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RealmShift

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RealmShift by Alan Baxter

RealmShift is the debut work of the English born Sydney resident Alan Baxter who creates a present day (or as near to it to make a difference unnoticeable) and rather gritty reality, which is underpinned by the somewhat less tangible balance and interplay of the gods. By saying gods one has to include those of powerful stature, the aspiring wannabe gods, the higher and lesser deities and the individual's "personal god" of less than no significance as well as those seen as the creators and the undoers.

Isiah (not to be mistaken for the prophet by the name of Isaiah), our protagonist, is a more or less reluctant tool intent on upholding a semblance of balance in the world, that gods and demons in their play are intent on disrupting. The slightly aged (around 400 years) and disillusioned Isiah is continuously guided, pushed and prodded by the entity "The Balance" to use his not so insubstantial powers to prevent acts by those selfsame forces of good and evil that might shift the balance in favour of one or the other.

In this particular case Isiah merely has to retrieve the soon to be and not so nice sidekick Samuel, to make sure he knocks off an Assassin in Central America. If he doesn't, the assassin will in turn do what he does best and quite a lot brown stuff will hit the proverbial fan in the not so distant future. This takes the reader from your everyday city streets to hell and back and then proceeds to throw you into yet another hell of heat and mosquitoes in the Guatemalan jungle.

Oh, has it been mentioned that Samuel is quite evil, not exactly readily recruitable and literally frying in the Hell of his own making? (Well, he certainly is a worthy contribution to your local "Satanic Cultists Anonymous" help group.)

Alan freely admits that good and evil exist and makes sure the reader gets his or her fill of the clich?s that have been flaunted in many a book. You are good, I am evil, I have a grand scheme and you come by to club me on the head until I yet again come up with a brainy scheme to rule the world.

What differentiates this work from many another is that RealmShift sleekly avoids what is grandly called the "eternal battle between good and evil" and adroitly sits in between by being outright blasphemous for some readers. If you held the belief that God create the world and everything therein, you are sadly mistaken. The world was here when we found it and the gods were created by us and manifested through our beliefs. We just chose to make some of them a bit more powerful by joining in one belief system and a force of "Balance" tries to clean up our mess with the help of our main character.

One might imagine a helping of the Vertigo character John Constantine's charm, or lack thereof, a healthy pinch of cynicism, a cup of resignation, topped up with a generous amount of mental or magical powers, and Isiah is what you should come up with as a result.

He does his job, quick and nasty and with no frills and while not being too happy about his limitation in choice.

Alan Baxter's RealmShift manages to grab a hold of you and make you feel the drizzle, the cold, the nastiness that permeates the world, as well as the mix of humidity and heat that leaves you one sticky, smelly mess. Battles, fights, minor scuffles and chases have an engrossing and harried feel and Alan's unique style of using metaphors, "tongue in cheek" comments and background dialogue, pushes you through to the thoroughly enticing, not so "clean" world we peer at when we try to look past the edge of the dirty public bathroom mirror.

While Alan is still in need of experience to remove bits that feel repetitive and disjointed, this debut piece is certainly showing the heavy potential of upcoming works. The reader is left largely to use imagination to fill in some blanks and character straits but one invariably ends up doing so with great depth and texture.

Some readers might need to close the odd eye to disregard the obvious pushing of religous boundaries and the definition of "The Balance", which still lacks depth to provide a compelling argument for it to be readily acceptable in the world of RealmShift.

However, Alan doesn't hold punches, he does certainly not endeavour to be politically or correct or stick to common approaches of Theology and he infuses RealmShift with just the right mix of action, mystique and yes, good and evil, to leave a reader wanting more.

Sometimes, I hate the 1-5 star rating system at Amazon. This is one of those times where I wish I could split stars, because I would have rather given this book a 3 1/2 instead of just a three, but I can't honestly rate it a 4. So ignore the star rating altogether.

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The premise is a familiar one in speculative literature. Beneath and beyond the mundane world, supernatural forces poise themselves to break the balance and bring chaos and destruction to the earth. Most people cannot see the truth, nor do they really want to. Devoid of connection to the mystical, most people are content struggling through the grey world of corporal materialism. But some people are connected to the mystical, and the actions of these few can impact the fate of the world. This familiar, yet still profound story concept, is told anew in Realmshift, by Alan Baxter.

