Let the Characters Take the Wheel
Every now and then (eerily it’s often around the time of a book launch) I’m asked a question that boils down to “What Comes First, Plot or Character?” The answer – at least for...
REVIEW: The Mirror’s Truth by Michael R. Fletcher
After reading Beyond Redemption last year, I confess to a giddy anticipation of the sequel—The Mirror’s Truth. When GdM alumnus and friend Michael R. Fletcher offered me the opportunity to preview it, of course...
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...
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...
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...
Review: The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
There I was, looking for a break from the usual sword-and-slashery that we all love so much, when I took to Amazon to find my next read. I had just finished reading Sebastien de...
Review: Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
I first came across Larry Correia while I was doing what most failed writers do—browsing the internet to find out how I can become a better writer instead of actually writing. Correia and author...
Review: Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner
Here be dragons. Need I say more? Dragon Hunters is the second book in Marc Turner’s debut fantasy series The Chronicles of the Exile, but features new characters and a different setting within the...
REVIEW: The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee
The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee is a fantastic new addition to the grimdark fantasy landscape, and is the beginning to the Five Warrior Angels series, which promises to be an epic adventure....
REVIEW: Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
Over on his blog, Mark Lawrence (Broken Empire, Red Queen’s War, Red Sister) is making an effort to “nail down grimdark.” In doing so he offers two camps of people with differing views of...