This grimdark science fantasy is aging like fine wine
My grimdark science fantasy was supposed to suck. Even if my newer books read better, Civil War’s gone down as a personal favorite.
This book is gonna be the fan favorite. I can feel it. Its subject matter is disgusting, and you’d think those first few chapters are torture porn. You got a twenty-year-old East Asian woman strapped to her own toilet in a rat-infested jail cell.
She’s beaten, harassed, and guards treat those rats better than they treat her. And if you want more fun, Mina Hirai witnesses mutilated creatures that used to be people. Except they’re hairless and tongueless, their bodies burned beyond recognition.
To top it off, the Prologue’s meant to jar you, just as it jars Mina. If you’re not disoriented when you hit Chapter 1 and get to know Mina, then you’re in the minority.
Oh, then there’s the “big bad,” who calls Himself Messiah. His fat ass sits on a mattress all day, He brutalizes women, and kills His “servants” as He sees fit. Worse yet, nobody does anything to stop Him.
That’s how bleak shit gets in Civil War.
A grimdark science fantasy with some hope involved
I fuse genres, so don’t expect traditional grimdark fiction where there’s never any hope. And if there is hope, it’s squashed out. That’s not how I operate, so if you’re into that stuff, then Civil War ain’t for you.
But don’t worry. With this one taking place in a dystopian backdrop where the sun barely shines, you’re getting your fix if grimdark’s your thing.
There’s not one but two prisons involved. And when there isn’t a prison in sight, don’t worry: there are monsters, like towering men in Stetson hats trained to kill indiscriminately. If those men don’t get their fix, maybe their thoughtforms, cryptids of their minds’ creation, will.
Even if none of the above do, then the military and guards themselves will go to war with Mina and Company. So expect some bloody battles, bodily mutilation, and topics most authors writing fantasy, even pure grimdark fantasy, won’t touch.
There’s a reason for all this brutality: I wanted to drive home a message that this is how the State can and does treat people in real life. And, in some cases, this inhumane shit even occurs here in America, but that’s a tale for another time.
Brace yourself for a descent into Hell
Mina Hirai’s life has always been hell. If she wasn’t chained to a toilet in a prison cell, she wouldn’t be much happier as an officer in her superpower nation’s military. That was her occupation until she betrayed them.
Physical and verbal abuse are part of the soundtrack early. And Mina’s subjected to all sorts of humiliating searches. All at the hands of a woman who calls herself Carrion. She’s imposing, with the build of a powerlifter. And she loves torture so much she specializes in it.
So, how the hell does Mina escape this nightmare? Who says she does? Trust me, Mina isn’t getting out of this one on her own. The superpower nation of Bastille is too smart and too technocratic for that. You’re gonna need to find out for yourself if grimdark science fantasy with some hope involved is up your alley. And that glimmer of hope is what sets this book apart from traditional grimdark and what makes it tick.
It may be a while since I’ve written Civil War, but after giving it another readthrough, well, it’s gone down as a personal favorite. But before you check it out, your best bet is to download Wind Wielder, Book I of its sister series, Elementals of Nordica.
Do that, and you’ll learn a good deal about Civil War regarding its magical system, and it even hints a little at the World of Rondure. And if you get Book II in Elementals of Nordica? You’re actually going to Rondure and meeting a character mentioned in Civil War’s Prologue. Get them both at The Rebel Lore Vault.
