Best Novella - Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
Publisher – Vestige
Published – Out Now
Minister Shea Ashcroft refuses the queen's order to gas a crowd of protesters. After riots cripple the capital, he's banished to the border to oversee the construction of the biggest anti-airship tower in history. The use of otherworldly technology makes the tower volatile and dangerous; Shea has to fight the local hierarchy to ensure the construction succeeds—and to reclaim his own life.
He must survive an assassination attempt, find love, confront the place in his memory he'd rather erase, encounter an ancient legend, travel to the origin of a species—and through it all, stay true to his own principles.
Climbing back to the top is a slippery slope, and somewhere along the way, one is bound to fall
Towers are a long-time component of fantasy. The magical towers of myths, Babel, and more recently that Rings book had a couple. Fantasy is often nature focused but a tower is something built, it defies gravity and is all about status and of course we also wonder what or who lives in them. In Yaroslav Barsukov’s atmospheric fantasy Tower of Mud and Straw we get another strange entry into the canon of places probably best not to enter.
Shea Ashcroft is a man fallen from power; At a protest he stopped troops firing gas upon them and defied his Queen’s order. He is demoted and sent to the country’s borders where an immense tower already 1200 feet high is being constructed as an air defence mechanism from the country’s long-term rivals and enemies. Shea is tasked with reviewing the building of the tower and if it is on track. Soon he finds he is unwelcome thanks to the Duke who is overall responsible for construction, distrusted by its architect and that the tower is using technology from the mysterious powerful Drakiri people, and he finds himself finding through a new lover their legends about a previous tower and the risk of history repeating itself.
I enjoyed reading this story with a few reservations. There is a compelling world and mystery being created here. This strange Gaslamp style not quite eastern Europe setting feels grimy, murky, and oppressive. There is a feeling that Shea is in constant danger and cannot trust anyone from the very beginning. Everyone appears to have an agenda to uncover. On top of that Barsukov gives us the feeling of hidden secrets and dangerous powers. Shea is carrying the scars of his past constantly talking to the memory of his dead sister and we also learn the Drakiri people have their own mythology. Linking to this are the ‘tulips’ strange devices that are familiar to Shea from his youth, which he knows can explain some strange explosions in the tower and may also explain the dangers some feel are going to be repeated. There is some very neat crossing connecting the dots of all the plotlines to create interesting conclusion.
What worked less well for me was because there are all these plotlines some feel a little wasted or not explored. In some ways I felt this was where the novella format felt as if it constrained the story. Ultimately this is the old humans dare to know too much with a well-cooked slice of cosmic horror to boot but the Drakiri people, the proxy war and court intrigues feel like plotlines that just fall away once the story enters its final chapters. The other issue I have with is is that Shea has a lot of key female characters in his story drawn to him and they all seem to meet sad ends around him feeding his inner pain and motivations. Regular readers will know this trope annoys me most of the time and again it felt overused here.
I am glad I read this story it was entertaining and an author I will be very interested in seeing what they can do next; but I am not sure it’s the best use of a novella format in this category yet. Well worth a look with some caveats.
