THE EVER-DARKENING SKY

Villagers encounter deadly creatures as a human army devastates a continent in Siegel’s historical fantasy novel.

In the mid-13th century, the Mongolian Empire appears unbeatable as it surges into Eastern Europe, leveling cities and scattering lives. Elias Dorinescu, a Valachian blacksmith, beset by strange visions and nightmares since his youth, escapes his army’s defeat in Hungary and returns home to find his village deserted (“All its fields were now fallow, and all its streets, filled with weeds”). He rides east in search of his wife, guided by her apparition. Abotur Alexeyevich’s wife was killed and his daughter kidnapped during the fall of Kiev. Upon meeting Elias, he joins him in his journey east, hoping to find his child. Cheren, whose Buryat tribe was made subject to the Empire, was pressed into army service when he came of age. After his troop is wiped out by unearthly creatures, he flees east, encountering Elias and Abotur. The trio are joined by Natia Nenkvashani, a traveler from a Georgian village, after she’s attacked by these same creatures. Soon, the Mongol’s newly conquered territory is flooded with rumors about horrific monsters. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, preacher Nadir ibn Ghazi attracts young followers with talk of a new messiah. Siegel deftly balances many elements, including myriad characters from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, and settings ranging from Hungary to Mongolia. Even when the prose and characterization seem occasionally thin, the author adroitly weaves disparate plot threads together to create a thoroughly engrossing tale. Despite the limited amount of time the reader gets to spend with each character, they feel vivid and real, underlining the theme of commonality between cultures. But it’s the question of faith that lies at the novel’s core, as it expands to galactic proportions. What, if anything, is watching over us? Why do evils befall us? Why do we choose to have faith, and what brings us together? These are the themes that sustain the story’s leap into a new genre, forming its many parts into an elaborate whole.

An ambitious, expansive, and genre-defying tale of war and spirituality.