81 books like Retribution Falls

I love how urban fantasy mixes magic and the real world, and I’m obsessed with stories that explore identity, especially when life throws you a curve ball and you need to recalibrate your existence around questions like “Who am I? Where am I going?” These books are set in contemporary fantasy universes and explore the themes of identity in different ways. Their worlds are bleak, which makes the spots of humor shine brighter and the protagonists’ triumphs all that more satisfying. As Ursula LeGuin said, “There must be darkness to see the stars.”

I write action-packed post-apocalyptic and dystopian adventures—with a dash of romance. An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy from an early age, the only job I ever wanted—besides being a writer—was to be a Star Fleet Officer. I owe my love of all things zombie to my older brothers, whose influence in books, music, and film continues to this day, although my tolerance for puns and movies that are "so bad they're good" is a whole lot lower than theirs. The idea of becoming a zombie because my car runs out of gas gets me to the gas station when I'd rather not bother.

I have long been a fan of zombie apocalypse scenarios. The first movie I watched was the classic Dawn of the Dead remake. Shocked and fascinated, I wanted more, devouring anything I could find on the topic. It wasn’t long before I stumbled across my first zombie apocalypse book, and I was hooked. It became an obsession for a while, and I spent my free time reading one zombie book after another. Finally, I reached a point where I wanted to write my own story and version of the apocalypse, and I did. Fast-forward several years, and I’m now a full-time author with numerous completed series, most of them zombie. 

I write action-packed post-apocalyptic and dystopian adventures—with a dash of romance. An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy from an early age, the only job I ever wanted—besides being a writer—was to be a Star Fleet Officer. I owe my love of all things zombie to my older brothers, whose influence in books, music, and film continues to this day, although my tolerance for puns and movies that are "so bad they're good" is a whole lot lower than theirs. The idea of becoming a zombie because my car runs out of gas gets me to the gas station when I'd rather not bother.

My fascination with pirates began as a student in Bristol (UK) – the legendary hometown of Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard. Later, I visited the Pirates of Nassau Museum in the Bahamas and was amazed to learn there had been women buccaneers too. I wanted to discover more about these daring females and find out what might have enticed them to brave a tenuous life on the account. As fate would have it, I now live in North Carolina near the Outer Banks where Blackbeard met his fate. These experiences inspired me to write a different kind of adventure story about the real pirates of the Caribbean featuring a strong, resilient, swashbuckling female.

The origin story for Black Flags, Blue Waters begins with my kids. After I finished my last book, Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse, I began searching for a new book topic. I asked Lily and Harry, who were then in their teens, what I should write about. When I raised the possibility of pirates, their eyes lit up, both of them saying, “That’s it, you have to write about pirates.” Lily even threw out two possible titles for the book: “Swords, Sails, and Swashbucklers;” and “Argh”— or, perhaps more emphatically, “Arrrgh”— which, I had to tell Lily, much to her chagrin, is a word that probably was never uttered by a Golden Age pirate, and is more likely a creation of movies in which pirates dispense arghs with relish. My children’s strong support is, of course, not the only reason I wrote Black Flags, Blue Waters -- if my publisher hadn't been as enthusiastic about the idea as I was, the book might never have been written. But the fact that my kids were early adopters of the pirate idea, was definitely encouraging.

My interest in pirates began after attending the Real Pirates exhibit in Denver, Colorado, in 2011. All I can say now is that while I walked through the exhibit, I felt as though the pirates were personally speaking to me, asking me to tell the world their stories. I wrote several non-fiction articles about some of the men who sailed with Sam Bellamy on the Whydah Galley, the vessel featured in the exhibit. The writing and research were fun and fulfilling. In the last few years, I moved into fiction because I like reading fantasy myself and I wanted to explore the freedom of writing without having to document everything I wrote about.

The origin story for Black Flags, Blue Waters begins with my kids. After I finished my last book, Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse, I began searching for a new book topic. I asked Lily and Harry, who were then in their teens, what I should write about. When I raised the possibility of pirates, their eyes lit up, both of them saying, “That’s it, you have to write about pirates.” Lily even threw out two possible titles for the book: “Swords, Sails, and Swashbucklers;” and “Argh”— or, perhaps more emphatically, “Arrrgh”— which, I had to tell Lily, much to her chagrin, is a word that probably was never uttered by a Golden Age pirate, and is more likely a creation of movies in which pirates dispense arghs with relish. My children’s strong support is, of course, not the only reason I wrote Black Flags, Blue Waters -- if my publisher hadn't been as enthusiastic about the idea as I was, the book might never have been written. But the fact that my kids were early adopters of the pirate idea, was definitely encouraging.

Having climbed many a tree with the boys as a kid, I cannot stay away from a good gender-bender romance. The suspense, the humour of it, and the inevitable conclusion that not your appearance but your choices define who you are – a perfect combination in my opinion. Mix in a male counterpart who is supportive and understanding and I am hooked! So much so, that I have written a book about a girl who dressed up as a boy.

Ryan Murdock is Editor-at-Large (Europe) for Outpost, Canada’s national travel magazine, and a weekly columnist for The Shift, an independent Maltese news portal. His feature articles have taken him across a remote stretch of Canada’s Northwest Territories on foot, into the Central Sahara in search of prehistoric rock art, and around Wales with a drug squad detective hunting for the real King Arthur.