Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael R. Fletcher lives in the endless suburban sprawl north of Toronto. He dreams of trees and seeing the stars at night and being a ninja. He is an unrepentant whiskey-swilling reprobate of the tallest order and thinks grilled cheese sandwiches are a food group.

http://michaelrfletcher.com/

Publisher: Michael R. Fletcher (August 3, 2026) Page count: 358 pages Formats: ab, eb, pp

When Fletcher publishes something, I read it. Dust of the Dead is no exception, and thankfully, I had a very good time with it.

Dust of the Dead is his take on heroic fantasy, which is an interesting change of direction. It’s still dark, violent, and occasionally horrifying, but there’s more warmth here than in some of his previous books. There’s also plenty of humor and banter, which helps keep the story from sinking entirely into misery.

The book follows two timelines and two very different protagonists. Khayrat is a young woman pulled into a war and trained in one of the most horrifying applications of magic imaginable. Aakifah, meanwhile, is a much older, war-weary shairf (sheriff) who would really rather retire, drink, eat well, and have absolutely nothing to do with heroism ever again. Naturally, this does not work out for her.

Aakifah is funny, grumpy, and she carries decades of trauma that haven't exactly disappeared just because the war ended. She's a strong lead, and it's refreshing to see an older woman who has already seen enough bloodshed being dragged back into danger because, despite everything, she can't quite bring herself to walk away when people need her.

Khayrat's story is much darker. Her journey into the role of an Unraveler is essentially a study in what happens when someone convinces themselves that terrible things are justified because they're being done for the right reason. Fletcher has explored similar territory before, but the consequences here are particularly effective because magic itself keeps forcing the question of what you're willing to sacrifice.

And the magic system is brilliant. In the Listening World, certain people can speak to reality. Through words, gestures and precise acts of Imploratory, they can make the world change. Build things. Alter bodies. Destroy. Unravel. The thing is the world listens, and it charges for the privilege. Or any mistake.

The price can be anything from relatively manageable consequences to catastrophic physical and psychological damage. The darker applications of magic are particularly nasty, but what makes the system work is that it isn't simply a collection of cool powers. Every use comes with a cost. 

The world itself is also excellent. There are strange cultures, different peoples, bizarre creatures and some absolutely fantastic monsters. The pyumah are particularly great, and the giant spiders are exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from Fletcher if you've read him before and exactly the sort of thing you probably wouldn't want to encounter while hiking.

The post-war trauma is well-described, I think. Fletcher doesn't treat war as something that ends when the fighting does. Aakifah's story in particular is steeped in the memories of what she went through, and the contrast between the young people who entered the war and the people who survived it.

And yet, for all the darkness, this is a surprisingly fun read. The banter works. There are moments of genuine warmth between the characters. Fletcher knows how to make you care about people before inevitably putting them through something horrible. It's practically a contractual obligation at this point.

If I have any complaints, it's the ending. It felt rushed after everything that came before, and the epilogue didn't quite feel like an ending to this particular story. It felt more like the beginning of something else. Which, frankly, is a problem I can live with if Fletcher decides to write that something else from the pyumahs' perspective. I'm absolutely there.

That ending aside, Dust of the Dead is another very good Fletcher novel. It has an inventive magic system, memorable characters, excellent creatures, dark humour and a thoughtful exploration of what war leaves behind.