Infernal Heirs
Hellish Adventure complete with intricate mythos, transformation, and character development
As someone who enjoyed the other two installments in the series, I’m a bit biased to be reviewing the latest installment in the Realm Wraith series by T.R. Briar. I liked the first two and that sentiment hasn’t changed with the third. This one, Infernal Heirs, however, might be my favorite of the three novels.
Why? Well, although it has its exposition heavy moments, Infernal Heirs is free to really explore the abyss world and the demons within. We go to a city in the abyss, ride a ship, and meet old and new characters. Our good protagonists from the first two have been relegated to supporting position to make way for the books two young ‘heroes’.
This pair is Levi and Gale. Levi being the protagonist of the first book’s son. Now, as this is a review for the third book in a series, I’ll spoil the first novel a bit. Rayne Mercer is actually Nen’kai, a supremely powerful abyss king of sorts. Levi is born from Nen’kai’s Human form…but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the loop from all the fun demonic stuff. In fact, he’s being protected and watched over closely by David, a force for good in the world.
The quaint status quo and ignorance of Levi and his schoolmates is thrown into chaos when Gale (sort of a small-time villain in the beginning) and Levi both wind up in the netherworlds and go on a strange journey. They both change physically and as people over the course of the journey. Gale overcomes prejudices and his highly religious upbringing to realize the truth about himself (and he becomes a decent person along the way). Levi learns about his father and begins to undergo transformations.
I’ll dwell on that — I loved Levi’s transformation and the body horror aspect of it. It was well detailed. It’s not often you get to read something like what happens and it was truly enjoyable how the author put it together.
I would call the plot secondary to the overall world and character building. Which is great because a) the world is interesting and b) the characters are relatable although their circumstances really aren’t. Whatever could be happening as long as its told the way it was and if the characters and world continue being fascinating.
So, you guessed it, I totally recommend this book. It’s a bit of a different flavor than the other ones, less horror-ish, more adventure, but it’s great fun and adds even more depth to the mythos of the series.
