The Alehouse at the End of the World

By Steven Allred

There is something wonderful about creating a new mythology. The author can pull from what already exists, combining it with other forms and their own imagination to create something both original and familiar. At its best, Stevan Allread’s The Alehouse at the End of the World creatively enchants the reader with a world reminiscent of native origin myth, The Odyssey, and biblical folk tales. At its worst it reads like a horny old man who’s a little too into birds. 

The Alehouse at the End of the World begins with a sailor seeking his beloved. We never learn his name and only ever hear him refer to her with a pet name. This is one of the first elements of the book that gives it the mysterious sheen of an Everyman’s story. For all the reader knows, the Fisherman could be Odysseus and this could be just another telling of that story. The Fisherman reaches the afterlife and some of the most interesting world building begins to take shape. He meets anthropomorphic birds and learns of a great beast who has eaten all after-death, threatening to eat the rest of existence should those birds fail to keep him sedated. 

There are times when the Fisherman gets a little too whiny, or one of the birds goes on a tangent that's only point is how pointless it is. Unfortunately for the reader, when the plot does finally get underway, so do the weird sex scenes and discomfitingly written women. I loved how the alehouse played out, or the way gods existed within the altered world. It’s frustrating when such enjoyable creation is sandwiched between abusive bird/men and scheming bird/women committing sex crimes. On top of that, Allred wrapped up his story in a way that felt more like a fable than novel. The deaths that took place felt unearned, making really charming characters feel more like tools than people. I had to ask a friend what happened to the main antagonist because he seemingly disappeared without much mention. I recognize that it was probably his intent to do so, but it didn’t help his case when the world ending catastrophe was seemingly prevented by a riddle. 

If you do read this book, the audiobook is narrated by Stevan Allred himself and it’s a bit of a delight. Much like his writing, I didn’t love the way he voiced his women, but that’s to be expected I suppose. The men were more dynamic than his soft spoken female voices, and could be downright comical at times. In addition to his novice voice acting, he sings the songs he wrote. I hate when a narrator only speaks the lyrics, it feels like a poorly written poem most of the time and takes me out of the story during a moment the author intended to be more remarkable for including music. The Alehouse at the End of the World may not have been my favorite read of 2022, but Allred having such a good time reading it made the experience worthwhile.