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I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

Mogsy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction

Series: Book 4 of Dungeon Crawler Carl

Publisher: Ace (March 11, 2025)

Length: 608 pages

Author Information: Website

There’s LitRPG, and then there’s Dungeon Crawler Carl. In fact, Matt Dinniman may have forever ruined this genre for me, as I don’t think I’ll ever find a series as fun and amazing. The Gate of the Feral Gods is the fourth installment, but there’s no slowing down here. Instead, we’re charging full steam ahead, plunging deeper into the chaos!

The story picks right up from where things left off in The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, joining Carl and his larger-than-life feline companion, Princess Donut, as they descend deeper into the dungeon in their continued fight for survival. Now on the fifth floor, the rules shift dramatically, presenting an entirely new set of challenges. This level introduces a unique twist: all crawlers are separated into individual biome-themed “bubbles” which are scattered across four quadrants of the game world. Unfortunately for Carl and Donut, this means being cut off from their friends, and to make matters worse, they won’t be able to access the next floor until all the objectives in their bubble are met. As this is not something they can do on their own, success hinges upon finding new allies—and fast.

By now, we’re starting to see a pattern emerge, with each level introducing a distinct gaming mechanic. In many ways, the fifth floor mirrors an epic game of Capture the Flag, in which crawlers are randomly assigned to the different bubbles, such as air, water, land, and deep ocean. Each biome also features their own set of dangers, mobs, and goals. The only way to break free is to destroy the castles in their respective bubbles, which would then allow crawlers to assist others in doing the same. But of course, Carl, Donut, and their new party member Katia have landed in one of the toughest bubbles, where the challenges are more difficult and the odds against them are stacked higher than ever. Still, as we all know, it will take much more than that to break their spirit.

The Gate of the Feral Gods was yet another fantastic sequel, and I just love cracking open each book to discover what awesome adventure awaits us next. What makes these books so addictive and so entertaining is the way each volume builds upon the ones that came before, driving up the excitement while still maintaining the humor, heart, and thrilling action. These books are laugh-out-loud funny, and I’m always surprised at Carl’s ingenious solutions to seemingly impossible situations. I’m also floored by the sheer creativity in everything from small-scale puzzles in the dungeon to the overarching intrigue of who or what in the great wide universe is actually in control of the crawl.

It’s honestly impressive how Dinniman can manage to juggle so many moving pieces of the storyline all at once. You’ve got multiple character arcs unfolding simultaneously, all their interconnected plotlines, a dungeon and its AI that are constantly shifting in new and unexpected ways, various RPG mechanics that are expanding as the characters get stronger, plus an intergalactic political drama playing out in the background to boot! Whew! With so much happening at once, one thing for sure is that you’ll never be bored, and what’s more, each storyline is given the time and attention it deserves. True, sometimes things can feel a little overwhelming, but so far, the author seems quite diligent in resolving story threads so that readers aren’t left hanging.

But truly, what sets Dungeon Crawler Carl apart is its character development. Yes, we get new quest lines, new boss fights, and plenty of the crazy-ass dungeon-crawling mayhem that can only come from the mind of Matt Dinniman, but we also get to see Carl and Donut’s relationships evolve—both with each other and with the ever-expanding cast of allies and adversaries. In some ways, this series has the feel of a favorite soap opera, where I just can’t wait to dive back in to catch up with all the characters.

That said, things get pretty bleak for some of them. It’s a sad fact that none of the side characters are truly safe, and even Carl and Donut get put through the wringer, as they adapt to increasingly cruel and brutal challenges. Our protagonist has repeatedly sworn that the dungeon will not break him, but with each new level, the physical and psychological toll on him only seems to get worse. Still, whenever circumstances start to look dire, there’s always much needed levity to pull us out—often thanks to Donut and her impeccable talent for saying the most absurd things at the most inopportune times.

When all is said and done, I think The Gate of the Feral Gods might be my favorite book of the series so far, delivering on every front and exceeding expectations in every way. This book has everything readers love about Dungeon Crawler Carl—pulse-pounding action, gut-busting humor, and surprisingly deep emotional moments—all wrapped up in an explosive plot that’s impossible to put down. It’s a must read for fans, obviously. And if you haven’t started this series yet, don’t wait! With the re-issuing of all the books, there’s no better time to jump in.

More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of Dungeon Crawler Carl (Book 1)
Review of Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (Book 2)
Review of The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (Book 3)

Conan the Barbarian: Battle of The Black Stone (Titan Comics collected edition, April 1, 2025). Cover by Jonas Scharf

Few things are more ubiquitous than Conan and fantasy. Decades of sword-swinging high adventure has earned the barbarian a following most can only dream of. It’s taken the heavily thewed warrior to the big screen, Marvel Comics, and more. But it’s his latest adventure at Titan Comics that may prove to be the icing on the proverbial Shadizarian cake.

“This isn’t my first time writing Conan, but it’s definitely the most expansive opportunity I’ve ever had to chart the direction of such an amazing iconic character. I could not be happier in terms of our team and the collaboration we have in terms of story, art, and worldbuilding,” Jim Zub, writer of Conan the Barbarian at Titan Comics, shared by email.

[Click the images for Conan-sized versions.]

Over the years, few have come to understand the Cimmerian like the acclaimed Canadian scribe. Even in a career that has taken him to the heights of the comic book industry, Zub’s Conan work is special. His bibliography reads like a tour of the barbarian’s finest adventures of the past 10 years: Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan, and the epic Battle of the Black Stone are a few highlights. No wonder he’s so trusted by the rights holders of Robert E. Howard’s work.

“I actually work directly for Heroic Signatures, the rights holders of Conan and the Robert E. Howard character library. Titan publishes the comics in English, and they’ve been great publishing partners, but on a creative level I answer directly to the people who know Conan best and that has made the creative process really vibrant,” Zub stated.

Conan and Deadpool in Savage Avengers #18, by Gerry Duggan and Kev Walker (Marvel Comics, February 17, 2021). Cover by Valerio Giangiordano

It wouldn’t be exactly fair to call Conan’s return to Titan a comeback. At Marvel, the Cimmerian had an impressive run in the much-loved Savage Avengers. Solo, he would be well-treated by Zub and his colleagues in stories like Conan: Serpent War and even fight symbiotes during the massive King in Black storyline. A look at the enthusiasm that has greeted Titan’s Conan series, however, tells you that this is something different.

Zub added, “Every time I get to contribute to characters and worlds I grew up with it’s a thrill, and this Conan publishing initiative is a whole new level.”

Such big breaks come with a heavy responsibility. After Howard created the character in the 1930s, many other writers would pen new tales for the Cimmerian. That lengthy list of scribes includes respected names like L. Sprague de Camp, Karl Edward Wagner, Roy Thomas, and Jason Aaron. How has he managed to stand out while writing a legacy character that has passed through so many legendary hands? Surprisingly, it’s by following the legends as closely as he can.

Conan: Serpent War #1, written by Jim Zub (Marvel Comics, December 4, 2019). Incentive variant cover E by David Finch

“If anything, I’m trying to hew as closely to Robert E. Howard’s original pulp characteristics as I can, while also incorporating the most iconic aspects of Roy Thomas’ seminal comic writing alongside the vision so many incredible artists like Frank Frazetta, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Joe Jusko, Cary Nord and others have brought into it over the decades,” Zub explained.

Following in those footsteps brings with it plenty of challenges and opportunities. There aren’t many writers that understand that as well as Zub.

“The longer a character has been around, obviously, the more stories have been told and the harder it can be to surprise the existing fanbase while still staying true to who that character is.  It’s a delicate balance where you want to keep core elements in mind but not close yourself off to new ideas,” Zub said. “The upside, of course, is the fact that legacy characters have that built-in recognition. I’m not building from scratch in terms of visibility and there’s an existing fanbase excited to see what comes next. The challenges and benefits are tightly wound together.”

You only need to read the massive Conan: Battle of the Black Stone limited series to see that approach in practice.

Conan the Barbarian #9, written by Jim Zub; art by Robert De La Torre and Dean White (Titan Comics, March 27, 2024) A Walk With Titan

If one word could describe what it is like to read Titan Comics Conan the Barbarian, that word would be ‘fun.’ Not that it shortchanges readers on the artistic or deeper side of things. Far from it. The colors pop like a 70s comic, there’s no shortage of poetic allusions, well-crafted narrations, and action. But above all its bursting with creative energy, like a room of Conan’s most talented fans were allowed to cut loose.

“The new Titan series is a Mature Readers book, so we don’t have to hold back on violence or salacious elements where appropriate. That allows us to channel the intensity of the pulp source material even more closely,” is how Zub describes it.

Fans of high-fantasy and the barbarian’s sword-swinging antics will not be disappointed. Conan is at his most lethal in many of these stories, battling Picts and challenging sorcerers with his usual bravado. The ingredients of great sword and sorcery tales are all there: magic, romance, and plenty of mayhem.

Conan the Barbarian #18, written by Jim Zub; art by Danica Brine and Joao Canola (Titan Comics, February 19, 2025). Cover B by De La Torre

“It’s about distilling the best parts of past works and bringing them together with Howard’s own expansive mythmaking across the ages to tell epic stories of sword & sorcery. If I do my job well, it should feel “true” to old and new readers without falling back on adapting previous stories,” Zub said.

True to their epic vision, the creative team behind the series has not stopped at just celebrating the Hyborian Age. While the comics are full of respectful nods to the past, they also give Conan plenty of new obstacles to overcome. Other Howard characters are brought in and before you know it, a sprawling multi-timeline adventure is unfolding. Working on Conan, in general, has helped Zub level-up as a writer and his Titan Comics storylines feel like years of hard-work distilled for our reading pleasure.

“With each new storyline I’m pushing myself to use familiar pieces in unorthodox ways so that readers can see enough of the familiar to know that it’s still Conan, but knot know exactly which way the story is headed,” Zub said.

His evocative narrations have become integral to the experience. They set the tone, heighten the drama when necessary, and add some appreciated literary flair. It is no accident either that they read so quintessentially Conan.

Classic barbarian art by Frank Frazetta: the cover to Thongor Against the Gods by Lin Carter (Paperback Library, November 1967)

“I’ve marinated in the original Howard prose and analyzed it for cadence and vocabulary to make my narration feel like the classics without just copying it word-for-word. It’s made me think deeper about pacing, prose, characterization, geography, and culture,” Zub said.

The Battle for the Black Stone storyline has been a wild ride to say the least. While it’s impossible say where Conan is heading next, Zub’s work has left creatives of every level with plenty to learn from.

“There’s a reason why characters like Conan have stood the test of time and it’s crucial for people working on the property to understand and respect that bedrock foundation even while they bring their new ideas into the mix. Longtime fans can always tell if someone has done the research and cares about what they’re working on and, if you can win them over, it’s easier to build a strong audience from there,” Zub stated.

Ismail D. Soldan is an author, journalist, and poet. His work has previously appeared in Illustrated Worlds, LatineLit, and The Acentos Review among other publications. A proud explorer of both real and imagined worlds, his most recently published short story can be read in the January 2025 issue of Crimson Quill Quarterly, and his last article for Black Gate was An Eternal Champion’s Legacy.

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along […]

The post The Leaning Pile of Books first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Here’s something really fun…at least for me. I’ve been doing a lot of teaching lately, working with student manuscripts. And it doesn’t seem to matter how experienced the writers are, some of them are having trouble putting in all five senses. In particular, the senses of smell and taste.

I have a quick and easy solution to that, as I explain in the video below.

I have a lot of quick solutions to long-term craft problems that writers struggle with. I’m doing to do an entire series of these workshops. Here’s a bit more on the series itself.

I hope you’ll join me with this workshop. You can sign up for the first one right here.

I have a few updates for you all on various matters. First, I didn’t post a DOGE Supernatural story this last Friday because I was pushing to finish revisions on Galadon. I had to give that all my spare time and attention. There will be another episode later this week, though. In relation to that, […]

So many of you backed our latest Kickstarter, which was for my first three fantasy novels. We did a full rebrand, and are introducing the books to a new audience. Your help with the Kickstarter made that easy.

Thank you!!!!

Now you can return to your regularly scheduled Saturday evening…

Master of the World (Falco Film, 1983)

As usual, 20 films, all free to stream, and I’ve never seen them before. Can I really find 20 cave person films I can sit through?

EDIT: No. I’ve expanded the list to include any and all primitive cultures as there are not enough prehistoric flicks to watch.

EDIT: I’m capping this list at 10 – I can’t stomach any more f**king Italian cannibal flicks.

Master of the World (1983) Tubi

Against my better judgement, I’m starting a new list. The usual rules apply — 20 films, free to stream, based on a theme. This time, cave folk!

We kick off with this Italian offering from the early 80’s, obviously inspired by Quest for Fire and, um, possibly Caveman. It’s the old story of forbidden love, rival clans beating each other up and eating the brains of the vanquished, plus the invention of the bolas. It’s the Romeo and Juliet adaptation you never knew you needed.

The whole shebang is peppered with grainy stock footage of out-of-place animals and clouds, and there’s a man in a bear suit intercut with a real, heavily drugged bear, who beats the crap out of everyone. Actually, this semi-fake bear was a highlight.

As any nerd worth their salt will tell you, Ben Burtt used the sounds of a bear to create Chewbacca’s guttural growls. I swear to God, the filmmakers just took soundbites of Chewbacca from Star Wars and dubbed their own bear with them. Check it out — validate me!

Ultimately, a rather tedious affair, too much high-pitched grunting. I’m only one film in, and already regretting this.

3/10

Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (Paramount Home Video, 1989) Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) Tubi

Confession: I could only find about a half dozen prehistoric cave people flicks (that I hadn’t seen or are free to stream), so I have expanded the parameters to include any ‘primitive’ cultures or groups. This opens up the doors for a wider selection, and a lot more rubbish. Case in point…

I thought I had seen this, but I was probably confusing it with Amazon Women on the Moon — anyhoo, this is a weird little affair, very cheaply made, and a bit of a mess. I’ve seen it described as a comedy horror, but there’s no horror in it, and very little in the way of good comedy. The script, written by director J.F. Lawton (who wrote Pretty Woman and Under Siege!) is really not as funny as he thinks it is, flip-flopping between absurdist schtick in the Airplane vein, to satirical monologues — all of which outstay their welcome very quickly.

Shannon Tweed is perfectly fine as the lead, but Adrienne Barbeau is wasted, and the least said about Bill Maher the better (although he does nail a couple of pratfalls). The film claims to be a commentary on feminism and toxic masculinity, but neither theme is realised due the reliance on tired tropes (the male gaze, the white male savior). Oh well.

4/10

The Slime People (Donald J. Hansen Enterprises, 1963) The Slime People (1963) Prime

A primitive prehistoric race rises from the sewers to reclaim the planet after some misguided nuclear testing? Yes, this fits the criteria.

Is it any good though? Weeeellll…

It starts off pretty well. A lone pilot flies into a California airport, only to find the entire town deserted. It’s well set up, and would be even more effective if the film hadn’t shown us the titular monsters as soon as the film starts, before the credits. The monsters themselves are quite interesting, however it looks like they blew the budget on three full-size costumes; think Dr. Who‘s Zygons wearing gorilla pants.

The rest of the ensemble is made up of the usual suspects: lantern-jawed Clark Gable-lite, useless scientist, useless scientist’s useless daughters, useless marine (only there to say ‘gee whiz’ and kiss a useless daughter) and a nutcase who has ‘uncomfortable feelings’ for his goat. You read that right.

