Rick Rawes

A Little Background

There is no right or wrong when it comes to reading books. Indeed, if I’m so bold, there’s often not a lot of rights or wrongs when it comes to writing them. A writer writes, a reader reads. Sometimes what a writer writes is right for the writer, but wrong for the reader. Sometimes what a reader reads is right for reader but wrong for the writer. Sometimes it all just gets super muddling and before you know it, you’re unsure what day it is.

Shared universes have become all the rage these days, after the success of those Avengers battling it out in quippy style on the big screen in 2012 (or I suppose four years before that in a now sarcastically debated post-credits scene for Incredible Hulk). My inspiration came a few years before that, huddled deep in the stacks of second-hand books during my father’s days of selling them. I was attempting to make it through the rather dense Needful Things by Stephen King and started to notice something. Sheriff Alan Pangborn felt familiar. Indeed, so familiar, that by the time I managed to make it to a reread of The Dark Half (one of my favourite books of all time), it finally struck me. SAME GUY!!

Yes, it should have clicked earlier, but bear in mind I was a teenager, and our minds are often stuck on other, far less wholesome, things than literary characters. The interconnected web that transcends through King stories has always fascinated me. A random RF here, a lil’ turtle over there. A shared character or a similar theme. It was amazing to think that somewhere in this multiverse, a dog with rabies was preparing the most emotionally devastating ending to a novel I’ve ever read, while a through a little door Captain Trips was wiping out 98% of humanity.

That began my love of shared continuity, and so to be clear everything I write exists somewhere within the same big world. Somewhere Dr Rick Carter is taking on the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, while in another time and place Artie Abrams is discovering what the legacy of Avalon really means. Somewhere else, in the Nutbush Lounge, Madame Flutterby is…well, fluttering by.  

Thus begins a little introduction to my world – for those inclined to stick around and read it all. You can find out more specific information by clicking the links nearby pointing you to individual series, but for a little spoiler-free insight into the differing series of books – look no further! This handy guide will introduce you to the Heroes & Demons series, the New Knights series and the Rest of the Rainbow. Following is just a quick word about order of reading. Of course, pick up anything you like, in any order you like! That’s the beauty of free will after all. But if you do pick up multiple titles, don’t be surprised to see the occasional turtle. Sometimes, all the way down.

The Heroes & Demons Series

As you may already know, Heroes & Demons is not exactly a world of heroes. In fact, as a series it can be read in complete isolation from any other book or novel with some ease, taking place as it does roughly a decade after the New Knights saga. Genre-wise you’re looking at a sprawling urban fantasy thriller series, with a lot of apocalyptic overtones. There’s elemental super powers, secret society intrigue and political machinations. There’s a touch of genesis, more than a touch of revelations, ranging from underground ancient temples to street-level fist fights.

Tone wise, there’s dark, dark humour, very tough romance, happy and unhappy endings and morally ambiguity that speaks to the deep core theme of duality. Not always an easy read, but (if I may say so myself) an important one. If you wish to understand what makes a writer tick, this can be said to be my most personal novel series, and one with timely themes.

What you’re in for with this is ultimately planned as a five-part series. Written already and available in eBook and Paperback form are the first three books. Heroes & Demons introduces us to the players in this apocalyptic game, Hope & Fury expands our mythos into new territories and Fire & Water acts as a trilogy capper by turning everything on it’s head (and allowing all the blood to rush into it). Coming soon will be Sinners & Saints (in summer 2026), while the following year will see it all end with Fall & Flood.

The New Knights Saga

If Heroes & Demons is a continuous story, a full dessert, then the stories within the New Knights saga are more like pick ‘n’ mix. You can delve into the mythic with the Arthurian inspired Avalon and Avalon: Faerie Tales. These take place closer to when they were released (so roughly set around 2018). These are still urban, based in Manchester in modern day, but fall more clearly into the contemporary fantasy genre. Expect dragons and dangers, faeries and fights, swords and martinis. Okay, so they didn’t alliterate but there are a lot of martinis. They’re where magick comes alive, threaded through deep with a gay romance (yes, peeps, these are LGBT+everything positive). No one has sex with a werewolf though. To be clear.

Well, not yet.

But say you fancy something different? A darker tone? Well, you could always pick up Insomniac. What starts as a grim and gritty crime novel, with a serial killer stalking the streets of Manchester, morphs into a beautifully ambiguous tale of mental health, guilt and a touch of metaphysical thriller. Abusive. Painful. Honest. There will always be a place for the trademark Rick Rawes dark humour – but this is not the easiest of reads compared to the other.

Where is this going? Well, if anything Rawesian is comparable to the more modern ‘shared universe’ MCU-style idea, then it’d be New Knights. Two more Knights are on the way, with the upcoming Bastet (releasing 16^th February 2026), a rip-roaring 1920s adventure as told over a cold martini; subsequently followed by the final Knight, Echo, a Sheffield-set modern tech noir thriller. Shortly after expecting a crossover event to close out the first volume, with The New Knights forming together to battle an ancient foe.

But…if team ups aren’t your thing – don’t worry. You don’t need to understand the OtherWorld of Avalon to feel the chilling terror down your spine of Insomniac. You don’t need to plunder the pyramids of Bastet’s world to face the nature of consciousness in Echo. You can pick up some or all (or none, but then this might be a boring read), and even The New Knights itself and have yourself a real good time, without depending on the others. The reading of all enriches, but does not detract from, each in turn.

If I say so myself. Which I do.

The Rest of the Rainbow

Everything else I write (and bear in mind there’s soooooo many ideas), I’ve put under it’s own umbrella term of “The Rest of the Rainbow”. So far Proud Marys sits alone, being as it is my only non-supernatural novel. There are no unicorns or pyramids in Proud Marys, despite being set in Manchester during the events of some of the other novels.

There’s real people, real friendships, real day to day problems. Proud Marys follows three gay men in Manchester as they navigate a year of relationships, inspired by the music of Tina Turner. There’s divorces, deaths and dickheads (oh and drag queens). There’s an 80s style comedy vibe, with an undeniable girls of the golden variety tone. And there is a lot of innuendo. Okay, so the tone isn’t completely different, I am me, after all.

There’s other standalone titles rattling around in the ol’ noggin and working themselves out slowly over time. When they begin to emerge, they’ll come here, to the Rest of the Rainbow section. Not sure which may be next. There’s a gay cabin in the woods horror novel, a psychic medium with depression, and even an story among the stars. There’s Superman meets Beautiful Thing, oh and that one on the Scottish Island. That’s to say, completely separate and yet still existing in the same world, there’s a lot of other tales to come. So also, please watch this space!

You Made It!

Okay, so you’ve made it to the end of the explanation – which believe me I have tried to keep brief. If you’ve got what you needed, please feel free to go and check those pages, have a browse through those Amazon pages or the GoodReads ones and feel free to go nuts. But, if you would like to be a constant reader, dear reader or simply have a lot of time to kill and a very wobbly table – below is two ways you can approach the Worlds of Rick Rawes:

1. Release Order – so one way to go for is to read through in the order they were released. It’ll jump around a bit in connections, but you’ll see how they naturally and organically evolved throughout the writing process. The books were released between 2017 and present, beginning with the Heroes & Demons series and then interspersing others in-between. The correct order would be to start with Heroes & Demons (June 2017), followed by Avalon (February 2018), Proud Marys (July 2018), Insomniac (March 2019), Hope & Fury (September 2019), Avalon: Faerie Tales (October 2024) and most recently Fire & Water (July 2025). Hopefully the below diagram helps!

Next up will be Bastet aiming for a February 2026 release!

2. Chronological Order – if you prefer to understand the novels in the order they are set then a word of warning – there’s many books to be released in all sorts of places! This might be a better option for people who want to reread (I’m a big re-reader myself, some of my spines have been tortured more than a chiropractor’s). But anyway, here we go. We start with Avalon which begins around July 2018, with Insomniac set a few months later in September 2018. Proud Marys covers the year from August 2018 to August 2019 so might be best to read next. We then return to the world of Artie Abrams with Avalon: Faerie Tales, which picks up approximately one year afterwards in around September 2019. The Heroes & Demons books have continuity around a decade afterwards, so can be covered Heroes & Demons, Hope & Fury and Fire & Water in one go.

One little note, though the upcoming Bastet is primarily set in Egypt in both 3000 BCE and 1923, it is told over a cold martini (and like a few cigarettes) in modern times and thus can be slotted in between Avalon: Faerie Tales and Heroes & Demons if you really wish (or read first if you like). Again, the below diagram should help!

And with that, my work is done! Many thanks for reading so far, please like my various social media pages if you’d like to know when new posts and books go live. There should be new blog posts with other insights at least twice a month to begin with, so there’s plenty of stuff to enjoy. And in the meantime, peace & love.

August 18^th, 2025

Leeds, West Yorkshire