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Faerie Apocalypse
Over the centuries the Faerie Realms have drifted away from the mortal world. But for some, the Doors will open. For some, there is a Way to travel there, if they want it badly enough.
If they dream it hard enough.
In this era, only lovers, poets, and madmen can access the Realms of the Land--and for good reason.
A succession of mortals travel to Faerie: a veteran seeking beauty; a magus seeking power; an urchin seeking his wayward father; an engineer seeking meaning. These mortals bring the horrors of our age to the Land, and the Folk who live there respond in kind.
If they dream it hard enough.
In this era, only lovers, poets, and madmen can access the Realms of the Land--and for good reason.
A succession of mortals travel to Faerie: a veteran seeking beauty; a magus seeking power; an urchin seeking his wayward father; an engineer seeking meaning. These mortals bring the horrors of our age to the Land, and the Folk who live there respond in kind.
- GenresFantasy
350 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Jason Franks
42 books34 followersJason Franks is a novelist and comics writer. His occult rock'n'roll novel Bloody Waters was an Aurealis Award finalist, and his dark fantasy Faerie Apocalypse a Ditmar nominee. His Sixsmiths graphic novels were shortlisted for a Ledger award.
Born in South Africa, Franks grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He has also lived in the United States and Japan.
Franks' upcoming work includes Frankenstein Monstrance, a comics miniseries with Tam Nation, and a sequel to Bloody Waters called Blackened Skies.
Born in South Africa, Franks grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He has also lived in the United States and Japan.
Franks' upcoming work includes Frankenstein Monstrance, a comics miniseries with Tam Nation, and a sequel to Bloody Waters called Blackened Skies.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 24, 2018
It's taken me more than a month to get over reading this enough to actually write a review of it and still I find myself lost for words. Never have I read anything even remotely like this book. It is lush and evocative, both in its beauty and its brutality, and somehow managed to be both a quick, entertaining read and something so deep it deconstructed not only my childhood fairy tales but the human psyche.
I wish I could pen an essay on why it is an amazing read and why everyone needs to experience this book, but all I am really left with the ability to say is: Jason Franks, you had me at "The magus racked the Uzi."
I wish I could pen an essay on why it is an amazing read and why everyone needs to experience this book, but all I am really left with the ability to say is: Jason Franks, you had me at "The magus racked the Uzi."
June 8, 2019
‘This was the place he had sought and he felt lucky, if not blessed, to have found it.’
Magic may hold some answers, for those seeking something different, an escape from every day mortal existence. Magic may also help you find a lover, a family member, power or vengeance. But it is more difficult, these days, to find a way from the mortal world into the Faerie Realms. Don’t abandon hope: the Doors will open for some, if they want it badly enough.
‘Only three kinds of mortal were permitted entry into the Realms of the Faerie – lovers, poets and madmen – and he was most certainly to be counted amongst their number.’
But what will happen to the mortals who do enter the Realms of the Faerie? Will they find what they are looking for? Will they escape unscathed? Do they deserve success?
‘You can’t go home until you’ve completed your quest.’
It seems that mortals can destroy most things, but they don’t get everything their own way in the Realms of the Faerie. Humans may be cunning, but the Faerie can be malevolent. There’s plenty of violence as the two worlds clash. But there’s a point to this violence: it reinforces that mortals are neither heroic nor noble and that they do not think (nor seem to care) about the consequences of their actions.
I kept reading, wondering how it might end. I kept reading, hoping that the mortals would become self-aware. I kept reading. And by the end, the faerie apocalypse made sense.
‘We do not imagine; we are the imagined. The truth of my telling is entirely dependent upon the mortal to whom I speak it.’
I don’t read as much fantasy as I used to. When I read novels like this one, I resolve to read more. If you enjoy dark fantasy, you may also enjoy this.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Magic may hold some answers, for those seeking something different, an escape from every day mortal existence. Magic may also help you find a lover, a family member, power or vengeance. But it is more difficult, these days, to find a way from the mortal world into the Faerie Realms. Don’t abandon hope: the Doors will open for some, if they want it badly enough.
‘Only three kinds of mortal were permitted entry into the Realms of the Faerie – lovers, poets and madmen – and he was most certainly to be counted amongst their number.’
