The Fall Is All There Is by C M Caplan

I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review

Publisher – Razor Sharp Books

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.85 paperback £4.00 Kindle eBook

All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it's been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King - his Dad - is dead - and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to.

As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he's all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side.

If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he'll have to avoid one sibling who wants to take him hostage, win back another's trust after years of rivalry and resentment, and get an audience with a sister he's been avoiding for five years.

Before he knows it, he's plunged himself into a web of intrigue and a world of strange, unnatural inventions just to get to her doorstep.

Family reunions can be a special form of torture.

In ye olde days of fantasy heroes were very clearly heroes – clear of purpose, morally upright and knows what needs to be done. Just like you and me huh? These days there is a better and more interesting approach to play with characters giving them issues we can recognise in ourselves and in CM Caplan’s interesting weird fantasy tale The Fall Is All There Is we follow a unusual character in a very unusual world trying to work out what is the right thing to do.

Petre Mercy has run away from his family responsibility as one the most infamous group of quadruplets in the world. He doesn’t like to admit he is a Prince to the Royal family as he has parted on bad terms. But his father is dead, his family wants him to return; and Petre is about to find he is now about to play a reluctant part in an incoming civil war.

This is a tale with many creative decisions that definitely make it a sign of someone doing something different. Petre is our narrator and rather than knowing his own mind is when we meet someone still working out who he is and what he wants. He’s nervous, dyspraxia and autistic which has put him at a disadvantage with his more notorious sibling. Knowing his family have asked him back to the fold means he is fearful of getting into bad habits. At the same time, he’s honourable, funny and ready to admit he is wrong. In short while he isn’t immediately what we think of we like him and trust him - which indeed perhaps is his power in the book. When we meet the siblings, they’re not ogres either just complex and that means we are not sure whose side of the tale is to be believed and even Petre finds now he is a little older perhaps he too was not always making the right choices. It’s refreshing to have a character question themselves. When Petre acts with bravery it feels earned and we care about what happens to him.

The world too is fascinating. Cyber horses, thyroid powered swords and it feels an interesting mix of weird future western with fantasy style scale and family intrigues. There is a lot going on and we start to take no one on face value with various attacks and intrigues to navigate. The one drawback of the tale is that the pacing is rather slow and it takes quite a while to get going. But if you don’t mind a story breathing and focusing on character there is a I think a lot to enjoy. Worth a look!