INFERTAT
By Roman Kurys and Roxi Kurys
Self Published: August 24, 2018
Audiobook Published: August 14, 2019
Fallen angels take residence in Infertat’s Golden City after their banishment from Verdigrid. Lucifer and his kin establish their rule over the city’s human inhabitants as a symbol of defiance to the Eternal and angelic army that cast them down. They gather humans without any magical abilities and put them to hard manual labor in the slums across the Chasm. These slums are home to Priya, a young woman who discovers a secret within herself which can hinder Lucifer’s plans and help the human resistance take back their city from the daemons. That is, if she can take control of the hungry beast within herself.
Sul is an ambitious magus in the Golden City, Zack has just gotten accepted to a prestigious Ivy League university in New York City. Azul has never been happy with his life in Verdigrid and Sammael, the angel of death, a keeper of the balance feels uneasy.
Seemingly unrelated, many threads of fate run parallel to one another. It is only a matter of time until they converge and hold the fate of the worlds in their hands.
Now and then a project comes along that seems like it’s so specific to your interests that you swear it was written with just you in mind. I felt this way about INFERTAT by Roman and Roxi Kurys. Anyone who knows me personally is aware of my interest in Christianity, philosophy and ancient mythology. So, when a book about fallen angels with a complex narrative and world building arrives in my audition box, I HAVE to check it out.
INFERTAT is the first book by the brother and sister team of Roman and Roxi Kurys. A labor of love, Roman encouraged Roxi to put some of her insanely vivid dreams on paper. Being from Ukraine, (Roman lives in the US and Roxi still lives in Ukraine) they used the writing process to help improve their knowledge of English. Drawing from personal dreams, Christian mythology, and with an Eastern European perspective, Infertat is wildly imaginative and incredibly epic. So epic, that at the end of my first read-through I was frustrated that this was only the first part of a much larger story! I really hope to journey back to this world again.
Narrating INFERTAT was a unique challenge. Being a self published work, the print version could use a once over by a professional editor. There were times where I had to act as an editor with certain uses of the English language (most notably the use of “a” and “the” in sentences. Which makes sense coming from authors whose second language is English. English is wonky and the rules with definite articles and indefinite articles don’t translate well since many Eastern European languages don’t even use them.
Another challenge was the amount of characters I’d need to voice. Since this narration, I’ve done other books with a large cast of characters. But at the time I was overwhelmed! Especially in the last couple chapters where we are introduced to a handful of new characters during a round table discussion! But, voices are kinda my thing and I loved being thrown into this unique challenge.
Overall, INFERTAT remains one of my favorite projects so far. The sheer creativity and scope involved lifts this above any critique I’d give to this work. As a fan of the world built and the story I’m waiting patiently for more.