Simulcast on Black Gate [Oct 9th 2026]: Dark Muse News: Heart of Vengeance & Other Tales of Azatlán by Gregory Mele – Review
Heart of Vengeance & Other Tales of Azatlán by Gregory Mele (Obsidian & Bronze Ltd , Aug 2026, 280 pages). Cover Art by Mark Smylie.
Mele’s Meso-American Mysteries, Melee & Mayhem Awaits
Gregory Mele brings swordplay, sorcery, and the dark gods of
a lost Meso-American world vividly to life in his Heart of Vengeance
& Other Tales of Azatlán (Obsidian & Bronze Ltd.); it is a
thrilling collection of occult mysteries, brutal battles, and weird adventures
where the dead rarely stay dead. Dark Muse News jumped on it became
public in August 2026 (available in several places; check out the author’s
website). It has 14 stories, 4 original and 10 published previously in
various magazines. Their connection? All share characters, deities, and
the land of Tehanuwak (map below). Sprucing up the milieu are fourteen
full-page illustrations by Luigi Castellani, Nicole Allen, Gary McCluskey,
Justin Pfeil, and Mark Smylie. Logan Dustin Whitney (Sword and Sorcery author
and Rogue in the House member) assisted on cover design. The esteemed S&S
champion David C. Smith penned the Foreword, who admits to getting nightmares
from Mele’s Sipan.
“May you have such dreams after reading these great
stories.” David C. Smith’s Foreword
The author’s martial arts background shines through! To
emphasize how mesmerizing these battles are, we provide Excerpts below. Readers
may take note of the careful details regarding spacing between combatants and
timing of attacks. Greg Mele is more than a practitioner of the arts, but a
historian of sorts, having written several books on historic weaponry (In
the Service of Mars: Proceedings from the Western Martial Arts Workshop
1999-2009, Volume I and Volume 2, and Flowers of Battle, Volume III:
Florius de Arte Luctandi (Complete Martial Works of Fiore Dei Liberi, a
Master-At-Arms).
Expect more too! Having read Heart of Vengeance &
Other Tales of Aztalan, I hunger for more (and fantasized about
taking a vacation to Meso-America so I could reread this collection closer to
suitable ambience). Thankfully, Mele expressed in his introduction, “there is
enough material for almost two more volumes, all from the ‘Wanderings of
Sarrumos-cycle.”
For now, read! This post showcases the book’s structure,
includes tons of must-read excerpts, and samples of the interior illustrations.
Back Cover Summary
Tehanuwak, the Land of Obsidian and Bronze, is a sweeping
vista of ancient city-states steaming jungles of the deep south and vast
grasslands ruled by camelops-riding, bison and mammoth-hunting warrior nomads
in unmapped north. But its heartlands are ruled by the Three Empires, each
proud and ambitious, bu none more so than that of Azatlán, City of the White
Hearth. Ruled by the Naakali, a race of foreign conquerors whose distant
homeland was lost beneath the Great Ice, Azatlán’s legions push ever outward, seeking
to bring more of the world beneath the yoke of the Living Sun.
Even in Azatlán, life is not easy. Tehanuwak is a beautiful,
diverse land, but it is not a gentle place. These are the lands of feathered
serpents and ancient ruins long reclaimed by jungle vines. War is everywhere,
both within and without human civilization. The bones of fallen cities litter
the land, decaying monuments to forgotten greatness. Monsters created by
vengeful powers hunt those who wander alone. Far to the north, the Great Ice
grinds south, strange creatures migrating southward out of its path, including
beasts not entirely mortal. Demons dwell in the Dark Between the Stars, ever
pressing against the barriers erected by the Sun and His sister the Moon long
ago. Should they ever pierce it, they will descend on the mortal world like
locusts upon a field. The gods defend Their creation, but They grow weary and
hungry in Their eternal vigilance, and that hunger can only be satiated with
mortal blood.
In this collection of sword & sorcery, dark fantasy,
occult detectives and weird fiction readers are given a panorama of a lost
Bronze Age world, inspired by the legends and civilizations of Mesoamerica, the
American Southwest and the ancient Near-East. Readers of Robert E. Howard,
David Gemmel, andMiles Cameron will find something to love.
Map by Eli Kurtz –
Mythic Gazetteer
Heart of Vengeance & Other Tales of Azatlán Structure:
Section / Genre
- “Creation
of the Fifth World” – 1x Story + Map / Myth
- #1
Tales from the Journals of Ométl Five-Rabbit – 3x Stories / Occult
Detective
- #2
Tales of the Borderlands – 4x Stories / Sword & Sorcery
- #3
Tales of the Underworld – 6x Stories / Weird Sword & Sorcery
- Glossary
Opening Myth
“Creation of the Fifth World” is an original,
yet-unpublished story. Being a solid myth, it lays the foundation for the
collection. The deities presented pervade all the stories, with
Xatanatchoa (the Mother-Father of Nightmares) taking a primary role in the
first section and Xokolatl (Lord of Death) in the third. Some are ubiquitous,
like Hatûm’s represented by the sun whose burning shield begins its descent.
“Xatanatchoa was both Male and Female, and ejaculating semen
into Her many mouths, becoming pregnant. From this act, and from continuous
mating with Her own offspring, She gave birth to all living things… But
Xatanatchoa’s passions were not yet abated. She mated with Her own shadow, from
which was born a misshapen race of night creatures who cannot abide the light
of day. Mating again and again with the strongest, and most horrific of Her own
offspring, the Fecund One continued to sire monstrosities, each more terrible
than the last.” – “Creation of the Fifth World” excerpt.
Deities and their Manifestation & Key Appearances
- Xatanatchoa
— primordial Mother-Father of Monstrous Life — focus of Section 1
- Kouranós
— Time/Fate Destiny, “Written on the Brow”
- Hatûm
— Sun/Courage Imperial religion, warriors, sacrifice
- Atâna
— Moon/Wisdom Moon Court, women, warriors, “Feast of the Hidden Moon”
- Ktuunlós
— Sea entity
- Nanuwatta
— Night/Abyss Stars, darkness, cosmic boundary
- Xokolatl
— Death — entire Section 3: Underworld Cycle
“Khalkeos, my employer, often likens my head’s thickness
to a stone’s, but it proved a poor match for actual granite.” – Ométl character
Section #1: Tales from the Journals of Ométl
Five-Rabbit
These are “occult detective” stories in a sword-and-sorcery
world. These feature a duo with Khalkeos, a sorcerous inquisitor, and Ométl,
his mixed-race warrior/bodyguard narrator, a skeptical, practical warrior who
gets pushed into increasingly bizarre supernatural situations. Khalkeos and
Ométl are hilarious together. Avoiding spoilers, watch out for their ‘crocodile
dung’ predicaments. Anyway, Khalkeos investigates supernatural crimes,
disappearances, hauntings, necromancy, and occult conspiracies, while Ométl
provides the grounded warrior’s perspective and leads the way through the front
lines of the crime scenes. The mysteries begin as seemingly mundane crimes or
political problems before revealing the supernatural with gusto. The tone and
adventure are reminiscent of Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser style.
- “Shadows
of a Forgotten Queen” previously appeared in Tales from the Magician’s
Skull #6 (2021)
- “Feast
of the Hidden Moon” previously appeared in Crimson Quill Quarterly #7
(Sept 2025)
- “The
Headhunter of Taltopék” previously appeared in Crimson Quill Quarterly
#9 (Jan 2026)
“I think the man we dispatched was actually happier to be
traveling with a headless corpse than continuing with us.” – Ométl character
Section #2: Tales of the Borderlands
This section shifts dramatically away from the detective
format. Expect classic Sword & Sorcery survival in the vein of Robert E.
Howard-style adventure. Protagonists are thrown into dangerous situations,
encountering monsters, hostile peoples, supernatural forces, and then have to
fight, escape, endure, or outwit crazy odds. These are journeys from the
northern border of the Empire to the pearl beds of Kaketzewán and eventually
the distant Sea Isles. The “Salt Tears” is a unique take on pearl diving
that will haunt readers.
- “Kai-Chilam’s
Judgment” first time in this collection.
