NO RETURN - Zachary Jernigan

This book is so ... shall we say 'unique' ... that I find it too difficult to synopsize, so we'll just let the author/publisher do it.  Here is the (edited) description from Goodreads:

Under the looming judgment of Adrash and his ultimate weapon—a string of spinning spheres beside the moon known as The Needle—warring factions of white and black suits prove their opposition to the orbiting god with the great fighting tournament of Danoor, on the far side of Jeroun’s only inhabitable continent.

From the Thirteenth Order of Black Suits comes Vedas, a young master of martial arts, laden with guilt over the death of one of his students. Traveling with him are Churls, a warrior woman and mercenary haunted by the ghost of her daughter, and Berun, a constructed man made of modular spheres possessed by the foul spirit of his creator. Together they must brave their own demons....

On the other side of the world, unbeknownst to the travelers, Ebn and Pol of the Royal Outbound Mages (astronauts using Alchemical magic to achieve space flight) have formed a plan to appease Adrash and bring peace to the planet. But Ebn and Pol each have their own clandestine agendas—which may call down the wrath of the very god they hope to woo.

Whew!  Right? If this description excites you, then you're bound to enjoy the book. If you find this a little bit head-spinning or maybe a tad over-the-top, then you might want to avoid this.

Author Zachary Jernigan has put in a great deal of time and effort for world-building. The civilizations, the customs, the religions, the people and their interactions with one-another are all amazingly well-defined and thought-through. It might be one of the better=planned worlds I've come across in sci-fi/fantasy.

And yet...

There's very much a 'teenage boy' mentality going on here. Fight a lot in the name of religion (because your side's right) and then have lots of kinky, otherworld sex.  Repeat.

This is actually not an uncommon formula - Robert E. Howard did it with his Conan stories in the 1930's, and John Norman did it with his Gor books in the 60's and 70's. I don't expect this will be quite as popular.

The book follows five main characters for the most part and that might be the biggest problem. Our focus gets divided and the book becomes more about ideology (as much as an action/erotica book can) than about the people who are currently living and fighting for it. And despite a sharp, clear (if not violent) world, I really didn't care about these characters. And without caring for them it didn't really matter to me what journey they were on, what god they were pleasuring or ticking off, or whether or not they survived into the next chapter.

It's under 300 pages, but it reads like a 600 page epic.

Looking for a good book? No Return by Zachary Jernigan is a well-detailed action/erotica fantasy journey to another world but you may wonder why you took the ride.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

* * * * * *

No Return

author: Zachary Jernigan

series: Jeroun #1

publisher: Night Shade

ISBN: 9781597804561

hardcover, 292 pages