Staff review
Adrian Tchaikovsky: Cage of Souls
9
Staff write-up
The Rev
I went in expecting nothing. Never heard of the book. Never heard of the author. Someone suggested it after I mentioned loving Sun Eater but finding Red Rising fell short of expectations. I wanted something meatier to dig into. What I found was potentially a new favorite author and a story that will sit with me for a long time.
How to describe Cage of Souls: it's Shawshank meets Alien 3 meets Mad Max. Add Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun as the ancestral DNA and you have a reasonable map of the territory. It's a deep, layered story loaded with allegory and metaphor that doesn't need to be excavated to be enjoyed, but rewards anyone willing to dig. Unlike Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, the prose is clean, clear, and accessible. The symbolism runs beneath the surface but the story on top of it is direct and easy to follow. Tchaikovsky trusts his readers without punishing them for not being academics.
The journey of Stefan Advani is an epic one. Scholar to prisoner to flawed redeemer to reluctant warrior. This is not an action novel. Stefan isn't a good person exactly, or a fighter. He's meek, flawed, bordering on cowardly. He doesn't succeed because he's special. He survives because there were Stefan-shaped holes in the world when things got difficult and he happened to fill them.
The novel is structured as a memoir, Stefan's written testimony of events he survived. That framing makes him an unreliable narrator by design. He admits his own cowardice freely, which paradoxically makes him more trustworthy than most first-person heroes. The reader learns to read between his self-assessments to find the actual person underneath.
The novel breaks into distinct sections. The prison and the man-versus-man brutality of that world. The outside wilderness and man battling nature in a landscape actively trying to kill everyone. And finally the underworld, man versus society and the weight of accumulated civilizational failure. Stefan battles his way toward saving a dying Earth while never having genuine control of his own destiny.
What he discovers the Underground is one of the novel's most haunting images. He descends and finds the mummified remnants of every civilization that came before his, each one having failed in sequence, leaving their dead as a record of inevitable collapse. Can he fix where every previous society failed? It doesn't matter. Society turns on him when he presents his findings.
My one genuine gripe is the breadth of the world itself. Tchaikovsky created something so vast and interesting that none of the threads get a proper deep dive. The lore of the Web Children. Who Faith actually is and where her abilities come from. What happened to the societies in the underworld. The outside world beyond a few locations. A 600 page book somehow still feels like it needed another hundred pages to honor what it built.
These are minor complaints about a genuinely fulfilling and fleshed out story that delivers front to back. The world has weight. The characters feel real. The allegory lands without lecturing. And the ending, Stefan not saving the world exactly but ensuring something worth saving might follow, lands with the quiet devastation of a story that never intended a full resolution.
Having never heard of Adrian Tchaikovsky before this, I'm very excited to start digging into his other novels and maybe kick the tires on a series.
Maybe I've found my next Stephen King.
In Depth Analysis
Part 1
Chapter 1 We open on a vessel returning to Shadrapar. The vessel is full of convicts, crew, and one man who is neither: Peter Drachmar. There's also our narrator, Stefan Advani, who isn't a convict according to him, but is being held as one.
What strikes immediately is the richness of the environment. Everything is vividly described, the flora and fauna feel alive and vibrant. Nature, right away, is proven not to be trifled with. Stefan's description of himself feels a bit biased, even down to his flaws. The fact that the first task we see anyone do is play a game of chess should not be lost on the reader.
Peter tells Stef he's going to keep him around for entertainment, he can tell he's educated, just as a serpent hidden in the depths waiting to strike attacks the boat. It's also revealed that Peter, although minorly, cheats at chess.
Chapter 2 We get our first glimpse of the island, the prison boat, and its residents. It's a horrible place with authoritarian watchdogs like the Marshal, a cold and controlling figure. We also meet Shon, a branded man, in much the same boat (literally and figuratively) as Stef. They have a brief camaraderie exiting the boat which will no doubt be required later amongst prisoners.
The sun is dying, just like everyone on the ship, the air looks sick. The men are processed without compassion, death is of no consequence to these men. The Marshal executes one to show how little they mean to him.
Chapter 3 Stef is brought to his new surroundings, a cell with no privacy shared by many inmates. He's led by Midds, a fair warden but no friend. Accommodations are inhuman, his cellmate is sick with island fever and might die. No one cares. Yet another force acting against inmates.
Gaki, a terrifying man in an adjacent cell, makes small talk with Stef, seemingly controlling his own narrative here. They talk when it suits him, not when it doesn't.
