Red Sister Review by Jamie Edmundson

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Review by Jamie Edmundson

Mark Lawrence has been one of the biggest names in Fantasy for a while, so it was well past time I got around to reading him. I’ve come close a couple of times, even buying his books for other people with the intention to borrow them when they had finished with them (what? You don’t do that?), but for various reasons they didn’t work out until I picked up my own copy of Red Sister. I’m not a prolific reader, but there’s no doubt that this book shot to the top of my ToBeRead pile because of this man’s inexplicable generosity in support of indie fantasy writers through the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) competition that he founded.

Not having read his stuff before, I had few expectations, though those who follow Fantasy will know that Mark is strongly linked to the Grimdark subgenre. As the name suggests, this is associated with adult themes, dark or flawed characters and a depressing/realistic/cynical (depending on your point of view) world view. So before I started reading, I was interested to find out how dark things would get. And…I was a little surprised.

CHARACTERS

Lawrence is known for his single character led writing and Red Sister is no exception. Front and centre we have Nona, a young (9?) girl raised in poverty and ignorance but claimed by the Sweet Mercy Convent due to the potential of the powers she exhibits. The story of a child with magic powers is hardly a new one in Fantasy and it’s easy for the reader to settle in to a familiar journey. Nona herself is great company, Lawrence mostly succeeds in looking at the world with a child’s eyes and this child is brave and admirable as perhaps only children can be. I find it hard to imagine a reader who wouldn’t warm to her. And this was one reason for surprise – this is surely a departure from Lawrence’s Grimdark roots, making it a more mainstream title. I’m not sure that Nona displays a serious character flaw, does anything reprehensible or is faced with a decision where she doesn’t automatically take the heroic path. Maybe this is because she is a child, maybe it’s because she’s a girl. Maybe these tough choices come in the later books. But for now, she is simply likeable. Nona doesn’t like herself, this is true. The nature of her powers means that she considers herself a monster, in fact. But the reader doesn’t.

The supporting cast is largely made up of the students and teachers at Sweet Mercy Convent. She makes friends here but also has enemies, mostly outside the safety of the Convent. It’s mostly a female cast, which makes the story interesting and distinctive at times. But for me, it didn’t always make it distinctive enough. Two words loomed large while reading this. Harry Potter. It was hard not to compare. ‘Abbess Glass is Dumbledore’, ‘Sister Apple is Snape’ my brain kept telling me. And this is totally unfair, because the characters were well drawn and not copies by any means. But there it is nonetheless. If you want a Grimdark Harry Potter, of course, then you’re in heaven right now.

WORLDBUILDING

The world of Abeth has some interesting sci-fi elements. Four races arrived here, by spaceship. Each race had certain powers – one giants (strength), two magic, one speed (this race is called hunska). These powers have largely died out amongst humans, but some people have retained them in smaller or greater measure – and, in effect, this makes such characters magical. Nona, we soon realise, has hunska powers. Some people may even have more than one of these 4 powers, making them extra special. All this is fine, and for those who like an explanation for magic in fantasy, this one is satisfying and has its own logic and rules. It means that the Convent can offer different classes to suit these different abilities.

Abeth is also distinctive because it exists in a solar system where the sun is dying. Huge walls of ice have enclosed most of the planet. All that is left is a thin corridor in the middle, where the ‘Focus’ moon passes and heats the terrain enough to keep the ice at bay. It’s an interesting idea and by the end of the book starts to drive the plot, presumably taking an even bigger role in the sequels. On the other hand, despite this crisis the parts of Abeth we see are surprisingly ordered. The kind of dystopian chaos one would assume a dying sun would engender happened a long time ago, turning the technological clock backwards, but humans have managed to come through fairly civilised. There is an Empire with currency, a prison system and all the other trappings of civilisation. There are convents and academic institutions and a universal church. It’s a familiar fantasy world despite the unique setting.

PLOT

[Reviewer’s Disclaimer: I have spent many years as a teacher and this may have affected the following section of this review]

Red Sister is a Coming of Age story set in a school/convent. When I realised this my reaction was ‘meh’. And this is purely personal. But these stories are so dominant in literature right now, plus they are not really my thing anyway, that I struggle to get excited by them. Children’s/teen books, whether fantasy or otherwise, are dominated by the school setting. And in Fantasy, it’s not just Harry Potter. Most books that I have read recently follow this format. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss has a magic school at is heart. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan has a military type school. I understand the appeal and these books are incredibly popular. But I hanker after something different.

Otherwise, the plot chugs along well and there is a neat climax of themes at the end while leaving room for Book Two. Lawrence knows what he is doing and is in full control of the story from beginning to end.

