The Reverse Tower
by Fay Lanark
Genre: Fantasy / Dark
ISBN: 9798871588307
Print Length: 381 pages
Reviewed by John M. Murray
A dark fantasy with lyrical prose, vibrant characters, and a harrowing mystery as a murderer terrorizes an impossible tower hanging in the sky
The world of Asp is one of wonder, magic, and violence where mages can command bones, blood, and gore to their bidding. But as dark and ominous as Asp is, there is another land that pulls people into a hellscape. An endless desert stretching beyond the horizon and nothing in sight save a singular tower. A tower that hangs in the sky pointed downward with no apparent end. And all are drawn to it.
Vost found himself beneath the Reverse Tower with his hard-scrabble mentality propelling him to sharpen his bone mage skills. For anyone who doesn’t appease the Tower is cast out, exiled and forced to wander the desert until their inevitable death. However, Vost has bigger problems as a shapeshifting murder stalks the endless halls of the Tower.
After displeasing the custodians of the Tower, Vost is tasked with finding the shapeshifter to prove his worth and remain inside the Tower. He has some allies, but the surreal nature of the Tower works against him. A library haunted by a strange creature that pulls memories from your mind, a room that can move and shift even without the Tower’s awareness, and more wondrous things.
While Vost works to uncover the shapeshifter’s identity, a group back in Asp pursues their long-lost prince who was last seen chasing the myth of the Reverse Tower. Their stories intertwine in many ways but the Tower watches as the humans—gifted with magic and mere mortals—with cold indifference eager to fulfill its own dark machinations.
The worldbuilding is intense, deep, and engrossing. The world of Asp has a fantastic but familiar feel to it, almost as if it were Earth but centuries beyond some apocalypse. The Reverse Tower is dark and fascinating, a building that’s part community and part otherworldly being.
For every touch of normalcy there’s a pool of unreal magic and wonder. Even the dark elements are fascinating such as the way the shapeshifter kills and shifts into new forms, evoking a malevolent pile of ooze. The magic feels like it could be real but also commanding a high price: Vost performs an insane ritual to amputate his foot and feed it to the tower to animate a statue.
The book is massive with an epic scope, but the short chapters help pacing feel fast. The book covers a staggering amount of time and space, covering the backstories of some key characters, the nature of the Tower and Asp, and more. The chapters command attention often hooking on a visceral moment of thrilling action before racing to another scene. It’s difficult to put down once the new chapter starts and pulls focus ever onward.
The characters are varied and dynamic with a deep sense of realism, even small background characters are realized. A pair of fighters who perform vicious bouts in the hopes of appeasing the Tower are minor characters but are larger than life with a bombastic appearance and fight sequence.
The Reverse Tower is an epic fantasy with complex characters and intriguing magic. It’s a dark tale of mystery and violence with broken people driven to survive under the watchful eye of a sentient tower hanging impossibly in the sky.
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