King of Shards

Worldmender Trilogy #1

by Matthew Kressel

Across the ineffable expanse of the Great Deep float billions of shattered the Shards. Populated with vengeful demons and tormented humans, the Shards need Earth to survive just as plants need water. Earth itself is kept alive by 36 righteous people, 36 hidden saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few of the Lamed Vav and the Earth will shatter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a horrible cataclysm.

When Daniel Fisher is abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, he learns he is a Lamed Vav, one of the hidden righteous upholding the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been systematically murdering the Lamed Vav. On a desert-covered Shard teeming with strange creatures, pursued by a fearsome demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must join forces to stop Mashit before she destroys all of existence. Daniel's survival means he must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint—a Lamed Vav—can save the world?

Genres: Fantasy, Jewish, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

374 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

The short:

I’m a software developer and speculative fiction writer with three Nebula Award nominations, a World Fantasy Award nomination, and a Eugie Award nomination. I am the co-host of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City. And I created the Moksha submissions system, in use by some of the largest publishers in speculative fiction today.

The long:

I’m a software developer and writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. My fiction has been nominated three times for a Nebula Award and once for a Eugie Foster Memorial Award. And I’ve also been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for my former editorial and publishing work. My fiction has been translated into many languages, including Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese, Romanian, Russian, Czech, Polish, and Farsi.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved hearing and telling stories. I spent a lot of time alone as a child, and I would entertain myself by creating entire worlds in my head and inhabiting them fully (sometimes to the chagrin of my parents and teachers). This world-building continued well into my adulthood, when, after a particularly vivid dream, I decided to write my stories down. Once I began writing seriously, I’ve never stopped.

My fiction tends to explore themes of loss, death, mourning and rebirth, but also hope and possibility. I consider myself a mindful optimist, even though my fiction can sometimes be very dark. I believe humanity is capable of great feats, but what we often lack is will, imagination, or foresight. Sometimes I tend my fiction to inspire. Sometimes I write cautionary tales. Sometimes I just follow my dream-id where it leads. I’m always surprised by what my subconscious brings up.

I work incredibly hard at my writing, and my only wish is that you enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoy creating it.

My short story “The Last Novelist” was a 2017 Nebula Award finalist as well a 2018 Eugie Award finalist. My short story “The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye” was a 2014 Nebula Award finalist. And my short story “The Sounds of Old Earth” was a 2013 Nebula Award finalist. My work has also appeared in several year’s best anthologies and received numerous honorable mentions.

My many short stories have appeared in such publications as Lightspeed, Nightmare, Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Analog, io9.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, Electric Velocipede, Apex Magazine, and the anthologies Mad Hatters and March Hares, Cyber World, After,The People of the Book, and many other places.

My debut novel, King of Shards, was hailed as “Majestic, resonant, reality-twisting madness,” from NPR Books. I have a novella forthcoming in 2026 from Tordotcom / Reactor titled The Rainseekers. And a novel, Space Trucker Jess, coming in 2025 from Fairwood Press.

Every second Wednesday, I co-host the Fantastic Fiction reading series at the famous KGB Bar alongside veteran speculative-fiction editor Ellen Datlow.

In 2011 I was nominated for World Fantasy Award in the category of Special Award, Non-Professional for my work editing Sybil’s Garage. The magazine’s website has been archived here.

In 2003 I started the speculative fiction magazine Sybil’s Garage, and the stories and poetry therein have received multiple honorable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Under the rubric of Senses Five Press, I published Paper Cities, which won the 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

I have been a long-time member of Altered Fluid, a Manhattan-based writing group which has many successful past and present members, including N.K. Jemisin, Sam J. Miller, Alaya Dawn Johnson, E.C. Myers, Mercurio D. Rivera, and many others. I am also obsessed with Blade Runner (both films).

When I’m not writing, I design websites and write software. I am probably best known for the Moksha submissions system, which I created, and which is currently used by some of the largest SF markets including The Magazine of Fantasy

Reviews

[Kristin]

Wow, I was loving this and thought I was going to buy it, and really wanted to know how it would end. But then it started to congeal into male fantasy. Worlds where everything is believable except actual women; heterosexual women become lesbians suddenly without the minor inconvenience of actually being lesbians. Honestly I stopped reading when the girl found her parents, alive, but entirely skinned , hanging upside down. That's just too fucked up for me to want to read further.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed King of Shards and look forward to reading the second book upon its release.