Overall, this is a great book with no weaknesses that looks set to develop into a great series. The sequel, Grey Sister, has now hit the stores. I will be reading on, there’s no doubt about that. Now, how do I get my hands on that copy of Prince of Thorns that I bought myse…-cough- that I bought someone as a gift?

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The Eagle’s Flight Review by Jamie Edmundson

The Eagle’s Flight by Daniel E. Olesen

Review by Jamie Edmundson

I first noticed Daniel Olesen’s The Eagles’s Flight in the 2017 Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off. It was in the same section as Toric’s Dagger, and while neither book won through, they both made it to the semi-final stage, with Daniel’s book getting a rather more positive review than mine. It sounded like complex, historical, epic fantasy, which is right up my street, and so I treated myself to a read. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, though it’s a book that may not be for everyone. File under historical. With a capital ‘H’.

CHARACTERS

Like good epic fantasy should, The Eagle’s Flight gives us a feast of characters who inhabit the lands of Adalmearc. The point of view shifts from one character to the next with rapidity. Yes, some people don’t like this, but I do, and I appreciate that the writer trusts that I am intelligent enough to cope with it. The first part of the book centres on the capital, Middanhal, where the powerful nobility gather and politic in the reign of a vulnerable child king. The houses of Isarn and the Vale feud over political office – we are introduced to the leaders of each house, their brothers, children, cousins – and then, there are lesser houses, each with their own ambitions. Some men serve the Order, a military organisation whose duty is to preserve the unity of the kingdom and serve the royal house. Some serve in the Order while also serving themselves. Two characters who stand out are Athelstan, a famous knight and younger brother of the Duke of Isarn, and his squire Brand, scion of a family with royal blood.

In the second part we are transported to Haethiod, a border region where a foreign army has invaded. A new cast of characters are introduced here, including the young Queen of Haethiod, Theodora, the domineering dowager queen Irene, and Lord Leander, illegitimate son of the previous king. Finally, we return to Middanhal, where the complex politics of the capital have led to a state of war.

Given the highly medieval setting, the main movers and shakers in the story are noblemen, but we also follow characters with lower social standing and a number of female characters, who operate in a typical male dominated, medieval society. There is the odd elf and dwarf character, but these are fairly peripheral to the story, in this first volume at least.

I think it is fair to say that this book focuses on world-building and plot, and is therefore less character driven. The characters aren’t as obtrusive as you may find in A Game of Thrones or Joe Abercrombie’s books. But they are arguably more realistic, behave logically, are motivated by their own desires and loyalties, and I found the huge cast to be memorable and I cared what happened to them.

WORLDBUILDING

This is one of the strengths of the book, in particular the historical accuracy which underpins this creation of a medieval European fantasy world. Yes, nothing original about doing this, but it is done very well, which is more important. Right from the beginning, the world is given centre stage, as the narrator introduces the lands of Adalmearc to the reader. We are not yet looking through the eyes of any particular character, and Olesen often starts chapters with this omniscient view.

This is a fully thought out, functioning world. Does the reader need all the detail? Personally, I like this kind of detail to fully immerse myself in a fantasy story. But I know some people will be running for the hills at the thought of this overwhelming historicity. And that’s OK, not everyone’s the same. Can you stand one character asking a second about battle tactics to allow the author to give a lecture on army formations? This can be a bit clunky. But the trade-off is battle scenes and sieges where characters have to make real choices with the resources available to them. And honestly, this is pretty rare in fantasy. There are no supermen here who can wield a sword and defeat an army. Archers don’t have limitless supplies of arrows. Generals can’t raise armies in a day. You get the point.

Finally, this is a fantasy book, is there any magic? Well. There are hints of it, of a bigger story emerging in the later books. But much like GRR Martin in A Game of Thrones, Olesen has kept tight control over this storyline to allow himself the space to introduce a realm largely inhabited by humans.

PLOT

So, without giving too much away, we have internal power politics driving the plot, the kind of strife that can divide people in the same realm. Then, an old threat returns. The border defences are breached by outlanders, a people who have raided in recent generations but now lead an army into Adalmearc. And, perhaps, the two are somehow connected. Can the rulers of Adalmearc unite to fend off the more serious threat? Olesen does a good job of not overfeeding us here, so that we are still not clear about the exact nature of this external threat…

…and that brings us to a question – Daniel, when the hell is the next book coming out? This one was apparently published in 2016. It’s a meaty read at 500 pages and I have no doubt was a time-consuming thing to write. But hopefully book two is coming soon. I will certainly be encouraging people to read this one – no doubt Daniel would appreciate a purchase, but he is also giving away free copies on his website and through Sigil Independent, where loads of cool fantasy writers hang out.

