THE END OF THE LINE HEROES OF THE LINE BOOK 5

In this SF/fantasy novel, two brothers from a legendary lineage of heroes must unite with a mythic creature and summon awesome powers to confront a universe-devouring entity.

Carlton concludes the fantasy saga started in The Coming of Schades (2023) with this volume. Nick Emerson is 14 and his younger brother, Frank, is 9—not that one would know from looking at the pair. Nick now has the physiology of an adult man, and telepathic-empath Frank, who appears to be a teenager, has literally absorbed an immortal named Vahl. These are just two of the supernatural events that have befallen the brothers since receiving a revelation from Harry Armstrong, the custodian of their school: The close siblings, who hail from a tragedy-scarred, fatherless family, are actually descendants and avatars of Oemir, a legendary Celtic hero from a lineage of champions spanning the multiverse. It seems that everything, everywhere was initially composed of 13 universes that were once balanced in harmony; now, all but two of these universes have been devoured by the “living dark,” also called firdur, a malevolent force hostile to all life and light that gains power as it spreads its void. A few species of beings, chiefly the sinister “schades,” have allied themselves with the living dark. That leaves a badly diminished line of heroes, in addition to a plethora of creatures once thought to be mythical (including godlike dragons, wyverns, the virtually immortal Sidhe, centaurs, and cyclopses) as the last hope for existence against the threat of the living nothingness. Nick and Frank, due to their shared soul, have the ability to cross the “curtain” between worlds, feel the other’s sensations, and enter their sister universe to rally Sidhe and other inhabitants of a strategically important world called Aderyn against the living dark. Back on Earth, Nick and Frank and their widely scattered associates face up to their destinies as police investigate a deadly attack on Harry (tied to a corrupt pastor caught up in human trafficking).  

There are echoes here of Susan Cooper’s fondly remembered Dark Is Rising series of YA novels commenced in 1965, though Carlton’s playbook reflects a more contemporary American sensibility that blends elements of urban fantasy and LGBTQ+ acceptance (Nick is bisexual). The author effectively blends SF elements (DNA double-helixes, quantum physics) with fantastical magic (“Everything, magic, spells, wards, all of it, it’s just harmonics and physics, it’s just the ways of energy and nature, there’s no good or evil inherent in any of it, it’s all about the intention”). Carlton includes quotes and shoutouts to other popular SF and fantasy franchises, including Tolkien’s Middle Earth and the Harry Potter universe, but rarely to the point that this becomes campy or tiresome. The reader ricochets between an elsewhere where a dragon the size of Africa can forge planets and stars and a relatively mundane Earth replete with bullies, police detectives, same-sex boyfriends, and plenty of swearing—it’s a wild ride, especially as the major characters in this expansive cast ensemble weave in and out of their various incarnations.

A densely packed conclusion to an SF/fantasy series of vast ambition and scale.