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Greyborn Rising
The Greyborn are Rising and only the Order can save humankind.
The world consists of three parallel realms; the Grey where Greyborn—preternatural creatures of legend live; the Ether which is the realm of Heaven and Hell; and the Absolute where humans make their home, blissfully unaware of the tripartite nature of their world.
Formed by a group of enslaved men during Trinidad’s British colonial occupation, The Order has maintained the delicate balance between the three realms for centuries, but not everyone believes these worlds should be separate. Some
long for the days when fear ruled the earth, and The Order finds itself embattled by enemies outside and traitors within who conspire to unite the Absolute and the Grey.
With the very essence of human existence under attack, Rohan, the last surviving member of the Stone Chapter of The Order, must act. Assisted by Katharine, a soucouyant who has lived on the outskirts of a Trinidad swamp for more than a century, Rohan takes up the Order’s mantle, combining Kat’s wits and his fighting prowess to risk torture, dismemberment, zombification, and death as they face grave threats and gruesome creatures.
The world consists of three parallel realms; the Grey where Greyborn—preternatural creatures of legend live; the Ether which is the realm of Heaven and Hell; and the Absolute where humans make their home, blissfully unaware of the tripartite nature of their world.
Formed by a group of enslaved men during Trinidad’s British colonial occupation, The Order has maintained the delicate balance between the three realms for centuries, but not everyone believes these worlds should be separate. Some
long for the days when fear ruled the earth, and The Order finds itself embattled by enemies outside and traitors within who conspire to unite the Absolute and the Grey.
With the very essence of human existence under attack, Rohan, the last surviving member of the Stone Chapter of The Order, must act. Assisted by Katharine, a soucouyant who has lived on the outskirts of a Trinidad swamp for more than a century, Rohan takes up the Order’s mantle, combining Kat’s wits and his fighting prowess to risk torture, dismemberment, zombification, and death as they face grave threats and gruesome creatures.
- GenresFantasy
360 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2019
2 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Derry Sandy
1 book7 followersDerry is a corporate lawyer barred in New York and Washington DC. Derry penned his first novel, Greyborn Rising, during his commutes on the New York subway as way of staying connected to the myths, legends and folklore of his native Trinidad and Tobago.
His previous writing credentials include articles for the Howard University Hilltop and legal briefs, client alerts and analyses written at his firm and at New York University School of Law where he received his J.D.
Greyborn Rising is his first novel, but there is no doubt, this is what he is meant to do.
Link to the Kirkus review for Greyborn Rising: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Greyborn-Risin...
His previous writing credentials include articles for the Howard University Hilltop and legal briefs, client alerts and analyses written at his firm and at New York University School of Law where he received his J.D.
Greyborn Rising is his first novel, but there is no doubt, this is what he is meant to do.
Link to the Kirkus review for Greyborn Rising: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Greyborn-Risin...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 18, 2020
Review coming.
June 16, 2020
”He turned around and was not surprised to see that Imelda was already wearing a bullet-proof vest over her nightgown and a tactical helmet over the rollers in her hair. She also wore boots, gloves, and kneepads. An Ak-47 with a fat drum magazine was slung across her broad shoulders. ’I’m old not deaf honey. Suit up. We’ll go through the tunnel and get the girls.’”
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📚 Greyborn Rising by Derry Sandy
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💭 Can we please talk about the badassness of this book? Hello #CaribbeanReads! I had the privilege of being apart of this book tour hosted by Donna @thisbrowngirlreads! This stop is in the Bay ! 🙌🏾 California Love🌴 I am so grateful to help amplify this book! It is full of action and the paranormal elements give me chills!
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Greyborn Rising is set in Trinidad but exposes the paranormal secrets of the world! Imagine three parallel realms: the Grey, the Either, and the Absolute. While majority of us humans live in the Absolute and taught about the Either in religious text, the Grey is the stuff of nightmares. Within it lives maboya, obeah men, mayalmen, witches, jumble, soucouyant, and necromancers whom can awaken past reincarnations within one body. 🤯 [Insert silent scream] But it's not all peril! There are honorable members from the Order of former slaves to maintain the peace and a few supernatural women on this side of justice.
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The female characters in this book are admirable, but Katharine aka Kat aka that is my nickname too was my favorite! As shared in the above quote, the female energy are downright lethal! I loved every minute of it. I definitely found myself projecting my face on Kat, Kamara, and Imelda as I read the fight scenes. The visuals were so graphic my imagination didn’t have to do much work. The high tempo was ongoing from the first page to the very last. For this to be a debut novel, this author is definitely one to watch. Now this is a book I would pay big bucks to see adapted to film!
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💋xoxo,
Kat
⠀
📚 Greyborn Rising by Derry Sandy
⠀
💭 Can we please talk about the badassness of this book? Hello #CaribbeanReads! I had the privilege of being apart of this book tour hosted by Donna @thisbrowngirlreads! This stop is in the Bay ! 🙌🏾 California Love🌴 I am so grateful to help amplify this book! It is full of action and the paranormal elements give me chills!
