I recommend the novel, Viscera, for fantasy readers ready to delve in fresh world building directions, but it is not for the squeamish. The story is one of my best dark fantasy/body horror experiences in recent memory; I won’t soon forget it. The story defies description, particularly since I want to preserve the carefully revealed secrets carried by so many of the characters, but I’ll try.

Ensemble Acting Effort

The book, shows, rather than tells, to the extent that I felt off balance for a while, trying to latch onto who the protagonist was. Every important character is more than a bit of an antihero. As it turns out, we have two point-of-view characters, Rafe, a young junkie and petty criminal, and Ashlan, a mysterious woman traveler and healer. Their missions and fates are intertwined from the outset, fall apart, but after a bit of a journey, the reader is rewarded to see how they come back together. 

Rafe has been assigned to a mentor-in-crime, Jassa, and they serve an underworld figure who provides their drug of choice, but demands payment in murder-victims’ entrails (see, not for the squeamish). The story commences with Rafe and Jassa out in the countryside on a foraging mission. Ashlan is also traveling through the same rural area, just trying to get by with as little fuss and muss as possible, when an animated, sentient doll, Hollis (I’m picturing that gnome from the travel website commercials!), recruits her to help him identify, find, and extract revenge on his maker. 

Unique Dark Fantasy World On The Brink of Disaster

The world building for this story is first rate; it’s complex layers of crud all the way down. You get the sense this particular narrative is only scratching the surface of the possible stories. A small detail like how the junkies take their drug has an elaborate and original history and method.

The world is horror/dark fantasy but has a certain steam-punk/mad-science flair. Times are dark in this land: A sense of impending doom hovers. Social issues that trouble our world raise their ugly heads and impact our protagonists. The people of this world are grasping at straws of survival on the edge of chaos, so a intolerant, scapegoating reaction to The Other rings true.

Juicy Secrets, But No Spoilers Here

Interwoven with the world is the extensive backstories of the characters. Each is unique, and all are filled with juicy secrets. As fantastical as the world is, the characters deal with all-too-real and frequent human problems in genuine, believable ways as they begrudgingly accept their ultimate mission. The dialogue and dark gallows humor among the characters both cuts and underscores the heavy tension.

The story starts a little slow. The reader is presented with a lot of world-building information near the start. Once I got a handle on the sort of world it was and the fact that the point-of-view character was going to switch back and forth, I enjoyed the various aspects of the society the characters encountered in their travels. Rafe’s family of origin was particularly interesting. Plot wise, things really picked up in the second half, when the two groups of travelers must team up. The ending was earned and a satisfactory and logical outcome. 

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