Specifically, the story revolves around a man who makes a deal with Satan in exchange for immortality, then figures out how to use ancient blood magics and ritual murder to prevent Satan from collecting. But this is by no means a traditional Faustian morality tale, because the apparent good guys aren't interested in saving his soul, but insuring he keeps his end of the bargain to protect the Balance. The central protagonist, Isiah, is charged with insuring that Samuel fulfills his end of the bargain by destroying a creature in Central America that would in fact grant him his immortality before an angry Satan tracks down the magician and destroys him on principle.

The entire narrative reads like a tale told by some omniscient yet bored being, indifferent to the incredible tale it is telling. This is both the blessing and the curse of this book. While this state helps originally set the mood, it creates a plodding feeling as the story progresses, preventing the action from really taking shape. Description often comes across as the private muses of an emotionally detached person trying to remember emotions. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. It also appears as if the author wanted to tell the story from the first person narrative, but decided not to, creating occasional awkward point of view situations.

Some readers may get lost or turned off with one of the other central notions in the book, that multiple gods and multiple worlds exist simultaneously, and that these gods require the faith of their followers to exist. Enter the idea of the Balance, which apparently, among other things, makes sure that the followers of various entities are able to keep their faith. Though the idea has been used countless times (one of the most notable being the Amber series by Roger Zelazny), it is rarely employed with such a strong inclusion of Judeo-Christian mythology. But get pass the idea of angels and devils working with and against entities from other religions, and there is a lot of interest in this book.

I found the book both entertaining and thought-provoking, however the complete concept behind the Balance never quite feels valid. The Balance, it seems, moves in mysterious ways, ways that are often convoluted, illogical, and forced in order to make the story work. On the first read, I enjoyed it immensely, but while rereading to write the review, inconsistencies in thought became obvious. Enjoy RealmShift the first time around as an interesting blend of speculative fiction and thriller, but don't think too much on it afterwards as it might spoil the final experience for you as a reader.

Realm Shift is the first of Alan Baxter's novel-length works that I have read. Having previously published his short fiction, I knew first-hand how talented he is. Realm Shift confirmed to me that his abilities in long fiction are equally tight.

Not generally a big fan of dark fantasy, I put all my prejudices aside and dived in. It was a gripping and interesting tale right from the beginning; and the construct was nicely delivered. I'm not going to write about the story itself because you have to read the book for that. In the beginning, it reminded me a *lot* of Night Watch, by Lukyanenko - but that was fleeting.

Baxter handled the multiple storylines with aplomb, and brought them together in the 'home run' of the story admirably. Like many other great writers before him - like Le Carre and Iain Banks - the final portion of the book was the best part of it.

For me personally, I found, despite how good this book was, that Baxter's grip on his characters was with a light touch. Except for the character of Samuel Harrigan, it felt to me that Baxter really worked to portray them. Harrigan, in contrast, completely leapt off the page, and I suggest that Baxter enjoyed writing his character far more. Harrigan had a density and dimensionality that the other characters lacked.

As an editor, some superficial glitches (which there were a lot of) annoyed me: missing apostrophes, misused apostrophes, verb-noun sequences that didn't agree. These could have been fixed with a solid copy edit. I *really* struggle with books that contain unnecessary errors, but with Realm Shift I was able to overlook them and just enjoy the story. Kudos indeed!

This is a fabulous book, I'm sad it took me so long to find the time to read it (took me a year to finish it, thanks to other things - though I never had to go back and re-read passages, which is a feat in itself on the author's behalf!!), and I'm sad it's over.

Now. Where's the next one, Mage Sign... I think I need another fix.

RealmShift is a difficult story to classify. It is a well-written dark fantasy with a detailed cosmology that feeds heavily into the plot, but the characters populating the story are less important than their purposes to facilitate plot continuity, which makes me hesitate to recommend it.

The plot revolves around Isiah, an immortal tool for the Balance, which facilitates change within the world by maintaining order between good and evil. Humans unknowingly create their own realities with faith, which brings all manner of gods and religions into the cosmology who exist because of the humans who believe in them. Isiah is tasked with rescuing recently-deceased occult-practitioner Samuel Harrigan from Hell after he reneged on a deal with Satan. The Balance wants Samuel to complete a trip he had planned to Guatemala (for purposes of acquiring a crystal skull) so that Samuel can kill mercenary-sociopath Carlos Villalopez, who in turn would have murdered American eco-journalist Katherine Bailey, whose presence will convince a tribe to receive inoculations and prevent the death of a god when the tribe dies out. (This isn't a spoiler, as the Balance tells all of this to Isiah within the first couple of chapters.)

I prefer character-driven stories. This is primarily why I found the characters in this novel--with the exception of Isiah--to be predictable and somewhat monotonous. The story shifts point-of-view between Isiah, Katherine, and Carlos as they all travel separately for different purposes to Guatemala where they will eventually intersect. Isiah is the most well-developed "gray" character who is neither good nor evil. Katherine represents the "good" journalist with noble intentions while Carlos is the "evil" mercenary out to kill/rape/torture anyone he comes across, and after the first few chapters in their p-of-v, I found myself becoming impatient to get back to the chapters featuring Isiah. The chapters of Katherine and Carlos were well-written and descriptive; I just found myself growing bored with these human caricatures. There's only so much murder and mayhem you can read before it all runs together. Likewise, I found myself wanting to roll my eyes after a few chapters of Katherine's good will toward men ideals.

The tone of the omniscient narrator is extremely distant and unemotional, almost as if the events are being relayed by a bored entity. I can see where this might have been deliberate on the author's part, but this style made it very difficult for me to become invested in the story, and easy to set the book down and pick back up as opposed to reading straight through.

The pacing was noticeably faster during the chapters featuring Isiah, as those are the only ones containing fantastical elements (fight scenes with Satan and his minions, dealing with archangel Gabriel and a group of vampires); particularly engrossing was the scene when Isiah journeys into Hell to steal Samuel's soul from the devil. Carlos and Katherine chapters are mired in reality. I honestly think this story could have benefitted from cutting some of the chapters focusing on those two characters as they don't seem to serve any purpose other than representations of opposing forces. Had the novel focused solely on Isiah's journey with Samuel--a wretched human being who Isiah is forced to protect from Satan--I probably would have enjoyed it much more. One irritation I had was the manner in which Isiah dealt with Samuel: a murdering scum who kills two people right in front of Isiah during their mad rush to escape the devil. Isiah kept threatening Samuel with dire consequences but never followed through when Samuel called his bluff. As an immortal being, surely he could have enacted some kind of psychic smack-down without killing him? I was also mildly disappointed by the very Christianized physical description of the devil and Hell when the cosmology of the novel encompasses so many different religions.

Aside from these, I enjoyed the story for what it was. The plot was interesting and the ideas suggested have a very "Matrix" feel to them, questions upon questions upon questions type of thing. There is a sequel advertised on the last page, and honestly, I have little or no interest in reading it. Isiah was an interesting character, but the end of the story had a very "pat" wrapped-up feel, and I would have preferred a less predictable close to a dark fantasy novel.

Isiah is an immortal who seeks to help keep the balance in a Universe where every God ever dreamt of by man exists, and of course where all the corresponding Evil also exists. The Balance, a sort of unknowable cosmic entity, tasks Isiah with getting the Satanist Samuel to South America in order for Samuel to save the life of American Journalist Katherine, who is destined to do a great deed, but who is on a collision course with the Psychopathic Mercenary Carlos. Samuel was destined to tackle Carlos before he could kill Katherine, but when you piss off Satan the best laid plans are going to go to pieces.

First rescuing Samuel from the very bowels of Hell itself, Isiah must then somehow escape the satanic legions that are hard on their heels and get Samuel to the place of his destiny at the correct time. Vampires, assorted Angels, and others will help Isiah in his quest; demonic forces will dog his every step. It's a race against time and an unholy enemy with the lifeblood of the Amazon at risk.

Can Isiah achieve his aim, and is all as it might seem?

Review

"Are you asking if I believe that the skull has power?" - Sanchez

I got sent this one on the eve of Author Alan Baxter crashing the North American lifeboat party. The novel has been out for sometime Down Under but has recently been picked up for some tender loving care up North, about bloody time as well if you ask me, not that you were. I'm getting my 2c in before Al Baxter becomes like famous and stuff and get's to drink tequila out of Paris Hilton's belly button, hence he might even read this review in between fielding movie offers. So hey unexpected book to review, just finished the climatic final confrontation, let's see how this pony trots.

Baxter doesn't waste much time ripping into things as Isiah is immediately battling the forces of hell, due to being a thorn in the side of Satan. From here the book doesn't lag at any stage and actually cranks up the pace as things start rocketing to Mayan Pyramid central, the reader will tend to get swept along in the flow, so just go with it. Alan Baxter has a keen eye for pace and lets his writing style reflect the race against time that his protagonist is consumed by. There are interludes as we get to meet additional characters and hit the metaphysical musings that form the core of the novel, but they are really only pit stops to help the reader get their breath back. I was actually reading at break neck speed as things got dicey for Isiah and was cheering the big fella on as time started running out. Its touch and go, things aren't preordained here, and the outcomes are not what you might think they are from the opening chapters. There are a few surprises in store folks.

Alan Baxter pulls surprises on just about every second page, you are going to have a lot of fun with the novel.

There's certainly quite a bit of comparative religion and deep thought flowing through the novel, but Baxter never allows it to overwhelm the narrative or detract from where things are going. You can quite happily dial into deep thinking similar to the tail end of an undergraduate bong party, or you can just jump on the chariot race Alan Baxter has unleashed. Basically all Gods that have even been thought of exist, if enough people put their faith into a mythical being then that being will become a reality. Sort of like an out of control Tibetan toga party. Actually must do a bit of research and ensure it was the Tibetans that came up with the concept. So naturally you have the Christian God, Arch Angels, demons, and Satan. Joining the party are Mayan gods, vampires (who appear to exist here on the human plain), and about any other mythical being that wants to get into the ultimate tag team face up. It's a compelling idea and Alan Baxter goes one step beyond by having a force of Balance in the Universe to ensure we don't get over run by Satyrs or a giant mechanical Barbara Streisand and the like. Actually it all makes sense and you can dial into as much or as little musing of this sort as you desire.

What's interesting about Alan Baxter's central concept is that it takes out the normal chaos overtones that horror plays with like a five year old with a box of matches. While "The Balance" seeks some grand design harmony in the cosmos chaos is as likely to be unleashed by the forces of good as it is by the forces of evil. Don't expect the normal horror tropes to be renting a room in this particular Hotel, Alan Baxter has thrown a particularly nasty curve ball at us. Which is of course to be applauded, if you read as much horror as I do on a regular basis then you get all complacent and start working out the plot from about page two. I was actually charging through the novel to see what new ideas the Author had coming my way and was caught up on the whole fabric of the universe thing. Just think the force kids and go with the flow okay.

So what you are getting here is a pretty decent yarn that rocks along at pace and a philosophical viewpoint of life, the universe, and everything. Quite the achievement when you think about it. And before anyone starts thinking this all sounds slightly heavy, I'm nodding at Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code that manages to wrap art history, theological debate, and the sort of mythos that conspiracy theorists love into one hell of a thriller ride. So you can have some fun, learn some stuff, and get a whole new interpretation of religion while still wondering if Isiah might be in imminent danger from hell's legions.

Structurally Alan Baxter side steps an immediately trap that has caught any number of other would be novelists at the first hurdle. We are talking the sort of character list that you would normally expect from a fantasy novel. And before you ask, no this isn't the horror outing that sees a group of people trapped in an isolated Amazon farmhouse over the course of one night. Baxter introduces his characters as they become involved in the events unfolding, so we don't get a whole bunch of people thrown into the first chapter that'll take half the book to sort out. Besides Isiah and Samuel fighting the legions of Satan in their attempt to achieve Samuel's destiny, there's Carlos Villalopez a psychopathic mercenary who takes strong exception to a local hospital Priest, and U.S Journalist Katherine Bailey who has her own destiny to fulfil. This isn't even mentioning the various minor characters each major character attracts during the course of the novel. Everything is moving toward a hay ride to hell in the Amazonian jungle, and Baxter gradually picks up pace as the final confrontation looms ever closer. And by final confrontation I'm talking apocalyptic forces clashing over here. Alan Baxter isn't going at this half arsed, Satan wants his due, there are destinies to be fulfilled, and you wouldn't want to be the middle of this disagreement.

I had a whole bunch of fun with this novel, and yes really dug the philosophical side of things Alan Baxter was sending my way. Unfortunately I've run out of space, hence didn't cover some of the literary devices in use, but just take it as written that there's a whole bunch more depth and cool ideas coming at you in the novel.

I'm not entirely sure if you can pick up RealmShift at the increasingly drab main street bookstores of the nation or not to be honest. I simply get way too depressed at the increasing shelve space being allotted "C" grade writers who would be hard pressed to put a decent paragraph together to bother checking. Speciality stores like Sydney's Galaxy Bookshop carry the title, or if OS then dial into Alan Baxter's Official Site ([...]) and follow the links. For U.S readers there's a North American edition on its way so dial into that bad boy.

There are some people' whose heads you really don't want to be inside and dark fiction author Alan Baxter is one of those people. In Realm Shift Alan Baxter takes you from blood sacrifices to the varied realms of hell and back again, battling demons, gods and Lucifer himself in a gore fest that makes your head spin.

Not only does Baxter spin a tale of life on the dark side, he questions, quite soundly, the basis for all religions, modern and ancient, treating all with the same irreverence and offering an alternate viewpoint that is so valid it's almost frightening. It'll challenge your deepest held beliefs. Belief creates reality and Baxter's reality is full of magic and darkness, evil and good, but a good that lies easily to serve its own purpose and with the full backing of the universe and all the power behind it.

Baxter's fight scenes are intense. They get your heart pounding, leaving you on the edge of your seat. With Baxter's own martial arts training the scenes are realistic, sometimes so much so that you find yourself wondering if Baxter himself has ever crushed someone's head or slit a throat and heard the blood gurgle and the breath hiss as his victim lie dying. Baxter draws you along a knife's edge of tension from the first page to the last, leaving your heart thumping and sweat on your brow.

A good example of the supernatural element in Baxter's writing, his use of imagery and his ability to write a good fight scene follows:

"Samuel could do nothing but watch helplessly as the battle began. Isiah's fingers were pressing with immense force into the devil's face. Samuel could hear the creak and crack of bones fracturing, Isiah's middle finger and thumb slowly sinking into the hollows of Lucifer's temples, dark black blood leaking out, running down his cheeks. Satan's own nails were drawing blood from Isiah's forearm, Isiah's skin taut and white under his grip. The devil lashed out with his other hand, clawing for Isiah's face. Isiah caught his hand with lightening reflexes, his hand wrapped around the devil's closed fist, squeezing. More of Lucifer's bones began popping."

RealmShift is phenomenal. If it's not already on your bookshelf it should be.

RealmShift First Published 2006 by Alan Baxter, Second Edition, 2008 by Blade Red Press. ISBN 978-0-9805782-0-1 available online through Amazon.com and other online bookstores, as well as local book retailers. For more information see the author's website at...

The story focuses on the struggles of Isiah, an immortal agent of the balance, as he battles to maintain equilibrium between good and evil. His mission: to retrieve the soul of an evil murderer, restore the man to life and protect him from Lucifer until he fulfills his destiny. The man he must protect is selfish, cowardly and more than willing to kill anyone to help himself. It doesn't help that Isiah sympathizes with the side of good or that Lucifer is throwing all the powers of Hell at him. He's a man with a job to do and nothing is going to stop him from completing his mission.

The book is jam-packed with interesting characters and plenty of action. The story is set both in the physical and supernatural worlds. In both cases, the author takes great care to craft vivid and with sometimes disturbing settings. Dialogue is fresh and serves to both enhance and flesh out the story.

My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is the author's use of the crystal skull mythos. His interpretation is not quite the same as what I know to be true. Still, it is

a minor issue and was more of a distraction than a detractor for me.

Realmshift is a Dark Fantasy novel written by Alan Baxter. It was published October 17th by Blade Red Press and is available from Amazon.com in both a paperback edition for $14.35 and a kindle edition for $3.19.

RealmShift by Alan Baxter is a gripping, thought-provoking tale that evokes a strong response within the reader, both on an emotional and an intellectual level. It is a dark fantasy that takes the reader on both an adventure-filled ride, but also a spiritual exploration.

The main character, Isiah, has the unenviable task of aiding Samuel, a human version of the stuff that gathers in the bottom of a septic tank, in a quest to kill another bottom-feeder. The reason? If Samuel doesn't fulfill his destiny and kill bad guy number two, that guy is going to kill a good guy, which equals bad news for the human race.

