This part will be a little longer than the previous posts as to include more authors without it getting too spammy.
After reading some reviews Angel Blackwood’s novel Kindling is probably best described as grimdark epic fantasy with plenty of magic and gore
When Zahir, a desert nomad with a dark past, entered Ashet, he wasn’t expecting to be hauled off to prison.
When Absalom deserted the military, he never thought an army would form around him to fight the most powerful women in the country.
Marietta believed she’d die in a cell in the Black Caves. She never expected freedom or to join with other broken souls to end the torture and experimentation for good.
Desdemona seized the throne of the Order of Obsidian Embers ready to implement her vision of a safer world. She never imagined such opposition. Not that it would stop her.
With magical warfare, mad rulers, and old scores to settle, how can anyone know hero from villain? And if the people who have been fighting for years can’t tell the difference, how can Zahir choose the right side?
A.M. Justice writes fantasy/science fiction which probably falls into the grimdark genre A Wizard’s Forge came out last year.
On a distant planet, giant, intelligent insects hold the secret to unbridled power and a young woman’s destiny, but Victoria the Blade will defy fate to seek revenge.
Taken from her homeland and sold into slavery, Vic endures months of torment by a cruel tyrant before she seizes an opportunity to escape. After enlisting in a war against her former master, she gains bloody satisfaction raiding his forces. Yet her ordeal haunts her, alternately feeding and thwarting her hunger for vengeance.
Prince Ashel shirks his royal obligations to pursue music and Vic with equal ardor. Calamity and murder change everything, and his own vengeful quest leads to capture and imprisonment. Facing the tyrant’s worst cruelties, Ashel must summon the nobility he has long ignored.
Leading Ashel’s rescue mission, Vic discovers her mysterious destiny. Surviving by wits and will, Ashel learns an ugly truth. Death follows Vic’s footsteps as she goes to confront their enemy, but to defeat him, she must free herself of the past.
M.D. Presley’s debut fantasy novel came out last year and is called The Woven Ring the next installment called The Imbued Lockblade is already out as well. As it involves muskets it falls into the flintlock fantasy genre (I’m clueless when it comes to all the subgenres so if I’m wrong sorry)
A fantasy reimagining of the American Civil War, The Woven Ring pits muskets against magic, massive war machines against mind readers, and glass sabers against soldiers in psychic exoskeletons.
In exile since the civil war that tore the nation of Newfield apart, former spy and turncoat Marta Childress wants nothing more than to quietly live out her remaining days in the West. But then her manipulative brother arrives with one final mission: Transport the daughter of a hated inventor deep into the East. Forced to decide between safely delivering the girl and assassinating the inventor, Marta is torn between ensuring the fragile peace and sparking a second civil war.
Aided by an untrustworthy Dobra and his mysterious mute companion, Marta soon discovers that dark forces, human and perhaps the devil herself, seek to end her quest into the East.
Samantha Nocera writes horror her first novel is quite long but according to most reviews it’s definitely worth the time
Civilization’s twilight approaches, with none aware of the impending peril. What if the savior of the human species was not Jewish, Christian or Muslim? What if he was not even a good man? Spanning decades, the tale of the life of Julian Andreas Würger carries him from child to man to monster to king, the subject of a bitter prophecy which he knows he cannot hope to evade. In him are commingled both hope and horror, truth and terror, and all that he touches is forever changed. Violence brings forth violence; how then can peace prevail, in this, the End of Days? St. John of Patmos wrote of a cycle’s ending. Hellscape: the Fifth Horseman speaks of the final portent, of that which even St. John could not bear to write. For all that lives must one day die, and the hubris of mankind must be razed to its foundations for order to rise anew from chaos and fire.
James Alderdice’s debut novel is called Brutal: An Epic Grimdark Fantasy. The title speaks for itself
A man of violence. A duchess with dangerous desires. Two warring wizards. Things in Aldreth are going to get Brutal. A man known only as the Sellsword has come to the border city of Aldreth, where rival wizards struggle for control of a weak-willed duke. Amidst murderous conspiracies and a scandal plagued dynasty, the Sellsword plays all sides to his advantage, bringing about a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men, while wooing the reckless and willful duchess. Though corrupt paladins, demonic adepts, and a surprisingly formidable assassin stand between the Sellsword and the unwholesome truth, spells and blades might not be what take the Sellsword down. It could be plain old bad luck…
Richard Nell’s Kings of Paradise came out in august this year and falls into the darker bit of the fantasy genre. Apparently there’s some cannibalism in the story nomnomnom
Ruka, son of Beyla, is a monster. Single-born, twisted, and ugly, Ruka has the bright, golden eyes of a wolf. But his mind is as vast as the open sea.
