by Kerstin Hall
Published on July 16, 2019 by Tor.com
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman.
In The Border Keeper, debut author Kerstin Hall unfolds a lyrical underworld narrative about loss and renewal.
Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a woman who is not what she seems, and must enter the nine hundred and ninety-nine realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons wage endless war.
The Border Keeper spins wonders both epic—the Byzantine bureaucracy of hundreds of demon realms, impossible oceans, hidden fortresses—and devastatingly personal—a spear flung straight, the profound terror and power of motherhood. What Vasethe discovers in Mkalis threatens to bring his own secrets into light and throw both worlds into chaos.
| Knight's Judgment | |
|---|---|
| Plot | |
| Characters | |
| Writing Style | |
| Cover | |
| Enjoyment | |
| Overall: | |
Reading The Border Keeper was a trip. I honestly had no clue what to expect and even while reading I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going.
Imagine the mortal world and the multi-world-verse of gods and demons. And the only thing standing between the two is one woman — the Border Keeper. Yet, this wasn’t her story, though she’s the character that I was immediately intrigued by. Instead, our protagonist is Vasethe who asks for the Border Keeper Eris (though she has many names) to help him traverse the realms of Mklais. Which is how I expected the story to go, at first, a journey through mythical lands for achieve some unknown goal.
Well I was wrong. Sort of. It’s complicated.
The Border Keeper addresses the laws of order and justice, power struggles between the strong and weak, vengeance and hate, love and sacrifice. . . all in under 300 pages. It is a journey through the realms of Mkalis (not all 999 of them thankfully) but there’s so much more going on in the background that I felt like I should make a timeline or a guide or something to keep it all straight. Each realm has its rules and they’re not always explained, and since you’re seeing everything from Vasethe’s point of view, you only know as much as he does which isn’t very much. The whole concept of the book kept me on my toes from start to finish. I literally couldn’t put it down!
Even though it was a shorter story than I usually read, I became really invested in Eris as this person/being who spans time and names and bodies and is just this singular constant in two worlds. Her entire demeanor is that of a woman who’s done putting up with petty drama and annoying demands. It’s that quiet sort of power, the kind where you just know and it came right off the page. I couldn’t get enough. I need more novellas about her many adventures in Mkalis!!
Despite being the point character, I actually wasn’t as interested in Vasethe, with the exception of his secrets he keeps close for a portion of the book. And I blame that on curiosity as I tried to puzzle out what the heck was going on in the story overall.
Yet neither character captivated me nearly as much as the world. You’re taken from the barren land on the Ahri (mortal) side where the Border Keeper lives, into the realms of Mkalis full of unearthly creatures, gods and demons, crabs with children inside them, moving hallways, and the rules of order to govern each realm as decided by its ruler. For being such a short work of fiction, there was a lot packed into it. It made me want more, either a longer book or a series of novellas because I feel like this only touched on what Hall could create with Ahri and Mkalis.
The Border Keeper blended all the intricate and unusual elements I love in mythology and gave it a story to tell. It’s so hard to really describe this book because you just have to read it to really capture the heady, atmospheric thrall it puts you in. I devoured this book from start to finish and if you’re a fan of uniquely intricate and beautiful fantasy, this is the book for you!
About Austine
I'm a 20-something research proposal developer with a background in the life sciences and education. Reviewer of books since 2011, amateur photographer by day, and aspiring author by night. I believe animals (and books) are better than people.
Book dragons love comments!