Roth-Steyr by Simon Bestwick
I would like to thank Steve from Black Shuck Books for a copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Black Shuck Books
Published - Out Now
Price - £6.99 paperback £0.99 eBook via publisher https://blackshuckbooks.co.uk/roth-steyr/
“You never know which ideas will stick in your mind, let alone where they’ll go. Roth-Steyr began with an interest in the odd designs and names of early automatic pistols, and the decision to use one of them as a story title. What started out as an oddball short piece became a much longer and darker tale about how easily a familiar world can fall apart, how old convictions vanish or change, and why no one should want to live forever.
It’s also about my obsession with history, in particular the chaotic upheavals that plagued the first half of the twentieth century and that are waking up again. Another ‘long dark night of the European soul’ feels very close today.
So here’s the story of Valerie Varden. And her Roth-Steyr.”
This past twenty years has been a ride hasn’t it – war, nationalism, plague, fragmentation and so much more. Those who enjoy history will note strange coincidences with the early years of the previous century and that creates question marks on humanity itself – are we doomed to repeat ourselves – is that the only thing that human nature can do? Can we ever escape the cycle? Imagine if you could cross the decades and see the rise and fall of the empires. That’s the fascinating question posed in Simon Bestwick’s supernatural thriller Roth-Steyr where we are taken into the life of a woman who in the present day finds her past coming up on her but in this case one of over a hundred years ago.
Valerie Varden works in a North-West England morgue and is shocked to see that she knows the latest gunshot victim, but not recently the body on the shelf she knew in the aftermath of WW1 in the dying days of the Hapsburg Empire. More importantly she and her fellow immortals can only die in certain circumstances and this means one of her enemies is likely about to disrupt the happy new life she is enjoying.
Immortals battling over time - you are probably imagining kilts and swords, aren’t you? Happily, Bestwick gives us a very different tale in this novella. This is a sombre tale of a person who has seen the worst humanity can offer from the gruelling regime of the Hapsburg military to the evils of WW2 and now is happy. Well into a happy relationship with her unsuspecting girlfriend Valerie has moved on from being an Austrian Countess who became part of the military long ago. She walked away from it all and now her old life calls. The tone of the tale is a bittersweet confessional. Valerie is a veteran in the sense of someone who knows battle and has no desire to go back to it – not some skilled warrior readily able to go into battle mode but more someone trained in spy craft who has to remember how this all works. Bestwick has worked really hard to make Val a three-dimensional character and her voice pulls you in.
As well as the mystery of the immortality we get an eyewitness view of life in the first half of the twentieth century. I am not an expert in this but I get the sense that Bestwick has explored the history of the Empire and the period before and after WW1 in detail but rather than dry exposition with Valerie’s sense of humour and also critical eye on how nations lie to their own subjects we get a humane take on the times and people plus how as she passed through the years she sees the same cycles again. For a novella it’s a hugely impressive piece of worldbuilding that helps ground the unreality of the immortals. So that when we go into the eerie mix of cosmic horror and science fiction to explain this group it feels much more plausible rather than simply bolted into the story for spectacle.
The central mystery of who is after Valerie is also well plotted. This is less murder mystery than knowing someone is spying on you and getting closer. It creates an atmosphere of mistrust in workplaces and relationships and the key theme is can you escape the past. The tale feels like a slow-motion car crash that Valerie has to desperately get out of the ay of and this makes the reading compulsive. A dark tale but also one with a key message on those who love the fight above all else.
I really enjoyed this novella. It too me back in time and made me think about where we may now be heading. Bestwick delivers a fascinating lead character who over the tale we get to know quite intimately and fully behind a battle for survival. Well worth your time!
