Photo: Ryan Berridge, acclaimed author of The Rattler Trilogy and Where Were You?, blends horror and adventure with heart.
Blending Horror And Maritime Adventure
Author Ryan Berridge discusses his self-published pirate horror Rattler Trilogy, reflecting on emotional inspirations, ambiguous monsters, vivid action, and combining Stephen King’s tension with Bernard Cornwell’s historical grit.
Ryan Berridge is a name rapidly gaining traction among fans of horror and adventure fiction, and deservedly so. Hailing from Sheffield, England, Ryan has carved out a unique niche by blending the unnerving terror of supernatural horror with the gritty realism of survival and leadership tales. A self-published tour de force whose works consistently earn high praise, his ability to juggle complex narratives while making each twist and turn deeply human is nothing short of remarkable.
From the thrilling ambiguity of his debut collection Where Were You? Ten Terrifying Tales—a compilation of chilling pandemic-era short stories—to the sweeping brutality and moral dilemmas of his pirate-themed Rattler Trilogy, Ryan has demonstrated a profound ability to craft stories that are both visceral and thought-provoking. The trilogy, comprising The Rattler, Snake Huntress, and The Golden King, has cemented his reputation as a writer unafraid to explore the darkest recesses of human experience and ambition, all while pushing the boundaries of genre fiction.
What stands out most about Ryan is not simply the narrative depth of his novels but the personal and emotional truths underpinning his work. Twelve-hour workdays, sleepless nights, and the challenges of parenting have forged a writer who channels raw emotion into his characters and stories. His ability to merge historical adventure with the murky tension of horror—a skill inspired by literary titans such as Stephen King and Bernard Cornwell—is nothing short of enchanting.
As you dive into this interview, prepare to explore the mind of an author who refuses to flinch from the messy complexity of human choices, the moral grey areas we all navigate, and the frightening unknowns lurking just below the surface—all while keeping you gripped with startlingly vivid action scenes. If you’re new to Ryan Berridge, I suspect you’ll come away wondering why you hadn’t discovered his bold and compelling work sooner.
Ryan Berridge masterfully delivers gripping stories with emotional depth, vivid action, and an extraordinary blend of horror and adventure.
Your “Rattler Trilogy” centres on a young pirate, Sam – how did your background growing up in Sheffield influence the gritty, survivalist portrayal of his journey?
The anger came much later for me. My childhood was perfectly normal, but as I entered my thirties my wife became pregnant as I started the Rattler book. My daughter was then born prematurely and we spent a total of six weeks in the hospital. During that time the company I worked for were less than supportive with no sensitivity to the situation. It left me angry and bitter for a long time and a lot of that came out in the first book, with the other two written under a similar cloud.
In The Rattler, mythical creatures appear at sea – what inspired you to blend maritime adventure with supernatural horror?
This is an interesting question. Whilst there are mentions of mythical creatures in the book, the descriptions themselves can be explained in our everyday world. This was deliberately ambiguous on my part, similar to the tales sailors have been telling for as long as they have been on sea. It is up to the reader to decide whether the monsters are real or exaggerated.
Snake Huntress sees Sam become a pirate captain – how did you deepen his moral complexity and leadership arc in book two?
The reader follows Sam’s journey from the very first steps aboard the ship to the highest position. He was thrust into decisions where he had to choose the lesser of two evils, sometimes he chose wrong but that is only natural. He leaned on the advise of the senior ranks but still made his own decisions for better or worse.
“I wanted to capture the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the battle.” – Ryan Berridge
The Golden King concluded the trilogy in July 2023 – what thematic resolution did you aim to achieve with Sam’s final confrontation?
I needed Sam to experience the absolute peak of his abilities and then to see him begin to fall from his perch. I wanted readers to be completely unsure of where the story was heading in the final ten pages.
Your debut Where Were You? Ten Terrifying Tales is pandemic‑themed horror – how did writing pandemic short stories prepare you for large‑scale adventure narratives?
Being new to writing I wanted to explore different environments, characters and styles. Some of the stories are third person, some first, some are induvial characters, some have multiple. One story has two narratives running simultaneously. The idea was to find my style and it really helped to show what worked and what didn’t when revisiting the stories for further revisions.
Reviews praise the intense, visceral action in The Rattler – can you describe your process for choreographing brutal scenes without alienating readers?
I made a conscious decision that I would only do one draft of these scenes. I wanted to capture the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the battle. There was no planning, just me putting words on the page whilst imagining myself in the heat of what was happening. It needed to be real and I didn’t want anything to be gruesome for gruesome’s sake. There is one particular scene in the Rattler (and I’m sure any reader will know which one I mean) where the other characters gave the description of what was happening, I felt it wasn’t necessary for me to go into the detail, that would have pushed the book into a completely different category.
You cite Stephen King and Bernard Cornwell as influences – how do you balance King’s horror tension with Cornwell’s historical adventure style in your pirate series?
Pirates have long been romanticised in the entertainment space, from Pirates of the Carribean to children’s books, whereas in reality they were not nice people. I therefore felt it was important to flavour the story with a little darkness, with readers not quite knowing where the story was going or whether the monsters were real. At the start of the trilogy I was in the midst of the reading the Last Kingdom series and it just clicked, that was exactly the style I wanted. You therefore have a protagonist who doesn’t know anything about the world he has been thrust into, and the readers who have to follow him on the journey and work out for themselves whether the monsters are real.
What single piece of advice would you offer aspiring authors looking to blend genre elements as distinctly as you have in horror‑adventure fiction?
Write. That’s it. Just keep writing and re-drafting. For each book in the trilogy I wrote 1,000 words a day. Some days they were complete nonsense and required an entire re-write, some days the words came so naturally I lost myself (this was often where the best work was done). The important thing for me was to just keep being consistent, that way I found that the book was never far from my mind and the story was probably written in my subconscious.
