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Carrion
In a plague-scarred land where the dead rise twisted and hungry, immortal Carrion Birds feast on corruption to hold back the tide. Roval Gul, the eternal wanderer, seeks to end mortality forever—until a mortal forces him to confront the truth of his rebellion. A profound tale of defiance, loss, and redemption in the shadows of eternity. Haunting and unflinching—grimdark philosophy at its finest.Thank You, dear reader.
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400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 16, 2026
Bottom Line Upfront
This is a satisfying, intellectual read. Caisse effectively uses a variant of sin eaters to do a philosophical exploration of good and evil along with free will. The allusions to classical literature while still feeling original as a unique voice are, well, I want to write “delightful”, yet this is a book filled with weighty themes so I will repeat “satisfying”. The comparative book that most readily comes to mind is Ishiguru's Klara and the Sun as the same sort of contemplative vehicle that has a story, yet the plot itself is less important than the thoughts and feelings along the way.
What Works in this Book
This well-done philosophical exploration, much like Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, is about the ideas within a narrative framework to avoid being a dry philosophical lecture. The setting of a medieval-technology-level alternate reality allows for some intellectual distance by having religion be a daily reality for the peasants that includes the lived-reality of a religious schism. There’s having faith, there’s knowing what we always have done, and then there’s being confronted in the moment with armed people who can make you do things their way. No easy answers exist and the characters make choices that have consequences we watch play out.
The sin eaters themselves are supernatural. A main character is a sin eater wrestling with the ethics of the sin-eating mission and what it means to be interfering with humans who are sentient, feeling beings not unlike himself. The intellectual distance does nothing to detract from the philosophical implications and I did have to put aside the reading a few times to wrestle with my own thoughts.
Multiple love stories are threaded through the narrative and all of them work for me as showing the messiness of human emotions instead of being plot devices. I do mean “love” not “romance” because there are friends, parent/child, and siblings shown in evocative ways that hit my heart as much as some of the philosophy hit my head.
Why Only 3 Stars
My main hesitation on a higher rating is uneven execution. While this book is mainly an idea-driven philosophical exploration, some of the scenes were emotional and some could have been more emotional had the characters been better developed. I think of Tolkien with a similar mix of exploring the theme intellectually and then reaching for emotions that aren’t quite there because the focus had been on the intellectual at the expense of developing characters. I would have preferred either much less character development (The Screwtape Letters have almost no character development to focus on the ideas) or more character development. At 400 pages, there was room for another 100 pages of character development or cutting 100 pages to be a tighter intellectual work.
Time is flexible in the book with time not moving at the same rate for all characters in all places at all moments. Some of that being out of time is very effective in letting characters sit with the weight of the decision before them or the weight of the consequences having played out. Being absent from the moments that are affecting others is effective. At times, though, perhaps some developmental editing by additional eyes may have tightened the effect.
A minor distraction at times was having language change tone and style in the same dialogue instead of being consistent for a character or showing the various sides of the same character in different contexts. Again, I think of additional external editing giving another opportunity for polish or leaning into characters being a vehicle for the philosophical discussion being had in that chapter.
What Prospective Readers May Want to Know
This is a satisfying, intellectual read for those who like depth and are looking for a book that makes them think with plot itself being secondary. While there are graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies and stark choices in a moral framework, this is not horror. Readers who are familiar with certain classical works will not be surprised by the plot twists, yet the work remains satisfying in that tradition of exploring morality and the consequences of choices.
This is a satisfying, intellectual read. Caisse effectively uses a variant of sin eaters to do a philosophical exploration of good and evil along with free will. The allusions to classical literature while still feeling original as a unique voice are, well, I want to write “delightful”, yet this is a book filled with weighty themes so I will repeat “satisfying”. The comparative book that most readily comes to mind is Ishiguru's Klara and the Sun as the same sort of contemplative vehicle that has a story, yet the plot itself is less important than the thoughts and feelings along the way.
What Works in this Book
This well-done philosophical exploration, much like Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, is about the ideas within a narrative framework to avoid being a dry philosophical lecture. The setting of a medieval-technology-level alternate reality allows for some intellectual distance by having religion be a daily reality for the peasants that includes the lived-reality of a religious schism. There’s having faith, there’s knowing what we always have done, and then there’s being confronted in the moment with armed people who can make you do things their way. No easy answers exist and the characters make choices that have consequences we watch play out.
The sin eaters themselves are supernatural. A main character is a sin eater wrestling with the ethics of the sin-eating mission and what it means to be interfering with humans who are sentient, feeling beings not unlike himself. The intellectual distance does nothing to detract from the philosophical implications and I did have to put aside the reading a few times to wrestle with my own thoughts.
Multiple love stories are threaded through the narrative and all of them work for me as showing the messiness of human emotions instead of being plot devices. I do mean “love” not “romance” because there are friends, parent/child, and siblings shown in evocative ways that hit my heart as much as some of the philosophy hit my head.
Why Only 3 Stars
My main hesitation on a higher rating is uneven execution. While this book is mainly an idea-driven philosophical exploration, some of the scenes were emotional and some could have been more emotional had the characters been better developed. I think of Tolkien with a similar mix of exploring the theme intellectually and then reaching for emotions that aren’t quite there because the focus had been on the intellectual at the expense of developing characters. I would have preferred either much less character development (The Screwtape Letters have almost no character development to focus on the ideas) or more character development. At 400 pages, there was room for another 100 pages of character development or cutting 100 pages to be a tighter intellectual work.
Time is flexible in the book with time not moving at the same rate for all characters in all places at all moments. Some of that being out of time is very effective in letting characters sit with the weight of the decision before them or the weight of the consequences having played out. Being absent from the moments that are affecting others is effective. At times, though, perhaps some developmental editing by additional eyes may have tightened the effect.
A minor distraction at times was having language change tone and style in the same dialogue instead of being consistent for a character or showing the various sides of the same character in different contexts. Again, I think of additional external editing giving another opportunity for polish or leaning into characters being a vehicle for the philosophical discussion being had in that chapter.
What Prospective Readers May Want to Know
This is a satisfying, intellectual read for those who like depth and are looking for a book that makes them think with plot itself being secondary. While there are graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies and stark choices in a moral framework, this is not horror. Readers who are familiar with certain classical works will not be surprised by the plot twists, yet the work remains satisfying in that tradition of exploring morality and the consequences of choices.
Displaying 1 of 1 review