First, the Blurb:
Ulfric Halehorn is a sellsword that believes in the sanctity of the contract. He’s also rekindled an old grudge, incited a riot, and landed himself in jail on enough counts to see himself hung twice. In the midst of this, he somehow managed to win a lucrative contract to transport a mysterious crate across the Brasslands to Kush.
He’d be better off if he hadn’t.
Days into the journey, Ulfric learns that the job is more than it seems, and that he carries with him the spark that may touch off a revolution that could burn across a city, and perhaps an entire region. Knowing this, Ulfric sees a chance to atone for breaking another contract nearly a decade ago — one that cost another city its freedom and its people their lives; an act that still haunts him to this day.
But the Brasslands is a vast land, filled with fugitives, and wild beasts, and nameless things that lurk in the low dark. In those wastes also rides another — one charged with snuffing out the same revolution that Ulfric aims to set afire. And as these rivals drive towards their opposing goals, a storm of steel and blood is building on a bleak horizon.
BENEATH A BRASS SKY is a fantasy novel that fans of Abercrombie’s Red Country, King’s The Gunslinger, and Sanderson’s Alloy of Law will enjoy.
Red Country. The Gunslinger. Alloy of Law. Fantasy doesn't have enough novels with western genre influences, if you ask me. FJ Blair has the excellent Bulletproof Witch Series, too.
But BaBS is not your typical western-influenced fantasy novel. It's not weird west - not really.
If I had to compare it to a time in our world, I'd say it's in our 9th Century. No firearms; we're still firmly rooted in a sword and shield era. And there's a red-haired norse type (a Prydian, to be precise, in-world. Also known as a Valyncian by some. Name's Ulfric). And sellswords.
So, where's the western influence without six-shooters and with not-vikings mercenaries?
In Ulfric Halehorn, the sellsword Valyncian for one. The lone "cowboy" (the knight errant). His values put him at odds with a world that's changed. Left him behind. And not for the better. At the fore of a good western is a man, a hard man (or woman), that refuses to bend to a changing world. Because their ways, the old ways, are better. At least as far as they're concerned.
The environment, secondly. A good western has sweeping vistas, endless frontiers, unforgiving landscapes - hollow country that swallows men up. Oftentimes, the environment is as harsh a foe as the black hat in the story. Welcome to the Brasslands - a parched desolace as old as man's oldest flintknappings. A place of ruins, and wild beasts, and things that lurk in the low dark. Forgotten things. It's a place for fugitives to hide, or perhaps a place for them to hunt.
But what's a story without a black hat? I won't say much on this one, except: enter the Huntsman, who has to be my favorite antagonist I've written thus far.
So is BaBS a western? In many ways, yes; but it's also still very much a fantasy novel with swords, and sorcerers, and alchemists, and maybe even a monster or two. But more than that, it's a story of redemption, and a story of finding yourself, and a story of revenge.
Beneath a Brass Sky, Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LZQJNCC/
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