Peter Fehervari’s Cult of the Spiral Dawn comprises a short but powerful novel – originally released with the bland title of Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults – plus an accompanying short story, Cast a Hungry Shadow (or Casts…depending on which version you read). You can find reviews for both of these elsewhere on Track of Words (click the links in the previous sentence) from their original releases, while this article aims to take a wider look at what this book offers across both stories. Suffice to say, whether as an introduction to Fehervari’s writing or part of an ongoing exploration, it is – quite simply – essential reading for any 40k fan looking to dig beneath the surface a little.
Like all of Fehervari’s writing, there’s an almost bewildering amount going on here, and a lot to process both as you’re reading and once you’ve finished, not least in terms of the overall narrative. You can imagine there having been a simple objective – tell a story which shows off the idea behind the Genestealer Cults as a 40k army – but this goes way further, taking in a regiment of paranoid and belligerent guardsmen, ghosts from other worlds and an influx of naive pilgrims as the whole lifecycle of the cult is gradually explored. That’s all told to the backdrop of a wider mystery (which the short story expands a little) and a hellish world filled with secrets. This is SO MUCH MORE than ‘just’ a tie-in story, and when you take in the short story as well as the novel there really is an absolute wealth of detail to enjoy as you read through.
That’s before you even start to consider the backstories in place for so many of the characters here. Like in Fire Caste, while some of the characters’ histories are explained there’s a sense that you’re only getting glimpses, like the tip of an iceberg, and that there’s a whole world of detail waiting to be revealed elsewhere. World building often comes up when discussing sci-fi and fantasy stories, and in Redemption’s unique geography and fiery history there’s a wealth to enjoy here, but what Fehervari does is extend that concept out beyond the locations and into a wider sense of connective tissue running through all of his work. In this book that manifests in casual references scattered throughout – the Sunken Worlds, the Angels Resplendent, imagery of thorns and a tormented faith, hints of conspiracies and impossible journeys – which link this with the rest of Fehervari’s stories in tantalising ways.
Perhaps the only real criticism here is that while arguably the ‘main’ narrative – i.e the cult and its inevitable uprising – does resolve, there are several character arcs which are left dangling at the end. The short, Cast a Hungry Shadow, essentially fits between the novel’s prologue and first chapter, beautifully bridging that gap, but there’s a void left at the end of the novel which is just begging to be filled. If you want to see a little more of that connective tissue then you really should explore the rest of Fehervari’s work, not just Fire Caste but also Fire and Ice, The Greater Evil, Crown of Thorns, The Walker in Fire…basically, read it all. It won’t all make sense, but there are hints and teasing links…and we can only hope that further connections will be revealed in time.
This, then – taken as a whole – is a 40k story that’s a dark as any other, layered with detail and told with a real eye for both compelling storytelling and the essential elements that make 40k unlike any other science fiction setting. Fehervari’s work isn’t going to appeal to everyone, and this is no different, so you’re best off going into this with your eyes open. If what you want is a story that’s bleak and complex and powerful and creepy – and that rewards you for really paying attention – then there’s not much else out there which compares to this. Just be warned – it’s a dark and twisted path, and you might find yourself ensnared.
