Fury's Bridge by Brey Willows

Fury's Bridge by Brey Willows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*I received this book from NetGalley, and Bold Strokes Books in return for a fair review.*

Genre/tags: Fantasy
Location: Earth; USA; California; Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Cal State
Characters: Main - Selene Perkton (philosophy professor at Cal State, specifically a trans-human philosophy person), Alectho 'Alec' Graves (Avenging fury)

Side characters
: Zed (Alec's boss); Tis & Meg (sisters of Alec); Frey Falconi (famous philosopher dude who a) 'makes philosophy accessible to the masses' and b) wants to start a movement with Selene); Mika (Selene's long term (multiple year) girlfriend who is very logical, coldish, and 'exact' (7 means 7, if Mika arrives somewhere she is expected at 7 and she arrives at 6:42, she'll stand outside starring at her watch until 7).
Storyline: The furies wander around 'punishing' the bad, one of Alec's jobs. Selene is teaching while struggling with her cold logical robot, I mean girlfriend; and with a man who wants her to join him in a 'movement' (Frey). Unbeknownst to Selene, she is also 'needed' by the furies, and that's one of Alec's main jobs - to 'get her'.

This is not your normal kind of urban/paranormal fantasy. At least not mine. Most of the urban/paranormal fantasies I’ve read include such things as vampires, shifters (mostly werewolves, but occasionally others) and the occasional other ‘odd-ball’. Most of those, even the few that include demons and angels (oddly enough) do not actually delve that deeply into religious matters. Oh, there might be the occasional comment by a vampire about churches, or crosses or the like, but mostly in a ‘that’s fiction, this is real life’ kind of way. This book here is different – religion plays a massive role in this book.

Selene Perkton is a philosophy professor and is involved in attempting to ‘raise up’ humans, to get them to evolve to the next level. Something that doesn’t have to ‘rely’ on the ‘superstitious crutches of the past.’ This is why she was contacted by a fast rising pop-philosophy star, Frey Falconi. Falconi also wants to help break humans free from the taint of religion, in his words (Selene is less ‘breaking free from taint’ and more ‘letting people live their lives, those that believe believe, but making sure everyone has the full information’), and he wants Selene to join him in his mission. Frey, and to a certain lesser extent Selene, see humans as basically good – and freed from religion, can reach great heights (which, in its way, seems odd – since one of the major reasons they wish to break people away from religion is because so much ‘bad stuff’ has been done by ‘bad people’ pretending to be acting in ‘insert deity’s name here’ name; remove deities, they’d use some other cloak/cover for their bad actions).

And there has been a relatively steady decrease in believers. Which is somewhat unfortunate, at least it is for a certain group of people who happen to work out of an office building just off the beach in Santa Monica California. They work for Afterlife Inc. And they are gods, goddess, and various other assorted religious types. And they are starting to fade – actually many have already faded. (view spoiler)[For the power of man creates them, and the lack of belief causes them to fade away, to poof. (hide spoiler)] There is this prophesized oracle, though, indicating that a certain someone will save them. That someone being Selene – the ‘rational thinking atheist’. The other lead in this story is sent out to ‘get her’ to join their side – that being Alectho Graves, one of the three furies.

This was a very interesting story. Quite enjoyable. Not one I’ve read a million different versions of under different names, but something more unique. Though, no, it isn’t completely original. I thought as I read that I’ve read some similar things. Like Bill Willingham’s Fables series (view spoiler)[(there the power of ‘fame’ creates beings; here the power of ‘belief’ creates beings – and the lack or lessening of either takes away the power of both). Fame as in – the written word has brought to man such things as, say, the fairy tales of the Grim Brothers, which have been repetitively told by others, filmed, etc. – so such creatures as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Beauty’, ‘The Beast’, ‘the big bad wolf’ are given form and flesh; while belief, in this book here, creates literal gods. (hide spoiler)]

Another thought I had while reading the book – this work did not seem like it was the first thing the writer had written. Quite well written and stuff. And I had the impression that this was the author’s first work, though I now see that ‘she has published a large handful of short stories’ part in her biography.

Rating: 4.68

Publication Date: March 1 2017

Review: February 21 2017




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