⠀
Greyborn Rising is set in Trinidad but exposes the paranormal secrets of the world! Imagine three parallel realms: the Grey, the Either, and the Absolute. While majority of us humans live in the Absolute and taught about the Either in religious text, the Grey is the stuff of nightmares. Within it lives maboya, obeah men, mayalmen, witches, jumble, soucouyant, and necromancers whom can awaken past reincarnations within one body. 🤯 [Insert silent scream] But it's not all peril! There are honorable members from the Order of former slaves to maintain the peace and a few supernatural women on this side of justice.
⠀
The female characters in this book are admirable, but Katharine aka Kat aka that is my nickname too was my favorite! As shared in the above quote, the female energy are downright lethal! I loved every minute of it. I definitely found myself projecting my face on Kat, Kamara, and Imelda as I read the fight scenes. The visuals were so graphic my imagination didn’t have to do much work. The high tempo was ongoing from the first page to the very last. For this to be a debut novel, this author is definitely one to watch. Now this is a book I would pay big bucks to see adapted to film!
⠀
💋xoxo,
Kat
August 17, 2020
Greyborn Rising is Sandy’s debut paranormal fantasy novel that begins on a slave plantation in 1805 Trinidad. The owner of the plantation finds dead cows on his land and consults with one of his slaves, Kariega, who was a powerful witch doctor in West Africa before his enslavement, who tells the plantation owner that it’s the work of a soucouyant, a shapeshifter (typically an old woman) that sheds its skin at night, becomes engulfed in flames, and feeds on blood. With the owner’s consent, Kariega forms a group to hunt soucouyants on the island, thus forming the Order, an organization that maintains balance between the three realms:
• the Grey, where creatures live
• the Ether, which contains heaven and hell
• the Absolute, where humans live
When Kariega is able to capture a soucouyant named Katherine, he binds her to a promise to help protect the Absolute from creatures from the Grey. Fast-forward to present-day Trinidad. Rohan from the Stone chapter of the Order is grieving his order members who were all killed in an encounter with a pack of lagahoos, a shapeshifter similar to the werewolf. He barely escaped alive and later learns his luck is due to a neophyte psychic looking out for him.
When he later encounters a mysterious old lady and her nimble assistant, he learns that there is imbalance between the Absolute and the Grey — a malevolent obeah man is letting in more creatures and creating monsters of his own — and it’s up to Rohan and his companions to set things right.
I was curious about the story because it’s set in a Caribbean country and includes creatures from Caribbean folklore. However, it was hard to get into the story and after some time, my interest in it dampened. There is a lot of exposition, especially at the beginning, which is why I had such difficulty developing and maintaining interest in the story at first. Some of the exposition is needed for the worldbuilding so that the reader understands the mechanics of the world as the story progresses, but it was a bit dull to read despite it being conveyed in a conversation.
However, my interest in the story began to kindle at about 15% of the way through it. That’s when Rohan meets the mysterious old lady who lives at the edge of a swamp and they are attacked by a swarm of jumbies (like zombies) that are controlled by an obeah woman. (Zombie-like creatures in a story?? Of course I got excited!) From there the pace picks up, but pockets of long exposition sometimes caused it to lag again. I was patient with it and at about 30% of the way through, I was engrossed enough to ignore the pacing issues.
What kept me reading was seeing how the paranormal aspects of the world functions through characters interacting with them. It was interesting to see how the Grey sometimes laps into the Absolute, like when a leviathan from the Grey attempted to push through the table at the Order’s Guild location. I thought that was pretty cool and wished there was more of it, of creatures trying to push through from another world in that manner. I also liked seeing humans from the Absolute in the Grey, like when the psychic goes there to escape a monster.
The action scenes were exciting and fun to read. My favorite is when Rohan and two others go on a rescue mission and get trapped in a sentient house that doesn’t allow people to leave if it doesn’t want them to. I love reading about sentient places, so I got a kick out of that.
The characters didn’t stand out to me and neither did the prose, really, but I liked the description of Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain. It really brought the place to life and gave me a strong sense of how choked it is with traffic and people and noise.
OVERALL: ★★☆☆☆ ¾
It was decent. I appreciate that it takes place in Trinidad and includes creatures from Caribbean folklore. There are some interesting and exciting moments, but the long passages of exposition and the pacing issues turned me off. If not for that, I think I would have liked it more.
QUOTE FROM THE BOOK:
As posted on Zezee with Books.
• the Grey, where creatures live
• the Ether, which contains heaven and hell
• the Absolute, where humans live
When Kariega is able to capture a soucouyant named Katherine, he binds her to a promise to help protect the Absolute from creatures from the Grey. Fast-forward to present-day Trinidad. Rohan from the Stone chapter of the Order is grieving his order members who were all killed in an encounter with a pack of lagahoos, a shapeshifter similar to the werewolf. He barely escaped alive and later learns his luck is due to a neophyte psychic looking out for him.
