The Agartes Epilogues is not grimdark. This is something I tell people in the description, because someone who is savvy in the genre of epic fantasy could immediately think this upon reading the Prologue of Jaeth’s Eye.
It’s been described by many reviewers as violent, with some sex and some swearing. In epic fantasy, these are usually the signs of a grimdark fantasy novel–which may or may not include GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, for those who only watch TV and if that’s the case what the heck are you reading my blog for? Go read those books now!) Of course, The Agartes Epilogues definitely does not fit in the unicorns and rainbows sort that classifies classic fantasy (unless we’re talking about the unicorns from the movie Cabin in the Woods). No, it is as modern as this genre goes, with all the expectations that I, a reader of modern epic fantasy, has attached.
The violence, however, is not done for effect. Neither is the swearing. If I am pressed for description, I can say this: I write honestly. I explore stories and tell it for what it is. One of the things I’ve had to learn, while discovering my voice, is that I didn’t want to censor what I’m saying in an effort to “tone it down” for a certain audience. I am going for raw emotion, not a canned storyline. I enjoy discovering the little nuances, the nooks and crannies, of a character’s mind when they are put through an honest situation that just happens to be in a fantastic setting. The contrast between graphic realism and a make-believe world also makes it easier to pull the reader down to the story’s level, igniting their powers of empathy to make them understand what’s really at stake for these fake characters in this fake world. Let’s face it–it’s harder to take a world with magic seriously until heads start rolling.
It is a bitter pill to swallow, sometimes. I’ve talked about it here before. And probably before that, I noticed another pingback on that article. (I am, if nothing else, an expert in repetition). There are writers who write, and readers who read, for escapism, and I understand that. But there are also writers who write, and readers who read, for expression, to find meaning in a world that is quite oftentimes senseless and unforgiving. A really great article I read recently is this guest post by Mark Lawrence on the Bookworm Blues blog.
The thing is, The Agartes Epilogues, at its core, is about love. It may not be clear in the beginning, and it may not even be clear until the end, but that is the perspective from which it was written. Not romantic love, but love as it is, experienced by different sorts of people from different walks of life while thrown against an epic fantasy plotline. I can’t offer any more explanations or apologies than this. It is an interesting subject to think about, though, especially as I write and hover over another difficult scene or two.
Check out The Agartes Epilogues. It’s R-rated. R for “Run, the giant monster is going to make you talk about feelings!”
