Here is where to find all the posts from A Class Above: D&D Classes in Books. Enjoy!
A Class Above: D&D Classes in Books- Fighters and Barbarians
A Class Above: D&D Classes in Books- Paladins, Clerics, and Druids
A Class Above: D&D Classes in Books-Rogues and Rangers
I like lists. I know, that’s a weird thing to have strong feelings about, but I do. I often have trouble sleeping and, while making lists doesn’t help with that, it’s a fun way to pass the time when I’m laying in bed overthinking something I said in the seventh grade. But I digress.
I’ve been working on a list of great indie books I’ve read for quite a while now. This is far from complete and I’m sure I have several favorites that I’ve forgotten to add. However, since yet another odd take on indie books is circulating online, I’m sharing this list today. I’ll keep adding to it as the list of indie books I enjoy grows.
Tell me what some of your favorite indie books are! Let’s show indie authors some appreciation!
*If I have mistakenly added a non-indie book to this list, please let me know.
I’ve been focusing on the idea of hope in science fiction and fantasy lately. It’s been a common theme over the years, appearing in many forms. I wondered what hope looks like in grimdark: is it an important theme? How is it portrayed? Why does it matter? Of course, I needed to talk with someone knowledgeable about this subgenre.
Today I’m lucky to be chatting with the incredibly awesome Beth Tabler, head honcho of Before We Go Blog, and an expert in fantasy, particularly grimdark. Thanks for talking with me!
WS: You read a lot of grimdark. I know that people tend to view grimdark as the opposite of hopeful, but you have a different viewpoint. What does hope look like in grimdark?
BT: Hope is a shining light in the darkness. It can be a small flickering ray you see once, but that one time can sustain you throughout the story. Or, it can be a bright light. People view grimdark as lacking anything good, nihilism, and death. While yes, there is nihilism and often death in grimdark, those things are a part of life. What characters do or say, often in the form of gallows humor, shines a small ray of light on things. It is where we get the right choice for the wrong reasons or the wrong choice for the right ones.
WS: Why is it important?
BT: I’ll give you an example of a remarkable grimdark book with hope—The Gray Bastards by the brilliant Johnathan French. The blurb reads, “Jackal and his fellow half-orcs patrol the barren wastes of the Lot Lands, spilling their own damned blood to keep civilized folk safe. A rabble of hard-talking, hog-riding, whore-mongering brawlers they may be, but the Grey Bastards are Jackal’s sworn brothers, fighting at his side in a land where there’s no room for softness.” Except the best part of this series is the brotherhood, that is light. These are not nice “men and women,” they can’t be, or their world would eat them alive. However, even in the face of everything, they form a bond with each other. That is genuinely exceptional grimdark to me. That is the light that shines in this world. It doesn’t take the reader on a journey through the muck and mire and leave them to rot. There is a small thing to latch on to so that when you get done reading this book, you do not hate the world. Instead, you are clamoring for the next book in the series.
What is also compelling about grimdark is to read about characters that have choices. Grimdark gives characters autonomy in their character arcs. They are not bogged down in “the hero’s journey” or “good versus evil.” Instead, we have no idea what the hell they are going to do. Evil is just a matter of perspective. No one thinks of themselves as the bad guy, as they are all just folks making choices.
WS: Where do you think the idea of grimdark being the opposite of hopeful comes from?
BT: Its origins. Grimdark became popular with Warhammer 40k. Warhammer is not known for its gentleness. It did not originate there; you can go back to the 80s and find books that fill the grimdark definition. But it became popular with Warhammer and widespread with GRRM, Abercrombie, and Mark Lawrence.
WS: For me personally, the subgenre of fantasy I find myself reading kind of correlates with *gestures at everything*. I’ve been reading more cozy fantasy lately, and I think some of that comes from burnout with the negativity in the real world. Does your subgenre of choice ebb and flow with current events?
BT:
Absolutely. During the lockdown, I was surrounded by ARCs of plague and end-of-the-world novels and almost had a heart attack. I had to nope out for my mental well-being. I flow back and forth between how stressed I am. For instance:
Youtube videos = Someone pass me a medicinal kitten.
