Visionary Fiction Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Soul’s Reckoning by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy

An inventive second chapter of Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy’s post-life saga, The Soul’s Reckoning (The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy Book 2) continues its creative swirl of speculative fiction and existential imagination.

Following her emotional sojourn through the Earth-Heaven Interdimensional Expanse, Charlotte Elisabeth has finally crossed the Barrier with the help of her soul family, and now faces the next step of her afterlife evolution: preparing to return to Earth. This unexpected stage of her heavenly track requires Charlotte to reconcile with her family, something that she was supposed to do before she abruptly chose to end her life. Accompanied by her soul family, […]

The Book of Rain by Anthony Weirich

Reimagining the boundaries and guardians of life and death, The Book of Rain by Anthony Weirich is a striking collection of short stories that offers new perspectives on the mystery of mortality.

As a Deification of Death, Rain is a collector of souls and a caretaker of an otherworldly realm, helping the recently deceased come to terms with their fate and giving them opportunities for closure, peace, or redemption. From characters embarking on rescue missions into the realm of the dead, choosing selfless purgatorial paths as a guide for grief-stricken souls, or seeking revenge against monstrous forces that still stalk […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2026-01-27T13:56:16+02:00January 27th, 2026|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews, Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Déjà Vu by Niki

A genre-defying exploration of art, death, identity, and redemption, Déjà Vu by Niki is an afterlife drama like no other, and a modern-day sojourn into the realms of mythology.

When the emotionally tortured Zenia makes the fateful choice to cut her life short, she is forced into a soul-baring trial by the Queen of the Underworld. As punishment for her fatal sin, Zenia must traverse the damned worlds of her own making and memory, where “her body carries proof of a crime,” each arm stained with blood she cannot wipe clean.

From revealing interrogations with the ancient Chorus and delirious […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-11-13T09:59:24+02:00November 12th, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Mystery of the Scroll by Ann Beltran

Two intellectual lovers with very different minds become tangled with the unexplained wonders of the universe in The Mystery of the Scroll by Ann Beltran, a heady ride through science, spirituality, and the unknowable past.

On his way to start working as a lab technician at the Smithsonian, Jeremiah stops by his old Joshua Tree stomping grounds during a cross-country trip with his anthropology PhD partner, Sunny. Returning to the site of an unforgettable discovery from his childhood, the pair uncover an inexplicable artifact: a rawhide pouch containing an impossible treasure from the past.

As they settle into their new […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-19T08:21:05+02:00September 3rd, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Tristis Angelus by J.M. Unrue

Following the epic journey of a world-shaping immortal cursed to inhabit the body of a mere mortal, Tristis Angelus by J.M. Unrue unfolds with a hefty bolt of timely wisdom.

Spanning more than 1.5 million years of sporadic rebirths, Tristis Angelus – the Job-like protagonist and fallen angel – slowly evolves into heightened awareness during his long stretches of “death,” awakening with an increasingly clear view not only of humanity’s progress, but of his own divine banishment. At times an anthropological imagining of life as an early human, and at others an existential drama set in more familiar places and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-08-04T13:10:49+02:00August 4th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Soul’s Awakening by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy

A metaphysical afterlife adventure that will have readers questioning the meaning of life and the permanence of death, The Soul’s Awakening by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy is a thought-provoking musing on mortality.

Facing a future of chronic disease and pain, Charlotte Elisabeth seeks out a dignified death from Dr. Veritas, who promises a final release and endless peace. However, immediately after the euthanasia takes hold, she discovers that death isn’t the end of consciousness, nor memory, nor the uncertainty and confusion of being human.

Navigating a hallucination that never seems to end, she is exposed to the Darkness of solitude, the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2026-01-29T09:28:22+02:00November 8th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Monarchs by Mark Sabbas

Stunning in its messaging and epic in scale, The Monarchs by Mark Sabbas is a remarkable work of visionary science fiction.

A powerful young child with uncontrolled psychic abilities, Samuel Helen is unlike the other cognitively evolved children in the military research facility he begrudgingly calls home. Some people view these gifted “new youth,” born in increasing numbers each year, as the next stage in human evolution, while others see them as potential weapons. Isolated from the other research subjects in the facility, for fear of a rebellion, Samuel is experimented on like an animal, in an attempt to free […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-12-02T19:06:25+02:00November 4th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Great Being by Bill Harvey

An eon-spanning epically creative work of visionary alternate history, The Great Being by Bill Harvey is a sprawling parable about the powerful forces behind our interconnected existence.

After the Nothingness came into awareness of itself 14 billion years ago, it began to create energetic bodies and fantastical creatures, which spread out across the vast cosmos, but that didn’t mean they were easy to control. That’s where the Agents of Cosmic Intelligence come into play, helping to influence the course of time and the fate of entire worlds created by the great deity.

Melchizedek and Layla are sent to Prehistoric Earth […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-04-19T17:36:44+02:00April 18th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|