Victory's End, Book 1 of the The Vast War by Leslie R. Lee takes place in an alternate universe that is familiar because of the truths of our lives and familiar because of truths of our stories. In this world at this time, sentient and fantastical creatures including Humans live together in something approaching harmony. The world is recovering from a terrible conflict known as The Vast War. The world still suffers from the effects despite the end decades before. Even with victory, the former allies, species of all kinds, view each other with suspicion and disdain. Still, the rebuilding must continue. The protagonist, Payn, is a constable in the city of Lost Angels. A mundane request for his services from one principality by another turns from simplicity into disaster in an instant. Events unravel the fabric of the world revealing a new and terrible threat to the different civilizations. The detective acquires uncommon allies in a race to discover who is behind this threat and what it means for all the cultures trying to live together. Our protagonists are not all heroes nor entirely heroic. They're skills are not well suited to their task. And they are very few against this hidden evil. Slowly, the evil reveals itself in the dread seeping into the population. Fear squeezes the people all around them. Fear that is unnamed and undefined. Our heroes, reluctant though they may be, must find within themselves and in each other the strength to overcome their differences and prejudices to unite and find the answers needed to defeat the enemy.
