God of Ruin by Michael John Grist

In the battle to defeat King Ruin and protect the Bridge between souls, ex-Arctic marine Ritry Goligh tore his own soul into pieces. Now those pieces, embodied as six rugged marines spread across the tsunami-blasted world, are adrift without Ritry to guide them.

Their captain, Me, is addicted to dying in raids against the remnants of King Ruin's army. Ray longs for the love he lost. Far seeks the mythical heart of the Bridge, So is lost to her calculations, while twins Ti and La have split as far apart as possible. They trudge from bunker to bunker blinded by loss, mopping up holdouts from the war.

But the war isn't over. It's only just begun. From the ashes of King Ruin's defeat a godlike power rises, one that understands the Bridge better than Ritry ever did, and means to bring a flood so vast it will erase every soul from history. Me's only hope is to ascend to godhood himself, before everyone he loves is washed away forever.

If you haven't read the first two books in the series, then this review will contain spoilers for those books.

In the promos for the new season of Fear the Walking Dead, someone off-camera is heard to say, "To defeat the monster, you become the monster." In effect, that sums up what happens here. King Ruin's successor, the Pawn King, has built upon King Ruin's knowledge and gleaned how to transcend the Aetheric Bridge from Ritry's technique. With the knowledge gained from both, he becomes even stronger than King Ruin and Ritry's chord. Knowing what he's capable of, the chord wrestle with the moral dilemma: Does one adopt the tactics of the evil Pawn King in order to defeat him? Does the end justify the means? Many within the chord's army don't think so, and the debate threatens to tear them apart.

If you've read the first two books in the series, you'll be familiar with Grist's style of alternating chapters between the real world and the metaphorical landscape of the mind. But whereas the first two books featured Ritry in the real world and his chord handling inner space, this book throws that convention out the window. As the blurb above explains, Ritry's chord went from metaphorical to physical at the end of King Ruin. With the Ritry gestalt no more, the real world narrative is handled by "Me", the leader of the chord. But he handles the narrative in the inner space journey as well, so if you don't pay attention to the chapter titles, there's a chance for you to get confused as to what's going on.

Both versions of Me embark upon solitary quests to battle their respective foes in the physical and metaphysical worlds until they blend together to become one surrealistic landscape. The science fiction and dystopic elements of Mr. Ruins are gone, replaced by fantastic elements where the laws of time and space are irrelevant. Both protagonist and antagonist strive to achieve godhood to reshape the world as they think it should be.

But this isn't merely a battle of good versus evil. Grist is too smart an author to reduce the story to these simplistic elements, though he leads us to believe this at first. Eventually, we learn how the Pawn King came into existence, a child in one of King Ruin's brutal courts. We see what horrors he endured just to survive and what his goals ultimately are. Grist's resolution of the conflict between Pawn King and Me is unexpected, but it makes sense.

God of Ruin brings the Ruins trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. The war waged in the desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland is but a prelude to the battle to control existence itself. It reinforces the message from King Ruin: Our pain defines us. But God of Ruin also asks us what we would sacrifice to erase that pain. Would we sacrifice those we love? Would we turn that pain on others? Would we sacrifice our very souls? But if pain defines us, should it be erased at all? Grist explores these questions in the surreal landscape of the mind and the ruins of a tsunami and war ravaged world.

For more information about God of Ruin and the Ruins trilogy, please visit the author's website. You can also read my reviews for Mr. Ruins and King Ruin.

King Ruin by Michael John Grist

Standing in the ashes of his final battle with Mr. Ruins, at the edge of the floating slums, ex-Arctic marine Ritry Goligh thinks his long nightmare is finally over. His family are safe, his soul is his own, and at last he can go home. Then comes an explosion that makes no sound, but blows all his thoughts to shreds. In an instant Ritry is prey again, hunted by a power so vast he can’t even comprehend it. This is King Ruin, and before him all Rit can do is run, so far and so fast he starts to forget who and what he is. Soon half his mind is gone, the King is closing in, and the souls of billions are at stake. Because King Ruin wants the Bridge, a direct path into the minds of every living thing, and only the lost and broken Ritry Goligh stands in his way. King Ruin picks up right where Mr. Ruins left off. Ritry doesn't get to savor his victory or even go home to see his family. He's right back in thick of it with a foe that is far stronger than Mr. Ruins.