Born in the frozen, snow-covered wasteland of the Ascom—the land of ash—Ruka was spared from death at birth by his mother’s love. Now, he is an outlaw, and dreams only of vengeance. But can a broken genius find redemption? Can he fulfill his mother’s dreams, and use his gifts to change the world? Or once he has it in his grasp, will he simply break it apart?
Across a vast sea is the white-sand island paradise of Sri Kon.
There, Ratama Kale Alaku is fourth and youngest son of the island monarch men call the Sorcerer King. At sixteen, Kale is a disappointment. His father has sent him away to the navy, perhaps in hopes of salvaging a once-promising child, or perhaps just to get rid of him.
Now Kale must prove his worth – not just to his father, but to himself. He must become more than just a wastrel prince, and quickly, or else lose all hope of purpose, or love.
And though Kale does not yet know how or why, he stands on the cusp of discovery. For his path, his ‘Way’, is perhaps the only hope for his family, his people, and as the storm gathers in the land of ash, maybe the world itself…
Matt Moss writes fantasy and his first novel The Path of Man came out last year
Arkin’s world is changed forever when a stranger rides into town looking for an artifact that Arkin’s father would trade his own life to protect — a book that holds the secrets of the past and possibly the fate of the future. Suddenly, Arkin is thrown into an age-old war between the Order and the Dark Society. The kingdom is already in turmoil over the scarcity of jobs and the rationing of food, and now the church is trying to convert the people from their faith of old to a new and less holy religion.
Arkin will need all the help he can get to save the people he loves and the land he calls home. Somewhere out there lies the Garden of Stones, a place of myth and magic that Arkin and his new band of friends and warriors are hoping will be the miracle they need to turn the tides of war. Choices made in the past ripple through time as Arkin puts the pieces together. His choices will determine the future of all as he follows The Path of Man.
C.T. Phipps writes well where do I start? His latest book which he co-wrote with Michael Suttkus is urban fantasy, features a weredeer and is set in the same world as Straight Outta Fangton.
Jane Doe is a weredeer, the least-threatening shapechanger species in the world. Blessed with the ability to turn furry at will and psychically read objects, Jane has done her best to live a normal life working as a waitress at the Deerlightful Diner. She has big dreams of escaping life in the supernatural-filled town of Bright Falls, Michigan, and her eighteenth birthday promises the beginning of her teenage dreams coming true.
Unfortunately, her birthday is ruined by the sudden murder of her best friend’s sister in an apparent occult killing. Oh, and her brother is the primary suspect. Allying with an eccentric FBI agent, the local crime lord, and a snarky werecrow, Jane has her work cut out for her in turning her big day around.
Thankfully, she’s game.
Sean E. Britten writes… well honestly I have no idea if it fits any genre it sounds a bit like Myke Cole meets dystopian. I’m quite intrigued after reading the cover blurb who doesn’t love yakuza and cannibals?
‘Slayerz’, it’s America of the not-too-distant future’s favourite blood sport. Fifteen pairs of criminals taken from either death row or a life sentence enter the arena and only one team leaves. Each team of two are linked together by a device called a ‘kill switch’. If one contestant dies they’ll take the other with them, forcing the pairs of ultra-violent odd couples to work together or perish.
When ex-police detective James Hageman is recruited by the Slayerz’s producers he sees the deadly game as a potential second chance. But paired up with one of the worst serial killers in living memory, James begins to question what the true cost will be if they manage to slaughter their way to the finish line and go free.
Up against hulking Nazis, crazed cannibals, Yakuza assassins and assorted hitmen, lunatics and killers nothing is for certain or off limits. The only rule is the team that slays together, stays together.
Edward M. Erdelac is probably most know for his weird Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah series. He has written numerous other books not all in the weird western genre
The last of an ancient order of Jewish mystics capable of extraplanar travel, The Merkabah Rider roams the demon haunted American West of 1879 in search of the renegade teacher who betrayed his enclave. But as the trail grows fresher, shadows gather, and The Hour Of The Incursion draws near… Four novella episodes in one book.
In a town hungry for blood, the Rider encounters a cult of Molech worshippers bent on human sacrifice(‘The Blood Libel’). A murderous, possessed gunman descends upon a mountain town, and only the Rider stands in his way (‘Hell’s Hired Gun’). A powerful ju ju man with powers rivalling the Rider’s own holds a fledgling Mexican boomtown in his sway (‘The Dust Devils’). Finally the Rider faces the Queen of Demons and a bordello full of antedelluvian succubi (‘The Nightjar Women’).
Read any of the books listed on the blog please leave reviews!
Dark Mondays 