The Judgment of Valene (Eververse, Book 2) by Darby Harn

 

Release date: October 9, 2020

Subgenre: Superheroes

 

About The Judgment of Valene:

 

Wealth. Privilege. Superpowers. Valene has it all… except any mercy from the person trying to kill her.

For the first time in her life, Valene Blackwood has peace. She’s been aboard her own private space station for a year, removed from the sonic duress of the world that she suffers due to her superhuman ability to hear everything, everywhere. When her father dies, she must return and take over the family business - selling superhuman protection for profit.

With her father gone, challengers emerge for control of Great Power. Valene is young, unproven, and wanting only to go back to her sanctuary in the sky. She struggles to stay focused, knowing the future of the company is at stake. The future of the Empowered. Before she has a chance to get her feet on the ground, someone tries to kill her.

Advanced technology nearly rips Valene right out of her own skin. Technology only one person in the world could have invented: the woman she left behind by going up to the space station. Kit Baldwin. But Kit is a hero. Is someone setting her up? Is someone trying to ruin them both?

Valene sets out to find the truth, and for the first time in her life, she has to listen. She has to stay in the world. She has to be the hero she never wanted to be.

If she can survive.

 

Excerpt:

 

The driver veers sharp to the right and the shimmering edge of the portal brushes against the side of the limo. Cerise lightning phases through my window and the bolt snatches the cushion off the seat across from me. If Frankie had come back with us, she’d be gone out of her seat, cast away into the In Between like the point car.

I cover my ears. “What’s going on?”

Breadbox shoves me down to the floor of the car and shields me with his massive body. “Drive! Drive!” 

The car shudders with every unforgiving pothole in the untended roads of The Derelicts. I can’t see anything. Birds chirp in choral confusion. Alien lightning splits the air, warping and twisting everything it comes into contact with, like the birds, there and gone. Reality tears open again. The limo screeches to a stop and I tumble across the floor against the seat opposite me.

“Back up,” Breadbox says. “Back up, back up, back up!”

My voice echoes like radar off of people. I can whisper, and be heard on the other side of the world. “Kit…”

Breadbox clenches his fists. “Is she here?”

“No… I don’t hear her.”

“She can become invisible. The Interdictor said so.”

I brace against the seat as the limo whirls around. “Kit isn’t out there… it’s just these portals.”

Breadbox pivots from window to window, searching for her. “She’s the only one who can open them.”

Dust scatters off a distant street. Far from the helicopters, as scattered as we are. Broken plates of concrete tremble in place. Blades of grass ripple in the wake of something; something fast. Something making no sound of its own.

I fiddle with the controls of this new sonic suit, still unfamiliar, trying to isolate the sound. “There’s something out there. I know there is, but I can’t hear it.”

Breadbox peers out the back window. “What?”

Crushed aluminum cans skitter down the road behind whatever troubles them. Compressed air trails behind the silent vehicle in a narrow enough stream that it has to be a motorcycle of some kind. The stream diverges. Two of them. Three. 

“Behind us,” I say.

Amazon

 

About Darby Harn:

Darby Harn writes for Screenrant, CBR.com, Star Wars News Net, and Movie News Net. His fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, and other publications. His novel Ever The Hero debuted this winter.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

 

Interview with Darby Harn, author of Ever the Hero

Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Darby Harn, whose new release Ever the Hero we featured on January 28.

Your new novel, Ever the Hero, was released on January 28, 2019. It’s safe to say it’s a book about superheroes, with a difference. Why do you think the idea of superheroes is so resonant in our times?

I think we find as much fascination in Superman or Captain America as we do the Greek gods or legends of King Arthur because ultimately they’re concerned with the same basic things. It’s more than heroic deeds, but more a realization of the self in relationship to their society. As society changes, so does the hero, and that was a huge driving force in Ever The Hero. The society portrayed in the book is a reflection of ours, which is to say it’s a society concerned less with others than the self. And into that comes my hero, Kit.

The protagonist of your novel, Kit Baldwin, is a young woman trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic (near?) future. What made you choose a female narrator and first person narrative? 

Most of my protagonists are women. They always have been. I was raised by women, most of my friends are women, women fascinate me. If there was anything conscious to it, it was wanting to reflect the world I live in, which is a diverse world full of strong, human women. First person came about as a result of needing to connect with Kit. Early drafts were in third, and the main concern was Kit was distant. This is part of her personality, but the use of third amplified this. It was an obstruction. I tried a small bit in first, and there she was. Her voice. She was near. And that finally unlocked the book and Kit after three years.

The cover features a striking image by artist Alia Hess. Can you tell us about them and your choice of image for the cover?

The cover is the greatest thing ever. Alia is a criminally talented writer and artist in their own right. They have a series, Travellers, which is fantastic. You can read more about it at www.cultofsasha.com. The cover image was a lot of back and forth. I had a strong idea of what I wanted, particularly the colors, but it was also just getting out of the way and letting Alia create this gorgeous image. It’s more wonderful than I could have imagined.

You have had short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer and other places. Tell us more about your short stories and the different challenges of writing short fiction and novels…

Short stories for me have to have some structure. They have some aspect that is finite and complete within themselves, whereas a novel, structured as it may be, has this sprawl. Ultimately, it can’t be contained and its beauty is its untidiness.

There are lot of jokes about the idea that the dystopian present has made dystopian science fiction redundant. Clearly this isn’t the case, but what do you feel dystopian SF offers in our current challenging times?

Well, you wonder. Dystopian fiction always signals our fear. Zombies have been an ongoing fascination for years now because something about them reflects our fear of atrophy, of living without life, of being mindless consumers of content. The durability of that trope is testament to how persistent that fear is. Kit as a character has this fear of not connecting; not working, as other people do. The transformation she undergoes in the story is particularly challenging to her because her new powers are based entirely on connection.

What makes you as a writer gravitate to Science Fiction rather than Fantasy, and do superhero fictions straddle the divide?

I’m a Star Wars baby, so I always prefer my fantasy mixed with a healthy shot of SF. Superheroes absolutely straddle that line. There is a fair amount of SF in Ever The Hero and certainly some aspects of what you might consider classic fantasy. Kit is a young, hopeful woman who finds a long missing, mythic object and gains tremendous cosmic power and knowledge, which she then uses to fight the oppressive forces at work in her world.

What fiction or non-fiction are you reading at the moment? Do you read Science Fiction and Fantasy or do you prefer to explore many different genres?

I read pretty broadly. My favorite book of the last year hands down was This Is How You Lose The Time War. Staggering, gorgeous book. I’m currently reading Night Boat To Tangier by Kevin Barry, an Irish writer I love, and Neveryona by Samuel R. Delaney.

Are you a fan of any particular comics or comic artists?

The current revival in X-Men that Jonathan Hickman is doing is just outstanding. I’m a big fan of Tom King, especially the Mister Miracle series, which was so moving and profound. Tula Lotay. I love, love, love a bunch of amazing comics: Saga, Paper Girls, East of West.

On your web-site, you mention your non-fiction writing about “theories on the future of Star Wars and the MCU”. This is (clearly) a vast topic, but what do you think about the influence of mainstream blockbuster movies like the Avengers?

I love to write about film and TV. Less so books, because I think I’m not really an expert there. I’m a monster MCU fan, and the influence of Avengers on culture is hard to quantify.  These films get bigger and bigger, not just in scale, but success, and you wonder where the ceiling is. There may not be one. It could be like with zombies, who embody persistent fears, superheroes are now our persistent aspiration. So long as the quality is there, they’ll go on.

Recently, veteran movie director Martin Scorsese wrote disparagingly about contemporary superhero movies, with an inevitable pushback. Why should anyone still feel the need to express genre snobbery?

Why, indeed. I take his point about the concern for film being crushed under the weight of the blockbuster, but this is a concern as old as film itself. The problem with cinema isn’t that huge movies like Avengers exist, it’s that the studios will take the wrong lessons from them. They do, anyways. They always have. Something makes money, and a decade of knockoffs follows. That’s business. Hollywood is a business. Scorsese can attest to that. Where I would be concerned is if the superhero genre didn’t grow, and that’s not the case. If anything, the genre is showing a real, strong ambition to evolve. You see that in Logan, in The Dark Knight, in the growing diversity in front of and behind the camera. Ever The Hero is a book, but it’s reflective of my own desire to see this genre I love so much continue to seek frontiers rather than stay between the margins of past glories and successes.

Many have grown up – and indeed grown old – with Star Wars. What do you think of its powerful and continuing influence?

Jedi are superheroes, much as Cap and Thor are. The accent of philosophy in Star Wars is likely what it sets apart from just about everything else. We argue about a lot – a lot – in Star Wars fandom, but I think most of it comes from an honest place. We care deeply about the themes, values and beliefs at the root of the saga. They’re timeless, and regardless of whether this or that film is successful, well reviewed or what have you, Star Wars is forever.

If your book were to be made into a movie, who would you choose to direct it?

Oh, wow. Thankfully, I’ll probably never have to pick. I think I would commit some crimes to see what Guillermo del Toro, Ava Duvernay, or Patty Jenkins would do. Kit might be more suited to TV. If that were the case, there are so many great television directors. Deborah Chow, Michelle McLaren, Rick Famuyiwa.

What next? Will there be a sequel to Ever the Hero?

Absolutely there will be a sequel! Ever The Hero has evolved into a series that is really fulfilling a lot of the nerd dreams I had as a kid, wanting my own sandbox to play in. Next up will be a novella, Bloodback, which has Kit face off with some superpowered wolves and then the next novel, The Judgement of Valene, of which I will only say stay tuned.

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | B&N Paperback

About Darby Harn:

Darby Harn is the author of the forthcoming novel EVER THE HERO. His fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone and other venues. He graduated from the University of Iowa and studied in the Irish Writing Program at Trinity College, in Dublin. 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

Ever the Hero (Eververse, Book 1) by Darby Harn

Release date: January 28, 2019
Subgenre: Superheroes

About Ever the Hero: 

 

Superheroes are big business. Imagine not being able to afford them. 

Kit Baldwin just wants to make rent. The only work she can find in the ruins of her devastated city is scavenging for alien technology. When she finds a powerful alien weapon, her discovery pays off more than she could have hoped: it draws the attention of the most powerful of the superhuman Empowered, Valene.

Valene hears everything, everywhere. She suffers for it, and as they begin a precipitous romance, Kit believes she can use the weapon she’s scavenged to mitigate Valene’s pain. If she can’t, Valene will retreat to the soundlessness of space. Without Valene’s compassion, the stricken city is left to the mercy of Valene’s ruthless father, who denies the assistance the city needs unless it can pay for it.

As Valene’s condition worsens, Kit becomes more desperate and unleashes the full power of the alien weapon. In an instant, she is transformed into a being of cosmic power. She can acquire the knowledge and energy of anything – or anyone – she touches.

 

Excerpt:

 

CHECK ONE: ◻ Empowered ◻ Powerless

     I bite my lip. “Is it a problem I don’t have any powers?”

     The woman from HR wrinkles her nose. Must be a problem. I can’t tell. I’m no good at interviews. I’m no good at people, which is unfortunate given how many of them there are. Focus. Check the box. An interview at Great Power is a big deal, even if it’s open. I should be grateful for the opportunity. I should be terrified, but I’m not. That part of me never got switched on. Maybe it never got installed. Doesn’t matter. I can’t afford to be afraid; I’ve got to find a job, and soon. If I don’t, Ma and I will be out on the street.

     “Generally, we employ Empowered,“ she says, and a stray lock of her hair levitates back in line with the rest. Telekinetic. Not telepathic, though; I probably wouldn’t have made it this far. “But some powerless work here. You can have superpowers, but not a brain.”

     “I have a brain,” I say. “Probably goes without saying.”

     “You’d be surprised.” She takes my application. “What is it you scrap and salvage?”

     Good thing she can’t read minds. “Anything.”

     A constant stream of people flows past me through the atrium of the Blackwood Building, one of the greatest engineering wonders in the world. The tower is a giant glass music box, all its floors, stairwells and elevator shafts exposed within a transparent shell free of any obvious architectural support. This woman frowning through my interview sees right through me, I think, but there’s no wonder.

     “You didn’t go to college?”

     I sit up straight. Smooth out the wrinkles in this blouse I thought was decent leaving the apartment, but now feels like someone else’s skin. “My dad died. My mom… I take care of her. It’s just the two of us. So a job here would be – ”

     “I don’t live over there,” she says, wiggling her fingers toward the west, “but I’d think at twenty-seven, you’d have a lot more experience than you do. Retail. Something.”

     I’ve loads of experience. Most of it doesn’t go on a resume. “Jobs are hard to come by across the river.”

     “Your accent. What is that?”

     My lips twist together. “My mother is Irish.”

     “I was going to say. I didn’t think there were, you know.” She wiggles her fingers again. “Black Irish.”

     “Do you have a pen? You’ll need to sign an NDA.”

     She smiles. Sort of. “What brought her over?”

     “I suppose she thought she was going to get a job here.”

     The woman puts on one of those smiles people wear, meant to convey sympathy. “What was your name again?”

     “Kit.”

 

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | B&N Paperback

 

About Darby Harn:

Darby Harn is the author of the forthcoming novel EVER THE HERO. His fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone and other venues. He graduated from the University of Iowa and studied in the Irish Writing Program at Trinity College, in Dublin. 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram