The Convergence Saga
by Cadwell Turnbull

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted September 7, 2021
Edits and Addendum on September 17 & 22, 2025

1. No Gods, No Monsters / 2. We Are the Crisis / 3. A Ruin, Great and Free

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I received an advance review copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I normally review ARCs before a book's release, but have been struggling to concentrate on reading for several weeks now, so this review comes on publication day. This is the first book in a series with the collective title of the Convergence Saga. Early in the book the world goes through what becomes known as The Fracture, but I'm assuming the collective title means the fracture will be repaired, that various people and groups will work out their differences, begin working together. I'm probably wrong about that though, but I'm anxious to find out.

My inability to concentrate led to some of my confusion, but the non-linear narrative, and several puzzling characters, contributed to that as well. I continually had to re-read passages, sometimes several pages worth, because I had zoned out thinking of something else, realizing I had skimmed and didn't recall what I just read. I even thought I should delay this review until I could re-read, but I'm way behind so that won't happen until the second book is imminent. Hopefully I can explain other confusing points with as few spoilers as possible. Most of the book is written in third person, but some passages are in first; but who is the narrator? Even when their identity is revealed there is still confusion as to how they relate to other characters. It was a long time before I knew whether the narrator was a man, woman, non-binary, or trans person. Each of those are represented by other characters, and I suppose some characters are agender.

The Fracture is a psychological turning point for society, or at least for those who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have seen a viral video which appeared to reveal the existence of monsters, of were-people, shape-shifters. Shortly afterwards the videos are edited, and many only have the word of those who saw the unedited footage for corroboration, and of course some claim it was all a hoax. Laina knows it wasn't a hoax. One of the "monsters" was her younger brother Lincoln. What I'm not sure about is whether Lincoln's drug addiction happened after he was turned, as a way to deal with the trauma, or if his addiction led him to be vulnerable to being turned. Laina is the one who released the video, and the means by which she obtained it is very mysterious. Up to that point she had assumed her brother's death at the hands of the police was due to his violent rage while under the influence of drugs. The narrator mentioned above speaks to Laina in a disembodied voice, and apparently has done the same to a policeman who gives a flash-drive containing the original, unedited video to Lincoln's friend, and fellow monster, Rebecca, who in turn gives it to Laina.

Werewolves, werebears, weretigers, and the like, are not the only monsters. In some ways this could be viewed as one of the growing number of Lovecraft pastiches. There are secret societies who either worship the Old Gods, or attempt to enslave the gods to do their bidding. There are arguments and schisms among various groups, and some may have members who are gods themselves, of either the greater or lesser variety. The narrator is not the only invisible entity; another is a soucouyant, similar to a vampire in that they feast on blood, but they do so by shedding their skin and roaming invisibly in search of prey. The most intriguing of the monsters is Dragon, who appears to be a child, but is likely much older, and they display powers that justify their name. I was also confused when some of Dragon's victims reappeared later; I had thought they had died. And of course the major confusion is the nature of the monsters, whether they are all to be feared, or are some, like Rebecca, just victims of circumstance. Laina and her husband Ridley think the latter, and have taken Rebecca into their home.

The story ranges in location from the Boston area, to a cooperative farm in Virginia, to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. It also ranges in time, but non-linearly. There is a sub-plot about a frustrated physicist trying to get recognition for his unconventional theories about multiple universes. If his theories are correct, the monsters and gods are all from different universes, but can sometimes cross the threshold and manifest in others universes. The sometimes (but not always) unseen narrator, whom we later know as Calvin, seems to be able to transcend both time and space. He had observed and interacted with that physicist on multiple occasions, and it's hard to say whether they helped him form his hypothesis, or just learned from him how to implement the theory of their own existence. Calvin has to be from another universe, one similar enough to Raina's. They both had a brother named Cory, but Raina never says anything about also having a brother named Calvin. Cory's death may or may not have been the same in each universe. The title of this book comes from a chant spoken at a Boston rally by those advocating for monster rights, with some participating being monsters themselves. Ridley, formerly, or maybe still, a political activist, likens the chant to a phrase he was already familiar with, the anarchist slogan, "no gods, no masters." It's like saying we're all people, no matter our station in life, no matter our biology. If we don't work together as brothers we will surely die separately as enemies. Hopefully that is what the convergence will be, but we'll have to wait and see. Recommended, even with the confusion..

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Posted September 17, 2025
I've had We Are the Crisis for quite some time, but kept putting off reading it since I felt I should re-read the first book. As of yesterday, the concluding volume has been published, so I needed to catch up. I did re-read No Gods, No Monsters a few weeks ago, was less confused this time around, but didn't feel the need to edit the above review very much. The confusion continues in Crisis, with many characters in different locations, different universes, different time lines. It is sometimes hard to keep them straight, to remember where and what they were doing the last time they were featured, which group they are aligned with, which group they may have betrayed. Chapters typically begin with a notation of which Earth the action is set, but there is no way to know if Earth 01 is our Earth, even if it is similar. On several occasions people use the word Emergence, as opposed to the Fracture. The latter may apply only to the first viral video Raina released, that showed her brother Lincoln transforming from wolf to human before being shot by police. The Emergence probably refers to a later point when the existence of many other monsters was acknowledged by society at large.

Ridley, Raina, and Rebecca recur from the first book. Rebecca was a friend of Raina's brother Lincoln, who was killed by police early in the first book. Both Lincoln and Rebecca were werewolves. Now so are Ridley and Raina, both of whom consented to being turned. In the opening scenes they travel from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, tracking Connor, another of Rebecca's pack who has gone missing. They are being followed by someone else, a woman who calls herself Mason, who approaches Ridley at one of their stops, and while he is suspicious he does not think she follows them when they leave. They make it to Connor's mother's house, but she has no information for them, no idea where Connor is. On their way back, they encounter Mason again. I won't go into detail about what happens next except to say they realize she is a threat, and they run into the woods, transforming into their wolf selves. They get out of that situation, but not without injury. Mason, who they think was a vampire, sicced a wolf on them. Rebecca thought it might be the wolf who turned her, but it was old and feeble, and she was sure it had not shifted back to its human form in a long time.

Dragon is also prominent here. In his human form he seems to be a young boy, although even he doesn't know how old he is. When in his monster form he literally is a dragon, with large, leathery wings for flight, and he can breathe out fire. He had been rescued from the dungeon the Cult of the Zsouvox kept him in, aided by someone who might not be a monster themselves, but Melku is described as a tech mage. He can control robotic machines, including swarms of ants that can create portals from one place to another, although I am not sure if that includes to different universes. The disembodied Calvin continues to roam through time and space, as well as universes. There is at least one entity that can sense his presence even when they cannot see him. That entity might be a "god" as opposed to a monster. One of the monsters who helped Dragon after his rescue is Sondra, a former senator in the US Virgin Islands' unicameral legislature. Her sister, Sonya, is the soucouyant mentioned in comments about the first book. She remains invisible to others most of the time, although Sondra can sense when she is around. Another character that aids Dragon a few times is Alex (Alexandra, although her original name was Amethyst). I don't think she was mentioned in the first book, but she did work for the Cult of the Zsouvox before she escaped herself, and has tried to keep that secret. She may not have been aware of Dragon and the others kept in the dungeon before that.

The event at the end of the first book, the rally for monster rights, became known as the Boston Massacre, even for rallies held in other cities. Monsters were killed there, but so were humans, and some of them had been victims of Dragon before that. They had formed a group known as the Black Hand, whose goal is to find and eliminate all monsters. The climax of this book sees Dragon helping Alex, even though he now knows she had previously been part of the Cult, and he also helps Ridley, Raina, and Rebecca, whose cooperative, employee-owned bookstore has been fire-bombed by the Black Hand. Alex had been working with New Era, which helped other cooperative ventures, but their community center had also been torched. In his afterword, Turnbull says he patterned those cooperatives, and their struggles, on the history of the Black Panthers and other groups. I don't know if they will be able to recover from the Black Hand attacks, nor do I know which characters will still be around and key to the action in the third book. I read the first chapter of A Ruin, Great and Free this morning as soon as I finished Crisis, and the confusion continues, since it appears to be as much a sequel to Turnbull's debut novel, The Lesson, as it does a part of the Convergence. There were a couple of hints previously about the aliens in The Lesson, but I can't recall which universe that was in. I will follow up with my thoughts on the third book as soon as possible. Do not let any of my confusion lead you to think I don't like these books, or that I don't recommend them..

