DUSKBORN RADIANCE Vol. 1 - A MOTHER'S QUESTION

TITLE  - DUSKBORN RADIANCE Vol. 1 - A MOTHER'S QUESTION 

WRITTEN BY - PASQUALE DI FALCO 

PUBLISHED BY - ATMOSPHERE PRESS 

PUBLICATION DATE - 28TH OCTOBER, 2021 

In the opening chapter of “Duskborn Radiance Volume 1 - A Mother’s Question”, we are introduced to siblings Caterina, Dominic and Amadeus and their fellow villagers who are all Brethren. Watched from afar by a mysterious sorceress, all three are on the path to a destiny they cannot imagine, and may not even be ready for. This coming-of-age is set against the cosmos-spanning drama of good versus evil that is playing out in the universe around them. 

Pasquale di Falco has an interesting writing style; well-suited to the fantasy genre, it takes some getting used to but if you give it a chance, the story really flows as all the usual fantasy tropes are thrown into the mix; simple folk living a simple life in a rustic village with hints of faded magic and a shadowy enemy. But this is turned on its head in the next chapter as we’re thrust into a hard-boiled sci-fi story on a cruise-ship in space, and Di Falco proves himself adept at writing for this genre too. The reader is left wondering what this has to do with the world we have just been introduced to, but the relevance soon becomes apparent. Di Falco manages to create a palpable sense of growing power, both benign and malevolent. In this sense it is very much a slow-burning story that rewards close attention, and tasks the reader to patiently discover its secrets.

The story does feel a little bogged down at times with exposition and world-building, and the history of the world is sometimes a little hard to follow, but the characters are well-realised and the story is deep and absorbing so you don’t mind the odd slow paragraph. When you get properly into the story you realise the stakes are not just high, they are stratospheric. 

The story is blessed with a colourful cast of characters and alien species, including a female with a forehead a foot high. There are little character quirks such as Caterina having very long hair which she neither cuts nor washes, leading to her being admonished by her mother. The villain of the piece is wonderfully evil but also subtly nuanced, so he is much more than just a baddie.

Merely the beginning of an epic new fantasy fable, “A Mother’s Question” is a genre-busting triumph and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.

 

IN PURSUIT OF CALM

Even though I haven’t lived a life remotely like Daniel Fuselier’s, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much sympathy for someone before.

Surviving drug abuse and alcoholism in two separate “drinking lives” and an accident which causes third-degree burns over more than half of his body, Daniel recounts how he was able to turn his life around by “direct physical and mental contact with a spiritual entity”. 

Growing up in New Orleans, childhood trauma led him to resentment and hatred of his father and his new wife - the “Stepmonster” - but he discovered a bond with his father through his first taste of alcohol, ultimately leading to wild partying in high school and the start of his alcoholism.

Lyrical passages relate his blissful school days filled with fun and friendship. Drinking became Daniel’s way of easing social anxiety but this leads to destructive behaviour and accidents. He always seems on the edge of achieving something but self-doubt always prevents him. Once he achieves his goals, we rejoice with him. 

“In Pursuit of Calm” is a harrowing yet rewarding read, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in spiritual entities, the reader can still take a lot of comfort from this inspirational book.

MY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 - BLACKLAND

“2044 in the year of our Lord”.

A race war between white and black America, precipitated by the assassination of the second black US President, has escalated to the use of nuclear weapons by the white army. Elsewhere (“elsewhen”?) an unemployed artist Jason Williams resolves to build the first African-American hydrogen bomb - the “Boom Shakalaka”. Or, at least, he builds the idea of “Da Bomb”; in this metaphysical masterpiece, nothing is really real - “the only thing that was real was that everything was FAKE”.

Exploring the logistics and possible consequences of his plan over the course of the story, while the overarching narrative brutally examines the Black experience, leads Jason to suddenly wake up in the fabled “Blackland”, a country without any white people, where he comes under the mentorship of one M. B. Asia, with whom he has an epic philosophical debate on the way to Liberty City, the seemingly Utopian capital city of Blackland. This leads to a darkly comic Kafka-esque meeting with the hidden security forces, and just when you think the book can’t get any better, the deeply profound ending takes your breath away.

I realise I am ineptly describing the plot because any attempt to describe this stunning book is doomed to failure. Sci-fi? Not really. The postmodern “Roots”? Possibly. I was not prepared for this book. A sentence towards the end of Chapter 5 nearly made me faint. There’s so much truth in this book, it’s almost painful. Prepare to be knocked senseless on every page.

Full of relentless energy and written in the kinetic, fluid, dense language of Black America, this is a powerful and vital work about the Black experience in a future USA, yet still recognisable as the world we live in now. A howl against racist “Amerikkka”, it is satirical, self-referential and fourth-wall shattering. But also very funny. “Blackland” is the Black “Ulysses” - it even ends with “Un huh”, a postmodern reinvention of Molly Bloom’s final, exultant “Yes”. According to the closing author’s note, “Blackland” took twenty-five years to write; I can think of no better way to spend a quarter of a century. This is a work to be read and read again. If this book isn’t declared a masterpiece, there’s no justice in the world. Which is what the book is actually about.