Review of Stories from the Deep by Claudie Arseneault

Another novella, another threat from the mysterious Fragments that prey upon unprepared travellers in Nerezia. This time, Horace and eir companions are at sea! Their ocean crossing is a necessary step in their quest to get answers for Aliyah. Stories from the Deep introduces another new form for the Fragments to take: a violent, terrifying kraken. Yet without going into spoilers, all I’ll say is that Claudie Arseneault once again emphasizes the possibility of waking up and not choosing violence.

I will say that, in contrast to the previous three novellas, this one falls flatter for me despite the creature feature. Each adventure thus far has had something very specific for me to point to and say, “Ooh, this was really cool.” Even The Sea Spirit Festival, which like this story doesn’t introduce a new cast member or really advance the overall arc, had an entire new city to explore and an excellent interplay between Horace and Aliyah as the latter takes on the eponymous entity. Beside this, Aliyah’s dealings with the kraken—a sea beast rather than sea spirit—feel like an echo rather than a full-throated reprise.

Beyond that, Stories from the Deep continues the overarching narrative of this series. Not only does it further advance our heroes in their travels, of course, but it continues to throw hints our way about the nature of the Fragments. This is the mystery that I, personally, find most intriguing—I like the characters well enough, and I’m looking forward to the next book revealing more of Rumi’s backstory, but really I’m just hooked on learning how the Fragments came to be, and what (if anything) the Archivists have kept back from us (damn inscrutable monks). The nature of the kraken cleaves to Aliyah’s catchphrase of “your story is my story” in a very literal, intense way.

I highlighted The Chronicles of Nerezia in my recent 2024 book awards blog post, giving it the bespoke “Cozy With a Cuppa” award. Additionally, this series is a perfect example of how to tell an interesting story without violent confrontation. At every turn, Arseneault pits our heroes against formidable foes, putting them into situations that many authors would then escalate into violence. While combat has its place in this world—as the training sessions between Horace and Keza demonstrate—it’s notable that the main conflict in each story is always resolved through more peaceable, congressive ways.

Stories from the Deep is no exception, and this is where it truly shines, in my opinion. Aliyah’s compassion and empathy, bolstered by Horace’s determination, Keza’s obstinacy, and Rumi’s ingenuity, becomes a powerful force for good. Whereas meeting force with force often merely reinforces and redoubles the violence of the moment, this group’s ability to absorb force with kindness and cleverness always results in creative and interesting resolutions to their problems. This applies to conflict within the group as well as without: one of my favourite scenes involves Horace slyly manipulating Keza into sharing the same opinion with Aliyah that e just shared, knowing it will have more weight coming from the irascible felnexi.

This is not the book to start with if you’ve stumbled across this series. Do yourself a favour and start from the beginning, or at the very least, go one back to The Sea Spirit Festival. This installment is a solid entry that does the heavy lifting of getting the crew from one continent to another. Despite its high stakes, it isn’t the most exciting or rewarding of these chronicles—but every so often, you need to take a break and fight a sea monster.