A fresh fantasy story with some interesting worldbuilding and promising setup for the rest of the series.

The basic premise is that Kyle is an agent from another world, sent to keep a close watch on John, a man from Earth who is unaware that he is actually something of a weapon for the people in this other world. After a mixed up delivery, John and his two friends are sucked into the fantasy world, and have to figure out how to get themselves out, while Kyle pursues them but finds himself lost and confused upon arriving at the other side of the gate.

This was a solidly written first book, where a good portion of the premise is set up, and a handful of diverse players are put on the stage. I found the world building to be particularly interesting, with some fresh ideas and a macabre tint to everything, including talking bones, blood magic, the execution of witches, and so forth. Conlang fans may wince a little at the gratuitous apostrophes, but the fantasy words sprinkled throughout didn't distract, and did led a nice extra level of flavor to the world.

Our two main characters, John and Kyle are both interesting and three dimensional, which is important considering they share time as POV characters. I cared about them enough that at the end of the first book I immediately wanted to get the second and find out what was going to happen next. There's enough at risk for both of them that things could go wrong in any number of ways, which always makes for a good suspenseful read.

The most difficult issue with the book is its narrative arch. A lot of information is withheld from the reader, presumably to be explained later on, and this can create a bit of narrative disorientation. I wouldn't call this a negative though, as it seems intentional, and I have faith that after reading the full trilogy everything will make perfect sense.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants some interesting worldbuilding, a broad cast of interesting characters, and some gay representation served on a platter of decent prose. ( )

This is sold as a ten-part ebook series, but it’s really just one story, and somewhat overpriced given that. John and Kyle are roommates, but Kyle is also from another dimension, sent to watch over John in case he needs to be killed; in Kyle’s world, John has immense power to disrupt and destroy. When Kyle’s distracted by the needs of his sister (who happens to be a living bag of bones—it’s a thing they do to women there), John crosses over to the other world with two of his friends, and there his troubles begin. The worldbuilding is interesting, but sometimes confusing; the story plays with time and causality in ways I’m not sure hang together, but am willing to accept. I really liked the idea of dimensional gates that did serious, long-term damage in their opening; Fringe did that in TV, but I’m not sure I’ve seen it in fantasy fiction. Just in terms of “fantasy with gay hero protagonists,” I think this suffers from comparison with Richard Morgan’s work, though if you can’t stand total grimdarkness then Hale has Morgan beat, despite the presence of homophobes and the extreme offscreen violence against women—not by our protagonists, but by others—in some phases of the story. I was carried along until the end, but you can probably tell that it didn’t quite have that spark that makes me pick up the next independent story. ( )