Michael R. Fletcher

Faith shapes the landscape, defines the laws of physics, and makes a mockery of truth. Common knowledge isn't an axiom, it's a force of nature; what the masses believe is an axiom. But insanity is a weapon, conviction a shield. Delusions give birth to foul new gods. Violent and dark, the world is filled with the Geisteskranken—men and women whose delusions manifest, twisting reality. High Priest Konig seeks to create order from chaos. He defines the beliefs of his followers, leading their faith to one end: a young boy, Morgen, who must Ascend to become a god—a god they can control. But there are many who would see this would-be-god in their thrall, including the High Priest's own Doppels, and a Slaver no one can resist. Three reprobates—the Greatest Swordsman in the World, a murderous Kleptic, and possibly the only sane man left—have their own nefarious plans for the young god. As these forces converge on the boy, there's one more obstacle: time is running out. When one's delusions become more powerful, they become harder to control. The fate of the Geisteskranken is to inevitably find oneself in the Afterdeath. The question then is: Who will rule there?

Beyond Redemption

Fraser Simons

This book took me forever, compared to my normal speed. And that’s a little weird, considering how readable it is. It took me a bit of thinking to figure out why I didn’t want to return to it.

I really like the concept of this novel. Literalizing the agency people have on the world with their beliefs and delusions and psychosis -should- be extremely compelling. And sometimes it is. But the problem is that it actually feels a lot like fantasy already to me. Sure, it’s much more grim and disgusting. The characters are not good people whatsoever, a bunch of murder hobos, essentially. And the antagonists have an actual reason to be bombastic and deluded—they actually are those things, believe those things, and so they are actualized.

But the problems come when you actually think about the world and what it’s communicating. One antagonist is a slaver, characterized as fat and disgusting, and single-minded. Everyone around him is forced to love them and thus do as asked. This power comes from, as with all people do this type in the world, a profound loss of agency. Torture, pain, shame, loneliness, etc.

In other words, they internalize trauma and then that becomes their agency in the world. Only… that agency comes at the loss of their moral faculties and reasoning because they are literally broken. The more powerful they become, the closer they come to their destruction via the manifestation of their own inner demons.

At face value, it’s interesting. In practice it says some pretty shitty, wide-sweeping things about the trauma and those that suffer it; things that don’t actually jive with victims place undue responsibility on them and then characterizes them as agents of others' destruction, as well as their own, ultimately.

And yeah, sometimes trauma begets trauma, unfortunately. But the characterization of it, the overall aesthetic, is the author's prerogative and how readers are going to internalize what the story is “about”. And in this, it’s just more of the same, really. We know the slaver is “bad” because they’re fat and disgusting and unloveable and derives sexual pleasure from others' pain. Which, btw, is a through-line with a bunch of characters.

The main band of characters has such glaring flaws that we can’t expect heroism either. And those flaws are continually flogged until you notice the foreshadowing, or else! They ostensibly hate each other and have agency through their shitty qualities; the root of which is gestured at but not really explored to the quality you’d want for a nuanced appreciation when everyone is demonstrably terrible via their actions.

The ending was better than most fantasy, and I’d say this is the opposite in the spectrum of traditional fantasy. Bright and bushy-tailed moral purity and goodness are demonstrated with the “right” decision, even when it’s hard. I agree that’s not that interesting and this is more compelling than that, from a saturating of the market and what I’ve consumed standpoint…

But neither is there critical thought given to the major world-building blocks and ‘evil’ _looks_ and acts like, it’s just now we’re saying traumatized people bring out the worst in people and while this is morally grey, it’s also quite shitty toward mental illness. A complex understanding of humanity this is obviously not, IMO.

Fatphobic, “insane” people perpetuate the pain and loss that initialized more trauma in an endless cycle. I do like these people ultimately destroy themselves and I do think displacement and trauma could have been interesting. There’s a lot of potential and the natural questions I thought this question would prompt aren’t brought up.

Instead, it’s a thriller-paced dark fantasy where you just watch the wheels fall off. All the characters can do nothing but drive themselves into the ground with such principles of the world that are made most important. And while it’s undeniably entertaining sometimes, as soon as I start to think about it, I always come back to the fact that the concept is what’s compelling—and it could have been so much more.

A darkly imaginative writer in the tradition of Joe Abercrombie, Peter V. Brett, and Neil Gaiman conjures a gritty mind-bending fantasy, set in a world where delusion becomes reality . . . and the fulfillment of humanity’s desires may well prove to be its undoing. When belief defines reality, those with the strongest convictions—the crazy, the obsessive, the delusional—have the power to shape the world. And someone is just mad enough to believe he can create a god . . . Violent and dark, the world is filled with the Geisteskranken—men and women whose delusions manifest. Sustained by their own belief—and the beliefs of those around them—they can manipulate their surroundings. For the High Priest Konig, that means creating order out of the chaos in his city-state, leading his believers to focus on one thing: helping a young man, Morgen, ascend to become a god. A god they can control. Trouble is, there are many who would see a god in their thrall, including the High Priest’s own doppelgangers, a Slaver no one can resist, and three slaves led by possibly the only sane man left. As these forces converge on the boy, there’s one more obstacle: time is running out. Because as the delusions become more powerful, the also become harder to control. The fate of the Geisteskranken is to inevitably find oneself in the Afterdeath. The question, then, is: Who will rule there?

Sarah Escorsa

☠ DNF at 46%. To hell with the shrimping MacHalo challenge, I'm done with this crap thing.