The number four always seems significant, though it's not yet clear why. Four failed deaths, four inmates in the future. It appears to be a notable connection to keep tabs on. Other figures in the prison, Onager and Lucian, establish themselves. Authoritative the former, chatty the latter. The sick man is Valentin. Stef has a vague memory of him somehow.
Chapter 4 Stef is sent to care for Father Sulpice, the eldest resident, magician, and seemingly somewhat respected figure. He also appears to be a decent mechanic, and that's how you stay alive here: find a way to be useful. He enlists Stef as a gopher for scrap.
A malfunctioning pipe reveals itself to be clogged with a snake. Stef is saved by Shon and Peter. Perhaps one of these three will be revealed to be a snake later?
Back in their cell, Valentin is lucid. He rambles about how he ended up here. Only doing his job, warning that the system is collapsing. Harweg betrayed his friendship and service. He dies slowly, alone, his path in life essentially erased.
Chapter 5 Stef comes down with the fever himself, seeing visions in a fever dream until he's well enough to get back to work.
Peter tells of his living conditions, merely a step above the convicts. There's a denunciation culture, so fighting keeps other wardens in line from informing on you.
Peter warns he was punished for saving Stef, it won't happen again, so watch your back.
Chapter 6 Stef is brought to the governor, who questions his academic credentials. He shows Stef a telescope, possibly the last person to care about astronomy in the whole world. It's organic, handmade, eloquent, everything the prison is not.
The governor admits that, like a man getting bloated and dying, this happens to stars as well. Our star, specifically. He asks if Stef knows of a legendary scholar, Trethowan. He didn't die on some legendary expedition as they tell prisoners to give false hope. He died in the prison for unknown crimes. His papers need an intelligent eye. Stef's.
Chapter 7 We learn why Lucian and Peter are here. A lawyer who was a patsy, and a duelist.
A new, massive inmate is added to their cell. Hermione promptly establishes dominance by defeating Onager when he comes to claim it himself. It's revealed that the governor's mistress, Lady Ellera, keeps about 5% of female inmates above for her flesh experiments. What exactly those are remains to be seen.
Chapter 8 An inmate lets everyone out for a night of gambling, which turns south quickly. A rumble breaks out and the Marshal emerges with wardens. They shoot one inmate, claiming they got the ringleader. They randomly choose Onager as an example and haul him away. Was the original gambling a setup, or intentional to let the inmates blow off steam?
Chapter 9 Hermione and Gaki grow closer. It's unsettling.
Stef starts work transcribing the governor's papers, slipping extra copies for himself when possible. One is a letter by the last ecologist. It posits that because the sun is dying, evolution has sped up. The jungles evolve as quickly as they need to in order to survive. That Darwin was wrong. It also postulates they are no longer the only intelligent life.
The inmates are awakened by silence, a bad thing on a prison ship. The nearest pump is dead. Stef is selected to help repair it. Water begins slowly filling the lower compartment. The prison leaking seems like an analogy for any number of things potentially incoming. They manage to fix the leak and celebrate saving the day despite despising the place.
Chapter 10 Stef puts a plan into action to recruit inmates to dictate the manuscripts as he reads them. Soon he has a queue out the door of takers. The governor seems pleased with his progress.
Peter and Stef play chess again. They drink, they talk of the outside world. Stef seems to be moderately enjoying his current lot in life. He reassures us that for every peak, a valley is not far behind.
When Stef loses his temper over a bullying incident, he seemingly kills an inmate with psychic powers.
Chapter 11 Stef is hauled directly to the governor, unsure why. The governor knows about the mind powers, it seems. Stef senses Lady Ellera watching behind the scenes as he's interrogated.
Kill one of the Marshals or I'll stab you. The governor warns. Stef is too drained to do anything, so he's stabbed and sent below for months. They are hard months.
Peter visits him, giving him his flask so that he doesn't literally rot in the dungeon from infection. At night he hears another inmate devoured by crabs. He screams, not wanting to be next. No one answers his call.
Part 2
Chapter 12 We take a step outside the prison to learn more about society and Stef's family's downfall into poverty. He's determined to get out of the literal gutter, and he's going to tell us how.
Chapter 13 We follow Stef as he goes on an expedition for relics in the desert. His team is attacked by a Macathar, a giant crustacean-like creature with seeming radiation powers. Stef is the only survivor, by sheer cowardice.
