GENESIS: the first book of wyrdworld

by Brothers Brumm

Join a young adventurer as he journeys through a mysterious realm, that he struggles to comprehend: he has spent his entire life here, and yet has never experienced it; nor indeed does he know himself - having no notion of the strengths and the skills he possesses. He - and you - have much to discover... ...welcome to Uurth. It is a place of gods and demons, monsters and mortals - few of whom are entirely what they seem. It is like our world, and yet very different; and, while its tales are fairly folklorish, they can take turns both modern and medieval, and tend to tweak the traditions of typical fantasy fare. Its mythology is frankly bonkers. Then again, whose isn't?

Genres: Fantasy

299 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2016

About the author

Ian and Jo Brumby have been writing in one form or another since their very early years. It all began with The Werewolf Magazine, a once-every-two-months’ production made for friends and relatives who were among the privileged few able to claim membership of the ‘Werewolf Club.’ - Ian started this publication at the tender age of ten, (possibly younger in fact) with Jo and other folks besides making contributions to the content by way of stories, cartoons, and so on. Both were avid story-writers through their school years, and also enjoyed the tale-telling aspects involved in running Dungeons and Dragons and other such role-playing games; this eventually led to the creation of Fenris Games, also re-establishing that earlier association with their old friend the wolf. It’s a wonder they haven’t got around to writing a proper book of some sort before now, but other ‘life stuff’ has been getting in the way, as it often does: who knows though - this first tale will be one of many, as and when it proves feasible to fit further word-works into the grand scheme of things; we will have to wait and see…

Reviews

[Coco.V]

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[Greydrakkon · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't go into this book expecting something like your standard fantasy novel with a beginning, middle, and end. This is far more chaotic than that, and like the protagonists you're plonked right in the middle (while having some vague notion of what the beginning was) and you just wander around as best you can while being entertained by the goings-on.

This novel definitely came across as an "establishing the setting" type book, where you're given introductions to characters and the general gist of "something is wrong that should really be fixed" and as long as you aren't expecting an epic plot with intricate twists that you really should have seen coming (instead of being blindsided just like every other poor sucker on the planet) then it's quite a fun book.

Things I liked: The character's personalities, the writing style, and the world building.

Things I disliked: The excessive verbosity of Seeklark. I know it's a thing, like in Monty Python where the guy blathers on and the entire cast howls "GET ON WITH IT" but it's one of those things I can really do without. I know it says "feel free to skip these bits" but I actually LIKE wandering around in information, I just hate the path to getting it in this case. Also I was a bit baffled by the rather abrupt introduction of Hengis, when everyone else got a chapter or two to ease into your consciousness, he got about a paragraph and was just plonked into the story. It felt like his intro was left sitting on someone's desk instead of inserted into the book as it should have been.

Overall it was a fun romp of a story, and I'll definitely be looking for the next book when it comes out.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got to a sticking point for a while with this as there was a couple of sections that were for personal reasons a bit hard to get through, but finished at last and will read it again soon in spite of that.

Anyway I was given the book by my other half, she thought it ought to be “my sort of thing”.
Checked out the bio/info in the back of the book, two brothers writing about their D&D gaming days in their youth in the 80s (whoa, OLD dudes, lol!) not a promising start I thought, I soon got hooked though however.
The beginning is very unusual, going into this Wyrdworld’s mythology, which is quite weird, some religious types might get a bit offended, as there are a few gentle pokes at the idea here, but really nothing really anti. And then, when expecting typical teenage boy type fantasy, there cropped up this feminine mythology underneath it all, a mother-goddess (the one on the front cover, by which I was very much drawn in being a redhead myself!!)
So there’s alot going on even in the first chapter or two. There is a lot going on in the rest of the book too, lots of film and other fantasy references in amongst it all too. I can’t say too much without giving a lot away, there’s a lotof typical fantasy “beats” but in a way that’s very self-aware and not taking itself too seriously. At the same time there are some quite “dark” bits, and then a few chuckles too. Some of it is actually quite hard to read, not a failing of the book but some of the subject matter, even though its only touched on, in a couple of places was actually heartbreaking to me personally.

