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Synopsis
An ancient cataclysm has sundered a medieval world into two parallel dimensions. An order of monks struggles to keep the two lands united by building portals - complicated, expensive, temporary, and above all dangerous contraptions that can slice your arm off as easily as they cut through reality. Three families converge on the engineering secrets that will create a miracle: A genderless pair of small-town priests are forced into the deadly political machinations of their merchant Church, who controls the portals. A family of rogue portal-makers is driven to starvation by the Guild that safeguards their riftmaking secrets. An orphaned eight-year-old, forced to crawl between the worlds by a mad merchant, stumbles into a dimension-spanning conspiracy. This is the spellbinding, epic, low-fantasy tale chronicling the decades-long construction of the great mechanism that will bridge these severed worlds - the fabled Cathedral of Portals.
Is The Cathedral of Portals appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 13 and up.
This epic low-fantasy novel features political intrigue, guild corruption, and child labor exploitation within a decades-spanning story about building portals between parallel worlds. Violence includes portal accidents and starvation.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include child harm, exploitation, and starvation (see the full list above).
Publisher ages reflect reading level; our rating reflects content maturity — they can differ.
Who'll love this
Teens who love intricate world-building and stories about ordinary people creating extraordinary things will be drawn to this multigenerational tale of engineering, politics, and parallel dimensions.