Category: Book Review

Tales from the Long Night is a new universe by J. Kenton Pierce. Each story, so far, has been a stand-alone, but some will slowly work their way into full series. I had fallen into this Universe through a short story “Big Mama” in an anthology Pogue One; I told you about the Anthology as my March Book Review (3/3/2026). I wanted so much to see more of this universe so I went searching, and now I have two novellas and one novel under my belt. I don’t know if there are more short stories from this universe in the Raconteur Press Anthologies; if so, I hope someone will collect any short stories under one umbrella, but any collection will need to wait at least a year from the Anthologies publications because of contracts.

The stories I have read so far in time order of the Long Night Universe (because, yeah, it is that sort of universe – again, these can be read in any order. So far the author has been really good at compartmentalization):

1. Big Mama (short story in Pogue One) – published January 9, 2025
2. An Apple for the Legion (novella) – published April 20, 2026
3. Back Alley Angels and Badland Devils (two novelettes) – published November 18, 2025
4. A Kiss from Damocles (novel: Book 1 of Shai) – published June 26, 2005

The order I actually read these were Big Mama, Back Alley, A Kiss, and An Apple.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR An Apple for the Legion

From the universe of the 2026 Prometheus Award finalist A Kiss for Damocles — welcome to the Tales from the Long Night.

Third Decanus Kaur was engineered for this.

The Mutual Prosperity builds its legionaries from the genes of heroes — and Kaur carries the literal face of Tanveer Kaur, hero of the Spring Thunder Campaign, the soldier whose sacrifice helped pull humanity back from extinction. She has trained since birth to liberate the enslaved populations of the Terran Commonwealth. She has memorized the Social Virtues. She has crushed her doubts, disciplined her questions, and proven herself a worthy daughter of humanity’s finest.

Then she lands on Hesperides Colony, and the liberation refuses to go as planned.

The colonists fight like they mean it — not from ideology or fanaticism, but because they have something worth protecting. When her commander hands her a contraband biography of her own mother and tells her to read it, the headaches begin. Because what Tanveer Kaur actually believed, actually said, in her own unedited words — it doesn’t match anything the Prosperity taught her daughter.

Then the volcano erupts.

Cut off from Fleet. No resupply. No evacuation. A dying colony buried under ash, a population the Prosperity considers expendable, and orders that grow more monstrous by the hour. Kaur is twenty-three years old. She commands ten legionaries. And the man who has spent decades teaching her what it truly means to honor her heritage is running out of time to finish the lesson.

An Apple for the Legion is a gripping, character-driven military science fiction novella — precise, dark, and impossible to set aside. A story set in the Tales from the Long Night: a universe where humanity survived the stars and built something that might not have been worth saving.

MY REVIEW FOR An Apple for the Legion

Is ignorance tolerable as a form of innocence?
If so, never enter a library, and never, ever be ground troops freeing a people. In both cases you might be pelted with books and knowledge.

Kaur is a genetic descent of a great war hero, redesigned and improved, optimized for strength…and intelligence and leadership, which may have not been the best move by a totalitarian government to create an obedient solider even with restricted information access, nighttime reprogramming, constant retraining, and obsessive observation. Curiosity, valuing the soldiers she is in charge of, and the ability infer from limited data sets makes her a piss-poor “follow orders” leader no matter how deep the programming is.

Kaur likes apples. The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And since falling from the heavens to the hell on earth that is the Hesperides Colony after the invasion Kaur is part of, the Eden of her mind keeps getting hit with seismic blows.

Caught between Muse and Mentor, Kaur has to decide how much of the Apple she will accept.

Tales from the Long Night is a strong world J. Kenton Pierce has created. Each part can be read as a stand-alone; An Apple for the Legion, especially, works well as it is a prequel to the two main series of the universe. The science fiction novella is set in the beginning of the apocalypse Hesperides experiences. Most of the rest of the stories are set in the aftermath.

This story, for fans of the series, is a must-read as it gives a hint at what else is happening in the universe. I hope that Mr. Pierce collects the short stories he has also written for this universe into one collection to fill things in even more.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR Back Alley Angels and Badland Devils

In a galaxy ravaged by fallen empires, endless wars, and a volcanic apocalypse, hope isn’t bestowed by fate—it’s forged by gritty survivors reclaiming their freedom and heritage. Welcome back to J. Kenton Pierce’s epic Tales from the Long Night universe, where ordinary heroes rise against the encroaching dark.

Back Alley Angels and Badland Devils delivers two pulse-pounding stories spotlighting the unsung warriors of Hesperides Colony, scarred by the Mutual Prosperity’s invasion. These raw tales of resilience pit flawed protagonists against hostile xenos, ancient horrors, and shadowy schemes.In “The Greenline Gambit,” set centuries into the Long Night, amiable brawler Kraitte thrives in the subterranean sprawl of Greenline Town—a former refugee sanctuary turned industrial hub. By day, he’s a heavy lifter; by night, a smuggler’s guardian. But when a mysterious brunette offers a high-stakes job, Kraitte plunges into a web of rival factions vying for underground power, testing his newfound sense of home and family.

“El Banquero del Diablo” rewinds to the invasion’s chaotic aftermath, amid ash-choked volcanic winter. Rugged cowboy Danny Bozeman, a former rider for Boss Rosenberry, joins the nascent Nuevo Tejas Rangers to rebuild society. Preferring simple brawls and bar tabs, Danny confronts capital-E Evil—an ancient darkness threatening innocents—armed only with unyielding grit and iron resolve.These standalone adventures weave into the saga’s larger arcs, proving heroes emerge from back alleys and badlands, not thrones. In a cosmos of implacable threats, the fight for dawn is eternal. Join Kraitte and Danny’s ruckus–and learn what it means to never quit.

MY REVIEW FOR Back Alley Angels and Badland Devils

Back Alley Angels and Badland Devils is a dual short-story collection totaling 100 pages in paperback. Both stories are good, though I preferred the second, “El Banquero del Diablo.”

Both stories are set in the post-apocalyptic science-fiction “Tales from the Long Night” universe created by J. Kenton Pierce, and have a large male protagonist doing the business of right but in a wrong manner. These are not white-hat heroes; they wear gray proudly. This universe, if you are not familiar with it, has a distinctly weird-west sci-fi feel similar to steampunk but in its own category with Star Wars, Westworld, Company A: The Origin of the Martian Rangers by Peter Prellwitz, and A Fistful of Dust by A.G. Carpenter. I should note that the second short story crosses from weird-west sci-fi into horror.

The Greenline Gambit is set in the same time as A Kiss from Damocles, the first full-length novel set in the TFTLN Universe. Kraitte, married to a cop but making his living in the underbelly of the Greenline as a day-laborer and a night-opportunist, finds himself at cross-purposes with the law. They want his skills and he doesn’t want to be noticed, especially with the genetic baggage he carries. But two new players are messing with the balance between legal and not-so-legal, and it makes the cops nervous. The cops, criminals, and new factions all are playing with him like he is a disposable piece in their power games. Can he flip the board without losing the game?

El Banquero del Diablo stars Danny and Jenny, two Rangers on a newly compromised world (set about 500 years before the Greenline Gambit). These first generation of Rangers from Hesperides Colony create the legends, the boots, later generations try to fill with honor and inspiration. These early Rangers, though, are unlike the expectations of later legends. They, well, were city rats and problem-makers sentenced to be front-line soldiers or spend life in prison. They are dirty, crafty, and dangerous. The only reasons judges sentence them to miliary service is jails wouldn’t hold them long.

These potential monsters, having accepted the leash of civilization then getting slammed on a planet facing volcanic winter, now inflict civilization on monsters who won’t accept the leash. Slavers, killers, and enemies from the stars. The El Banquero short story follows them chasing one such monsters to ground and cornering him against the sea with his posse. Closing on him, Danny and Jenny discover that monsters come in all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of nasty.

Like I said, El Banquero is my favorite of the two stories. Great characters, FUN dialog, and real stakes. Greenline is an “only” investigation; Banquero is a gun-slinging adventure. Both are really good.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR A Kiss from Damocles (Book 1 of Shai)

The enemy is dead. Their guns still aim.

The Mutual Prosperity invaded Hesperides Colony centuries ago–dropped asteroids on the oceans, triggered a volcanic winter, killed millions. The invaders eventually died fighting. Their orbital artillery AI, Damocles, did not. It has spent three hundred years killing anything that looks like a threat: radio signals, powered vehicles, anything that might let humanity rebuild fast enough to strike back.

Seventeen-year-old Shaifennen “Shai” Roehe grew up in a mineshaft, scrounging salvage from the ruins of a dead civilization. Then she finds a crashed military shuttle from the Long Night buried in a highland ravine. It’s the biggest salvage find in living memory–and it comes with secrets. Traitors from the original war. A murdered alien marine who died fighting for humanity’s future. And enough battlesteel and fabrication equipment to turn her struggling homestead into something that scares the right people.

From there, Shai has to navigate a volatile trade mission to the nearest town, untangle a conspiracy that runs generations deep, survive assassination attempts, and figure out why every faction on Hesperides–the Riders, the Archive, the alien Imps, the new Trade Association that smells a lot like the old tyranny with better hair–seems to already know about a project she has only just stumbled into.

Shai’s universe is one filled with fallen empires, implacable war machines, lost civilizations, hostile xenos, the occasional ancient unspeakable horror, and she’s going to bring the ruckus to every corner of it.

Winner the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel, A Kiss for Damocles is the first book in the Tales From the Long Night series. Post-apocalyptic science fiction with a ferocious protagonist, deep world-building, earned political stakes, and a genuine belief that humanity can take back what it lost — if it can stop fighting itself long enough to try.

MY REVIEW FOR A Kiss from Damocles (Book 1 of Shai)

I read one of the short stories Mr. Pierce has created for the Tales from the Long Night and knew I had to have more and I went looking and discovered this novel.

The wonderful cross of western and science-fiction comes across in the language and circumstances on this post-apocalyptic world where an orbital bombardment had set off the planet’s equivalent of the Yellow Stone Caldera. This story is set when the survivors of the colony caught in the crossfires between two interstellar empires finally are beginning to crawl out of their Volcanic Winter and face the “landmines” left behind by the war, specifically a space platform set to destroy anything that looks like higher man-made technology.

It’s hard to advance when any advancement leads to precision orbital bombardment by an ancient long-forgotten-by-its-creators platform.

A young female scrounger finds the score of a lifetime, not only for her but her community. The waves of which will either be felt around the world, or stolen from them. A Kiss follows Roehe from find, to family, to foe. Can she keep her head and her temper long enough to gain the benefit without calling down disaster upon everything.

I just love the western flavor, the scrapy characters, and the defiance against a world that was never the cradle of humanity.

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Nightfall by Isaac Asimov (original short story) and Robert Silverberg (expanded into novel)

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

An expanded version of Asimov’s short story, “Nightfall,” reveals a world on the brink of chaos, torn between religious fanaticism and scientific denial and faced with the end of civilization

MY REVIEW

When I first read this (mumble) years ago, it was groundbreaking and amazing. The original short story was published in 1941, written by Isaac Asimov when he was a grad student. The novel was published in 1990, with an extended beginning and an extended ending written by Robert Silverberg, but approved by Asimov.

The conceit of a world without night (because at least one of the six suns in the vicinity of the planet is always shining down, one sun is the primary which the planet orbits), reacting to an astrological phenomena – a once in two-thousand year eclipse, bringing Darkness and something more. Stars. All the wonder and fear, awe and insignificance we normal Earthlings are exposed to each night (when city lights don’t hide the night sky) in one painful twelve-hour period with no preparation.

I always think about how quickly and decisively humans jumped off planet because we had our sister planet, the Moon, just hanging up there, taunting us, tantalizingly close. If all we had to see were the stars, it would have taken much longer to dare space. I wonder about other worlds with intelligent life without Moon to tease them to “come play”. About worlds with perpetual cloud cover, like Venus or Jupiter, never even seeing the stars, and maybe not even their own sun clearly. Would they even leave their planet? Our relatively thin atmosphere (compared to gas worlds), is “only” six thousand miles. Our tallest mountain is 5.5 miles; if everything above that distance is hazy nothingness, why would you ever go further?

Nightfall asks the question of what happens to a people who have never seen further, whose furthest sight line is maybe two light-years, who – with far more reason than our Earthling predecessors – think they are the center of this small scape, suddenly see so much more.

I love the question. I love the development. The science Asimov used to create this world is still believable; the archeological support and psychological support and governmental maneuverings added by Silverberg make it that much better. It is perhaps one of the best short stories and novel adaptations ever in the science fiction genre.

That said, I hate how the social aspects have aged over the 35 and 80 plus years since the novel and short story have been written.

First comment is just a writing style change. The book is set in omnipresent third person, as well as second person, and also has first person POV switches, with some head hopping. Not something we do now, but was an acceptable writing technique in the past. Styles change over time. I am already seeing how fanfic, video game storytelling, and electronic delivery systems are changing writing styles now; not good or bad, just different.

Second comment is “Wow, the toxic masculinity.” Even though the characters have witnessed, have experienced, the danger of Darkness, each of the men think “I am stronger than this.” Over and over again. “I cannot be a coward; I would not be able to live with myself.” But it is like asking a normal man without training to lift a thousand pounds, it is going to break him. … But, you know, can’t be a coward.

Third comment is “Smurfette Syndrome.” No, the archeologist isn’t the only female of the book but I do think the ratio of male to female is one in four or one in five, and among the scientists and people of power more like one in ten. There is an ingenue sex partner, but she is more an obstacle than a person and only one person actual talks to her. Siferra is the only female with agency and initially she starts with absolutely no interest in sex; but eventually she falls for the one man with the persistence (stalking) to continue to pressure her until there was a yes rewarding the action-hero non-scientist with a beautiful, physically fit, amazingly intelligent, supportive woman who he proceeds to overtalk, ignore, and actively manipulate to get his way. Chapter 38 onward is a study in the many of the ways science fiction writers have mistreated women characters over the years. So much potential, but using a 2025 lens, completely unacceptable. (Also the female-needs-to-be-threatened-with-rape trope, but at least she gets herself out of it, even if she is completely insane when she did it, because, of course, a real woman wouldn’t have overreacted that way … oh, but we do imagine it.)

In conclusion, great concept. A worthy ready, especially the beginning and middle (Asimov’s original story), for the history of science fiction. Don’t give to the book to your female children to read; the teenagers and twenty-somethings won’t see Siferra as a strong-woman character. They have been deprogramed from this level of toxicity and will see it for what it is: a male chosen-one reward-in-female-shape. (She started out Ace; a modern writer would have let her stay that way, but times were different.)

When I originally read this in the nineties, the story would be a five-star. Now, toxic tropes would take it down to a two and history pulls it up to a three-star.