On the tiny world of Xżyber—where a day is only ten Earth hours long, and the year has only two seasons—the inhabitants are divided into two classes, Mollards and non-Mollards. Mollards, beings with metal bodies (but not your typical robots, as they’re born as metallic entities), rule over organic humans despite significant innate flaws. Each of Xżyber’s four rival regions has its own layers of social strata, from the humblest laborers to the military leaders at the top of the heap. And above it all, the mysterious god who created them watches Xżyber’s factions vie for dominance and control of the planet’s dwindling resources as societal unrest begins to swell.

BEYOND THE FATHER kicks off an ambitious eight-book sci-fi series, Gods on Trial, by author Opëshum Patroz. As the opening chapter of an epic tale, the book has a great deal of world-building and table-setting to get through, and this first installment charges into its complex, multi-layered story with confidence and an adept sense of how much plot background to ladle out without making the novel top-heavy with exposition. Xżyber’s Central Kingdom is ruled by King Thio and Queen Evaline, who hope to relocate somewhere less vulnerable to the planet’s punishing storms. Their young son, Anglid, has his own agenda—much to his parents’ chagrin and frustration. Their estranged daughter, Anya, is missing, leaving a painful void in the family’s lives. There’s also a subplot with a mysterious connection to the larger storyline, involving a being of unclear nature named Flexix, engaged in a seemingly unending, bellicose philosophical debate with an unidentified entity.

There’s a great deal going on in BEYOND THE FATHER, which packs heady explorations of religion, social and economic class, and politics into an otherwise familiar stew of epic fantasy and science fiction tropes. Patroz keeps her crowded story from capsizing with engaging storytelling sensibilities and plenty of twists and turns to balance the more serious-minded explorations of class struggle and religious oppression. While the characters–at least in this first volume–are often maddeningly opaque, their motivations are mostly straightforward, and as the various story threads begin to converge, the larger picture begins to come into focus, preparing the groundwork for installments to come.

Author Opëshum Patroz ably navigates a complex, multilayered narrative in BEYOND THE FATHER, with an engaging voice and themes that elevate a familiar premise with inspired, often surprising ideas. A thoughtful and intriguing beginning to a promising new fantasy/science fiction saga.

~Edward Sung for IndieReader