Beyond Redemption (Manifest Delusions, #1), Michael R. Fletcher, June 2015
Solid recommendation…
After reading Michael R. Fletcher’s Obsidian Path stories, I was steered toward this by Fletcher’s own recommendation from his Amazon author page. This quickly turned out to be no simple fantasy novel. Brace yourself: moral turbulence and darkness ahead.
“Belief defines reality.”
This is the most important rule in Beyond Redemption’s world. It is a place where delusion has special heft, and being sane can easily be a terminal weakness. The word is what its inhabitants believe it to be, so faith and collective attitudes have special weight–they literally can shape the world. Unfortunately the people with the strongest ability to do that shaping are the Geisteskranken – literally, the insane or delusional. This makes for a volatile and interesting world, but not a particularly safe or pleasant one.
The central conflict in the story is the effort of a murderous but particularly charismatic religious leader whose name translates as The Forever King (fortunately only an aspirational title) to create a new god in his image. His ultimate goal is to tidy up the entire chaotic and decaying world through force of his will, using a literal child as his fulcrum. This effort meets varying degrees of resistance, including from his own chief scientist, a set of scheming personality splinters representing a selection of his neuroses, and from a trio of nasty traveling adventurers. One of these may have the mixed fortune of being the last (or only) sane person in the world. The other contestant in this race to the moral bottom is an example of the type of “dangerous spirits” known as a slaver–literally what it sounds like–who wants the nascent god-child for his own purposes.
“Bedeckt saw no way a man-made god could be any better than one coming to be in the old way. Whatever the old way was. At least the old gods seemed largely uninterested in messing directly with man or his works. Sure, they embroiled men in the occasional holy war, but most of the world’s great tragedies could be laid squarely at humanity’s feet.”
You might have gotten the idea at this point that none of these people are particularly nice, or that there’s no easily-identifiable side representing “right”. With the possible exception of Morgen, the child-cum-future god, that’s because everyone here is, at best, “morally gray”–if not actually morally putrescent. And weirdly, maybe, that’s part of the charm.
I went back and forth about whether the major movers and shakers here are amoral or immoral. With a few exceptions, they’re simply doing whatever (evil) their spirits move them to do, and are untroubled by it. One exception is a character who uses the novel strategy of defining himself by the crimes he won’t commit. The other has developed doubts about the whole thing, leading to treason and murder. These two people may be the closest we come to “good guys” in that they recognize there’s a moral standard outside themselves they seem to know they’re not following. But the rest, whoa…this world puts a whole new gloss on the Nietzschean “will to power” idea.
A word about language. Fletcher writes very precisely, and uses specific language as part and parcel of his world building. In an interesting choice, most of the key words are German. I appreciated this touch–it was the native tongue of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, among others, and so an appropriate fit for the deeply psychological world Fletcher builds here. For some readers, though, having characters travel in and out of Selbsthass (“Self-hatred”) might be a bit much. I thought it was funny in a subtle way.
As the Selbsthass example implies, many of the formal names have double meanings. The three reprobates whose misadventures frame the story are the scarred and sick warrior Bedeckt (“Overcast, covered or cloudy”) who rides Launisch (“Moody”); a swordsman with an obsessive need to challenge others to provide he’s the world’s greatest, Wichtig (“Important”); and the murderous Stehlen (“To steal”) who’s–you guessed it–a kleptomaniac. This extends through most, if not all, of the main characters, and to some of the place names. One of my favorites is named Gottlos, or “Godless”.
The language-as-world-building is sprinkled throughout the book. Most chapters start with a bit of lore presented as a quote. For example, Chapter 1 opens with a quote attributed to “Versklaven Schwache” (literally “Enslave the Weak”) a philosopher of the “Gefahrgeist” (“Dangerous Spirit”) school. Chapter 3 has a nice little piece of sophistry, If our world is defined by delusion, there can be no truth. If there is no truth, how can there be lies? This is attributed to “philosopher” Wahrheit Ertrinkt (“Truth Drowns”), appropriately enough.
If you thought this was a Western cover, it’s not an accident.
If you have no patience for all this vaguely-Teutonic philosophy-mongering, no worries. There are enough sociopaths, psychotics, and all-around villains to keep the story going. Readers who’ve read or watched classic westerns may also recognize some of the elements of the traditional story arc skillfully woven in here along with all the grimdarkery. Even in the midst of darkness and suffering, Fletcher’s characters often long for redemption, if not absolution – and some may even come close to finding it.
Fletcher’s writing is clear and direct, and he manages to introduce some elements of complexity to characters who might otherwise be flat. There’s also a subtle and dryly, darkly funny aspect to a lot of this: Konig’s struggle for domination over his named and individualized neuroses, who literally follow him around and bicker at him as an example. He also manages to make characters with a wide variety of issues, er…”styles and attributes” convincing.
This is a layered and challenging read, but I thought it was masterfully conceived and executed.
Smirk factor: More than acceptable: 1.5 pts (11 “smirks” but done well and used appropriately.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5 pts (Morbid curiosity is still curiosity.)
Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: High: 2 pts (Layers upon layers.)
Innovative/interesting: High: 2pts
Total: 8.5/10 (4.25 stars)
“What I want to know is what happens when you are killed in the Afterdeath? Is there an Afterafterdeath? How long does this go on? Who dreamed this insanity?”