Tome Thursday: Grim Imperative

 

Hello everyone!

 

I have two weeks of exciting stories for you.

 

Well, alright, I have an exciting story every week - or so I hope - but this time I have a connected story, with a novella for this Thursday and a full novel for the next one.

 

And oh, are they GOOD.

 

See, every once in a while you just have to take the plunge and try reading something you might not have expected to pick up initially, depending on your mood. I've been very much contemporary-books oriented lately aside from the random fantasy ones I picked from BookSirens.

 

So this was a nice surprise!

 

It also didn't come from BookSirens, while we're at it.

 

But before we get into all that, let's make sure we have our sailing legs on, shall we? Because we're about to head out across the seas, and pirates never like someone who's seasick.

 

Especially not in Grim Imperative.

 

As this is the start of the series for me I don't really have anything else to link it to, but as it grows you'll be able to look for other related links at the bottom of my page, as per usual.

 

Now, how I got my hands on Grim Imperative.

 

Long story made super short: I was incredibly lucky. The author reached out to me and asked if I'd like to join the ARC team for her upcoming novel, Her Latent Charm, and I was hooked enough on the description that I agreed.

 

I've never made a better decision before besides joining the ARC team of Serenity Woods, because The Ambience Series? It's going to be FANTASTIC.

 

But before we dig into Dana C Brentson's debut novel, let's have a look at its prequel first.

 

Grim Imperative is available to readers who subscribe to her newsletter as a free short story, and it covers a little bit about a young man named Bryn.

 

Who's Bryn, you ask?

 

Well, Bryn is the male protagonist of the novel I mentioned above, but we need a bit of a grasp on him to be able to understand his motivations later.

 

He's serving on the ship of his uncle, Roglin, who apparently owed his father a favour or made a deal or something along those lines, and is the man responsible for making sure Bryn turns into "a proper man" or whatever the hell the guy calls it.

 

The only problem here being: Roglin is a sadistic prick, and he's got someone along with him, called Derth, who ... isn't natural. Is all I'm going to say about it.

 

They also run in the slave trade, which is inhumane and just horrible, and Bryn would VERY much like out please, thank you.

 

That option seems to fly right out the window by the time they hit Rogue's Island for the winter, to unload their cargo and all that, which turns slightly more complicated because Derth kinda-sorta takes matters into his own hands and kills the woman currently in charge.

 

Then, as the island rises up in mutiny against them, Bryn can only watch in horror (because nobody's listening to his warnings, natch) as Derth uses what I can only describe as magic to literally kill hundreds on the spot.

 

This effectively silences anyone willing to make a peep about what's going on, but also ties Bryn to his uncle for the foreseeable future, not only because of what he's witnessed, but because Roglin isn't willing to give him the same deal he gives everyone else: ie, if they're unhappy, they can leave, as long as they don't stand against him.

 

So Bryn is effectively stuck between a rock and hard place and can't get out no matter what he does.

 

And isn't THAT just a lovely little tidbit before we head into the actual novel?

 

See, Bryn is a gentle person, with honour and courage, and you have to wonder what the hell his father did to have Roglin owe him a favour, particularly because we come to understand Bryn was raised by his mother alone on a farm. This makes me think that he's an affair baby since his dad was in and out and hardly ever around - either that, or the old man was really just another pirate who was on the high seas all the time.

 

Either way, however, the point is Bryn isn't cut out for this kind of work, he hates Roglin but can't stand up to him without ending up as Derth's plaything, and he doesn't see any solution to his problem at the moment.

 

But just you wait. It's coming soon, in the book we'll be reviewing next week, and hoo boy! That'll be something else.

 

Dana C Brentson has a unique ability to capture the reader's attention and hold it through her writing, engaging you in the story without unnecessary frills and debates, and there's just enough mystery in everything concerning this novella that you really do need to pick up her book when it releases.

 

Because there be answers there, mateys - and plenty of them!

 

Tune in next week.

 

xx

*image not mine