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Torn World #1
Bones Before Fortune
Setioch, commander of the dying Warfire Brotherhood, has a problem. A psychotic campaign of conquest is rolling over the world, making recruitment impossible and profit rare.
He seeks respite and time to rebuild in the capitol of the Old Empire of Thaudia, one of the few nations not yet crushed under the fist of Fyrexia and their never ending thirst for domination.
There truly is no rest for the wicked.
Along with his few remaining mercenaries, he will become embroiled in the chaos of war as it boils through the cracks- and find himself a reluctant protector along the way.
To the west, just under the scar in the world known as the tear, something has remembered itself in The Dark- and set in motion the return of centuries-absent powers.
He seeks respite and time to rebuild in the capitol of the Old Empire of Thaudia, one of the few nations not yet crushed under the fist of Fyrexia and their never ending thirst for domination.
There truly is no rest for the wicked.
Along with his few remaining mercenaries, he will become embroiled in the chaos of war as it boils through the cracks- and find himself a reluctant protector along the way.
To the west, just under the scar in the world known as the tear, something has remembered itself in The Dark- and set in motion the return of centuries-absent powers.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 29, 2025
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Keith Durocher
2 books5 followersI am a musician, gamer, tattoo artist, and now author from Vancouver, BC, Canada.
I have been tattooing professionally since 2007, and have been the owner/operator of several studios. PennyBlack Tattoo, Vampire Tattoo, Pink Flamingos Tattoo, and now Dominion Tattoo.
As a musician, I've been active in the industrial and metal scenes since the early 1990’s, fronting such bands as Seventh Image, Malhavoc, Codex: Factoria, and The Blade Itself. (Yes, named after the book. :)
I started my writing career doing critical journalism for music and the gaming industry, doing reviews and interviews for such website and print zines as Starvox, Adrenaline Vault, WorthPlaying.com, and ABORTmag.
When not writing dark and violent fantasy fiction, I remain an avid PC gamer. I've also been a tabletop role-play gamer since the 1980s, creating worlds in Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D onwards), RIFTS, In Nomine, and Cyberpunk 2020. I am a slave to three demanding cats.
Bones Before Fortune is my first foray into the splatterpunk/grimdark realms of fantasy fiction
I have been tattooing professionally since 2007, and have been the owner/operator of several studios. PennyBlack Tattoo, Vampire Tattoo, Pink Flamingos Tattoo, and now Dominion Tattoo.
As a musician, I've been active in the industrial and metal scenes since the early 1990’s, fronting such bands as Seventh Image, Malhavoc, Codex: Factoria, and The Blade Itself. (Yes, named after the book. :)
I started my writing career doing critical journalism for music and the gaming industry, doing reviews and interviews for such website and print zines as Starvox, Adrenaline Vault, WorthPlaying.com, and ABORTmag.
When not writing dark and violent fantasy fiction, I remain an avid PC gamer. I've also been a tabletop role-play gamer since the 1980s, creating worlds in Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D onwards), RIFTS, In Nomine, and Cyberpunk 2020. I am a slave to three demanding cats.
Bones Before Fortune is my first foray into the splatterpunk/grimdark realms of fantasy fiction
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 28, 2025
This review was originally posted on /r/GrimDarkEpicFantasy by u/SoullessEddie.
So, is it the best book I’ve ever read? No. It’s self-indulgent, verbose, and, at times, forgets itself. Yet it’s also unapologetic, savage, and absolutely true to its warped nature. The story has the jet-black heart of Grimdark threaded with barbed wire. If you crave a more mythical take on Black Company spliced with The Lies of Locke Lamora camaraderie, only drunker, bloodier, and morally bankrupt, this is your next stop.
Now, let Eddie tell you why this book is worth your time without spoiling anything major…
0.85 | Themes — Undoubtedly grim. The text weaponizes agency: facing the past, owing a debt, ever-present rot, inevitable entropy, or sacrilegious blood-magic. Setioch’s not-so-Merry Men echo Robin Hood, but the arrows are dipped in night-soil, not justice. Familiar tropes like the noble thief or princess locked in a tower are present, but reshaped into something crueler and more tragic. The themes feel familiar, but their angles are twisted just enough to keep it fragrant.
0.55 | Characterization — Setioch is a charming guttersnipe, part tactician, part opportunist, but he shares the stage with a chorus of half-mad cut-throats who sometimes blur at the edges. Rikoshi the corpse-eater stands vivid in detail, while others exist to be knocked around and be ticked off the usual suspects' list (cheerful brute, nimble bladedancer, unstable magic user...). We get emotional clarity in flashes, often through a campfire aside or a sharp line mid-fight. The cast gains momentum and definition as the story advances. It reads like a motley crew of blood-drunk characters that would fit any evil-aligned D&D campaign with the same potency of derailing the Dungeon Master’s hopes and schemes.
0.55 | Plot — The early half plays like a chain of intense set-pieces held together by tone more than through-line. It’s engaging in moments, but the narrative compass wobbles. Around the midpoint, things begin to cohere, and the final third delivers the kind of payoff that retroactively justifies the wandering. Not flawless. Still forceful. I would recommend trusting the audience more to connect the dots, rather than the author’s winks or direct exposition. While refining and editing can be really painful, especially if one serves as their own editor (I don’t know if that’s the case here), cutting fat and redundancy is almost always the correct choice—It elevates pacing and smooths the flow.
0.65 | World-building — Keith leans impressionistic and raw at the same time. Interludes act like cracked stained-glass windows, offering mythical glimpses or insight into antagonists' minds without ever becoming a guided tour. The atmosphere is rich and heavy. Structure takes a bit of a backseat. This choice is equal parts alluring and frustrating, typical of an ambitious debut still discovering its shape. That said, the ambiguity feels intentional.
0.90 | Prose — The prose is clean, maybe too clean at times. Setioch’s voice is that of a bruised veteran, but sometimes it veers into refined literary phrasing that doesn’t quite match the grime of the setting. Nevertheless, sentence-level control improves chapter by chapter. The metaphors bite deeper. The tone tightens. By the final act, the rhythm feels mostly earned and natural. I've noticed a few slip-ups, but nothing that would deter you from reading further.
As a first swing, Bones Before Fortune earns its place on the Grimdark shelf. It’s raw enough to feel dangerous. Polished enough to hit hard when it wants to. That rough ambition is its best asset and its worst liability. Not every choice lands. The ones that do leave a mark. If you prefer your fiction crisp and conventional, you might find it murky. But if you enjoy risky blends, strange textures, and characters bleeding sincerity under layers of rot: pour a drink, fish out your Kindle, and press on.
Running Total: 3.50 / 5.00 — Bloody-Good Debut
So, is it the best book I’ve ever read? No. It’s self-indulgent, verbose, and, at times, forgets itself. Yet it’s also unapologetic, savage, and absolutely true to its warped nature. The story has the jet-black heart of Grimdark threaded with barbed wire. If you crave a more mythical take on Black Company spliced with The Lies of Locke Lamora camaraderie, only drunker, bloodier, and morally bankrupt, this is your next stop.
Now, let Eddie tell you why this book is worth your time without spoiling anything major…
0.85 | Themes — Undoubtedly grim. The text weaponizes agency: facing the past, owing a debt, ever-present rot, inevitable entropy, or sacrilegious blood-magic. Setioch’s not-so-Merry Men echo Robin Hood, but the arrows are dipped in night-soil, not justice. Familiar tropes like the noble thief or princess locked in a tower are present, but reshaped into something crueler and more tragic. The themes feel familiar, but their angles are twisted just enough to keep it fragrant.
0.55 | Characterization — Setioch is a charming guttersnipe, part tactician, part opportunist, but he shares the stage with a chorus of half-mad cut-throats who sometimes blur at the edges. Rikoshi the corpse-eater stands vivid in detail, while others exist to be knocked around and be ticked off the usual suspects' list (cheerful brute, nimble bladedancer, unstable magic user...). We get emotional clarity in flashes, often through a campfire aside or a sharp line mid-fight. The cast gains momentum and definition as the story advances. It reads like a motley crew of blood-drunk characters that would fit any evil-aligned D&D campaign with the same potency of derailing the Dungeon Master’s hopes and schemes.
0.55 | Plot — The early half plays like a chain of intense set-pieces held together by tone more than through-line. It’s engaging in moments, but the narrative compass wobbles. Around the midpoint, things begin to cohere, and the final third delivers the kind of payoff that retroactively justifies the wandering. Not flawless. Still forceful. I would recommend trusting the audience more to connect the dots, rather than the author’s winks or direct exposition. While refining and editing can be really painful, especially if one serves as their own editor (I don’t know if that’s the case here), cutting fat and redundancy is almost always the correct choice—It elevates pacing and smooths the flow.
0.65 | World-building — Keith leans impressionistic and raw at the same time. Interludes act like cracked stained-glass windows, offering mythical glimpses or insight into antagonists' minds without ever becoming a guided tour. The atmosphere is rich and heavy. Structure takes a bit of a backseat. This choice is equal parts alluring and frustrating, typical of an ambitious debut still discovering its shape. That said, the ambiguity feels intentional.
0.90 | Prose — The prose is clean, maybe too clean at times. Setioch’s voice is that of a bruised veteran, but sometimes it veers into refined literary phrasing that doesn’t quite match the grime of the setting. Nevertheless, sentence-level control improves chapter by chapter. The metaphors bite deeper. The tone tightens. By the final act, the rhythm feels mostly earned and natural. I've noticed a few slip-ups, but nothing that would deter you from reading further.
As a first swing, Bones Before Fortune earns its place on the Grimdark shelf. It’s raw enough to feel dangerous. Polished enough to hit hard when it wants to. That rough ambition is its best asset and its worst liability. Not every choice lands. The ones that do leave a mark. If you prefer your fiction crisp and conventional, you might find it murky. But if you enjoy risky blends, strange textures, and characters bleeding sincerity under layers of rot: pour a drink, fish out your Kindle, and press on.
Running Total: 3.50 / 5.00 — Bloody-Good Debut
June 16, 2025
The novel follows Setioch, the Warfire Brotherhood commander and his loyal crew, Vend the Blade Priestess, Stonefist (real name Valdar)the Giant, the Assassin twins Raschia and Rechrion and the Corpse-eater Rikoshi.
They seek to find new recruits for profitable gain but with a psychotic campaign of conquest taking over the world, it’s looking to be impossible.
Setioch aims to rebuild in Thaudia, the old empire not yet dominated by Fyrexia. However, in The Tear, a scar under the world in the west, something has been brought forward that is beginning to remember itself in The Dark and sets motion the return of powers that have been lacking for centuries.
As someone new to the grimdark genre I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into when I started the first few pages, that being said I was instantly hooked.
The entire novel from start to finish put me into a sort of hypnotic trance. The words in this novel will transform your mind to travel to other worlds and visit places quite like you’ve never seen before.
You can expect plenty of action, adventures, deaths and struggles between its characters, otherworldly creatures and within oneself. All of the details of the story are intently placed to keep you hooked and craving more.
Blood, gore, pus and smoke splatter the pages of this grim dark novel to perfection.
Sometimes violence is brought upon to achieve peace, as other times this search for peace brings forth the latter.
It has a dark,witty humour to it, gentleness where it was needed and fight scenes worthy of film.
It was a killer read and I can hardly wait for more!!
They seek to find new recruits for profitable gain but with a psychotic campaign of conquest taking over the world, it’s looking to be impossible.
Setioch aims to rebuild in Thaudia, the old empire not yet dominated by Fyrexia. However, in The Tear, a scar under the world in the west, something has been brought forward that is beginning to remember itself in The Dark and sets motion the return of powers that have been lacking for centuries.
As someone new to the grimdark genre I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into when I started the first few pages, that being said I was instantly hooked.
The entire novel from start to finish put me into a sort of hypnotic trance. The words in this novel will transform your mind to travel to other worlds and visit places quite like you’ve never seen before.
You can expect plenty of action, adventures, deaths and struggles between its characters, otherworldly creatures and within oneself. All of the details of the story are intently placed to keep you hooked and craving more.
Blood, gore, pus and smoke splatter the pages of this grim dark novel to perfection.
Sometimes violence is brought upon to achieve peace, as other times this search for peace brings forth the latter.
It has a dark,witty humour to it, gentleness where it was needed and fight scenes worthy of film.
It was a killer read and I can hardly wait for more!!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews