God Killers: Machivarius Point and Other Tales Book

"God Killers" includes the novel "Machvarius Point" and four related works. It also has a selection of thematically related short stories in a more contemporary setting, and from which the book takes its name. "Machvarius Point": A man who cannot count his years moves between worlds living the lives of other men. A soul-less ebony giantess seeks freedom in warfare but cannot escape the tragedy buried in her forgotten past. An aging mercenary and non-believer may be the unwitting saviour of his - and all - times. A blinded war-hero barters for a mythical stone in the hope that it may restore his former glory. An undead God seeks an end to his torment by bringing about an end to all things. Machvarius Point stands at the centre of the city of Duhn - a phallic monstrosity in bronze. Ancient and defunct, shit-speckled and crumbling, it's many-headed effigies bear witness to all that transpires below. An ensemble piece of vast scope, the story delves into the fate of an ancient giant race, the Ornish, that left their ravaged homeworld 10,000 years earlier. There is no clear cut good or bad, and genre staples are subverted constantly. It is a vivid creation full of grown up themes, colourful language and questions about the nature of war, belief and existence - themes that feature prominently throughout Sharp's work. The imagery created is arresting, as one would expect from the author's background as an illustrator of the fantastic, but the narrative is thought-provoking, poetic and far more intense than one might usually expect from heroic fantasy. Whilst its start is akin to the work of Robert E. Howard, it quickly moves through territories more comparable to Michael Morcock, and soon echoes of China Mieville and M. John Harrison are apparent, making the work very contemporary, and closer to New Weird than the set-up might suggest. "God Killers" includes five short stories - one set in London, the rest in the author's home city of Derby - that wrestle with existential themes, joke along with Death, shuffle into the afterlife and contemplate other planes in which there may or may not be life..."God Killers" should be a delight to anybody enjoying the burgeoning possibilities on offer in contemporary genre fiction.Read More