BOOK REVIEW | ASUNDER | KERSTIN HALL

 

BOOK REVIEW | ASUNDER | KERSTIN HALL

ABOUT THE BOOK

We choose our own gods here.

Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.

Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they must journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors, and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.

And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.

REVIEW

Fantasy is a well worn genre that for the uninitiated seems to be populated by elves, goblins, chosen ones and an almost feral fan base that will argue incessantly about the attributes of unpronounceable weapons and armour. 

And whilst that can be true, it’s not hard to scratch beneath the surface to find authors who use and subvert the genre to create some highly original stories. Writers like Gareth Hanrahan, C.S. E. Cooney, Hailey Piper and P. Djelli Clarke who are not afraid to push the boundaries to create original stories and stamp their own mark on the genre. 

With her fourth book, Asunder, Kerstin Hall is proving that she is not afraid to be carving her own niche in the walls of the fantasy genre. 

Set in a mystically technological world, Asunder tells the story of Karys Eska. A deathspeaker who has made a compact with an eldritch being called Sabator. An Ephirite! A god! The being has granted her the power to talk to the dead, which she exploits to eke a living in the harsh underbelly of the city Psikamit, the city that she calls home. 

When a job investigating the disappearance of a bunch of smugglers goes tits up in a big way, she inadvertently gets herself mixed up in things that by all rights she should have left well alone. Stumbling upon the smuggler’s cave, she soon finds the reason for the deaths of the gang of criminals - MONSTERS. 

With her guide dead, Karys escapes, hoping not to be the predator’s next meal. She is saved by a man who possesses a machine that lets him exist three days out of time. However, there is a slight problem. A wound that he sustained is killing him, and if he steps out of the time bubble he will inevitably die. Seizing the opportunity to make a large amount of cash, Karys agrees to use her powers and bind him to her shadow.

Well! You guess that things are not going to go according to plan, can’t you?

The book then falls into a fast paced narrative, dealing with the consequences of the choices  made in desperate situations. 

Hall populates the book with undulating weirdness, there are gods with hands coming out their groin, canine taxis, dimension hopping spiders and a whole host of mind bending concepts. And get used to it folks, because Hall does not hold the hands of the reader. In less competent authors, there would be info dump after info dump about how it all fits together and the intricate workings of the world, but Hall trusts the reader’s willingness to jump off that bridge and go with the flow of the story.

Ultimately, the strength of the story is the beating heart at the centre of all this weirdness, and it is Hall’s ability to craft complex and meaningful characters that the reader immediately cares for that makes this such a compelling read. 

Asunder is a wild ride of a read, but tightly controlled and Hall never lets the narrative unravel despite all the strangeness. 

Whilst leaving the book open to a sequel, Asunder is a complete story that lives and breathes on its own.

If you want a story that will ultimately entertain you immeasurably, Asunder is well worth a read.