As most of you know, Sam Sykes has a new book out this week, The City Stained Red. We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on a copy and can tell you that it is by far the best thing Sam has written (and that’s saying something). A full review is forthcoming, but we wanted to bring you something more.
We asked Sam to write us a guest blog. He told us that he’d love to, but was washing his hair. It’s not that we didn’t believe him…but we felt obliged to check. So, we booked a flight to Sam’s neighbourhood and peered through his office window. And, guess what: there he was, sat right at his desk – not washing his hair at all – writing a letter to someone. We couldn’t see from where we were what the contents of the letter were or who it was to, so we did the only logical thing when faced with such a situation: we waited until he’d finished writing it and followed him to the postbox. Once he’d dropped it in and disappeared we crowbarred it open and retrieved the letter.
Here’s a picture of what we took and below it we’ve typed up the letter Sam had written – some kind of explanation as to what this ‘Grimdark’ may find in his new book.
Grimdark, listen. We need to talk.
I’ve done a lot of thinking lately: about fantasy novels, about subgenres, about us. We’ve had some good times, you and I. From the time we first started getting to know each other, when I picked up a Joe Abercrombie book, you’ve had a lot of charm and appeal. You’re the rebel, the one who was different than all the sanitized, stark-morality, heroes-never-swear, villains-never-have-a-point fantasy of yesteryear.
I didn’t regret hooking up with you. Like I said, we had some good times. I was there for you when you first started having heroes lose, villains win, good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things. I was there for you when you started catching flak for that and people started complaining that you were too bleak or too cruel or a “smear on the edifice that Tolkien built” (I still laugh thinking of that one). I was there for you when people first started calling you that name and you had trouble accepting it.
Grimdark.
Yeah, we had some good times. So good that this is a little hard to write, but…
We need to break up.
Now, you can put your blood-encrusted broadsword down; this ends happily for both of us. And while it may seem like a cliché to say it, it’s absolutely true when I tell you that it’s not you, it’s me.
You’re still a great genre! I saw a lot of things in you that I wanted to take into my own books.
Your morally ambiguous portrayal of heroes and villains? That’s depth you didn’t see before. The way you demonstrate a harder, more visceral sense of consequence? It’s a beautiful way to make conflicts feel all the more intense and high-stakes. The low points you end on? Well, those are the endings that stick with you, aren’t they?You’re a great genre.
But fuck, you’re cynical.
To you, the world’s a shitty place that gets shittier with every shitty person introducing their shitty principles. No one’s ever happy to see anyone else. The only professions seem to be corrupt noble, disgraced warrior, drug dealer or whore. Food tastes like shit, drink tastes like shit, sex is full of words like “squelch.”
Look…don’t be mad. But sometimes, when I was in bed reading you, I started thinking about other genres. Genres I had read before.
Like I said, they had their downsides—their predictable plots, rigid morality, turgid tropes, the questionable way they always justified the mass murder of orcs—but they had some good points. I started thinking about them and the things I missed about them. The excitement of their action, the struggle of their heroes trying to do better, the daunting task of their quest, the way things were sometimes haunting, beautiful, epic. I missed their magic, their wonder, their exciting sword battles. I missed romance and jokes and heroes. I missed the way they did stuff sometimes because it was just fun.
I’ve written this new book: The City Stained Red. I think you’d like it.
It’s got what I missed about those old genres before: the witty dialogue that happens just before a fight scene, the magic that’s flashy and full of wonder, the monsters so big they take up the page and the battles that rage with all the flair and fury of what I loved about them.
But it’s also got some things I loved about you: the thin philosophical line that can separate a man with good intentions from a man with bad actions, the grit and savagery of a pitched struggle, the looming specter of hopelessness and despair and the blood.
It’s a story about adventurers and what it means to be someone who kills for a living. It’s a story about demons and monsters and what makes them worth listening to. It’s a story about romance and how hard it is to be a person who can trust someone else enough to put everything about yourself in their hands.
It’s my best work yet. I love it.
And I love you, grimdark.
I’m glad you exist, in all your blood-hungry, craptastic glory. I’m glad that I can look on my bookshelf and see you there rubbing elbows with Brandon Sanderson and Terry Pratchett. I’m glad that Joe Abercrombie came along and made something cool. I’m glad that people enjoy you.
We’ll always be friends.But for now, I’m walking down a road equal parts blood and sunshine and I’m really happy about that.
– Sam Sykes
– – –
The City Stained Red
The heart of civilization is stained black.
The city of Cier’Djaal, made wealthy by the silk of its monstrous spiders, has become a rich man’s battleground. Thieves wage a war in the shadows of its alleys. The banners of foreign armies are raised behind its walls. Savage tribes seethe on its borders. And things ancient enough to be a god’s bad dream lurk beneath its streets.
Lenk came to put the violence of his adventurer’s past behind him and lay down his sword. But as ready as he is to let go of his blade, his blade’s not ready to let go of him. And with it, he’ll either save Cier’Djaal or destroy it.
Swords will be sharpened. Demons will rise. Cier’Djaal will bleed.
– – –
Fantasy-Faction has been a fan of Sam Sykes since we first lay our hands on his debut novel, Tome of the Undergates, way back in 2011. Sam writes as a true fan of the fantasy genre – truly one of us. I remember upon finishing that first book I was left feeling that if I could write (well) this is exactly the kind of book I’d like to write. It was familiar in many ways and yet unique in even more. Most important for me was that rarely did I come across a page that didn’t leave a smile upon my face. It remains one of the few books that drew a legitimate ‘laugh out loud’ from me (and more than once too!).
As I said above, I’ve been reading and enjoying The City Stained Red and can confirm that it deserves a place on your bookshelf. And, if you don’t trust my judgement, the guy to your right seems to be enjoying it and recommends you check out this prologue, which sells itself.
We would like to thank Sam for not calling the cops on us after we stole his mail. 😉 You can learn more about The City Stained Red, and the rest of Sam’s novels on his blog, or you can follow him on Twitter. The City Stained Red is available now as an ebook (Amazon UK, Amazon US) and will be available in print on January 27, 2015 (US) and September 10, 2015 (UK).
