EDGE OF THE BREACHBook 1 of the Rift CycleWe all become monsters at the edge of the breach. In a post-apocalyptic world where season of birth determines power — spring healers, summer mages, fall shapeshifters, and winter shields — a man and a woman emerge from tragic childhoods to lead humanity on opposite sides of an interrealm war.There is a hole in the sky. They call it the Rift. A portal to … the Rift. A portal to the gods. The scar of a suffering world. Through it, the gods rule the last scraps of civilization, harkening war. As chaos beckons, two leaders emerge from the ashes of a dying planet.
Julian Kyder is the son of an abusive rape victim who compensates for his abandonment through psychopathy. Sira Rune is a cancer survivor who dedicates her life to living free and fearless while experiencing the taboo and the unorthodox. Rune is the only one unafraid of Kyder, and that terrifies him, because he only knows how to function through fear. Even though she gives him more chances than he deserves, how much violence can she forgive? When is a person beyond redemption? While he struggles to control his demons and she struggles to find purpose, the gods drag the ruined world into war.
CONTENT WARNING: The Rift Cycle is a highly graphic series intended for mature audiences. It is about the raw, harsh, brutal nature of truth, and it is violent, gory, and unflinching in its execution.
TAGS: science fiction, fantasy, grimdark, horror, psychology, LGBTQ, mental illness
Follow Halo on Twitter & Instagram (@halo_scot), or visit haloscot.com.
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Raw, Violent, Disturbing, and Brilliant!
If you are the type to turn away during the intense/scary scenes of a movie, then steer clear of this book. For the rest of us, this is an amazing, compelling must-read! (Yes, those other rave reviews are correct!) The author’s gift for writing is apparent from the first lines and immersed me into a demented, mystical, scary world that I was thankful to only be visiting.
A mind blowing debut, daring, confident, and gruesome.
I was left knowing too much and wanting more all at once.
I look forward to reading more in this series and from this author, who pushes their characters to the edge and breaks conventions to tell a fascinating and compelling story.
This is one book I just can’t stop talking about! It’s an amazing book! Two worlds come together, and the results are explosive! This really needs, I mean REALLY needs to be a movie! Box office hit! I can’t wait to see what’s next!
I’m a hit or miss fantasy reader and I rarely enjoy sci-fi, BUT Edge of the Breach was an absolute hit for me. Where I dislike the genres is within the usual flowery prose or the worlds require me as the reader to suspend too much belief in order to follow a character arc. Yeah. That didn’t happen in this book.
Halo Scot wrote in a style that I love. While the descriptions were detailed with poetic (oftentimes vulgar poetry, but still elegant poetry) phrases, the style holds a modern taste that draws me in. By using first person points of view, Scot managed to engage me with laughter as well as drawing me into the emotions one feels when dealing with mental health issues such as OCD, depression, anxiety, and autism. Scot avoided overly simplistic summaries of the reactions (from both sides of the disorders–the sufferer and the supporters). Within the fantasy world Scot created, the emotions are very real. At times, it hurt to read, but I couldn’t put the book down because I cared about the characters and their pain.
Now, about the world within Edge of the Breach. It’s fantastic. I mean that. Fantasy and wonderful. The details and rules of the world held. There were no easy or obvious fixes when the story got hard. Part of why I struggle with fantasy is that there tends to be a magical shield or that last moment saving item that appears and saves the day. Scot never went for the easy within this book. Instead, the characters and world stayed in tact. What worked was only through established personalities, skills, and available resources. Nothing easily appeared. There were no cheats. That kept me guessing and at no point did I have the “oh, I know where this is going” moment.
I highly recommend this book. I’m already a bit annoyed that the sequel has yet to be written, because I want to know what comes next. That being said, whatever time Halo Scot needs to write the sequel as well as the first book in the Rift Cycle series, it will be worth it.
I was immediately sucked in by the world-building in THE EDGE OF THE BREACH. The world has been ravaged by nuclear war, and human life only survives at what used to be Antarctica. The nuclear fallout has given humans magical abilities. This was a bleak, savage dystopian post-apocalyptic world that the author built brilliantly, with shapeshifters and mages, and the month/season you were born into determining what sort of power you will have. Our two main characters, Kyder and Rune are very different, and I loved both of them. Rune lost a twin brother when both were very sick with cancer. She was supposed to die as well, but by a miracle, survived. Kyder was raised in an abusive home and has a lot of raw edges. This world was quite brutal, and the writing does not pull back from that in any way, so not a read for the faint of heart. Still, this was very well done, and I loved the complexity of the characters.
For a full review please visit https://bit.ly/3yEf6QY.
This is a very dark, post-apocalyptic/futuristic science-fantasy novel. Due to nuclear war, humanity has been pushed to the last “safe” haven left to them in Antarctica, which has become a desert wasteland. Humans have also evolved to harbor powers, dictated by the season of their birth, which I found to be a very cool concept. The two main characters are Kyder, a summer-born mage, and Rune, a winter-born shield. Two more opposite characters could not have been imagined…and yet, they work perfectly together within the narrative.
This book is a wild ride. It’s brutal, it’s wonderful, it’s heart-wrenching, it’s crazy, but it was such a fantastic read. If, as a reader, you can handle confronting the darkness that is the human monster (and I believe that we all have some of that inside of us), and also the beauty of the human soul, you will enjoy this book. This book will not be for everyone – it is violent, explicit, and has a fair amount of language, but I loved every second of it.
I truly have no words to describe how much I loved this book.
Set on a dystopian earth, Halo introduces us to Kyder, a mentally ill anti-hero who has no future besides the one he makes for himself, and he’s determined to carve a path to greatness through flesh and blood.
Offset by Rune, a girl who once had everything only to lose her twin and almost her life, these two storylines weave together into a incomparable tale of loss, pain, and love.
Filled with gore, death, and hope, Edge of the Breach is a gritty tale that isn’t for everyone, but I for one couldn’t put it down. Somehow this author made two flawed potentially hated characters into people I cared about and had to know what happened to them.
Scot is an author to watch and I cannot wait to read more from them.