Dark Muse News: Anna Smith Spark’s A Sword of Bronze and Ashes
Welcome to more Dark Muse News. This post reviews Anna Smith Spark’s first book of the series The Making of This World: Ruined. The sequel, A Sword of Gold and Ruin, was recently published in October, 2025.
Anna Smith Spark is known as the Queen of Grimdark, a moniker she acquired with her Empires of Dust series. You can expect the same poetic brutality here. Her style and approach are very unique but are reminiscent of Tanith Lee. Literary wording may keep you distanced as a reader, but the raw emotion expressed throughout is so real that it makes the fantasy feel real, too. We interviewed Anna Smith Spark in 2019 – Disgust and Desire as part of our Beauty in Weird Fiction series, where she revealed all sorts of muses and inspirations. That year, we hosted a Q&A Session at Gen Con; there, she, John O’Neill, and I showed off our footwear (link); Anna’s footwear won hands down!
Anyway, this post reviews the book, offers excerpts, and explains a few new blurbs we posit:
- Hellblade 3: Family Edition!
- If Lewis Caroll’s Alice lived within Little House on the Prairie, infected by Silent Hill, you would experience
A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, Cover Blurb:
A Sword of Bronze and Ashes combines the fierce beauty of Celtic myth with grimdark battle violence. It’s a lyrical, folk horror high fantasy.
Kanda has a good life until shadows from her past return threatening everything she loves. And Kanda, like any parent, has things in her past she does not want her children to know. Red war is coming: pursued by an ancient evil, Kanda must call upon all her strength to protect her family. But how can she keep her children safe, if they want to stand as warriors beside her when the light fades and darkness rises?
Introducing Ikandera Thygethyn (Kandra)
Kandra is the dominant protagonist. She is haunted by memories of her mythological past. At first, it seems she is an unreliable narrator, perhaps a mentally ill one, whom her family, and you as a reader, must trust simply because she is mom. The antagonizing forces do not just affect her, though, and the family embarks on a quest for sirvavil together. This is really fresh stuff. How often have you read a book with these qualities:
- Female protagonist… not a warrior like Jirel of Joiry or Marcel’s Black Widow, but a mother living in a remote homestead
- She is aging… not in her young prime
- Having an identity crisis… not a confident heroine, but one full of doubts and insecurities, fighting memories and dreams
- Accompanied by her family (three young daughters and a passive, farmer husband)… not a sword-wielding buddy or party of four adventurers
Ghosts and Memories are Real
As surely as Kandra wrestles with aging and her identity evolving, she must endure watching her children become independent as they all confront supernatural horrors. Kandra is battling with self-talk and arguments with ghosts. She was once a warrior, but now she is an old mother. Check out Kandra’s description of herself in the Excerpts below. Strangely, I was reminded of Kate McKinnon’s performance on Saturday Night Live with her Gifts from Mom skit, where she plays the stereotypical apologetic, insecure mother. This book is far from comedy, but Kandra is definitely dealing with similar emotions.
Kandra, with her husband Dellet, has three daughters: the oldest is Sal, who is empathetic and quieter compared to the middle child, Calian. Calian is spunky and channels similar powers as her mom; her coming of age as a de facto apprentice sparks much parental grief. The youngest, Morna, offers an innocent perspective and vulnerability.
The mystery of what Kandra did/experienced before marrying Dellet is carefully revealed chapter by chapter. It is tough for her and her family to discern fantasy from reality. Some spell casting is traditional, but one particular mechanic really plays with your mind. As Kandra’s horrors and past threaten her family, she protects them by telling stories. Somehow, the act of storytelling literally creates a shieldwall against lingering nightmares. The implication is wildly fantastic: fiction protects people from supernatural horrors that are becoming real!
