Exiled exorcist Lucian
Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s
soul, but Catarina doesn’t want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfil
her dark covenant with the Fallen by using his power to open the Hell Gates.
Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel
dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s front-line of defense between Earth and Hell.
When Lucian refuses to
help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that
Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic
possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her
soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape.
In the end, she will
force him once more to choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates
so the Fallen’s hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching
Heaven’s Gates.
As someone whose reading generally consists only of
‘traditional’ fantasy, I have to say that, for me, Miserere is a strange one. The premise is interesting: instead of
just having Heaven, Hell and Earth, there is also a fictional dimension called
Woerld, which acts as a sort of barrier between Hell and Earth. In Woerld, all
of Earth’s established religions work together in harmony to prevent the rise
of the Fallen, and Templar-esque holy warriors known as Katharoi help in the
ongoing fight against evil.
Woerld exists outside of space and time: Miserere is set on Woerld in the year
5873, yet a portal opens up and Lindsay, a girl from our present day America,
is dragged through into Woerld. In Miserere, this is how many of the Katharoi
are brought into being: worthy individuals, always children, are chosen to make
the one-way trip to world to become Katharoi, leaving their own lives behind
forever. It’s revealed that Lindsay is to be the ‘Foundling’ (basically the
Padawan) of Lucian, one of the main protagonists, and a large part of Miserere is centred around their
relationship.
Rather than write the
story from Lindsay’s point of view in the manner of so many other ‘fish out of
water’ or ‘farmboy’ tales, Frohock more or less chooses to maintain the adult
PoVs throughout; I think this was the right decision, as it still gives
opportunity for explaining the world to someone who is unfamiliar, but it’s
less patronising since we’re sharing the PoV of the person who knows rather
than the person who is ignorant. A lot of the things Lindsay is forced to
witness and experience are fairly dark and unpleasant, and as such the chapters
from the child’s PoV can be a little jarring and uncomfortable – which I’m
guessing is the intended effect.
I found the mish-mash of genres to be a bit disorienting at
first, especially the way the author casually tosses around references to the
world we live in, such as the way mobile phones can be used on Woerld for a
short time before being corrupted by demons and used as Hell portals. Miserere combines elements of urban and
traditional fantasy, as well as SF; the presence of holy warriors and Inquisitors
give it the feel of historical fiction, while the time in which it’s set
implies that it’s actually a dystopian novel; and the sheer amount of religious
imagery (not to mention to plot and the setting) give it a distinctly biblical
feel.
I’m in no way religious, and so I imagine there’s a huge
amount of religious nuance that was completely lost on me. I’m also unsure of
how much of the imagery in the story is taken from the bible and how much has
sprung from the author’s imagination; whichever it is, the vivid imagery is one
of the novel’s strongest points. The Sacra Rosa, a rose bush that circles an
entire city and wreaks Triffid-style destruction on the Fallen, was one of my
favourite images; I also particularly enjoyed the brief flashes we’re given of
the Hellscape, and the Simulacrum is also a pretty creepy image. The author skilfully
draws on religions and legends from all over the world and brings them all
together, and I recognised enough for it to give the book a sense of authenticity.
One thing that did disappoint me was the ending, which was far
less climactic than I expected. A large proportion of the books feels like it’s
setting up for the ‘good vs evil’ battle implied in the blurb: there are long
sections where not much actually happens, and the payoff for going through this
wasn’t all that that rewarding. I did get the sense (I hope) that there will be
another book about Catarina’s retribution, so perhaps that will have the epic
conclusion I was expecting from this one.
Regardless of the book’s flat moments and slightly weak
ending, the characters were strong enough to keep me interested throughout. Rachael
in particular is an awesome character: she is a holy warrior and a Judge who
was abandoned in Hell by the man she loved, and returned possessed by a Wyrm.
She’s a strong, believable character who has her own important role in the
story, rather than just functioning as the ‘main’ character’s love interest.
Although the blurb of
Miserere makes it sound like a love
story in a fantasy setting, it’s far from conventional. I was very unsure when
I first began to read it – and it probably didn’t help that I read it in fits
and starts over the course of a week – but it grew on me, and once I reached
the end I actually wanted to read more.
4/5
Click here to view Miserere: An Autumn Tale Amazon UK
Great to see this review, Miserere is a grossly underrated book, imo, I always say this book deserves way more attention :)
ReplyDelete~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum
I think it's because it's kind of hard to categorise that it's a little obscure - it wasn't even on the shelf in Waterstones, I had to ask somebody if they had it. I do hope there's another one, although I think the publishers have gone bust now, so maybe not . . .
DeleteI have owned this one for quite some time and keep getting a bit too intimidated to read it. I think I would like it, just gotta get over my fear of it.
ReplyDeleteThat was part of my problem when reading it: it didn't 'fit' with anything I'd read before, and I felt a little out of my depth. I finally came to enjoy it, though - and it didn't take long to read at all. :)
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