But what will happen to the mortals who do enter the Realms of the Faerie? Will they find what they are looking for? Will they escape unscathed? Do they deserve success?
‘You can’t go home until you’ve completed your quest.’
It seems that mortals can destroy most things, but they don’t get everything their own way in the Realms of the Faerie. Humans may be cunning, but the Faerie can be malevolent. There’s plenty of violence as the two worlds clash. But there’s a point to this violence: it reinforces that mortals are neither heroic nor noble and that they do not think (nor seem to care) about the consequences of their actions.
I kept reading, wondering how it might end. I kept reading, hoping that the mortals would become self-aware. I kept reading. And by the end, the faerie apocalypse made sense.
‘We do not imagine; we are the imagined. The truth of my telling is entirely dependent upon the mortal to whom I speak it.’
I don’t read as much fantasy as I used to. When I read novels like this one, I resolve to read more. If you enjoy dark fantasy, you may also enjoy this.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
August 26, 2018
Such an original structure to a novel. Excitingly sectioned into four small books, this cut-edge journey had me following multiple points of view, which had me discovering outcomes that were unpredictable. I loved the short nature of each chapter, cleverly titled, and within the realms of the faery folk, there are characters and scenes that will not be easily forgotten; and you wouldn’t want to forget them!
A great novel, well recommended, and I will follow this authors new ventures with interest.
This is a four and a half star review.
A great novel, well recommended, and I will follow this authors new ventures with interest.
This is a four and a half star review.
June 22, 2018
Faerie Apocalypse draws you in with its fable-esque narrative then continues to hammer any thoughts of hope from you -- this isn't a bad thing! It's sharp, it's twisted, and the threads are skillfully woven. 4.5 stars.
Full review to come.
Full review to come.
July 2, 2018
Clever, witty, brutal.
Mr Franks’s genius shines strong here in three ways: genuinely funny narrative and dialogue; polished prose; inventive plotting. He has laboured hard to create a non-Hollywood plot that still enthralls and pays off. In fact, the story is self-aware enough that a character remarks, “Sometimes I just get sick of hearing the same damn stories, over and over again.” Well, this isn’t the same damn story by any means.
Five stars.
Mr Franks’s genius shines strong here in three ways: genuinely funny narrative and dialogue; polished prose; inventive plotting. He has laboured hard to create a non-Hollywood plot that still enthralls and pays off. In fact, the story is self-aware enough that a character remarks, “Sometimes I just get sick of hearing the same damn stories, over and over again.” Well, this isn’t the same damn story by any means.
Five stars.
July 16, 2018
Jason Franks creates a fairytale fantasy world, complete with talking animals, iconic nobles and ubiquitous magic, and then proceeds to methodically demolish it by introducing an uncontrollable pest species - people from the "real world".
It's absurd, grim, action packed and at times deeply unsettling, and I loved it.
It's absurd, grim, action packed and at times deeply unsettling, and I loved it.
January 29, 2018
Faerie Apocalypse is very different. It’s humorous, in some ways, poking fun at Australian culture, at rock music and theatre, at politics, and, most of all, at the fairytale tropes we’ve all grown up with. It’s uncomfortable, highlighting that humans are complicated and often driven by unpleasant motives, whether they admit these or not. It’s uncompromising, sparing no punches as character upon character meets an untimely and grisly, but also somehow very fitting, end.
I felt echoes of Le Guin in the precision of the language and the richness of the universe. When I witnessed Franks' demolition of a civilisation that was beautiful and different, I felt sorrow and shame, because isn't that what people are good at? They come, they admire, and then they corrupt, because differences cannot be tolerated and what they desire, what they dream a thing to be, is of prime importance. And I felt the old childhood unease because honestly, do you remember your fairytales? There’s a wrongness to all of them, and in Faerie Apocalypse, that wrongness is laid bare for you to examine. Whether you want to or not.
This book is good. It’s seriously good. You can see the care Franks has taken to make each sentence count. Not a word is wasted and not a scene is irrelevant. Everything has its point, and all the plot arcs are perfectly wound up in the brutal, inevitable finale. It’s a quick read, but if you pay attention, it’s certainly not an easy or comforting one.