This review is dedicated to all the silly Barnacles out there who were naïve enough to think I'd lost the Magic DNFing Touch (MDT™).


➽ This book should have been awesome. Except that it wasn't.
➽ This book should have been super uber cool. Except that it wasn't.
➽ This book should have been gloriously brilliant. Except that it wasn't.
➽ This book should have been...Sorry, what? You get the idea? Oh, good. Clever, clever Little Barnacles.

So. This book should have been all kinds of marvellous and all sorts of astonishing. I mean, the density of villains per square meter is simply mind-boggling. Let's put it this way: there isn't a single NOT evil character in this book. So obviously, reading it should have been wondrously exciting. And the mostest blissfullest experience ever. Right.



This ↑↑ is me being overwhelmed with enthusiasm and trepidation, in case you were wondering.

The problem here is that none of the characters are likeable. Or interesting. They are just, you know, evil for the sake of being evil. They are just, you know, ridiculously one-dimensional. They are just, you know, there. Which is why I didn't give a damn about a single one of them. And that, my Little Barnacles is disgraceful. That, my Little Barnacles is barbaric. That, my Little Barnacles is properly scandalous. Because creating unexciting, bland villainous villains should be outlawed. And such a waste of potentially glorious viler than vile characters should be severely punished. 



You got that right, Grumpy! What is the world coming to, I ask you? Glen Cook would never have allowed this to happen! He, of the Super Yummy Delicious Please Be My BFF Vicious Evildoers (SYDPBMBVE™) would be positively shocked by the total lack of charisma of these wannabe creeps here. And let me tell you, Mr Fletcher, one does not baffle, deceive and generally consternate the Holy Father of Grimdark and get away with it. The murderous crustaceans are on their way. Sorry, but some things are just not done.

 

Go my babies, go! 

Speaking of Grimdark. I tend to exaggerate and to be full of crap (view spoiler)[just mentioning this in case you hadn't noticed. You're welcome (hide spoiler)] but I can't deny that this story is properly grim and suitably dark. And that there is blood and gore and stuff, which I usually find Xtra Xtra Delectable (XXD™). Except that I didn't. Find it XXD™, I mean (please do try to follow once in a while. Thank you). The problem is that it is all unpleasantly bland. And unappetizingly bleh. And feels unappealingly flat. So we have evil for the sake of evil, and gore and stuff for the sake of gore and stuff. How fascinatingly fascinating indeed. In Mr Flechter's defense, he tries. Oh boy, does he try. The problem is, he tries wayyyyyy toooooo hard. He piles on the slaughter, disturbing scenes and creepy behaviors. Granted, this is me assuming some Faint of Heart Barnacles (FoHB™) might find some of this stuff disturbing. Personally? Orgies in the mud, cannibalism and sadomasochism never fazed me much. Besides, mud is good for the skin. But I digress. Had there been more some emotion on display here, I might have felt properly shocked and appropriately disgusted. But there wasn't, so I wasn't. 



Yeah, pretty much.

Now. Time to tackle the Germanize Me issue. First, let me assure all my dear German friends that this has nothing to do with them, that I love them with all the heart I don't have and all that crap. Are we good, meinen deutschen freunden? Oh damn, that hurt. Fantastic! Now for the ugly confession: I hate German. I can't help it, I was born that way. I am naught but a lowly, lazy, inferior, ungrateful Southern European anyway, so there's no hope for me and stuff. Why am I mentioning my Germanallergy here, you ask? Because this freaking book is freaking packed with freaking German-sounding names. We've got lovely words like Verschlinger and Verteidigung and Verzweiflung. We've also got schlammstamm and unbedeutend and Schwarze Beerdigung. And let's not forget Unbrauchbar and Wahnvor Stellung and Unbedeutend! But I must admit my personal favourite is Geldangelegenheiten. I dare you to pronounce that one without permanently damaging your vocal cords. Actually no, I don't. Dare you, I mean. I might be heartless but I'm pretty sure this qualifies as one of those super dangerous "don't try this at home" experiments, and I wouldn't want you to die get hurt too badly (view spoiler)[I think (hide spoiler)]. So. Where does this take us, you ask? This takes us right here, my Little Barnacles: 

 

» And the moral of this Give this Book to Glen Cook and He'll Transform it into a German-Free Epic Masterpiece Crappy Non Review (GtBtGCaHTiaGFEMCNR™) is: don't let the 4.03 average rating for this book fool you. I am obviously the only person on Goodreads who didn't read it wrong. And everyone else has despicable book taste. QED and stuff.

» And the other moral of this Give this Book to Glen Cook and He'll Transform it into a German-Free Epic Masterpiece Crappy Non Review (GtBtGCaHTiaGFEMCNR™) is: another one bites the dust. Yay.

✉ A very private, confidential message to Shelly: thank you so much for not recommending this book! You're a real friend!

Jenna Kathleen

It's been a while since I read this book and I'm still thinking about it. Every character is absolutely terrible but in the best kind of way. It's grimdark at its very finest: dark, and funny, inventive with lots of violence and crazy worldbuilding. 

The Doppels are one of the most unique and thought-provoking additions to a character list in fantasy with all their creepy glory. The worldbuilding behind the Doppels, Mirrorists and delusions is unique and unlike anything I've read in fantasy.

I read a couple of reviews from different people here on Goodreads and a lot of them try to describe this book as (author) meets (author) or (book) meets (series). This is fine to draw in new readers who are familiar with other fantasy authors, but Michael Fletcher really does stand apart as he brings something new to he grimdark scene.

Beyond Redemption

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