Part of the growing Warhammer Horror range, The Oubliette is JC Stearns’ debut Black Library novel, a grim tale of bitter political rivalry on an isolated Imperial world. With her father and older brother dead in suspicious circumstances, Ashielle Matkosen takes up the mantle of Governor of Ceocan, trying to process her grief even as she fights to establish her reign with political enemies all around. When those enemies threaten her life, as well as her position, in desperation Ashielle turns to an ancient presence she encounters in the darkness under the palace; a creature with the power to protect her, but whose assistance comes with a high cost.
It’s a story about the tension and complexity of an Imperial aristocracy tearing itself apart through envy, greed and stubbornness, and about a woman driven to succeed by (arguably) noble goals, forced to turn to ignoble means in order to survive. Beneath all that, however, it’s essentially a morality tale – demonstrating how easily determination can turn to desperation, how one bad decision, though made with the best of intentions, can lead to damnation. Of course this is 40k and Black Library, so damnation comes in the guise of a very real, tangible evil. It’s not outright scary, certainly not in terms of jump scares or excessively graphic gore, but the horror elements here are much more about the slow descent into darkness and the underlying ghastliness of 40k.
Fans of political intrigue in their 40k stories will find lots to appreciate, from Ashielle deftly maneuvering through tricky public encounters to the raging chaos (lower case c) of Ceocan’s highborn council in session. There’s a lot to take in early on, with an almost bewildering array of names, titles and allegiances, but it quickly becomes clear that Stearns has created an intriguing court of scheming, bickering aristocrats who are almost exclusively loathsome. While Ceocan may be isolated and inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Imperium, to its inhabitants it’s a vibrant world of danger and opportunity. Almost every character is flawed, cruel, forever seeking their own advancement or else cold and distant from the struggles and realities of life, and the question increasingly becomes whether Ashielle and her fellows are any less monstrous than the creature in the darkness.
The backdrop – Ceorcan, the warring nobles, the darkness in the world’s past – is well-constructed and effectively portrayed, but where the book falls down a little is in its pacing. The overarching plot is excellent, it just all feels a little rushed, and could really have benefited from a longer word count to give characters more space to develop in order for arcs, relationships and individual moments to have greater impact. It’s all good…there’s just always a sense that it could have been even better in a longer format (this being very much a short novel). Within those constraints, however, there’s a lot to enjoy, and for long-term readers, perhaps desensitized to the horrors of the 41st millennium, it’s a reminder of how dark things can get for individual characters. Meanwhile for readers new to the setting it’s an excellent illustration of the everyday darkness at the heart of Imperial society.
For more information about The Oubliette, check out my Rapid Fire author interview with author JC Stearns.
Click this link to buy The Oubliette, or this one for the audiobook version.