- “Salt
Tears” previously appeared in Whetstone #5 (2022)
- “Bride-Price,
Twice-Paid” previously appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #65 (2025)
- “The
Colossi of Zakatla” previously appeared in Anvil: Iron Age Magazine #5
(2026)
Section #3: Tales of the Underworld
The section follows Siwakalpa, a tepatiani
(“spirit-healer”), and Sipan, an aging priest of Xokolatl, Lord Death.
The Siwalkalpa tales echo the original Ométl tales with a mystery flare,
but she is more erotic and employs sorcery instead of a weapon. The mysteries
she solves all involve ghosts. Expect lots of phantasms here, tormenting the
living or being hunted across realms. These stories lean more toward Clark
Ashton Smith than R.E. Howard. Rather than simply asking, “How do I defeat
this monster?” these stories tend to ask, “What does death even mean and
what happens when the boundary between the living and dead breaks down?”
- “The
Very Small People” previously appeared in Schlock! Magazine (October
2025)
- “Old
Ghosts” previously appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #49 (2021)
- “Obsidian
Butterfly” first time in this collection.
- “Written
on the Brow” first time in this collection.
- “The
Heart of Vengeance” first appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #44
(2020), and then in Die By the Sword, Volume 1, DMR Books (2023)
- “Servant
of the Black Wind” first appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #39
(2019) and then in We Who Are About to Die: An Anthology of Sacrifice,
Rogue Blades Press (2022)
Excerpts
Mele’s Mesoamerican Melee – the author’s practice and study of martial arts shines through
Blood, or its facsimile, gushed, drenching my face; my
attacker stumbled back with an altogether inhuman hiss. Monstrous, bat-like
wings flared outward, blocking the moonlight. Scrambling to my feet, I saw now
what had mauled and hunted the young priestess, though I had no name for it
beyond demon. Its face was both anthropoid and pantherine, but the eyes held a
malignant intelligence that was clearly mannish, while the body was some
blasphemy of man, reptile, beast and bat, made all the more horrible by a random
mingling of hair and scales, and the massive, membranous wings it bore.
I would have to cripple it again and try to flee before it
regained its feet. I immediately went after the sickle arm again, as it was the
demon’s greatest weapon. Unfortunately, it was no longer dysfunctional, and the
demon parried my blow on that thick, horny forearm, then slashed at me. I
barely dodged, and cut at it again, this time at the softer-looking elbow;
again it parried, and the claw hand raked my ribs. I gasped in pain and thrust
it through the heart.
It seems it didn’t have one, as nothing happened, other than
I was now inside its grasp with my sword constrained. Too close for the sickle
arm to disembowel me, I was not too close for the arms to crush me, as the
restored tongue writhed toward my throat.
As Kai-Ch’ilam spiraled forward, mouth opening wide, the
diver flexed his strong legs, kicking out sinuous as an eel, stroking with one
hand. Just as the great fish reached him, the youth glided beneath it, his skin
scraping against the pebbly hide, the tail fin flicking, striking him painfully
as he pushed free and turned, once more spread-eagled, almost motionless. With
a great surge the monster folded on itself and drove towards him once more,
mouth shut now, long, blunted snout driving faster through the water than
before. Along the rail the men saw little but whorls of water and
impressionistic shadows of man and shark dueling below.
… Driving his cloth-wrapped left arm into the open maw, he
wedged it against one of the jaw hinges, as one might a wild dog or wolf, and
drove his obsidian knife to the hilt in its greyish belly, ripping viciously
upward, then drew the knife free and repeated the blow, up and in behind one
set of gills. The sea-jaguar was no dog, however, and the jaws squeezed down
with tremendous force, crushing bone, driving even more air from now burning
lungs.
Club and axe met straight on, forehand blow to forehand
blow, crescent blade hooking over carved wood, but Atsál lacked the strength to
wrench the bigger man’s weapon free from his grasp. Pushing Chipota’s weapon
arm with his left hand, he fouled the man’s knife thrust and broke free,
chopping backhanded at his neck. The blow was hasty, the axe too short; he
scored only a tear in the feather-cloak and a thin red line of blood on a broad
shoulder.
Chipota’s backswing was better placed, the club’s heavy
rootball head catching Atsál just above the hip, knocking him back, which,
ironically saved him from the knife-thrust driving at his face. The young
warrior remained standing, but his breath came in gasps, and he knew ribs were
broken. Slipping farther back he drew his own knife with his left hand.