This book will stay with me and I will revisit it many times.
I felt echoes of Le Guin in the precision of the language and the richness of the universe. When I witnessed Franks' demolition of a civilisation that was beautiful and different, I felt sorrow and shame, because isn't that what people are good at? They come, they admire, and then they corrupt, because differences cannot be tolerated and what they desire, what they dream a thing to be, is of prime importance. And I felt the old childhood unease because honestly, do you remember your fairytales? There’s a wrongness to all of them, and in Faerie Apocalypse, that wrongness is laid bare for you to examine. Whether you want to or not.
This book is good. It’s seriously good. You can see the care Franks has taken to make each sentence count. Not a word is wasted and not a scene is irrelevant. Everything has its point, and all the plot arcs are perfectly wound up in the brutal, inevitable finale. It’s a quick read, but if you pay attention, it’s certainly not an easy or comforting one.
This book will stay with me and I will revisit it many times.
October 5, 2018
A dark and enthralling read, Faerie Apocalypse entertains from start to finish. Highly recommended!
March 26, 2018
In this Land it pays to be careful how you ask questions, and how you answer them. Falsehood will destroy you; truth will devour your bones.
It's an odd book. I've picked it because of the great cover and interesting but terse synopsis. Twisted and dark fairy tales appeal to me. This one certainly doesn't lack darkness nor does it shy away from assaulting the reader with strong punches.
No, I wasn't KO'd but my mood and the last scraps of belief in innate human goodness were.
The book subverts The Quest trope - there's more than one quest described on the pages of Faerie Apocalypse but we start with a classic one. A young man travels to Faerie Land in order to find most beautiful and perfect queen. He's not interested in her personality, though. She has to be physically perfect. His intentions remain unknown for a while. One is clear, though. He's insane and all he leaves behind him is the trail of the dead. It's not a spoiler. It's in the title.
The story is divided into four main arcs (I oversimplify things) that focus on different characters. First two arcs are ultraviolent and gruesome and you may ask yourself what's the point of this butchery. It'll be explained, partly, in the second half of the book.
The prose was pretty lean although at times it became quite descriptive, like here:
Late one afternoon a strange grey washed away the sky. The bright hot ball that served this particular Realm as a sun disappeared, although the light it shed remained, pallid and thin. Two great storm-fronts roiled over the hills, one from the direction the mortal reckoned to be east and the other from the west. Lightning crackled between the cloud masses and the thunder rolled like war drums.
At times, though, some awkward similes appear. Like this one:
Lianas hung from the branches like intestines looped from a butcher’s block.
It's taken out of the context but I'm not sure if it works for me. Not really.
On the other hand, some parts were deeply philosophical and valid questions were raised in simple sentences:
Language bound his thoughts to his deeds, his memories to his mind; the world outside to the world within. Malo came to hate it—this structure that interposed itself between his senses and his consciousness. It enslaved him; it concealed its truths from him; it bound him to a life of squalor and misfortune.
It's an interesting topic, the language and the way in which it shapes our experiences.
Faerie Land has a reflexive relationship with our world, built on our dreams and our stories. There's little in terms of classic world-building - geography and setting changes in and on itself and can be described as mutable. It can be influenced by those who are willing to do so.
The Faerie Folk are diverse and some of them can be as perverse as humans. Contrary to us, though, they're immortal.
And now it's time to discuss characterization. The author made a risky move. He describes characters by their functions / stereotypical roles (Magus, Mortal, Warrior etc.). As a result, all characters remained unrelatable and, at least some of them, repulsing to me. Take a Magus for example. Whatever his real intentions are, the only outcome of his doings is death and destruction. It was interesting, and shocking, to read his part of the story but after finishing it I only know he's a despicable person.
The Faerie Realms were not subject to the rigors of proper physics, and mortal technology would not function there…but he was a magus, and he felt that it was his right, if not his duty, to violate the natural order as he pleased.
Why? How? What for? No idea. I mean, I can make assumptions but the author chooses to focus on other aspects of the storytelling. As a result, if you'll ask me about the character (and other characters pictured in the book as well) in a month, I'll just tell you he was a bad and petty person. He's not memorable in any other way.
