Shattered Spirits: The Fall of Ishcairn
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
Legends say a dead god is buried under the stone city of Ishcairn, protecting its inhabitants by dashing enemy fleets into the jagged coast of Craeburn.
Adjunct professor Corrie Ecksley doesn’t believe any of that, but she knows from her work excavating nearby burial sites that the ancient Craeburn people believed it enough to name the city after their dead god, Ish.
When the ripples of a great war finally reach Craeburn’s shores, a terrifying new weapon is unleashed on the city that not even Ish can deter. A bomb that tears souls from bodies, driving anyone who witnessed the blast insane. But it is not the living that Corrie fears. Displaced spirits are hungry for a body, and care not if it already plays host to a soul.
No bullets can stop them, no walls are thick enough to keep them out.
No help is coming.
No one left but Corrie to stop the carnage, if she even can.
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Read this one as a finalist in SFINCS, however I already owned the kindle version!
This is a mixture of eldritch horror with a fantasy backdrop. A mix of gods and what felt like industrial style weaponry made for what comes across as a sort of gaslamp fantasy horror. I would kind of liken it to Of Honey and Wild Fires by Sarah Chorn in its fantasy world feel, but instead of crippling grief, it’s actual horrors coming for the characters.
A bomb blast that rips souls from bodies and causes those that witness it to go insane, creates these shrieking husks of people that used to be. These apparition-like beings create a creepy atmosphere that has the reader as amped up as the main character.
Corrie Ecksley, an adjunct professor, is thrust into the middle of all of this and just trying to survive. I liked that besides her excavation experience giving her some background information, she was just a normal person trapped in an impossible situation. And of course, sometimes literally trapped.
I will say that some of the world building bits and character explanation beats kind of took away from that creepy atmosphere, so in the end I don’t think this really comes across as horror. Not necessarily a negative, but I felt like it was on the fence of blending the two genres well, and I would have liked to see it go all the way. I am still kind of going through it though, so my attention span is a little off and reading has been difficult.
Regardless, this was an enjoyable novella. The big beats were there, the pace is good, as the character faces more than one issue that’s very time sensitive, and there’s definitely enough that I could have kept reading longer.