Action abounds in this thriller, though the pacing slows at times, particularly when things get too dialogue-heavy. The opening is almost literary in style, and borders on being a distraction for about twenty pages. As the novel progresses, though, Baxter's style emerges and the narrative is consistently solid and well-crafted.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the spiritual exploration. Baxter's premise is that God(s) created neither the world, nor humankind. In fact, the gods are human constructs, and if enough people believe something strongly enough, that belief will come true. This perspective poses interesting avenues of thought: Is there a such thing as "right and wrong", since there is no perfect superior being to impose a moral code upon the human race? If strength of belief plus number of believers equals deity, how has Elvis not conquered the universe?

This book is not for every reader. It is dark fantasy blended with action, adventure and spiritual exploration that in no way falls into the typical Judeo-Christian mold. Some will find the story too graphic, while others might be uncomfortable with the avenues in which spirituality is explored. Personally I found it a gritty, entertaining read that made me think. If you like your speculative fiction a little on the dark side, RealmShift is for you.

We get launched straight into the action: the semi-protagonist must locate and guide a perfect example of the scum of the earth and ensure that he fulfils his "destiny", which involves being in a Guatemalan jungle in a certain point in space-time and killing a second scum of the earth before this second scum of the earth kills a third person who incidentally is not the scum of the earth.

Sounds simple, and if that was all there was it would make for a rather bland thriller.

Except that the semi-protagonist is essentially an unpaid employee of an unnamed Force that is the source of all things. And according to the book, our world is essentially driven by our thoughts - our beliefs and convictions can create reality, whether this is manifested in the use of magic or the literal existence of every type of deity that anyone's imagined. Such a host of deities can be hard to manage, which is why there is the need for employees (like our semi-protagonist) to maintain some kind of balance in worldviews, beliefs and the deities which are the waste products of these beliefs. Essentially, I couldn't help comparing the worldview in Realmshift to the movie Constantine. However, Realmshift has none of the crappiness of Constantine...

Hope I haven't given too much away...

Told in a way that's action packed (almost in a comic book style), the book gets its appeal through its reflections on the less fantastical aspects of our life like religions and society. It takes the piss out of the absurd aspects of many a belief system without being dogmatic or following some new-age motivational trend followed more for the purpose of selling books than for substance.

Not everything in the book works, but it's a great ride which shan't disappoint. The novel has elements of both a good sci-fi/fantasy/thriller AND the more literary novel of ideas. Admirers of both should be able to enjoy this heartily.

A great first published novel by Baxter!

Realmshift - Alan Baxter.

In the last few years there has been an ever increasing interest in humanities faith and man's relationship with religion. This has become even more apparent with the plethora of books being published that deal with the subject. So much so that bookshops are now creating new sections in their stores to accommodate them.

RealmShift, by Alan Baxter, is a novel that sits on the outer edge of the aforementioned genre and drops into the SF and Fantasy genres to spice things up.

Essentially the story is based around Isiah, a once mortal man who has now become a kind of middleman between us mere mortals and those that reside on the other side of the `RealmShift'. Be them angels, demons, gods or the Devil himself. Isiah is tasked with guarding a very unsavoury member of the human race to his destiny in the deep South American jungle, for if he doesn't succeed in getting the mortal to achieve his predestined objective, a chain reaction will ensue ending in the downfall of mankind.

Essentially, what you have is a very fast paced action novel complete with supernatural skills, plenty of martial arts, colourful characters and enough suspense to keep the pages turning into the small hours. However, besides the fantastic screenplay that this novel could easily be adapted to, it's the plot's underlying thread within the action that sets the story apart.

Isiah, being trapped as an immortal human in a kind of Highlander purgatory must learn to accept his place within the hierarchy and come to believe that everything happens for a reason, whether it's good or bad. This also throws in a brain twisting little paradox - with the central character at the mercy of the forces beyond the RealmShift, he learns more about the `system' at work. However, as he takes Samuel, the wickedly evil mortal (who is the crucible in the coming battle to save the world) across the globe to meet his fate, he imparts certain knowledge about his own relationship to gods and religions. Everyone has the choice to believe in what they wish and if enough people believe in something, it will come true. So the eternal conundrum, I believe, that RealmShift poses is that if Humanity really is in charge of its own fate then it's completely up to us to do what we believe is right since we create everything ourselves.

Without giving too much more away, RealmShift works brilliantly on all levels, as an action novel, as a divine expedition, as a dark fantasy and as a great example of character development within the two key players.

It concludes with a feeling that you have reached the edge of a cliff in a speeding car and come to a direct stop just before the lip, which is perfect as apparently a sequel will soon be on the way.