The Rifter, by Ginn Hale (Vol. 5 and 6: The Holy Road, Broken Fortress)

[rachelmanija]

I finally figured out what this series reminds me of: P. C. Hodgell's Godstalk series. Hodgell has more black comedy and flamboyant worldbuilding, and Hale concentrates much more on weaving a highly intricate story. But both series seem to have evolved from the same roots: bypassing Tolkien's high fantasy tradition in favor of the swords and sorcery of Fritz Lieber, Jack Vance, C. L. Moore, even Robert E. Howard.

It's interesting that while the overall plots and details of the two series have very few points of similarity - the kinship is more one of tone and atmosphere - both have heroes who are avatars of the destructive aspect of a God.

Beyond that, all I can say without spoilers is that this series just gets better and better as it goes along. Book five was particularly packed with holy shit! moments.

Marie, if you're reading this, you would appreciate that the only characters who do stupid things based on sexual desire are reckless, desperate teenagers. The adults generally manage to sensibly resist doing stupid things out of sexual desire, despite extreme temptation. (Homosexuality is banned in large parts of this world.)



Book five is the one where a depressed and desperate Ravisham goes to have grungy gay sex in an alley, pursued by John and a homophobic priest, which ends with the priest dead at John's hands and Ravisham's face cut... but nowhere near as badly as it was in the timeline in which he became our Kahlil. (I will go on calling them Ravisham and Kahlil, for the sake of my own sanity.)

I was expecting a giant cover-up, and was amazed when that totally failed. The truth serum scene was great, especially when the drugged John accidentally managed to cover up Laurie's witchcraft by taking questions about his "sister" to literally mean his actual sister. Shades of fast-penta!

...and then it didn't matter in the long run, because Bill got killed and Laurie blew up several square blocks. Alas, poor Bill. You were never well-characterized, you had a really crappy experience in Basawar, and then you got shot off-page to motivate Laurie.

The entire volume, from Ravisham's poorly timed tryst to the heartbreaking attempt to give John a painless death that only ended up making things a million times worse, was beautifully orchestrated and emotionally gripping. Not to mention ending on a giant cliffhanger. I was really frustrated when the next volume went back to Kahlil.

Oh yeah: this was also the one where John and Ravisham finally had sex. I liked that they waited until they could actually do so safely, like sensible adults. I just wish Hale didn't fade to black so quickly. Even more foreplay would have been nice. It would have been a great opportunity to weave character exploration into the sex, especially since there's so much focus on both men's physicality: Ravisham's scars, John's senses.

The next volume finally did something with John's ecology degree! I must say that I loved all that. I also enjoyed Kahlil and Jath'ibaye negotiating their relationship rather than randomly refusing to explain stuff to each other. Though, again, seriously: a longer sex scene would have been nice.

I also loved Kahlil teaching the girl to teleport. And the dog-witch! Love the dog-witch. The supporting characters have gotten much more interesting as the story goes on.

I had been wondering if Laurie had gone to the dark side. Yep.

So, it's now clearly established that John changed the past, so that Kahlil is from a sort of orphaned timeline, with confusing dual memories, and the Jath'ibaye timeline is the current one - in which Ravisham died. I felt so bad for Kahlil in this, realizing that everyone loved the version of him that he never was. I have to say, though... I like Kahlil better than Ravisham. I have a soft spot for characters who grew up with no one in their corner, and make their work their life.



The Holy Road (The Rifter)

Broken Fortress (The Rifter)

Comments

[cyphomandra]

Samsango poisoning himself and John was just tragic. Arrgh. And I love all the little details - the egg-laying weasels! Dan the Milkman! - although I totally agree with you about wanting longer sex scenes. Having just checked her short in The Irregulars, it is more explicit, so am not sure why she's gone for all the fading to black here.

I am currently at the end of book 7 and making a lot more arrgh type noises for Kahlil. No!!!

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Not looking at spoilers, but I just hope this doesn't bog down the way Hodgell's series did. I gave up after the third or fourth book, I forget.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I love how you're all like 'OK so we could have had more boy-boy sex'. I mean, what novels *wouldn't* be improved by same?

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I'm caught up!

I have really been enjoying this. Was a little ambivalent for the first book or two. As commented, I found it very engaging! But also rough-hewn in the characterization -- it all felt a little stiff and trying too hard and had that tic that makes me crazy where the friend characters are way too exclusively interested in the main character's love life -- and I wasn't convinced the author had much sense of or control over the plot happenings...I spent a while wondering if maybe this was actually an earlier work than the one that I'd read. In retrospect, it feels like the early stages were all a rush to get to the stuff that the story was actually interested in -- the interweaving arcs and results thereof -- because yeah, once we were into the magic school and the meat of the thing, I was sold.

I liked Ravishan a lot more than it sounds like you did; that character was the first that read as really organic to me (though not at all my usual in-story type!) and I was so glad of that that I glommed onto him and was really worried about the inevitable return to a Kyle who I'd found not very distinct or interesting...but by the time we got there, both current(?) versions of our main dudes had so much more _there_ there compared to the early going that I am happy to spend time with them (and, yes, happy to see the awkwardness of Khalil's position in a world that knew Ravishan dealt with explicitly, and much as I enjoyed him, I don't actually think a surviving Ravishan would be a pretty thing, at this point in the timeline...)

I am glad to see Pesha! And hope we get much more of her and Laurie, stat. I am feeling a little awkward about the part where there are lots of female characters floating around, yes, but the major actors are all dudes plus one literal bitch...

(I am convinced that Ji is not actually Ji. But my front-runners get creepy when the dog-witch shoves Khalil into Jath'ibaye's bed, so I am less committed to them than I was a book or two back!)

I really like the Grey Space, and the interaction of all John's ecology stuff with his Rifter powers. I was disappointed that he was not more proud of his scale model of Besawar!

I don't usually have as much patience as I would like for this kind of intricacy of timeline and plotting, so while I have skimmy moments, I am overall really impressed that Hale is managing to keep me engaged in all of that.

Hungry bones: super creepy!

Did I miss Laurie's kid all grown up or have we not seen him/her yet?

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

Well, you certainly understand fantasy history better than I do. I haven't read any of those authors mentioned except Tolkien.

I'm so glad you find the series getting better and better!

And, yeah, Hale does not explore characterization through sex, at all. And there was one point with Kahlil when I really, really wanted it, because I felt there would be interesting nuances to explore given his life experiences vs Ravishan's. Fortunately I found the characterization rich enough to not be too frustrated by this.

That scene where John acts like an adult and Ravishan disappears, feeling rejected, rather broke my heart. For R, but also John who is determined to do the right thing. Though I loved it when John found him.

I thought of fast-penta too!

I could barely breathe at the end of that cliffhanger, though I'll admit that when we returned to that timeline, I had a tough time knowing what I knew about the characters. Of course, I was rewarded by pushing through. (I'm being a bit vague, because I'm not quite sure what all information you have and want to avoid all spoilers.)

I guess I felt equally bad for Kahlil and Ravishan, although it's true that Kahlil didn't have Jahn. But having Jahn wasn't always easy.

I'm about to finish book 1! I'm going to try to write something up this read through.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am interested in this, but the pricing is too annoying for me to have tried it yet.

[chomiji]

>> I finally figured out what this series reminds me of: P. C. Hodgell's Godstalk series <<

Sold!

Seriously, I had already added the first volume to my wishlist on the basis of your earlier writeups, but that really cemented my desire to get hold of these.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

MUST DISCUSS BOOK SEVEN NOW

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Just skimmed past the spoiler stuff to say that I appreciate the heads-up. :-)