A society where the only good citizen is a dead citizen: The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies Illustrated Dystopian SciFi by Sandy Butchers ➱ Book Tour with Guest Post and giveaway

 

 

A machine who firmly believes he is human

A mercenary with a conscience

A society where the only good citizen is a dead citizen

No wonder humanity balances on the brink of extinction...

Event Horizon

Singularian Grimoire Anthology Vol 1

by Sandy Butchers

Genre: Illustrated Dystopian SciFi 

PART OF THE 2022 NEBULA AWARD READING LIST

"Once, I may have walked the earth a man, but today I am no more than a machine."

In a fallen world where Hunters and Hoarders fight over the last scraps of old-world technology, Sovren awakens in a cave with no memory of what happened the day of the cataclysm. Hunted down by what remains of humanity, he finds himself at the start of a war where humans, monsters, and computers fight for dominance.

In a world torn between becoming machines or becoming monsters, whose side are you on?

The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are a complex tapestry of post-apocalyptic tales told across time. With over 150 illustrations and stories spread across 4 action-packed, dystopian books with a cyberpunk edge to them, these are not your average novels...these are adventures.

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Darkness Rising

Singularian Grimoire Anthology Vol 2

PART OF THE 2022 NEBULA AWARDS READING LIST

New knowledge leads to old answers when Sovren discovers his existence is no longer a secret...

Following the events of Vol. 1 - Event Horizon, Sovren meets a mysterious woman who knows more about him than she should. Blinded by his yearning for answers about his past, he follows her cryptic clues to an old Sixsmith Facility. Amidst the ruins of an old H.E.L.A. module, Sovren finds what he is looking for... along with half an army ready to claim the bounty on his head.

The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are a complex tapestry of post-apocalyptic tales told across time. With over 150 illustrations spread across 4 action-packed, dystopian books with a cyberpunk edge to them, these are not your average novels...these are adventures.

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Drifting Shadows

Singularian Grimoire Anthology Vol 3

An assassin and a living weapon must join forces for the imminent war. Neither thought forging allies with the enemy included a deal with Death.

Following the Battle of the Bunker in Vol. 2 - Darkness Rising, Crow finds himself cut off from everyone and everything he thought could help him keep the Singularian out of Griswold’s hands. But while Crow finds himself worlds apart from what he set out to do, Sovren is forced to ally himself with the enemy to fulfill his purpose. Now, the unlikely alliance is all that prevents the Datcheries and Griswold from forging a new generation of hybrid monsters.

The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are a complex tapestry of post-apocalyptic tales told across time. With over 150 illustrations and stories spread across 4 action-packed, dystopian books with a cyberpunk edge to them, these are not your average novels...these are adventures.

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Cold Fusion

Singularian Grimoire Anthology Vol 4

Divided and ready to be conquered, Sovren and his allies find themselves facing their demons, ghosts, and worst nightmares.

Following the events of Vol. 3 - Drifting Shadows, Sovren finds himself drifting between data and reality. Here, an old protocol re-enters the core database of Sovren's network, allowing the old H.E.L.A. module in the Sixsmith facility to finally fight back. But while Sovren and Hela forge a permanent connection to counter Griswold's advances, Crow is presented a choice by Death: team up with the Prime Movers to help rid the world of evil or face the darkness.

In this thrilling finale of The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies, the last pieces to the puzzle are put in place to answer the eternal question... What is it that makes us human?

The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are a complex tapestry of post-apocalyptic tales told across time. With over 150 illustrations and stories spread over these 4 action-packed, dystopian books with a cyberpunk edge to them, these are not your average novels...these are adventures.

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Excerpt:  Event Horizon

 

Once, I may have walked the earth as a man, but today...

today I am to most, no more than a machine. A relic from an

age long gone. A silent sentinel of secrets kept by companies

and corporations that no longer exist. I am alive yet lifeless,

my consciousness trapped inside a maze of wires, synthetic

muscles, and genetically enhanced skin grown from a petri

dish.

Now, inside this hard drive I call my brain, memories from

at least four centuries are saved and accessible like books in

a library. What bothers me is that I can’t remember simple

things like my name. I mean, yes, I go by the name of Sovren

now, but I’ve been wondering what my name used to be before

I awoke underneath a vault of glass and steel.

First, there was floating. Lifeless, weightless...formless. I

existed yet was nothing.

No one. A pale light floated above me, or beneath me; as

directions fell along dimensions that weren’t there. There was

a light, flickering several times as I felt it echo inside my chest

with a burning pain that tore at my ribs until it bit tight into

where I once had a heart. The flickering became booming,

thunderous strikes—pounding like hammers against my body.

I remember screaming, hurting, being swallowed by pain, and

devoured by a feeling of helplessness I cannot describe with

words. When I thought my chest would burst, I screamed as I

could no longer bear the pain. My eyes opened and adjusted

to the bright light above me. Squinting to focus, I noticed the

small green letters blinking in the corners of my sight. A voice

I did not recognize as my own glitched to life in the back of my

head. Software... a boot sequence. My boot sequence.

 

The awakening. It is what I have come to call it as it was

neither birth nor rebirth. That moment, when I first looked up

through my mechanical eyes and saw the sky turn red in the

light of a comet passing over the glass ceiling...that’s when I

awoke from the deep slumber: the synthetic equation between

life and death.

 

Excerpt:  Darkness Rising

 

“Tell me about the Crow,” I said as I pulled the bore cleaner

through the barrel of my gun. It took me some days to find

a merchant who traded cleaning kits for relics like the old

Springfield. I’d been wanting to trade it for a good old Amalov,

something argon powered or electric preferably, but at this

point, the cleaning kit sufficed.

My eyes rolled from the end of my barrel to the bleak

brown eyes of the woman opposite me. She must have been

in her thirties by the looks of it. Her skin was tan and worn by

the sun, drawn with streaks of dust and dirt. Her brown hair

was tied into a bun at the back of her head and fell flat against

the vibrance of her smile. “You do know him, don’t you?”

The woman snorted quietly. “Of course I do. He works for

Datchery.”

“Who is Datchery?” I asked, raising one of my eyebrows at

the name.

With a smile, the woman leaned back in her creaking chair

and folded her arms across her chest. “When did you arrive at

The Reach?”

I flashed a polite smile, squinting my eyes from behind my

sunglasses. “A couple of weeks ago,” I answered.

“Datchery runs The Reach, him and his boy, that is. John

and James, although James is a filthy little fucker if you’d ask

me.”

I laughed at her impertinence and rested my gun on my

knee. “Why do I feel like you don’t like to do business with

them?”

“Probably because I have a special knife in my belt to slit

his throat if he ever sets foot on my ground,” the woman

chuckled, raw and bitter but with a genuine smile hidden

behind her words.

“What do I call you?” Again, my eyes narrowed as I tried to

measure the woman’s worth.

“And here I thought you wanted to know about the Crow.”

 

Excerpt:  Drifting Shadows

 

I followed the trail of dog hair and footprints through the

mud, even with half the tracks washed away by now. If not for

the paw marks, deep and ragged boots had left their presence

in the dirt. They were easy enough to trace all the way to the

river junction Glasha had mentioned as a landmark. Keeping

right, it was hard to miss the orange glow of torchlight and fire

in the distance.

“Are you picking up on anything?” I asked as I crouched

low behind a pile of timber. Reaching out my hand and

stretching out my fingers, I combed through the frequencies

I felt humming through the night. Some radio noises and

chipped words resonated, but nothing serious. A radio

scanner interfered, and the low humming of batteries and

electromagnetic wires whirring underground was, at worst, a

distraction; nothing more.

“I’m not picking up any comms if that’s what you’re asking,”

Ghost answered. “Be wary though.”

“Copy that. With that dog and wolf-boy around their

compound, I don’t like not having any signals. We don’t know

where the hell they are.”

“Right where you don’t want them to be,” a voice answered

from behind me. “Get up and put your hands behind your

head, slowly.”

I looked over my shoulder and sighed when I saw two silver

eyes shimmer at me from out of the darkness. That, and the

glowing lights in the side of his gun, indicating that it was

fully charged and ready to fire should I make a wrong move.

“Easy now, wolf-boy,” I mocked, “I’m not here for any trouble.

Glasha invited me to come over, you were there when she did.”

“I want to see those hands behind your head.”

“So do I, but I’m telling you, it’s not possible.” I turned

around to show him my tied-up arm, using my functional

hand to twist the wire and make them spark. “It’s broken and

immobile. What was your name again? Was it Rex? No, Balto?

Shit, I forgot, I’m sorry.”

The man in front of me emitted a low growl shuddering

from his throat. “Yalmar,” he answered, “hand behind your

head.”