The same is mostly true for other characters - they serve more as plot devices or to make a point than to develop and feel real.
So, should you read it?
It depends. I'd like you to try it, especially if you feel tired of recycled ideas and plot lines. It's a dark fairy tale that feels fresh and unsettling. It's dense, non-linear and twisted. It plays with the tropes of quests and fantasy violence.
I liked it but due to little enjoyment I got from the first half of the book, I can't praise it.
February 25, 2018
A great dark faerie tale
A story with several great tales that build on each other. Dark twists and turns keep you turning the page.
A story with several great tales that build on each other. Dark twists and turns keep you turning the page.
May 4, 2018
I’ll be honest – I’ve never been a fan of the faerie genre as a whole, although there are a few exceptions (Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint come to mind). And I might not have tried this, except that (1) Franks’ first novel Bloody Waters was so good, and (2) this ain’t yr average fairy story. In fact, as the title implies, the whole point of the book is to set up the usual tropes of faerie fiction – the quests, the royalty, the magi, the tricksters, the endless walking, and mortal humans finding themselves in this magical alt-reality – and take an Uzi to them. Literally, in at least one case. It’s not a parody so much as an excuse to break every genre rule there is just to see what happens.
The story follows four different mortals (most of them unnamed) who enter the Lands Of The Realm for various reasons, and wreak havoc upon it, intentionally or otherwise. I won’t say any more because part of the appeal here is seeing where Franks goes with this – and it’s not where you might think. The chief criticism I have is the lack of a sympathetic main character – not a hero, which would defeat the purpose of the story, but someone who could at least offset the senselessly destructive nature of everyone else. The faerie playwright Nentril Revallo is the most likeable character here for my money, and while he plays a key role in the story, he’s still a minor character. Overall it’s rather bleak and nihilistic for my taste … and yet it has to be for the story to work, and I do appreciate what Franks is ultimately shooting for here. So if yr interested in seeing someone take a chainsaw to the whole faerie-fiction paradigm, this may be just the thing.
The story follows four different mortals (most of them unnamed) who enter the Lands Of The Realm for various reasons, and wreak havoc upon it, intentionally or otherwise. I won’t say any more because part of the appeal here is seeing where Franks goes with this – and it’s not where you might think. The chief criticism I have is the lack of a sympathetic main character – not a hero, which would defeat the purpose of the story, but someone who could at least offset the senselessly destructive nature of everyone else. The faerie playwright Nentril Revallo is the most likeable character here for my money, and while he plays a key role in the story, he’s still a minor character. Overall it’s rather bleak and nihilistic for my taste … and yet it has to be for the story to work, and I do appreciate what Franks is ultimately shooting for here. So if yr interested in seeing someone take a chainsaw to the whole faerie-fiction paradigm, this may be just the thing.
April 2, 2018
As the title suggests, this is not a pleasant dip into the whimsical world of the fey. There are few characters whose behaviour would lead me to call them sympathetic. Compounding that, Franks uses labels instead of names (“The Magus”, “The Mortal” etc) to create even more distance. For the first few chapters I found this a little off-putting. I didn’t feel engaged with the protagonist. I even put the book down for a few days. But Franks’ prose has the same deceptively simple, and beautiful, style that I loved in Bloody Waters and so I came back, and was quickly hooked.
And that was when I realised that the characters were not designed to be sympathetic, and the additional distancing actually allowed me to focus more on the impact they were having to the world(s) around them, rather than wasting energy on trying to relate. It also gave the whole text the feel of a fable, almost in the style of aural storytelling. I found the combination compelling, and once I got into the rhythm of the storytelling I gobbled it up in very short order.
Not withstanding all that, I did love reading the character of the Magus. A bad man by any standard, but I love Australian bad guys. Franks draws out the Australian-ness of the character to a level that should resonate with overseas readers, but doesn’t go too far into parody. In that sense, it reminded me of the writing of another favourite Australian author, Jason Nahrung. There are also a few little quirks that would particularly appeal to an Australian sensibility, for the local reader.
There is a lot of violence, to almost gratuitous levels. However the violence has a purpose, and underpins the story. It is an apocalypse after all. And each fight/battle/encounter is rendered so uniquely that the violence doesn’t seem repetitive at all. Still, if you aren’t one for a bit of blood and guts steel yourself before embarking on this particular quest.
