Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera

Publication Date: 24th April 2025

Thank you so such to Solaris and Rebellion for this mind-bending ARC!

This book was incredibly hard to read and review. Then again, as a fan of This is How You Lose the Time War and The Spear Cuts Through Water, I am no stranger to hard reviews – and this very much felt like those two books had produced a very, very strange child.

What it said on the blurb was very much a faint guideline, making sense of what felt like a fever dream or a hallucination. It followed two characters through time, as their paths intersected time and time again, though you cannot always tell who was who or why the characters even came together, until the end of a scene. It was more about vibes. Vibes, imagery, feeling, and making sense of what you can – which was very liberating. In particular, I enjoyed the sections where the dead were living and where the Hero takes on the Emperor, but this was especially because of how both sections were reverse engineered. The ability of this book to loop back on itself, creating a vortex of images and clues that then came to full realization later and left me in a state of déjà vu, can only be described as insane.

I also loved the hints at history, at place and people, at a sense of cultural anger and the need to be reborn to see justice, even if it only meant more pain. The writing style, whilst baffling, was also a fascinating reflection of the characters falling through time and was such a mishmash, that it felt like a fascinating visual depiction of generational trauma, at certain points.

But overall I just do not think that this worked as a cohesive book.

It was once published as sections before, a fact that is mentioned at the beginning. As sections, I think this would have worked, but as a whole the connections were fragile and, without the blurb, I would frankly have had no idea what was going on. This sense of confusion caused slow pacing and worsened the disjointed nature of the narrative, thereby rendering the arcs of the characters virtually non-existent. What change was made? What development did they go through? Do not ask me, for I barely knew who the characters were or what their end goals were, across the whole overarching narrative of this book.

Overall, whilst this had some fascinating things to say and concepts to explore, I think its deliberately vague nature and a blurb that promises what was simply not there shall stop it from being a fully translatable book, to a number of readers. That being said, I think it shall also find an incredibly dedicated audience in those who enjoy stream of consciousness, non-linear narrative, and inventive prose - all of which make Rakesfall one of the most unique books that I have ever had the honor of reading!

Vajra Chandrasekera burst onto the speculative fiction scene with his fantasy novel The Saint of Bright Doors. He returns to the world of that book briefly in his new book Rakesfall, but only as an indicator that the scope he is playing with is multi-world and cross time. Rakesfall, otherwise spans millions of years of multiple with short pieces in different registers. It is just unclear in the end what story Chandrasekera is trying to tell.
It is impossible to summarise the plot of Rakesfall. There are characters who recur (under different) names across the many eras and locations of the novel. The first few sections seem to take place in Sri Lanka, and reference its colonisation and exploitation but also the sectarian war that followed its independence. These eras are dealt with to some extent metaphorically so those without a deep knowledge of the context are likely to miss much of the nuance. And that is even before Chandrasekera takes his narrative well into a post-human future and a world being rebuilt from the ashes.
As a series of short narrative pieces there is very little for readers to hang on to. Characters do recur but it is hard to keep track of which characters they were in the past. There is plenty of science fiction concepts but there are also gods and witches and demons and as noted, a section set in what can only be termed an alternate reality to our own. All that said, the first half of the book feels more coherent than the second. Stories that at first do not seem connected nest in each other in some satisfying ways. The second half, after a multi-millenial time jump, seals with similar issues but less successfully.
Chandrasekera is clearly a prodigious talent and I really wanted to like this book more. There are some dizzying sections and descriptions. But I felt that too much of it required a level of knowledge about things that I did not have, and the lack of tangible connection between the different narrative strands left me floundering.

I read a Locus interview with Vajra Chandrasekera where he was, not dismissive of his debut novel exactly, but talking about it as a compromise with what sells. Which took some processing because, if you've read The Saint Of Bright Doors, it's very much not an 'oh yeah, this popular subsubgenre again' kind of book; there's maybe a passing Midnight's Children affinity if you squint, but even that's a pretty loose reference point for Buddha's levitating assassin son having picaresque adventures in a city where any closed door seals itself for good. A world, incidentally, to which Rakesfall does pay a return visit, and echoes elsewhere, but this is definitely not a straight sequel. And yes, fair play, it is much, much stranger.

We open with a chorus of ghost children who form a contentious fandom for an unnamed show which may be real life, and whose characters in turn watch a documentary which seems to be about the ghosts. From there, we bounce back and forth in deep time, via the war-torn history of Sri Lanka, the many external forces who've attacked and conquered it, and the various taxonomies that have been used to bloodily divide its inhabitants. There are demons, reincarnation, a circling around the question of continuity of identity, how much we can hold each other responsible for the sins of past lives, which of course even outside this context has a bearing on people and polities who change over the course of their long existences. Never quite as long as this, mind; by the end of the book the last few humans on Earth, attempting to reboot the biosphere after assorted apocalypses, are caught up in a murder mystery, and hauntings, and maybe a romance, as if Rakesfall were trying to be genre fiction by doing all the genres at once. And for all the mythic scale of it, the grand cycles, part of what sells it is the daft little details, the guard in a story within a story who's not good with rope ladders, or the immortals whose group chat log "takes up more storage space than any other human artefact in the history of the planet". I honestly couldn't tell you how successful it is, but I can't fault the ambition.

(Netgalley ARC)

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for approving me to read this, I’m rating it 3.0 stars.

This may be the most unique read I’ve had this year. I’m not totally sure it was for me, but I can appreciate the writing and creativity of the story.

The story follows different timelines, cultures, dimensions and worlds in order to create this unique story. It feels a little fever dreamy. I feel like I lost my way with the story at points, but I’m glad I gave it a read.

Rakesfall is a fantastic standalone science fiction. The writing is amazing, this author is definitely a master at their craft. Overall I was drawn in and took along for a ride. At times hard to follow and dreamlike. At other times thought provoking and raw. This is definitely an interesting read that you need to have focus for and give time to. It’s atmospheric and all encompassing read. If you want romance then don’t pick it up. These are tied souls that persist. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Was I really confused for a good part of Rakesfall ? Yes. Did I still enjoy myself while reading it ? Surprisingly yes.

What was difficult to make sense of was all the stuff surrounding the reincarnation. But each time we cycled through another lifetime, I got to enjoy a completely new setting/world, and that was the highlight of this book for me. Chandrasekera clearly has a lot of imagination, and is also creative in the way that he tells this story (for example, by including a short play). I wish I had a direct link to his brain so I could see his writing process (and this way understanding the whole book).

I don't regret reading this, but I do feel like I missed out on a lot of the narrative, which is a shame.

Sadly this was a DNF for me quite early on as I just didn’t get it and struggled with the plot. It’s a shame as I thought there were sparks of promise.

I'm not sure what I read. At some level, this is a story of the tension and attraction between yin and yang (or man and woman) across time periods and states of existence. At another level, the book is a collection of semi philosophical musings about the state of being and the relevance of time. At yet one more level, it's a series of loosely connected fragments describing a potential future of our world, and how it's inexorably embedded in conflict, whether it's the one in Sri Lanka, or the one in an unaccountably distant future.

I liked the writing and the imagination. It also made me think quite a bit, though I wasn't always sure what I was supposed to take away from all this. I did keep going, so there was something quite alluring in the text and the words, despite the cryptic nature of it all.

I did struggle with the book. While I understand that some might argue that a book doesn't have to have a point, and the reader (or the one subject to the aesthetic experience of the book) is free to take whatever they want and need from it, I found the whole to be too abstract. I recognise that I might not have grasped all I should have grasped from this, and others might enjoy it more than I. However, I don't see myself as a shallow reader only enjoying frivolous books, and therefore I would have wanted this book to be made more accessible. As it is, it came across as the raving musings of someone very high on acid (think - Vandermeer, but with more drugs and more philosophy), or the conscious attempt by an author to make the reader feel lost and stupid.

I struggle to see anyone truly enjoying it. I might be wrong, but those individuals are likely to be particularly smart and/or philosophically minded. If you're looking for a plot driven experience - this is not the book for you.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I nearly DNF this, but I persevered although I wish I hadn't, I must have missed something, I had no clue what was going on, it felt like a fever dream, 1 star purely for the vocabulary

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera is an ambitious, haunting, and poetic exploration of reincarnation, resistance, and the power of storytelling. Blending dark science fiction with lyrical prose, it follows two souls—Annelid and Leveret—across countless lifetimes as they navigate war, oppression, and the shifting tides of history.

Their journey begins in the ruins of a torn-up nation, where they see through propaganda to grasp deeper truths. But one act of violence in a demon-haunted wood binds them together beyond death, propelling their souls through time. No world can hold them, no single life can contain them, and in each incarnation, they find each other again. Yet, as they push against the forces that shape reality, the witches of the Red Web whisper promises of revolution—of tearing down every throne.

With a mesmerising mix of narrative forms and experimental storytelling, Rakesfall is a bold and immersive read, weaving elements of mythology, history, and speculative fiction into something entirely unique. It is surreal, beautiful, and deeply unsettling—a book that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I picked this one up after someone recommended the author's first book to me. However, I do not think that I am the target audience for this. I like my books to have defined plots and a conclusive ending, but this book is the very definition of all vibes no plot. I will say that despite not really following what was going on the writing itself is very lyrical and immersive. and I found some of the individual segments quite enjoyable. I would recommend this for those who enjoy immersive abstract experiences.

I include a star-rating here only because it is required for netgalley. Its actual star-count is meaningless. This book defies something as simple as numerical ratings.. I don't know what I think. I don't know if I liked it. This is not a book for mere mortals like myself to subject to something as vulgar and profane as reviewing. I will say, however, that there's a bit on pg 245 that sums up the entire reading experience. I just about thought I was getting a handle on what was going on, and then the narrator helpfully articulates my thoughts, and then grandmother says, 'You say you get it, but then you talk like you don't get it.' Kind of a slap in the face.

No! No comprehension for you!

Maybe I'm not intelligent enough to truly understand the vision that was Rakesfall, but to me this is a very disjointed and difficult to understand story of two souls meeting and intertwining throughout time. The writing is breathtaking at times, utterly beautiful but that doesn't make the plot any easier to wade through or the overall story any more comprehensible. I don't think it helped that it's really a series of interlinking moments that transcend time. I'm very much a logical, one timeline kind of reader and this didn't really work for me because of that.

Some magical writing, but the story was far too complex for me to understand and enjoy.

What a surreal, beautiful novel. It have this sense of feaver dream I can really appreciate when done well, full of symbolisms, messages and hints, some easy to grasps, othe slipping out of your fingers.

In this novel, the feaver dream quality is helped by a use of various storytelling forms, a mix of codes and genres helping to create a very specific and strange atmosphere (in a good way). 'Rakesfall' is a love story, a reincarnation story, an epic poem, a sci-fi and a fantasy story. The plot shift and spill, made of little stories feeding a greater one, a coherent narrative you need to put together rather than following it.

Full of History and stories, across times and spaces, through various incarnation, 'Rakesfall' articulate itself around the akashic records. Is it easy to understand and follow ? No. I can't say I understood all of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure and the sense of mysticism, grounded and yet otherwordly. It draws on a cultural background I don't share, which meant I lost some of the impact, and yet, it also means I expanded my horizon in a way I ache for.

It is a challenging novel, and I know it will be a big miss for a lot of people But for the other, who likes to be challenged in a masterful way, with great prose and a story working on atmosphere and a plot coming together tendrils by tendrils, this book might be a bif hit.

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera is such a good book. Loved story. I rated it 5 stars because it's really a masterpiece! The author is a genious!

Vajra Chandrasekera es un autor natural de Sri Lanka que tiene ideas muy interesantes y una prosa muy cuidada, pero que me abruma con la complejidad de las estructuras que utilizar para sus narraciones y al final me parece que no llega a ninguna parte. Algo así me pasó con la novela ganadora del Nebula, The Saint of Bright Doors. Pero es que con Rakesfall la sensación se ha acentuado. Me parece una mejor novela que su debut, pero aún así me frustra ver que lo que podría ser un libro cautivador se queda a medio camino.

Rakesfall es una novela épica, en el sentido de narrar una epopeya que se extiende a través de la historia de la humanidad, siguiendo los pasos de Annelid y Leveret, dos almas destinadas a reencarnarse y encontrarse a lo largo del tiempo. Esta es la premisa principal del libro, que cambia de estilo, de escenario y de personajes en cada una de estas reencarnaciones, a modo de collage que debería servirnos para comprender una imagen completa, aunque me temo que en mi caso no lo he conseguido del todo.

Además de esta estructura de vidas enhebradas pero que se separan y se vuelven a unir, quizá la apuesta más arriesgada de Chandrasekera es variar tanto el estilo en cada una de las iteraciones, aunque hay que admitir que dominio de la prosa no le falta. Me refiero a frases como "Any non-obvious computer problem is magic, quantum bogo-dynamics in effect" o "a burning microscopic quantum of will at the heart of a fossilized leaf in the centre of a great igneous smear buried deep in the crust", por poner solo dos ejemplos. Nos encontramos ante un libro que requiere una lectura muy pausada, alejada del acelerado ritmo de vida actual. El autor incluso se atreve a rizar el rizo introduciendo relatos cortos dentro de algunas de las partes que componen la novela, en una búsqueda fractal de la belleza literaria.

La narración del audiolibro por parte de Shiromi Arserio es quizá demasiado aséptica para el mensaje transcendental que Chandrasekera aspira a hacernos llegar. Entiendo que es un libro muy complejo tanto en la forma como en el uso de algunas palabras pero también creo que se le podría haber insuflado algo más de vida al texto. Por supuesto, los intérpretes de los audiolibros varían entre obras, pero hay algunos que realmente parece que "viven" lo que están contando, como Joe Jameson en Play of Shadows, lo que dota a las novelas de otro nivel de disfrute.

Acabé la lectura de Rakesfall con sentimientos encontrados, pero esto