The Border Keeper

Kerstin Hall

2019 • 240 pages

Ratings11

Average rating3.8

"Beautifully and vividly imagined. Eerie, lovely, and surreal"—Ann Leckie 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. Praise for The Border Keeper "Lush prose weaves around a dark heart in this twisty debut from Kerstin Hall. A fantastical wonder on every page, but one coated in blood, death and suffering.”—JY Yang "Hall combines a sharp observational descriptive talent with brilliantly realised characters. The Border Keeper draws you deeply into every world it explores and keeps you on edge the whole way through. The story is dreamlike in the way of the most powerful dreams—vividly bright and crystal clear."—Emily Tesh

Genres

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Series

Featured Series

2 primary books3 released books

#1 in Mkalis Cycle

Mkalis Cycle is a 3-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Kerstin Hall.

#2.5

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Scott - Book Invasion

Full video review here -https://youtu.be/Qr_xeRBCLBM
This was really a spectacular read full of intrigue and brooding dark creatures and worlds. I really enjoyed this and would love to read more of the backstory of these characters!

3.5/5

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

I'll be quite honest with you — I'm not normally one who picks up novellas. They're over too quickly for me, so in my rather dumb opinion, why bother reading them? The only reason I picked up The Border Keeper is because Tor sent me a copy of The Second Spear, which is the direct sequel. I'm not one to read sequels without first reading the starting book, so off I went to find a copy of The Border Keeper. Thankfully, my library had it, so I borrowed it, and well, I finished it in a day.

I mean — it's not even 250 pages, so...easy peasy.

The Border Keeper is one of those stories that sets you down right smack dab in the middle of a story and expects you to keep up. There's no coddling, there's no real explanation of anything. You just have to read, and hope you catch what's important. I'm not usually a fan of this sort of writing. I like to be handed things in ‘real time', so I know what's going on. The Border Keeper doesn't do that. You're given names of places, demons, and gods rapid fire with little to nothing to back them up. Normally, this would frustrate the hell out of me, but here it surprisingly works.

In fact, the book that reminds me most closely of The Border Keeper is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Same thing happens — you're dropped into an unusual, confusing world, and left to pick up your own pieces as the story moves forward. The writing in The Border Keeper is atmospheric, and tangible. You really feel as if you're following the characters as they move through these increasingly impossible, slightly terrifying worlds.

My one wish is that the plot had been slightly more clear. You're not really given the true reason behind anything until after halfway through the novella. Am I glad I read this? Sure, I guess. I'm not really sure I enjoyed the story as much as I consumed it. It's very clearly not my usual cup of tea, honestly. I'll head onto the next entry into this series and see where that gets me. Four stars, because the writing itself is phenomenal.

May 12, 2022