The novel is made up of a few interlocking stories that build on each other. Franks uses the structure to pointedly comment on a lot of fairytale tropes, usually without much mercy. The gradual accretion of evidence of fey-dysfunction built slowly over the course of the stories also helps make the case for the conclusion.
While the first couple of transitions are a little jarring, by the end of the novel the different strands have come together and you have a connected narrative in your head.
Franks plays a bit with time, and as a reader your progress through the story is not exactly linear. However, I’ve been a sucker for this type of storytelling since I fell in love with Catch-22 at high school, and I found it added to the other-worldly feel of the novel.
As a minor aside, there is one section, based in the “real” world that is clearly set in the future. Franks does a fantastic job seeding the story with just a small number of specific details that flags this fact, without having the character dwell on futuristic things. It is a subtle, but brilliantly executed, piece of world building and although it is only a very small part of the story, I did enjoy it as both a reader and a writer.
A fantastic, original piece of work that I very much enjoyed. Franks has delivered another great read, which I highly recommend.
And that was when I realised that the characters were not designed to be sympathetic, and the additional distancing actually allowed me to focus more on the impact they were having to the world(s) around them, rather than wasting energy on trying to relate. It also gave the whole text the feel of a fable, almost in the style of aural storytelling. I found the combination compelling, and once I got into the rhythm of the storytelling I gobbled it up in very short order.
Not withstanding all that, I did love reading the character of the Magus. A bad man by any standard, but I love Australian bad guys. Franks draws out the Australian-ness of the character to a level that should resonate with overseas readers, but doesn’t go too far into parody. In that sense, it reminded me of the writing of another favourite Australian author, Jason Nahrung. There are also a few little quirks that would particularly appeal to an Australian sensibility, for the local reader.
There is a lot of violence, to almost gratuitous levels. However the violence has a purpose, and underpins the story. It is an apocalypse after all. And each fight/battle/encounter is rendered so uniquely that the violence doesn’t seem repetitive at all. Still, if you aren’t one for a bit of blood and guts steel yourself before embarking on this particular quest.
The novel is made up of a few interlocking stories that build on each other. Franks uses the structure to pointedly comment on a lot of fairytale tropes, usually without much mercy. The gradual accretion of evidence of fey-dysfunction built slowly over the course of the stories also helps make the case for the conclusion.
While the first couple of transitions are a little jarring, by the end of the novel the different strands have come together and you have a connected narrative in your head.
Franks plays a bit with time, and as a reader your progress through the story is not exactly linear. However, I’ve been a sucker for this type of storytelling since I fell in love with Catch-22 at high school, and I found it added to the other-worldly feel of the novel.
As a minor aside, there is one section, based in the “real” world that is clearly set in the future. Franks does a fantastic job seeding the story with just a small number of specific details that flags this fact, without having the character dwell on futuristic things. It is a subtle, but brilliantly executed, piece of world building and although it is only a very small part of the story, I did enjoy it as both a reader and a writer.
A fantastic, original piece of work that I very much enjoyed. Franks has delivered another great read, which I highly recommend.
January 22, 2018
Have you ever wondered what's going on in the mind of people who set about pursuing quests in the worlds of magic? Potential lovers seeking the fairest of them all; mages seeking further power; sons seeking fathers; daughters seeking vengeance; those seeking simple distraction and escape from their everyday lives.
Jason Franks has. And he doesn't think very highly of them.
Faerie Apocalypse plays with the tropes of quests and fantasy violence. He twists the old storytelling standards of cycles-of-three, cunning humans outwitting faerie malevolance, all the same-old-same olds.
Franks isn't afraid of being pretty damned gruesome with it, either. Many encounters end not merely with violence but with gore so extreme it's less horrific and more a form of nihilism. If Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus in a spirit of 'I'll show YOU a revenge play!', Franks has said, 'I'll show YOU a tide of pointless butchery!'.
Except that it's not pointless. The purpose, mostly hinted at throughout the brutal excapades of the mortals, the mage, the daughter of the warrior queen and the Bad Little Dog is very pointed, but it's a spoiler to say what it is.
