★★★★☆ What Stalks the Deep, by T Kingfisher
The thing wot stalks the deep is kind of cool and not horrifying at all
What Stalks the Deep
T Kingfisher
The thing wot stalks the deep is kind of cool and not horrifying at all
What Stalks the Deep is the third novel in T. Kingfisher‘s (AKA Ursula Vernon‘s) Sworn Soldier series. I enjoy this series, mainly because I like the hero, Alex Easton, a whole lot.
Alex is (or was) a soldier in the army of Gallacia. Gallacia is a tiny Eastern European nation that is, according to Alex, just about the worst place on Earth. Ka1 really prefers Paris but keeps getting dragged to places ka doesn’t like at all. So far those have been the tiny nation of Ruravia, which is possibly as miserable as Gallacia, then Gallacia itself, and this time West Virginia, USA. So, congratulations, America! You have earned a spot on the Ursula Vernon register of awful places.
Alex is brave -- ka suffers from “Soldier’s Heart,” an old and much better name for the problem we now call PTSD. Ka is kind and also funny. Ka is not afraid to admit that ka is afraid to admit that ka is afraid. For instance, we have this little aside, after someone explains to kan what a squeeze in a coal mine is
“That is horrifying and I want to go home,” I said, although I pronounced it, “Ah. I see.”
The Sworn Soldier novels are supposed to be horror. Horror seldom works for me, because it mostly doesn’t horrify me. But at least in What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night I could see why Vernon thought the monsters were horrifying. In What Stalks the Deep I really didn’t get it. I would just call it science fiction, with a sort of cool premise about a strange being that survived the ice age in a coal mine in West Virginia. You may find it monstrous or horrifying, but I did not. I did, however, find it interesting and entertaining.
What Stalks the deep on Amazon
On pronouns: In Gallacian there are special pronouns just for soldiers: ka and kan, which I will try to remember to use.