Aardehn: Awakening

You need to read this one!

Hey Friends,

If you haven’t seen it, my new book is on Kickstarter! And it’s doing pretty well :)

The page has tons of great details about the book, but I wanted to give you my summary because, you see, AARDEHN: AWAKENING may need a warning.

It’s not for kids…

It's basically what would happen if BLADE RUNNER

hooked up with AKIRA

in a goth club while KILL BILL VOL. 1 & 2 are streaming in the background.

It is not a book for children, that’s for sure.

It’s about an agent named Celeste, who had her memory wiped (I’m not spoiling why/how - so don’t bother asking) but has finally managed to get her life together despite her somewhat negative attitude towards authority.

She mostly gets away with this rebellious "I do what I want" routine because who doesn't like a tall, attractive special agent with a samurai sword, an obsession with motorcycles (they’re called zipbikes), an unknown past? Honestly this shit is gold, where’s my Eisner.

Before you ask, yes, this all takes place in a cyberpunk city. But no, it’s not about corpos and greed. It’s about kidnapping, rituals, and blood. 

Fine, fine... mainly blood.

You see, the setting of the book is a city that runs—fuel, energy, currency—on blood.

Celeste works policing the illegal blood trade. Her two partners are both synthetically upgraded and a bit unhinged (they’re completely nuts).

This all brings us to her mission. She’s hunting down a killer named The Teardrinker. And you’ll come to see that name is well earned.

Aside: Good job if you're catching some GHOST IN THE SHELL vibes. It was a massive influence on what we're doing with Aardehn (along with Blade Runner, Kill Bill, and Akira), so while the story is wildly different, feel free to make that link and allow me to post this GIF.

Did I mention that this is a novella with comics and full-page art? 

You may be wondering: WHAT is that?

Well, it’s beautiful.
And quite sexy (not smutty)
and fast-paced, funny at times... and well, oozing the feeling you get seeing this image:

It’s a combination of prose, comics, and illustration that you would know from famous works like… umm… hmm… 

Hey, let’s call it a unique category. 

Think of it as more cinematic than a typical novel and more inside the character's heads than a movie. 

It’s a big, bold, and beautiful experience.

It has some rather gritty supernatural elements even while being cyberpunk. Call it “Neon Noir,” if you will. 

The world is harsh. Things are done with a sword that… well, I can’t tell you. But if sword violence, identity crisis, supernatural evil, sexy synthetics, and buckets of blood aren't your thing, we’re not offended (Hi mom!). Give the party an Irish goodbye; we promise not to force you to stay quiet about what you’ve learned here.

Oh yeah, there’s cussing too. It is, as I may have previously mentioned, not for kids.

But it is overflowing with fantastic art. My partner in crime, Eric Vedder, brings so many varied styles to the table.

Yes, it’s pretty stunning. And I think the prose part is stunning, too.

Like "best stuff I've ever written" stunning.

I mean fuuuuuuuckingstunning.

But it's 100% not for kids or tweens or what have you. So, if your local indie bookstore puts it in a section alongside FOREST FOLK and you find your seven-year-old reading it while rocking themselves back and forth… well, before you send me an angry tweet, please consider this post.

I hope you love the concept and consider backing the Kickstarter! To get in on it: HIT THIS LINK.  

Plus, this book comes from Raid Press (just like TSTS did), so you know it will look and feel like a gift from the book design cyber-gods.

If you liked TO STEAL THE SUN, and I sincerely hope you'll consider AARDEHN: AWAKENING. 

p.s. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll try to answer in the comments.

p.p.s. Special thanks to Jay’s review for the format idea.