The whole affair is shrouded in fog (a major plot point) as mostly consists of lots of talking and running through the afore-mentioned fog. It’s a bit rubbish, but strangely compelling.

5/10

Jungle Holocaust (Erre Cinematografica, 1977) Jungle Holocaust (1977) Tubi

Of all the horror sub-genres, jungle cannibal ones are my least favourite. There’s simply no joy to be found in any of them, and combine them with the Italian predilection for animal cruelty, and you’ve got a film I never need to see twice. This one is the first foray into the genre by the much lauded Ruggero Deodato, and it’s not as ghastly as his later offerings, but still enough to leave me questioning my life choices. I can deal with the human-on-human buffets, but the suffering of real animals turns my stomach.

Anyhoo — it’s the usual plot; white Italians enter the jungle, get eaten. Along the way there is stock footage of animals eating each other, ants in wounds, copious willy tugging (some bad, some good) and lots of ‘oo, oo, oo’ ‘aah, aah, aah’.

The leads are pretty good, Massimo Foschi really sells the whole jungle madness look, and Me Me Lai is great as the loveliest cannibal of them all. However, at the end of the day I don’t mean to be judgemental, but I have no idea how anyone can watch these for a good time.

6/10

Atragon (Toho, December 22, 1963) Atragon (1963) Prime

A tenuous fit for this project, Atragon features an ancient civilization (the Empire of Mu) hellbent on reclaiming their position as rulers of the world. For now, their continent lays at the bottom of the Pacific, so the film is all about Japan’s experimental submarine program, patriotism, and nefarious agents.

The entire world rallies via stock footage as the Mu Nemo themselves around the globe, sinking ships and being a general nuisance. Lots of lovely matte paintings and Thunderbirds-style models, and a bonus sea monster at the end. I had fun.

6/10

Teenage Caveman (American International Pictures, July 1, 1958) Teenage Caveman (1958) Prime (AMC+)

Yes, I started a free 30-day trial sub to AMC+ just so that I could watch this movie without the MST3K voice track. Such is my commitment to this pointless exercise in procrastination.

Anyhoo — here we have Roger Corman writing and banging out a caveman film in a couple of weeks. All shot on one California location, amply sprinkled with footage from other AIP flicks, featuring a very young Robert Vaughn as a young ‘cave person’ in the midst of an existential crisis. The clan he belongs to is the cleanest, whitest bunch of knuckle-draggers you’ve ever seen, and their hair is perfect. They all adhere to a bunch of rules attributed to Sky Gods and Monsters (TM), but Bobby Vaughn ain’t down with no rules, daddio.

He rebels, as all teens should, and while the elders sit around at camp discussing the rules, he goes out to see what’s so dangerous about the other side of the river. Here’s the thing, despite it being cheesy as hell, and somewhat laughable, Vaughn plays it straight (the right choice) and Corman clubs us around the head with a killer twist. I rather enjoyed it. Second film to feature a dude in a bear costume too, so it gains back the mark I was about to take away for the cruel real animal fighting.

6/10

Iceman (Echo Film/Lucky Bird Pictures, 2017) Iceman (2017) Tubi

Based on a 5300-yr-old mummy found by hikers in 1991, this German production proceeds to tell the imagined last days of a Neanderthal man, Kaleb. It’s a simple revenge flick, told in the ancient Rhaetic language, and is beautifully shot through with a suitably grim palette.

Jürgen Vogel as Kaleb is brilliant, bringing physical and emotional heft to every scene, and it was a treat to see Franco Nero pop up. It’s solid, at times horrific, and a reminder that revenge is a dish best served hunted, skinned and roasted.

8/10

Stone Age Sirens (Retromedia Entertainment, November 16, 2004) Stone Age Sirens (2004) Tubi

Another Fred Olen Ray flick (credited as Nicholas Medina, his soft-core pseudonym), this one is a heavily edited version of the film Teenage Cave Girl, heavily edited to the point where there’s no actual Neanderthal nookie on display at all. By cutting out all the sex scenes, what you are left with is a rubbish comedy about a pair of cave dwellers who are transported to the future and fall in with some randy archeologists (there’s more than you knew).

Peppered with stop-mo shots stolen from Planet of the Dinosaurs and some abominable CG in all its 8-bit glory, this is the usual slice of fried shite I’ve come to expect from the once great Ray. It gets a point for only being 46 minutes long.

1/10

Primitives (Rapi Films, 1978) and Eaten Alive! (Dana Film, March 20, 1980)

Primitives (1978) Tubi

This one is an Indonesian version of the Italian jungle exploitation flicks, and doesn’t just follow a similar plot, but lifts whole sequences directly for previous fare such as Cannibal Holocaust. In fact, it’s pretty shameless how much is ripped off from that movie, right down to locations and set pieces (although it stops short of actual tallywhacker removal). It’s full of the usual grunting and chomping, and the filmmakers seemed to double-down on the animal cruelty, using horrific footage from previous films.

It’s a miserable viewing experience, and I’m only giving it an extra mark for the shameless stealing of inappropriate music (Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots, a trio of Jean Michel Jarre tracks and Princess Leia’s theme) and a hilarious rubber axe boomerang scene.

4/10

Eaten Alive! (1980) Tubi

Not to be confused with the Tobe Hooper ‘gator romp, this is another Italian cannibal flick that starts interestingly in New York, but then descends into the usual animal torture and misogyny associated with these films.

It’s held together by a flimsy ‘Jonestown’ plot, but this was the one that officially finished me off — I am totally done with this genre and never need to see another jungle cannibal film ever again. Hateful.

1/10

Previous Murkey Movie surveys from Neil Baker include:

There, Wolves
What a Croc
Prehistrionics
Jumping the Shark
Alien Overlords
Biggus Footus
I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie
The Weird, Weird West
Warrior Women Watch-a-thon

Neil Baker’s last article for us was There, Wolves: Part III. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, outdoor educator and owner of April Moon Books (AprilMoonBooks.com).

In a society ruled by digital displays, it’s simple to overlook the pure pleasure and…

The post 6 Books Begging To Be Held & The Advantages of Reading Them appeared first on LitStack.

Arkady Martine first came to prominence with her Teixcalaan duology of SF novels, published between 2019 and 2021. Both books – A Memory Called Empire (2019) and A Desolation Called Peace (2021) were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Since then, relatively little has appeared, which has led to both a high expectation…

I am guessing that if Stephen could get hooked up with the right people, he could make a bunch of crappy sigils for the entire purpose of selling them to be recycled.

Czech rights to Robert McCammon’s Swan Song and Boy’s Life have been acquired by Czech Republic publisher OneHotBooks.

Ukrainian publisher Zhorzh has acquired the Uktrainian rights to Robert McCammon’s Mister Slaughter, The Providence Rider, and The Listener. Zhorzh previously acquired the rights to Boy’s Life, Swan Song, Speaks the Nightbird, and The Queen of Bedlam. Their translation of Boy’s Life will be released in May.

Zhorzh on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ZhorzhClub
Zhorzh on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/zhorzhclub/

 

Elara bent over the map, spread over the table. The herb patch… The berry bushes… The maples on the north side…

A presence tugged on her. She raised her head. Hugh stood in the doorway.

Alive. Uninjured.

 She let out a mental breath and straightened. “You’re back.”

“I am.” His voice held no bravado.  He sounded, not subdued exactly, but quietly resigned. She braced herself.

“Casualties?” she asked.

“None on our side. Something smells amazing.”

“I made chicken for dinner.”

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Is it for me?”

“Yes.  You did come back safely.”

“Can it wait?” he asked. “I need your help.”

“Of course.”  What was going on with him?

He invited her out with a sweep of his hand. She left the room, and they went down the hallway side by side.  The Keep was quiet. Soft afternoon light spilled through the windows, drawing long rectangles on the hallway floor.

“What happened in Aberdine?” she asked.

“Falcon blocked our approach.  We had some words and then Bale decorated the road with Falcon’s brains. The rest of the mercs cleared off.”

He still sounded off.

“Is this going to come back to bite us?” she asked.

“Possibly.  The second half of the company is enroute to Aberdine. The woman who is leading it could prove difficult.  It depends on whether she decides to make an issue out of Falcon’s death or if she assumes command and takes what’s left of them somewhere else. If I were her, I’d count my blessings, but some people lack common sense.”

They reached the staircase and started down the steps.

“And if she decides to attack?”

“I’ll crush her.”

There was no force in his voice.  He said it so matter of fact, as if he were talking about taking out the trash.

“Hugh?”

“Yes?”

“What’s wrong?”

He looked straight ahead.

“About ten years ago we came across a corpse town in the Laurentian Uplands in Ontario. Men, women, kids, all dead, rotting in the street.”  

His tone was flat and weary.

“We found one survivor. A skinny kid about fifteen or so. Someone nailed him to a tree.”

Nailed?

“He should’ve died but he was too stubborn to let go. We took him with us.”

“What happened to town?”

“He never told us. He barely talked. Once we fed him enough for his legs to support his weight, I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to get stronger.”

Hugh sighed. “Some people are born swordsmen. It’s not something you can teach or train. The kid picked up the sword, and he was gone. He’d wake up in the morning and train until he passed out in the evening with a sword in his bed. Bale’s berserkers had adopted him. They all used to watch out for him, because he forgot to eat. He wasn’t the strongest or the most skilled, but he was fast, and he had the killer instinct. When he faced an opponent, the world disappeared. Nothing else existed.”

He fell silent.

“Was he as good as you?” she prompted.

“Almost. With magic down, he’d be a problem for me. Possibly even for Daniels.”

He brought up Kate.  That usually meant he’d gone into a dark place. Roland’s biological daughter was the reason for his exile. They had a long and tangled history, none of it good. Hugh had done horrible things while under Roland’s control and they plagued his soul festering there until they ruptured into open sores. Kate was a wound that never healed.

“How long was he with you?” she asked.

“Eight years,” Hugh said. “We had a winter base near Wichita Falls in north Texas. Pretty country down there.  Mild winter, lakes, rivers. We’d come back to it year after year when not on mission. One day he came to me and said he wanted out. He met a girl and decided he was done being a Dog.”

“But he loved being a swordsman?”

Hugh shook his head. “It wasn’t love. More like compulsion. It consumed him, and when he was with her, he could put it away. She freed him of it.”

“What did you do?”

“What could I do? I let him go. It was his second chance at life. He could be whatever he wanted to be. Everyone was happy for him.”

