The Inquisitor's Progress

by Paul R. Hardy

Brunsol Mindspear is dead. In life, he was the chief inquisitor of the Bounded Land, steeped in blood after decades of tyranny in the service of god. In death, he finds his god to be false, and that his world was created not to provide a home for humanity – but to study it. Yet the world above is not the true reality, for that, too, was created within another world. As Brunsol climbs a ladder of universes, he seeks the true god of all the worlds above – so that he might exact a vengeance for all the suffering in the worlds below. “Better a betrayer of men than a god that betrays his own creation. Better a torturer in the name of god than a god that wills a world to torture. Better a tyrant of my own kind than a god who is tyrant over mere men… “Better a man like me than a god like you.”

412 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2013

About the author

Paul Hardy makes corporate videos for a living, and relaxes by writing novels when no one's watching. In the past, he made eighteen short films, won a BBC Drama Award, co-wrote & co-produced an independent SF film called Triple Hit and also wrote Filming on a Microbudget, a guidebook for making short films.

Reviews

[Smb12321 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to understand why this is not a solid five star across the board. The idea is original and even startling and the execution is phenomenal. Yes, it was long and convoluted but all was resolved. The constant twists and turns were just great and the writing was almost poetic at times - exactly the opposite of "This is Langu from the planet Xoodoo, Stop your atomic testing." Sophisticated and insightful.