grimdark military fantasy book cover

"An impressive writer" – Mark Lawrence, Gemmell Award Winner and international bestselling author
"I freaking bloody loved the Blood Scouts" – Julia Sarene, The Fantasy Hive
"A unique, compelling story with plenty of action and vivid characters." – Patrick Samphire, author of Shadow of a Dead God

Get ready for the first entry in a new series from Phil Williams: However Many Must Die introduces a diverse dark fantasy world crawling with monsters, plagued by war, and on the precipice of big changes.

dark military fantasy title

OUT NOW!

Wild Wish was trained to do one thing: kill.

Saved from a lonely backwater existence by a global war, Wish couldn't believe her luck when she got into the Blood Scouts. Now she gets to share tents with an all-female platoon of night-stalking, giant-slaying, boat-sinking, battle-swaying legends in the making.

The problem is, they keep dying.

And they've been given their worst assignment yet.

The enemy Dread Corps are combining magics deep within the nightmare lands of Low Slane, to unleash a weapon that could sway the entire war. It's up to the Blood Scouts to stop them – with a journey that gets more dangerous with every step.

Far behind enemy lines, death hangs in the air. Monsters lurk around every corner.

Are Wish's skills – and positive attitude – enough to keep her Blood Scouts alive?

Or will the cost of survival finally break her?

Get ready for the first epic entry in a new series, and a new world, of dark military fantasy from Phil Williams. Start reading today!

DYER STREET PUNK WITCHES

Kit hung up her brass knuckles, but the shadows of her past lingered. Now they’re back to claim her.

Kit “Fadulous” Hamley, magazine editor, activist and former punk rocker, is a well-known loudmouth in St Alphege’s. She works tirelessly to hold local authorities to account. Some say she’s making up for her criminal youth. Others spread rumours of witchcraft. Only a handful of people know how dark her secrets really are.

When an old friend warns Kit that a former rival has resurfaced, those secrets start to resurface. People have gone missing, with body parts and strange symbols left behind, and someone is stalking Kit. The gang she abandoned are scared stiff and her magic-wielding bandmates are long gone. Kit herself is a target, and if she can’t unravel exactly how this new feud connects with her past mistakes, it could kill her.

Decades older, a little wiser, and contrary as ever, Kit’s going to remind them all what a punk witch can do.

Get ready for a riotous ride into the seedy underbelly of St Alphege’s, where gang warfare and occult conspiracies tear ordinary lives apart. Dyer Street Punk Witches is a standalone urban fantasy thriller, packed with tough, subversive characters and tense twists – you won’t be able to put it down.

under ordshaw urban fantasy
Under Ordshaw

Will the answer get her killed?

Pax thought she knew the dark side of Ordshaw. A poker pro who hustles bankers and gangsters, she can take care of herself. But she’s about to discover the shadows hide far worse than criminals.

When a thief steals her bankroll, it could cost Pax her home. Following his trail unearths a labyrinthine mystery that could cost Pax her life.

People have disappeared simply for realising what's lurking under Ordshaw.

To get her life back, Pax needs to go much further than that.

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blue angel supernatural thriller
Blue Angel

Can she survive its legacy?

Pax’s murderous government want her dead, because she’s discovered monsters exist.

To survive, she’s got to expose who, or what, is behind the chaos. She can’t do it alone.

But with only the trigger-happy Fae to turn to, Pax’s allies might kill her before her enemies do...

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violent fae fantasy trilogy
The Violent Fae

They will destroy everything to protect their secrets.

Pax is discovering that the smallest mistakes can have the deadliest impact. To defend Ordshaw, she's uncovered monstrous truths and involved terrible people. The consequences must be faced.

The Sunken City is unstable. The Fae are armed for war.

Can Pax stop the coming disaster?

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free urban fantasy novella
The City Screams

Tova’s getting her hearing back.

She’s going to wish she wasn’t.

Alone in Tokyo for experimental ear surgery, Tova Nokes is finally shaking up her life. But when she starts to hear things she shouldn’t, all she wants is to make it home alive.

There’s a voice saying it’s where she comes from that makes her special.

If she can only survive violent stalkers, and the terrible screams, she might figure out why…

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kept from cages supernatural thriller
Kept From Cages

No one returns from Ikiri.

Reece's gang of criminal jazz musicians have hidden in the wrong house. There's a girl with red eyes bound to a chair and some unholy forces are determined to see they don't set her free.

On the other side of the world, Agent Tasker links a village massacre to a mercenary expedition to the Congo. He's only got a female assassin to help him, and a single name to go by. Ikiri.

These two arcs combine in a fast-paced, chilling supernatural thriller that you won't be able to put down.

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fantasy thriller cover
Given To Darkness

Ikiri demands blood. Whose will it be?

A malevolent force stirs from the heart of the Congo. One child can stop it – but everyone wants her dead.

Can the few, unstable protectors she has  left get her to Ikiri alive?

The concluding part to the thrilling Ikiri Duology, following directly on from Kept From Cages.

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alternative urban fantasy trilogy
The Complete Sunken City Trilogy

UNDER ORDSHAW, BLUE ANGEL and THE VIOLENT FAE available in one combined edition.

Follow Pax's complete adventure into her city's uniquely frightening underworld with this boxset, available in eBook or print.

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supernatural thriller duology boxset
The Complete Ikiri Duology

KEPT FROM CAGES and GIVEN TO DARKNESS available in one combined edition.

Follow Reece's gang of criminal jazz musicians on their complete globe-trotting adventure with this boxset, available in eBook or print.

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Wixon's Day

He wanted to the ruined world…

Now he has to save it.

Marquos travels Estalia’s waterways with a secret. The girl hiding below deck was rescued from the mines. Can he get her home safely before disappearing into the North?

She’s opened his eyes to the true nature of Estalia’s Guards. Kidnapping children is the least of their crimes. There’s a secret war coming closer to home – and their terrible weapons point back to the time before the darkness. Are the rebels right to resist the only order left in the world?

Marquos cannot run from the truth.
It’s a fight he must join, on one side or the other.

But can he protect what’s left of the world, or will he cause its destruction?

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Balfair's Confinement

She’s been oppressed all her life.

That ends now.

Deni dreams of escaping the derelict estate of her master Balfair. When he drags a mysterious fuel from the swamp and excludes her from a mysterious new project, she sees her chance.

The ruling Guard will not stand for rogue engineering.

And Deni will not stand for this life any more.

But will bringing their war-mongering leaders into her home really set her free? Or are there worse fates than this cruel isolation?

Whatever the consequences – their whole world is about to change.

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Aftan Whispers

He didn't know how savage the world was…

Until he met Deni.

When Tyler helps a girl on the run, his carefree life gets complicated fast. Deni isn't afraid to kill, and she’s got a secret that could tear open the sky.
Racing from a besieged city to the war-torn countryside, Tyler soon discovers that the Empire’s guardians are their biggest threat. But how can he and Deni expose their leaders without exposing themselves? And who can they possibly trust now?

Can this mismatched pair overcome the full fury of the Guard, when all they’ve got is each other?

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The Ordshaw Vignettes

Sometimes terrible things happen that can't be explained.
Sometimes it's safer not to know.

A collection of 12 short stories from the UK's worst-behaved city, asking one key question: what if life's darkest mishaps - the mistakes, confusions, and strokes of awful luck - were caused by something ... else?

Witness carjackings, domestic arguments, theft and murder; question perceptions and reality to find the answers - all in the space of a tea break. Step into Ordshaw today and ask yourself, what secrets does this city hide?

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A Most Apocalyptic Christmas

The night before Christmas, Scullion’s stuck halfway between the USA's last surviving cities.

There are bandits out to kill him.

And he wants a drink, bad.

Scullion plans to get what he wants. He's faced tougher killers than these punks before.

But there's worse to come. A barbaric community with an utterly distorted seasonal spirit are about to teach him the true meaning of Christmas:

It's dangerous to go it alone.

If you like madcap action and desolate futures, you'll love this dystopian rollercoaster.

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horror short story
The Wrong Way (Short Story)

She wants to ask for directions.

He doesn't.

The argument goes too far.

A popular short horror story set in the cruel city of Ordshaw which tackles a situation familiar to every one of us.

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Phil Williams was born in the commuter-belt of Hertfordshire, where he learnt to escape a comfortable life through sinister fantasy fiction. His erratic career has variously involved the study of language and people- and took him to such locations as Prague, Moscow and Abu Dhabi. He finally settled on the quiet Sussex seaside, where he lives in Worthing with his wife and his fluffy dog, Herbert. He divides his time between writing educational books that help people better understand English and fantasy books that help people better escape reality.

So he tells himself.

Phil's novel series include:

Ordshaw: a collection of urban fantasy thrillers set in and around the UK city of Ordshaw – a place where dark secrets threaten the modern world. The Sunken City trilogy follows card sharp Pax Kuranes’ introduction to a labyrinthine conspiracy, starting with Under Ordshaw. The spin-off Ikiri Duology, starting with Kept From Cages, takes things global. Expect monsters, diminutive fairies and a mystery that’ll take a lot of late nights to unravel.

Estalia: starting with Phil’s debut novel, Wixon’s Day, in 2012,  this post-apocalyptic series explores a dystopia powered by steam. With reconstructed steampunk machines and an anarchist government, Estalia is a deadly place that gets more tense and chaotic with each instalment in the series.

His work also includes stories set in the post-World War 3 dystopia of Faergrowe (including A Most Apocalyptic Christmas and an upcoming five-book action-thriller arc starting with The Worst Survive), as well as various standalone stories and screenplays.

Fantasy of the World War Era

Since I started writing However Many Must Die, I’ve taken quite an interest in World War 1-era fantasy, though hunting it out, and seeing other people asking about it, often seems to produce scant results. With that in mind I thought it might be interesting to share...

One Review Post to Rule 2024

You may be aware that I read a lot of books. So many that I often forget to talk about them until I'm lumbered with making a big list at the end of the year. This is a shame because I'd like to talk more about and share the things I've enjoyed. This year, Glorious...

My Top Reads of 2023

Each year I try to find ways to manage my vast reading list better so it'll be easier to draw up concise recommendations. Each year I fail. I read a lot of long books this year (I usually much prefer short and sweet) and I simplified my scoring system to just...

Contact Phil Williams

Want to get in touch? Whether you’d like to discuss my novels, editing or cover design services, speaking engagements or cosmic horror, I’m always happy to hear from people. You can contact me at phil@phil-williams.co.uk

You can also find me online here: