When Michael R. Fletcher’s The Last Wardog was released in issue #37, I heard the morose howls of readers as they read this sad story of the dying war dog, The Darkest Shade of Grey, and his Packmaster, Ahira. On the losing side of a brutal siege, they try to protect their people in a final stand.

As soon as I found out Colin Mace (Slow Horses, Before We Die, Savage Hunt) had agreed to perform a short story for us for our YouTube Channel project, I knew this was the right story for his voice. He really nails the morose aspect of The Last Wardog, where we see the world through the lens of a wardog–a massive and extremely loyal pack warrior.

If you’re a dog person, this story is going to break you a bit. But don’t take my word for it, go find out using the player below, or by heading over to our YouTube channel.

If this is the first time you’re hearing about our new YouTube project, then let me catch you up. At the start of this year, we made the decision to do something different to the rest of BookTube. We wiped all of our content–including interviews with Brandon Sanderson, Steven Erikson, and Patrick Rothfuss, among many others–and went down a new path.

We started hiring out podcast studios and camera crews and asked screen actors to bring these stories to life on screen with a live narration. The Last Wardog is our third video posted, and we have a fourth in editing which will go live before the end of 2025.

For us, this is a massive endeavor to keep driving attention to short stories and their brilliant authors, to bring them into the limelight in a different way. If this seems pretty cool to you, and you’d like to see more stories narrated by more actors, then we need your support.

Please go watch some of the videos, and then hit subscribe. Go to the Grimdark Magazine YouTube channel.

The post Colin Mace brings Michael R. Fletcher’s morose The Last Wardog to life on YouTube appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.