In case you were unaware, my recently released anthology of fantasy novellas and short stories, The Dark Forest Within, has been extensively under the microscope on this site. Featuring six tales of magic and mystery, darkness and danger, adventure and romance, triumph and tragedy, this volume is both a companion piece to my novel Ravenseed and a carefully curated collection of tales in its own right.

No prior knowledge of Ravenseed is necessary to read this collection, nor do the two stories exclusive to it, acting as both prequel and sequel, spoil the experience of reading the novel in any way whatsoever. They are entirely standalone tales.

Totalling around 100,000 words, this epic collection is excellent value, featuring some of the best fantasy tales I’ve written to date. Selecting these six, and indeed ordering them, proved an interesting challenge, as I wanted the reading experience to feel collective and thematically unified. Each story features literal journeys in forests of one kind or another, and each story’s protagonist also features an inward journey, hence the umbrella title for the anthology, The Dark Forest Within.

Some of these stories were previously available to Substack or Medium subscribers, but 40,000 words worth of material (specifically the stories Wulfric’s Quest and Winged) is previously unpublished, unseen anywhere up until now. The first two stories in the collection are set in the present, the third is set in a modern parallel world, and the final three are all set in the Dark Ages in the Arthurian tradition.

To whet your appetite, here’s a little about each story in the collection in the order in which they appear.

Papercut

Gabriel is a lonely teenage boy living with his strict Jehovah’s Witness mother. He is visited in dreams by a mysterious paper girl. A surreal romantic adventure ensues, visiting the occasional dark corner. That’s not surprising, as the story deals with a few darker themes, including oppressive religious legalism, absent fathers, and overcoming fear. It’s also set at Christmas, along with the second story in this volume (I thought they’d go well together).

More about this story here.

An In-Between Christmas

Sophie is a young struggling writer, attempting to contact her comatose father, who is at the point of death. She is joined by a young man called Yousef, who has prior experience traversing the In-Between, a mysterious realm between life and death. Fantastical adventures ensue, but Sophie is also drawn deep into the traumatic secrets of her past, which she must confront before she can reach her father.

More about this story here.

Window of the Soul

This story is set in a parallel world gripped by a civil war between East and West. In the East, a young adolescent girl, Inessa, finds herself at the mercy of a domineering, abusive, paranoid stepfather who wishes to cut out her eyes and replace them with “double-glazed” synthetic eyes. He believes this will protect her from the evil spirits that may enter her soul if she reads books containing propaganda from the West. Inessa’s mother continually argues against this, but will she prevail? In the meantime, Inessa receives a secret summons to the nearby woodland and discovers a mysterious hidden library.

More about this story here.

Wulfric’s Quest

This can be read as a sequel to Ravenseed, if you wish to interpret it as such, but at 27,000 words, I consider this novella the centrepiece of the anthology. The titular Wulfric is a peasant farmer sent by his village on a perilous journey to track down the reclusive wizard Vulcyth. The villagers believe Vulcyth will be able to prevent a supernatural attack on their settlement, as foretold in a vision. Along the way, Wulfric is given shelter by Elise, wife of the knight Sir Roderick, who is presently away with the King fighting a war in the north.

Elise and Wulfric experience a powerful mutual attraction that seems mysterious and magical, though both restrain themselves. Events take a turn for the peculiar when Sir Roderick turns up, and Elise says she’s never seen him before in her life, claiming he is an impostor. Sir Roderick insists he is the one and only Sir Roderick, but claims to have never been married and that he doesn’t know Elise. Together, they journey into a forbidden forest, hoping to find Vulcyth and discover answers to the various mysteries. But an evil power conspires against them.

More about this story here.

Winged

A direct prequel to Ravenseed, set one year beforehand. The first act features Sir Matthew and Sir Peter, their squires Robin and Hugh, and their horses, all of whom feature in the main narrative of Ravenseed. However, whilst they are main characters in the novel, they are side characters here, riding in escort to Winged’s protagonist, a mysterious woman of the King’s court called Lady Amelia. At the advice of the King’s wizard, she undertakes a dangerous quest for reasons that she initially keeps secret from those escorting her. But Sir Matthew, Sir Peter, and the others are only instructed to escort her so far, to the end of the Forest of Arden. From there, she is to continue alone.

As the first act of the story progresses, it becomes clear there’s a lot more to Lady Amelia than meets the eye. She appears to have unusual powers. What’s more, when the party faces danger from attacking bandits, it becomes abundantly clear that she doesn’t require the protection of knights. Her escort is merely to keep up appearances. But what does she seek in the Forest of Arden, and why does she intend to travel off the safe paths through it, into areas where demons lurk in the most dangerous parts of the wood?

More about this story here.

Bloodmire

Sir William rides on a rescue mission into the dreaded Bloodmire Forest to rescue his betrothed. Witnesses claim she was abducted by a feared beast who dwells in the heart of the sinister woodland. During his journey, Sir William encounters bandits, witches, and other strange supernatural beings. But per the theme of this anthology, as he travels deeper into the forest, he travels deeper into himself. What he finds inside perhaps doesn’t quite conform to the noble knight Sir William wishes to believe that he is. In addition, he is warned at several points that his quest is futile. Is it? Should he listen to such advice?

This story is a spin-off from Ravenseed in that it features one of the supporting characters (a mysterious monk). Bloodmire is the darkest story in this volume, though I have slightly revised the ending in comparison with the original version published on Medium. More about that, and other elements of this story, here.

Bonus Substack Exclusive: Offline Dream

To be clear, this novella isn’t featured in The Dark Forest Within, but I have made it available online. It concerns a future where humans cannot dream without plugging their brains into the carefully controlled International Dream Network. A young student at Oxford has a natural dream involving a mysterious girl he’s never met. Unfortunately, this makes him a target to those who wish to exploit him for one reason or another. For more on why Offline Dream wasn’t included in the collection, and how you can read it exclusively on Substack, click here.

The Dark Forest Within is out now in ebook or paperback via Amazon here (in the UK) and here (in the US). For Draft2Digital and its various outlets, you can pick up ebooks and paperback copies here.

(All images created by author in Canva.)