Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Reviewing SOIL by James D. Mills
SOIL by James
D. Mills (Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing, December 2026); cover art by Henrik
Karippen[/caption]
This Dark Muse News post reviews James D. Mills'
soon-to-be-released, stand-alone novel SOIL (coming
to BackerKit October 29, 2026; freely available for digital viewing now on Arcanist Online).
Excerpts are shared to give you a feel for the style. This article also
provides a tour guide for the other books in the Dusk and Dawn
series.
Just this July, we covered James D. Mills' crowdfunding
Backerkit campaign Mordschlag
Sword and Sorcery Magazine. Besides publishing, he writes a fair amount
too. His SOIL is a folk-horror fantasy firmly rooted in the soil, or
spirit, of the British Isles. Sword and Sorcery fans will enjoy the elements of
melee action, direct encounters with strange gods, and exploration of mystic
temples. The world and culture are fleshed out, and super-infused with intense
child-bearing motifs (more on that below). With a cast of 6+
protagonists, the book is a solid, dark-fantasy epic. It is the second
stand-alone entry in the Dusk and Dawn series.
In Mills' SOIL, expect the heartfelt drama of "Larkrise to Candleford" with ghost hunting, child sacrifices, werewolves, and witch trials.
Despite the Shins being desolate and dreary, the culture
within the village is very homey. As I became acquainted with the characters
and the village, I was reminded of family dramas struggling to survive in
pioneer/frontier settings, TV series like Little House on the Prairie or
Bonanza. Being based on British geographies, Larkrise to Candleford is
a more appropriate comparison (at least for the general feeling of the
setting). However, the Shins are plagued with all sorts of dark fantasy
monstrosities and mythic curses. Indeed, in the highland village of the Shins,
every child is born into a family or onto an Old God’s dinner plate. In short,
readers should expect the heartfelt drama of "Larkrise to Candleford"
with ghost hunting, child sacrifices, werewolves, and witch trials.
In the highland village of the Shins, every child is born into a family or onto an Old God’s dinner plate!
Heroic Characters
So who inhabits the Shins? Key players, your tour guides,
are listed below. Drama between them and the Old Gods abounds. About a third of
these demonstrate extreme heroism and sacrifice. Beware, and enjoy, Mills'
penchant for switching viewpoints in the first-person across various chapters.
This ambitious tactic/style enables readers to experience the madness while
getting to know the characters intimately.
- Snorri
and Gerdur Morn: Shelka's drunken father and her mother who
struggles to manage their wayward daughter
- Shelka
Morn: A resilient girl who survives a neglectful father, Snorri
- Odhun:
Snorri's drinking buddy
- Collin:
Innkeeper and de facto father-figure to the village.
- Ignar:
Collin’s young apprentice cook who seeks courtship
- Ithica:
A gardener with a preternatural gift for growing crops in winter, but
struggles to become pregnant
- Hromgir:
Ithica’s husband and a former "strider" (Viking-like warrior) of
the Sparrow Clan
- Elder
Hama: A village medicine woman and seer of sorts
- Byfoged
Jukil: An arrogant emissary who polices the land
- Visitors
to the village
- Baptiste
Fournier (and Armelia): A fatherly mentor and his adopted daughter;
both with mysterious pasts
- Syr
Edmund Martikov: A knight of the Black House hunting occult figures
- Garland
Musher: A dog sledder assisting Martikov
SOIL
The land itself, the titular soil, almost emerges as a
character. If not independent and sentient, the soil in SOIL is spiritually
infused. Hell, this land has a thumping heart whose pulsing beats call out to
believers (victims?). So if you have organs, you may just be a
character! With the backdrop of a Celtic landscape, the Arthurian legends
of synergistic sovereign-nature landscapes are evoked. Instead of a King and
Land being one, SOIL presents the connection between common folk and their
gods, entangling their lack of fertility with the land's blight. On the
positive side, when properly used in a ritual, earth can be used as a pregnancy
test! The interconnectedness of life, divine pacts, and the physical
manifestations of a spiritual curse are rampant. So if it has a heart, maybe it
is a character.