However all in all very good, and I hope they come out with the next one soon, I am looking forward to where the characters storylines go next.
Having not expected very much, I was very pleasantly surprised in the actual reading of it. I think I love it. Definitely five star stuff!

[Kamira · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't want to give this trash any " stars " at all, but that's the only way to have my say it appears. Amazed this has so many good reviews tbh, this " book " is terrible. Another lazy fantasist using a load of made up nonsense for the principal aim of making fun of religion. Thats bad enough as it is, but to steal chapter titles from the Bible, not to mention the name of Genesis itself, is actually quite pathetic. Just another egotist - atheist using his " writing " to bash on Christianity, jumping on the bandwagon of what must seem to be a very easy target these days, I was too offended even to give it the time of day, it's like that awful " golden compass " rubbish all over again. It's actually disgraceful that this whole self-publishing thing nowadays has allowed people like this to prosper in any way shape of form, no doubt the " author"had to do it that way though as I don't imagine any serious publisher would touch it for even a minute. It's worthless junk - if I'd actually bought it it would of gone straight out with the garbage where it belongs. I won't even go into the whole talking animals thing, no doubt the " story " quickly descends into depravity and perversions of all that sort. Basically a complete waste of paper,
" not worth the paper it's printed on " as they say, and they would be right. Again, not even worth the one star I was forced to give it, save yourself the time.

[Carriboo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first review! There seem to be plenty for most other things, not so many here, so I thought I'd put in my two penny's worth......
Straight away, this book steers you on a peculiar course, and then carries on in similar fashion throughout - in a good way, I mean!
It's very different to typical fantasy-writing, and refreshingly so I think, first of all just in the word-use, there's none of the usual pomposity and courtly-manners style of speaking that seems to be the usual run of things in this sort of story. Actually it's kind of *not* that sort of story anyway, and I think it revels in its different-ness, and indeed kind of makes a point of itself in doing so.
It's hard to explain! The book uses many of the usual cliches of fantasy writing, but then almost joyfully tramples all over them, wrong-footing the reader at every turn, especially just as you think you know what's about to happen - or even when it does, it kind of makes a point of, well, pointing it out, I suppose, and then sort of making fun of itself, and the type of writing, while doing so!
Some of the word-use is extraordinary, and very engaging, even in the bits where it advises you to ignore what's being written (which *must* be a first, surely!) and it also does much to define the characters too, as well as to describe the world they're in, with different people having very distinct ways of speaking and thinking rather than being more generic - again, a problem common to a lot of fantasy works it seems, that courtly-manners cliche I mentioned before where everybody speaks in verilys and forsooths (I'm exaggerating of course but I'm sure you understand my point) all very well spoken excepting the occasional vagrant or somesuch kind of side-character.
It very much plays on the "not everything is as it seems" thing, and causes you to question the usually very clearly-defined opposites of good and evil and sort of teaches you not to accept that something is a truth just because it's always been said to be so, if you see what I mean. I told you it was hard to explain.
I'm going to get straight back into this, as I'm sure I've missed a lot of deeper stuff on just the first read through. Looking forward to whatever comes next!

[Dacie Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite a little treasure. Strange but interesting right from the start - and as the previous reviewer has said, a lot going on. Not least the initial setup of the world's mythology, a real mix of several cultures that was even so a credible whole. It's silly, funny, scary, and all sorts ofeverything else, never settling into one particular groove and switching from seriousness to humorous without missing a step, and also without losing its 'reality' even with a little fourth-wall breaking. The author cites Pratchett (and others too) as an influence, and I would say that fans of the great TP may well appreciate this too.
All in all a believeable alternate world, and a great start to what will hopefully become a proper series.