VISION OF THE SPIRIT MAN

Mendoza’s fantasy sequel revisits a dream-walker tasked with saving an ancient race from annihilation.

It’s been five years since Michael Seymour, first introduced in Journey of the Spirit Man(2021), journeyed into the “dream world.” In his waking life, he’s on a road trip with his friend Mark that goes horribly wrong. The two stop at a roadside diner, and, minutes later, a shooter arrives and wipes out the clientele, including Mark and Michael. The latter wakes in a dream world called Shook, where he meets Emmitt del Rio, a 700-year-old dwarf who’s been tasked with bringing Michael—whom he calls “Spirit Man”—to his commander. Michael soon learns that the dwarves want his help to find someone called the Annihilator, who has the power to destroy their world. After Michael is killed (again) in an attack on the dwarves’ fort by strange, masked creatures known as Saviors, he decides in limbo to locate the Annihilator and save the dwarves. This takes him on a long quest across an unforgiving desert, where he encounters old friends and tortured ghosts and, along the way, gains new powers. But will he find and best the Annihilator—and will he find out who this “Spirit Man” is? Mendoza creates a satisfying fantasy landscape that feels dreamlike even in its descriptions: “His path led him into a deep canyon, with steep sandstone cliffs on either side: ripped walls of ochre and orange sculpted by water and wind into bulges and tall, free-standing spindles, like sentinels watching.” Elements of different spiritualities collide, from Native American “vision quests” to “The Book,” which echoes Judeo-Christian religions and specifically brings to mind the Holy Grail. Michael’s quest traces a classic hero’s journey: the eerie, too-good-to-be-true Paradisa, for example, recalls the myth of Circe and Odysseus. Despite its relatively short length, the book’s pacing sometimes drags, with Michael often journeying solo. However, these stretches are usually relieved by rapid-fire action scenes, and readers will want to hang in there for the final faceoff, as a plot twist involving the Annihilator is especially satisfying.

An imaginative, otherworldly journey.