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Richard Dee
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The Syk'm: Everyone said that they were monsters. Then they asked for my help. Kindle Edition

by Richard Dee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
"Behave, or the Syk'm will come and take you away."

That was the threat hanging over my childhood, the terrifying punishment that made us all obedient.
As children, we were told that the Syk’m watched over us. Should we misbehave, they could do unimaginable things.


Because we were young and knew no better, the mere mention of their name was enough to control us. We went to bed, minded our manners and stopped our shouting.

Although the Syk’m were mythical creatures, never seen, we all believed in their power over us.

Now that I’m older and wiser, I thought that I had outgrown the unseen terrors of my childhood. I thought that I no longer believed in the power of the Syk’m.

Then the day came when I discovered that the Syk’m were real. The day they found me. Their message was clear. Despite everything I had imagined, they needed my help.

It was the day I discovered that they were not the monsters we had all believed them to be.

There were others in the universe.

"A breath-taking and deeply affecting fantasy adventure by a master storyteller."
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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 15, 2021
  4. File size
    3.0 MB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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From the Publisher

Welcome to the world of the Syk'm

Everyone said that the Syk'm were monsters, That was because they didn't understand. Hors Lawis found the truth, the reality of the Syk'm. It was to take him and his friends on a journey - far beyond what they thought was possible. On the way, they would discover the truth about themselves and learn that the Syk'm were not what they had been taught.

A tale that spans much more than the known world.

Skander

Skander

For hundreds of years, its been a world at peace, where nothing ever changes. A boring place to become an adult, with no excitement to look forward to.

Enuna

Enuna

Enuna is a warrior from afar, with magic powers and a vital mission. Once seen, never forgotten, she offers a chance for adventure.

Bokon

Bokon

The last free city of the Syk'm. It's survival depends on a desperate alliance between races.

Hors

Hors Lawis

A Skanderling on the cusp of manhood, Hors is ready for adventure. Can it be found with Enuna?

How the story was devised and written.

It all started with a memory, my grandmother used to tell me that if I was bad, a creature that she called the bogeyman would come and take me away. It scared me when I was younger, because of the way she said it and the threat that it implied. Whether it improved my behaviour is another matter.

Anyhow, fast forward to a couple of years ago, when my wife and I were talking about aspects of our childhood. I mentioned the bogeyman and we laughed about the effect things like that had on children. And how we grew out of such fears as we got older and learned more about the world.

Then I had a thought. What if the bogeyman was real, what might happen if you met one? What would be the truth behind the stories, the basis of the legend?

My mind went into overdrive, perhaps the bogeymen were members of an alien race, watching us and occasionally taking someone for research? Maybe they had been more active in years past, hence the old tales. It could be that they had since turned their minds to other things and had decided to leave us alone. If that were true, then how, and for what reason, might the first new contact in ages develop?

I realised that there were enough possibilities in that paragraph alone to build a story.

The Syk’m grew from that premise. I decided to write it as a sword and sorcery fantasy adventure, given the origins of the tale in folklore. I thought it would be the most fitting genre for it. I invented a world, Skander, with a medieval society. These were the people who would be held in thrall to their own version of the bogeyman, who they called the Syk’m. The story would concern what happened when the people of Skander finally learned the truth.

I made some brief notes and let the story stew in my mind. The whole story came to me, just in time to be my project for NaNoWriMo 2020. I wrote most of it in November 2020 and sent it off to my editor, as well as a few trusted friends. I got positive feedback and completed the final version in April 2021.

As a writer of Sci-fi and Steampunk, building the world was fairly straightforward. Incorporating magic and primitive technology was a bit more of a challenge. I had to forgo all the usual tricks and the freedom that writing about the future gives you, go right back to basics. The aim was to make it as plausible and integrated a society as I could. A place like our history suggests, yet not ours

Apart from the action and adventure that such a tale demands, I also wanted to examine the emotional aspects of meeting people whose existence had only ever been hinted at and feared. I thought that it would be fun to explore the relationships that might develop between the two races, the similarities and differences that such an event might expose.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09B51D9N8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ 4Star Scifi (October 15, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 15, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.0 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B09CGL818T
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

About the author

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Richard Dee

Richard Dee

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I’m Richard Dee and I’m from Brixham in Devon.

I write all kinds of speculative fiction, from Science Fiction and Steampunk to sci-fi crime and psychological thrillers.

Forty years at sea gave me the ideas, I just changed the names and set them in the future or in an alternative now.

All my work is fuelled by black coffee and homemade digestive biscuits.

You can keep up with me at https://richarddeescifi.co.uk/ where you’ll find free short stories, regular features on writing, book reviews and guest appearances from other great authors.

I can also be contacted at richarddeescifi@gmail.com

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
9 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • D. Messing
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best novels of 2020
    Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This is an incredible story. I have read this repeatedly as it's one of those books that gets better each and every time you read it. It starts off with a hook and leaves you racing into the novel because you just have to find out what happens next! I'm trying very hard not to leave spoilers, it's hard!!! This is my top novel of 2020 out of all of the books I've read so far, it's an incredible read. Thank you for an incredible afternoon escape.
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  • Gilbert M. Stack
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Master of SF Mysteries Turns to Fantasy
    Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2021
    Richard Dee is probably best known for his solid science fiction mysteries. In this, his first venture into fantasy, you get to see him stretch his mind in another direction. The core of this book is a quest to help a race, the Syk’m, defend their world against an invading race with superior magical technology. (The invaders essentially have the magical equivalent of rifles and cannon.) To stop the invasion, a Syk’m traitor’s magical portal must be destroyed.

    To accomplish this, the Syk’m recruit Hors, an alien from a world that they have been observing through other portals. Hors is the hero of the story and the novel is told from his POV. He in turn recruits friends to help him. They are an unlikely group without any military experience and reminded me a bit of Tolkien’s hobbits (although they are not halflings). As fantasy quests often are, this is a tale of the main character growing up, learning to be a leader, and persevering to complete his quest.

    If this was the whole story, Dee would have a solid fantasy novel. Unfortunately, Dee adds an element in his world building that greatly weakened the whole story for me. On Hors’ world, the Syk’m are the bogeyman of the whole planet with a horrific reputation. They have been kidnapping people for generations. When some of those kidnapped escape and return to their world, their fellow citizens find them to be both dangerous and insane, imprisoning them in an asylum called The Isle of Lost Souls. While the number of people sent to the Isle is never stated, my impression is that it has thousands of inmates.

    Under these circumstances, I find it almost impossible to credit that Hors and his friends would so easily be convinced to help the Syk’m. Indeed, the one friend who doesn’t trust the Syk’m is treated like he is insane by his comrades. I kept waiting for the kindly Syk’m to drop their masks and reveal themselves to be the evil creatures that Hors’ race thinks they are, but that didn’t happen. So I honestly don’t understand why Dee gave the Syk’m this evil reputation in the first place. I think the story would have worked better if Hors and his people had never heard of the Syk’m before they were recruited.

    Still, this is a pretty good tale, especially for a first venture into fantasy.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Mish Medhat
    5.0 out of 5 stars A breath-taking and deeply affecting fantasy adventure by a master storyteller
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I have read many books by Mr Dee, and I can honestly say that each one has had the ability to grab and hold me until the very end. The Syk’m however, is the first of his books to deeply move me to such an extent, days after I finished the book, I’m still thinking of the themes portrayed and the beautiful and affecting storytelling of this author. This is a significant feat, as I read a lot of different books, across many genres, and none of these have got me so fixed on so many trains of thought, resulting in me running down rabbit holes within the neurons of my mind, as The Syk’m has.

    At first the plotline, embedded in the genre of fantasy, appears to be a fun adventure. A young man, Hors Lawis, in a world called Skander is attracted to a young woman, Enuna, with stunning eyes. He follows her, and unexpectedly walks into the realm of the Syk’m. After his initial shock of being in a different world, Hors learns that the Syk’m are in a battle with another race called the Druhaan, from another realm, who are aided by a group of renegade Syk’m Lords wishing to take over the planet for their own gain and domination. Enuna encourages Hors to enlist his friends from Skander, as they will play a vital role in vanquishing their enemies. And so begins an amazing fantasy adventure…which becomes an exploration into persuasion, manipulation and trust.

    The Syk’m are grounded in Skander folklore and history. Skanderling (the name for natives of Skander) children are told to behave otherwise the Syk’m will come and spirit them away forever. Inhabitants of Skander determine unfortunate events to be the work of the Syk’m playing their hand. Those Skanderlings claiming to have seen or been in contact with Syk’m are deemed insane and are committed to an institution on the Isle of Lost Souls. From all perspectives, the Syk’m result in bad things happening, and they are cruel beings who only bring pain and suffering.

    Such indoctrination reflects political or religious brain-washing. Establishing a position in a person’s mind, and reinforcing the same message over a period of time creates festering distrust and hatred. Breaking a solid notion of this kind is a key underlying theme throughout The Syk’m. Only compassion, understanding and ultimately, love can break entrenched thinking. But not before conflict rears its ugly head, causing waves of suspicion to lap over both the Skanderling party and the Syk’m, and tensions to fray, with both groups’ emotions going into overdrive with almost lethal results.

    The Syk’m have many facets, making the reader think heavily on their true motivations. As beings, the Syk’m are mystical, elegant and have more than a fleeting association with angels. With their delicate, beautiful wings that catch and refract light into glistening rainbows; their ability to read the mind of those whom they’re in physical connection to, and their metaphysical control of their planet’s energy source, Engaia, these creatures have been influenced by their celestial cousins.

    Of course, Mr Dee is brilliant at misdirection and subterfuge, and the motivations of his characters are always just that little bit darker than first anticipated. The Syk’m are far from the angelic creatures with wings, but they are also not the evil monsters the Skanderlings have been brought up to believe. Well…not all anyway. Some groups of the Syk’m are devious and cruel, and their need to dominate and rule has brought about the battle being faced by all in the book. Here again, Mr Dee initiates a reflection piece founded in geopolitics. How many times, in the news, has there been reports of a rogue county’s leader siding with hostile factions, inviting hostiles to fight alongside them, to ensure that leader’s power and domination over their country. Political rogue factions within the Syk’m have aligned themselves with an external aggressive force – the Druhaan – who are a warrior race, and all they know is war. Despite knowing that the Druhaan have designs on invading and taking over the Syk’m’s world, the Syk’m Lords within the rogue faction still believe that the risk they have taken with these brutal fighters is worth it. The faction is led by the Syk’m Lord Aylen, who, through the power of the Engaia, has opened a portal between worlds and laid the path for the Druhaan to invade, on the grounds that he would be ruler over the Syk’m world. Others within the rogue group exiled themselves to other realms when the invasion commenced. Stout in their conviction that they will be recalled to lead with new powerful positions once the Druhaan are the victor.

    The opposition to Lord Aylen is Lord Antonn and his son Tonnir, supported by the Engaia Priest Rannel – a person who, like Aylen and Enuna, can control the Engaia through their mind. The opposition know that somehow, the Druhaan sense Syk’m and therefore fighting against them has become a challenge. They know tactics on the ground need to change if they are to win in the face of adversity. Cue introduction of the Skanderlings, Hors and his band of friends – Jyp, Liss and Harel – fledgling fighters in their village combat team. As a result of an unexpected occurrence another Skanderling is also brought into the team, and he gives the decision-making solid grounding. Enuna sees Hors and his band of fighters as the pivotal strategic advantage in their military operations, and could just be the vital ingredient to win the war.

    Enuna is a fascinating character. In her naivety and certain hubris, she believes that through her manipulative abilities, the Skanderlings will comply. Bolstered by the threat that the Druhaan could target Skander once they had acquired her world, Enuna continues down her none-too-subtle path of persuasion. Later, she realizes the error of her ways.

    Mr Dee’s storytelling weaves a heart-pounding fantasy adventure with an emotional relationship drama, where people’s motivations and inclinations stray into the gray, and field intelligence is twisted to shape the agenda of the moment. The Syk’m use their beauty and beguiling effect on Skanderlings to get the results they need. But is this mechanism they use to persuade, in synch with their desire to be open, honest and truthful. Or, is it just a stronger race gaining a weaker one’s submission to their will, through the very awe of their being. It is this continual flow of uncertainty and tension that gives this book a sharper edge, and forces a ‘just one more page’ effect on the reader. Before you know it, your clock says 4am! Unputdownable, although it’s an overused euphemism for a ‘great book’, is the very definition of what The Syk’m is.

    The worlds of Skander and the Syk’m’s realm are superbly crafted, demonstrating Mr Dee’s undeniable skill in world-building. Both places have a slightly medieval feel to them, but the world of the Syk’m is filled with magic, power and wonder. Engaia is the energy source that fuels their planet, and they use it in the same way that we humans use electricity, to light their homes, power their heating, cooking and other machinery. Engaia is however, more than just an energy source like oil, gas or coal. It is a power that is rooted with the Syk’m, giving them abilities to open up the fabric of the universe and ‘step’ into other realms. The idea of these places being ‘beads on a string’ as Rannel explains, is ingenious, and it echoes the various quantum theories in science regarding multiverses, and the possibility that gravitons (within the quantum world) are string particles that link to other dimensions beyond our own universe.

    The naming of the energy source as Engaia is more than a gentle nod toward Gaia, the mystical power of Mother Earth, and the source of life on our planet. I loved this and wanted to know more about this source of energy connecting the planet and the people are one.

    There are so many wonderful aspects to the Syk’m that it’s hard to pull out just one. From the socio-political messaging, analysis of the truth of relationships, fast-paced storyline, action-packed scenes, captivating dialogue delivered by intriguing characters you invest in, to the incredible world-building descriptions, this book will keep and hold you enraptured. I highly recommend this book, and suffice it is to say, I look forward to reading the sequel, to find out more about the Syk’m and the immerse myself in the adventures of Hors and Enuna. One book Mr Dee, just isn’t enough!
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  • Kindle Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This is definitely nice read! Richard has unbelievable imagination! Solid story line, interesting characters, nicely 'painted' worlds. More about worlds created here soon I hope :)
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  • Aaron
    5.0 out of 5 stars It sucks you in
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    From the moment I picked it up, I found this hard to put down. The character development and world building draws you in and you just have to know what happens next. A thoroughly enjoyable read, highly recommended.
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