the chapter’s name “A Bit of Ciourage.”
This is a bit of a seduction scene where Leo starts to understand the strength and terror a woman like Savine can bring.
SubstituesThis chapter is set in juxtaposition to the previous in every way. This chapter is between Orso and Rikke. Like the previous chapter is concludes with a physical union between the two of them.
no Expense SparedThis chapter is friendly banter between Orso and Leo and how they met remarkable women last night. There is talk about the 200 “traitors” that were hung after speaking to Orso.
Savine publically has an outburst that cracks her cool and calm demeanor. Much of this chapter is in heavy spoiler territory and is the culmination of many of the story’s events. Heavy political machinations.
My Kind of BastardAnother chapter with heavy spoilers. But know that it involves Calder, Clover, Scale and some unfortunate things.
Long Live the KingOrso wakes up alone, both physically and emotionally. his mother, pale in face and countenance comes looking for him.
Check Out My Other Reviews“He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, more grasping than comforting, and turned to see the First of the Magi standing beside him. He almost had the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth. ‘Long live the king,’ said Bayaz.”
Read-A-Long for Joe Abercrombie- Little Hatred as Part of The Age of Madness Trilogy
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
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Deathless One by Niranjan K.
By G.M. Nair "Complex political machinations across the continent, a society of magical Elementals, and the two immortals – the titular ‘deathless ones’ - who could be the death of them all, factor into a far reaching story that is clearly heading to an interesting climax. " the deathless ones by Niranjan K. 
the deathless ones by niranjan k. Buy A Copy Here What is it about? In the world of Terrin, the Elementals are worshipped, but in the war torn continent of Atoth, in the ruins of an old Empire, the warlord Semil plots to imprison them. All that is missing for success is two people who cannot die.
Madh and Sadjah have hidden themselves for as long as they can remember. Their inability to die makes those with power hungry gazes want them. When Madh is discovered by the Elementals, everything changes. Truths have to be faced, and they cannot remain aloof from the world any longer.
Trapped in a besieged city with Semil’s armies at the gates, and the tentative alliance between the other three warlords the only thing protecting them, Madh and Sadjah realise that even the Elementals have their own agendas. Their only way out is an impossible choice, one that would change the world of Terrin for good and leave it more vulnerable than ever.
Sometimes, even a choice is a sacrifice.
Our ReviewNiranjan K’s The Deathless Ones is a sprawling work in the style of Game of Thrones-esque fantasy. Focusing on feuding warlords, political intrigue, and a set of powerful magical beings, this one does have it all, wrapped in strong, flowing prose that could certainly appeal to fans of GRRM.
However, the opening proceedings of the books felt quite dry to me, especially as I didn’t feel like I really connected with any of the characters on more than a base level. This is unfortunately compounded by the fact that there are quite a bit of them to keep track of, especially in the first few chapters. While this could easily be my own fault, I did find myself backtracking to keep them straight, as their voices tend to blend together, as well as their appearances (almost everyone is described as having grey eyes).
That does do the story a disservice, as there are quite a bit of moving parts to the narrative. Complex political machinations across the continent, a society of magical Elementals, and the two immortals – the titular ‘deathless ones’ – who could be the death of them all, factor into a far reaching story that is clearly heading to an interesting climax. But the cloudy characterizations as well as intermittent pauses to describe the settings and appearances – while well-written – slow down the pace of the story and prevented me from fully comprehending exactly how things were going.
I’m sure The Deathless Ones would appeal to most who lean toward complex, faction-based, magical fantasy war fiction (did I just make up a genre?), it just didn’t hit the mark for me. So if that sounds like your thing, please go out and grab a copy.
But while I think this has the makings of a great book, it falls a little short to my personal taste, so I’m afraid I’ll have to cut it from the running.
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love G.M Nair
G.M. Nair is a crazy person who should never be taken seriously. Despite possessing both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a job as an Aviation and Aerospace Consultant, he writes comedy for the stage and screen, and maintains the blog MakeMomMarvel.Com. Now he is making the leap into the highly un-lucrative field of independent book publishing.
Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire is his first novel, and in a world with a fair and loving god, it would be his last. Alas, he tends to continue.
G.M. Nair lives in New York City and in a constant state of delusion
