Review: Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs
Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs is the recent follow-up to his 2014 novel The Incorruptibles. It is a beautifully written, ambitious, and refreshing work even if it fails to deliver a satisfying ending...
How to Make a Grimdark Setting
I’m a huge fan of Andrjez Sapkowski’s The Witcher novels. While most fans are familiar with the series through CD Projekt Red’s video game trilogy, the novels are an excellent grimdark series of their...
REVIEW: Faithless by Graham Austin-King
Faithless, from Graham Austin-King (The Riven Wyrde Saga), is an intelligent, complex, exciting, dark, and somewhat transgressive story about a young man’s journey from poor son of a farmer to, well, you’ll have to...
VG Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher series by Andrjez Sapkowski is one of the seminal works of grimdark literature in Europe. The video game adaptations of the series have since gone on to popularize the series globally. The...
REVIEW: We are the Dead by Mike Shackle
I received a review copy of We Are The Dead in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Mike Shackle and Gollancz for the opportunity. Tinnstra is the daughter of the legion’s and...
Review: The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence
Reading The Broken Empire trilogy really changed the way I view fantasy. It was after reading this trilogy that I discovered and began to define for myself what grimdark is. As a kid I...
Casting the characters of Ed McDonald’s Blackwing
Ed McDonald’s Blackwing threw itself into the fray in 2017. With its gritty mixture of frontier brutality, despair and dread it solidified itself as one of the best releases of the past few years....
REVIEW: Smoke in the Glass by Chris Humphreys
Who wants to live forever? Smoke in the Glass, historical fiction writer Chris Humphreys’ first foray into adult fantasy, is a tale of four worlds where a lucky few are blessed with immortality. While...
Grimdark and Nihilism
‘Bleak’, ‘savage’, ‘nihilistic’, are words that tend to get flung around when discussing grimdark. It’s kind of in the name, really. A grimdark book ended ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ would quite...
REVIEW: Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell
I will start this off by saying, Sebastien is a top guy, I’ve always loved meeting him at various events and was very much looking forward to reading Traitor’s Blade, the first instalment in...