I loved how the inklings that supposed mortal questers aren't as noble or heroic as they're cracked up to be turn into certainties that they're all pretty awful people with little regard for the consequences of their actions. Where they go, death follows.
The level of butchery is a bit much at times, but it's a deliberate choice that is less gratuitous than it seems, by the time you reach the end and learn why. Though the hint is in the title. It is a faerie apocalypse, after all.
I’ll admit that I have a fonder spot in my heart for the wild and wickedly funny Bloody Waters, but it’s good to be reading Franks again and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.
Jason Franks has. And he doesn't think very highly of them.
Faerie Apocalypse plays with the tropes of quests and fantasy violence. He twists the old storytelling standards of cycles-of-three, cunning humans outwitting faerie malevolance, all the same-old-same olds.
Franks isn't afraid of being pretty damned gruesome with it, either. Many encounters end not merely with violence but with gore so extreme it's less horrific and more a form of nihilism. If Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus in a spirit of 'I'll show YOU a revenge play!', Franks has said, 'I'll show YOU a tide of pointless butchery!'.
Except that it's not pointless. The purpose, mostly hinted at throughout the brutal excapades of the mortals, the mage, the daughter of the warrior queen and the Bad Little Dog is very pointed, but it's a spoiler to say what it is.
I loved how the inklings that supposed mortal questers aren't as noble or heroic as they're cracked up to be turn into certainties that they're all pretty awful people with little regard for the consequences of their actions. Where they go, death follows.
The level of butchery is a bit much at times, but it's a deliberate choice that is less gratuitous than it seems, by the time you reach the end and learn why. Though the hint is in the title. It is a faerie apocalypse, after all.
I’ll admit that I have a fonder spot in my heart for the wild and wickedly funny Bloody Waters, but it’s good to be reading Franks again and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.
May 24, 2018
Reading this book is like being punched in the face by a fairytale.
It is violent, ruthless, surprising, horrifying, hilarious and confusing - often all in the same sentence. None of the characters are predictable. Most of them aren't even likeable. But they are never boring. There isn't anything else like this so there is no use in making comparisons - it is a jarring, confronting, ridiculous and calculated attack on the faerie canon and I highly recommend it.
It is violent, ruthless, surprising, horrifying, hilarious and confusing - often all in the same sentence. None of the characters are predictable. Most of them aren't even likeable. But they are never boring. There isn't anything else like this so there is no use in making comparisons - it is a jarring, confronting, ridiculous and calculated attack on the faerie canon and I highly recommend it.
March 26, 2018
An open portal to a fantastic world endangered by lovers, poets and madmen. Jason Frank's Faerie Apocalypse is a tale of depraved genius that lingers in your mind. A dark fantasy novel that is not what you expect. Complex, compelling and unforgiving.
June 12, 2018
Faerie Apocalypse is a uniquely-delivered, multi-faceted romp of a read. It's quite unlike anything you've read before with a scope that - to be executed successfully - takes a writer of considerable talent. Special mention goes to the character of the magus: he is utterly, nastily, fabulous!
March 28, 2018
A very very cool dark fantasy.
July 4, 2018
Reading Faerie Apocalypse you are struck by an overwhelming sense the author, Jason Franks, is a deeply disturbed individual taking great satisfaction in all manner of self degradation. I imagine Faerie Apocalypse was written in a dark room with Franks cutting himself with a rusty fork and listening to Ronnie James Dio played in reverse.
That aside, Faerie Apocalypse is sharp, unique, witty and enthralling. Franks has taken the fantasy genre and pushed it down a set of stairs, creating something grotesque and beautiful. Classic fantasy style tropes are twisted and brutalised giving us something that is often violent, surprising, beautiful, horrifying and hilarious all within a page.
This is a fantastic read even if the author is some kind of disturbed reprobate.
That aside, Faerie Apocalypse is sharp, unique, witty and enthralling. Franks has taken the fantasy genre and pushed it down a set of stairs, creating something grotesque and beautiful. Classic fantasy style tropes are twisted and brutalised giving us something that is often violent, surprising, beautiful, horrifying and hilarious all within a page.
This is a fantastic read even if the author is some kind of disturbed reprobate.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews