Ky's Reviews > Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Fully Revised

I happened upon this book by chance and went into it with little to no information and that lack of knowledge actually helped me enjoy the book and its themes even more.

This book's original release was marred by a misuse of branding, labeling this as a Christian Fantasy Book. This is not to say there is not value in such a thing, but as an agnostic who tends to avoid the more preachy side of books, it would have been a turn-off for me. This is also not to say the book does not heavily feature Christianity, but to quote Mark Lawrence's review of the book,

- "On casual inspection you might be forgiven for thinking that this is a religious book &/or YA. It's neither of those things though and if you read it you'll soon be disabused of the notion. Frohock paints an interesting secondary world where multiple (possibly all) real world faiths feature but they are treated as religions invented in any good fantasy, i.e. they're presented as rich and intriguing but with not even the slightest attempt to convert you (did you feel compelled to start following The Seven, or the Old Gods of the North after reading GRRMs Game of Thrones?)" -

This I think gets across how intelligently T. Frohock weaves religion into the story, and the story itself is heavily adult and also features references to a few things some more conservative readers would consider antithetical to a Christian-advertised fantasy. The story also does not put down any other religions, as every other religion features within this setting and also have their own people able to draw upon magic due to their belief.

I came across a post from the author advertising the revised edition of the book and sought it out. And I would like to thank her for giving me a digital copy of the book. A review wasn't even required in return and I am very thankful for her kindness. The cover and the short description she had written on her website interested me. When I started the book and got further inside I found while reading that it was mysteriously perfect for what I have been in the mood for lately and many topics I have been looking into. For years I have been vaguely into real life occultism as well as fantastical eldritch horror; I find religion and mysticism greatly interesting and especially things that may be deemed beyond basic comprehension and knowledge. Very recently in fact I got into the excellent YouTube channel Esoterica that does easy-to-understand but academic and intense dives into real-life occultism and histories of religions, demons, angels, and magic. And this book contains a lot of the stuff I have found myself in-love with in that strange space, exorcisms and strange rituals, secretive orders and hell-gates, etc.

This observation aside, Miserere was both what I was wanting from the novel and something completely different. I had misunderstood and had assumed this was set primarily in a fictional Middle-Ages, retelling history but with magic and demons thrown in. But that is not the case. And the setting of Miserere, Woerld, is much more interesting than that. I find in-between worlds appealing: be it the Feywilds, Sigil in Planescape: Torment, Purgatory, etc. The surreal nature of such worlds is infinitely intriguing to me, and as is the fact they can easily function with different rules than our own world.

Woerld exists at the buffer-zone between Earth and Hell, and since Earth has fallen too in-love with its own petty-wars and politicking, Woerld as a result also has to guard Heaven, since if it would fall, Earth soon would too, and then demons would be upon Heaven. Within Woerld are bastions of every religion on Earth, from Zoroastrianism to Christianity, and the people that populate these bastions are representatives of those religions, Foundlings, who are drawn into Woerld from Earth, and since Woerld itself exists outside of Earth's time and space, we can have a Medieval Wallachian Prince alongside a country-girl from 2008 USA.

Funnily enough, I tend to avoid and dislike a narrative of someone from our world falling into another, I don't think it is bad it just doesn't appeal to me, as my preferred level of escapism in fantasy tends to involve a completely new world away from ANYTHING from our world. But... in Miserere it works... it works really well! I found myself feeling the same way I did as a kid when reading Narnia or Alice in Wonderland and thinking about the, "what if?", what if this is a thing and people fell from our world into Woerld? Though Narnia and Wonderland have the benefit of being less Eldritchly terrifying than Woerld, the adultness of Woerld is what made it appeal to a now adult me. Body horror demonic posessions, war, intrigue, and much more. I don't think I would want to be within Woerld, but reading it is infinitely entertaining. And the fact Earth was tied to Woerld didn't break my immersion like other stories that have people falling from Earth to another world, it enhanced it, since Woerld is to tied to Earth, it complimented it rather than subtracted from it.

All of the main characters are strong, Lucian is an interesting repentant exorcist with a helping of self-hatred yet he never fell into the realm of being unbearable or whiny in my opinion - as he often had wisdom, genuine remorse for his actions, and a bravery I loved. Pair this with his crippled leg that is an actual injury that affects him constantly and it all adds up to a very interesting character that isn't the stereotypical fantasy lead. (For lovers of the First Law series who loved reading characters with injuries that weren't handwaved away like Glokta, you will love how Lucian is written). Rachael is a very interesting POV as well due to being posessed... I would say more but I don't want to spoil anything but I really enjoyed her as well. Lindsay I was greatly worried would be a dud, as I find young teen characters often annoying, but she was honestly great. In many ways mirroring the best parts of Lucian's bravery and strength while still feeling authentically young and a fish out of water, her and Lucian's dynamic was one of my favorite things in the book. Catarina was a good villain, within the author's note at the beginning it is mentioned that Catarina was partially re-written in this revised edition to be more manipulative rather than hysterically evil, which I think is a great change. And the way she spoke often made my skin crawl, drawing upon memories of manipulative abusers I have had in my life. She also reminded me a lot of Carmilla from the Castlevania animated series.

For complaints I found the opening a little hard to get into and the series of events to get Lucian to where he needed to be slightly contrived, (though this is admittedly a world of magic and prophecy). And though I found the ending satisfying I also would have liked it to be longer and definitively tie up a few more things. These problems though, (as you can tell by the score), do not subtract at all from how good this book is.

I would whole-heartedly recommend it, especially for those into dark fantasy. The horror was great, Woerld is greatly interesting, and if you like esoterica you owe it to yourself to read this book just for Woerld and its mysticism. The action was fun, the characters were great, the dialogue was very well-done, and I demand a sequel!!! I need more of these characters and I need more of Woerld and its spooky esoteric goodness! GIVE IT TO ME!