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Art of War Review by Jamie Edmundson

Art of War Edited by Petros Triantafyllou

Review by Jamie Edmundson

Art of War is a fantasy anthology put together by the BOOKNEST.EU blog featuring short stories by 40 fantasy writers. And it’s an impressive line-up: while I’ve only read a few of the authors in this collection before, I knew of and was interested in reading the work of well over half of them, which makes it a great introduction to some of the current writers in the genre. Of course, reading a short story isn’t the same as reading a novel, and (to be honest) I tend to prefer the latter. I think particularly in fantasy, it can be hard to get a story going in a few thousand words. And these stories are generally on the short side (I don’t know how long, and no, I’m not counting the words for you). So, a writer’s short doesn’t necessarily tell you what their series are like. Also, when I got to reading, I actually enjoyed quite a few from authors I hadn’t come across before, which is even better. The other point worth making here is that profits from sales go to Medecins Sans Frontieres, which some readers may want to know.

So, on to the book itself. It’s well designed for a start, and after reading a lot of eBooks recently, it was nice to have a chunky book in my hands. The theme is obviously war. As a collection of writers, obviously the authors approached this from a number of angles. The most common was ‘war is hell’. This is something of a truism and therefore didn’t always spark my interest. Linked to this was a number of stories that were set in trenches, which I found slightly odd in a fantasy story. Given that despite the central truth of war is hell, humans are still engaged in war in the twenty first century, is a depressing fact, but still one that could be explored. War as a driver of social change is explored in Sebastian de Castell’s The Fox and The Bowman, one of the reasons that particular story stood out for me.

Clearly, with 40 stories, the reader is going to find some they liked better than others. There were a few I thought were pretty poor, but only one I didn’t finish, which isn’t a bad hit rate. When writers decide what to write they have to decide whether to build on their previous material or produce something new and self-contained. Obviously the former goes down well with existing fans but can be a barrier to new readers if dependent on prior knowledge of the author’s work.

I’ll give a mention to my top ten – these haven’t been chosen in a systematic way, but rather are the ones that stayed with me for some reason – I could remember the characters and their situation. In compiling this list I think it’s fair to say that the odds of being remembered are higher if the story comes at the beginning or end of the book rather than stuck in the middle. So, in the order they appear in the book:

The Breaking of the Sky by Ed McDonald – what’s in the box? Nothing nice, I fear.

The Last Arrow by Mitchell Hogan – captured the unpleasantness of war without becoming hyperbolic.

This War of Ours by Timandra Whitecastle – original, atmospheric, definitely made me want to read more from her.

The Fox and the Bowman by Sebastian de Castell – clever, almost like a fable, with some insight on war.

Violet by Mazarkis Williams – made me root for this character.

Sacred Semantics by Nicholas Eames – genuinely funny, and clever, and about war.

The Undying Lands by Michael R Fletcher – another strong female character, lighthearted feel to it.

The Storm by Miles Cameron – the world-building/setting was interesting.

Flesh and Coin by Anna Stephens – mercenary bands encounter, struck a chord with me because I’m currently writing something quite similar.

The Hero of Aral Pass by Mark Lawrence – my first introduction to Jalan Kendeth, already on my TBR pile.

As I say, nothing very systematic about this list and on another day no doubt the list would be slightly different. There are another twenty-odd quality short stories in this book, so would definitely recommend to fantasy fans, it’s a nice one to dip into in between longer reads.

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The Chronicles of the Black Gate: Books 1-3 Review by Jamie Edmundson

The Chronicles of the Black Gate: Books 1-3 by Phil Tucker

Review by Jamie Edmundson

So here I’m reviewing a pretty well-known and widely read series, The Chronicles of the Black Gate by Phil Tucker. In particular, I bought the eBook ‘box-set’ featuring books 1-3 of 5, which the author offers for an incredibly competitive price and is therefore a great introduction to the series. Having finished Book 3 I am therefore half way through the series, but I thought I would drop a review at this point. I may do a follow up post when I complete the series. The short story is, this is a great series with a wide appeal.

CHARACTERS

We follow the point of view of a number of characters throughout the series, with a chapter devoted to each one, reminiscent of A Song of Ice and Fire. Asho, depicted on the cover of the first book, The Path of Flames, is a Bythian, a white haired slave race.  He has left his underground homeland to become a knight, but does not fit in, is treated with disrespect and has an XL size chip on his shoulder. Kethe is the daughter of the baron Asho serves, who wants to break with social convention and train as a warrior; Iskra is Kethe’s mother. Audsley is the unathletic, studious ‘magister’ who works at the same castle. Indeed, all of the main characters are already quite well intertwined at the beginning of the story, all except for Tharok. He is a kragh, an orc/ogre type creature, with ambitions to unite his race and take on the humans.

