There is a growing subgenre of fantasy that has come from the role-playing games (RPGs). LitRPG books and stories are based on the format of games like Dungeons and Dragons. The worlds of LitRPG books often explicitly use RPG mechanics as part of the narrative and characters ‘level up’ as they go. The most popular version of this at the moment is the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. Similar to this (but apparently broader according to the internet definitions) is what is called ‘progression fantasy’. Progression fantasy is not quite as rule bound as LitRPG but still follows a levelling up structure with the protagonists gaining experience, skills and power but facing tougher and tougher opponents as they go until they hit a ‘boss’ level opponent.
Django Wexler’s new book The Only Way Out is Up is, by his own admission in the afterword, a progression fantasy story, with a bit of a techno-edge. It follows main character Taj and his trusty robot sidekick Star as they literally fight their way from the bottom of the heap (a place called the Heap). The story is exactly what it says in the title. The only way Taj us going to get out of his situation is to climb up the ranks of the underground city that he lives in by winning ever harder robot battles.
The city that Taj lives is underground and has four layers. The top level is the ultra-wealthy Hod, the second level is slightly more upper class Yesod, the third level is the middle and working class Malkuth but then below all that is the ‘Heap’, which is where Taj lives with his adoptive siblings. All of these levels are ranged around a giant waste pit, the waste itself falls through a giant hole in the roof of their world. The book opens with Taj, eking out an existence plundering the garbage that accumulates in the middle of the city. But there is more to this world, a place called ‘Above’ where people can see the sky and the stars, a place that only a few in Hod have ever seen.
There are robots in this world but they don’t run by technology. They are called ‘runics’ and are built around and controlled by ‘sigils’. Sigils are essential magic building blocks built from distilled human life force instilled in runes. Different sigils give runics different abilities and they also work on a sliding rainbow colour scale (so a green sigil is more powerful than an orange sigil which is more powerful than a red etc). So while it feels like there is technology in this world, this book is essentially a techo-fantasy.
In this world runics fight each other in tournaments. Taj has an edge because his runic has an intelligent core that it seems no other runic has, a fact that he has to hide. It turns out that Taj himself also has unique talents. So we start with a unique runic and a unique protagonist. Then Taj and Star encounter Ky, a fallen princess in hiding, together with Ky they see a glimpse of a possible future out of the Heap. It will just take earning enough money to enter the annual Ascension tournament and then winning that.
The Only Way Out is Up is fine as far as it goes. The relationship between Taj and Star is cute (although feels a little cribbed from Project Hail Mary) and the world building is fairly basic but serviceable for the story. In particular, Wexler keeps a lot of details about the Above obscured, obviously held back for the next book in the series. But as it is labelled progression fantasy there are few surprises. This is a plot that essentially runs on pre-defined rails – it is a series of ever more difficult tournaments but for which Star is usually pre-powered up – which takes out some of the tension.
While it is not being marketed specifically as YA fantasy, The Only Way Out is Up definitely has that feel. The main characters – Taj and Ky – are essentially teenagers fighting against an ‘adult’ world that is trying to box them in to specific roles. And Star is the snarky sidekick, tough on the outside but with a heart of gold. It is fine as far as it goes but readers looking for any level of sophistication or surprise should probably look elsewhere.
The Only Way Out is Up by Django Wexler
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