I picked up the book on a whim after it was recommended on NPR. Having no knowledge of Jewish mythology I was a little confused at first, but the novel gave me enough information to understand the novel.

There was some language in the book and one sex scene that was not graphic enough to be arousing-- but not a camera just pans away either.

I was very interested in the story and it was complex enough that I could not just guess what would happen next. The world the author built was intriguing and I thought the author did an amazing job of transporting me into the story rather than just telling a story.

This is a good book and subsequent books have a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see where these books lead.

[Galleywampus - · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have noted, this book delves deeply into Jewish mythology and lore. I enjoyed the saint and demon back-and-forth, with the book's demon being one of the most intriguing characters.

Some of the concepts are really inspired. I like the multi-world approach here. The complications between different demonic beings are satisfying.

I hope to get my thoughts down in more detail soon. I liked this book overall, but a few things held me back from reaching the "love" range.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads.com giveaway, and I am not disappointed. The first chapter felt a little disjointed at first, but after the fifth chapter I was hooked. The story is based on mythos that I am not familiar with so reading it was interesting and intriguing. The story moved along at a good pace. I would recommend this book to people who love an adventurous fantasy story.

[Devin Poore · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first experience with fantasy based on Judaism. Creative settings and world building, great characters, and intricate plot. A most unique take on the fantasy/sci-fi genres.

[George Kasnic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very involving book, well-paced, excellent character development and rich cosmology.

[Rajan Khanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique and compelling take on the fantasy genre drawing on Jewish mythology for its foundation. An epic tale of fascinating characters that spans worlds.

[Josh Redlich · Rating 2 out of 5]

OVERVIEW: Across the ineffable expanse of the Great Deep float billions of shattered universes: the Shards. Populated with vengeful demons and tormented humans, the Shards need Earth to survive just as plants need water. Earth itself is kept alive by 36 righteous people, 36 hidden saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few of the Lamed Vav and the Earth will shatter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a horrible cataclysm.

When Daniel Fisher is abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, he learns he is a Lamed Vav, one of the hidden righteous upholding the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been systematically murdering the Lamed Vav. On a desert-covered Shard teeming with strange creatures, pursued by a fearsome demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must join forces to stop Mashit before she destroys all of existence. Daniel's survival means he must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint—a Lamed Vav—can save the world?

FORMAT: King of Shards, Matthew Kressel’s debut novel and the first installment in The Worldmender Trilogy, is a portal fantasy rooted in Jewish mythology. It was published by Arche Press on October 13, 2015 and is available as a paperback, e-book, and audio book.

ANALYSIS: It isn’t often that one finds a portal fantasy based on Jewish teachings and mythology, so when I discovered that Matthew Kressel had written one, I was very excited to read it. Unfortunately, the book’s unique premise is possibly King of Shards’s single redeeming quality.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but I have always felt that a poor cover is usually an accurate indicator of what lies inside. As such, I was wary of King of Shards from the moment it arrived in the mail, as the book has the appearance of being either self-published or an advance reader’s copy, with bright white paper, an atrocious cover font and layout, and too many lines of text per page. I feel it's never a good sign when the first printing is in paperback, especially when it’s from a publisher I have never heard of before: Arche Press. I should have heeded the warnings.

From the very start, the narrative is clunky and awkward. In fact, the opening paragraph, instead of engaging my interest as opening paragraphs should, is one of the most tedious I have ever read. It is far too long and consists of random details and facts strung together like a stream of consciousness with no clear connection between one sentence and the next. Other than that they all in some way pertain to a protagonist that readers are not even given a chance to become interested in. From there, the book’s writing remains consistently poor, making it feel more like a first draft that an edited novel. The dialogue is often laughable, feeling forced and cliché, and weird metaphors and comparisons are common throughout.

The characters are also severely underdeveloped and flat, the protagonist, Daniel Fisher, taking the cake on this one. He is supposed to be a saint, one of the lamed vav tzadikim, a purely righteous person; but the author does not pull this off well. In his defense, it’s a difficult thing to attempt, given that a purely righteous person doesn’t have much room for complexity; yet Fisher is just plain boring. The secondary character, Rana, is at least somewhat interesting, with an incredible magical ability she never knew she possessed. It’s no wonder the story focuses more on her than on Fisher.

While the writing itself was a defining factor in my inability to enjoy the book, the story itself is fairly intriguing, though not nearly as complex as I had thought and hoped it would be. The use of the lamed vav tzadikim and the inclusion of various demons and angels from Jewish lore, such as Ashmedai, the king of the demons, made for an interesting fantasy story, and there were times when I found myself curious as to what would happen next. If one could ignore the writing, the dialogue, and the characters, the story actually has a lot of potential, and I might even recommend it. I myself am curious to know what happens next in the trilogy, though not so curious enough to continue reading it.

DISCLAIMER: This review was written for http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/. The reviewer was supplied with a review copy by the publisher. All thoughts are his own.

[Arcturus · Rating 5 out of 5]

King of Shards is an interesting book. The book itself doesn't really feel as if it presents unique original ideas. But the world itself feels alive in a way that very few books do. Kressel captures an image of a universe that is much like our world, mysterious in many ways, of imperfect design and full of people with questionable morality. Yet the people themselves aren't entirely bad. They just have a flawed opinion of the world and believe what they are doing is right. Each and every character has a goal, a dream, and all of them fail to achieve it. Instead it is the choices that each character makes when presented with the impossibility of their own desire that shapes their actions and the climax of the book. Even the most benevolent character in the book is presented with moments where his righteous desires fail him. And one questions whether having a Creator who merely observes the world is all that bad.

The book as a whole features very well written characters all who strive for some sort of goodness. They all feel fleshed out with complex motivations and even characters who seem minor at first still play essential roles in the development of the story. The setting is beautifully strange and familiar, worlds where people struggle to survive and hope for better, even with different and unique circumstances. The prose itself is at times perfect and flawed. In a few pages, a passage might speak powerfully, while another is quite jarring. The plot doesn't flow perfectly either, with some circumstances feeling contrived and artificial. But this is a fantastic debut novel, which surprised me with its complexity and depth. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars which I'll round up to 5.

[Rachel]

If I could, I'd give this a 2.5. Because of this, I'm going to refrain from rating it, because there's a big difference between a 2 and a 3. I'm happy that someone is writing fantasy based on Jewish mythology, and I support the existence of this book and more like it, but, in the end, I didn't enjoy most of this one. I think the biggest issue that I had with this book is in the protagonist. Daniel is supposed to be one of the Lamed Vav, one of the 36 righteous people that hold up the world. In my mind, the Lamed Vav are people without the character flaws that most people have, and it's really hard to write a protagonist who doesn't have flaws. To me, Daniel feels too human, and he also ends up seeming weak for much of the book, carried along by the plot instead of directing it. The story does improve at the end, and the climax is, for the most part, full of energy and beautifully written, but if I wasn't personally acquainted with the author, I most likely would have abandoned this book long before the climax.

[Joe Kraus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to enjoy this book, but I read it anyway. So that’s on me. I didn’t enjoy it in ways I didn’t expect, though, so that’s another matter.

I read this one because I saw it referred to as a rare attempt at fantasy that draw on Jewish tradition, and that makes it worth thinking about.

To begin with, I’m ‘over’ much of what passes for ‘mainstream fantasy.’ There’s a ponderous quality to the Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth door-stop books – a ponderousness that comes not just from their size (my guess is most could be improved by edits that remove two-thirds of their bulk) but their lack of humor.

That’s my first complaint about this book. There’s nothing funny about it. And, really, how can something be truly Jewish without also being at least ironic – ‘funny’ in the sense that it asks us to look at the world from a strange angle if not in that it asks us to laugh at something.

But it’s the matter of potentially drawing on Jewish tradition for fantasy that intrigued me here. There are some significant Jewish fantasy works. If you expand the definition, there’s the figure of the Golem and the whole concept of secret identities that underlies everything in the (Jewish-dominated) imaginarium of superheroes. There’s also Kafka, and there are some fine Jewish-inflected works including Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver, and Lev Grossman’s The Magicians.

But if you define “fantasy” as growing out of Tolkien, it’s a mostly dry well. Tolkien himself, of course, understood much of his work as elaborating a Christian eschatology; for all that it draws on classical and Norse mythology, it deals with the promise of a literal kingly return. C.S. Lewis is even more explicit about it, with his Aslan so fully embodying a Christ figure that it’s impossible to interpret without that Christian skeleton key. Even J.K. Rowling, who begins with a different vibe, culminates her septology with a series of resurrections and Christ-inflected references. (Note that George R.R. Martin mocks and satirizes many of those same beliefs, not quite seeming to believe them but also not discarding them; maybe it’s a coincidence, but he does turn out to be a quarter Jewish even if the revelation came as a surprise to him.)

My point is that the idea of the Christ-story – of a figure called on to die and be resurrected – sits at the heart of what they call ‘high fantasy.’ So, I wanted to know what Tressel would do with his attempt.

I’ll say quickly that I didn’t expect some of the clumsy shifts in perspective that we get. I get having our two human protagonists serve as our eyes for most of this – Daniel and Rahma – but it just seems wrong to get the story through the utterly nonhuman Caleb/Ashmodai. I have a friend who’s orthodox in his belief that an author has to stay in perspective of a character. I’m a little more liberal about what I can tolerate in such shifts, but this caught even me off guard.

And there’s also a lot of questionable tone. We go from one character finding her murdered and flayed parents and then contemplating romance a couple chapters later. We go from supposed meditations on kabbalistic metaphysics to near-graphic sex. (It’s not the sex that troubles me – the kabbalists had a lot to say about it; it’s the awkward juxtapositions of tone, the sense that we’re reading a stitched-together set of chapters.)

But my main concern is that, in grafting the terminology of Jewish mysticism onto a fundamentally Christian form, we don’t get a Jewish fantasy at all. Instead, we get a cheapening of a tradition that might – though I’d still like to know how – inform a different generic way into fantasy.

We learn early on, alongside Daniel, that he is a lamed-vavnik, one of the 36 secret saints on whom the universe depends. In chapter one, he has no idea that is such a figure. By the two-thirds mark, he has no problem strutting, “I’m a lamed-fucking-vavnik.” (I can see that juxtaposition working, just not in the context we’re given here. It would have to be parody in a way that this very much is not.)

Now, the legend of the lamed-vavniks, one that’s derived from kabbalistic thinking mediated through the Hasidic folk process, has great potential. It’s just that Tressel doesn’t seem to understand its implications. The Hasids used the story to suggest that the greatest saints – or, since it amounted to the same thing, heroes – were not the best warriors or even the wisest sages. They were, instead, people so ordinary that they didn’t know their own worth to the world.

That’s a beautiful and powerful concept. It celebrates an immanence of spirit. It asserts that everyone has the potential for profound holiness. It calls on us to be charitable and merciful, to wonder at all times whether we are in the presence of someone whose goodness is essential to all we know.

In other words, lamed-vavniks are the opposite of superheroes.

Tressel, however, gives us a superhero. His Daniel has a power so consequential that multiple demons scheme to take control over him. What’s more, even as I’m troubled at what I see as a direct misreading of the legend, we never get an explanation for what his power is. Everything depends on him, but he has nothing to do other than simply to exist.

That’s not exactly the same thing as a resurrection-based story – though it says a lot that the entirety of this volume turns on his quest to return to Earth from a world of the dead – but it certainly feels Christian-inflected. His power derives from a conception of heaven rather than of the deeper Jewish concern for how to make this life on Earth more holy. Daniel is a saint because he is a saint not because of anything he does.

That – the inability to extract ‘high fantasy’ from its Christian framework is the disappointment I expected. The rest, I’m afraid, is commentary.

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of the "Worldmender" Trilogy. Really unusual fantasy/sci-fi, based on Jewish mysticism and mythology. Full of demons and bizarre creatures, fractured worlds with unearthly landforms, curses, spells, and dual-natured deities. Parts of it reminded me of Tanith Lee's "Flat Earth" books, because of the artfully exotic nature of the descriptions, the way the prose reads at times like a fairy tale. Some of the "set pieces" for the scenes were eye-popping and memorable, something to be savored. It's a real trip, and I'm ready to pack my bags for the second book in the series, "Queen of Static," which is slated to come out in October.

[Lore Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

King of Shards is set in a fabulous, rich cosmos and features strong, flawed characters. The world Kressel builds (and I use that in the broad sense, because it goes far beyond Earth) is unlike any other I've come across. Usually I'm not a fan of stories with a "chosen one," but Kressel's particular spin on the trope works beautifully here. I eagerly await the sequel!

[Mark Harbinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/15/21 (Amazon and GR)

Don't Worry, Gentile Readers: King of Shards: Book One of the Worldmender Trilogy, by Matthew Kressel, is a Cosmic Waterpark Ride

The opening act of the King of Shards, is a master class in world-building and character introduction, skillfully utilizing: neutral (for the most part, a few snide adjectives notwithstanding) omniscient narration, deeply grounded characterization—both in our world and the other, and wonderful prose. And what I like best is that Kressel isn't coy with the action, forcibly pulling the reader through the plot when it is called for. The opening chapter ends with our hero, Daniel, the husband-to-be and protagonist (and, frankly, another “chosen one”, if you'll pardon the trope) beying kidnapped by a demon-creature just in time to apparently save him from a bride who was also going to somehow destroy him...

And you thought your wedding day was bad?

The action sequences are balanced with wonderful quiet moments, too. From a flashback in Chapter Nine:

~snip~
So he rose from that dead place and biked back to his great uncle’s house, and he asked his great uncle to take him to the hospital. And when he got to Gram’s intensive care room, he took her hand. She opened her eyes and gazed at him, her eyes were drugged and far away.

“When you were a baby,” she whispered—he leaned in to hear—“we put you in a crib by the window on erev shabbes. The sun was going down. It turned the room a brilliant orange. It cast a shadow of your crib onto the wall. It looked like a menorah, Danny, with seven dancing flames.” She squeezed his hand. “From then on I knew what you were.”

She closed her eyes, whimpered, and the nurses came to give her more morphine. Then she slept. She never mentioned this story again, and later he wasn’t sure if she remembered telling it.
~end snip~

The middle act concerns itself with further fleshing out the protagonist's allies: main characters of various degrees of personal animosity, emotional baggage, and cosmic importance. Plus, the contours of the external stakes are outlined. I'll avoid spoilers, but let's just say it's not called the Worldmender Trilogy for nothing.

As for the ending: I won't lie, the author gets a little ahead of himself, here. Events start to outpace the plot and it devolves a bit into a helter skelter third act that Kressel has trouble keeping up with.

Overall, it is a lot of slipstream fun. Is it Religious Fiction? Sort of. Is it about vampires? Well, maybe a little (what it does show is about the best version of them I've ever seen). Portal Fantasy? Yes, it turns out. But, I thought it was contemporary urban? Yes, yes. Daniel is a normal guy from our world, bless his heart. By the end, the characters do what must be done and the Daniel is ready for whatever is to come. Whatever “ready” means.

One thing that is worth expanding upon. As a white, male author who writes fantasy that incorporates many characters of diverse races and backgrounds, I am certainly mindful of the possibility that I could always somehow be accused of 'cultural appropriation' (CA) in my works. Hopefully I wouldn't have done anything to earn that. But, as part of trying not to, I've made myself aware of most of the CA tropes. One of the most popular is the 'my religion isn't your magic system'. Now, I don't want to litigate that debate here. And I don't believe this story has ever been accused of CA.

Which is my point. This book *explicitly* portrays modern Judaism as part and parcel of a magic system in this urban fantasy. I mean, point for point. Jewish texts are mystical tomes. Spells are cast in Hebrew, etc.

I am assuming Mr. Kressel is, in fact, a member of the Jewish faith, and that's why he doesn't get dinged for it. But, I would ask theoreticians and those interested in Social Justice to ask themselves—Why that would make a difference?

