LittleRedWritingHawk's Bookshelf
SILK AND STEEL
The world ended. The apocalypse came. The gods waged war on each other across the realms of reality and at last wiped themselves out. Angles and devils took the souls they wanted to who knows where. And then it was over. And you and others like you were left behind. Maybe your soul was trapped inside your body and couldn’t leave. Maybe it was bound to a demon. Or maybe you have no soul at all. Either way, you must be some kind of monster. All that is left is to decide – what kind of a monster are you going to be?
This is the premise of the short novel Silk and Steel – a dark dystopia / mythpunk story set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s heavily based around Romani and Eastern European mythology and crammed full of LGBTQIA+ romance. Forget shiny heroes wielding even shinier weapons to defeat 'evil' foes. Instead, every monster here must simply try to survive and carve a place for themselves in this new confounding reality. At the end of the world, there are no heroes, everyone is some kind of monster and each choice they make will shape what kind of monster they eventually become...
Silk and Steel has:
Larger than life characters that you can invest in - a complex plot full of intrigue and suspense - a dark gaslamp/steampunk setting rich in folklore and mythos - graphic violence - steamy sex scenes - villains you'll really love to hate - heroes with troubled pasts and hearts of gold - supporting cinnamon rolls you'll want to adopt and take home.
CWs:
Violence, consensual and non-consensual sex, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, addiction, theft and organised crime, swearing, murder, mental health issues including self harm and suicide, demons, magic, religion, cults.
Each chapter will have its own flags so you know what's coming up but please be advised that this is a grim story told in a harsh world - no chapter will be suitable for under 18s and all chapters may include content which some readers may find disturbing.
State of Matter
Gabriel has been famous since the day he was born. As the youngest son of a top global superhero, the spotlight is blinding. Especially when a series of prolific murders strike their closest friends and allies. The problem? Gabriel's functionally invincible, and only all too willing to take advantage of it if it means putting a stop to the violence.
August Wright's possibly the most powerful Guardian of his generation: he just needs to graduate before anyone else figures that out. He wanted a quiet, responsible life as a mid-ranked hero. Too bad he's been assigned to keep an eye on his polar opposite and the one person most likely to discover his true power: Gabriel Masters.
Art (Cover/Thumbnails/End of Chapter Graphic) by Natjieo
Sweet Silence
Sage is a villain. Not by choice. It just sort of turned out that way, but hey, he's not complaining. Being bad is pretty cool, actually. And while by most people's standards his superpower is pretty lame - muting sound, of all things - he's found it pretty useful when robbing the rich.
Most heroes ignore him. Except one. Lich, the necromancer. Sage didn't know how talking to the dead was considered heroic, but whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that Lich apparently has a homing beacon locked on Sage specifically, and he keeps getting in Sage's way, despite most heroes not bothering to deal with the small-time villain committing petty theft.
It was annoying, but fine. Sage wasn't all that active in the villainy community anymore anyway. He had just turned thirty, and quite frankly, he was done with this shit. But still, he wanted to go out with a bang, so he planned his final heist: robbing the most powerful man in the city, the governor.
Except, when Sage broke into the governor's house all he found was the governor - dead as a doornail. What's worse is that for the first time in Sage's life, he was no longer invisible. He was found standing over the body, murder weapon in hand.
Now, the entire city of Fairview wants Sage dead, and the only person on earth who can clear his name is his very own necromancer nemesis. For how much they fight, Lich is surprisingly on board with helping Sage...
And so, the two embark on a quest to discover the real killer and clear Sage's name, but the trail leads them to discover some of Fairview's most well-kept and dangerous secrets...