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Geographical Quirks
The Strains of Malice follows a 15-year-old girl baker’s daughter in Ghantiss, who is pursued by authorities after rescuing an ill-fated dog from a bloodsport ring. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
Emilya (the baker’s daughter) is just one of many character threads, which cover royalty, miners, druids, astronomers, gladiators, naval captains – and a baker’s daughter! I wanted to start the story with Emilya so that it begins grounded in ordinary folk – but who soon have the misfortune to cross paths with the entitled elite.
As for the idea for the novel, I sat down in December 2019 and designed my world first. Next came an outline of what was originally intended to be a five-book series, with a catastrophic event right at the end. Alongside this, I began creating the characters, and that was when Emilya and her pathway through the book was established. I even created timelines for my main ten POV characters, all mapped together a bit like a Gantt chart!
I then started designing the secrets of the world of Thera – and which will be revealed in a book called Decoding the Hidden World of Thera, which I plan to release at around the same time that Books Three and Four in The Nessemiah series are released. Only two other people know about these secrets, and they are bursting with impatience for the cat to be let out of the bag!
Finally, just to clarify, The Nessemiah is now a four-book series that only covers what was originally intended to occur in Books One and Two of the five-book series I planned back in 2019! The final three volumes of that story will now form the sequel series to The Nessemiah!
As the opening book of a series, what did you most want readers to understand about this world in the first installment?
It was important that the world of Thera itself should be slowly revealed in Book One, along with the pending catastrophe that ultimately ends the series. Thera is a world of some ancient mystery and interesting geographical quirks that I loved creating and slowly begin to reveal in Book One. Indeed, one reviewer who was being very generous about the depth of my human characters declared that Thera itself is almost a character in its own right. That said, there is nothing fantastical about Thera. There are no dragons, elves, magical powers or thousand-year-old prophecies waiting to be revealed/fulfilled. It is a hard, gritty world, for which the publisher uses the strapline, “Poldark meets Gladiator…on another world.” That is very apt.
The strapline refers to the temperate polar islands which resemble British regency times, and the brutal Theran Empire further south, which is a throwback to Ancient Rome. These are two cultures which are destined to collide, but which are currently kept apart by one of my favourite geographical quirks!
It is also worth adding that many reviewers have picked up on the depth and quality of my world-building, given the book is front-loaded with detailed maps, layouts of monasteries, explanations of geographical features, temperature charts, the daily and monthly cycles, and even Thera’s solar system. This is all important information that is going to come significantly into play as the four-book story unfolds.
Where did you get the inspiration for Prince Magnus’s traits and dialogue?
Every book needs at least one villain. Mine has several – hence The Strains of Malice. But Magnus does seem to be everyone’s favourite. I guess he must be a little bit of every nasty villain I’ve ever read about myself, from several thousand novels. Of course, his traits and dialogue have been dictated by his privileged upbringing: entitled, never been disciplined, and can do whatsoever he pleases with whomsoever he pleases. And, of course, he does!
I can tell you that he was an absolute joy to write! I suppose if I were to be pushed on an inspiration, it would have to be A Song of Ice and Fire. There have been review comparisons to Prince Joffrey, but as one wise reviewer pointed out recently, Joffrey was still boy, albeit an incredibly cruel one; Prince Magnus is very much a man – and far darker than Joffrey. Maybe there’s a bit of Cersei in him as well, if that makes sense? But not Jaime Lannister; there is absolutely no good in my Prince Magnus!
As for the dialogue, I guess he is very British. But again, he isn’t cliché’d. As one reviewer recently said, “He does not monologue. He does not twirl his cape. He is simply a man who has never once in his life been told that his desires have consequences.”
I suppose that if there is one character from literature for whom there is perhaps a fair likeness to Prince Magnus, it would be a certain character from my childhood called Count Grendel of Gracht – and you would have to go all the way back to 1978 to find out who he is! I hated him, back in the day, and I think he must have hidden in my subconscious for over forty years before covertly embedding himself into The Strains of Malice!
Can you give readers a glimpse inside Book 2 of The Nessemiah?
Book Two of The Nessemiah, Cold Sanctuary, is essentially a continuation of the various plights of all of the POV characters introduced in Book One, but with the threat of Nessemi becoming ever-more real as their storylines progress and The Event draws nearer. I also significantly ramp up events in the supercontinent of Epanaga, with brutal gladiatorial fighting pits taking centre stage alongside Emperor Calidius’ Expurgatio – a cruel and callous purge of various demographics of Theran society in preparation for the arrival of Nessemi.
Pretty much every reviewer has stated that Cold Sanctuary is better, deeper and darker than The Strains of Malice, and reviews so far have been out of this world – with most reviewers desperate for Books Three and Four. Happily, they will both be released shortly.
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Is anywhere on Thera safe from Nessemi? Or the hell that lies beyond?
“I’m afraid there are good and bad everywhere, Emilya. It’s a fact of life that wherever you look, there are strains of malice.”
Fifteen-year-old baker’s daughter, Emilya Luca, is in serious trouble with the Glennadian Crown. Her crime: to prevent a small dog from being torn apart by hounds belonging to the callous Prince Magnus. Having been rescued by former naval captain, Jake Oscom, the unlikely pair become fugitives, hunted across Glennad – initially for cruel sport but latterly after Oscom is framed for a heinous crime committed by Magnus himself.
Elsewhere, in a world with unusual geographical quirks and subtle energy lines, hardships endure for a close-knit community of miners and unimaginable foul play befalls a Glennadian princess – but these trials pale into insignificance compared to what northern astronomers have just discovered. Four hundred leagues south, in the ancient city of Thera, the cruel eyes of Calidius Antoninus Dominius have seen the same thing – but to him it merely expedites his imperial ambitions and presents a justified opportunity to brutally murder thousands of his subjects.
The Strains of Malice: Book One of The Nessemiah
The Strains of Malice, the first novel in Andrew Beardmore’s Nessemiah series, offers assured, character-led storytelling in a vividly imagined setting. Clear maps and a welcoming introduction make the world easy to step into from the outset.
Set in a pre-industrial society with strong late–eighteenth-century European echoes, the story centers on fifteen-year-old Emilya, a baker’s daughter in the port city of Ghantiss. Her compassion is not performative. It’s defiant. When she pulls a dog from Prince Magnus’s brutal bloodsport ring, she challenges the one person no one is meant to challenge. Magnus responds with predictable entitlement and very real menace. Protected by royal privilege, he decides she will pay.
Former naval captain Jake disrupts Magnus’s retaliation long enough to give Emilya a chance to run. The escape becomes a life. It also becomes a binding. Later, Elyse, a perceptive healer with sharp instincts, joins them on the road. The trio turns fugitive. Necessity hardens into trust. Trust turns into affection, earned in breathless flight and in the quiet gaps between threats.
A strong supporting cast adds weight and texture. Freya, Emilya’s childhood friend, carries her own scars from Magnus’s cruelty. Magnus’s sister offers a gentler counterpoint and a tragic lens on a fractured royal household. And Magnus himself? Chilling. A narcissist with a talent for performance and a taste for control. His depravity feels calculated rather than chaotic, which makes him far more unsettling.
The novel grips from its opening pages. Emilya is immediately sympathetic and never simplistic. Magnus’s amused coldness lands like a warning bell. Action scenes arrive with momentum and stay readable. Tension builds cleanly. Sensory detail does a lot of heavy lifting, keeping each sequence sharp and immediate.
Graphic violence and mature themes appear with intent. They underline abuses of power. They raise the stakes. They also shape the book’s central idea, the “strains” of malice that seep into institutions, families, and ordinary lives. The intensity will not suit every reader, yet the darkness is consistently counterbalanced. Loyalty surfaces. Love persists. Compassion refuses to be extinguished.
The Strains of Malice stands out for immersive worldbuilding, well-timed twists, and a cast that is vivid and easy to root for. The opening volume introduces its setting with care, blending the fantastical with the uncomfortably familiar and grounding imaginative elements in a plausible social reality. The historical texture adds depth and authenticity. As a series opener, it’s gripping and confident. Epic-fantasy scope meets the brisk punch of pulp adventure. Beardmore’s novel is best suited to readers who want their fantasy darker, sharper, and unafraid to look directly at cruelty, without losing sight of warmth.
Pages: 548 | ASIN : B0DYZ5T653