A voice calls out, hidden below the surface. One of his crew, Jon, fell in through a hatch. Inside they find chemicals, machines, personal effects, and an ancient manuscript. The drawing of three is referenced several times.
Chapter 14 We learn a bit about Stef's old life. How he was actually able to make some friends, Jon among them, an agitator but good-natured.
Stef forms a small group of friends who enjoy testing each other's limits. They're part of The Order, and sent to The Academy on a deal. One member of the clique, Rosanna, argues until blue in the face with Stef. When one night the arguing goes on for hours, they find everyone else has left. They make passionate love. This continues until they're found out, at which point they stop arguing and put on a front. They care about each other outwardly. Stef is going to tell us how she died.
Another student, Helman, is bright and gifted. Stef befriends him. Helman shows him his brain activity monitor. Stef decides to pay off Helman's debts (something everyone carries because the world is ending, so why not). He never tells Helman. At some point Jon and Rosanna die. Stef does not weep for his lost friends. Helman dies. Stef is devastated. He cries for the lost potential to save the world in Helman.
Chapter 15 Helman tells of an ancient society that was able to build colossal buildings. Pyramids, rectangles that reach toward the heavens. Something we've forgotten how to do. So let's reignite that quest. He moved a stylus on the table, claiming it was controlled with his mind.
Helman turns into a modern-day da Vinci, creating things needed to work on the project, sketching ideas, breathing their work. They learn telepathy, and we find Stef can actually get into others' minds while playing chess to know what attacks are coming.
Stef's mother dies. A trivial affair in his mind.
They're published but no one really understands their work.
They name it "How to Save the World." No exclamation point.
Chapter 16 Their published results to save the world aren't received with admiration, or really anything at all. They're laughed out of the spotlight and forgotten.
A riot breaks out after rejection of Helman's proposal. The citizens defy their own wellbeing to kill the messenger. Reminiscent of the death of Krypton, or more recently January 6th, the crowd wants nothing to do with the intellectual stance, turning instead to animalistic reactions. Helman is killed.
The riot continues, and the peacekeeping force, The Angels, retreat with dysfunctional equipment. Jon and Rosanna are killed in mob violence. Stef goes into hiding, but his name was on the book too.
Stef fears that speaking out against the elites, disrupting the status quo, will lead to a bounty on his head. Emil is still alive. They meet up and he tells Stef of a man who tried to rally a resistance before. He also informs Stef that everyone is hunting him. Even the Angels, embarrassed and looking for a scapegoat.
Part 3
Chapter 17 Back in his tiny isolation cell, Stef updates us on his haggard appearance. One night, a frog creature appears, parroting what it's heard before. Stef tries to communicate with it. Evolution is wild. He might have gotten through, but is interrupted by a warden. The warden couldn't care less.
Peter manages to get Stef out of the cell for a bit. He meets up with Kiera, the woman whose life he saved.
She reveals she was to be Lady Ellera's, the witch queen as they call her, next companion. Harvesting something like stem cells or blood from them, they don't know for sure. But when Stef noticed her, it changed her. And the witch queen rejected her.
She's the governor's cousin, we find out. Also, Stef has been replaced as scribe. They no longer need him. If he ever leaves isolation, it'll be for his execution.
Chapter 18 Stef, like Trethowan before him, just believes that despite Earth's end incoming, things can change.
A spider-like crab creature sneaks into the cells. As it's about to pounce on an unsuspecting warden, Stef calls out, saving the man's life. He kills the creature and leaves, barely acknowledging Stef. The other inmates notice him though.
The Marshal hauls Stef to him, with an audience of the governor and Lady Ellera. He attacks. A brief glimmer halts him in his attack. A haggard man, Louyere, an academic Stef has previously interacted with, comes from the shadows. Stef's replacement, no doubt.
The governor demands Stef be put back on assignment. He can use Shon but no one else. When he's done, do whatever with him. Stef was going home.
Chapter 19 Stef returns to a hero's welcome, much to his relief. He regales them with his experiences below and how he came to be back. Any dissenters will have to deal with Gaki, who claims they need to practice brutalism.
A man attacks in the night, trying to choke the life out of Stef. He manages to get free and fall back asleep. It appears Gaki is having a conversation with the man about his beliefs as Stef drifts off to sleep.
A warden, Sauven, asks if he'd like to go outside in a few days. Stef agrees. He thinks Sauven is the man he rescued from the spider below. The man who accosted Stef the night before apparently jumped into one of the fan blades. The inmates' job today was to clean up the bits and pieces and get it unclogged.
It's revealed Gaki is actually responsible, breaking apart the man's religion until he finally lost the will to live.
Chapter 20 Stef is taken out by Sauven and they admire the beautiful but dangerous environment.
Stef postulates whether he likes the horrifying unknown of nature better than his relatively safe cell, and he thinks he does. When they anchor near a ruin of a spire, another serpent attacks. Sauven blasts it until it's goo and they relax for a bit.
Back at the prison and starting his new job, Stef informs Shon what they're to do. When the Marshal falls asleep, Kiera pops in, warning that Lady Ellera has become uncomfortably interested in Stef. He needs to be careful. She does too. Stef thinks he might be developing feelings for her.
Chapter 21 Life gets back to normal but Stef is put on a sort of pedestal by his peers. He returns to research but is visited by Lady Ellera one day. He's hypnotized by her. She read his book. She believes in his power. Show it to her.
He tells her everything, unable to resist. But she still can't pull it off. She becomes angry, threatens to cut his throat, to feed Kiera (yes, she knows about her) to the inmates in front of him.
He has no plan.
Chapter 22 Lady Ellera throws Kiera into one of the adjacent cells to Stef. Stef warns that anyone who touches her will deal with him and his mind powers.
One day, after returning to his cell, Kiera is gone. In a rage, Stef threatens the cell's occupants. Gaki tells him that she escaped. Why does he care so much? Could he really have feelings for this woman?
A group of new prisoners arrives. Stef notices one looks familiar, the man who turned on his friends. He wonders what caused him to be brought here. The Marshal says they're to be executed for trying to overthrow the authority. Shoot them, he demands. And just like that, tens of prisoners are no more. Stef has to dispose of the bodies.
A message for Peter is also delivered. Stef thinks it's bad news. A duelist, Destavian, is challenging Peter to a duel to the death. It is tomorrow.
Chapter 23 Peter hauls Stef to his bunk, their living situation not unlike his. Inside he finds Kiera, but other wardens know she's there. There was actually a scuffle. Everyone so afraid of the Lady, no one is willing to snitch for fear of repercussions. Some guards actually fight on Kiera's behalf. One tells Peter he hates Lady Ellera.
Peter says he's basically laid everything on the line for Stef, and he needs him to be his second in the duel. Not physical though, his representative, essentially his lawyer. Shon will accompany. They meet Doctor Mandri, Destavian's second.
Peter tells them how he got into this (dueled the wrong man to death, family wants revenge), what the rules are (three hits or first to die). They go over his supplies, all junk blades except one, a Ropa blade, essentially a stun baton. One hit could mean instant death.
Shon is stoked for this.
Chapter 24 The duel commences, three rounds, with Stef litigating points. Point one goes to Peter, Destavian seemingly letting him have it. The second round is tighter with Destavian making the point. The Ropa blades come out, with Destavian taking Peter down. As he attempts the killing blow, Peter dodges, an onlooker is struck and killed, and Peter tags Destavian, killing him instantly. Another man attacks with a knife but Shon makes the save. Peter collapses in exhaustion.
Chapter 25 With Destavian gone, Shon now faces the guards, but Doctor Mandri steps up. Destavian was an honorable man. He'd want the results upheld and no harm to come to anyone involved. With that Mandri leaves. Stef will never see him again.
Stef slinks off to tell Kiera what happened. She's unsure how to continue. On his way back, a guard beats Stef for idling. He feels that's fair.
Kiera has befriended the guards, opting to fit in rather than run. Stef feels his attachment growing, but he wonders if she's just using him.
Peter is still recovering. He needs to get up and about. They start scheming next steps.
Kiera is brought in, back in inmate garb, by Thelwel. He's tired of living a dictated life.
They head out by boat. Something rises up out of the water. They drift silently.
While they're plotting some sabotage, a beast attacks. It throws Thelwel into the trees before Peter wounds it with the Ropa blade. Stef is knocked unconscious.
Chapter 26 When Stef comes to he's greeted by Peter, Kiera, and Thelwel. Father Sulpice's son, whom he built and was put on trial for creating through indecent means. But if he was human, they couldn't discard him. If he wasn't, then Father Sulpice is guilty of nothing. So they sent him to the prison to waste away.
At night, Gaki appears to Stef in an ominous vision. Or was it real? The Gaki-thing claims it always said it can come and go as it pleases. Stef chooses to believe it was real.
They meet some of the web children, unable to discern how intelligent they are.
Chapter 27 Ship destroyed, they continue their expedition inland, following the web children where they're leading them. The children continue to watch their journey, unsettlingly. They come upon a shiny beast who is revealed to be a man in an iridescent robe.
Kill them, the man demands. The children hesitate. Stef thinks he recognizes the old man. Trethowan. Stef tells him he's currently deciphering his old notes and that they mean him no harm. He's lived twenty years here with the children. He invites them in for a chat.
They discuss the state of the children and of Earth. How evolution seems to be in high gear. Humans had their chance and they failed. It's time for something else.
A boat idles nearby. Kiera wishes to stay with the children and they don't object. Stef talks to one of the children who enters his mind, showing him things.
The governor wishes to speak with Peter. They get their story straight before heading back.
When they get back there's also a new shipment of inmates. Stef recognizes one. Arves Martext, the collector of books. His being here is a bad sign.
Part 4
Chapter 28 A new man shows up with Emil. Sergei. He offers to take Stef somewhere the Angels can't find him.
Sergei runs the collective, a tribe that lives in the underworld, where he's taking Stef. In three days he'll need to find a tribe that will accept him, or go solo, which Sergei says means the organ donor boys will get him.
In the temple he's caught up on the rules and mythology of the underworld. There's a giant statue that people visit frequently. Find one of them to accept you into their tribe.
Giulia, the priest, gives him some of the history. No one knows when it started. Three hundred years prior is the oldest documentation they have. It's never been fully mapped either. She wants to be the one to do it.
After two days, no one has claimed him.
On the final day of his stay, within hours of the time limit, a disfigured man approaches and lays claim to Stef. Stef agrees but is worried about the man's appearance and how the others look at him. Like they're afraid.
Chapter 29 Greygori is a stern but fair owner. His appearance, so horrendous at this point (he's called the transforming man, after all), is not socially acceptable, hence he needs an errand boy. Stef has freedom, and even gets to play chess.
The underworld uses a barter system, with money only being needed on the surface.
We learn a bit about how Greygori got along, selling fungus and fruits. He appears to claim to be a time traveler. He says this time is not good for him, the radiation is bad for him. Stef speculates his machine is related to this.
We meet Fermers, tiny tentacled creatures who tend the crops. They feed off rot and are extremely efficient workers.
Chapter 30 Greygori is noticeably deteriorating. He sends Stef on a mission that Stef would rather not go on.
An expedition for supplies, believed to be medical, is outfitted and Stef will join a crew funded by several individuals as well as Greygori. They will also attempt to map unknown areas.
Stef follows them down but they keep descending. They warn of other scavengers, and even devices of the past that remain powered on.
They descend further, noticing caverns that had never been explored. They hear skittering and Stef is told of the beasts that reside down here. It haunts him.
They traipse through ruins of the ancient civilizations when Stef stumbles and falls upon a Mazen, a humanoid under-dweller. A battle breaks out, some are lost but it's a victory nonetheless. They continue their trek, finding supplies but never any medical facility.
Chapter 31 Greygori assigns Stef to the temple. It's a nice, simple life. For a while.
A woman appears one day, stark naked and perfect. She seems to have some masculine traits but it's so clearly a perfect woman that Stef thinks maybe she was reengineered by a private owner. She has no memory or shame. He tries to comfort her. She'll find a tribe before the three days are up, he's sure of it.
They nickname her Faith. When a man, Virus, tries to recruit her, Stef says he can't because he claims her. She agrees. He'll deal with Greygori later.
Chapter 32 Stef takes her back and is confronted by Greygori, who is taken aback by her beauty. He orders Stef to fix her a room.
Stef and Greygori discuss her while she sleeps, over chess. They compare her to the sun. Greygori tells Stef to keep her. She may be of use later.
He brings her to the temple where everyone seems infatuated with her. Stef needs to help her find her place in this world.
They prepare to burgle an underground vault. When describing its location, Faith feels like she knows the place. She wishes to come along. Reluctantly, they agree.
Chapter 33 Greygori offers Faith the opportunity to go with him to the shining place. She contemplates it. Stef tries to warn her not to with his mind.
Stef brings her on a scavenger mission where they run afoul of a floating energy creature. Faith steps forward and seems to mesmerize the creature, long enough for them to abort the mission and mostly escape intact.
