Tag Archives: Grimdark Magazine

Exclusive Excerpt From In The Shadow Of Their Dying by Anna Smith Spark & Michael R. Fletcher

Hello and welcome to Track of Words, where today I have an exclusive excerpt for you from the upcoming novella In The Shadow of Their Dying by Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher, coming in March 2024 from Grimdark Magazine. Featuring two big names from the Grimdark fantasy scene, and excellent cover art by Carlos Diaz (design by Shawn T. King), this looks like one to watch for all you Grimdark fans out there. Read on for the cover and official synopsis for In The Shadow of Their Dying, and then an exclusive excerpt to give you just a little taste of what to expect.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Cure – Guy Haley

Published in Grimdark Magazine issue 34, Guy Haley’s short story The Cure is a short, sharp blast of mud-splattered action and black humour that blends fantasy and science fiction into an intriguing whole. When Velth and his companions set out on their latest contract – escorting a priest and an unwell priestess to a remote temple in search of a cure to her ailment – their mercenary company numbers ten, under the leadership of their captain, Arnolli. The further they travel though, through rotten forest and stinking marsh, the harder their journey becomes, and as they begin to fall through accident, illness and battle, Velth has his work cut out to protect their charges and keep faith with the contract.

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QUICK REVIEW: Snow White, Green Mantle – Jude Reid

Available in issue 32 of Grimdark Magazine, Jude Reid’s short story Snow White, Green Mantle is a sharp, bloody tale of desperation and survival in a world turned upside down. In a gloomy, run-down village on the edge of the woods, hunter Fionn is hired to do what the headman can’t, to take his daughter into the forest and slit her throat. She doesn’t relish the job but in a life always lived on the move, the prospect of earning a warm bed for the night is enough to get her to agree to it. Once in the woods, however, she soon learns that there’s more to the headman’s daughter than she realised, and the creatures who live away from the feeble light of humanity – the Othermen, who have reclaimed the world for themselves – want the girl for their own reasons.

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Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – via Grimdark Magazine

Ever since first reading Gideon the Ninth back in 2019 I’ve been hooked on Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb stories, so I was thrilled to be able to review the third novel in the series – Nona the Ninth – for the fine folks over at Grimdark Magazine. That review is now live, and you can find it here; do check it out! Rather than post the same review here on Track of Words, I’ll use this space to add a few more thoughts about Nona in general, and my experience of reading it (including the preparations I made in advance). So, if you just want to get straight to the review then by all means head over to the GdM site and check that out! If not, read on…and I’ll link out to the review again at the end.

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QUICK REVIEW: Bone Armour – Victoria Hayward

Victoria Hayward’s short but razor-sharp story Bone Armour couldn’t be more suited to Grimdark Magazine (it’s available in issue 30) if it tried, setting its stall out early with mention of Bonecutters and ‘cadaver grinding facilities’ before getting really dark. Told via a series of written reports, it details Warrant-Officer Tamoh’s pursuit of a worker gone rogue and suspected of impeding the ‘war effort’. As Tamoh follows Meret’s trail through the vast manufactory dedicated to the production of bone armour, from crowded Habitation Zones to empty transport hubs, the net gradually closes in even as the danger Meret poses becomes increasingly clear.

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The Key To Fear by Kristin Cast – Via Grimdark Magazine

The latest book I’ve reviewed for the fine folks over at Grimdark Magazine is Kristin Cast’s The Key To Fear, a surprisingly dark and bloody young adult novel set fifty years after a pandemic killed off the vast majority of the American population. Published in the UK by Head of Zeus, it’s out in hardback and ebook on the 5th November, and you can read my full review on the GdM website right now. As usual I’m putting down a few additional thoughts here in this article/review, so you can check out the GdM piece for my standard third person/objective review, and this one for some more subjective comments.

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Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – via Grimdark Magazine

Happy UK publication day to Unconquerable Sun, the fantastic first instalment in a new sci-fi trilogy from Kate Elliott! Published by Head of Zeus, this is billed as ‘gender-swapped Alexander the Great in space’, which is a great elevator pitch if ever I heard one. I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this brilliant book, and my review is live over on the Grimdark Magazine site. I’d love for you to head over there and check it out, but if you just want my essential thoughts on the book then how about this: I spent virtually an entire day unable to put this down, and my overriding thought upon finishing it was a desperate frustration at knowing that the second book isn’t available yet!

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Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings – via Grimdark Magazine

I’m very pleased to have another book review published on the Grimdark Magazine website – this time I’ve reviewed a fantastic horror novella called Flyaway, by Australian author Kathleen Jennings and published by Tor.com. If you just want to check out my review, head over to the Grimdark Magazine website right here and have a read – as usual, I’ve tried to keep the review concise, spoiler-free and as objective as I can be. If, however, you’re up for reading a few more of my thoughts on the book, from a somewhat more subjective angle, then by all means read on!

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: T.R. Napper Talks Neon Leviathan

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, part of my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Australian author T.R. Napper about his debut short story collection Neon Leviathan, which is out now from Grimdark Magazine. Over the course of the interview we cover topics including the challenges and joys of short stories, being under surveillance in Southeast Asia, the impact of memory on science fiction (and in particular Cyberpunk), and the differences that Australian and Southeast Asian influences bring to Napper’s stories. If you’re at all interested in Cyberpunk and a fantastic new collection of short stories, check this out and then make sure you pick up a copy of Neon Leviathan.

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Neon Leviathan – T.R. Napper

Bringing together twelve bleak, powerful short stories into a single volume (published by Grimdark Magazine), T.R. Napper’s cyberpunk collection Neon Leviathan paints a suitably, at times harrowingly grim picture of a not too distant future. Across a deliberately jumbled, back-and-forth timeline Napper explores tales of desperation, survival, love, loss, corporate greed, oppression and fear, all set in a loosely defined world formed from a warring, conflicted melange of Australia, South and Southeast Asia. As nations, alliances and realities blur, as technology becomes increasingly pervasive and life ever more stratified, Napper asks questions of what’s real, what’s possible and what people will do to survive.

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