Synopsis:
Includes naughty language and splattery violence.
In the chaotic, gore-slicked world of Groteskia, everyone owns a sword, but few know how to use them. Enter Katzia of Clovenhoof aka the Splatter Elf, Number 6 on the Crystalline Crab Top Ten, the elite list of monster hunting celebrities that scrape and claw their way to the top. Katzia not only excels at slashing and stabbing, but she has also developed an obsession with collecting swords. Her affinity for blades puts her at odds with rival hunters, cannibals, crazed monsters and even her own sword-hoarding warlock father. Maybe she’ll find the real things worth collecting are the friends she made along the way? Who in the turquoise hell knows?
New Sword Smell collects several loosely connected short stories with Katzia and other hunters in the Splatter Elf universe. Contains the following: a goblin-killing world record attempt, a unicorn-eater with insatiable hunger, brain-eating imps, mechs, witches, mech-witches, cannibals, talking severed heads, severed heads in general, maggot sorcery, tooth magic, a hungry chainsaw, wagons full of swords and much more!
Full Review:
The bloody, dark fantasy stories in this collection caught me entirely by surprise—and I walked away amused and entertained.
Each of the tales follow Katzia, the half-elf monster hunter who really only has one goal in the world: collect more swords than her cold, distant a-hole of a father. To do that, she kills monsters and takes payment in the form of (ludicrously but always entertainingly named) magical blades.
On the surface, there’s not a whole lot of depth to Katzia. She’s all about the slaying and sword-collecting, and she’ll gladly sacrifice any meat shield…er, fellow monster-hunter in the pursuit of triumph, survival, and, most important of all, gathering more swords.
(You’d think survival ranks highest on the list of priority, but no, she’s all about the swords and really only survives to twit her nose at her father. After all, she can’t surpass his collection if she’s dead.)
But as we get into the stories, we see there’s more to her than meets the eye. Not a whole lot, but enough to make her a character that’s not just fun to read, but also one you want to keep rooting for through one blood-and-gore-drenched tale after another.
Some of the stories are funny, some are silly, some are just downright dark and disturbing, but you can bet your boots they’ll all be more violent and outrageous than the last.
The world feels ridiculous in a truly amusing way. The absurdity is delivered so straight-faced that you can’t help but buy into and be entertained by it. The fact that the world is never fully explored—it’s a bunch of small vignettes focused on the specific monster/enemy being hunted or the crew doing the hunter alongside Katzia—lets the author get away with doing a lot of silly things and never having to back them up beyond the occasional mention. This adds a wonderful levity to the dark tone.
This collection of stories feels like it would be right at home in the world of Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose, but with the loosely interconnected feel of the Witcher short story books.
Fun, ridiculous, and above all entertaining, it’s a breath of (not quite fresh, perhaps more hallucinogenic) air that I found immensely enjoyable.
Leave a Reply