Roman Riva of Opium Tales and I had a great interview last night; catch it here: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/399308

I’m continuing to review the novellas adapted from Roman and Anna Riva’s planned animated series, Opium Tales (which doubles as Roman’s Substack moniker and publication). I’ve followed Roman’s work for years, and when I found out he and his wife had a series of short novellas in print—and that they are all, save one, under $8—I snapped them up and decided to review them one-by-one.

So far, I’ve reviewed Humpty Dumpty, A Pirate’s Tale, and The Staff (those are Affiliate links—more of them below—so I receive a portion of any purchases made through those links, at no additional cost to you); at the moment, A Pirate’s Tale remains my favorite followed by Humpty Dumpty and The Staff.

According to the introduction of each volume, Roman and Anna sought, but failed to procure, funding for an animated series called Opium Tales. They hoped to call it Dark Tales, but the name was taken, so they leaned into the opium habits of early eighteenth-century Romantics and landed on Opium Tales. Since they still had all the rights to their stories, they decided to publish them as a series of novellas.

Here is the series—or, at least the volumes I purchased (the following are Amazon Affiliate links; I receive a portion of any purchase made through these links, at no additional cost to you):

• Humpty Dumpty
• A Pirate’s Tale
• The Staff
• Son of an Incubus
• The Midnight Train
• Sophia and the Goblin King (the only volume that costs more than $8; it’s also the longest)

The entire series is (as of the time of writing) $46.94 before tax, so these are easy to scoop up in one fell swoop.

I reached out to Roman to ask which story should be read fourth, and he suggested I read one that his wife, Anna, took the lead on writing. Instead, I just grabbed the next one on top of my stack, Son of an Incubus, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of Roman’s based on the writing style. Sorry, Anna!

Son of an Incubus is definitely the oddest of the tales so far, and based on the ending, it’s clearly meant to be one of a series of episodes featuring the characters Greta and Clafigan, our heroes. Greta is a feisty witch with a strong independent streak; Clafigan is a knight-in-training, the son of old Crusader, who puts up with Greta’s outbursts with patience and humility. It’s quite clear that Clafigan loves Greta, but from a respectful distance.

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For the next few weeks I’m going to review the novellas adapted from Roman and Anna Riva’s planned animated series, Opium Tales (which doubles as Roman’s Substack moniker and publication). I’ve followed Roman’s work for years, and it’s refreshing to see his active presence on Substack. When I found out he and his wife had a series of short novellas in print—and that they are all, save one, under $8.

Last week, I reviewed the first book in the series, Humpty Dumpty (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link—more of them below—so I receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you).

According to the introduction of each volume, Roman and Anna sought, but failed to procure, funding for an animated series called Opium Tales. They hoped to call it Dark Tales, but the name was taken, so they leaned into the opium habits of early eighteenth-century Romantics and landed on Opium Tales. Since they still had all the rights to their stories, they decided to publish them as a series of novellas.

Here is the series—or, at least the volumes I purchased; if I’m missing one, please let me know, Roman (the following are Amazon Affiliate links; I receive a portion of any purchase made through these links, at no additional cost to you):

• Humpty Dumpty
• A Pirate’s Tale
• The Staff
• Son of an Incubus
• The Midnight Train
• Sophia and the Goblin King (the only volume that costs more than $8; it’s also the longest)

The entire series is (as of the time of writing) $46.94 before tax, so these are easy to scoop up in one fell swoop.

According to is introduction, A Pirate’s Tale was intended to be the second installment in the animated series. Indeed, there was some debate between it or Humpty Dumpty being the pilot episode, but H. Dumps won out due to name recognition. That move seems wise, as HD strongly establishes the series’ foundation in European folklore and fairy tales, so a classic nursery rhyme turned into a dark tale of corruption and excess was the fitting choice.

That said, A Pirate’s Tale is my favorite between the two. While I loved what HD did with the source material, A Pirate’s Tale is a full-on swashbuckling adventure in the vein of (as the Rivas point out in their introduction) the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

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For the next few weeks I’m going to review the novellas adapted from Roman and Anna Riva’s planned animated series, Opium Tales (which doubles as Roman’s Substack moniker and publication). I’ve followed Roman’s work for years, and it’s refreshing to see his active presence on Substack. When I found out he and his wife had a series of short novellas in print—and that they are all, save one, under $8.

According to the introduction of each volume, Roman and Anna sought, but failed to procure, funding for an animated series called Opium Tales. They hoped to call it Dark Tales, but the name was taken, so they leaned into the opium habits of early eighteenth-century Romantics and landed on Opium Tales. Since they still had all the rights to their stories, they decided to publish them as a series of novellas.

Here is the series—or, at least the volumes I purchased; if I’m missing one, please let me know, Roman (the following are Amazon Affiliate links; I receive a portion of any purchase made through these links, at no additional cost to you):

• Humpty Dumpty
• A Pirate’s Tale
• The Staff
• Son of an Incubus
• The Midnight Train
• Sophia and the Goblin King (the only volume that costs more than $8; it’s also the longest)

The entire series is (as of the time of writing) $46.94 before tax, so these are easy to scoop up in one fell swoop.

According to is introduction, Humpty Dumpty was the first installment in the series, and intended to be the pilot episode of the animated series. It is a dark fantasy rendering in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm, in which H. Dumpty is not a clumsy egg, but instead a brutish feudal lord with dark appetites.

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