AFTER THE QUIETING By Taylen Carver

I love to read. When I was very young, I wanted to know how to read more than anything else. Once I learned how, I never stopped. I read every single day. One of my favorite things about reading is that a good book takes you places you have never been. A romance might take you to Victorian England. A suspense thriller could be set in the vast, freezing wastelands of the Canadian Arctic. A cozy mystery could focus on the patrons of a quilting shop. And that’s just the “where” — books also take you to times you have never experienced. Everything from prehistory to space exploration, sometimes with generational ships.

And then there is fantasy, a realm in which all the stops are out; anything goes. When done well, in the hands of a master, fantasy doubles down on all the best options available in the many genres of fiction. That, for me, describes After the Quieting. Utterly fascinating new worlds to learn about, different languages (with the inevitable lost-in-translation bits), different kinds of people, and, boy-oh-boy, finding that the less-than-stellar attitudes and behaviors of our own world are also mirrored in fantasy worlds. This second book in the Veilwarden Chronicles series takes the reader deeper into an ongoing, addictive narrative, and it is a trip extraordinaire. I can hardly wait for the next entry in the series!

“I need more.”
Taylen Carver’s “After the Quieting,” the second novella in her new series, builds on the foundations laid in “Veilbound,” delivering a story that deepens both the world and its tensions.
For new readers, the series centres on two interconnected worlds linked by portals and overseen by Veilwardens. Despite their dependence on one another, the inhabitants of either world remain wary and divided, their lack of understanding nearly leading to catastrophe in the first installment.
In “After the Quieting,” that fragile balance has only worsened. Although several years have passed, time has moved differently between the two worlds, intensifying the strain on an already uneasy relationship. Travel between them is now even more restricted, and distrust continues to grow.
At the heart of the story is a protagonist who spent some time in the parallel world as a child and has since become a Veilwarden. When she is once again pulled across worlds, she finds a reality shaped by those in power, where the narrative of history has been altered and the threat of destruction looms once more.
Where “Veilbound” established the world, “After the Quieting” raises the stakes. Carver’s talent for tension and high-impact storytelling is evident throughout, drawing the reader further into a series that promises significant consequences. Given her willingness to take bold, apocalyptic turns, I am hoping for a longer installment/s before the story reaches its ultimate conclusion.