The Fissure King: A Novel in Five Stories

by Rachel Pollack

Inspired equally by the classic TV noir Western, Have Gun, Will Travel, and Vladimir Nabokov's most daring novel, Pale Fire, multiple award-winning writer Rachel Pollack brings us the adventures of Jack Shade, occult "Traveler" and modern shaman for hire. Jack has a secret, and this hidden part of his past sends him on a journey through spells and gateways to other worlds, each one stranger than the last, filled with such figures as professional Dream Hunters, gangster magicians, an invisible spirit fox named Ray, an elegant Jinni named Archie, and the Queen of Eyes--holder of all oracular power in the world. From the high stakes poker table in the Hotel de Reve Noire, to the deadly Forest Of Souls, to a cave where he must trap a sixty-five thousand year old demon, Jack flows in and out of this world. Even when his own dream duplicate hires him to kill himself, Jack is mercury in motion--Jack the Nimble, Jack the Quick--until he runs out of tricks and must face his greatest fear.

The Fissure King: A Novel In Five Stories collects the four existing Jack Shade novellas, plus a new story that will require Jack's greatest sacrifice and change his very existence.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Short Stories, Mystery, Paranormal, Audiobook

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2017

About the author

Rachel Grace Pollack was an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. Pollack was a great influence on the women's spirituality movement.

Reviews

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustrating read. Started out very atmospheric and intriguing, with Jack as a cool dude. It's a novel in 5 stories, supposedly. But no real effort was made to integrate the stories. That is, with each new story, Jack's dilemma, the rules of the magic, and the other characters are introduced again. Since not enough time has passed for us to forget these, it's awkward and tedious--and downright rude to the reader. It would have cost nothing to edit these bits out, even if keeping the "stories" discrete. I use Scrivener for the linked story collection I'm building... some have been published separately and when they're put in the collection I add in things that link them, and take out repetitive elements. I keep files in Scriv that contain these elements for the versions that go out separately. Simple.

Also, Jack starts out seeming more masterful, and deteriorates with time, becoming less interesting. In the final story, we're shown his youth, where he is Sharp-Eyed Jack, a kid who hangs back and observes carefully, but in the second half of the story as an adult with a lot of hard experience, he is plunging around without any forethought at all and acting like your average male teen. Also, he doesn't seem committed throughout to finding his daughter, and if losing her causes him so much pain, why does he never think of the pain he's caused his parents?

So, disappointing overall... Jack could have been a lot more interesting. I thought this was headed for at least 4 stars, if not 5.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam?..."

Jack Shade is an occult Traveler, a sort of magical private detective/operative/shaman who can travel back and forth between worlds and deal with oracles, Powers, mages, elementals, demi-Gods, demons, and the like. In an amusing and apt nod to "Have Gun, Will Travel" he lives out of a hotel, (the Hotel de Reve Noire), and will take on any client who presents one of his unique engraved business cards .

Now, there are lots of magical/psychic/supernatural/paranormal detectives and operatives out there. (My favorite, and the one who, to me, most resembles our hero here, is Simon Green's John Taylor from the Nightside series.) Shade is a Traveler and a powerful magician, although not a Power as such. Shade has seen it all and been involved in most of it. So, you get a world weary, experienced, deep and rich magical vibe from him. He has a tragic backstory so you get angst, although not too much. He is extremely competent, although a bit reckless, and is a good man to have in a bad situation. More important to the reader, he is good company. He's a bit of a wiseguy, but his banter is witty, sharp and fast. These tales have an open and amiable feel, as though Shade is confiding in the reader and by taking the reader into his confidence is showing the reader the ways by which the real world of magic really works. This is all enhanced by a close attention to detail. If Shade is drawing a protective pentagram, by the time he's done you know how to draw a protective pentagram. (He's also proud of the precision of his freehand circles.)

The structure of this book is interesting, and works very well. The book consists of five novellas. Part 1 is a simple stand alone case, but it introduces the larger arc of what happened to Shade's wife and daughter, and Shade's obsession with finding and rescuing his daughter. Parts 2 through 4 are also individual stand alone episodes, but each contains hints and reminders about the daughter arc, and there are numerous recurring characters. Part 5 seems like a stand alone case, but it transforms into an adventure that ends up resolving the daughter arc. That's very tidy. Because the individual novellas are so rich and because you might want to savor and enjoy them one at a time with little breaks in between, this structure lets you come up to speed on Shade, visit with him from time to time, and then appreciate the satisfying close of his story arc. I enjoyed taking my time with this book.

The world created here is not dominated by magic wands and mumbled incantations. The author has done a fine and wildly imaginative and consistently authentic feeling job of creating an entire alternate magical world overlying our own. There are literally dozens of fascinating characters and creatures populating the stories. There are histories and inside jokes and innumerable grace notes and bits of color. None of this is careless and all of it fits together into a logical and consistent whole. This is a world of formality and rigor and proper procedure and behavior, and rules and traditions are not to be trifled with. But it is also a world in which the powers have sly, sardonic and bracing senses of humor, and a lot of style. As I say, the stories are rich and immersive. Shade is both jaunty and ruthless, and deadly, and that's a nice mix for a Traveler hero.

If you like these sorts of books - John Taylor, Harry Dresden, Sandman Slim, Yancy Lazarus, Eddie Drood - then Jack Shade will fit quite nicely on your shelf.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Esme · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another chance I took through Amazon Plus on audible, it’s a collection of novellas that’s been combined into a novel. Does it feel like five novellas crammed into one novel? Yes. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you know that going into it and are prepared to essentially read a bunch of novellas set in the same world with the same character.

This guy is basically a supernatural detective. He’s able to travel between the realm of the living and an in-between limbo that exists between life and death – the forest of souls. It looks like an endless forest and inside lurk those who’ve gotten stuck between worlds, occasionally a living person will find themselves trapped in there, but it’s usually ghosts. Each of the five novellas focuses on a different case he takes, and they get stranger as it goes along – including a time where his duplicate hires him to kill himself.

Despite being a very well written character, I never really warmed to Jack Shade. In fact, he started out more sympathetic than he ended I feel like. His daughter became possessed by a poltergeist around 14 years old, and then she killed his wife, her mother, with a knife. She didn’t mean to, she was horrified when she realized what had happened but it was too late. To make things more tragic, Jack asked for help, for her to be kept safe away from people she could hurt… only to have her end up in the Forest of Souls, lost.

This world had a little bit of everything in regards to fantasy elements – there were sprites, spirits, ghosts, demons, golems, mirror worlds, elementals, witches, sorcerers, seers etc. In that way the world building was pretty expansive, with each novella a little more of the world was unlocked and felt like it had more depth. For the amount of world building packed into a small amount of space, there was surprisingly little in the way of info dumps, which I love.

The prose was a highlight for me in this book. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but something about the way it was written just the content easy to digest and immerse myself in it. There was just enough description to keep a constant visual in my head, but not so much it clogs the story and takes me out of the moment. The dialogue was smooth, natural, and entertaining. The one drawback is that I know what each woman’s breasts are like, how big they are, or how small they are, or what kind of clothes the women wear to try and accentuate their boobs. I wish a woman could just cross her arm and not have the male gazey narrative comment on “her magnificent breasts”…

I think maybe my problem with reading novellas is that I’m always left with wanting more. In this case, however, because there were five of them I felt like I got to know the world and the character enough to latch onto it. I would recommend this to people looking for detective stories, lots of fantasy elements, a grey character with a tragic backstory and fast paced adventure.

TLDR Snapshot:
Tropes: detective/noir, ghosts, dead family, gruff rough character
Tags: lots of fantasy elements, lots of magic, fast paced, easy to read, audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy/noir
Ratings:
Plot: 11/15
Character: 12.5/15
World Building: 12/15
Writing: 12.5/15
Pacing: 12/15
Originality: 13/15
Personal Enjoyment: 7/10
Final Score: 80/100 or 4/5 on Goodread

[Matilda Regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost as soon as I started reading this, I wanted to be reading something else. (Yes, I know that I could have been reading something else, but let me tell you, there are like 4 books I have not finished. Ever.)

I picked this up, because Neil Gaiman posted a touching tribute to her and because the things he had to say about her writing (like creating the first trans hero for Vertigo) sounded very much like things I would enjoy. I haven't read the Doom Patrol comics, but I really love the series, particularly the way Queerness is central to the show.

But, by golly—I did not like this character, I did not like this book. I started out liking Jack Shade and just thinking the rest of the book was just really clunky. There is a ton of "manualization"—extremely long periods where we have to learn the game mechanics of the world, and plot points are signaled from several football fields away.

It is not really clear until the last of the five stories that Jack is supposed to be Black. There are some references to his "ropy hair" (not awesome, I think), and then in the last story there are occasional references to concern that someone "might be looking for a slave" (again, maybe it's just my own white sensibilities, but I found that sort of squirm-worthy).

But the thing I found most off-putting was the women in the book. They are completely one-dimensional. They exist only as plot devices and to demonstrate to the reader that Jack is just soooo irresistible. In particular, I think Pollack thinks that Carolien, the 6-foot-tall, 165-lb (ask me how I know? I read this description, as well as a description of her soft marvelous breasts and soft marvelous shoulders and soft marvelous hair approximately eight thousand times) Dutch Traveler, is some marvel of Strong Female Character-ness. Yet, she only exists so that we know all the male characters want to fuck her, but she chooses Jack. And the half-human Dream Hunter chooses Jack. And the sexy Bearded Lady chooses Jack. And his late wife chooses Jack. And in another "Why do you keep shooting yourself in the foot?" moment, there is a literally nameless blind woman who can only temporarily regain her sight (we know nothing about this woman or why she is not sighted, but in this brief interlude, Pollack manages to convey that a life with disability is not worth living—gross) by having sex, who—you guessed it—chooses Jack. Oh, wait. There's a woman who doesn't fuck Jack: his teacher who is so fat she needs a steel-reinforced bed and is constantly shoving Chinese food in her face. Awesome.

I could not tell you why all these women choose Jack. He is far stupider than the reader (because he cannot see the giant plot points descending on him). He is self-absorbed and reckless. Twelve years after the incident that results in his wife's grisly death and his daughter's banishment to the forest of souls, he is still acting recklessly, listening to no one, and all these women, for some reason, trot along at his heels to assist him in his bullshit.

Everything I read about Pollack suggests she is beloved and her writing is ground-breaking and inclusive. I trust that this is true in her other work, but boy it is NOT in this.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was so much about this that was fantastic. I just found it very difficult to sink into it / latch onto anything. It felt like every other paragraph, a huge, new piece of information was dropped in. There were lengthy explanations of things mid-conversation. You can't guess the solutions to the mysteries because the key detail needed to work out out is given right before the revelation, e.g. 'oh no - Jack remembered this thing the reader never knew about before - and that's what's happening now.'

It's a shame, because the individual lines, and the world-building, are excellent. I just didn't feel like it all came together.

[Jodie Scales · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I don't usually enjoy the brevity of the short story genre but it was perfect for The Fissure King; five short stories making up a novel in fitting form with concept. I liked the style and kind of dry pan urban fantasy perspective as well as the story as a whole. I looked to see what else Rachel Pollack had written thinking I might want to read something else of hers, but found books on Tarot reading and not novels. I will definitely keep an eye out for any future novels she may produce.

[Patricia Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rounded my 3 1/2 stars rating up to 4. I don’t understand why I didn’t love this group of five connected stories. There’s mystery, fantasy, supernatural, and sci-fi with a little romance thrown in. For some reason I couldn’t seem to keep up with the characters. Something important would happen- a mystery would be revealed- and a character (who I should be familiar with) was a mystery to me. I often asked, “Huh? Who’s that?!”

I like Jack Shade, the other characters (the ones I could remember), and the themes of the stories. I think it would make a great TV series.

[Constance · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to be honest. I just didn't love this. The stories in themselves are fine, but they don't feel connected in the way I would expect from a "novel in five stories." Instead, they are five supernatural mystery stories connected by the same detective. Creative and interesting if supernatural-type mystery stories are your thing.

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The storytelling approach reminded me of the first Witcher book. The main character's motivation, backstory, and world are completely different - but the plot's framing and intertwining short stories had a familiar feel. If you liked that style, you may like this book.
I can overlook instances of "be verb" passive tense (which i know others might not) and other editorial missteps when I am distracted by other bits of the writing style which I find charming, witty, and/or creative.

[Mimi Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun supernatural fantasy series of short stories; interesting protagonist, and delicious, rich world of multiple souls and timeline cleanup crews. A little too much on difficult teenage daughters, but that’s OK. Very visual, good storytelling.

I read the audio book - great narration, fun listen.

[Richard Kendrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich world building. It may be a side effect of the complexity of the world, but it was basically impossible to predict what would happen next. This felt very dense, like compressing several novels worth of material into one, but not full of cumbersome exposition or long history lessons. Good pacing. Recommended.

[Ry Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a bit of a Tim Powers-esque vibe to this set of connected short stories (albeit set in New York rather than California.) That's a good thing. The setting is endlessly inventive, and the hero is sometimes smart and sometimes a complete dumbass, but always in a believable way.

[Sarah Scherer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the idea of combining novellas together into a book! This one was done very well. I'm not sure if this is what the author had in mind, but it sure worked once the last short story was tacked on. Interesting world; I'm not sure if it's unique but I don't read much of this type of book so it might be totally unique.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting & unique fantasy premise & tone.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy episodic fantasy like The Witcher series ot the show Supernatural (which I'm positive there's an Easter egg for in this book), you'll probably enjoy reading this book. Parts of (especially the tone) it reminded me of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Excellent attention is paid to world building, and Pollack's experience with tarot and the metaphysical really enhances this read.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! A series of connected stories circling the life and experiences of a Traveler named Jack Shade. We'll told, with enough hidden depth and meaning to satisfy those who like to go deeper with their fiction.