Don't get me wrong. I don't think Kressel has done anything wrong, here. But, truthfully, I wouldn't think he had done anything wrong if he was Muslim or a fundamentalist Christian, either. Fiction is fiction. Plus, what is modern religion if it isn't, in fact, a 'magic system' for all of us in the real world...for our usage when our science and facts can't quite satisfy us?

Anyway, just my opinion.

But, seriously, by writing such a wonderful modern fantasy, Kressel has shared a real gift. And while I normally don't let myself get sucked into book serieses anymore—at least not until an author has proven to me they can deliver resolution in a standalone story (GRRM has scarred me forever, in that regard)—this is an exception. I can't wait to see what Mr. Kressel has in store for us next. This wasn't just a great “Book One”, it was a mitzvah.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a feeling that this one would be entertaining. As a speculative fiction fan, I was looking forward to a fantasy world that takes its cues from Jewish mysticism. I'm sure that I'm ignorant enough about much of the Kabbalah that I missed some inside references, but I got enough to hold on and connect it to its Jewish themes. Kressel did a good job, in my estimation, of making these concepts accessible to any fantasy fan who has to learn the rules of a new world.

This is an action-adventure story about Daniel Fisher, our hero and a lamed vavnik, aka one of the 36 righteous people who unknowingly serves as a pillar to keep the Earth from destruction. He is abducted and thrust into a broken underworld before unwittingly wedding the demon, Mashit. His abductor is Ashmedai, the dethroned demon king, who has plans for Daniel and our heroine, Rana, who hails from a bronze-age world and can create universes. The plot moves us swiftly along as our team tries to get allies from both humans and supernatural creatures, create world-jumping portals, and stay a step ahead of Mashit and her minions.

Over all I didn't find the story to be extraordinary. The writing could be a little banal, which stuck out to me particularly at times when the characters were discussing their feelings and motivations. Said characters mostly existed to serve the plot, and their personal development was pretty skin deep. There's an obvious message at play here, which ties into the idea of the lamed vovnik and how one should choose the right and empathetic path over the easy and brutal one. Perhaps that's part of the reason why Kressel's descriptions of demon violence against humans were particularly gory. I responded more to that than anything personal about the people we were following.

That being said, I'll probably pick up the sequel, if I can, which I believe is coming out in March. I'm still a fan of reading a fantasy book where the hero recalls his Gram speaking in Yiddish, or the rituals of these "shard" underworlds mirror Jewish customs like the Kaddish. It's definitely a fun setting for an adventure romp, and I'm a fan of the message about empathy. If this book made me think about anything overly much, perhaps it's how some of our holy words lend themselves to a fantastical hero's journey of sorts. Particularly a quote from Isaiah that came up in the narrative--"And he shall be called Repairer of the Fallen Walls, Restorer of Lanes for Habitation." So much of the Bible is about a quest for prophets with (sometimes supernatural) redemptive qualities to sustain the people or the world. Pretty cool.

[Chris Branch · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the setting is interesting and the premise innovative, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped to. The supernatural elements are creative, but leaned too often and too far toward the horrific for my taste. Perhaps by design for comparison with the upstanding Daniel, most of the other characters were unpleasant. Too much death and misery, and whenever the characters weren't killing or torturing, they were obnoxiously insulting each other.

The writing was often evocative, but at times the attempts went too far and came across as clumsy; for example: "buttresses bent at vulgar angles" and "corners met at unnecessary angles" in the space of a couple of pages. Beyond that, the dialogue and narrative came across as a bit wooden and perfunctory, and the ending veered off into bizarre surrealism.

I hesitate to criticize too harshly, since I understand the effort it takes to research, plot and write a story like this, but I have to be honest, this was simply not an enjoyable read.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed King of Shards and heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys secondary world fantasy. It features one of the most original and highly imaginative cosmologies and settings I've come across. Rich details drawn from Jewish folklore and mysticism made every page come alive with fascinating characters, terrifying otherworldly entities, and truly unforgettable locales. If I had one (minor) complaint, it was that the main character Daniel could have had more agency and more of a personal agenda so he'd have seemed less a passenger on his journey, but overall I was so drawn in by the world itself that I happily joined him on that journey to its thrilling end.

