'Aria Arcana' – Peter Fehervari (Black Library)


If this was a real advent calendar, well... I'd be opening it in completely the wrong order and there'd be loads of gaps where I just didn't bother opening the little windows at all. This is the Black Library 'Advent Calendar' Series though so it doesn't matter so much that I'm reading these out of order. Which I am, unashamedly so ;o)

I last read something by Peter Fehervari way back in August 2020 and it stuck because it was really very good. So good that when I saw 'Aria Arcana' mentioned on Twitter, I took one look, thought 'I'll have some of that' and it was on my Kindle a couple of minutes later. And here we are, with that a tale that... I'm not sure... It's quick thoughts again as it's only a short story and well, let me tell you about it.

This is the part of the review/post where I'll copy and paste a little blurb or if I'm feeling a little adventurous, sum it up myself. This time though, I can't because I'm not a hundred percent sure what's going on here. 'Aria Arcana' is beautifully written but the point of it? I can't quite put my finger on it (the ending is superb but... why?) and maybe that's the way it was meant to be; 'Aria Arcana' is a tale of the Warp and we all know that the Warp is fickle and liable to change... Which is what this story does. Brother Verlaine is on a journey but his mentor is not to be trusted so anything could happen here and it does, I guess it's for us to work out the whys and to be fair, a busy trampoline park (littl'uns birthday party) was probably not the best place to be pondering that question!

The journey though... Like I said, it's superbly written, from the almost cinematic switch in viewpoint to Verlaine's journey and what he sees on the way to the top of the city. It's one of those stories where you just sit back and let all that amazing prose just wash over you and you're just there for the ride. I love it, even if I'm not sure why these things are happening (maybe it's part of a much larger storyline that I've missed? I don't know...)

And that's all I've got really ;o) 'Aria Arcana' is not the read that you'd normally expect from Black Library but that's what makes it stand out all the more. My mind is a little bit blown at the glimpse into the Warp that Fehervari shows us here (even if I'm left questioning what just happened).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘Deathworlder’ – Victoria Hayward (Black Library)

Image
Before I get into the review proper, thank you Black Library for sending me a copy of ‘Deathworlder’ in return for a fair and honest review. Talking of ‘fair and honest’… There will be loads of the latter but I enjoyed the hell out of ‘Deathworlder’ so… We’ll see how being fair goes ;o) That’s your only warning, lets talk ‘Deathworlder’… Lazulai is a world beyond the brink, its battle against the tyranids all but lost. Once-magnificent cities lie in ruin. The seas boil. The skies crack. Horrific alien bioforms devour. In mere days the planet will be consumed. The 903rd Catachan ‘Night Shrikes’ defend one of the last fortresses still standing. Led by Major Wulf Khan, to die fighting is all that is expected of them… until she is given one last mission: to lead a squad through the apocalypse and recover a piece of archeotech that may doom or deliver the entire Lazulai System. Facing insurmountable odds and zero hope for aid, the major must hold her squad together as they pick their way ...
Read more

‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’ (1992)

Image
Every time Halloween comes round, I promise myself that I’ll watch more horror films and read more horror fiction; we’re halfway through the month and you can see how that’s going so far… There’s still plenty of October left though so lets see how I do from now until the end of the month ;o) First up is ‘Hellraiser 3’ which I watched last night, mostly because I love it (you can tell how this post is going to go, sorry…) but also because it was cheap on Prime and I’m still just on the wrong side of payday. Here goes… TV reporter Joey Summerskill’s life is changed forever when she witnesses the horrific death of a teenager, torn apart by bloody chains. Joey’s search for a story leads her to the Lament Configuration Box but it has already been opened, waking an old evil from its slumber… Now Pinhead walks the earth once more, creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims; his one desire to reclaim the Box. Even with help from an unexpected source, Joey Summers...
Read more

‘Cursed City’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

Image
I always have these vague ‘reading resolutions’, for the New Year and without fail, they all come to absolutely nothing. I still read loads, just none of the books that I meant to… This year is panning out slightly differently and I think I’m going to enjoy it. All the books that were originally ‘out of sight, out of mind’, in the loft at my old place, are now all over my new place and wherever I look, I’m constantly discovering books that I totally forgot I had but now quite fancy reading. Books like ‘Cursed City’ for example… I’m not going to tell you how long ‘Cursed City’ was sat in my loft, lets just say it was long enough for me to totally forget it was there and buy myself another copy… Oh well. I found it on the shelf the other day (only the one copy now) and figured it was way overdue a read, let me tell you about it… Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel...
Read more