Faithless

Title: Faithless
Author: Missouri Dalton
Publisher: Torquere Books
Cover Art: Alessia Brio
Buy Link Amazon:
Genre: paranormal
Length: Short Story (49 pdf pages/ 13700 words)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 rating stars

A Guest Review by Feliz

Summary Review: Fascinating characters and imaginative world building went in favor of this story, but too much was crammed into the short format to make it really enjoyable.

The Blurb: Dyre was a priest until he lost faith, which is a dangerous thing when the Church still burns people at the stake. But Dyre’s loss of faith makes him useful. He becomes one of the Faithless, a demon hunter with a cursed sword. His keeper, Isaiah, an Inquisitor, has become very close to him after years of companionship. But as Isaiah’s softest touch burns Dyre, can the two ever really be more than companions?

The Review:

We first meet Dyre when he’s still Father Maxwell, but he’s a priest in name only ever since he lost his faith. Being Faithless in the Church is a dangerous thing in a world where the Inquisition is still powerful enough to make governments and law enforcement look the other way when they burn the occasional sinner at stake or make him disappear in a dank dungeon in the Vatican. The latter is where Maxwell ends up, dragged there right out of his church by Father Isaiah, an inquisitor who subsequently proceeds to torment Maxwell mercilessly until he breaks and accepts the task the Church intended for him.

For the Faithless can be of great use for the Church. Paired up with an Inquisitor as their handler, Faithless are handed a sword and sent out to slay demons. That they immediately lose their identity and, in the exercise of their duties, gradually lose their humanity, doesn’t matter as they usually don’t survive long. But Maxwell–now Dyre–beats all odds, surviving three years and counting, even though it cost him. Scarred at body and soul by his dire task and the influence of his sword, Bane, Dyre follows his hellish prey anywhere, his only constant his assigned Inquisitor, Isaiah.
Over the years, Dyre’s former torturer seems to develop some kind of attachment to his reluctant charge, even something like genuine affection. How profundly Isaiah’s feelings have changed Dyre learns one night when the tension between them that has been there from the start flares up in mutual desperate lust. But now Dyre finds himself dealing with two serious problems at once: For one, as a Faithless, he’s burned by even the lightest touch of a Faithful like Isaiah. Their one tryst left him blistered and scarred all over. And then, he finds himself deeper attached to Isaiah than he ever thought; what is left of his ability to feel–to love–entirely and irrevocably belongs to Isaiah.
So he flees from Isaiah, thinking that the curse of his sword will take care of this fatal affection eventually, if a demon doesn’t kill him prior to this. But then a particularly powerful demon turns up, forcing them back together. As they desperately fight the demon, the hopeless longing for each other just about kills them as surely as their enemy threatens to do. But maybe not all hope is lost on either front, especially when the personified Virtues and even an angel come in on the fated lover’s sides.

This story appealed to me in many ways. I found the worldbuilding intriguing and imaginative, very complex for such a short story. It placed beings from Catholic lore, legends and fictional history into a contemporary setting, creating a most unusual piece of Urban Fantasy. There was also this fascinating dichotomy to this world between Church doctrine and divine workings–the Church creating insurmontable walls between Faithless and Faithful, but the Lord above being much less ready to give up on any of his creatures, even ones who’d lost faith in Him.

I also liked both main characters a lot, particulary Dyre. He’s basically a predator, living in the moment acting on instinct like an animal rather than planning or reasoning like a human being. Why should he bother, that’s what he has Isaiah for,hasn’t he? But when he realizes what Isaiah really is to him, Dyres awareness comes back alive, and he begins to fight for his humanity. He won my heart with snarky, spiteful, bratty contrarity, his impulsiveness and unshakeable bravery.
Isaiah was harder to like, given that he thought it necessary to literally sandbag Dyre into his destiny. He had his own cross to bear, though, and I ended up caring for him almost as much as I did for Dyre because he suffered and fought no less for them being together.

However, I also had some major issues with this story, most of all that it was too short to show the beautiful worldbuilding, the characters and their relationship to their best advantage. Many topics were just touched on, but not worked out, which made the narrative feel rushed and overambitious. Consequently, Dyre’s and Isaiah’s relationship read somewhat rushed, too–so much so that it seemed incomplete and almost elusive. Some of the supportive cast just popped up out of the blue, threw some interesting lines in and disappeared again, leaving me with some “wait, what?” moments that could’ve been easily avoided by a little further elaboration.
Then the  romance element–between one sex scene and some demon hunting, the relationship between Dyre and Isaiah has barely time to develop. The solution, once achieved,  felt rushed too, even convenient.

This story should’ve been a novel to do all its captivating ideas and its fascinating characters justice. As it is, it is still a great piece of urban fantasy; I’d recommend it to fans of the author, fans of the genre and readers who can work around the shortcomings of the format.