A cold unease washed over her. “Did you find him in Aberdine?”

“I did. I found him in that shithole of a camp. With people who didn’t deserve him and treated him like an attack dog. Those assholes couldn’t even be bothered with basic shit like guards and patrols. Elara, we just rode right in there. It was dirty and disorganized, a fucking disgrace. And those shitheads thought they could hold a town for ransom, and we would just let them.”

He was disgusted by all of it. The mercenaries had no idea how lucky they were. He could have just wiped them all out, and his face told her he had considered it. They probably deserved it.

“How the fuck did he end up there?” Hugh stopped. “He left with enough money to last him for five years. It should have been enough to take her anywhere and do whatever they wanted. Should I have kept him?”

“He wasn’t yours to keep,” she said gently. “You saved him, you trained him, and then you let him go. The rest was up to him.”

He gave her a dark look. “And he fucked it up.”

On the scales of Hugh’s life, with so much guilt and darkness piled up on one side, this young swordsman must have been a counterweight. Someone Hugh saved. Proof that he wasn’t irredeemable, that the Iron Dogs stood for more than slaughter and destruction. Even while under Roland’s influence, with his life going up in flames, Hugh had let him go. He was a remarkable asset, but his future happiness mattered, and Hugh released him.

Now that happiness lay in ruins. Seeing that broke something in Hugh. She could feel him retreating deeper inside himself, in the place where Hugh faded, and Roland’s warlord took the front line. The memory of a burning maelstrom with fangs she once saw in his soul scalded her. She had to keep him with her, anchored in here and now no matter what it took.

“If you’d kept him against his will, he could have died,” she told him. “You said yourself that Roland wrecked everything you built. As good as he was, he would be near the top of the execution list. At least he’s alive.”

“There’s that.”

“What happened to the girl?”

“I’ll show you.”

They’d reached the third floor. A trace of magic tugged on her. It came from the left, from the direction of the guest suite where they put potentially troublesome visitors. It felt sharp, almost spiky, like a cocklebur bristling with hooked needles. It pulsed in a subdued rhythm, active but muted.

She sped up. They marched down the hallway to the door. Hugh knocked and pushed the door open, not bothering to wait for an invitation.

A young woman with long dark hair lay on the bed. The burr of magic wrapped around her, fused with her body, strangled her vitality, growing from it like a parasite. Her eyes were shut, her skin was pallid, and patches of fuzzy dark growth, rippling with black, red, and purple, marked her exposed arms and neck. It looked like someone had scooped a toxic bacterial colony from some giant petri dish, smeared it all over her, and it took root.

A man in his mid-twenties sat in the chair by bed. He looked up at their approach and his eyes were full of grief.

The magic burr pulsed with power.

“A curse.” The word fell from Elara’s lips. She had never seen one like that.

“Can it be undone?” Hugh asked her.

“I don’t know. But we will try.”

The post Wednesday, Thursday, Hughday… Chapter 5: Part 1 first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Dragonslayer (OSR Publishing, February 7, 2024). Cover by Jeff Easley

I’ve admired the mega-dungeon adventures of Greg Gillespie for several years, particularly Barrowmaze and The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia. Most recently, Greg published his own set of rules to go with those adventures. It’s called Dragonslayer, and I think it’s excellent. Here is the description from the back of the book:

Journey to a realm of myth and magic, where ancient legends and terrifying minsters come to life, and adventure awaits…
Inspired by the timeless role-playing tradition of the early 1980s, this ruleset seamlessly integrates the simplicity of B/X with the chrome if First Edition. The book has everything you need: classes, spells, monsters, and treasure, combined in a single volume.

For those who don’t know, “B/X” is the acronym for the Basic and Expert rules of Dungeons & Dragons.

Interiors from Dragonslayer

The Basic and Expert rules were conceived by Tom Moldvay and Zeb Cook, who in turn derived their inspiration from the works of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson — and also the previous Basic set (my personal favorite) compiled by John E. Holmes.

B/X is probably the most “cloned” version of D&D, yet Greg establishes his own flavor, quite admirably, within that framework. It’s nicely done!

Lastly, it’s really great to see art from the likes of Jeff Easley, Diesel LaForce, and Darlene Artist. All legends of the hobby whose work I have admired for decades.

Jeffrey P. Talanian’s last article for Black Gate was a review of Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth.” He is the creator and publisher of the Hyperborea sword-and-sorcery and weird science-fantasy RPG from North Wind Adventures. He was the co-author, with E. Gary Gygax, of the Castle Zagyg releases, including several Yggsburgh city supplements, Castle Zagyg: The East Mark Gazetteer, and Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works. Read Gabe Gybing’s interview with Jeffrey here, and follow his latest projects on Facebook and at www.hyperborea.tv.

The last thing the hyper-advanced Human Confederation expected to encounter on Darius – a far distant and long lost colony world – was actual magic, sorcerers and magicians and other inexplicable feats that the most advanced technology could not duplicate. Determined to discover the source of the mystery, the Confederation dispatched a survey team to Darius and eventually discovered that the human settlers had tapped into the Darius Machine, an inexplicable piece of alien technology that granted supernatural powers to those capable of calling upon its aid. The Darius Machine was accidentally destroyed, seemingly rendering the former godlike humans powerless, but leaving behind a number of children with strange and often frightening powers of their own.

That was seventeen years ago.

Since then, the Darius Children have been raised on Clarke, an isolated world where they can be studied as well as protected from the remainder of the human race. Their powers appear simplistic and yet very dangerous, provoking fear as well as awe in their teachers; their attempts to expand their abilities, and bring others into their mental network, threaten the very fabric of reality itself. As they start to demand the right to leave their homeworld, a sociopath strikes and kidnaps one of the Children, intending to sell her to the highest bidder. Another Child must go in pursuit …

And hidden in the shadows, an unseen manipulator lays the seeds of a galaxy-wide conflagration.

Purchase from the links HERE or BOOKS2READ!

 

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier #1)by T. Kingfisher
What is it about:From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher."
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
What did I think of it:I totally pre-ordered this book because it sounded cool and I couldn't resist that cover! (The end-papers have a really cool illustration as well.)
And this is indeed a really cool read!
It's a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." , but you can definitely read it without having read Poe's original. It's atmospheric, disturbing, and delightfully creepy.
I loved Alex, they're a great hero: down to earth, pragmatic, but also caring towards their friends. And their narration brings some humor to an otherwise creepy tale. Having read a lot of Poe's works, the plot wasn't unfamiliar, but the way Kingfisher gave it life and brought new things to it made that I was invested from the start. 
A warning to those who might have read other books by Kingfisher (A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking or Paladin's Grace for example): Kingfisher is a pen name used by Ursula Vernon for anything that doesn't fit the Ursula Vernon name, so this book is very different than some of the other books written under the Kingfisher name.
You bet i'll be trying to find more creepy, atmospheric beauty among the Kingfisher books though! 
Why should you read it:It's a delightfully atmospheric read.
Thoughts on rereading:Yup: Still just as beautifully atmospheric as the first time. A total keeper. Now on to read the next one.

Thanks again for the weekly Drucraft update. As always very useful and thought provoking. I’m wondering if Stephen would need a room to construct his own well or if it is just a piece of private open space, as I don’t think that essentia is constrained by walls and such? On the other hand he knows, at this stage, where a lot of natural, hidden wells can be found so he may be happy to use those locations.

Hum, perhaps he isn’t thinking at all about this anyway as he (currently) doesn’t have a lot of high power sygls to convert!

I hope that work on Book#4 is progressing well and that the sales of Books#1 & #2 continue to live up to expectations. Sadly, for me, A Judgement of Powers still seems a long way from publication. Six months to go!

 

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Publisher: Length: Formats:
Dark academia by Craig Schaefer? Yes, please. Especially the kind that leans hard into the dark. Castaways delivers good story, some eldritch horror vibe, and strong coming-of-age arcs.
Amy Nettle is a classic down-on-her-luck protagonist. She’s stuck in a dead-end life with limited way out. And when things go really south, the mysterious black envelope arrives. Suddenly, she’s whisked away to Saunders Academy, a magical school on a storm-tossed island surrounded by carnivorous mermaids, towering leviathans, and an ever-present sense that something is very wrong.
And if you flunk out? You get sent back to your old life without your magic, your memories, or even the promise of escape. And no one here wants to go back.
I’m a huge fan of Schaefer simple and concise writing. And characters. Amy and her new friends are coming of age in the middle of a mystery that keeps getting bigger and more terrifying. There are hints that this school - and whatever forces control it - are tied to the broader Daniel Faust/Harmony Black universe, and that may suggest an even larger conflict on the horizon.
For fans of Schaefer - it’s not as dark as other series, but it does get dark here and there.
Magic school has never felt this dangerous, and I loved every second of it. Now, where’s the sequel?

State of Paradise (Picador paperback reprint, July 8, 2025). Cover art:
detail from Tiger in a Tropical Storm by Henri Rousseau, 1891

When I was a kid there was a public service announcement on TV that went something like “Attention: Aliens. You are required by law to report by January 31st.” This was because of the Alien Act of 1940, otherwise known as the Smith Act. Basically, the legislation made it illegal to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and provided for a tracking system of non-citizens who, in the context of Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe and its then alliance with the Soviet Union, were potential suspects of espionage and sabotage. (Fun fact: prosecutions for advocating overthrow of the government have been ruled as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment, in case you were wondering how any nitwit on social media can mouth off about doing just that.)

But as I didn’t know anything about this, the announcement always conjured an image of big headed, bug-eyed tentacled Martians registering at the local post office. Which I thought pretty funny. One thing I’ve learned over the years, and particularly these days,  is that much of what adults say in all seriousness is often funny, but not in a “ha ha” way. More in a Jean Paul Sartre absurdist kind of way.

Needless to say, alien life forms are foundational science fiction, horror, and fantasy tropes. While some genre writers and filmmakers may very well have thought it just might be cool to tell stories about monsters from other worlds, the notion of aliens amongst us primarily serve as metaphors for, among other things, Communists and related usurpers of “normal” socio-political mores, fears of nuclear holocaust, technology run amok, repressed sexual desire, climate change, disease, and disembodiment.

Probably to a large extent due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as severe climate events such as the California wildfires,  today’s alienation storyline is less “aliens amongst us” and more “us alienated from the world.”

Which brings us to State of Paradise by Laura Van Den Berg.

The title is ironic, referring not only to Florida and its reputation as a refuge for the aged retired, the sunburned, and the weird, but that if the existential human condition is sometimes characterized using the Biblical metaphor of banishment from Eden, we currently find ourselves further away from Paradise than ever before.

In Florida, my husband runs. Ten miles a day seventy miles a week. a physical feat that is astonishing to me. He started running after he got stuck on a book he is trying to write, a historical account of pilgrims in medieval Europe. Back then it was not unusual for pilgrims to traverse hundreds of miles on foot… My husband is a trained historian and fascinated by journeys. He wants to understand what has become the pilgrimages in our broken modern world.

The first person narrator is

…a writer, though not a real one, I ghost for a very famous thriller writer. When I first got the job, I spent a month reading books by the famous author, to better understand the task that lay before me… the phrase everything is not as it seems appeared in nearly all the book descriptions.

Indeed, everything is not as it seems as the narrator (a kind of ghost herself) proceeds on a pilgrimage not only through actually weird Florida, where the 1930s Tarzan movies were filmed and non-native Pythons abound alongside Everglades alligators and Disney characters, but an alternate reality to  which her sister and others somehow travel. Along the way are treated to torrential rain and flooding, sinkholes, virtual reality headsets, cults, and cats. And voluntary human extinction meetings. Just another day in Paradise.

With a history of being institutionalized, our narrator may be unreliable, and as a writer she is in the business of making things up. Not much cause for cognitive dissonance given the made-up unreliable narratives of our daily news cycle.

The plot, such that it is, concerns finding out what happened to her sister and others during their disappearances. And along the way what is happening to the narrator as she tries to figure out an increasingly strange world that nonetheless comes to define everyday existence. And whether she can trust what she is experiencing and what she remembers of those experiences.

Sometimes I wonder what we are supposed to do with our memories. Sometimes i wonder what our memories are for.  A latch slips and the past floods in, knocking us flat. We leave places and we don’t leave places. Sometimes I imagine different versions of myself in all the different places I have ever lived, inching time in parallel.

This is a novel about the proverbial frog in boiling water, how because as the temperature only gradually rises, we don’t realize we’re being cooked. One absurdity follows another, and it is just how things are. We are now the aliens, journeying towards some unsettling destination, and we don’t have to bother to report.

One of the weirdest things about this period of time is the parts that still seem normal. Mundane and non-apocalyptical. Like how one minute we need an inflatable raft to cross the street and another we’re eating pasta at my sister’s  house.

Or as Alice Cooper put it, “Welcome to my nightmare.”

David Soyka is one of the founding bloggers at Black Gate. He’s written over 200 articles for us since 2008. His most recent was a review of Polostan by Neal Stephenson.

The Magic Binds full cast dramatized adaptation will be released on Tuesday, March 25th. The preorder is available on the Graphic Audio website, as well as on Audible and all the other usual third party retailers.

Of course, we got sample goodies!

What do you mean, ‘do I need cake right now‘? Kate. Beloved. We ALL need cake right now.

The three Queens guarding the line of Shinar – this Mishmar scene always gives me Canada goose bumps.

There is a third official sample on the preorder page I linked above: Kate and Curran visiting Roman about their wedding. Wedding planner shenanigans: engaged!

The next GA Ilona Andrews releases are:

Burn for Me, Hidden Legacy 1 on April 25th. You can also find find it for preorder on Audible etc.

Magic Triumphs, Kate Daniels 10 on May 20th – there is an update to the date here, it was previously set to come out on May 2nd, but the script is just too epic and Nora never lets a project be just good when she can make it amazing. A spoonful of sugar, intense editing, sound design and lots of loving work makes the final battles and psychotic ancient dragons go down! Ehhh, you know what I mean. Neig wishes. Preorder should go live on third party retailers sometime next week.

I’ve seen some concerned comments wondering how much content will be abridged from Magic Triumphs and Burn for Me because the length of the traditional audiobooks and the length of the dramatized adaptation always appear to have several hours of difference.

Having pored over both scripts, I’m happy to confirm the answer is: virtually nothing was cut! Those were in fact Nora’s first words to me when we started discussing Magic Triumphs, and who can blame her? Certainly not us hehe.

The differences in duration come mainly from the fact that animated dialogue has a different rhythm than a single narrator reading. Dramatized battle scenes, for example, rely a lot more on dynamic back and forth and the majority of GA actors are really embodying the snappy deadpan Ilona and Gordon wrote for their characters. Renee Raudman has her own signature cadence, which is the favourite of so many, but I know a lot of readers prefer to increase the speed of traditional audio.

Audio effects and interpretation can also supplant certain descriptive passages and action tags, with no difference to content. We can hear that the actor is laughing while delivering the line, or that the birds are singing while a conversation is taking place, the narrator doesn’t have to specify it to us.

You can read more about the adaptation process in previous interviews with members of the Graphic Audio team here and here.

I have covered in more detail how to buy and the accessibility of the GA app in this post, which you can also supplement with the Graphic Audio Help FAQ on their website.

The post Magic Binds Samples from Graphic Audio first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Nestled among the cobblestone streets of Compiègne, there existed a bakery unlike any other. The…

The post Spotlight on “The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris” by Evie Woods appeared first on LitStack.