…With a howl, the other man hurled his knife. Atsál tried
twisting aside, but his hip failed him. The knife struck as his leg buckled,
sinking into his thigh. He crumpled, felt his back strike something hard, and
realized he lay splayed against the base of the Long Face. Chipota bore down on
him, war-club gripped in both hands. Atsál willed himself to rise, failed, and
the club was striking down at his skull. Gripping his axe in both hands, left
hand beneath the head, he parried between his hands, grunting in pain at the
force of the standing man’s blow. A foot lashed out, stomping his belly, broken
rib howling, driving the wind and the fight from him. Atsál looked up into
those rage-maddened eyes, saw the club lifted on high, heard Chipota’s
triumphant war-howl.
Confrontations with Death
A circle of beheaded corpses, all women, lay strewn across
the floor, their blood pooling across the flags. Lord Sennedjem, hands, arms
and chest spattered red, shrank against the vault’s far wall, his eyes staring
wide in horror at the luminescent figure of a woman whose long, ornately
dressed blue-black hair was crowned with a tall, gold diadem with a large
heliotrope bloodstone at its center, surmounted by a fan of white owl-feathers.
Her jade and turquoise jewels were the emblems of royalty and her costume,
elegant yet scandalous, suggested an antiquity far greater than the memory of
any living creature. At the nobleman’s feet lay the leaf-bladed sword…
…I had long since drawn my sword, and good thing, for the
headless corpses were gaining their feet now, tottering, but becoming steadier
by the moment. Still lying scattered about the vault, seven disembodied sets of
eyes scanned the room, and finding their slayer, seemed to guide their headless
bodies towards him. Reanimated hands flexed, opening and closing as if to test
their newly gained strength. A faint, luminous cloud of mist enveloped the
monstrously animated dead, directing those lifeless hands towards Lord
Sennedjem
…blood, or its facsimile, gushed, drenching my face; my
attacker stumbled back with an altogether inhuman hiss. Monstrous, bat-like
wings flared outward, blocking the moonlight.
Scrambling to my feet, I saw now what had mauled and hunted
the young priestess, though I had no name for it beyond demon. Its face was
both anthropoid and pantherine, but the eyes held a malignant intelligence that
was clearly mannish, while the body was some blasphemy of man, reptile, beast
and bat, made all the more horrible by a random mingling of hair and scales,
and the massive, membranous wings it bore.
I stared in horrified bewilderment as I took in the
blood-splattered scene. The vault was octagonal; as large as the shrine above
but made oppressive by the low ceiling and the horrible, blood-stained idol
that dominated the far wall. Its subject was an aged and yet pregnant woman,
what parts of Her were woman at all. Nearly skeletal limbs, claw-like hands and
breasts hanging flaccid from endless birthing. About her swollen belly was a
skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and
skulls. A cadaverous, crone’s face, was surmounted on either side, by two
facing serpents, and a long, alligator’s tail curled around Her clawed feet:
Xatanatchoa, the Dark Grandmother, Source of Life and Mother of Nightmares.
Greg Mele (link to author page)
About the Author Gregory D. Mele has had a passion for sword
& sorcery and historical fiction for most of his life. An early love of
dinosaurs led him to dragons, and from dragons…well, the rest should be
obvious. From Robin Hood to Conan, Elric to Aragorn, Captain Blood to King
Arthur, if there were swords being swung, he was probably reading it.
While a student at the University of Illinois in the early 1990s, he discovered
that there was a vast collection of surviving technical works on fighting with
the sword, rapier, lance and axe. Sword in one hand, book in the other, he
never looked back. Since the late 90s, his passion has been the reconstruction
and preservation of armizare, a martial art developed over 600 years ago by the
famed Italian master-at-arms Fiore dei Liberi. He has become an internationally
known researcher and author on the subject, via his work with the Chicago
Swordplay Guild, which he founded in 1999, and Freelance Academy Press, a
publisher in the fields of martial arts, arms and armour, chivalry, historical
arts and Greg lives with his very tolerant family in the Chicago suburbs.
Artists: Left to Right, Gary McCluskey; Justin Pfeil,
Gary McCluskey
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.
