Greetings, denizens of the void.
I am delighted to introduce you to my latest book: Inquisitors: A Tale of Love and Damnation Ebooks are available through Ko-fi, itch.io and Amazon. More stores and paperbacks will follow soon.
Since writing The Moribund Monarch’s Masterpiece, I have found novellas to be a sweet spot for exploring new ideas, styles, and less-familiar themes. Long books are time-consuming and require a level of commitment that I can only afford to tales that are truly close to my heart. On the other hand, short stories or micro-fiction style works don’t work so well for me, because the length of a single chapter or article just doesn’t have enough space for the kind of plots my heart yearns for. And well, I firmly believe no author should write fiction that doesn’t satisfy themselves first and foremost. So, more novellas it is.
Inquisitors was an unplanned work that emerged (quite literally) from a dream. Or a nightmare, depending on how you may want to look at it. If you see the appeal in exploring seaside gothic ambiance, dark and unsettling grimdark themes, and some very creepy body horror, this book is written for you.
It is also an exploration in writing more character-driven fiction. Irrespective of how the book may be received, I am happy with how Vorain’s portrayal turned out. Whether that signals a change for my future books remains to be seen. The Nightwyrms’ Resurgence will continue with the approach established in the first two books.
If the above description leaves you on the fence, I share with you a review from a kind stranger on Goodreads that perfectly captures the soul of the book, in all its praise and criticism.
This is a rough one. Inquisitors is a great story but not for everyone. You have to be a big fan of these fantasy subgenres.
For a novella, the plot develops and finishes perfectly well rounded. We follow Vorain, a veteran inquisitor with a lot of experiences, feelings and other things to unpack, who is a very dark main character, and I loved it. It plays with your expectatives and it even has great plot twists that caught me off guard.
The worldbuilding and the horror elements, the descriptions, were the best part for me. I adore this kind of worldbuilding/eldritch things to pieces and I would read a 10 book series exploring this world. It is fascinating, very VERY dark and half of me loved the ending. It was perfect for the story, strong and heartfelt…But.
But, the other half of me feels it like a personal affront, because the character involved, for such a short time “on-screen”, became my favorite, I rooted for them since the start and their ending was underwhelming, a full on injustice, and I would expand on why I feel like that, but spoilers. As I said before, the ending was fitting, and while I was hoping for another route, I can both love and hate passionately something. In the end, it is an exploration on grief, on trauma response and a view on both sides of human nature. As the story itself establishes: injustice and unfairness all around.
I would definitely read more of the author’s works without a doubt, and I recommend this novella to fans of dark and grimdark fantasy. And, the release date is on July 1st!!! So, happy release day and thank you so much to Paul G. Zareith for the ARC!!!
by Fer B.
And, as an alternative, here is a drawing I spent several hours on for no fathomable reason: a ship heading into a storm with its sails still furled. A symbolism for submission, if you will.
When the Goddess of the Deep beckons you, there is no point in putting up a resistance.
Much ink has been spilled on themes of bravery and fortitude against unsurmountable odds. But sometimes the odds are just that—insurmountable. And there is peace in submitting to grief, in surrendering oneself to fate’s cruelty. Sometimes you just have to do what needs to be done. Or nothing at all.
You are, of course, welcome to disagree. In fact, you can prove me wrong right away by helping out some of the people in Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine, and other oppressed parts of the world, who are living a hellish life that they have no hope of overcoming.
The grief and suffering faced by my characters is entirely a figment of my imagination. Theirs is very much real.
(All illustrations are self-drawn, crafted using Infinite Painter on Samsung Galaxy S and edited using Photopea on Linux.)