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sorry I read this book, but I would never have finished it if I hadn't been interested in the Jewish myths and Kabalist visions that it's based on. I mostly listened to it, which is why it took me so long. It was so overwritten I would get sick of it and put it aside. But I found the idea of the Jewish fantasy so interesting, I kept going back to it. Finally I found an actual book (paper, pages, ink and everything) so I could finish it. The end was even more phantasmagorical and confusing than the rest of it. But I loved seeing what one writer could make of this familiar material.

[Elior Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this book in ebook and audiobook format. The narrator for the audiobook is fantastic. When I read the text version, his voices for the characters are the ones I hear in my head.

I love how this book and its sequel take Jewish folklore and do something completely new. Kressel's take on the shards of creation makes for fantastic world building with a coherent multiverse that isn't just infinite versions of the same story, but wholy different universes with completely different people, species, environments, and possibilities.

[Tepintzin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Daniel is supposed to be one of the righteous souls who maintain the integrity of the universe, but he's whiny and passive. Matthew Kressel's writing style is solid, but this book just could not inspire me to keep reading. I gave up about 2/3 of the way through.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The material is good but in the end the actual writing couldn’t support the story. Places that should have been tense weren’t, people we needed to care about were ciphers, and it ended with a version of ‘but it was all a dream’.

[Steve Roylance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was exciting, funny at times, and had memorable characters. However, the main character was two dimensional at best, making the book somewhat misleading. The book was also unnecessarily vulgar. The ending was anticlimactic.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one really hooked me. It has been ten years and I still think about this strange melding of Abrahamic religion, fantasy, and mysticism. Some of it is very graphic so be advised, but if you have any interest in the ancient near east and fantasy then this is your book.

[Seishun Omutsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this. It was boring. None of the characters could hold my interest.

[Alex Jackl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good fantasy

Interesting concept - mixes Jewish mythology with multidimensional fantasy. Interesting images, some cool concepts but it doesn't string together all that well. Classic problem of ancient wise people who should know better do I g stupid things. Nice imagery and some decent moments of writing despite a a coincidence driven narrative.

[Nathan]

Failure to finish at page 127 (33%). I was excited at the prospect of a Judaically-inspired epic fantasy, and I'm pretty sure I've read stories by Kressel that I've enjoyed. Also, this small imprint has published a couple books that I've really liked. Unfortunately, this one isn't for me. (A pretty reliably litmus test, I think: if a character in a book refers to or thinks of another character as a fool, that book is probably not for me.) The protagonist comes across as quite the nebbish; maybe he was a protagonist in his own life, before this story, but we don't get to know that life well enough for that trait to carry through the story. He's supposed to be a Lamed Vavnik, one of the righteous few who demonstrate humanity's worth to God, but Kressel doesn't seem to know, at least in the first third of this book, how to make a humble true-blue sort interesting. The other characters are more interesting or at least more motivated to accomplish things but the dialogue and character moments often devolve into painfully clichéd histrionics. This feels like the very rough draft of what could be a winning adventure with a few more rounds of beta readers and rewrites.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is epic fantasy one of my favorite literary genres? I think it's because these stories truly transport me to new worlds where magic and mysticism make anything is possible. The challenge is finding unique worlds, especially when so many fantasies reflect a Medieval/Arthurian/Middle Earth influence. I've found such diversity in worlds based on Islamic theology, Romantic Era and even Freudian/Jungian psychology, ... and now, thanks to Book One of the Worldmender Trilogy, in Jewish mysticism.

I really enjoyed everything about this novel. The intermingling of the world building with a well-written and fast-paced plot steeped in demonic tales (aka "The Things They Never Taught Us in Hebrew School") has hooked me on this series.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really really good fantasy tale. Does suffer a little bit from some tropes standard to fantasy, the chosen one has to travel back to his home with several companions who may or may not be evil. The characters are great, the writing flows like water and I desperately want to read the rest in the series.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed epic fantasy, especially when it's done in a non-traditional way. This tale, with its roots based upon Jewish mysticism, certainly breaks the standard fantasy mold.

An excellent read and a page turner that I found hard to put down. I look forward to the next installment.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea.