A man finds himself in a dark unfamiliar world of starlit rivers and black obsidian landscapes, with only two golden coins as his possessions and no memory of who he is or where he comes from. He soon learns he is in a place called the End Realm from the monstrous boatman on the River Styx, who delivers him to his final destination: the Lowest, the worst prison in Tartarus. But his damnation to the Lowest doesn’t make sense, and most entities agree that he is not meant to be in the realm at all.
With the mysterious appearance of a ring on his left hand, he takes this as a hint at his past . . . and a spouse he doesn’t remember. This possibility spurs him to traverse the treacherous afterlife-a place where heaven and hell are one and angels and demons both hold great power-in search of a way out so he can do what he wants more than anything: get back to his wife still breathing in the living world, even if that means seeking help from the Devil-God himself.
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe! And a very happy release day to Tyler J. Welch, who is unleashing End Realm on the world on this very day. And, of course, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Anyway, thoughts on Tyler’s debut novel.
So I think he’s pretty good, you know. There’s not a chance that my own debut novel is going to be anywhere near this calibre, that’s for sure. Complex characters and an enormous world, which he navigates us through and manages to keep straight. Also, there’s a lot of genre-merging here.
Firstly – the horror. Now, a lot of this story isn’t necessarily horror because it’s built out of an infusion of fantasy, mythology, real-world folklore and legends, and also speculative fiction. It’s a lot, but it’s all woven together seamlessly. I occasionally paused my reading to look up what was already established in human mythology, and what Tyler was adding. In terms of this being a horror novel, I’d say it is. Our premise is that our protagonist, who doesn’t know his own name, finds himself dead and in a purgatory underworld, heralded by a scary eyeless man on a boat. He has no memory of his death, his life, or himself, and also has the feeling that he shouldn’t be there.
From there, he’s taken to what can only be described as a hellscape. He’s alone, he’s confused, and he doesn’t even know if he deserves this. If that isn’t a horror premise, I don’t know what is.
There’s a lot to love (not least the story, which is captivating and kept me turning the pages as Nameless embarks on not only a self-discovery journey but also an escape), but I think my favourite thing was the writing and the imagery. The author takes us along a somewhat savage river, hurls us into a prison-scape, gives us a wall of statues that come to life…there’s betrayal, vivid characters – the works, basically. And what was so great is that through all this, I had no idea if Nameless was going to turn out to be some righteous goodie in the wrong place, or some morally-defunct cretin that well and truly deserved the torment.
I suppose if I have any complaints, the story started out a little bit abstract for my particular taste (which is not the fault of the author at all). From a really critical standpoint, I found some of the dialogue a bit overly expositional sometimes, though honestly, the world was so vast that I don’t really know how else the author was supposed to have informed us of certain things.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and I have to say, because I box myself into horror all the time, it was very unlike anything I’ve ever read. I think that readers who enjoy genre-blends, particularly with fantasy and/or mythology, would love this.
It’s a brilliant debut.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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