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Posted September 22, 2025
As mentioned above, the first chapter of the third book features characters and scenarios from Turnbull's debut novel, The Lesson, wherein an alien race known as the Ynaa had come to Earth, with their ship hovering above Water Island, just south of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. There had been at least one oblique comment, I think from the disembodied Calvin, about a memory of that ship. If and when I re-read these books, and I very much want to, I will start with The Lesson. In the afterword to Ruin, the author says, "We've arrived. The end of the Convergence Saga. Or at least this part of it." The Ynaa had sent at least one advance scout, Mera, who had been on Earth hundreds of years, and that entity features into some of the latter part of this book, apparently having become a "god," and we learn that most of the gods can interact with gods from other universes. Unless I'm badly mistaken, the Ynaa, and their scout Mera, were not in the same universe as the main body of this series, the one with Ridley, Raina, and Rebecca. The last chapter features an alternate Raina (Reina), an alternate Cory (Cornelius), at least two Calvins, as well as Mera, aka Abyssia, aka The Night Lady.

I fear that the more I try to explain these books the longer it would take, and I might confuse myself as much as anyone reading this. I should try though, while also trying to avoid direct spoilers as much as possible. I want to repeat, confusion is not necessarily a bad thing. I would advise others on something I intend to do myself when I re-read; make a chart or diagram of characters, the years in which certain events occur, along with which universe they are in. Similar events have likely occured in more than one universe. The first chapter in Ruin is set on Earth 016, on June 27, 2049, in the British Virgin Islands. After two chapters it switches to Earth 0539, June 12, 2028, nineteen months after the Boston Riots, which came at the end of the second book. That Earth is where most of the main Convergence action takes place, at least I think so, but I could be wrong. I'm still not sure which Earth, if any, is supposed to be ours. It does feature Ridley, Raina, and Rebecca, along with Dragon, Alex, Sondra, and Sonya, plus others not previously mentioned, such as Karuna, who figures significantly at the end. They are now in what they hope is a hidden and sheltered community of monsters known as Moon, with other enclaves around the world, and most of them are connected via portals accessible through the actions of Melku's robotic ants, which Karuna has also learned to control. The Black Hand is still around, and some of them discover Moon when members make the mistake of leaving that shelter to visit a neighboring town. They are tracked back to Moon, where a couple of attacks are rebuffed, but some Black Hands escape. The third attack is the biggest yet, with some Moon residents killed or seriously wounded.

What I will say next may only make sense to me. Two other books came to mind while reading, both as different from each other as they are from Convergence. When I first read Tolkien's Silmarillion I thought it was just as believable a creation myth as anything accepted by any real world faith. In an opposite outlook, Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker implied the title "character" was something the feeble mind of man could never comprehend or understand, and that we shouldn't even try. Turnbull offers an alternate view, with many gods, some of whom created other gods, or demi-gods, or in some cases maybe demons. Some humans also learned how to create various monsters, Dragon being one. The Cult of the Zsouvox, and their rival The Order of Asha, both created other beings. Dragon had been held in the dungeon of the leader (at that time) of the Zsouvox, Valter Trapp, a man (actually vampire) who was Alex's adoptive father. He was about 200 years old, someone who had been involved in political/social movements before, someone well known, although I will not reveal the name you would know him by. Other historical people mentioned in passing include Jack Parsons, his wife Marjorie Cameron, and their Thelemite colleague Aleister Crowley. So, plenty of gods, and people who wanted to become gods, or at least bend the will of the gods to their own ends. It is hard to say if the Ynaa transformed some humans into gods, or they were just enhanced with alien tech. Since it is likely that Turnbull will return to this story, or one similar to it, I am determined to re-read The Lesson and Convergence before whatever he give us next is published. No guarantee I won't still be confused, but that's nothing new for me. If you are up for a challenge, I highly recommend these books.

 

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