Many fans of grimdark literature, film, and games might argue that the term villain is an inappropriate one for the genre. It conjures an image of the mustache twirling evil-doer...
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The Grimdark Villain
December 11, 2018
Who is the Grimdark Hero?
December 2, 2018
REVIEW: The Lore of Prometheus by...
November 29, 2018
REVIEW: Blackest Knights edited by C.T....
November 19, 2018
REVIEW: The Razor by J. Barton...
November 17, 2018
REVIEW: Cold Iron by MIles Cameron
November 13, 2018
REVIEW: Many are the Dead by...
November 11, 2018
REVIEW: Blood of Heirs by Alicia...
October 31, 2018
The Traitor Baru Cormorant has one...
October 25, 2018
The Odd Hopefulness of Grimdark
October 24, 2018
REVIEW: Devouring Dark by Alan Baxter
October 22, 2018
REVIEW: The Forgetting Moon by Brian...
October 21, 2018
REVIEW: We Ride the Storm by...
October 10, 2018
REVIEW: Queen of Crows by Myke...
September 19, 2018
REVIEW: War Cry by Brian McClellan
September 12, 2018
REVIEW: Under the Pendulum Sun by...
September 9, 2018
REVIEW: Melokai by Rosalyn Kelly
September 5, 2018
REVIEW: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
September 3, 2018
Review: Road Brothers: Tales from the...
August 23, 2018
REVIEW: The Tower of Living and...
August 19, 2018
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Many fans of grimdark literature, film, and games might argue that the term villain is an inappropriate one for the genre. It conjures an image of the mustache twirling evil-doer whom the square-jawed hero must face before heroically rescuing the damsel in distress. They tend to think grimdark solely deals in antagonists and this is a more “mature” manner of writing. I argue the truth is, like grimdark itself, more complex. In my previous article, “Who is the Grimdark Hero?” (Grimdark Magazine...
Grimdark is a relatively new subgenre in the world of fantasy and science fiction, having emerged as the grittier, morally ambiguous side of fantasy in the 1970s and ‘80s with the likes of Karl...
When Graham Austin-King first approached me about an ARC of The Lore of Prometheus he described it as sort of Dean Koontz / Stephen King / Clive Barker style. Now, I’ve read one Koontz...
What happens when good knights go bad? When shining armor cracks, morals are cast aside, and sacred oaths are broken? Blackest Knights, edited by C.T. Phipps, is a collection of nineteen short stories that...
The Razor is the new science fiction novel by J. Barton Mitchell, author of the acclaimed YA sci-fi series The Conquered Earth. This one’s not YA, but it won’t cause you any adult discomfort...
“Superb,” the man in the black cloak said, and slammed his dagger into the young man’s temple, killing him instantly. The blade emerged from the other temple with admirable precision, and the man in...
After the Industrial Age adventures of The Draconis Memoria series, Anthony Ryan has returned to the fantasy world of Raven’s Shadow with the novella Many Are the Dead. The book is set 10 years...
Blood of Heirs is the ambitious debut epic fantasy novel and the first book of The Coraidic Saga by Alicia Wanstall-Burke. And while I wouldn’t place it in the grimdark genre, it has some...
Sweet literary gods, I’ve just been in the mind of a genius–and I’m not just talking about Seth Dickinson’s imagination. The Traitor Baru Cormorant is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s...
In today’s social-media-saturated world, a lot of what we see are the highlights of people’s lives, and it’s easy to feel inadequate when confronted with the reality of one’s own life in comparison to...