Once back, Greygori begins taking her into his lab. Stef tells her she doesn't have to do it. One day she pulls back her scalp to reveal channels carved into it. No doubt Greygori had done this.
Chapter 34 Sergei and Stef discuss what to do with Faith. They can't find an easy access point or escape tunnels.
During their escape attempt, Greygori finds them but he won't proceed into the light. He pleads for Faith to return to him. Faith goes on her own from here, and after a few days they return to Greygori.
Greygori locks himself in his lab. No rebuttal. Years pass without ever hearing about Faith. One day Stef is accosted by Angels. Greygori called them in and they're more than happy to have the man who incited the greatest mob in history in custody.
Stef is sentenced without trial to prison. They tell him to put on the inmate greys.
Chapter 35 It's revealed war had broken out in the underworld after the murder of Jon Anteim, the Elder.
The president, unsure who to blame for the death of one of his elder statesmen, declares war on the underworld.
The battle eventually finds its way to Greygori and Arves, whom Greygori sends to stall the fighters. The fighting gets tense until Greygori returns with a disintegration ray of sorts. He topples the Angels until out of ammo, at which point he leaves. He's headed for an undiscovered medical facility to finish his work. None are invited to join him.
The outriders attack the temple, taking out the caretaker spider.
Chapter 36 Arves dies in the cell relatively peacefully. The others might not be so lucky. The Marshal taunts them over the loss of the underworld, forcing them all to swear loyalty to him in exchange for not being executed. It's a morale-breaker.
Stef and Hermione have a heart to heart in their cell, a first for them.
An illness is spreading through the prison, not just the inmates either. But they try not to let on when they're sick for fear of reprisal.
The governor is afflicted as well, telling Stef they must finish their research in the next month. There's a dire finality in his words.
Peter and other wardens gather inmates for a trip. The prison ferry has not come in. They start a search party and find it beached. Bodies float in the water.
Chapter 37 They hunt for survivors, finding none. Someone grabs Stef, covering his mouth. It's Kiera. She saw what happened.
A mutiny took place. The ship was equal parts men and women, meaning a political death march. Some on board disagreed and reacted. They beached and what the mutiny didn't kill, the jungle finished.
Back at the prison, everyone questions when the next boat will arrive. But there is no second boat. They barely kept one working. So, until it was salvaged or a new one commissioned, there would be no new prisoners and no contact with Shadrapar.
Father Sulpice is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell. Thumbprints on his neck. They have no means to do the identification from the olden days with fingerprints.
Chapter 38 The Marshal demands answers. He will kill one per block until he finds who's responsible or there's no one left alive. Gaki questions him and he shoots two men on the spot, killing one.
Inmates begin turning each other in. He kills the accusers and accused. It's no use, he can't tell a lie from a truth. He tells Stef to explain decimation to them. Stef defines it as one tenth. The Marshal says exactly correct, and he's going to start herding out groups now.
Gaki steps up, revealing it was him. But also, this was his plan all along: get out of his cell, get close, and kill the Marshal. He learned mind control at some point and uses it to paralyze the Marshal before slicing him with Father Sulpice's diamond blade. In the chaos he retreats and gets away as the Marshal bleeds out.
Chapter 39 The Marshal isn't dead but he doesn't seem like he'll make it. The wardens are scared.
Stef fears what comes next as well. Hermione waits for Gaki to return. He doesn't.
They haul Stef and Shon into the Marshal's room. They are to finish their research. They are not to leave until it is done or the Marshal is dead.
Lady Ellera watches from the shadows. Unsettling.
The governor checks on them while Peter is having a parley with Stef and Shon. Peter tells them they're leaving. The governor crumbles like a coward. He says they can't leave until they finish. Stef coldly asserts that Trethowan never finished it, it has all been a waste of time. He throws one final jab before escaping: "You were reading the wrong book."
They begin gathering a crew to help escape. Stef gets Thelwel and tries to take Lucian, but he's too scared, he won't come. He goes for Hermione, but she's gone, left with Gaki. He returned. He's building his own crew.
They leave Lucian behind and head back to Peter.
Chapter 40 Thelwel refuses to go. Stef knows there's no point arguing and thus they bid adieu.
Peter dictates their new pecking order. All are equal, except he's in charge. All are armed. Set course for the ferry.
They scavenge for weapons and Peter tells them to wait for the rest of their new crew. Eventually Kiera emerges.
A gunship causes them to almost capsize, but they're able to cut free of any debris and escape. The ship, captained by Lady Ellera, gives chase. Peter slashes a hole in the boat with the Ropa blade as another ship emerges. It's Gaki. Unsure which side he's on, they run. Gaki reaches out, asking for Stef's help. Stef and Gaki awaken a sea beast which destroys the Lady's ship.
Stef doesn't stick around to see what Gaki and crew intend, racing off to freedom.
Chapter 41 They bury Redd on the beach. No one knew him very well but they say a few words.
They begin stating what got them here and what their plans for the outside world would be. When it comes time for Kiera, she reveals she was a spy. She lost the favor of a mark and ended up here. Turns out that mark was Anteim the Elder.
That night Gaki's men attack. They lose Midds in the skirmish and Gaki steals their boat with Hermione.
Chapter 42 Midds and Shon survive the attack and the rest work on getting Gaki's broken boat working again.
The web children show up as Stef is working on the electrical. He has no idea what he's doing but gets the solar power working.
Midds isn't recovering well, so the web children will take him and try to heal him. The rest will continue on at first light.
Chapter 43 They debate going back to Shadrapar. Not everyone is keen on it, but someone needs to document the end of civilization. Midds will go with the children and they'll come back for him when he's healed.
When they get inside Shadrapar all they find are clothes strewn everywhere. The spire from the center, a weapon, is gone, along with all living souls.
Chapter 44 They question what could have happened. Who could have triggered it. They see someone sneaking in the shadows and pursue.
It's a Vermin, a bottom-dwelling humanoid creature. Stef, overcome with rage, goes to kill it. Others come from the shadows, men, women, and children. Stef lets it go.
A fluid-like creature stalks around. A Macathar.
While the others sleep, Stef retreats to the site of the weapon, climbing down a maintenance tunnel underground. He's abandoning his friends.
Chapter 45 Stef descends, finding tunnels under the weapon's base. He finds more bodies, the caretaker's remains, and hears a mechanical hum. He follows it to a device built by Sergei.
A time machine. Stef steps in but it does nothing. Did it work? Was Sergei floating through time, or was he atomized?
Stef sees Faith, sure it's a hallucination. Could she be the Helen? Could they have triggered the weapon over her? Next he is grabbed by Greygori, another hallucination? No, he appears real and nearly complete in his transformation. He's like the Macathar now. He wants to know why Stef won't leave him alone.
Faith distracts an angry Greygori and Stef runs. She appears to him one final time. He betrays his intentions and temptation and tells her to go, to avoid all remaining men. She smiles at him as she departs. He desperately wants to call to her.
Before leaving, Stef calls to Greygori. He insists he died on the island. He's gone. But before he died they played chess. It was a good final game. He also reminds Greygori that he forgave him. Greygori's embarrassment and self-hatred seem to erupt and he attacks. Then Gaki emerges, slicing the grey-thing's throat.
Gaki thanks Stef for being his brother. For that, he will save him for last. Stef rushes after Gaki.
Chapter 46 Gaki and Hermione ambush Peter and Kiera, but Hermione stops. When is it her turn, she asks. If Gaki's plan is to kill all humans, when does he turn on her?
Peter grabs the Ropa blade and attacks while Gaki is distracted. Peter severs the fingers from Gaki, destroying the puppeteer's instruments. But that's not his only weapon. Gaki mentally attacks and disarms Peter.
Peter, Kiera, and Hermione are beaten. Gaki approaches to finish them when Greygori, fully transformed and no longer a man, erupts out, alive. He had cheated Gaki's death.
Stef reaches out like a spear with his mind and touches something celestial. He calls it God, for he has no other way to describe it.
He controls the Macathar and blasts Gaki. Gaki turns to ashes, to dust.
The Macathar leaves. The grey-thing follows.
Chapter 47 Stef is going to use the president's mirror to try to contact the governor. Maybe there are survivors. Thelwel answers, much to both their surprise.
Civil war broke out. Wardens, prisoners, Lucian, all dead.
About a hundred survive, a quarter of them women. The women have guns. He tells Thelwel about everyone in Shadrapar.
Once Peter is healed they plan to go to Trethowan and ask to stay with him and the children. Until then, Stef will document their story.
Hermione reads the story and offers a blunt but fair critique. Stef revisits parts, omits things, but for the most part leaves it as is.
Same vibe
Related Revs
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Same desk
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