Empire: Spiral

by Tim Goff

Bold action thwarted a ritual that would have decimated Corber Port, largest metropolis in the Solarian Empire. But now, the city faces a worse menace, - an almost open portal to a world ruled by a demon lord. Tia Samos, along with Sir Peter Cortez and the peasant wizard Kyle, are trapped on the wrong side of that hell-door, in the bizarre city of Carcosa. Surviving will take everything they have. Escape will require a miracle. Rebecca, Tia's former companion, is thrust together with warriors and wizards attempting to seal the portal before it fully opens. But mortal spells are no match for the magic of a demon lord.

488 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2023

About the author

I was raised on an Alaskan homestead at the edge of civilization, an upbringing that brought with it passing knowledge of everything from mechanics to gardening to carpentry.

I was an avid reader from an early age - and started my first writing efforts as a teenager. It took me a while to actually get published.

Reviews

[S. Lynn Helton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following from previous events, this book finds Tia, Peter, and Kyle separated from Rebecca, and all of them in places where their fates are in others' hands. This is a story of their captivities, along with various plots and political maneuverings around them.

Elements I liked:
The world building is deep and detailed. Meticulous descriptions provide vivid pictures of locations and people's actions. The story is engrossing, holding a reader's attention as it follows the main characters (and a couple of lesser characters) as they deal with some precarious and deadly situations.

Elements I struggled with:
Numerous typos, incorrect words, persistent mix-ups of plurals and possessives, repeated sentences, and missing words all adversely impacted the reading experience, often requiring re-reading to figure out what was going on. Another proofreading/editing pass would greatly help. Also, it was hard to keep the numerous secondary characters straight - many of them weren't differentiated enough to remember who was who when encountering them again further on in the story. Some transitions were very choppy - giving the feeling that the reader missed something from one scene to the next.

Overall:
This fifth book of the Empire series did contain enough references to previous happenings to provide a sense of what had gone before, but I'd imagine it would be better to have read the previous books in the series first (unlike what I did - jumping in with this book). Still, the book was entertaining and held my interest, although little is resolved, and the story ends on a "to be continued in the next book" note.

(3.4 stars rounded down)

[W.R. Rosche · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will likely appeal to fans of conventional sword and sorcery yarns.

The book opens in a technologically advanced but decaying city built around an ancient interstellar spacecraft. Two human ‘servitors’ battle mechanical insectoids and demons as they try to stop the ship’s ‘reactor’ from overloading and destroying their city. Meanwhile, an evil sorcerer activates the ship’s drive, sending it to another ‘dimensional sphere.’

The opening ‘spiral’ (chapter) is full of dark, vivid imagery that called to mind a very bad 1970 acid trip. Three of the novel’s main protagonists emerge from the bloody chaos: Tia, an aristocratic woman; Sir Peter, a renowned knight and Kyle, a burly peasant sorcerer. After battling a 'gargantuan tentacled abomination,' they wake up together as prisoners in an unfamiliar non-human environment.

The novel’s second major storyline involves Tia’s former personal servant, Rebecca; Lysander, an aged magician; Barry, Kyle’s nephew and Cabot, who comes across as a stereotypical misogynist. They are virtual prisoners, forced to help clean up the wreckage caused by the destruction of the city’s cathedral.

Each spiral is told from the perspective of one of the main protagonists. When not avoiding the ‘tentacled abomination,’ Tia and her small entourage plot to escape the city of Carcosa. Rebecca and her fellow survivors also focus on not being eaten by the demon/monster. During one terrifying attack it is discovered that Rebecca has a hidden power that gains her enemies as well as friends.

Tia, Sir Peter and Kyle finally get permission to leave Carcosa and set sail, ostensibly for the city of Quadratum. Their real destination is a portal that may let them get back home. They travel far, meet other characters and suffer many misadventures before their journey reaches a disastrous snag—to be addressed in the next volume.

I commend the author on crafting a very rich and multifaceted environment for this series of books. The story moves along at a good pace, and the characters get into and out of interesting situations. The gender roles and dialogue seemed a bit cliché-ridden and dated—they reminded me of fantasy books from the late sixties. However, this probably falls within the comfort level of many readers of this subgenre.

I don’t fuss too much about the technical quality of the writing, as long as the story is told well and holds my interest. This book crossed a line though: the errors are just too frequent and intrusive. Hopefully, they were addressed in the revised edition.

[Stella Jorette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This highly imaginative novel is an amalgam of high fantasy, alternate universe, and existential horror. Since I enjoy fictional worlds with otherworldly or religious elements and often dip into existential horror, Empire:Spiral is right up my alley. I got a kick out of the inclusion of touch stones of existential horror such as gigantic tentacled demons and the Yellow King. The high fantasy element is relatively dark; however, although many of the finely drawn, uniquely voiced, and highly diverse characters are flawed, downright unlikable, or morally ambiguous, plenty of the characters are relatable. As in much fantasy, politics plays a heavy role, but this novel also includes plenty of adventure, drama, and ill-advised road trips.

Having accidentally landed in book 5 of this lengthy series, I read Empire:Spiral as three inter-related tales about imperfect people trapped in highly unfortunate and fantastical circumstances. I was able to quickly acclimate myself to the stories; although it took a while to see the connections between all the stories. I greatly appreciated that the author did not info dump the previous volumes action or the characters back stories.

Empire:Spiral ends with a "to be continued" feel, and while I thoroughly enjoyed this book as is; most readers will probably want to start with book 1 and read through then entire series.

Readers of high fantasy such as "Game of Thrones" as well as readers of existential horror will enjoy this series. Those who've enjoyed web novels such as Into the Mire, Nowhere Stars, and Katalepsis, as well as listeners of horror podcasts such as The Magnus Archives and Old Gods of Appalachia, may also enjoy this series.

Great fun. Highly recommended.

[J.R. Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth novel in the series, so it was tricky for me to get to grips with the various characters and the world building, which overall affected my review of the story. The story jumps around from place to place, and instantly I had to try to work out who some of the characters were and what some of the terminology meant - such as "Chous", which appears to be a race of people. However I think the story was an interesting concept and the maps at the beginning helped. I think perhaps it would have been better if I had started with the first story in the series because of the continuity.

[Maddie Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping and dark fantasy with high stakes from start to finish. The story balances two intense fronts survival in the eerie city of Carcosa and the desperate fight to seal a dangerous portal. The characters feel real, especially in the face of overwhelming odds, and the looming threat of the demon lord keeps the tension strong. Short, intense, and engaging definitely a solid read for fantasy fans.