I listened.

 

 

Excerpt:  Cold Fusion

 

“You can see it, can’t you?” Hela asked.

“Bits and pieces.” My voice was nothing more than an

absentminded hum. “I barely have enough left to recall any

details. I remember Sixsmith used to sit there,” I said, pointing

at the desk, “and you were…” I wasn’t quite sure how to say

this, but I gave it my best shot. “You were little more than a

voice on the radio. No. You were a voice inside my head before

that.”

Hela left the door ajar when she walked further into the

lab. She brushed her hand along my back when she passed

me and leaned against the table in the middle of the room. “I

made you, Sovren. I had hoped you would remember me as

more than just a voice.”

“Sixsmith created me,” I started, but Hela was quick to

interrupt me.

“Lester built you a body. Who do you think wrote your

algorithms, though?”

I remained silent for a second, considering what she said.

“As gifted as humanity is when it comes to creating things,

they will never be smart enough to understand the complexity

of the mind.” She folded her arms across her chest. Her core

glowed peacefully between her breasts. “When you awoke

here, on this table, I placed the final command line in your

sequence.”

“What sequence? I thought I was Quinn Corbyn?” I

frowned, confused by the many forms and memories that

trickled back into my mind like drops of water dripping down

from an icicle into a bucket.

Hela cast her eyes at the skylight above and smiled

wistfully. “The fact that people made you believe you were Mr.

Corbyn, should be proof enough that they do not understand

the complexity of what the Singularian was meant to be.”

Before she continued, she allowed her gaze to glide from the

sky above to the old computer systems around, and my face

before her. “Have you ever felt like you were not alone?”

I gasped quietly and whispered. “Ghost.”

 

Riddle me this…

Storytelling is an ancient and beloved form of art that has captivated the human imagination for more centuries than we can count on our fingers. Whether through the written word, oral tradition, or visual media, stories have the power to transport us to different worlds, evoke powerful emotions, and challenge our intellect. One effective technique that has stood the test of time in engaging audiences, is the incorporation of puzzles, art, and riddles into a narrative. Today I’d like to lift the curtain a bit on what that has meant for my work as an author/artist throughout the years…

 

Engagement and Immersion: becoming a part of the story.

Puzzles and riddles serve as a powerful tool to captivate and immerse readers in a story. When a character encounters a challenge, the reader, too, is invited to actively participate in solving that mystery. Although I am very much NOT a mystery author, the intrigue of mystery itself is a very important part of my work.

Consider The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies. Sovren, one of the main characters, often runs into binary codes produced by old computers, or finds cyphers hidden in old thumb-drives that have survived the apocalypse. Everything you need to solve these puzzles is right in front of you, but you will often have to look carefully to find where the key to the cypher is hidden. Sometimes, you’ll find the solution in an illustration. Other times, you’ll find it in bold words or letters across the book, forming a sentence… If you want to full experience to my novels, you’re going to have to keep a sharp eye on the details.

 

Becoming allies with the main characters.

But the riddles you’ll find aren’t just for you. I didn’t create them to taunt you or drive you mad. They are also a narrative device through which the main characters are introduced to conflict, pushing the story forward to new layers of lore and worldbuilding. Since The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are collections of short stories connected across time, the riddles are a way to hold everything together. But don’t be afraid, these aren’t books that require a notebook or anything of the sort. All it requires is a sharp eye… and an understanding of how a post-apocalyptic world would communicate in secret if the future depended on it---and trust me, that will become clear the moment you open the books 😉

As readers, we relish the opportunity to accompany characters on their journeys and discoveries. Through my stories and the mysteries they hold, I hope my books provide the perfect vehicle for such adventures. So, if you are a reader seeking an immersive and intellectually stimulating experience, The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies are definitely for you. Would you like to know more? I invite you to solve the riddle…

www.sandybutchers.com/???

Sandy Butchers is an author and an artist, known for her elaborate dystopian sci-fi worlds and creature designs. After living in Scandinavia for a year and traveling throughout the world, she now settled in the countryside along with a variety of pets and maps on which 'X' marks the spot.

With the launch of The Singularian Grimoire Anthologies, she's set a new bar for illustrated science fiction, breaking the boundaries of interactive reading, art, and thrilling adventures. Today, she is represented by Global Lion MGT, with a multitude of novels and art pieces in the works.

For more information on her award-winning stories and work, go to: https://www.sandybutchers.com

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