It has always been Eda’s dream to become empress, no matter the cost. Haunted by her ambition and selfishness, she’s convinced that the only way to achieve her goal is to barter with the gods. But all requests come with a price and Eda bargains away the soul of her best friend in exchange for the crown. Years later, her hold on the empire begins to crumble and her best friend unexpectedly grows … unexpectedly grows sick and dies. Gnawed by guilt and betrayal, Eda embarks on a harrowing journey to confront the very god who gave her the kingdom in the first place. However, she soon discovers that he’s trapped at the center of an otherworldly labyrinth and that her bargain with him is more complex than she ever could have imagined.
Set in the same universe as Joanna’s debut, Beneath the Haunting Sea, Beyond the Shadowed Earth combines her incredible world building and lush prose with a new, villainous lead.
more
Beyond the Shadowed Earth takes readers on an epic journey to unravel the deals of Gods and machinations of dark spirits.
Beyond the Shadowed Earth was such a great novel. Eda is a girl, a power-hungry girl, who has made a deal with a God. Nevertheless, that is the thing with deals; the trick is in the details. Eda thought she was careful, but her deal cost her dearly. Now, that is a great premise, drawing some allusions to religious doctrine of making deals with the devil, or some other dark deity. Furthermore, for this novel, it works out well to highlight all the flaws in Eda.
Eda is, admittedly, an incredibly unlikable character. Now, this could be off-putting for some readers, but on the whole, it is not terrible. Eda is selfish, self-centered, and power-hungry, and her deal, the messages she keeps receiving highlights in her inability to see and to listen. That is her most significant flaw, her inability to listen to the world around her. However, while she goes on her journey, she does grow, and Eda finally begins to realize just how selfish of a person she has been. Her journey is empowering, it is eye-opening, and the detail, the description that goes into developing her narrative allows the reader to understand her and connect to her, even while not liking her.
As for the mythology of the world, it is clear why this author dedicated this novel in part to Tolkien. The detail that went into developing the Gods, their stake in the world, and the circles surrounding the God, they are so thoughtfully and wonderfully constructed. The language is thoughtfully used and placed, and the development of the world, the development of the mythology, is genuinely breathtaking.
This novel has many allusions to Dante’s Inferno and Tolkien’s work. It highlights the struggle humans face with dealing with peace, grief, guilt, anger, resentment, and a whole slew of other emotions that make up the complex human psyche. It highlights character growth and delves into the mythology to allow the world-building to flourish within the story.
Joanna Ruth Meyer is a new author to me so I had no preconceived notions of her writing style, world-building, or character interaction. I have to say though, I was pleasantly surprised. When I initially read the teaser, I was quite excited as I’m a big fan of mythology. And then there was the fact she had exchanged the soul of her best friend for her own gain. Well, not only did I want read about the god who would allow someone else to pay the price for their own actions, but I also was intrigued how this Eda they were describing became so evil in the first place. I can’t say I was disappointed on either front. The world-building was extremely well done, the story was intriguing and kept me enthralled and the characters were so defined it was easy to love or hate them with a full range of emotion. And then the guilt factor came into play and we’re set off onto another rollercoaster ride of emotions. This book was well worth the read and I did so as a stand-alone and would highly recommend it.
A wondrous fantasy of sweeping proportions.
A fierce, mythopoeic tale of loss and redemption.
This is set in the same world as the authors previous book Beneath the Haunting Sea but is not exactly a sequel and I guess I should describe it as a companion story as it’s fleshing out the world building. I was intrigued by the idea of a heroine who wasn’t exactly heroic but honestly struggled to actually like Eda. I think I clearly need to feel sympathy, camaraderie or just plain empathy and sadly even though the journey throughout this story is leading Eda to conquer her own demons sadly I was just left feeling dissatisfied at the end.
Essentially we have Eda who has lied, cheated and murdered in order to become Empress but along the way she also offered a soul, a life if you will but not her own oh no definitely never her own ! Now Eda is surrounded at Court by those seeking to depose her possibly even execute her but all she cares about is the fact that she’s done everything asked of her by the tricky God only to see her friend whose life she so casually bartered away become ill. Treachery and hatred, ambition and murder are rife throughout this story with an ending that I feel is perhaps meant to show redemption but sadly this reader just wanted more emotion.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair