Asunder

Kerstin Hall
Completed 4/19/2025 Reviewed 4/19/2025
3 Stars

This is a beautifully written book that just didn’t do it for me.  I liked the premise; Hall has a terrific imagination.  The prose is beautiful.  But I never bonded with main character Karys.  I think I’m getting tired of the hero with the massive chip on their shoulder.  Karys never lightens up.  Some of the secondary characters did, which was a relief.  Never bonding with her made for a tough time staying with the plot and keeping up with the world building.  This book is a nominee for the Nebula Award.  If I were voting, this would be low on my list. 

Karys is a deathspeaker.  She can speak with the recently dead, finding out about the circumstances of their death.  The book begins with her searching a sacred cave shrine for a missing party.  She only finds one survivor: the rest being consumed by a monster.  The survivor is encased in a time bubble, hiding from the monster by being three days in the past.  Karys escapes the mysterious monster and Ferain, the survivor, through the strange magical relic that created the bubble, becomes bonded with Karys, existing in her shadow.  Ferain turns out to be the son of an ambassador.  He promises her that if she can return him to his father, he will give her a large reward.  The rest of the book contains their journey to separate them and get him home.  

There’s another dimension to Karys’ occupation.  She made a compact with a demon-type being that will claim her once time is up.  The time draws nigh and Karys and Ferain race to separate them before she is claimed.  Along the way, they are joined by a past friend of Karys and an academic who dabbles in bonding magic.  They find out through the academic that bonding people together is dangerous magic, one sucking the life force out of the other.  So there’s an additional reason to find a solution for their situation.

Of all the characters, I liked Ferain and the academic, Winola.  They both had a lighter sense of being.  Even Ferain, who was in this life and death situation, had a better disposition.  He tried and failed to lighted Karys up.  Karys did grow some by the end of the book, but she remained jaded and paranoid of letting anyone see who she really was.  Winola was kind of goofy.  I think I generally like the academic personality type, particularly in how it was developed in her character.  And there seemed to be some sexual tension between her and Karys, although this was never explored, just alluded to.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the prose is tremendous.  The amount of detail that Hall wrote in the description of all the characters and locations was mind boggling.  I often marveled at her word choices.  But it was never enough to keep me drawn into the story.  I also had a lot of trouble keeping track of the nationalities and races.  I think it was because it took me so long to read this book that I forgot which were human nationality names and which were being race names.  

I think this book is typical of what the Nebula committee looks for in nominees.  Strong prose and world building.  While I appreciate it as well, I lose it when I don’t bond with the main character.  Lack of empathy leads to a tedious reading experience.  I give this book three stars out of five, honoring the prose and the plot, but taking off for Karys.