Review of “Beyond Redemption” by Michael R. Fletcher
A delirious tale of sordid murder, the depravities of man and chaos magic
In Fletchers demented fantasy world reality is shaped by humanity’s collective faith, so chaos magic is uncomfortably real. The consequences of this is that gods are a lethal fact, shaped by their worshippers and that the insane (the Geisteskranken), become magicians of a sort, the fervent, fanatical strength of their delusions warping reality itself. Naturally narcissistic sociopaths (Gefargeists) end up as kings, on top of the hierarchies of man, just like in our world but worse. Their narcissism and will to dominate others enslaves the mind of their followers. Fletcher has cleverly built up an entire magic system based on rare mental disorders. For example you’ve got the Hasselbrands (pyromaniacs who can control fire with thought) and the Cotardists (People who believe they’re dead, so they manifest as walking, decaying corpses who are very hard to kill).
In this story the protagonists consists of three deplorables. A severely dysfunctional party of mercenaries/murderers/robbers in a complicated trinity of hate and love. On a good day they often get to within an inch of coming to blows amongst themselves. Anti-heroes would be too heroic of a description for this scum. You’ve got Stehlen Sielles, an antisocial Kleptic (She’s compelled to steal and she’s magically good at it). She doesn’t really make any plans but impulsively go with the flow, stealthily stalking around stealing from everyone, including her comrades. If someone comes in her way her one solution is to put a dagger in their eye, causing countless problems for the party. You’ve got Wichtig Lügner, a minor Gefargeist who’s on a quest to become the greatest swordsman in the world. Because of his narcissistic and crowd swaying faith in his own abilities, he does pretty well at duelling. Naturally, he starts at least one duel in every city the party enters. Finally, you’ve got Bedect Imblut: an unhappily sane and bitter warrior, balancing on the edge of moral bankruptcy, doing what he can to keep the other two from bringing down a rightfully murderous lynch mob onto the trio. Together, this troika gives their part in the novel a dark western atmosphere. Broke and miserable, Bedect and his lackeys draws up a plan to kidnap the god-to-be Morgen, and hold him for ransom.
This brings us to the antagonist corner, where you’ve got Konig Furimmer with his insane court of powerful Geisteskranken. Konig is a strong Gefargeist and theocrat ruler of Gebore Damonen, a religion with a vision to create a better god by channelling the faith of the masses of the cities under church control into the child Morgen. Morgen is kept in isolation from society to keep his faith in himself pure and he’s brought up to be a god who’s loyal and obedient to Konig. Since Konig is both a Mirrorist and a Mehrere there’s some riveting game of thrones plotting going on between him, the personified manifestations of various sides of his subconscious and their reflections in the mirror.
This is not a novel for the faint hearted. It features extreme and messy violence described in great detail, seasoned with cannibalism, paedophilia, extreme sadomasochism and other sexual perversions. It feels like the author gets off on disgusting the reader. Despite this, beyond the layer of grime, snot and snuff, there’s really an excellent book containing original and detailed world building. The language is rich and the bastardisation of German in the names of cities, people and in the classification of the Geisteskranken gives the setting a delightfully gothic feel. The ultraviolence holds your attention as the wacky plot unfolds and the pacing of event feels right. However, as multifaceted and complex as the characters are I don’t find much sympathy in my heart for any of them except Morgen and possibly Bedect, most of them are truly beyond redemption. The good news is that you can still hate read the book, you don’t have to cheer for anyone.
I give this book 8.5 of 10 knives. This is excellent, inventive and boundary pushing fantasy, although it’s a bit too dark and disgusting for me. The sequel seems even wackier so I’ll definitely pick that up sometime in the future when I’m in the mood for something morbid and delirious. However, if you’re only going to read one book in the Manifest Delusions series and you aren’t picky regarding the chronology I recommend the stand alone “Swarm and Steel”, set some years later in the same universe. For sure it contains similar levels of ultraviolence and it’s seasoned with some necrophilic tendencies and other depravities but somehow the way it’s woven into that story feels more fitting and less like cheap shock value than the shock value shoved up the readers face in “Beyond Redemption”. The plot of “Swarm and Steel” also slithers in more interesting directions than that of “Beyond Redemption” due to the interplay between different delusions and reality in the world. Nevertheless, I’d recommend “Beyond Redemption” to fans of “Chasing Graves” by Ben Galley and “The Gutter Prayer” by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.
