#LibraryFinds : Michael Fletcher’s Genius Grimdark Goodness

When it comes to books, I am a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan. My tastes usually run towards epic fantasy and urban fantasy, but I have been known to dip into some sword and sorcery, steampunk, even paranormal romance from time to time. But recently I have found a new subgenre to love, Grimdarks. I accidentally stumbled upon Grimdarks with The Black Company series by Glen Cook, who was Grimdark-ing before the rest of the genre even knew what hit them. Three Rules of Grimdark

Bad stuff happens. Like really bad stuff. Think “Silence of the Lambs is invited to the Red Wedding” type of bad stuff. The good guy might not win, he may be skinned alive and eaten by a Gru, in the dark, midway through the book. The good guy might not really be that good, in fact, we should probably just nix the idea of a good guy all together and just refer to them as “the main protagonist.”

The Grimmest of the Grimdarks, and one of the most spectacularly sideways series I’ve ever read, is the Manifest Delusions series by Michael Fletcher. The series is comprised (so far) of book #1: Beyond Redemption and book #2: Mirror’s Truth. First off, these two books should really be one. I know there was no way he was going to get that large a work past the publishers unless his name was George R.R. Martin (because, let’s face it, at this point Martin can do whatever he damn well pleases). But books 1 and 2 effortlessly flow into each other (which speaks to the skill of the author), so I am going to review them as on…