Writing Grimdark Fantasy with Ryan Van Loan, author of THE SIN IN THE STEEL
In this episode, I’m joined by Ryan Van Loan, author of THE SIN IN THE STEEL. This debut Fantasy adventure sets a Sherlockian teenage street rat investigator and her troubled ex-soldier partner against political intrigue and violent piracy.
In a world where pistoles and steel compete with mad mages and vengeful gods, Buc and Eld are sent to solve a tangled mystery that threatens to destabilize trade and society.
But each are haunted by failures from their pasts, and their present—full of meddlesome dead gods and ship-sinking pirate queens—doesn’t look too promising, either.
THE SIN IN THE STEEL is available now from TOR Books—available at:
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Watch this interview on YouTube
About Ryan Van Loan
Ryan Van Loan started reading his Grandfather’s Reader’s Digest when he was four years old. Soon after, he read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer before eventually discovering science fiction and fantasy through the works of Robin McKinley, Robert Jordan, Stephen King and many more. He moved around a lot in his childhood from Montana to Georgia to Puerto Rico before finally ending up in Pennsylvania.
Ryan served six years as a Sergeant in the United States Army Infantry (PA National Guard) where he served on the front lines of Afghanistan. All of that travel got into his blood and Ryan has traveled around the world with his wife, wandering Caribbean island haunts, exploring the palaces and cathedrals of Europe, and hiking with elephants in the rain forests of Southeast Asia.
When he’s not traveling Ryan enjoys hiking, soccer (football), tabletop gaming, weightlifting (with his personal best coming from deadlifting three times his body weight), and all things culinary. Today, Ryan lives in northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two dogs where he’s hard at work on his next novel.
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About THE SIN IN THE STEEL
Ryan Van Loan’s The Sin in the Steel is a sparkling debut fantasy set in a diverse world, featuring dead gods, a pirate queen, shapeshifting mages, and a Sherlockian teenager determined to upend her society.
Heroes for hire. If you can pay.
Buc: Brilliant street-rat. Her mind leaps from clues to conclusions in the blink of an eye.
Eld: Ex-soldier. Buc’s partner-in-crime.
No. Not in crime—in crime-solving.
They’ve been hired for their biggest job yet—one that will set them up for a life of ease.
If they survive.
Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.
It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.
Now all Buc and Eld have to do is sink the Widowmaker’s ship….
Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans.
Unfortunately for the gods, so does Buc.