Romance = super stressed
urban fantasy = nail-biting
grimdark = Bring it
WS: Okay, when it comes to reading grimdark with themes of hope throughout, what are some books to pick up?
BT: OOhhh, I do love a good list.
The Gray Bastards by Johnathan French
The Maleficent Seven – Cameron Johnston
The Dark Tower – Stephen King (debatable if grimdark)
The Builders – Daniel Polanksy
The Silent Gods series by Justin Call
About Beth Tabler:
Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is a lead on Grimdark Magazine. She was at one time an architect but now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and was on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5, and is a judge for SPFBO7.
You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other.
The Monsters We Feed by Thomas Howard Riley has a heartbeat. It beats with anger, desperation, and something in between love and hate. The pages pulse with life in all its gritty messiness. The book is visceral and brutal, and utterly compelling.
Taking place in the same world as We Break Immortals (although you can absolutely read The Monsters We Feed as a standalone), the book starts with a bang. Well, actually it starts with the mention of a dead body, setting the tone from the first eleven words. This is not a happily ever after sort of fantasy. Rather, it is an R-rated look into the complexities of human nature. It’s full of sex (lots and lots of it) and violence (lots and lots of it), as well as characters that bypass “morally gray” and waltz right into “evil” territory.
Jathan, our main character, is an incredibly messed up person. He’s a bundle of anger wrapped in hard edges and lies told to himself and to others. His parents were killed when he was a child, leaving him with a loathing for magick. Years later, he lives with his sister Lyra in his family home (which she is desperate to leave). She is his rock, but he is her anchor, weighing her down and holding her back. Jathan happily uses her as an excuse for his less-than-savory actions, which include selling out any users of magick he comes across in exchange for money. His sweet sister deserves better, to be honest. So does her friend who inexplicably finds him attractive.
Jathan makes yet another in a string of bad decisions when he loots a dead body, finding a Jecker Monocle. This device allows him to see “traces” of magick, making it a heck of a lot easier to track down and sell out magick users. Of course, this brings a new brand of trouble as Jathan soon finds himself suspecting his sister of having a liaison with a hated magick user.
The magick in both The Monsters We Feed and We Break Immortals is incredible. It’s extremely complex but Riley describes it in a way that explains it without adding to confusion or making it boring. So much rides on Jathan’s feelings about magick and the way the Jecker Monocle is used that it was imperative to have a fully developed magic system. A vague idea or underdeveloped magic would not have worked. Luckily, Riley doesn’t do anything by halves. The magic- like the rest of the book- is fully formed, a living, breathing thing.
The fact that The Monsters We Feed is told solely from the point of view of such an unlikable character makes it even more interesting. Where Jathan lacks in charisma, he makes up for in layers upon layers of fear and grief masquerading as anger and sometimes even as love. His self-destruction is engrossing, although sometimes painful to read. I really felt sad for him at times.
Once you start reading a book like this, there’s no stopping or putting it down until you’ve turned the last page. The writing is excellent, the world is immersive, and the characters are fascinating. I’m not big on sex scenes in books (I know it’s odd that I am fine with fantasy violence, but book sex makes me uncomfortable; I never claimed to be normal), but everything else was awesome.
If you like fantasy that blurs the line between right and wrong, that has flawed characters with questionable morality and drags secrets usually hidden away into glaring light, The Monsters We Feed is for you.
*My review originally appeared on Before We Go Blog.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that I have been lucky enough to read many indie/self-published. I love the creativity and uniqueness often found in self-published books. Last year was the first ever Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week, during which I was joined by many amazing bloggers, podcasters, and Youtubers, all sharing their appreciation for great self-published authors. Well, guess what? We’re doing it again this year!
This year Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week will run from July 24th-30th. How can you get involved? Read self-published books, review self-published books, shout about great self-published authors. You’re welcome to use the above banner (created by the awesome Fantasy Book Nerd) and if you tag my Twitter @WS_BOOKCLUB, I will add your posts to a blog hub and share those posts on my Twitter. On Twitter, you can the hashtags #SPAAW, #SuperSP, and #IndiesAreAwesome.
