T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series offers bite-sized horror stories linked by a common central character. And because the first three have been nominated for Hugos, I keep reading them. I liked What Moves the Dead well enough but did not care for What Feasts at Night, so it was with some apprehension that I approached the third entry, What Stalks the Deep.
What Stalks the Deep follows lead Alex Easton and kan right-hand man Angus over the Atlantic to reconnect with a previous ally whose cousin has mysteriously disappeared in an old West Virginia mine. As the genre warns us, there’s something more than a bit uncanny about the mine, and Alex and crew seek to figure out what before anyone else disappears.
For the third straight book, the series moves to a new setting, and the shift from Gallacia to Appalachia sets the scene for the book’s biggest strength. It doesn’t take much to build terror out of mines and the unexplored cave systems beneath them, and even the very first chapters offer scenes scarier than anything in the previous entry. Nor does the horror abate when the main cast begins to explore the mines for themselves, with the very natural dangers only intensifying the potentially supernatural unknown entity in the depths.
This is a Kingfisher novella, which means there’s bound to be a healthy dose of banter to break up the tension, but it’s sufficiently well-balanced that the tension shines through brilliantly. A third of the way through, I was convinced this would be my favorite entry in the series to date. As with all horror stories, the tenor changes somewhat the more the cast learns about the situation, but while new revelations may lessen the raw terror, they’re interesting enough in their own right to keep the overall engagement high.
Unfortunately, the final quarter of the novella does not live up to the quality story leading up to it. Regular readers of the blog know that I am rarely as impressed with action-heavy climaxes as I am atmospheric build-ups, and there’s likely some extent to which this colors my experience. But I’d argue that a bigger piece is the quality of the storytelling—it just feels a bit rushed compared to what had come before, with an increasingly chaotic plot and oddly flat scenes of life-threatening peril. The example that sticks most in my mind is the war-hardened lead fighting for kan life while kan internal dialogue lingers on thoughts of petting a dog. It just doesn’t make for a thrilling action sequence.
The tense, atmospheric start flashes some of the best of the entire series, but What Stalks the Deep doesn’t have the consistency to maintain that level for the duration, and an uninspiring finish undercuts a strong start. The start is still worth something, and it makes this a better read than the previous entry in the series, but it does not live up to its potential as a high-water mark.
Recommended if you like: the other Sworn Soldier books.
Can I use it for Bingo? It’s hard mode for Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist and is a Book Club selection with an element of First Contact.
Overall rating: 13 of Tar Vol’s 20. Three stars on Goodreads.