Following on directly from his debut Black Library story The Hand of Harrow, Denny Flowers’ Necromunda novella Low Lives is a tall tale of confidence and consequences in the underhive. Caleb Cursebound – allegedly the underhive’s ninth most dangerous man – and his partner Iktomi arrive in the (literal) dead-end settlement of Hope’s End with hunters on their tail after their last, somewhat botched, job. They’re quickly forced to abandon their plan to lay low when Caleb heroically (or at least drunkenly) promises to rid the settlement of a gang of Orlocks who recently took control of the locals’ potentially lucrative mine.
You don’t need to have read The Hand of Harrow to enjoy this but it’s worth doing so if you can, as the short story does a great job of setting up the characters, the stakes and the tricky situation they’re in, all of which is then developed as the novella continues. Opening with Caleb’s boisterous introduction in Hope’s End and an ominous sequence featuring the assorted bounty hunters on his trail, it soon develops into a sort of ‘heist gone wrong with added complications’ story, fronted by a protagonist who spends most of the story drunk, hungover, being beaten up and generally talking himself into (and occasionally out of) trouble. After that fun, characterful opening it does sag ever so slightly in the middle as the job inevitably goes wrong and the pace slows down just a touch, but the excitement soon ramps up once again and doesn’t let up.
Caleb uses humour as a tool and a facade but as things go from bad to worse, he’s forced to sober up – quite literally – and confront the implications of his actions, both in the immediate term and also looking back at what set him and Iktomi on this path. It’s not exactly a redemptive arc – he’s too much fun as a rogue – but Flowers at least glances in that direction. There’s a great dynamic between the odd couple (not literally) of Caleb and Iktomi, with hints of Kal Jerico and Scabbs (for older Necromunda fans), except while Caleb certainly has the silver tongue Iktomi is comfortably the more dangerous of the two…and she’s not best pleased with what he’s talked them into. Between them you get the sense there isn’t much they can’t figure out, although facing angry settlers, territorial gangers, assorted bounty hunters and the myriad dangers of the underhive they’ve got their work cut out.
It’s not just about Caleb and Iktomi though, as there’s a brilliant sense of Necromunda’s tone throughout, in the bonkers locations (this really isn’t your standard mine), horrible beasties, and worn-down characters with who are somehow still proud, uncompromising and occasionally even virtuous, despite (or perhaps because of) having so little to lose. Likewise, for all that there’s a strong sense of fun running through it, this is still set in the 41st millennium so there’s more than enough dark moments, not just in the surprisingly high body count but in some of the smaller details and moments as well. Fans of the setting will find lots to enjoy here, especially those with long memories, but it stands up brilliantly as a clever, well-constructed and highly entertaining story in its own right.