For those of you who would like to see some of the amazing pieces published during last year’s SPAAW, you can find them linked here: Self-published Authors Appreciation Week Hub.
I hope it will be even bigger this year. Let’s shout about self-published authors!
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that I have been lucky enough to read many indie/self-published. I love the creativity and uniqueness often found in self-published books. Last year was the first ever Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week, during which I was joined by many amazing bloggers, podcasters, and Youtubers, all sharing their appreciation for great self-published authors. Well, guess what? We’re doing it again this year!
This year Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week will run from July 24th-30th. How can you get involved? Read self-published books, review self-published books, shout about great self-published authors. You’re welcome to use the above banner (created by the awesome Fantasy Book Nerd) and if you tag my Twitter @WS_BOOKCLUB, I will add your posts to a blog hub and share those posts on my Twitter. On Twitter, you can use the hashtags #SPAAW, #SuperSP, and #AwesomeIndies.
By the way, the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest is a great place to go for self-published book suggestions. Follow along with this year’s contest here. Here are a few self-published books that I recommend. I stopped myself at twenty, but there are so many amazing sp books out there! What’s the best self-published book you’ve read this year?
Jason and Rose Bishop- The Call (Storm’s Rising #1)
Lee C. Conley- A Ritual of Bone
Susanne M. Dutton- Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable
Jami Fairleigh- Oil and Dust
Jonathan French-The Grey Bastards
Sean Gibson- The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True
Bjørn Larssen- Why Odin Drinks
Randall McNally- Shadowless
Marcus Lee- Kings and Daemons
G.M. Nair- Duckett and Dyer: Dicks for Hire
Roland O’Leary- The Hand of Fire
Thomas Howard Riley- We Break Immortals
Kirstin Espinosa Rosero- Burn Red Skies
Patrick Samphire- Shadow of a Dead God
Matthew Samuels- Small Places
Emma Shaw- Sacaran Nights
M.L. Spencer- Dragon Mage
Luke Tarzian- The World Breaker Requiem
Keith Tokash- Iliad: The Reboot
M.L. Wang- The Sword of Kaigen
This year, I want to talk about some of the many types of fantasy you can find (I have a post about fantasy subgenres which can be found here). I think when people hear “fantasy”, their mind immediately goes to serious epics with swords, magic, and dragons. While I happen to love all of those things, there are many ways to tell a story. This week’s focus has been on grimdark, that subgenre with morally complicated characters and often gritty worlds.
Below is a (far from complete) list of grimdark authors worth reading. I’ve also collected the guest posts from throughout the week, in case there are any that have been missed. I’m grateful to all the writers who were kind enough to share their opinions during this week!
Guest Posts:
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring Holly Tinsley
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring Rob J. Hayes
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring Krystle Matar
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring Luke Tarzian
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring M.L. Spencer
Fantasy Focus: Grimdark Featuring Beth Tabler
Author suggestions:
Joe Abercrombie- First Law series
Alicia Wanstall Burke- Blood of Heirs
Sarah Chorn- Seraphina’s Lament
Glen Cook- Chronicles of the Black Company series
Steven Erikson- Gardens of the Moon
Michael R. Fletcher- Smoke and Stone
C.S. Friedman- The Coldfire trilogy
Ben Galley- Chasing Graves
Rob J. Hayes- The Ties that Bind series
R.F. Kuang- The Poppy War
Mark Lawrence- The Broken Empire series
Ulff Lehman- Light in the Dark series
Scott Lynch- Gentleman Bastard series
Devin Madson- The Reborn Empire series
George R.R. Martin- A Song of Ice and Fire
Krystle Matar- Legacy of the Brightwash
Alex Mead- Unstoppable Shadow
Richard Nell- Ash and Sand series
Mike Shel- Iconoclasts trilogy
Anna Smith Spark- Empires of Dust series
Clayton Snyder- River of Thieves
ML Spencer- The Chaos Cycle
Luke Tarzian- Adjacent Monsters series
Holly Tinsley- We Men of Ash and Shadow
Brent Weeks- The Way of Shadows
This year, I’m doing a new series: Fantasy Focus. Each month will have a week-long focus on a different fantasy subgenre- fantasy is as varied as its creators’ imaginations! If you’ve missed them, there have been fantasy focuses on comedic fantasy and romantic fantasy. This month, I’m taking a walk on the grittier, darker side of fantasy- grimdark!
Today I’m excited to be talking with M.L. Spencer, author of the Rhenwars Saga and the Chaos Saga. Thank you so much for chatting with me about grimdark and fantasy in general!
Will you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your work?
Hi my name is ML Spencer, and I am the author of the Rhenwars Saga, The Chaos Cycle, and the Rivenworld series, which so far consists of my best-selling novel Dragon Mage. Of those series only Chaos and Rhenwars could be considered grimdark, although there are some seriously grim and dark moments in Dragon Mage.
What were some obstacles to writing?
Wow. Right now I’m experiencing a ton. My biggest obstacle to writing is my own brain, which gets in the way often. If I grease the wheels it runs smoothly, like a pampered machine. Ungreased, however, and that machine breaks down and starts to falter. Eventually, with enough neglect, it stops working entirely. That’s the slump I’m currently in. After I finished Dragon Mage I entered a period of writers block that was the most excruciating of my life. On top of that, I was also dealing with some physical and mental issues that made writing impossible at the time. Eventually, I fell out of the habit of writing, and now here I am, struggling to pick it back up again, which is not an easy thing.
What are some victories?
I think my biggest victory was the success of Dragon Mage. I had hoped it would be well received, but I had no idea it would achieve the success in accolades it did. I think a lot of that was due to Petrik Leo, a book blogger who gave the novel so much airtime. Because of Petrik’s recommendations, word spread to Reddit, Instagram, and Twitter, I’m pretty soon the sill started coming. I still stand in awe of Petrik’s reach, and to this day I am so incredibly thankful for him.
Grimdark seems to be one of those subgenres that is a little difficult to define. How would you explain grimdark?
For me, the definition of grimdark is easy. In fact, I’m a little confused that there is any debate about it. Grimdark is the opposite of Noble Bright, which is to say the mood is grim and the stakes seem hopeless and probably are. There are no knights in shining armor, but rather ragged or broken main characters with few positive traits that we can cling to. Instead of a happily ever after, all we are promised is a train wreck. It’s like gazing at an auto accident as you drive by. You dread what you’re going to see, but you can’t stop looking. That is the essence of grimdark.
Why do you think it’s so difficult to really “define” grimdark?
I have no idea. I think because there are some high fantasy novels that can include very dark moments and gnarled characters. But to me there still is a difference. There is still hope at the end of the day. We have some security that her favorite characters are not going to be killed off. The world is wholesome and worth saving, and we know that somehow, our characters are going to pull off this elevation.
Not so with grimdark. In grimdark, there is no safety net.
What draws you to grimdark as an author?
I was drawn to grimdark initially because it is a better vehicle for injecting realism into fantasy. It’s hard to truly explore human character and a high fantasy setting, because there are some boundaries where you just can’t go. A great example is swearwords. Readers typically don’t expect them in some won’t stand for them in their high fantasy. And god help the author who kills off a favorite side character, even though that character’s death precipitates a cataclysmic shift in the main characters worldview that is worth exploring.
Which authors are on your must-read list?
There are so many.
Mark Lawrence
Joe Abercrombie
CS Friedman
Andy Peloquin
Ed McDonald
Rob Hayes
Jesse Teller
Ben Galley
Do you have anything on the horizon that you’d like to talk about?
I wish I did. Just plodding along writing Dragon Mage 2, which is utterly and hopelessly non-grimdark. Perhaps that is why I can’t seem to tame this beast 😊
About the author:
ML Spencer lives in Southern California with her three children and two cats. She has been obsessed with fantasy ever since the days of childhood bedtime stories. She grew up reading and writing fantasy fiction, playing MMORPG games, and living, as mom put it, “in her own worlds.” ML now spends each day working to bring those worlds into reality.
Purchase links:
This year, I’m doing a new series: Fantasy Focus. Each month will have a week-long focus on a different fantasy subgenre- fantasy is as varied as its creators’ imaginations! If you’ve missed them, there have been fantasy focuses on comedic fantasy and romantic fantasy. This month, I’m taking a walk on the grittier, darker side of fantasy- grimdark!
I’m so happy to have somehow coerced Luke Tarzian into joining me for another talk. This time, he tackles grimdark.
Hi, Luke. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat a little bit about the grittier side of fantasy!
Hi Jodie. Thank you for having me!
First, would you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your work?
Sure. During the day I work full time as a paralegal for a special education law firm. At night, I moonlight as a long-suffering New York Knicks fan, an annoyingly thrilled Phoenix Suns fan, a freelance cover artist, and book designer. I guess I also write too. That seems pretty relevant.
As far as my work is concerned, I write dark psychological fantasy with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. A lot of what I write deals pretty heavily with mental illness, grief, loss, death, and the like.
You’ve described your books as “grimdark adjacent”. Can you expand a little on that?
Sure. There are varying definitions of grimdark, but the most general I’ve seen involve some combination of amoral, nihilistic, cynical, gritty, and/or bleak settings and characters. Depending on who you ask, it’s also hyper violent, blood and gore to the absolute max. In that case, maybe that’s a commentary on real life. I’m not sure.
As far my own work is concerned, I feel like I utilize a lot of similar tropes—grey characters, bleak settings, “fuck” as the wonderful multipurpose tool it is, death—with the caveat being I do so in order to highly the possibility of hope, however slim it may be. I think that latter part ties into a lot of what my books are influenced by, chiefly my own battles with mental illness, grief, and the like and that struggle to hold onto whatever ray of light I can. I wouldn’t call my protagonists heroes in any sense, nor would I refer to the antagonists as villains. Rather, they’re all people with their own scars, virtues, and moral faults trying to do what they think is right or good, even if that tends to make things worse.
There are many misconceptions about grimdark out there, and even some disagreement on what grimdark is. How would you describe grimdark?
At this point, I’m really not sure. Like I said previously, there are so many different definitions that I don’t think you can simply limit it to one. To me, personally, the best representation of grimdark is the Gears of War games. War, hopelessness, ultra-violence, and characters fighting to survive, some of who eventually lose to the will to carry on. It still has tinges of hope, but it’s a dying world. Ultimately, I think that’s what grimdark examines—dying hope in a dying world and how that affects the characters.
What draws you to the darker side of fantasy (I feel like I’m talking about The Force and definitely need better wording)?
I’ve always liked darker things, for lack of a better phrase. I think with dark fantasy in particular it’s always been a more “accepted” approach to examining the human condition in extremes that other genres might shy from. As someone fascinated by psychology and who deals with a lot internally, it obviously appeals.
Is your writing ever influenced by things that are happening in the “real world”?
Not so much the real world as my own personal experiences. Vultures is a very grief-tinged book, the rough draft of which I finished shortly after my mother died. The World Breaker Requiem takes that to the extreme. I’ve mentioned several times, but I refer to it as my catharsis novel even though it put me on the edge of a mental breakdown and almost sent me back to therapy.
I know we’ve discussed your writing in terms of being a way to talk about grief and mental illness. It makes your writing both raw and very, very powerful. Do you think fantasy is uniquely capable of creating a safe platform for dealing with some of the more difficult things that life chucks at us?
This ties into a lot of what I’ve said already, so obviously my answer is yes. And I think the darker the fantasy, the more one can explore. I think dark fantasy is uniquely equipped to tackle mental health, especially when you factor in overcoming challenges. In the darkest night, the faintest light is blinding.
If someone asked you to build them a “to be read” list, what are some books that would have to be on it?
I’m going to do this on the assumption this is for general recommendations, but I’ll start with some grimdark fantasy to keep with the theme:
I could add so much more to this list, but I wanted to recommend books that have been formative to the way I write, whether fiction or nonfiction.
Thank you so much for having me!
About the author:
Fantasy Author. Long Doggo Enthusiast. Snoot Booper. Shouter of F**ks. Drinker of Whiskey. These are all titles. I’m the Khaleesi nobody wanted and the one they certainly didn’t deserve, but here we are, friendos…
Purchase links:
This year, I’m doing a new series: Fantasy Focus. Each month will have a week-long focus on a different fantasy subgenre- fantasy is as varied as its creators’ imaginations! If you’ve missed them, there have been fantasy focuses on comedic fantasy and romantic fantasy. This month, I’m taking a walk on the grittier, darker side of fantasy- grimdark!
Today I’m excited to be joined by Krystle Matar, author of the grimdark triumph, Legacy of the Brightwash!
Will you talk a little bit about your work?
Legacy of the Brightwash is romantic grimdark; it straddles the line between both worlds. The society the characters exist in is bleak and difficult (to say the least) but through bonds of love and family, they are able to stand against the oppression they face in their society. I’m not sure I set out with the intention to mash those two genres together, but maybe that’s just me. Dark, and struggling—but with a deep well of love for my family and community that sees me through it all. I suppose it was inevitable that those things would bleed into my writing.
What were some obstacles to writing Legacy of the Brightwash?
Life in general was definitely a big obstacle! We are a family of 6 and life is very busy; we also moved out into the country in the midst of my revisions, and our way of life shifted dramatically.
I’m still not entirely sure how we pulled it off, but here we are, and I’ve got this shiny new writing career on top of it!
Other than that, I think a big obstacle was deciding how much of myself I wanted to commit to the story. It’s scary, bearing your soul to a broad audience. It’s vulnerable and it’s counter-intuitive. But ultimately, I had to decide what I wanted to write about if indeed I made this into a career… and it turns out that I can’t write anything except my own honesty. I think I made the right choices.
What were some victories?
Community was the biggest victory. I stumbled into the indie community by accident, and my life has been forever enriched by the amazing, generous, supportive, kind-hearted people I’ve met. I can only imagine how many more fantastic people I’ll encounter on my journey, and I love this community with my whole heart and soul. Beyond that, Brightwash is a victory in and of itself; I’ve never written anything so bold, so big, so totally and utterly me. I used to pull a lot of punches when I was writing because I thought that’s how you got to sell and that’s how you got taken seriously, but I was so wrong. It turns out that you can throw down your whole, messy, complex self and people will engage with you and your story much deeper.
Legacy of the Brightwash is seen as grimdark. Would you agree with the classification and why?
You know, when I was getting ready to market Brightwash, I thought to myself “It isn’t that dark, is it?” I thought for sure the grimdark crowd would be disappointed. Earlier drafts were much darker before I added the core theme of love, and I thought I was straying too far away from what they like to see.
Fortunately, I have some wonderful friends in the grimdark genre, and through reading their work and conversing with them, I learned that grimdark is more of a spectrum than a hard line. The tone is bleakness and violence, sure, but the expressions of that tone can be varied from story to story in absolutely stunning ways. So, if a bleak society and setting is what it takes to be grimdark, I’m there for sure. Energy units, ya know? (If you don’t know, I won’t spoil it, but trust me.)
There are many misconceptions about grimdark out there, (I’ve heard the term “torture porn”, which irritates me to no end). Can you talk about what grimdark is?
Grimdark is a conversation with the fantasy genre, I think. Grimdark acknowledges that we as humans are deeply imperfect. Grimdark forces people to consider the weight of all those heroic battles. Grimdark builds a world where none of the choices are good and asks the reader how on earth they would choose if they were in the same situation. Grimdark examines lines that people shouldn’t cross, and then forces their characters across it, because none of us are impervious to temptation and mistakes.
Grimdark, paradoxically, is also a genre that is stubbornly hopeful. If victory is assured, if the hero is truly good and right and virtuous, was anything really risked? Was anything really in doubt, was their stand ever all that brave? That’s not to say that ALL of fantasy is about perfect shining heroes; it’s not, and I know it, and I’m not slinging shade at those hears. I don’t know… but I find, personally, I can’t relate to heroes who always make the right choices. That’s how I ended up here in grimdark, I think. Tashué has fucked up, and he knows it. And together with the people he loves most in the world, he can try to do something about it.
Which brings me to my next point; if the hero is deeply flawed, and the act of standing shreds their lives to pieces, if they are pushed so hard that they almost break… or they do break and they continue on in spite of it, it feels like they’ve truly, deeply overcome something. Grimdark can be about standing for something even if there’s no hope. About slogging through the shit that the world dumps on us, and finding something worth fighting for. And maybe the choices our heroes make aren’t good exactly, but who among us can relate to that? A lot of us, I think.
The side effect of that does often mean that grimdark is a genre where protagonists are tested, and fail. They collapse beneath the pressure, they cave, they slide so deep into the darkness that they might be irredeemable. And that’s the beauty of the genre. There is so much room for examining the depths of the human condition in ways that are messy and uncomfortable… and also honest.
Why do you think there are so many misconceptions?
You know, I’m really not sure. Certainly there is some wild stuff out there in the grimdark playground, but the same can be said about any genre. I think grimdark tends to make people uncomfortable, and thus it gets a bad rap. But for whatever it’s worth, romance also tends to make people uncomfortable, and also gets a bad rap. There seems to be a pushback against genres that ask for self-reflection, you know? Grimdark and romance both ask people to face the taboos of their society head-on, and they both ask people to see themselves in situations that might be uncomfortable. So maybe it’s no wonder that they both get a lot of flak.
So then I combined them both, lol. I guess I like a challenge.
What draws you to grimdark as a writer?
Legacy of the Brightwash started out as a thought experiment about how we value convenience and the stability of our economy, and asked a question about what it would take to shock an entire society out of status quo to really change things. My hero is a man who is trapped in the very system that is oppressing him and people like him. He’s made mistakes, and he’s going to have to make difficult choices in order to make any change.
I don’t know that Tashué’s story could have fit in any other subgenre, really.
Do you find writing to be cathartic? If so, would you say that fantasy (and grimdark in particular) is particularly well suited to examining some of the harder things in life?
I do find writing cathartic; it’s a safe space to examine my own personal baggage, as well as the broad emotions that come with living in this world on a day-to-day basis. Fantasy is doubly a safe space. I have the room to adjust society so that I can filter out things I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to deal with, but then I can also put human nature under a microscope and process those feelings in a way that connects me to other people (ie, the readers who come to my world and understand the questions I’m trying to examine.) Grimdark is a place where we can be uncomfortably honest about flaws. And in being honest about them, hopefully we can find ways to hold ourselves accountable for them.
Which authors are on your must-read list?
Clayton Snyder is absolutely pushing the limits of grimdark, and his stories are incredible. Michael Fletcher, of course. A grimdark list isn’t complete without him. Does Brian Staveley count as grimdark? I suspect he does, and his first trilogy is absolutely incredible. I haven’t yet read his new novel, but I’m salivating over it.
I recently read The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Neither of them are fantasy; both authors are Vietnam veterans who wrote about their experiences in war, though Matterhorn is a fictionalized story. I’m not sure if Tim O’Brien wrote his experiences, or if he filtered them through some fictionalization, but either way, the work is absolutely stunning. I highly, highly recommend them both for readers and writers of grimdark. We touch on war a lot in the genre of fantasy; we should engage with the veterans who lived through it.
Do you have anything on the horizon that you would like to mention?
I’ve been working diligently on Brightwash’s sequel, LEGACY OF BRICK & BONE. But I’m also very, very proud of the anthology that I’ve been a part of, titled THE ALCHEMY OF SORROW. The theme of the anthology has been grief, and it’s been absolutely moving to watch so many writers come together and address the heaviest of emotions in that safe space that fantasy is. The support for the anthology has been incredible, proving that fantasy has the space, and the NEED, to get real about emotion.
About the author:
“Krystle Matar has been writing for a long time, but things got serious when Tashué Blackwood walked into her life, an amber-eyed whirlwind.
When she isn’t arguing with him or any of his friends, she parents and farms. She has a lot of children and even more animals and one very excellent husband.
She is currently working on lots of stories set in the Dominion. She expects to exist in this universe for a while.”
I have my website https://www.krystlematar.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/KrystleMatar
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/krystlematar/
My GR page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20047399.Krystle_Matar
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