Barren
Demon Cycle
Paperback | Kindle | Audiobook
By Peter V. Brett
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release date: September 25, 2018

I am utterly unfamiliar with the Demon Cycle series, but if this novella is anything to go by, it is on my shortlist now. In Barren, we are given the chance to see humanity at its most desperate. For longer than any can remember, the demons have attacked settlements at night. And for much of that time, mankind has tried to survive by living behind their defenses and attacking only when necessary. And while this seems like a great plot, it is actually the backdrop for the real story.

Red Sonja Unchained #1
Story by Peter V. Brett
Pencils by Jack Jadsen
Colors by Marcelo Pinto
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Mel Rubi & Walter Geovani
Edited by Joseph Rybandt
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 13, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Red Sonja: Unchained #1 is a different kind of Red Sonja comic than we’ve had in a while. It has many of the classic elements we’ve come to know, love, and expect from a Red Sonja book, but it’s got a little bit more that makes this a great start to this comic series.

I’m not sure where writer Peter V. Brett‘s tale takes place continuity-wise, but it seems like Sonja is a little bit older here. Not as old as say, Queen Sonja, and by no means near the end of her life, but it seems like she’s more experienced about the facts of life and is a little more battle weary and skeptical about life. This is a really entertaining story about Sonja and her falling ass-backwards into a plan to rob a hidden tomb of its riches. But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Half the book is an awesome fight between Sonja and a group of barbarian wanderers that are (naturally) up to no good. Any more story details than that would be spoiling, so I recommend you pick this one up and find out for yourself.