The Turn

For better or worse, or maybe both, the apocalypse is absolute freedom.

The Turn is a dark mythological series, wherein a reclusive bookworm and a Wall Street womanizer join up in an unlikely friendship to avenge the world they loved.

The turn is set to be a five-novel series, the first three of which are currently available on Amazon.com.

What kind of world is the turn?

A dark one. “The turn” is the name for the event that changed the world, shifting the geography, erasing most of the human footprint and covering large portions of the world in ash.

Approximately ten percent of the human population remains, and they are surviving in whichever way they must: be it by clinging to what scattered scraps of the old world remain, by building new civilizations, or by making their way in the new wilderness.

Sunlight isn’t the same as it used to be: there’s a hollow darkness to it now. One can barely notice it, but day after day, a depression builds up deep in the psyche as a result of it. Even food which is cultivated in this post-turn world doesn’t taste as fresh, and is not as satisfying. As if the memories of what happened weren’t bad enough, this subtle despondency is slowly driving some people insane.

But what did happen? And how? …and why?

That’s the mystery. Scholar (one of the two main protagonists) wasn’t even affected by it. He was lazing in his parents’ basement while the world came apart around him. When he emerged, the post-turn world had taken its hold. So he doesn’t know the first detail of the actual event.

Whatever did happen, it left without a trail, without evidence, without any apparent leads; just a mess of human nature in a ravaged wasteland.

So the series is a mystery?

The first book is. The rest of the series is a mythological adventure.

The first book of the series is a suspenseful mystery. It focuses on world-building, character development and the relationship between the characters.

But the journey to uncover what happened to the world may beget a second chaos, one far more cataclysmic and Earth-shattering than the turn itself.

so what is the ESSENCE of the series as a whole? What does it all come down to?

At its core, while it may not be apparent, I would call the series a “bromance” more than anything else (albeit a little more than anything else). The Turn is a lot of things, a great many things, but the deepest staple in the narrative is the unlikely friendship that develops between the two main characters, and the adventure they face together.

The Turn

A dark mythological fantasy driven by the characters and the atmosphere.

"They say the end of the world began when the president of the United States shot himself on national television..."

This is the first of three books currently available. The series will ultimately consist of five novels.

Before I get into what the story is about specifically, I want to let you know off the bat that this is a niche story, particularly the first novel. The wilder, mythological elements come into full bloom from the moment the second book begins, but the entry into the series is a crushingly dark and nigh hopeless atmosphere, governed by characters who themselves are no white knights; they are wanderers both trying to make sense out of a confusing world, and that confusion is likely to be shared by the reader. Having said that, this is by design; reading the first entry of this series is like walking through a dark forest, with noises echoing from untraceable sources, shapes forming in the branches that look like something other than what they are, and all manner of things appearing out of nowhere. As the series continues, the forest opens up, and the characters begin to find agency in this new world. 

There is slavery in this story, and implications of all forms of abuse (though sexual abuse is never explicitly described). The main characters are flawed to a fault; some may argue an unforgivable fault. There is no hero in this story, at least not in this opening entry to the series. This first book is somber, depressing, and bizarre. However, nihilism is not the overall theme of the series: quite the opposite, in fact.

Still, if this does not sound like something for you, I completely respect that; but because I respect you as a devoted reader and reviewer, I must ensure that you are one hundred percent aware of what you are getting into before I become the beneficiary of your time and money.

Now, moving on to the subject of the story...

The series begins two years after "the turn", an event which rendered the world geographically unrecognizable and left less than ten percent of the population alive. Scholar, one of the two main characters, was lazing in his basement apartment when the event actually happened, so the details of this event are unknown to him, because nobody wants to talk about it.
The second main character is Ashley. He is a former Wall Street playboy who has learned how to adapt physically and psychologically to the new world. But he wants to get out of survival mode and see the world, motivated by a deep and burning desire he can't quite put his finger on.

Finally, we have Cattleprod: a schoolteacher turned human-trafficker. He too has a desire within him to have a bigger impact on the world than he has in the past. Cunning and charismatic, he uses his skills to enlighten the new world by his grand vision for it.

The Turn as a series is a lot of things, a great many things, but the deepest staple in the narrative is the unlikely friendship that develops between the two main characters, Ashley and Scholar, and the strange and wild adventure they face together in this dark but rapidly-changing world. 

The King of May

“Let me show you what you are, that we may revel in our untainted truths as we dance in the light of the untainted sun!”

Change comes faster than any would have predicted in the post-turn world, a world which had remained largely stagnant for more than two years. But the recent actions of Ashley and Scholar have set off a cataclysmic chain reaction, resulting in, among other things, a pantheon of quasi gods. And now the burgeoning forces of man, including the ever-villainous Cattleprod, must contend with the wrath and mischief of the King of May.

The Sins of a master race

“We are the sin made flesh.”

The world certainly does not look the same as it did before the turn, but neither does it look the same way as it did in the immediate years after.

Alongside the gods have come new races of people with varying features and mysterious origins. But among these fascinating new species of intelligent life, two people, a man and a woman, have escaped the machinations of the gods and come into this developing world. And they will stop at nothing, destroying whoever may stand in their way, to expose the gods for what they truly are.