When he later encounters a mysterious old lady and her nimble assistant, he learns that there is imbalance between the Absolute and the Grey — a malevolent obeah man is letting in more creatures and creating monsters of his own — and it’s up to Rohan and his companions to set things right.
I was curious about the story because it’s set in a Caribbean country and includes creatures from Caribbean folklore. However, it was hard to get into the story and after some time, my interest in it dampened. There is a lot of exposition, especially at the beginning, which is why I had such difficulty developing and maintaining interest in the story at first. Some of the exposition is needed for the worldbuilding so that the reader understands the mechanics of the world as the story progresses, but it was a bit dull to read despite it being conveyed in a conversation.
However, my interest in the story began to kindle at about 15% of the way through it. That’s when Rohan meets the mysterious old lady who lives at the edge of a swamp and they are attacked by a swarm of jumbies (like zombies) that are controlled by an obeah woman. (Zombie-like creatures in a story?? Of course I got excited!) From there the pace picks up, but pockets of long exposition sometimes caused it to lag again. I was patient with it and at about 30% of the way through, I was engrossed enough to ignore the pacing issues.
What kept me reading was seeing how the paranormal aspects of the world functions through characters interacting with them. It was interesting to see how the Grey sometimes laps into the Absolute, like when a leviathan from the Grey attempted to push through the table at the Order’s Guild location. I thought that was pretty cool and wished there was more of it, of creatures trying to push through from another world in that manner. I also liked seeing humans from the Absolute in the Grey, like when the psychic goes there to escape a monster.
The action scenes were exciting and fun to read. My favorite is when Rohan and two others go on a rescue mission and get trapped in a sentient house that doesn’t allow people to leave if it doesn’t want them to. I love reading about sentient places, so I got a kick out of that.
The characters didn’t stand out to me and neither did the prose, really, but I liked the description of Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain. It really brought the place to life and gave me a strong sense of how choked it is with traffic and people and noise.
OVERALL: ★★☆☆☆ ¾
It was decent. I appreciate that it takes place in Trinidad and includes creatures from Caribbean folklore. There are some interesting and exciting moments, but the long passages of exposition and the pacing issues turned me off. If not for that, I think I would have liked it more.
QUOTE FROM THE BOOK:
“Truth is a cold, dark, lonely mountaintop.”
As posted on Zezee with Books.
September 28, 2019
Amazing
This book has captured something that no other book I have read has, that is life. Maybe it’s the ability to take the story to the place of happening in my mind. Never have I pictured Trinidad in this light. Even with its grammatical errors I could not take a star from this book.
Kudos to the writer you have done well!
This book has captured something that no other book I have read has, that is life. Maybe it’s the ability to take the story to the place of happening in my mind. Never have I pictured Trinidad in this light. Even with its grammatical errors I could not take a star from this book.
Kudos to the writer you have done well!
April 19, 2020
Damn this book is off the chain good. Quarantine has given me nothing but time so I decided to start reading books that were recommended and I did not expect this to be such a mind blowing page turner. It has old folktale, passion, adventures, unexpected thrills that had me jumping up and screaming at characters in the book to watch out. It’s a must read, trust me you won’t be disappointed.
May 11, 2019
I’ve been looking for a good read for my long commute to work and was recommended this book by a friend. Outstanding! Greyborn Rising has me captivated with every page I read. It is beautifully written and the plot was so intriguing I didn’t want to stop reading. Can’t wait for book 2.
May 30, 2025
Absolute drivel. Somehow felt the writer was being dishonest
September 15, 2020
this book came to me at a time where my reading focus was shot and I was a bit worried it would impact how I felt about it. however, this book completely took me OUT of the current state of the world with its non-stop action adventure, kickass sword fighting scenes, and all around badassery. this book won’t be for everyone (it is a mix of horror, folklore, and history with an extra helping of gore and dismemberment) but if you want a Caribbean based book driven by action this is for you.
I loved Kat, Kamara, and Lisa and would’ve loved more focus on just them (what can I say, I like strong kickass women). Voss was also intriguing to me and I would’ve enjoyed a bit more backstory there. the writing definitely isn’t perfect and the plot felt a bit all over the place at times but as this is a first novel I tend to be a bit less fussy about that. the setting and the action scenes were great though and I’ll be very curious to see what Derry Sandy comes up with next!
I loved Kat, Kamara, and Lisa and would’ve loved more focus on just them (what can I say, I like strong kickass women). Voss was also intriguing to me and I would’ve enjoyed a bit more backstory there. the writing definitely isn’t perfect and the plot felt a bit all over the place at times but as this is a first novel I tend to be a bit less fussy about that. the setting and the action scenes were great though and I’ll be very curious to see what Derry Sandy comes up with next!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews