Violence lives forever. Hope dies quick.
And across collapsing and expanding epochs of both, timeless, there is Badwater. Collecting the trilogy of novellas, The Philistines Be Upon Thee, But God Made Hell and Cyclops from the Forge, Badwater tracks Heifer Lawdun's haunting and oneiric journey through a broken, nightmarish 18th century Scotland, pursued by bounty hunters across a frozen sea, to the hallucinogenic red desert, black sun and deadpan violence of the Old West.
Nihilstic and bleak with doses of black humour, this folk-horror/acid western trilogy has been compared to the work of Cormac McCarthy, Steve Erickson and 2000AD.
"The Badwater trilogy is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who want a peaceful stroll through the landscape. It is for fans of Benjamin Myers, Marlon James and S Craig Zahler (in particular his film Bone Tomahawk). It is for fans of dark, atmospheric fiction that is rooted in the grim reality of human suffering and human nature."
--Ryan J Smith, Mycelia
"A vulgar and experimental tale in a world comparable to the dark underbelly of Pratchett's Discworld by way of Hunter S Thompson with a whole load of homely Scottish colloquialisms thrown in for good measure."
--Craig McKenzie, Megalomatic
"Outstanding...Dark and disturbing. The sense of dread and foreboding seeps through its very core."--James McCulloch, writer of CITY OF LOST SOULS.
"But God Made Hell by Stephen Toman, published by Malkipress is a new novella, the second in a trilogy, charting the journeying of a shipwrecked crew split up by suddenly frozen seas and unpredictable melts, some of them travelling alone, others in teams, and their unsparing human resourcefulness in the face of an expansive, alien wilderness, where their lives lie beyond the reach of human laws --- beyond justice, beyond judgment, beyond reason. This tale carries critical undercurrents that attack imperialist expansionism and climate change, not least by the topological violence of the strangely active landscape which threatens the wanderers and ship's crew. 4.5/5
Recommended to readers of controlled and spare speculative fiction and weird literature, such as CamillaGrudova, HanKang and JeffVanderMeer."
--Hedera Felix
"Both minimalistic and vivid, this tale of frozen adventure dips into the awe of both the horrific and the weird."
--Austin James, author of The Drip Drop Prophet
"The setting, characters and prose style are drenched in a macabre, brutal style that almost reaches an overwhelmingly and vividly bleak read, before undercutting the horror with subtle and effective pitch-black humour.If Terry Pratchett had lost interest in fantasy and leant into the horrifying, the result may resemble something akin to Toman's deftly handled style.Unforgiving and often absurdly amusing, a cracking read for those who like to sit by the fire and stare into the darkness beyond."
--Euan McBride, author of A Girl in a Pool and Detritus&Brux
