All The Write Stuff: The Brittle Riders

After humans circumvented anti-AI laws and made new species to fulfill roles of menial laborers, sex slaves, and shock troops those creations eventually rose up and killed every man, woman, and child on the planet. This is the world if Frankenstein's monsters ruled the Earth.

The Brittle Riders

Book One

by Bill McCormick

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy

In a far future, Earth had already been visited by an alien race called the Sominids, who came here for the express purpose of drinking and having sex with everyone they could. When one of their infamous parties resulted in the moon being cut in half and killing everyone who happened to live there, they quietly left. Their encounter with the Sominids had taught the human race many things, primarily that faster-than-light travel did not exist. Denied the stars, the human race began to dwindle in numbers and terminate all of their space programs.

A thousand years later, a scientist named Edward Q. Rohta circumvented anti-AI laws, laws which had been on the books for millennia, by creating organic creatures to provide manual labor. Instead of dying after ten years, as promised in the company brochure, they would develop flu-like symptoms and go into hiding. Eventually, fed up with the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of humans, they rose up and killed every man, woman, and child on the planet. This is the story of what happens next. The Brittle Riders; Apocalypses are funny that way.

A very unique tone and world, reminiscent of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY meets a MAGNIFICENT SEVEN/DIRTY DOZEN - type setup, but with a look, flavor, and lexicon all its own. In a world where studios and streamers are looking for IP that's expansive, both narratively and in terms of ancillary possibilities (prequels, offshoots, video games, etc.), (The Brittle Riders) certainly seems to offer up a number of possibilities. - Garrick Dion – Producer

GUEST POST

What inspired you to write this book?

I used to tour with a lot of bands. No matter the genre, we spent a lot of time on buses traveling through farmland. After a while, I began to wonder what would happen if the animals I saw could talk. Then what would happen if they had access to weapons? I initially wrote a twelve-hundred-page book about all this, and to be fair, it sucked. Even the cliches were wrapped in cliches. Think Sword of Truth, Shield of Valor kind of crap. Years later, I found my notes, decided the characters were interesting, even if my original story wasn’t, and took another swipe at it. I’m glad I did.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The Brittle Riders?

Absolutely. One of the things I tried to do was create diverse characters with little or nothing in common other than their status as outcasts. I figured that way, the backstories for each would keep readers interested and allow the characters to develop along paths that readers might not expect.

Geldish, the leader, lost his flesh in a battle centuries ago and is only now strong enough to seek revenge. While his species was once numerous, there are now only four left, and there is no way for that number to increase. BraarB, part centaur, part armadillo, watched her family and friends get killed and then ended up being a queen’s assistant. While raised in a land of peace, she became a skilled killer and ambassador. R’yune, a wolfen, was born with a deformed tongue and couldn’t speak. His pack cared for him but treated him as something lesser, even though his grades and weapons skills were above average. He left his pack to become a hunter for the ruling class after deciding if he couldn’t get respect, money would suffice. N’leah, a succubus, was kidnapped around her fifteenth birthday and sold to be a sex slave for indolent members of the ruling class. By her fortieth birthday, her sharp tongue and sharper claws had worn out her welcome, and she was scheduled to be killed. R’yune discovered this, killed her assassins, and escaped with her into the wilderness. Sland was the son of a clan leader of the Badgebeth. Looked down on because he was perceived to be stupid, he attempted to prove his worth by leading a hunt for a dangerous predator. However, because he accepted money from outsiders, his father banished him. Also, by accepting that money, he exposed his clan to the ruling warlord, who hunted them down and killed many.

Also, since they were living on the fringes of society, I modeled their social mores after modern societies that are estranged from our contemporary civilizations. Basically, they are capable of extreme violence when needed and wear only the clothing necessary to survive. An early scene in the book sets the tone when N’leah helps BraarB wipe the evening’s moisture off her breasts while they’re sitting in a bar drinking skank. They don’t care what outsiders think; they look out for each other.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Given the nature of my job and affiliation with a FOX-attached radio station, I had to watch what I said about politics and so on. But when writing, I could do a deep dive into anything I wanted. With The Brittle Riders, I was able to assign a type of society to each culture, ranging from agrarian to technologically advanced, and then pick apart how each society could interact with the others. It also allowed me to look at how each society affected the citizens living in them.

Moreover, it allowed me to create a benign, for now, system of banking and finance. One that benefited society but still held practical approaches to loans and so on. Since I’m inherently lazy, it was originally conceived as a way for me to avoid creating multiple banking systems, one for each society. However, based on emails I’ve gotten, it’s spurred a lot of serious thought from people who are smarter than me.

Who designed your book covers?

Funny story. The first cover was designed by me and everyone, even me, hated it. So I hired Jiba Molei Andreson, a world-renowned artist from Liberia currently teaching in Chicago, to come up with something new. His cover, featuring N’leah knelling in the wilderness, got me a ton of Internet likes but, eventually, was deemed porn by Amazon’s ethics cretins. Attempts to argue that were met with derision, so I hired Bhri Stokes to take a stab at it. Her cover, of an apocalyptic landscape, color matched for each book, was well received. Then, when the series started getting interest from film companies, my publisher decided to up the ante by re-editing the series and hiring Ian Bristow to create the tinted and twisted lab setting. That is the cover you have now.

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

Yeah, I learned to be terrified of theoretical geneticists. While the mutant creations in my books exist thousands of years in our future, these maniacs are thinking about how to create them now. Granted, they claim their research is for information purposes only, I am baffled to think what beneficial information can be gleaned from learning how to splice a cow’s DNA into a human’s.

How did you come up with the name of this book?

I wanted it to be the anti-fantasy name. No screaming testosterone, no fragile femmes, no magic swords, nothing that would suggest “more of the same.” That same philosophy is why we did the cover sideways in every iteration. The image is as bent as the story.

Do your characters seem to hijack the story, or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?

Since I never plot or outline, other than specific scenes where I need a desired outcome, the characters don’t hijack my story as much as they co-author it.

One of my wife’s favorite stories involves us sitting on my porch while I described a lengthy argument I’d had with a character who felt I was stunting their development and how, when all was said and done, the character won.

Convince us why you feel your book is a must-read.

I figured out a biologically feasible way for lesbians to get pregnant without men. I’ll admit, it can’t be done now, but it has given several readers goals in their careers.

EXCERPT

In the village of Go-Chi, an unusual clan gathers. They will not draw stares. They will not get acknowledged. To do so would invite death or worse. When five of the wastelands' unrumored show up for drinks, you do exactly what the innkeeper did. You serve them drinks and hope, like Zanubi, they pay. He's in luck; they will... later.

N'leah and R'yune are the first to arrive at the haven bar. She spins a chair around, so her wings won't get caught. R'yune grabs a couple of more chairs as Sland enters. He screams an order for three flagons of skank and sits down. N'leah smiles at the uneasy innkeeper. It is not the kind of smile that will endear her to him. It is, however, the kind of smile that makes him check his purse. R'yune growls loudly. Of course, being mute, that's about all he can do.

As the innkeeper, a small furry haven-lord delivers their drinks, Geldish rides in on BraarB, holds up two bony fingers, and waves them in the poor Brand's face. The innkeeper quickly moves to retrieve two more flagons. When he returns, BraarB grabs his bar rag, wipes the even mists from her breasts, and hands it to N'leah so she can do the same. The innkeeper wisely holds his tongue. He needed a new bar rag anyway. He does not want his bar rag to need a new innkeeper. Besides, it will make a great souvenir if he gets it back. Novelty items have never hurt the innkeeping business.

Geldish grins inwardly at the scene. He is enjoying the discomfort. They know it is rare for the fringe to enter Go-Chi. It is still rarer for a Rangka to join them. However, it is now time to get this meeting underway. Before he can begin, Sland shifts uncomfortably.

"Speak, you fucking sack of bones," he decides to get this over with so he can get back to the hunt. "I have traveled far to be here. Why have you summoned us? And for what reason?"

N'leah glances over at her new skank companion and smiles. This smile would endear her to anyone. She turns to face Geldish.

"What he lacks in subtlety, he makes up for in truth. Why are we here?"

He lets the question hang unanswered for a moment. So he answers. He wants them to see the flame in his eyes. He wants them to contemplate who and what they are questioning. He wants them to think—to think long and hard about the flames. To think long and hard about how those flames came to take the place of eyes and what it means now that they have. His pause has accomplished its goal.

"To kill Xhaknar's army, bring water to Go-Chi, and to make many goldens."

Each of them looks like they are trapped in a tiny room with an extremely large problem. Truth be known, they are. Most of their skank ends up on the floor, either from oral and nasal projection or dropped flagons.

Any hope this is some sick, elaborate joke dies in the flames of Geldish's eyes. Quite a lot could die in those eyes. Humor is definitely on that long list. Two full epi-cliks go by without a

muscle being twitched. It's almost as if the air had been sucked from the room. It could have been, and Geldish wouldn't have cared one bit.

Of course, it would absolutely ruin everyone else's turn.

The innkeeper sees what has happened and runs over with a round of new drinks. These are finished in one gulp by everyone except Geldish. He sips his slowly.

BraarB inhales deeply, "Well, okay, anything else?"

"Well, it seems we could do with more skank." Geldish grins outwardly. It is not the type of grin which inspires humor or warmth.

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Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brittle-Riders-Book-One-ebook/dp/B0BK9TPM67

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-brittle-riders-by-bill-mccormick

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63127274-the-brittle-riders-book-one

Book Trailer:

https://youtu.be/Mjo7TDWXPWg

About the Author

BILL McCORMICK is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of several novels, graphic novels, and comic book series, and has appeared in numerous anthologies. He began writing professionally in 1986 for the Chicago Rocker Magazine in conjunction with his radio show on Z-95 (ABC-FM) and went on to write for several other magazines and blogs. He wrote a twisted news & science blog at WorldNewsCenter.org. It provided source material for his weekly radio show on WBIG 1280 AM, FOX!, which aired from 10/2010 to 8/2022. Bill is a big fan of music and this rainbow-haired goddess who married him just for fun. You can find out more about him at BillMcSciFi.com.

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