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I think of my Puzzle Land novels as grimdark fiction. Wikipedia defines grimdark as “a subgenre of speculative fiction with a tone, style, or setting that is particularly dystopian, amoral, or violent.” Stories of the Puzzle Lands probably falls at the lighter end of the grimdark spectrum. It’s meant to be darkly humorous. Nevertheless, there is a lot of spontaneous killing going on, among other things.

So what is the appeal of truly violent stories? Part of it’s the action, sure. And maybe there’s some satisfaction in seeing a protagonist ruthlessly take down anyone standing in the way. But it’s one thing for an author to set up bad guys/enemies/antagonists for the hero to mow down, and something else when the protagonist starts slaughtering innocent bystanders because it’s convenient. It’s as if no one’s life has value except the protagonist…or do I take my fiction too seriously? 🙂

Two titles have inspired these thoughts. The first is an Amazon Prime TV series called Hanna. I watched the first episode because I was bored. Honestly, it didn’t sound like something I would like—a teenage girl with extraordinary abilities is being hunted down by nefarious government forces—but from the first episode, I was hooked.

The show is brutal. It’s a coming-of-age science fiction thriller in which teenage Hanna fights (literally) to find a place for herself in the world. The character of Hanna is often emotionally flat, which feels appropriate, given her upbringing and experience.

The series is well-written, well-acted, and has a startlingly high body count. It’s usually guards and soldiers who die and no one stops to ask if they deserve it. But it’s that kind of show. If you’re into this sort of thing, I recommend it.

The second title is a debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin. I think it’s fair to say this is a literary novel. It’s beautifully written, with fantastic descriptive passages of both nature and people. It’s set in the American west, as the transcontinental railroad is being built. The protagonist, Ming Tsu, is on a quest to kill everyone involved in the destruction of his marriage. Call it a grimdark western revenge fantasy.

The story follows Ming Tsu through three parts. In the first he’s traveling with a mysterious old man who is endowed with a supernatural ability that is very useful to a revenge-seeking gunfighter. In the second part Ming Tsu hooks up with more very strange characters with special abilities of their own, and in the third he is on his own again and experiences additional supernatural episodes. I don’t think the story entirely hangs together, and the ending is not what I would have chosen. Nevertheless, I recommend The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu as something different and fascinating. I’m looking forward to seeing what Tom Lin does next.

Posted on: Sunday, September 26th, 2021 at 9:15 am
Categories: Reading, Recommended Reading.
Tags: grimdark, Hannah series, Stories of the Puzzle Lands, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, Tom Lin