Previous cover

Before I get into the review, I'd like to comment on the covers. Mr. Grist decided last year to redo his covers as sales for the Ruins War series had dropped off. It got him to thinking that maybe the covers weren't conveying enough of the mystery of the books. I disagree, but that's just one man's opinion. Anyway, this isn't the first time he's revamped his covers. The series of covers I saw all featured scenes from their respective books—the skyscraper picture above is rather chilling in retrospect. The new covers are more focused on characters. Mr. Ruins himself is featured on the new version of his titular cover (new cover added to bottom of review). However, I don't recognize the person on this new King Ruins cover. The two red suns are pertinent though. I could make a guess on the character, but the appearance doesn't match up with the description in the book.* On with the review

Current cover

As I mentioned above, the book picks up right where the previous one left off. Ritry fights for his life only to find himself captured by Don Zachary, an organized crime boss of the skulks from the first book. Ten percent of the book has gone by before Grist lets Ritry and the reader take a breath. But it isn't long before Ritry is on the run again.

The marines return and are just as important to saving Ritry's life as they were in the first book. I won't spoil their connection to him if you haven't read the first book. But for those who have, their mission here is just as surreal and mysterious as before. Me and Far are missing, which is puzzling to the rest of the chord. But by doing so, Grist permits the reader to get to know the other members of the chord—Me and Far were the focus of the first book. Grist keeps their absence a secret until the story nears its climax, when all is revealed.

Mr. Ruins, Ritry's foe in the first book, was a bit of a mystery. While he offered an explanation for his obsession with Ritry, I felt like there was something more. He seemed to be hiding something, but with the conclusion of that book, I didn't hold out much hope of finding out. Fortunately for the sake of the story, Mr. Ruins makes a return, and we get to the truth behind Mr. Ruins' sadistic treatment of Ritry and others.

Whereas Mr. Ruins was a sadist, King Ruin is a ghoul. If we take it that power corrupts, then as power grows so too does the level of corruption. King Ruin does things to people that would make Josef Mengele proud, if not envious. Grist forces the reader to bear witness to some of these horrors and to the suffering that King Ruin's crippled victims struggle to recover from. It serves a purpose; this isn't torture porn. King Ruin is a being that feeds upon pain. He would starve to death without it. If you're one who is easily upset by disturbing imagery, then heed the "horror" tag I applied to this review.

Just as Grist revealed the origins of Mr. Ruins, so too does he reveal the ghastly origin of King Ruin. It makes sense. It might seem like this is just Ritry's battle against a bigger and badder foe, but King Ruin's reach knows no bounds. He strips everything from Ritry. Everything. Ritry must sacrifice his connections to everyone he loves, lest King Ruin find them and make them suffer too.

Unfortunately, my experience was marred by typos and punctuation problems. If he had hired a proofreader, I believe that the manuscript would've been much cleaner. Maybe the story has been edited since I received my copy. Anyway, if typos aren't the sort of thing that catches your eye, then don't sweat it. Just enjoy the story.

King Ruin is a journey through desolate post-apocalyptic wastelands, both physical and mental, full of madness and pain. At times surreal, it is also visceral. The overarching message I get from this story is that our pain defines us. The memories of that pain form strong bonds that entwine our souls. It twists us. If it doesn't break us, it shapes us into something different, possibly evil. In turn, we inflict that pain upon others, whether we wish to or not. Only love and forgiveness can break the cycle. And if we can find redemption for the pain we've caused, we can rest in peace.

For more information about King Ruin or Grist's other works, please visit his website.

* I spoke with Mr. Grist about her. She is whom I thought she was, just a different interpretation than the one I had.

Interview with Michael John Grist

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Michael John Grist, the author of Mr. Ruins and the Ruins War trilogy. He's also the author of the Ignifer Cycle, two anthologies, and Into the Ruins, an account of his travels through the modern ruins of Japan. His latest work is The Last, the story of a comic book artist in the zombie apocalypse.

New Podler: Thanks for being here with us today, Michael!

Michael John Grist: Happy to be here, thanks for having me!

NP: I found out about you by accident. I was searching for something, and I was directed to the ruins exploration portion of your website. While there are some photos collected from around the internet, the photos from Japan are all yours. Can you tell us how that came about?

MJG: Sure, and it’s sort of by accident too. First off though, I was always into ruins. As a kid I’d explored some of the big abandoned factories near Manchester where I grew up—they were probably cotton mills—as well as taking adventures into whatever dilapidated farmhouses and industrial relics were left over near my house. My friends and I loved that kind of thing, inspired by The Goonies and Indiana Jones.

