REUNION OF THE THREE by C.S. Harris is a sweeping fantasy novel that kicks off The Ring of Worlds series with dimension-hopping sorcerers, clashing magical forces, and the impending specter of a universe-threatening cataclysm. The novel follows Imara Inanna, Alexander Eldred, and Sirenī Adamma, three mighty sorcerers who saved their world of Gaea decades ago but were forcibly separated by the government. After being reunited and granted immortality, they flee both assassins and authorities, traveling through a mysterious temple to the planet Earth. There, they rekindle their polyamorous bond while investigating a strange, captivating song that seems connected to their “Earthen” host, Jordan McInerney. Meanwhile, the villainous Minister Vicchāya schemes to spread a dark magic called the kṛtyā bījā across the Ring of Worlds, an interplanetary alliance. As psychically attuned FBI agents begin to investigate the uncanny events surrounding the three, Alex is beset by ominous visions of a future cataclysm on a distant planet.
Harris gleefully throws everything but the kitchen sink into his sprawling tale. We get steamy sorcerous threesomes, magical duels, government conspiracies, cryptic prophecies, and even an intergalactic insect queen on the brink of extinction. There’s an almost absurd abundance of plot threads and mythological elements, but Harris keeps the chaos under control with brisk pacing and an imaginative, fully realized system of magic. The worldbuilding is a heady mix of science fiction technobabble and arcane lore, with tantalizing hints of a wider multiverse yet to be explored. Harris paints his heroes in broad but colorful strokes, capturing Imara’s pragmatism, Sirenī’s fatal allure, and Alex’s restless brilliance.
The villains, unfortunately, receive less development—coming across as standard power-hungry despots. Meanwhile, the story stumbles a bit in its side plots, some of which feel thinly sketched compared to the robust main storyline. A psychic investigator looking into a mysterious otherworldly voice, for instance, is given relatively short shrift, coming across more as a dangling plot thread than a fully realized arc. Harris’s prose is functional, efficient, and clear, but some of his characters’ ruminations on weighty themes like destiny and agency veer uncomfortably close to well-worn tropes. The novel also struggles under an avalanche of characters, magical systems, and dense lore, with a kitchen sink’s worth of cryptozoological name-drops and metaphysical hand-waving that can occasionally border on the nonsensical.
Where the novel truly shines is in its playful tweaking of fantasy tropes and cheeky, metafictional flourishes. Tongue-in-cheek references to The X-Files and winking acknowledgments of genre clichés (like Imara rolling her eyes at Alex’s “blatant self-confidence and self-esteem”) add a refreshing layer of irreverence to the otherwise earnest mythmaking. As one character notes, “This is going to be uncomfortable, isn’t it?” REUNION OF THE THREE answers with a resounding and unapologetic “Yes!”
REUNION OF THE THREE by C.S. Harris is an entertaining, surprisingly heartfelt series opener for fantasy readers seeking a series with scope, ambition, and a romantic core.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader