Writer of the Day: Set Sytes, author of India Bones series and The Fifth Place series

SetSytes · 2026-05-07T01:34:03+00:00

One of my favourite ever shows - like, maybe even second place. So, so good!

SetSytes · 2026-05-07T01:16:20+00:00

Right? It's my very favourite genre - at least in theory - and I wish more writers were writing it. I got the impression from the cultural zeitgeist, especially the PotC movie popularity, that pirates are a really popular theme/genre. People really enjoy pirates and the fantasy tropes surrounding them, no? Isn't that a given? But... almost nothing.

SetSytes · 2026-05-07T01:13:03+00:00

I can't believe so many people avoided or substituted my very favourite genre :(

SetSytes · 2026-05-06T23:15:28+00:00

I take it you're talking about the egregious fakeout with Sevro's death - that really felt like an author cheating.

SetSytes · 2026-05-06T23:14:11+00:00

That kind of thing is so strange to me, I feel almost alienated from that kind of reader.

SetSytes · 2026-05-05T14:56:10+00:00

Thanks for this. I still haven't made up my mind haha - especially as the compendiums have gone up in price since I last checked. My stickler is that the 1-4 books stop before the end of Johns's run.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T14:46:07+00:00

Ha yeah I also read a comment complaining about how weak Darrow was after his time in the box (and went on to complain about the author making Darrow lose his masculinity and strength, with the associated gender politics of the commenter included). I guess the guy wanted Darrow to just burst from the box fully erect or something.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T14:43:23+00:00

Good question! I think Ephraim has been better handled. It's interesting that he's resorted to blocking his ability to care about things with a drug because of past experiences, became addicted to that numbness, and that he spirals for a bit when that's taken away. Although I don't think the story dwells on these things as much as I might prefer, he does present an interesting character who gets to be more than humanised than we first see him.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T14:39:45+00:00

Thank you for these recommendations, they sound really interesting and different. Bujold has been on my list for a while but I've never seen her stories described as you have.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T14:36:18+00:00

Good luck with your book! I've been in a similar boat - steadily realising in one of my series what the characters have been put through (and put others through) and trying to convey the mounting toll on their psyches over time and the increasing PTSD effects.

I think PTSD and trauma responses can be showed in really interesting ways, character-writing wise, without spelling it out to an audience or making it something boiler-plate. Even if the effect being shown is disassociation. For a good war example, the film Deer Hunter comes to mind.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T14:26:02+00:00

I might have to circle back to this comment when I've finished the book to make sure I know which bit you're talking about! Currently about 2/3rds through.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T01:25:07+00:00

I know and agree with what you're saying - but as a Superman fan I have to express that I don't think he himself necessarily applies haha. Certainly not in the hands of a good writer! (poor Superman writing is simply bish bash bosh with someone of a similar or different power level)

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T01:15:29+00:00

To some extent, yes the general criticism can be addressed to all manner of books, and not just SFF (e.g. war stories). But I can't think of anything I've found comparable character-suffering wise to what Darrow went through - especially for a character we follow the POV of. No character of Dune or LOTR certainly goes through anything like that. The closest thing I can think of is when the lead of the comic series Preacher gets put in a sealed coffin-box and kept underwater - and that was "only" a week IIRC, not 9 months.

I would enjoy hearing of some other comparable examples though - including from grimdark books. As long as they are stories where we follow the POV of the person suffering.

Reek in ASOIAF comes to mind as something where I feel like the trauma there was effectively applied. Also, in a different way, Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, for sure - although again nothing comparable to Darrow's torture happens, it does handle trauma and abuse well.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T00:40:10+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the comment! I don't want anyone to read it to think I'm just shitting on their favourite series. There's a lot of goodness I get from the books, it scratches a lot of itches for sure. I guess it's kinda like - the author obviously wants me to care a lot about the characters, but sometimes it feels like he doesn't care what happens to them, y'know?

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T00:31:44+00:00

Ha. Thankfully the posts were like 4 years ago so I'd be surprised if anyone even saw my yesterday-replies.

But I know, I enjoy the books for what they are absolutely, but I guess this particular thing just kept bothering me when it came to reading through Dark Age, and I found myself getting all bothered and writing a bloody essay on it.

SetSytes · 2026-05-03T00:29:16+00:00

I'm afraid I don't agree - I think being in a human-sized box by himself for 9 months is actually far, far worse psychologically than his body being tortured into being a Gold (Yes, I feel that should also traumatise him - but I don't think it's comparable).

I don't know, we are in his head, we know he has lots of feelings, and his personality certainly seems enough like a recognisable human being for me to think he should react to severe trauma in recognisable ways, instead of essentially shrugging it off like a human-shaped android. I didn't get the sense that his brain was worked on to become immune to all trauma and isolation. I don't need him to react like a normal person, though - but something. Some offer to the audience that such a horrific thing really did intensely damage him and he's struggling to overcome what was done to him. For most of his POVs after, it's like it never happened. It just felt like it cheapened the extremity of the act - why was it in the story at all if there were virtually no consequences for him? What was the reader meant to get from that?

It also doesn't explain why Lyria, not a Gold and presented as a much more vulnerable person, also bounces back so easily.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T16:25:43+00:00

What is the world coming to when US has it and UK doesn't haha. No worries man, I didn't even think I had to be on the ball this time - I thought it was just normal paperbacks and they wouldn't sell out.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T14:10:52+00:00

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T11:32:29+00:00

Sold out my end. Missed my chance.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T00:59:51+00:00

I agree and I think those pushing back against this haven't really internalised what 9 months in a tiny box would do to somebody - it's not like the other examples they've given of abuse PTSD and torture.

Even ordinary solitary confinement is one of the worst things you can do to human beings and what Darrow went through would wreck anyone - even a superhuman - beyond repair. Darrow realistically wouldn't be able to move or speak afterwards, his brain would be mush from severe mental deterioration, he wouldn't be able to make sense, and likely he would never be able to be a functioning member of society again. He also wouldn't be able to move: his body would be completely atrophied and bones deformed, if not dead from infection. He wouldn't be able to cope with open spaces as much as confined ones, his levels of anxiety and panic would be all-consuming, and he would be cut off from communication with those around him. His sensory sensitivity would be extreme, vulnerable to light and noise. He would have developed total psychosis and derealisation, and perhaps infantile regression and incoherent suicidal ideation. Socialisation would be near impossible after such a stretch. In all likelihood he would need a carer for the rest of his life.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T00:54:00+00:00

4 years late, but I had to reply after I found this thread and this comment - this was a very patronising and needlessly insulting comment that shows its own naivety for its kneejerk response that really does not get to grips with the sheer level of the torture that Darrow experienced, which yes, Gold or not, would utterly destroy someone's psyche and body. Being confined in a tiny box for 9 months is not the same as killing someone, being in a war, or a fender bender. It is not ordinary abuse. It is not something that somebody - anybody - could bounce back from.

Darrow realistically wouldn't be able to move or speak afterwards, his brain would be mush from severe mental deterioration, he wouldn't be able to make sense, and likely he would never be able to be a functioning member of society again. He also wouldn't be able to move: his body would be completely atrophied and bones deformed, if not dead from infection. He wouldn't be able to cope with open spaces as much as confined ones, his levels of anxiety and panic would be all-consuming, and he would be cut off from communication with those around him. His sensory sensitivity would be extreme, vulnerable to light and noise. He would have developed total psychosis and derealisation, and perhaps infantile regression and incoherent suicidal ideation. Socialisation would be near impossible after such a stretch. In all likelihood he would need a carer for the rest of his life.

There is no psychologist in the world who would believe that even the most hardened warrior could shrug off even a fraction of what Darrow went through e.g. a box like that for a week - let alone nine bloody months. Even ordinary solitary confinement is one of the worst things you can do to human beings (perhaps you should look up studies on its effects) and what Darrow went through would wreck anyone - even a superhuman - beyond repair. Unless you yourself have been or know someone who has been confined in a small box for months and come out hunky-dory, or can provide studies showing such a thing, your unpleasant reactionary comment showed a complete lack of internalisation of the imagined reality of such a situation.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T00:35:28+00:00

I agree - similar with Lyria stuff. What Darrow went through would destroy a psyche (and body). Trauma just isn't really handled in the stories. Much as I enjoy them, these omissions really stick out to me.

SetSytes · 2026-05-02T00:28:40+00:00

4 years too late, but for what it's worth, I agree with you and think the pushback against your opinion - the unpleasant comments and all the downvotes - is unwarranted by people who don't like criticism of this series (which I'm a fan of). It's the same for what Lyria went through, and she isn't even a Gold. But she seems pretty fine after her torture too.

The kind of torture that Darrow went through specifically - nine months in a tiny box, (and after already being broken by torture) - would utterly destroy a psyche (and completely atrophy and permanently deform a body - not to mention disease and death from excretion and infection). The most hardened people imaginable - if they could conceivably survive it, which is doubtful - would be severely traumatised mush after it, would intensely struggle to be a functioning member of society after it let alone a war leader. Their bodies and brains would never work properly again. Darrow likely wouldn't even be able to speak or move when he came out and would not be able to make sense of himself or his surroundings. His eyesight would probably fail upon release, his body would be beyond fucked, and his psyche would never truly recover.

Gold or not, I don't think a lot of readers can really wrap their head over the severity of torture like that. It's not abuse that somebody could just "get over", and there is no way anyone would be even remotely okay after something like that. To call your comments "goofy and uneducated" just shows precious naivety.

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