There is a real blend and variety of characters here, Tucker does a great job of getting the reader inside their heads early on. You have warriors and non-warriors, older and younger, male and female, different classes etc. It’s great for readers like me who enjoy the variety, and even if you don’t, I would expect most readers to find at least one character they root for. Some of the backstory is quite dark, and I would certainly define the series as epic fantasy with grimdark elements.

All in all, I liked the characters, the author does a good job of developing personality while also allowing the plot and action to develop at a nice pace. Personally, I enjoyed the Tharok chapters, perhaps because they were a bit different, but also because his storyline is separate for so long, it felt like a nice change of pace/scenery when he came along.

WORLDBUILDING

Tucker really knows his genre and he does a good job of fitting all the pieces together, not a straightforward task when you write fantasy. The world he creates is highly original. The different parts of the world are connected by magical gates – aka solar or lunar portals. My understanding is that these gates are required to travel from one region to another, though I never quite got a grip on the geography so I could be wrong. The humans are therefore divided into different regions, and each has a different role to play in the Ascendant Empire – Bythians are slave labour, Ennoians are the warriors, Aletheians the elite, Noussians scholars etc. Not only that, but there is an important religious element to this structure too, so that when you die you pass from one stage to another – a higher stage if you have lived your life well, a lower one if not, i.e. some form of reincarnation. An interesting aspect to this is the reader is never clear how true this really is – is this belief system purely fictional, half true or not.

Magic is linked to this worldbuilding, so that some characters appear able to use magic because they are connected to the White Gate (think: heaven), the top of the structure, others because they are connected to the Black Gate (think: hell). Once a character has this magic they become pretty awesome overnight – their swords light with fire, they can do 20 somersaulting back flips in a row etc etc. During the book some of the characters transform in this way into ‘superheroes’, far superior to ordinary humans.

Magic and religion are therefore central themes, and the series has a distinctive setting. As a reader I was left with slightly mixed feelings – the setting was memorable, but I wasn’t always able to fully suspend my disbelief.

PLOT

Circumstances force Iskra on a collision course with the rulers of the Ascendant Empire. She is supported by her knights (such as Asho and Kethe) and other allies, though they face overwhelming odds. Audsley begins to learn the secrets of the portals, and finds out that there is a corruption at the heart of the Empire. Meanwhile, Tharok finds an iron circlet that gives him the ability to plan a strategic course of action that could unite the kragh under his leadership. Should that be allowed to happen, the Empire will face a far greater threat than Iskra’s small band of rebels.

Each character ends up being given a distinct challenge or storyline, which sees them working alone or together at different points in the series, and in different locations. Tucker does a great job of linking all these storylines together, like a juggler – he never drops a ball, and thus weaves a truly impressive fantasy tapestry together. There are moments, I think almost inevitable if you are going to write something on this scale, when you would like things to move a bit faster. But at the end of Book 3, it all comes together with a climactic crash.

Overall, as I’ve suggested, this series ticks most fantasy readers’ boxes – epic in scale, though certainly not hard to get through; an original setting, with a hint of mystery; and engaging characters. I would thoroughly recommend!

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Rosemary A. Johns & Rebel Angels on Podcast Episode 4

rosemary a johns, author

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Fantasy Focus podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books. 

From epic fantasy, Urban fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

First an update on my current projects. As most of you are listening to this, I’m on my way to Austin to attend the Smarter Artist Summit and hang out with a bunch of fellow authors. If you’re in the Austin area, reach out to my on Facebook or Twitter. I might be convinced to go out and about for a meet up one night.

As always, if you’re interested in more information on what I’m up to, check out my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Super Fans and on my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com.

Now it’s time to get into our special guest for this episode. Today, I am joined by Rosemary A Johns, author of the Rebel Angels series.

Rosemary A Johns is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of numerous books across all her related Rebels series. Rosemary writes sexy angels, savage vampires, and epic battles.

Rosemary’s Rebels FB Group

Rosemary’s FB Author Page

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Trial of Stone Review by: Michael Evan

Trial of Stone by Andy Peloquin

Review by Michael Evan

Trial Of Stone , The debut in a new 5 book series by the ever prolific Andy Peloquin is the perfect novel for fans of multi POV epic fantasy in the vein of Sanderson, and John Gwynne. It tells the stories of Issa, Evren, and Kodyn, who each have very different missions, but as the story progresses , become more and more intertwined as the thief, the assassin  and the aspiring Keeper’s Blade’s quests bring them together in a dangerous web of intrigue and deception.

While set in the same world as both of Peloquin’s other series, Hero Of Darkness, and Queen of Thieves, there is no need to have completed those series to enjoy this one. Peloquin gives us enough background about Evren and Hailen’s relationship with The Hunter, and Kodyn’s relationship with Ilanna, that readers won’t feel lost. They will, however, likely want to go back and find out more about Peloquin’s wonderfully fleshed out world.

Much of the novel takes place in Shalandra , a city, corruptly governed by priests of the God of Death, where people are segregated in to “castes” , some elevated to near royal status, while others are relegated to subservience with the inability to ever rise in status. It’s the perfect setting for the type of conflict the novel presents, where even those with the best of intentions often struggle to trust those that would be their closest allies.

Being book one in a hugely ambitious series, there is quite a lot of setup here. We learn extensively about each of the POVs, their backgrounds and their individual quests. Alliances are formed, and intensity builds. Many side characters are written in to storylines in a way that almost ensures that they will be developed and integrated more in future books.

Peloquin writes excellent complex plots, but at his core is a character based author. Through a great deal of interaction, and some inner monologue, he makes us care about his characters, their struggles and their conquests. He manages the difficult task of bringing a sense of urgency to each one of his story beats, and unlike his individually centred other series his challenge of maintaining interest with each POV is masterfully accomplished. There are a number of truly emotional moments in this novel. 

What’s amazing about Trial Of Stone, perhaps above anything else is the complexity of the world, it’s systems of government, the beautiful descriptive prose, and the fact that this is the type of novel

that takes many authors 5 years to write. Andy Peloquin has become one of my favorite authors. His prolificacy never hinders the quality of his work, and he sets a very high benchmark for self published Fantasy. I will be devouring this series quickly, with more detailed reviews as it goes on and I look forward to what Andy offers us next.

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RJ Barker and Age of Assassins on Podcast Episode 3

RJ Barker Author Age of Assassins Cover

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Fantasy Focus podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books. 

From Epic Fantasy, to Urban Fantasy, to Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

First an update on my current projects. Signed, Sealed, & Delivered Book 5 in my Delivery Mage series is doing well. You can find it on Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited program. It’s also out in paperback.

I’m also working on casting my next audio series. For those of you who’ve read my Extreme Medical Services series and its spinoff Eldara Sister’s series, I’m currently casting the narrators for the Elders sisters books. Stay tuned for updates in future episodes.

As always, if you’re interest in more information on what I’m up to, check out my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Super Fans and on my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com.

Now we get into the special guest for this episode. Today, we have R.J. Barker, author of Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins, and King of Assassins.

RJ lives in the U.K. in Leeds with his wife, son and a collection of questionable taxidermy, odd art, scary music and more books than they have room for. He grew up reading whatever he could get his hands on, and has always been ‘that one with the book in his pocket’. 

Having played in a rock band before deciding he was a rubbish musician, RJ returned to his first love, fiction, to find he is rather better at that. In addition to his novels, RJ has written short stories and historical scripts which have been performed across the country.  

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Nicholas Eames with Kings of the Wyld on Podcast Episode 2

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Fantasy Focus podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books. 

From Epic Fantasy, to Urban Fantasy, to Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

First an update on what I’ve been working on. I just released Signed, Sealed, Delivered, book 5 in my Delivery Mage series. I’m pretty proud of this series and this will be the last book in this series for now. I plan on revisiting more in the future with Kurt Carter, his saucy sidekick, Marci, and the rest of the gang in the future after I work on some other commitments I have in the works.

I’m also doing a final review of the audiobook version of my second box set in the Extreme Medical Services series. The first boxed set is out there in audio wherever you listen to audiobooks including available to your local library if you’d like to listen for free. Just check in with your librarian and ask her to put that series on their acquisitions list. 

As always, if you’re interest in more information on what I’m up to, check out my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Super Fans and on my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com.

Okay, enough about me. Let’s get into the special guest for this episode. Today, we have Nicholas Eames, the guy responsible for “The Band” epic fantasy series (Kings of the Wyld & Bloody Rose). Nicholas Eames was born to parents of infinite patience and unstinting support in Wingham, Ontario. 

Though he attended college for theatre arts, he gave up acting to pursue the infinitely more attainable profession of “epic fantasy novelist.” Kings of the Wyld is his first novel. 

Nicholas loves black coffee, neat whiskey, the month of October, and video games. He currently lives in Ontario, Canada, and is very probably writing at this moment. 

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The Agnostic Paladin: Belief and Ontology in Fantasy

The Agnostic Paladin: Belief and Ontology in Fantasy by James Wolanyk

In June 1963, Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese monk belonging to the Mahayana school of Buddhism, burned himself to death in the streets of Saigon. At the time of his death, Đức had been an ordained monk for over 40 years. This act of self-immolation was far from the first of its kind in Vietnam, but it was, and still is, one of the most ardent examples of protest in the modern world. When one examines the infamous photograph that immortalized Đức’s death—a static, monochrome portrait of roiling flames—it’s not hard to understand why: The monk is marked by poise, composure, and utter defiance of what must have been agony. He is unmoved by the fire. Unwavering in his final moments.

When audiences around the world heard and witnessed this story, the reaction was overwhelming. It was not regarded as an act of suicide or despair, but rather as a renunciation of his life to serve a greater cause, a moment of martyrdom against a repressive Catholic regime. Đức’s monastic appearance and manner are at the very center of this perception. Much of his life is still shrouded, perhaps romanticized, by the mystical “otherness” of Buddhist philosophy and meditative practices. Was he in pain? Did he expect to be reborn? What were the final thoughts of such a stoic man? Whatever the answers to these questions, there is an irreducible conclusion: Đức’s beliefs and commitment to Buddhism transcended his fear of death.

I mention this example, in part, because it contrasts so sharply with the way in which modern society approaches the real-world interplay of religious identity and decision-making. After all, most Christians aren’t prepared to sacrifice their own children on the basis of a divine command. The vast majority of us, whether atheist, agnostic, or devoutly religious, turn to the pillars of secular logic and secular laws when functioning in the secular world. When we buy groceries, we are preoccupied with coupons rather than whether or not God approves of buying three boxes of Wheat Thins. When we eat a burger and fries from a drive-through, we rarely pull over and set our napkins aside to ask God to bless our meal. Over time, the chasm between secular activities and religious spheres of influence has widened considerably. No longer infused in daily life as it was in medieval times, religion—at least in the west—has become a segregated aspect of living (often confined to a day of the week in a designated setting) rather than a moment-to-moment, lifelong, inescapable process of self-sacrifice to a deity or deities. This shift could be due to our pronounced reliance on science in the modern world, or perhaps due to cracks in the foundation of belief that once underpinned humanity’s devotion, but the result is the same.

When Đức burned himself to death, it’s doubtful that he was thinking about impressing the audience around him or envisioning what he’d do that evening. His commitment to the present moment, embodied in his stillness despite imminent suffering and death, was nothing short of religious surrender. One of Buddhism’s most misunderstood yet fundamental teachings relates to anicca, or impermanence, which defines our lives in minor and drastic ways. Đức was prepared to abandon his connection to his body, which is impermanent and subject to decay, despite every pressure of the modern world assuring us that pain must be avoided at all costs to preserve our sense of self. To reach this point, Đức surely lived a life that was infused with religious education, practice, and diligence. Most of us cannot say the same. Even if a deity appeared in this very moment, enveloped in divine flames and speaking directly to you in a booming voice, you would be wracked with the uncertainty and logical coldness that modern society has fostered.

Whether this is objectively good or bad is not the point, however. It is an illustration of how belief, or lack thereof, holds sway over the way in which we live our lives. In our world, we are, however justified, highly skeptical of those who claim to have a divine connection to heaven (or any other supernatural realm). We are dismissive of the idea that sacrificing an animal or person is a surefire way to influence an event’s outcome. Even our most earnest beliefs about the ways in which a Judeo-Christian God might function, such as healing a child with an incurable disease, are tempered by a secular curiosity about whether anything is listening at all, particularly when our worst fears comes to fruition. If one prays for something and does not receive what they want, they are prone to writing off their prayers as an ironic, even childish, effort.

With this in mind, there are three discernible categories of religious thought among those who believe in divinity. The first group of believers are entirely authentic in their beliefs, and live their lives in accordance with their belief system. Đức would fall into this category. The second group describes those who are somewhat sincere, but take their own beliefs with a grain of salt. They might attend church once or twice a week, but ignore the idea of divine retribution against themselves when cutting somebody off in traffic or spreading rumors. The third category, then, are believers who are believers in name only. There is little to no thought of God or gods in their daily inner monologue, and religion is a box to be ticked on annual polls.

But what does this ontological gradient have to do with fantasy? The answer lies in moral agency. In the aforementioned examples, the three arbitrary gradient shades of belief (and, in practice, sincerity of belief), there is a sense of how prevalent religious thought is in a moral agent’s mind. Conceptions of divinity and its eminence in the world are a fervent factor in human behavior. The most devout human beings are willing to self-immolate or sacrifice their children for their beliefs, while the least devout consider the popular notion of God to be more of a mental concept than a feature or inherent property of reality. For some, religion is largely symbolic, and for others, it is the alpha and omega of everything in existence. This schism has produced a stew of competing ideologies that has, in turn, produced an unimaginably complex and sprawling tapestry of worldviews. In fantasy, we tend to approach religion—and in turn, the logical actions of characters within fantasy worlds—as something with extreme and polar states. The intricacies of belief are glossed over, reduced for the sake of digestible worldbuilding and readers’ mental categorization. Belief is opposed by nonbelief; zealotry is opposed by flippancy.

This plays out in blunt yet familiar ways across the realm of fantasy. The genre’s characters, for the most part, fall into the dualism of being either atheists or heathen-sacrificing cultists. Religious champions are fanatics; the nonreligious are sardonic, nihilist malcontents. The middle ground exists in some high-concept works, such as Bakker’s Second Apocalypse or Erikson’s Malazan, but for the most part, religion in fantasy is treated as a high-octane character ornament rather than a gradient of belief for followers. If there is a warrior culture with a belief in a war-based afterlife, you can bet that >90% of that culture’s population is going to embrace death in combat and pursue that end like one of the chrome-painted War Boys in Mad Max: Fury Road. If there is a pantheon of forest, river, and desert gods, there will be shrines aplenty. The issue with this approach, when used throughout an entire series as opposed to a basis for one or two religions, is that it presents a universal religious culture that is fantastical in all the wrong ways.

This all-or-nothing approach to belief is typically a stand-in for Earth’s religious belief, but it is not modeled after reality. It is, like much of fantasy’s other tropes, modeled after a facsimile of reality—namely a pastiche of textbooks about ancient mythology, past depictions of religion in fantasy, and the vestiges of Judeo-Christian ideology in the way we approach religion. In that sense, fantasy religions are a caricature of a caricature. They are shadows of shadows. Because we have few historical sources about agnostics or atheists before the modern era (which is already assuming that agnosticism and atheism existed as we understand it today), we tend to assume that these outlying groups simply did not exist, and furthermore, that they were happily cheering on the Aztec priests during heart-extracting ceremonies atop the step pyramids.

Instead, I would submit that the existential crises that arise in the gulf between direct knowledge of divinity and our own uncertainty are what make us conscious beings. Some eras of history, such as the Reformation or Renaissance, are marked by a head-on confrontation with our inability to grasp, let alone make sense of, ultimate reality. What could we ever hope to know about God, or gods, in any real sense? Yet this struggle, this seemingly unwinnable battle against bottomless ignorance and chaos, has produced some of our world’s most vivid expressions of consciousness: tragic art, ecstatic music, breathtaking literature, glorious speeches, actions (such as Đức’s) that transcend the human dimension and elevate our existence to something that defies, however briefly, the march of time.

This dimension is absent in much of modern fantasy, and I find myself wondering why. All art is a reflection of its makers, granted, but even this cannot account for the missing depth that ought to stir these imaginary worlds. There are untold peaks and valleys to be explored in the search for moral truths and absolute reality. Our own history is a mélange of these cycles: crusades, genocides, charities, all coexisting against the backdrop of faith and doubt. Even with the science of the 21st century, we are utterly devoid of leads in the search for meaning that defines our existence. We are all seeking, grasping, probing for something that we cannot yet define. And if such texture can arise among humanity in our (ostensibly) bland world, the possibilities for this ongoing drama exist in even greater concentrations in fantasy realms, where the author is free to dangle religious truths and prophecies and miracles before fictional populations.

Part of the genre’s shallow approach to religious identities and ideas is evident in the certainty of worldbuilding. When authors present gods (or God) in their full, omnipotent glory, complete with a physical form and blessings, there’s a silent death in their universe. A death of the mystique and wonder that accompanies not knowing. For the inhabitants of fantasy worlds, there is no painful floundering with the beautiful burden of consciousness. There are seldom philosophers or religious critics to challenge these pantheons and the extent of their influence. And yet, returning to the concept of an author’s own beliefs shaping the fantasy world, we must entertain the notion that it is a desperate cry for truth. An author’s clear-cut stance on whether their universe is empty (lacking in gods) or divine may be an attempt to control that which is beyond our grasp in the “real world.”

In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, it seems that the role of truth and divinity is waiting to be excavated in fantasy. It is a safe ground from which we can explore the driving, often maddening quest behind our entire lives as finite beings. We are all seeking a state of permanent happiness, an escape from fear, a retreat from pain. We are seeking the attributes or shelter of a permanent being. The answers to life’s design may or may not be apparent to fantasy characters, but as soon as questions of existence begin to arise, there is no way to bury them. Fantasy offers us a chance to experiment with how a conscious moral agent can make peace with their own conception of reality, and in doing so, to understand how these characters are a mirror for our own quest. There’s ample drama to be found in characters who recognize the faults in their own beliefs and connections to a monotheistic God. There are untold terrors and triumphs associated with characters coming to grips with—or denying—the direct influence of fate in their world. There are, true to our own experiences, vast abysses full of doubt and cosmic horror in worlds that place humans beneath the thumb of tangible gods.

These concepts are nuanced, and difficult, and even frightening when faced beyond the silkscreen of fantasy, but they have the potential to introduce tremendous richness into fictional realms, as well as the world of the reader. Existential doubt is a dimension that moves beyond the interplay of time, space, and matter (including dragons), and instead serves as meditation on the nature of eternity for all beings, no matter their universe. And while fantasy may have once been a stomping ground for parades of leather armor, princesses, and horned helmets, it has become a vessel to understand who and what we are. It is a running commentary on the certainty and simplicity we crave in our strange, mundane existence.

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Titanborn Review by: Michael Evan

Titanborn by Rhett C. Bruno

Review by Micael Evan

Let me preface this review by stating that I’m not an avid reader of science fiction. I love Star Wars, and I didn’t mind The Expanse but I’ve often been put off by the overly cognitive nature of some of the “hard Sci-Fi” stories that rely heavily on descriptions of technology and spacecraft navigation.

Rhett Bruno’s absolutely brilliant Titanborn, is a Sci-Fi Novel for readers like me, that love an emphasis on strong characters with well thought out back stories, emotional resonance, intelligent and beautifully built worlds, and plot twists you’ll never see coming.

Titanborn focuses on the events proceeding the arrival of a meteorite hitting the earth and wiping out half of its inhabitants. A Multi-Billionaire industrialist sends 3,000 people to a moon outside of Saturn called Titan, where they colonialize and grow a new existence over a period of 300 years. Meanwhile the survivors on earth rebuild with an emphasis on expansion in order to prevent another apocalypse. Eventually there is enough advancement that “Earthers” are able to reconnect with the people on Titan, but in doing so, the expected happy reunion leads to disaster as the weakened immune systems of the “Ringers” on titan, fall prey to the germs and disease brought in by the Earthers, and eventually the society set up on Titan is destroyed by the immigrant Earthers and their large corporations that easily take control of the Titan society.

The novel centres around Malcolm
Graves, a collector working for Pervenio , one of the Corporations reaponsible for the expansion of Earthers to the ring and other systems. His job is basically to clean up the criminal activity caused by Offworlders. He’s more or less a interplanetary corporate cop. After a suspected terrorist attack on Earth, Malcolm, along with his new Pervenio instated partner Zhaff must investigate the attack and how it relates to an elusive sect of “Titanborn” terrorists known as “The Children of Titan”.

What makes this novel one of the best I’ve read in recent years, is the love and care Rhett Bruno seems to have for his characters, especially Mal Graves, who’s grizzled and hardened exterior, much like a classic Clint Eastwood character stems from one of the most tragic and horrific experiences I’ve read about in recent years, and Bruno ensures that we are given a great deal of flashback sections that shape Graves and make him someone to root for. 

Zhaff is also a uniquely written character. An offworld human that we learn is part of the Cogent program, he functions as a supremely intelligent, incredibly agile super soldier type, who’s stoic humourless presence is the perfect foil for Mal’s wisecracking badass. Through expert storytelling and character progression, the unlikely pair begin to function as buddy cops with a learned mutual respect for one another.

Bruno writes with a simple, yet flowing prose and at a perfect pace that makes the book difficult to put down. There are some expertly choreographed action sequences that feel big screen ready, and many moments of genuine suspense. It’s a wild ride in every respect.

This is one of those rare books that I’ve been unable to stop thinking about. There are some truly emotional moments that will make you think about the people you love, as they are so incredibly relatable. Without giving anything away, I will say with great certainty that when you read this book, you will be shocked as everything you think you know will likely be wrong. 

Titanborn is the first Rhett Bruno novel I’ve read and I now plan on devouring the other books in this series by this truly gifted new voice in speculative fiction.

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