7 Beyond by Stella Atrium
It was a dark and stormy night (yes, really). Icy rain falls as a six-wheeled imperial berlin drawn by eight great horses hurtles along a mountain road, followed by a mounted escort on unruly thoroughbreds.
Inside the coach are the aging, bejeweled Lady Drasher Elizabeth Tasgneganz, two doctors and two servants. When the traveling party stops to spell the horses, the coachman reports: “There’s somebody here. On the road by the bridge. It’s a woman. Pregnant and in pain.”
7 Beyond by Stella Atrium is a multi-layered science fiction/fantasy that quickly sweeps a reader into intriguing worlds where places and events are vaguely familiar, yet oddly strange, sometimes futuristic, sometimes anachronistic. New clues are revealed at a fast pace, and each page adds a facet to the author’s hall of mirrors.
SWEEPS A READER INTO INTRIGUING WORLDS
Dr. Christopher Meenins carries the pregnant woman into the coach, and is surprised to discover that her index finger has an extra joint. It’s a trait only alien Longist Thespians have. Her name is Linda, she tells him, and she appears to know his secrets. “You knew David, who shared the words of the Father of the Dead,” she tells the doctor. “I visit per the Redeemer’s instructions to serve you.”
Lady Drasher’s group arrives at a monastery where nuns produce a much-desired brandy, and the circumstances of this strange world begin to emerge. There are public, ceremonial matches of Tsing Tse, the glass bead game that draws opponents into psychic combat. And all await the ecstasy of Ursula, in which some will be allowed to join.
“And what was ecstasy?” the narrator asks. “In the Old World, the Catholic World, it was an episode of disassociation that could get your burned at the stake. Just ask St. Bernadette.”
As the group tarries at the monastery, they amuse themselves by telling stories about David Shanklen, a patient — and mentor — of Dr. Meenin. Diagnosed as bipolar, delusional and homicidal, and held in an asylum’s padded cell, Shanklen claimed that during his “ecstasy” he’d had contact with the Longists, so called because they neither age nor die. They were “another race who talked across the stars along currents of psychic energy,” Shanklen said, and he’d helped them reach out to others of their own kind.
WORLD-BUILDING AT ITS INTRICATE BEST
Reminiscent of The Canterbury Tales, Lady Drasher’s group resumes its journey, joined by Linda who tells the history of the Longists. She recounts the alien race’s social hierarchy and customs and their interplanetary wars; the influence of a traveling preacher named Mary who became known as the Redeemer; and a man named Clem whose fate is intimately linked to that of David and Dr. Meenins.
Suspense mounts as Atrium reveals the connections between the characters against the interplay of the great themes — power, war, religion, friendship, sanity and women’s roles across time and space. The narrative draws the reader relentlessly along with surprising, sometimes humorous details, and frequent (footnoted) quotes from Yeats, Eliot, Poe, Nabokov, Hesse, Camus and the Bible.
The events and themes of this book defy short summary. It’s world-building at its intricate best, and earlier reviews have compared it to The Left Hand of Darkness and Cloud Atlas.
But what about Linda’s unborn child? “Would they find their new home before her time? Would her child be born on the roadside somewhere, a misbegotten beginning?” Keep reading to find out.
Seven Beyond is available for purchase here.
About Stella Atrium:
Stella Atrium is a award-winning fantasy writer who presents otherworld stories about female protagonists. Although set in a fantasy world, the obstacles encountered are relatable to our lives today. How do women respond to the kinds of obstacles women encounter using the tools available to women?
Stella teaches at university in addition to online writing courses. She lives in Chicago, Illinois. Go CUBS!