If Lewis Caroll’s Alice lived within Little House on the Prairie, infected by Silent Hill, you would experience
Millieu
I am not a native of England or Wales, but as an outsider, the setting screams Celtic and Welsh vibes. Actually, with the potentially psychotic Ikandera Thygethyn in the lead, with disembodied voices and haunting memories stalking her across the Hall of Roven and the mountainous Mal Amwen, I was reminded of the video game series from Nija Theory, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Saga. That game series features Senu, a Pict warrior, on a haunting journey to Vikingesque Helheim to save her lover’s sou known for highlighting mental health through auditory and visual hallucinations, brutal combat, and perception-based puzzles. Rumor has it that a third game is in the works, and there is no reason to think Anna Smith Spark is involved (thought that would be cool); however, could easily function as Hell Blade 3: Family Edition. Think of Senua going through the same horrors, facing similar sword battles, but with a family in tow!
could easily function as Hellblade 3: Family Edition!
Excerpts:
Kandra Describes Herself:
“I wet myself when I laugh too hard, Geiamnyn, I have stretch marks from my armpits to my kneecaps, every other month my bleed is so heavy I should strap a cauldron between my legs. You forgot to mention those things. I’m sure my husband could tell you more about me, if you ask him, I sweat in my sleep so the blanket needs washing, I snore, I fart in my sleep, sometimes I piss and fart when I come.” – p103
Fighting with a Family in Tow
Kandra’s sword clashed against the faceless woman’s white blade. The woman too shrieked in joy. White fire crashed around them, the shock of it crashed through Kandra. So long. Too long. A vast shape rising before her, tall as the sky, all she could see. Arms of white fire, wings of white fire, a sword of fire, a crown of gold flames. She saw it with her eyes closed and burning. She tried to raise her sword, her arms were on fire, her sword was melting, glowing, the bronze glowed and dripped. She could hear the children screaming. through pain she lashed out, felt the blade meet and open long-dead bloodless flesh. “Dellet!” she screamed. “Dellet, get away. The children, Dellet!” -p23
Weird Conflict & Melee
Kandra came to meet the [a “hodden”, think scarecrow with a horse skull]. The broken sword was out, the sword met the stone hand with a stroke so mighty chips of stone flew up. It towered over her, the length of its wooden arms was twicethe twice the length of her sword blade. She spun back, hacked low at its legs. Her sword caught its left leg and sank into it, sending out a shower of rotten wood dust. It neighed, its teeth clacked. A flint hand came down heavily against the shoulder, pain blossomed, she twisted away drgggin the sword out. She tried not hear her family’s cries as they saw she was bleeding. She staggered, struck again. Harder! Harder! A shower of wood dust that made her choke. Splinters of rotten wood in her mouth. Now Kandra gagged and rethced. The hodden lumbered forward, smashed Kandra sideways. She grasped its arm, the wood crumbling under her hand, driving splinters into her skin… -p52
The sequel to the masterpiece folk horror high fantasy A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, a lyrical blend of epic myth and daily life.
Kanda and her family are on a quest to rebuild the glory that was Roven. Mother and daughters stand together as a light against the darkness. But mother and daughters both have hands that are stained red with blood. They walk a path that is stranger and more beautiful than even Kanda dared imagine, bright with joy, bitter with grief. Ghosts and monsters dog their footsteps – but the greatest monsters lie in their hearts.
Anna Smith Spark
Anna Smith Spark is a critically acclaimed, multi-award short-listedgrimdark epic fantasy novelist. She writes lyrical prose-poetry about war, love, landscapes, and war. Her writing has been described as ‘a masterwork’ by Nightmarish Conjurings, ‘an experience like no other series in fantasy’ by Grimdark Magazine, ‘literary Game of Thrones’ by the Sunday Times, and ‘howls like early Moorcock, converses like the best of Le Guin’ by the Daily Mail. Her favourite authors are Mary Renault, R Scott Bakker and M. John Harrison
S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (chairing it in 2023), is the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group, and was an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone Amateur S&S Magazine, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I & II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project.