Vault VIP Club members are getting a first look at the stories still sitting on my hard drive, and if you’re reading this, you’re missing out. I have more novels, series, and one-off projects sitting on my hard drive than I can publish at once. Some are half-written, with only a few chapters done. Others…
The Mercenaries is a dark elemental magic fantasy that touches on the horrors of what happens when medical tyranny is sold as safety. Sixteen-year-old Riley Rays has spent her life believing Tamuria’s version of the truth. Mutants are dangerous. Nordica started the war. The empire keeps people safe. Then Riley watches the black-clad Huotaja slaughter…
The entire public healthcare destroys private healthcare claim hinges almost entirely on America’s broken system. But there’s one major problem. I recently came across a speculative-fiction book built around one of socialism’s favorite economic fantasies. The private healthcare system has become cruel, expensive, and exclusionary. A publicly controlled network emerges as the humane alternative, placing…
Central planning turns people into inventory in dystopian fiction when survival no longer belongs to those trying to survive. That’s the horror sitting underneath Theodore Lannister’s network in Beyond the Lost Fates. The Lannisters inventory civilization after the collapse. They sort, track, assign, feed, move them between controlled spaces, and talk about reconstruction while treating…
Captivity turns survival into moral warfare in dystopian fiction when staying alive becomes the smallest part of the fight. Yui Kikuchi enters Theodore Lannister’s world injured, watched, and surrounded by a household that already knows how to make control sound civilized. The manor gives her polished rooms, quiet servants, disciplined guards, records, rules, and a…
Imprisonment in dystopian fiction is a commonplace trope. But it’s not always dark, dreary, and torturous. Sometimes, it looks harmless. “Guest” is one of the ugliest words in Beyond the Lost Fates because everyone in Theodore Lannister’s manor knows what it’s hiding. Yui Kikuchi isn’t invited there. She’s injured, threatened, transported, watched, assigned quarters, and…
Theodore Lannister is what happens when old money survives the collapse, and that’s bad news for anyone who’s not an elitist. He’s not some raider kicking down doors in a burned-out street, and that makes him more dangerous in Beyond the Lost Fates. He has the manor, portraits, servants, records, polished rooms, and donor connections,…
The chip in the hand says more about Theodore Lannister’s world than any speech he could give, and it’s a staple in dystopian fiction. A speech can dress power up, soften the room, polish the crime, and make control sound like order. Theodore Lannister can stand inside his manor with servants, guards, records, and rules…
The Witch of Weirton continues Ludwig von Mises’ Six Lessons, this time hitting hard on Lesson2: Socialism. This may be the most important book. The Witch of Thornvale just wrapped, and if you thought Eirwyn Starweaver escaped Malcor’s world clean, you haven’t been paying attention. She shattered binding stones, helped break open cages, watched captives…
Prestige in dystopian fiction can be the ultimate catch twenty-two. A lot of people know that it’s the only way to stay in a leader’s good graces. Prestige is one of the cleanest traps in Theodore Lannister’s world. It reaches deeper than food, fear, and punishment, because it lets the person wearing the leash pretend…
One of the best and scariest tropes in dystopian fiction is when a face that the protagonist is least expecting pops up and is working for the regime. Yui Kikuchi doesn’t only meet Theodore Lannister’s network through guards, vans, chips, rooms, records, and donor-backed filth. She crosses it through someone who should’ve belonged to another…
Human trafficking in dystopian fiction and in real life doesn’t start when someone gets dragged into a van. And that’s bad news. Theodore Lannister’s network runs on classification. Yui Kikuchi reaches his manor injured, watched, escorted, and already spoken for. Theodore has the house, staff, records, medical wing, donor connections, and polished manners that make…