Rend the Dark by Joe King, Mark Gelineau Series: Rend the Dark
on October 15th, 2015
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 104
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The great Ruins are gone. The titans. The behemoths. All banished to the Dark and nearly forgotten. But the cunning ones, the patient ones remain. They hide not in the cracks of the earth or in the shadows of the world. But inside us. Wearing our skin. Waiting. Watching.
Once haunted by visions of the world beyond, Ferran now wields that power to hunt the very monsters that he once feared. He is not alone. Others bear the same terrible burden. But Hunter or hunted, it makes no difference. Eventually, everything returns to the Dark.
What a great short read.
Basically this follows Ferran as he and his partner, Mireia, track down a big bad. It’s a monster hunt.
While not much of the world is explored, I still found this story rich and full. We learn that there’s a bad place out there that the Order of Talan protects the world against. Ferran and Mireia are part of that Order, and they team up with a Warden and magistrate to eliminate a nasty thing from a village.
This was incredibly short, around 100 pages, so I don’t have tons to say. For a first story, this definitely did the job of pulling me into the world and characters. I’m interested, and I love monster hunting, so that part hooked me right away. The characters were a bit standard, but well done and interesting enough to keep me engaged and looking for the next book. Honestly, Ferran has a great history, a little sad, which pulled me in quickly. While we didn’t’ learn Mireia’s backstory, she’s intriguing on her own, with a nifty power I’m not sure I quite understand yet.
The writing flowed nicely for me, and the pacing was great. It moved.
So if you’re looking for a quick, fun, engaging, and monster-y type book, pick this up. You can probably devour most of it on your lunch break. It’s a great start to a promising series.
About Joe King
Joe King spent most of his childhood doing what he loved most – building things with his friends. He built friendships, stories, worlds, games, imagination, and everything in between.
After a brief career in software, for a while, he pretty much gave up on the idea of building anything. Five years later, the woman who would become his wife, rode in on a white horse and changed his life forever. Another five years, and two beautiful daughters later, Joe is building new unimaginable things.
Joe believes in the power of stories, dreams, family, friendship, and getting your ass kicked every once in a while.
More than anything, he wants to tell a good story, and, for him, Gelineau & King is the constant reminder that it’s never too late to start building the things you love.
Joe King can be reached via email at joe@gelineauandking.com.
About Mark Gelineau
The defining moments in Mark Gelineau’s early life really trace back to two events. One was the discovery of an old cardboard box that had belonged to his grandfather. Inside that box was a collection of comic books, resplendent in their four color glory. Even though he had never met his grandfather, finding that box passed on a love of thrilling stories and daring adventure from one generation to another.
The second event was when his mother took him a to showing of Star Wars. For the entire duration of the movie, Mark sat with his mouth open and his small hands gripping the armrests. The better to pretend to fly the spaceships you see.
Since those early days, Mark has loved the stories of the imagination, the stories that transport a person from the world they know into new realities, distant domains, and realms of wonder. Even more than the stories themselves though, Mark discovered the sheer joy of sharing those stories. Taking them out of the cardboard box and into the hands of friends and family. This drove Mark first to education, where he could talk about the amazing stories out there in the world, and then eventually to writing, where he could try and write some of those stories for himself.
Gelineau and King is the extension of that joy. A place where Mark and his partner, Joe King, can take the stories they create out of the box and put them out there in the world.
Mark is loved and, more importantly, tolerated by his amazing wife and young son. And when Mark is not writing or teaching, he is secretly adding comics and paperbacks to a certain cardboard box waiting in his son’s closet.
You can email Mark Gelineau directly at mark@gelineauandking.com.
