Synopsis
SPSFC 3 SEMIFINALIST
SPFBO 9 FINALIST
INDIE INK AWARDS FINALIST
All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it’s been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King – his Dad – is dead – and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to.
As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he’s all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side.
If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he’ll have to avoid one sibling who wants to take him hostage, win back another’s trust after years of rivalry and resentment, and get an audience with a sister he’s been avoiding for five years.
Before he knows it, he’s plunged himself into a web of intrigue and a world of strange, unnatural inventions just to get to her doorstep.
Family reunions can be a special form of torture.
“The Fall Is All There Is is a wonderfully weird, unapologetically unhinged, and darkly entertaining gendreblendy gem of a book. It throws all genre conventions and reader expectations straight out the window, and that is exactly where its irresistible charm lies.”
–Esmay Rosalyne, Fantasy Book Critic
Review
I received this to review for the Indie Ink Awards for neurodivergence and bisexual rep 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.
*I do want to add a disclaimer as the author is part of FanFi…I, of course, consider myself to be incredibly fair and level. And especially because the award is based of how the rep is written, and not my opinion of the book (regardless of how unbiased I aim to be) I do not see an issue.*
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!
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