THE AWAKENING

A new faith challenges the laws of old gods in Kellerman’s fantasy novel.

In the crumbling Cities of Wisdom in the fantasy realm of Elysia, the Mazda ruling class, stunted by its own history, inflicts horror on its people, controlling a lethal mist that periodically culls those it catches and burning those who speak against the old gods, long since consumed by the Shadow. The narrative charts the rise of a new god who may destroy the Shadow and bring down the 1,000-year Mazda power structure in four interconnected, first-person narratives. The book’s first narrator, the Herald, a starving beggar hoping for a meal, talks his way onto a merchant ship by relating his vision of “She Who Sleeps…who gestates in the darkness of the Shadow,” a goddess who will awaken to give her faithful “Dreamers” a new world and all they desire. Winning over some crew members, the Herald expands his vision, caught up in his own eloquence. Word spreads, as does a ritual involving a potent, psychedelic drink that converts large numbers of Dreamers to the faith. Alarmed, the Mazda task a young prelate, the second narrator, with infiltrating the Dreamers and killing the Herald. He is the Warrior, troubled by conflicting thoughts but stalwart in his faith in the old gods. The next voice belongs to the Zealot, a brutish Dreamer convert whose corruptive hunger for power has chilling consequences. The Devoted is the final narrator, and the only woman. In this thought-provoking, propulsive fantasy, the author explores the concept of faith and its power to inspire, manipulate, and corrupt. The Devoted’s story is particularly effective, a keenly observed coming-of-age journey, progressing from uncertainty to an understanding of truth and of the inevitable way forward for any who will take it. Intriguingly, the meaning of one recurring element, hinting at an unseen force pulling strings throughout, is left unresolved—it’s up to readers to decide.

Memorable characters, fascinating worldbuilding, and a provocative exploration of the dark side of faith.