The Fall is All There Is

Messy but intriguing

Where to start with this one. The story is told in a stream of consciousness style by someone who is a bit on the spectrum so I do get why it is so messy. But as a reader I found it quite distracting and hard to follow at times, which is a shame because there is a lot of very clever and interesting things going on.

The world building here is first class. The sense of desolation and decay, the idea of two apocalyptic events leaving behind the fragments that remain, it is all very well worked and I really want to see more and learn more about it. The use of ancient tech as a kind of magic like system is also well realized. Everything about the world was fascinating from the Gaunts (people infected with souls of the dead) to the strange biotech horses were wonderfully twisted and weird.

The story itself is following the political machinations between four quadruplets as they try and sort out succession, all told from the point of view of the youngest. This is where things get messy and I fully understand that family is messy but a lot of the times I found myself lost here. I also appreciate the portrayal of autism in a fantastical setting - and I feel this was very accurately portrayed - but unfortunately with the driving plot being around Machiavellian political maneuvers the single POV combined with that trait did tend to be frustrating in terms of figuring out what was going on. That being said all the characters are very well drawn and the picture of what is going on does clear up as the story progresses. The dialogue and banter is done extremely well and the engagement between the characters whilst often shifting and contradictory is organic in its own way.

CM Caplan obviously has a mind full of wild ideas and I fully respect that and really do want to read more of them. The world here is one of the most intriguing I have come across in a long time, the author's grasp of dialogue is very good and the characters drawn are vivid. The central politicking of the book actually ended up as a bit of a confusing distraction to those elements that I was enjoying, but there is just so much potential here that it cannot be ignored.

I received this to review for the Indie Ink Awards and decided to get the audiobook on audible as I’ve been behind and having trouble focusing on reading. Scott Fleming did a fantastic job that I really enjoyed.

Every review I’ve ever seen for this book has talked about how unique it is. So let’s get the obvious out of the way. This is one of the most unique novels and genre blends I’ve ever read. It mixes science fiction aspects with a fantasy world, dialogue that feels more modern, and horror elements too.

The characters use gas masks while outside of the major cities to save themselves from becoming gaunt. Aka breathing in ghost-like vapor and having their bodies taken over. Think kind of zombies, or evil entities a la the Shinigami in Never Die. The masks felt very scifi, while the nature of their need was wholly fantasy. Just one of the great blendings.

The main character Petre, has a mental processing disorder, which leads him to need to get these implant injections. This kind of disability rep was something I’ve never read before, and the ‘cure’ (however temporary) was just another thing that felt so incredibly sci-fi in this fantasy world. He’s also a great example of bisexual rep as well, having desires for both men and women in a way that feels genuine.

Another aspect of this novel that really knocked it out of the park was the way the author wrote the main characters. Not only are they siblings, they are quadruplets, so not everything is always good, but the bond is still unbreakable. Even if they wish it were. So when their father, the King, dies, naturally they can’t keep it together and behave amicably. The way in which the author writes their scenes together is so good, so believable, it’s almost as if the reader is experiencing the family arguments from the inside. As one of them. Or maybe it’s just because I am one of four kids myself.

While I really enjoyed this, I was a bit surprised how the story didn’t really progress. That’s not the say that steps weren’t taken, or that there isn’t action, the plot itself just didn’t reach any kind of resolution. It almost kind of ends on the climax. Which instead of ruining it, definitely made me feel like I needed more immediately. I guess I just didn’t realize it wasn’t a standalone!