Child, and Child-bearing, Themes
There is a "child theme" that is pervasive
throughout the novel, often manifesting through characters' infertility,
neglect, predation, and spiritual guardianship. Children in the story seem to
represent both the community’s future and a currency (food?) for the gods. All
the relationships amplify this. Whether it's Snorri Morn's abusive
parenting of his daughter Shelka, or Ithica's balance of her own infertility
with the land's fertility (a plentiful harvest), or the Old God (Gørde), the
Draugr youths haunting the landscape, or Baptiste Fournier's obsession with
raising Armelia... the whole setting is brewing with issues of legacy and
parenthood.
What-to-Expect Excerpts
Gory Murders to be Solved
[male character] lay splayed out in the hay in a pool of his own blood, mounted by a pile of his own innards. His clear umber eyes stared at the ceiling. Though gutted, the rest of [him] was unharmed, save for two weeping punctures upon his neck.
Ghost Children
There was also the troubling matter of the Draugr. Baptiste had chased them off over the last several nights. The spirits haunting the troupe were not the lost warriors and elder kings of ancient epics but the spirits of children, who bore the same mark as Ithica and Shelka Morn. Unobtrusive in their dreadful appearances, Baptiste thought they meant to provide warning. For what, Baptiste could only guess. Was such a warning a threat, or an act of solidarity? The spirits walked only behind or beside the troupe. Clearly, they were not bound to the limits of physicality, and if they chose to, could block their path or cause harm to the mortals in his care...
“Be you so enthralled by my impotence!” he howled at the indifferent Draugr. “Must you mock me so?”
Wordlessly, the ethereal children raised their arms, pointing down the slope, towards the approaching interlopers. Confused and grieved, Baptiste knew not if the Draugr offered a warning or a threat....
Child-Eating, Chthonic Monstrosities
The boy was gone in a heartbeat. The Old God’s terrible, ghostly jaw unhinged and swallowed him whole. It seemed more like walking through a doorway than slipping down the God’s gullet. Snapping shut his jaws, the earth trembled with anticipation for what was to come, and the walls shuddered, as if lungs deep in the blackest depths of the Old God’s cave breathed life after eons comatose...
The Old God sighed relief, his eldritch bipedal body quivering—which I shall never look upon willingly—displacing, then morphing into his preferred form; that of a glorious stag with jagged, gilded antlers. For all things, he looked like a stag, lush tawny fur with a belly the color of eggshells, save for his eyes, which were a man’s. Whether the Old God wore those eyes in his terrible, true form, I’ll never know.
Then the Old God bleated like a goat in heat, his knobby cervine legs tremulous as if in the midst of climax. Bowing his head, he gingerly pierced the earth with the sharp point of his longest antler and spun round to draw a circle, before scribbling yet more incomprehensible characters in the soil.
Mythic Melee
Hromgir and his kinsmen rose like revenants beneath the high noon. Teeth bared in a silent snarl, Hromgir lunged at the soldier and drove his dirk through both linen coif and warm flesh into the base of the wretch’s skull.
Seven others bounded past him, sliding dirks and game knives into throats and groins. Arvid coiled his bulging, tattooed arms round a man’s neck.
Hromgir’s prey slumped before him, dead even before the stream of steaming blood spouting from his neck spattered the snow. Hromgir drew the soldier’s broadsword, tossed the body aside, and charged barefoot over the hardpacked snow toward the Wystran scouts.
And More Melee!
Hromgir dashed to the side, his axe hovering overhead. Ramr snarled and lunged. Hromgir caught the blade on his shield, swung with his axe. Ramr withdrew his blade, parrying. Hromgir shifted his grip, capturing the chieftain’s blade under the beard of his axe.
Ramr roared, kicked Hromgir’s shield. Stumbling back a step, Hromgir’s eyes went wide as the beastly man pressed forward with a furious onslaught of savage swipes and cleaving cuts. Steel drummed on basswood, rang against iron. Hromgir retreated with every strike, hunched behind his shield. Fervent and monstrous, Ramr’s tongue sloughed from between his grinning teeth, and he threw back his arm for a high, killing cut...
Hromgir swung wildly at Ramr, who had recovered his sword, carving alternating sweeping arcs with every step. Ramr reeled, parrying and evading most, but also bearing the pain of a few glancing cuts. The chieftain strafed wide, sword held high. ... Ramr slung a brutal overhead slash, then pulled back, dropping the blade low, and thrust towards Hromgir’s belly...
Hromgir tackled the monstrous man, driving him viciously into the mud. They rolled and struggled, grasping and groping. Mounting his injured foe, Hromgir pinned the chieftain’s sword arm to the ground. Ramr pawed with his off-hand, searching for the dagger at his belt. Hromgir roared and smashed his forehead into Ramr’s nose.
Ramr cackled as blood sprayed, giggling as Hromgir beat him senseless, bloodying his fists against the chieftain’s jaw and cheeks and eyes. Ramr’s hands fell limp at his side, twitching with every blow — but his laughter never ceased. Hromgir struck him again. Once, twice, thrice, then he drew his dirk and drove it into the man’s throat with practiced precision.
Tour Guide to the Dusk and Dawn Milieu
All entries are stand-alone tales. Read them in any order!
Story Chronology
- The Evil Eye
(Short Story published May 20th, 2026 as part of the Michael
Stackpole Chain Story project): Gora Younger, the First Son of the
Chieftain is exiled from his village in the Great Cave after vainly
pursuing his betrothed, who left him to live beneath the sky. After years
sealed away in the dark, Gora is summoned home to investigate a demonic presence
that has taken the tribe’s best warriors and afflicted the Chieftain with
a strange malady, slowly turning his flesh to stone. Diving into uncharted
depths alongside a healer from a strange city, Gora must dispel a curse
that has long shackled his people… and his soul.
- Ashen Rider (2025,
Novel): HE SAVED THE WORLD BUT DAMNED HIS FAMILY. When
her mother is claimed by Death a second time, Kateryna is forced to
abandon her afterlife and descend into Pandemonium—a shattered underworld
shaped by pain, memory, and buried sin. To save her mother’s soul, she
must join forces with her estranged father, whose devotion to a fallen
goddess set this all in motion. Hunted by Morgana, the Goddess Corrupted
and her chosen griffin-riders, Kateryna must journey through the shadows
and confront the reality of her own dark past—because in Pandemonium,
death is only the beginning.
- The
Dragon of Ost’safir (Short Story, published in Mordschlag Issue #0; Tarmun
the Roach)
- A Feast For Pan
(Short Story published March 25, 2026 as part of the Michael
Stackpole Chain Story project): Hromgir and Arvid of Clan Sparrow are
on the run after a raid gone wrong. Braving the frozen wastes of the
northern coast, they must reach the mountain pass to escape the Western
riders close on their heels. Hiding from the riders, they take shelter in
the depths of a strange cave, unearthing otherworldly horrors better left
buried
- SOIL (2026,
Novel – Coming to BackerKit, September 13th, 2026. Read freely
now on Arcanist Online). SOME HUNGERS CANNOT BE SATED. The Village
in the Shins sits at the edge of the known world, overlooked by the
tallest Guardians and protected by something older than memory. Its people
are sincere, stubborn, and slowly starving, except for Ithica, whose
garden blooms through the hardest winters, whose hands coax life from
frozen soil. Yet her prayers for a child of her own go unanswered year
after year. When strangers arrive from the south-a pallid scholar and his
beautiful apprentice, both bearing a deadly secret-the village opens its doors
as it always has. But something watches from the treeline. Children wander
into the frigid woods and never return. An ancient power is feeding on the
land, and the most unlikely soul in the village, a fierce, lonely girl who
hasn't been home in days, may be the only one who sees it clearly.
Overshadowed by the sorcerous presence of an old god, haunted by the
ghosts of lost and frozen children, Ithica and the Shinfolk must free
themselves from an insatiable hunger.
- What
Lies Below (planned for 2027, Novel)
James D. Mills is a writer, editor, and a wanderer.
He writes Dark Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery. His main goal is to be awarded
"Best Dad Ever" for 18 consecutive years by the people who matter
most. After that, he wants to topple that record indefinitely. He is best
known for his role as Editor-in-Chief of The Arcanist: Fantasy
Publishing. His Sword & Sorcery has been featured by Michael A.
Stackpole’s Chain Story 2 Project. He is author of the Dark Fantasy
novels, ASHEN
RIDER and SOIL,
which are freely available on Arcanist
Online.
S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor
at Blackgate.com, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors
on ‘Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction’, and running Dark Muse News. He
has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (2021-2023) and
the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; he even interned for Tales from the
Magician’s Skull magazine and is an Assistant Editor for Battleborn 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 these
have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery online
magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades (Vol. I
and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From
the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael
Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project.
