Sapha Burnell
Cyberpunk + Mythpunk
A man took a sledgehammer to concrete. People scrambled to the top of the wall. I was too young to understand my family’s joy, but I remember the sledgehammer and the rubble it caused.
Lifetimes of separation ended the day the Berlin Wall was torn down. East vs West, family from both sides came with divergent ways of the world like alternate dimensions to a sci-fi and classical poetry obsessed kid in Vancouver, Canada.
I’m Sapha Burnell, daughter of immigrants and old-school Canadians, raised between languages and traditions the way I nestled between boy-and-girl games. I fell for Baroque music, ancient myth, Rococo and Art Rock. My first loves were Fraggle Rock, Star Trek TNG, My Neighbour Totoro, Hogan’s Heroes and Stalag 13. When I found William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy and heavy metal, life twisted from Shakespeare to Cyberpunk.
One of the leads at Blade and Banter Media Corp, I’m a cyberpunk + mythpunk author, poet, artist, editor, vocalist, martial-artist and gamer, who dives headfirst into vaporwave cybergoth aesthetics and Orthodox Metal.
Welcome to my cosmic fountain. Stay a while, fight a battle and drink the waters and wines of poetic rejuvenation.
Peace for Hieronimo & Bel-Imperia. Long live the Beautiful Machines.
This House is Ours.
The Judge of Mystics Saga
Keep the peace.
After eons at war, the Mystic Realms attached to the World Tree carved one neutral territory. The Human Realm of Midgard.
One part Peacemaker, one part Executioner, Judge Caleb Mauthisen is the unwilling figurehead of the Mystic Truce, and protects Midgard from a legion of Realm Folk’s mischief and magic.
Surrounded by legendary mythological figures, he navigates a cold war of long memories and short fuses, while the old guard of gods, angels, demons, spirits and tricksters have a real penchant for meddling in his business.
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Novella © 2023
Carolee O’Riordan put up with a lot from her husband Colm. When he moved them to Bray, when he gambled their savings, when he and his buddies got into one too many dust ups, she stuck by his side. Selling their only son Liam’s soul to Selyka, High Queen of the Fae?
Read the origin story of Queen Selyka’s favourite dark secret, in Macabre and Monstrous.
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Novel, © 2023
The Book of Knowledge is gone and someone is trying to kill gods.
The Mystic Realms keep a tenuous peace after centuries of war. Forged into the Realms’ only Judge, demi-god Caleb Mauthisen is both peace maker and executioner of the Mystic Truce. When Caleb is called to the charred remains of a scorched Sacred Grove outside Dover, rumours reignite tensions as Ares warns of war’s whisper. High Queen Selyka is hiding something in the roots and petals of her Fae Courts, and it smells of char and ash.
Caught between the Mystic Truce, Ares’ demands for answers and concern for his Fae-cursed lover Tuija’s safety, Caleb descends into a roiling adventure to find the perpetrators and staunch the flow before the Mystic Realms lose faith in him and in peace. Little does he know the perpetrator Stana stole something far more precious than belief in gods and heroes.
Char & Ash is an emotional and captivating mythpunk godpunk and urban supernatural fantasy.
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Novel, © 2024
“I want out.”
The entire cosmos hiccups around Finnegan the Fae. Mystic Judge Caleb Mauthisen desperately clings to the journals of a 7th Century Catholic Cardinal, obsessed with a magical tattoo that threatens to crumble the Mystic Realms to wrath and war.
A place they know and fear too well.
Spiralling with only his scheming ex Delilah to 'help', Caleb searches for the elusive way out of the Truce, as he descends through the essence of grief into layers of hell on earth.
Finnegan breaks his exile to find Caleb's absentee father Raynar, before Caleb’s absence strips the Realms of their Judge and protector. Before Delilah weaves Caleb into plans of her own, and wrath shatters through to the last root of the World Tree.
Son of Abel is a cathartic mythpunk + godpunk supernatural fantasy and #2 in the Judge of Mystics Saga.
The Lieben Circuit
An insane diabolical rollercoaster
“I never thought science fiction could be so beautiful.”
Amazon Bestseller: Cyberpunk / Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi / Space Marine Sci-Fi
AI meets gene-splicers, when the Idless & the Conglom fight to define Lieben and thus, the world. Will Lieben help, or hinder?
2085. Dr. Karnak & Baiko’s beloved android Lieben is in danger of becoming mother of the Conglomerate’s artificial slave race. With the Chairman’s assassin Tara’s sights on Baiko, she steals the secret to Lieben’s artificial intelligence and runs to the Idless, anti-label anarchists, who believe Lieben is the key to free the world from corporate control. Will Baiko get to Lieben in time, or will Tara?
2155. Accidentally awakened gene-spliced bio-machine Aderastos wades to shore in Ucluelet, BC to the hum of the Mater Machine Lieben’s Hymn Electric. Harmless Lt. Max Allard is tasked to drag him back to the Ithavoll, before Lieben claims ‘it’ for her own, and Aderastos’ fellow Assets are destroyed.
Art & Illustration
The Future is Bright
Watercolour & oil-inspired illustrations & character art by Sapha Burnell. I focus on fantasy & science fiction, with an ink-liner feel and watercolour inspired colours for the majority of my work. Need art to enrich your world, but don’t want AI? Want a cover design?
From Lineart to Full Colour Digital Paintings with Background and Comic Pages, I bring my unique style and variability to design your art. The initial licenses are non-commercial use, and allow me to use the piece as portfolio.
When purchasing a Commission, please include the nature of the work, any style and colour needs, and some examples of the desired project…