In a Scavenger World After the End, the tyrant Grendel is extending his power across all the lands between the mountains, the oceans, and the limitless Iron Desert. In a small town near the desert's edge teetering on the edge of starvation, Andrew Sutter returns from a solo hunting trip to find a representative from the Flesh-Eating Legion, an army of ritualistic cannibals, demanding taxes the villagers don't have. A riot breaks out when the representative demands a young woman from the town instead, leading to the town's destruction. Andrew flees into the desert and nearly dies of thirst and heat exhaustion before being rescued by riders serving the rebel chieftain Alonzo Merrill. Lacking other options and seeking revenge on the Flesh-Eaters, Andrew joins the Merrill army.
Meanwhile, Grendel has problems of his own. Without external enemies, the various warlords under his thumb bicker with each other, while children with his late wife and multiple concubines scheme to succeed him. Grendel begins plotting an expedition across the Iron Desert as the starving Merrills launch a desperate offensive against the Flesh-Eaters.
The series by Matthew W Quinn consists of two novels and a prequel novella:
- "Son of Grendel"
- Battle for the Wastelands
- Serpent Sword: Battle for the Wastelands #2
The series contains examples of:
- Berserk Button: Falki Grendelsson's mixed heritage, Alonzo's sister being a concubine to the tyrant who killed the rest of the family, and the fact the son of said union, depending on whether younger sisters come before nephews, is heir to the Merrill throne.
- Big Bad: Grendel, first lord of the Northlands
- Blood Knight: Falki Grendelsson
- Child by Rape: Havarth Grendelsson, whose mother Catalina secretly refers to him as "Hayes Merrill." When a Flesh-Eater fort is taken in the first book, one of their female prisoners is obviously pregnant.
- Clock Punk: How Alonzo's artificial fingers work. Also how chainsaws work in "Son of Grendel."
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Falki has the wounded Dalton blood-eagled for racially-antagonizing him after the final battle in the novella "Son of Grendel."
- Doomed Hometown: Carroll Town
- Dread Zeppelin: Grendel has the massive airship Nicor, his right hand Alexander Matthews has the similarly-sized Old Epharim, and the Flesh-Eating Legion's overlord has the Bailey Mines. The Merrills good-guy equivalent is Alonzo's flagship the Asherton. Justified Trope — in this world, an armed dirigible is the most dangerous piece of military hardware.
- Elite Mooks: Grendel's Obsidian Guard, armed entirely with salvaged Old World weaponry. Their standard infantry weapon is pretty obviously an M-16.
- Fantastic Racism: Andrew sneers at the nomadic mercantile Menceir people, using the racial slur "pikey." After Owen saves his life in battle in the first book he dials it back a bit, but it's still there. In "Son of Grendel," a lot of this is directed at the Scandinavian-inspired Sejer and the East Asian-inspired Jiao.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Referenced in Serpent Sword with Grendel having summoned more than one concubine to his bed at a time.
- Glass Cannon: An artillery-laden dirigible can pack a mighty punch, but it is very, very easy to ignite its hydrogen lifting gas. The climactic battles of both Battle for the Wastelands and Serpent Sword demonstrate this.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Flesh-Eaters practice ritualized cannibalism. In Serpent Sword it's revealed they've converted industrial meatpacking facilities to package human flesh for consumption.
- It's Raining Men: Dirigible air assault, including the climactic assault on the Long Branch citadel in Serpent Sword
- Made of Iron: For a 20-something wounded in battle and suffering from malnutrition before that, Andrew manages to endure quite a lot before he joins the Merrill army.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Grendel. That's not the name he was born with; he came up with that for this reason.
- Praetorian Guard: The Obsidian Guard, again
- Pragmatic Villainy: The villain Grendel has definitely read the Evil Overlord List
- Prison Rape: Grendel alludes to it during a scene where prisoners from the jails are used to train the Obsidian Guard to kill.
- Really Gets Around: After the death of his wife, Grendel has taken many concubines and fathered many children.
- Stock Dinosaur Archetypes: Both Battle for the Wastelands and its sequel Serpent Sword feature pterosaurs. The novella "Son of Grendel" features a surprise appearance by a tyrannosaurus rex.
- Stupid Evil: Grendel is most assuredly not, but some of his lesser warlords edge toward this. Grendel plans to use that to his advantage, especially with the Flesh-Eaters.
- The Lost Lenore: Andrew's hometown girlfriend Cassie, taken prisoner early in the novel by the Flesh-Eaters.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Alonzo Merrill forces Flesh-Eater enlisted prisoners to publicly kill their own captured officers before drafting them into his army.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Grendel's ultimate plan for the Flesh-Eating Legion, once they've broken all resistance in the former Merrill territories and his son by the captive Catalina is old enough to rule there.
- Zeppelins from Another World: The most powerful war machines are dirigibles carrying Gatling guns and small artillery. If you're a ground unit, especially one without antiaircraft guns or the numbers for massed fire, you're about to have a really bad day.