So I was predisposed towards liking ruins. In Japan I investigated a few when I came across them: a US military base that had been abandoned for 30 or so years, a block of flats left for 20. They were opportunistic explores, before I realized that going to ruins could be a hobby.

That realization came with reading an article about a handful of Japanese people who were going to these ruins, called ‘haikyo’, and writing books about them. They visited all kinds of places: ruined theme parks, factories, spas, ghost towns, etc. They had blogs and some of them had published books. Some of them provided maps. It captured my imagination, as ruins always had, and I started heading out to see the places for myself.

NP: What drew you in? What is it about these abandoned places that grabs your attention?

MJG: It’s a mixture of things, probably starting with the spirit of adventure. There’s a thrill to being in these places, and a special feeling to the sense of discovery as you wander through them. Few people get to experience that, I think, so I count myself lucky.

As I went to more and more ruins though, that sense of thrill was superseded by other feelings: awe at some of the grander ruins, like desolate shipyards from World War Two and theme parks, an ethereal sense of connection to the past in dusty old school-rooms in ghost towns shuttered for a generation, plus the creative challenge of trying to capture the beauty and appeal of these places in photographs.

NP: I can't get over the fact that these places exist in Japan. I was under the impression that land was terribly scarce and nothing went to waste. Is there a common explanation for why these places were abandoned or is it random?

MJG: There is a common explanation, largely due to the economy but also historical reasons. Japan had a huge economic bubble in the 80s, but has been in a deflationary spiral ever since. In the boom days, all kinds of grand investments were made into resort hotels, theme parks, massive hotels and so on, typically far out in the mountainous countryside. The theme parks Sports World and Russian Village are great examples of this; large complexes that opened right around the bubble bursting.

Nobody went there and they went bust. After that these places became toxic assets to the bank, impossible to sell as they were deep in the red, so they just sat there.

Other reasons include the exhaustion of Japanese resources—leaving ghost towns in the mountains which were once thriving mining towns—or because of the war—leaving missile factories and bunkers lying in ruins on isolated coastlines.

NP: Was your fascination with ruins the inspiration for writing the Ruins War?

MJG: It definitely was. Around that time I stopped exploring ruins in the real world, feeling that I’d exhausted the stock of the country’s best ruins. I wanted to continue exploring still, so through a story seemed the natural extension. I needed bigger, grander ruins, in a new world, so I set the Ruins War world in a post-apocalyptic, tsunami-wrecked future, where massive clusters of wrecked ‘godships’ held all kinds of treasures, and there were shark-fighting arenas, and sunken ‘subglacics’- submarines designed to go under the Arctic ice.

NP: Despite the devastation wrought by the global tsunamis, humanity has rebuilt civilization behind walls, much like medieval castles, only far larger. During Ritry's time in Calico, he seems to have driven all his demons away. Whereas out on the skulks, the floating shanty towns outside the walls of Calico, he was always a total mess. And it seemed that just about everyone else he meets out there was as well. What do Calico and the skulks symbolize to you?

MJG: Well, for Ritry the skulks are a penance, and a purgatory. He survived awful things in the Arctic War, and he feels awful guilt to be the sole survivor of his crew. The War hurt him deeply, and he can’t really get over it. He needs time to heal, and the lawless panacea that the skulks provide- being able to throw himself into booze, violence, women, affords him that chance.

More broadly, the dichotomy between the skulks and Calico behind the wall represent a kind of dystopia/utopia situation. While there has been a terrible war, and civilization in many places has been completely destroyed, we’ve also evolved. Calico is a peaceful, beautiful city, because people have figured out how to make it that way. One way it’s done is to send, or allow, all the people who want a lawless, impermanent life to the skulks, where they can take their chances. Out there fortunes can be made and lives can be lost at the drop of a hat.

In Calico, there’s stability and progression. Maybe these are two aspects to human nature- the order of civilization versus the chaos of nature red in tooth and claw. Ritry’s movement between the two represents his personal evolution from a broken creature controlled by his wilder drives, to a thinking man in full control of his own nature.

NP: Ritry is a graysmith, a blacksmith for the mind. His occupation enables him to implant and delete memories. Where did you come up with the idea?

MJG: I was an English teacher in Japan, and in my earliest ideas, Ritry was a language teacher too. I expanded that role and made it more futuristic with the gray-smithing technology, kind of a Matrix or Johnny Mnemonic tech, and expanded the contents from only language to just about any knowledge or skill. It allowed for the depths of the mind to be plumbed.

NP: But graysmithing is different than either of the mind experiences in those two stories. Both of them involve massive computer networks with constructed realities. Mr. Ruins does not. It's a far more personal experience.

MJG: That's true, it's definitely an organic, evolving experience in the Ruins War world. The secondary world isn't something built up by computers, it exists independently, though machines can be used to help gain access to that world. Part of the skill of being a graysmith is knowing how to use the machine tools necessary to hack through. Of course, the real skill then lies in being able to tailor every 'dive' into another mind so it is a personal experience, not a brute force assault.

NP: There's this theme running through the story that memory is malleable. Maybe fluid is more accurate a term. Was this a conscious decision?

MJG: Definitely. I think we’re on the verge of mastering our own programming as humans, whether that be our genetic code or the knowledge and memories in our heads, that make up our personalities. Granted, ‘on the verge’ may be still 50 or more years away in reality, but it’s so close we can almost reach out and touch it. And when we reach it, a lot of things will change.

It may lead to an answer to the tricky question of the soul. Is the soul real, and if so is it separate from our personalities? Should we consider it a third leg of the nature vs. nurture debate? If we can control for nature by changing genetics, control for nurture by reprogramming the brain, then will we become wholly different people, or will our souls keep us on track?

These questions were very much in my head as I wrote Mr. Ruins and the sequels.

NP: Your "aetheric bridge" reminded me of Emerson's "Over-Soul". Any connection?

MJG: I suppose so, though it wasn't something I had consciously in mind as I came up with the world and its rules. The idea of the 'Oversoul' makes a certain sweet sense to me—that all souls are connected, and the human self/ego is a kind of 'rider' atop the soul, or vice-versa. I really enjoyed writing the scene where Ritry tries to explain to the Don what the soul/aetheric bridge is, and likens each person to a radio that tunes into a bit of something like an 'Oversoul', with that particular bit of frequency comprising their soul, on loan to a human body.

NP: You've recently released, The Last, the story of a comic book artist in the zombie apocalypse. What can you tell us about it?

MJG: It's Robinson Crusoe meets the zombie apocalypse. One man alone survives infection, a sweet and non-violent comic-book artist called Amo (it means 'I love' in Latin). The sudden and total zombification of New York leaves him alone and stranded in an ocean of zombies. First he must survive. Second he must decide what survival even means if he's really the last? What kind of man should he be, and what kind of goals should he have, and most of all, is he truly the last man alive?

NP: Any plans to return to exploring ruins? I hear that Hashima (aka Gunkanjima "Battleship Island") is open to tours. Pripyat, perhaps?

MJG: I explored ruins in a kind of frenzy for about four years, then steadily slacked off. I'd been to pretty much all the major ruins locations in Japan by that time, which left only a lot of similar-looking places on a more minor scale. The number of abandoned hot springs hotels and apartments is immense, and I had no desire to see them all. I was satisfied.

The only really big one I hadn't been to was Hashima, but curiously enough I never felt very compelled to go there. I think that's because of things like the tours. Once a place goes as mainstream as that, it loses its 'explorer' thrill I guess. Even before the tours it was the most over-exposed ruin in Japan. Now I explore the ruins I invent, which can be just as uncharted and fresh as my imagination allows. That's plenty enough excitement for me.

NP: That's going to do it for me. If anyone in the audience has any questions for Michael, please post them in the comments.

Thanks again for joining us today, Michael.

TG: It was my pleasure, thanks again for having me.

NP: To learn more about the Ruins War trilogy, Michael's ruins travelogue, or his other works, please visit his website.

Cover Story - Michael John Grist

Sometimes, for whatever reason, the vision an author has for their book cover fails to connect with the targeted audience. Michael John Grist takes us through the process of the cover creation process for Mr. Ruins. Much like what he did to his protagonist, Grist had to tear down his idea for the book cover and rebuild it.

Mr. Ruins originally had a cover I poured all my ideas into, but people thought it looked like a bunch of worms sitting on an eyeball. :(. It wasn’t meant to be that. So now I’m talking about the glorious misadventures I had on the path to make it, what it became, why it didn’t work, and the new design that has replaced it.

To read more and see the previous incarnations of the cover, please visit his website.

Mr. Ruins by Michael John Grist

Ritry Goligh is a former Arctic marine living in a dystopian, tsunami-wrecked future. He works as a graysmith—a specialist capable of diving the minds of others and implanting or erasing memories. Scarred by the events of the Arctic war, he leads a directionless life of alcohol, violence, and sex, until a man calling himself Mr. Ruins offers him a devil’s bargain—gain a future, but forfeit his soul.

At the same time, a crew of hardened marines rouse in a unique submarine designed to dive through lava, within a planet’s molten core. They have no memories except their names, ranks, and a burning urge to complete their mission. Yet none of them know what their mission is, or what the cost will be if they fail.

Before becoming aware of Mr. Grist's work as an author, I'd known that he'd spent some time in Japan, exploring the ruins of man-made structures long since abandoned and reclaimed by the natural world. I can't explain it, but it's something that's always captured my attention. It doesn't matter if it's the majestic columns of the Parthenon or the rusty subterranean confines of abandoned American missile silos; I have to see it. So when I saw that Mr. Grist had written a book (he's written several actually), I thought, "I'll have to check this out." After seeing the striking cover and reading the sample chapters, I knew that I had to explore further.

After getting hooked by the opening, the pace of the book slowed down. I'd say that it didn't pick back up until about midway through. Much of the first half is Ritry wandering around destroying his own brain cells and then trying to recover the alcohol-damaged memories. And in the marines' narrative, they spend an equivalent amount of time wandering around trying to figure out who they are and just staying alive. Eventually, Grist gets both narratives to a point of self-realization where there's clear focus, and then when the connection between the two is made, the story really moves along.

It takes a while before one can develop much sympathy for Ritry Goligh (his unusual name is explained in the book). But as Grist reveals more about his past, it becomes painfully obvious why the guy is hellbent on self-destruction. His experiences alone in the Arctic War would qualify him as someone with PTSD and survivor's guilt, but there's even more: his childhood. We learn about this through the adventures of the marines. Without giving anything away, we find that Ritry's unique childhood started him down this path.

You might wonder why, in a world where the technology exists to implant or erase memories, Ritry didn't seek out a fellow graysmith to assist him with his emotional wounds. There is that saying: doctors make the worst patients. Rather than seek help or a normal life, Ritry has chosen to suffer instead. He feels that he deserves this life, scraping a living out in the skulks—the floating shanty towns outside the city's protective tsunami wall. But for all the pain that his childhood brought him, it ultimately proves to be his source of strength.

Ritry's foe is Mr. Ruins, a wicked bundle of evil so cruel that he seems the very definition of sadist. Before he turns on Ritry, he offers to be his teacher, to help him claw his way out his pit and become something far greater. He's obsessed with Ritry for reasons we don't discern until later. And while much is revealed in the latter half of the book, there is so much more about him that we don't know. Hopefully, as the series progresses, those answers will be revealed.

As for the marines, their story is a surreal one. They're forced to adapt to their bizarre surroundings or perish. While I can't say more about that without spoiling it, I will say that the dynamic between the team members goes beyond mere professionalism. Their dedication to each other is rivaled only by their dedication to the mission.

While the story takes place in a not too distant future (a century?), the names for some prominent places have changed. And for the places that seemed real that I was unfamiliar with, I couldn't find any trace of them online. I wasn't sure if these changes were made to reflect the tsunami ravaged world, or we were on some mirror Earth. There was a common history (Napoleon) and obvious similarities with our own (climate change), but the differences were disorienting. Maybe that was Grist's intent. I chalked it up to creative license.

Unfortunately, my experience was marred by typos and punctuation problems. There were many words that were hyphened that shouldn't have been. And comma usage was just plain wrong in many places. Grist got it right most of the time, so it's not like he's going by a different set of rules. If he had hired a proofreader, I believe that the manuscript would've been much cleaner. If commas and hyphens don't catch your eye, then don't sweat it. Just enjoy the story.

In Mr. Ruins, Grist has drawn upon his real life adventures among our modern ruins and the 2011 Japanese tsunami to set the stage for an ice cap free future. His protagonist is a ruined man living without purpose in a ruined world. Just as the people in this world have rebuilt their cities (behind walls) after tsunamis knocked them down, Grist tears him down and builds him back up again. He takes us on a surrealistic journey into the depths of memory to reveal what shaped his protagonist and shows us the power that lies within to change.

For more information about Mr. Ruins or Grist's other works, please visit his website.

UPDATE 2016: Grist has changed the covers for his Ruins War saga. Here's the new cover for Mr. Ruins: