Wiz Duos book 1 by David Gullen and Ben Wright

Book Review

Peter Sutton

Wizard’s Tower Press has resuscitated the old binary format for putting two novellas together and publishing in one book to give you value for money, and called it Wiz Duos. I purchased the first at BristolCon and jumped at the chance to review it for the BFS. This first one (and another has already followed, which shows that the idea has legs) has novellas by David Gullen and Ben Wright. I feel for the sake of transparency that I should say that with the exception of Ben, who I’ve not met, everyone else involved in this book is a friend.

First of all – do the stories work together? I think so – as Roz Clarke & Joanne Hall (co-editors) say in the introduction: [The stories have a] “similar theme of characters cast out of their impossible city into a treacherous wasteland.” I would also say that the two authors are demonstrating impressive feats of imagination, which makes these two short novellas feel much larger, and that the editors and publisher have done a good job of making something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

And as far as those parts go?

Gullen’s story is the shorter of the two but no less full of big ideas. Inspired by the natural phenomenon of whalefall, the arthropodic, alien, but very relatable characters of this story live within the body of a fallen god and are sustained through eating godflesh and godfat. We mostly follow LucusAna, adopted scion of the Aganathans who believe they inhabit the fallen corpse of some being struck down in ‘heaven’s eternal war’. The opposing Myxini believe that they inhabit ‘an actual fragment of the Great Solitary above, willingly calved from their own immortal body and given form to descend and sustain its worshippers’. Inevitably the two factions clash and the Aganathans are driven from the city only to travel the God Road awaiting a new ‘fall’ whilst confronting a mix of novel dangers and new creatures outside the city where ‘nothing lives in the endless grey silt except the scavengers of the lost, the weak, and the deluded.’

There’s a weirdness and an eeriness to this fantasy tale that is right up my street – it is the kind of story that sparks your imagination. It’s also full of quite human concerns despite being a story of exoskeletoned multi-armed beings. Like the meaning of friendship, one’s place within society and the greater world, the mysteries of the heavens, and betrayal and loyalty. This took me back to a place, a happy place, where I read fantasy as a teenager, where everything was fresh and I was full of enthusiasm and ideas for my own stories – told in regular D&D sessions. And for that, I thank the author.

Wright’s story is one that on the face of it shouldn’t work – with multiple worlds where our three protagonists are each given the limelight in different sections. We start with Garnas in the Rust Graveyard, who rescues our other main characters Shirin and Eilert, who had wandered into the dangerous territory of abandoned factories haunted by machine geists. He decides to join them on their journey aboard the Shaved Link (a ship with a fine backstory)to sail the interstice – hopping from world to world. Shirin, a warrior type, however, has a price on her head, and Eilert, who’s a ‘Cantor’, a spellcaster through song, has injured his voice in their fight against machine geists.

Wright has the facility to make multiple worlds interesting – from the aforementioned Rust Graveyard which is both haunted and haunting, to the giant, seemingly floating cathedral where the Cantors reside, with its above and below societies, to the Hapatizon Coast – a melting pot next to many transition points. The changes in POV could, in lesser hands, cause whiplash but is deftly handled – there’s a lot of moving parts to this and yet the intricate nature of it runs like well-oiled machinery, and in addition feels much warmer than I’ve just made it sound. Full of marvel and left me wanting more, of the worlds, the characters, the writing.

Roz and Jo have launched a new series with two fantastic tales – and although I am maybe a little biased I have no hesitation in singing its praises. This is well worth your time.