The Merged by TM Yomide Book Spotlight
- Tabitha Tomala
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Blurb for The Merged
Three versions of one man on the same adventure, helping the same person find the same thing in three different timelines, to fix a breaking multiverse.
Agent John Doe lived by routine—until one case tore reality apart, shattering him into three lives.
A fragile man in the future. A soldier in World War I. A warrior on in a dark realm of gods. One fractured man must make the sacrifice, for in a void awaits a being older than gods. And realities will break or endure by their choice.
The Merged is a multi-timeline cosmic horror fantasy that explores shattered realities, threads fractured identities, and evokes existential dread, all while unmasking the illusion of choice. One man, three realities, one fate. This is where the end begins another war, the stepping stone into a cosmic tale of survival, identity, and redemption.
For fans of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and NK Jemisin's Fifth Season, dive into The Merged and witness a fractured tale across timelines.
TM Yominde has also provided a sneak peak!
Chapter One of The Merged
BREACH POINT: Root reality - an untethered Nullaeon
TEMPORAL STAMP: null
>>< << >>< << >>< << >>< << >><<
>>< Crack..! ><<
She sprang up. The crack hung in the air like vines of thunder—voiceless, harmless. Beautiful. But she knew what it meant, and so did he.
If he could, he would have stopped her from touching it. From drinking the power that made it possible.
“This…” Her voice—young yet leaden. It bore the weight of eons, an age of memories no child should carry. A power long forgotten to all known realms.
“Are you seeing this?”
He would have lied if he were capable. He’d welcome the skies to shatter like mirrors. Embrace hellfire than admit the crack existed.
He’d even smite her if he had the might.
“Temper thy joy, O Primeborn. Eons veil thine sight in falsehood”
“Falsehood?” She touched the crack again, and it pulsed. Breathing—alive like a being of substance. “No, only a deed so wrong, so imbalanced, can cause this wreck.”
Then she looked into the crack and all hope of preserving her ignorance, like he had done for three seasons, shattered. She had refused to look beyond the veil for nineteen seasons, but now, she saw everything. The past will rot. The present will crumble. And the future will become dust. She saw a vast nothingness, and it would swallow all existence.
Only the nullaeon, her prison, will remain.
“This… Should not be. We banished this hunger. The spawns of gods should have vanquished the BlackWorld.”
“Beseech thine grace, for I veiled truth from thine hearing. Of the spawns of gods, all but one lie slaughtered.”
She turned around to the floating shroud of blackness. A knot in her little brows spoke of her displeasure. But punishing the Keeper, her only companion in this eternity of solitude, would give her nothing.
The Keeper remained silent. Refusing to complete his words. But she wouldn’t let him.
“And…?”
“The last of the spawns… A vengeful soul thieved his destiny.” Her eyes shot up. Fate–for the first time since the dawn of creation–had altered.
“Then… He’ll… Need… My amulet. He will need its strength to vanquish the BlackWorld,” She mumbled. Subconsciously unraveling the lapse of events that are yet to come. Already seeing a possibility for her long-abandoned happy ending. “They will… They will need me to bring it all together!”
Silence.
He looked—her spirit has returned. And for the first time since the massacre, she smiled. He had forgotten how much she used to smile.
If he were capable, if her next words hadn’t struck him with terror. He would have smiled too.
About the Author
TM yomide is a Nigerian writer whose wild imagination found a home in science-fiction and fantasy. He wrote The Merged while applying to the University of Lagos, where he now majors in Psychology. By day he navigates the human mind. At night, he expands the Merged into a cosmo-verse of dark stories. He’s a lover of dogs and all things fantasy. His quest is to build worlds that threaten rules and bend minds.
Behind the Pages was also given a glance into an interview the author has done!
Author Interview
Tell us something about you.
Well, my name isn't TM yomide, it's actually Samuel Obe. I like peanut butter, and I have an aversion to perfumes.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up all around. Born in Lagos Nigeria, I lived in Ondo and Ekiti States over the course of my 20+ years. Now studying psychology in the University of Lagos
You'll forgive me for this, but we want to know; what is the weirdest thing about you?
I have many weird things going on with me, I'm a storex of weirdness, my girlfriend calls me weirdo. But I believe the weirdest thing about me is how I see everything in shades of grey. I know it doesn't sound weird but, I honestly do not think the words ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are applicable to anything at all.
What book inspired you to become an author?
Sorcerer's Ring by Morgan Rice, specifically A Rite of Swords. It had everything, sorcery, dragons, and a noble young man. I wanted to create my own world…to do something extraordinary.
What idea started The Merged? Not the problem, but the question.
There was no idea, seriously, The Merged was never planned, never thought through, and never supposed to happen. I just wanted to write a short story and the next thing I knew I had a 60k-word speculative fiction novel. But, if I were to answer the question, I'd say the base question that The Merged answers is; what happens when there are no heroes or villains? Everybody is just out for themselves, who is going to defend the integrity of all creation?
The Merged is basically about the same ‘one’ protagonist despite the multiversal approach. How did you keep each reality distinct? What was your mind frame and what writing techniques did you use?
Like I said, The Merged was never planned. I honestly have no idea what I did right or wrong, and one of the techniques I'd say I used is thinking of each reality as a different person. John, Zoran, and Krux are different people with the same face and origin. Each one had a life in their respective reality, Kara is the one that is consistent across all reality. Keeping each reality distinct is easy ‘cause they are different eras, genres, and different-ish characters.
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