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The Rifter series by Ginn Hale
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Can't for the life of me find what I posted on Amazon about this series - I blame Jax for steering me to it and disrupting my entire life. This is an amazing, beautiful, important, strange, wonderful series. Loved it a lot.
Ah, here it is: This is really a review of the entire Rifter series - because once you've started, you'll want to read all of them one after the other.At first The Rifter's first book "The Shattered Gates," seemed a little dry to me - it takes time to embrace the world-building and get to know the characters - and there's a certain spareness to Hale's prose that takes a while to grow on you. Hale's narrative never drags, and while certain motifs repeat, it is never redundant. You have to piece together the remarkable world Hale builds around you. The explication of Basawar is oblique, always through the eyes of one of the two core characters, and yet the details are there for you. There are two major separate story arcs, and for a good bit of the series this is (intentionally) not clear.
You have to pay attention.
There are startling bits of humor, a great deal of dark, poetic violence, more blood than the bloodiest vampire saga; and, beneath it all, the merging of a distinctly Christ -like human god with a profoundly touching love epic between two men from two different worlds.
If fantasy is your thing, you'll love this. If fantasy isn't your thing, try it anyway. It's the sort of story English teachers could get teenage boys to read - but for the crucial central gay romance. There is, by the way, almost no explicit sex. Totally not necessary. The love is powerful enough to spark even the weakest imagination.
I've been reluctant to buy this, because even though I loved "Wicked Gentlemen", I didn't like the "Lord of the White Hell" books all that much. Also, when the first parts of "The Rifter" came out, I wasn't keen on paying for so many "bits" of a story (never liked works-in-progress). How does it compare to those earlier stories? Should I give it a go?
@Aussie54 Definitely go for it! If you loved Wicked Gentlemen I think you will love The Rifter too. Although I enjoyed the White Hell books, I would rank Wicked Gentlemen and The Rifter over them. I know she has White Hell book three in the works now but I am anxiously waiting for the promised sequel to WG which at one point I heard was to be called Lord Foster's Devils.
I really think this series is the quintessential definition of "like" or "loathe." There is no halfway feeling about it and I, since I picked up The Shattered Gates, haven't gone back. I'm on my third re-reading of the series (in between other new stories,) and I'm still finding material I missed in previous readings. Read the Rifter, it's the berries. :-)
Jax wrote: "@Aussie54 Definitely go for it! If you loved Wicked Gentlemen I think you will love The Rifter too. Although I enjoyed the White Hell books, I would rank Wicked Gentlemen and The Rifter over them. ..."Okay, thanks. I'll sleep on it. ;-)
Philip wrote: "I just started reading this and was quickly drawn into it. I'm only on like the third one so I'm really curious how this is going to end up working, so I think I'll get back to reading now.Wow! I hope you're reading really fast, because no. 7 is winging its way toward you (via Kindle Lending Library.)
You, sir, are a faster reader than I, and I thought I could blast through series at the speed of light.
Jax wrote: "I know she has White Hell book three in the works now but I am anxiously waiting for the promised sequel to WG which at one point I heard was to be called Lord Foster's Devils."I'm not sure how I missed your advice earlier Jax ... but that is SQUEEEEEE worthy news indeed. Thanks - it feels like I've been waiting for a White Hell sequel forever.
PaperMoon, she has rough drafts of the first two chapters at her blog (http://ginnhale.livejournal.com/) if you'd like a preview. I feel like I don't remember these books enough to jump into a sequel, but I passed along my print copies right after reading. I don't really like to reread much anyway. When the time comes, I might be picking your brain. You are forewarned.........
Philip wrote: """Belly button," Kahlil whispered the Nayeshi words. It sounded so absurd, almost childishly cute. A belly button had to be the absolute antithesis of the world-crushing Rifter. And yet he had one...."You're the second person who's mentioned Wicked Gentlemen. I've read Lord of the White Hell, both parts, but not Wicked. I've got to try it when I resurface from my JL Merrow sidetrack.
Jax wrote: "PaperMoon, she has rough drafts of the first two chapters at her blog (http://ginnhale.livejournal.com/) if you'd like a preview. I feel like I don't remember these books enough to jump into a sequ..."Thank you Jax ... I will definitely look into the link provided.
Philip wrote: "Well now that I'm finished with it, I just wanted to concur with Chuck that this is a marvelous and well-crafted story.Taken alone, the world-building, plot and writing make a phenomenal fantasy-..."
I have to rate this the best series I've read so far.
And, yes, that means that I rate it (a tad) above the Manna Francis Administration series. *A scattered hum of shock spreads through the audience.*
Chuck wrote: " I rate it (a tad) above the Manna Francis Administration series"Sacre bleu!
PaperMoon wrote: "Chuck wrote: " I rate it (a tad) above the Manna Francis Administration series"Sacre bleu!"
LOL! you guys are funny!
Oh, dammit, you what what? The two series cannot possibly compared one to the other. So, as far I'm concerned, it's really a dead heat.I mean BDSM on the one side, and a fraking GOD on the other.......no possible comparison in MY world.
thanks for the link, jax. i really enjoyed it :-P
When John opens a letter addressed to his missing roommate, Kyle, he expects to find a house key, but instead he is swept into a strange realm of magic, mysticism, revolutionaries and assassins. Though he struggles to escape, John is drawn steadily closer to a fate he shares with Kyle—to wake the destroyer god, the Rifter, and shatter a world.
That summary of the beginning of the Rifter series is, like anything that I could say, just the tiniest taste of what is to come in the succeeding nine books.
Ginn Hale's Rifter series will stand the test of time as, arguably, the best m/m AU love story going. It certainly is the most complete.
The series consists of the following novels (in order): The Shattered Gates; Servants of the Crossed Arrows; Black Blades; Witches'Blood; The Holy Road; Broken Fortress; Enemies and Shadows; The Silent City; The Iron Temple; and His Holy Bones.
Better reviewers than I have attempted to get the readers of this thread interested in this love story which transcends worlds, overcomes time, and conquers death.
The MCs begin as John Toffler, a university grad. student in environmental studies of Earth,
and Kyle Harris, John's mysterious, scarred (but handsome) roommate.
With his best friends, Laurie and her lover Bill, John uses a key belonging to Kyle to unlock a door in a crumbling ruin. At that time, John and his friends are transported to the world of Basawar.
In Basawar, John, Laurie and Bill meet a young priest named Ravishan and learn from him that their only hope of returning home is to find a way into the great monastery of Rathal'pesha, where talented young men like Ravishan are trained to travel instantly across countless miles through the Gray Space.
With that "simple" beginning, the story of a love that lives and grows through wars; achieves travel between worlds; survives beyond death and unimaginable sorrow to *SPOILER* triumph in the end. The reader is committed to watching civilizations rise and fall; gods being created and torn asunder; and, through it all, "John" and "Kyle" continue one of the most beautifully-written, complex, and fully-satisfying love stories in all of science fiction.
To call this series of novels "epic" is to do an injustice to tremendously stupendous heroical masterpieces.
So many of us have said it, but I'll say it again: you simply cannot lose with this magical story of love, intrigue and triumph.
Relish it. Wallow in it. Roll around and savor it like a pig in mud.
This series is really, really great shit.