Last Hope - Blood Harvest

Last Hope first found a small but loyal group of readers on Wattpad, then a few more on Medium, before eventually making its way to Inkitt. Along the way, this story has grown into something far bigger than I ever imagined when I first sat down to write it.

We’re approaching six years of research, writing, rewriting, questioning my own sanity, staring at paragraphs for unreasonable amounts of time, and then, naturally, rewriting everything again.

And somehow, I’m still here. So is the story.

Before you begin, there’s something you should know about Last Hope: Blood Harvest: this is a huge, dense, unapologetically elaborate world.

Now, I’m not trying to scare you away before the first chapter. Quite the opposite.

If you enjoy lush language, atmospheric descriptions, and the occasional indulgence in purple prose, I think you’ll feel right at home here. I know that style isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s perfectly fine! But if you’re the kind of reader who loves getting lost in unfamiliar civilizations, wandering through ancient ruins, or discovering that some seemingly insignificant detail from several chapters ago was actually rather important, I’d love to invite you in.

At its heart, Last Hope: Blood Harvest is a dark high fantasy story woven with science fiction and cosmic horror. You’ll encounter ancient mysteries, unsettling secrets, morally complicated characters, and things lurking beneath the surface that I’d much rather let you discover for yourselves.

There are religions with their own histories, civilizations built upon centuries of belief and conflict, forgotten gods, philosophical questions about existence, morality, faith, and free will, and enough lore to make me occasionally wonder whether I accidentally started writing an encyclopedia instead of a novel.

But beneath all that worldbuilding, this is still a story about people. Their ambitions, their fears, the terrible things they do for love, and the even more terrible things they convince themselves are necessary.

A small note about the chapters: In earlier versions, they were enormous. And I mean enormous. The sort of chapters that might require provisions, a comfortable chair, and possibly a written farewell to your family.

This new edition divides those chapters into smaller, more comfortable parts, giving the story a little more room to breathe while keeping the experience engaging. I’ve also taken the opportunity to revisit the prose, refine the worldbuilding, and reconsider a few things that six years of writing have taught me.

Whether you’ve been following Last Hope since its Wattpad days or have only just stumbled across it here, thank you for giving this strange, sprawling universe a chance.

I hope you’ll enjoy exploring it as much as I’ve loved creating it.

And if you occasionally find yourself wondering what on earth is going on, don’t worry too much.

There are characters in this book who have been asking the same question for centuries.

— Vaan Marthell

Oh, and before I forget! Despite the cover, this edition contains no AI-generated illustrations. After all, half the fun of fantasy is imagining things differently from the person who wrote them.