From Cartagena on the Gulf of Mexico to the time-lost isle of Exuma Obscura, Mark Brendans’ adventure-horror novella Exuma inhabits some of the darker corners of the 17th Century New World. Merchant Juan de Castro lives a quiet, largely contented life with his family until he’s accused of heresy by the Inquisition and sentenced to serve as a galley slave, for the crime of being a Protestant. When his galley is attacked and he’s washed up on the shore of a strange, mist-shrouded island, de Castro finds himself free once more but surrounded by dangers he can’t imagine.
Brendan packs the expected ups and downs of a pulpy, action-packed historical adventure story into a pacy, 80-ish page novella. After a brief moment of sun-drenched peace things quickly go wrong for de Castro, before proceeding to get worse at pretty much every step – arrested, tortured, enslaved, shipwrecked, attacked by monsters, it should be a litany of misery but in fact he copes remarkably well, perhaps because of the sheer pace of events. The odds are stacked against de Castro, especially once he encounters ancient vampires and a Mayan priesthood worshipping the bat god Camazotz, but with a little luck, a fellowship born of shared misery and an abiding sense of guilt and grief, he pushes through and tries not just to survive but to do the right thing.
It’s arguably an adventure-horror story, a sort of swashbuckling survival quest with a few moments of real darkness, which mostly revolve around pain and suffering being inflicted on others while de Castro is forced to watch. The darkest moments, of torture and slavery, involve unpleasant things being done by humans to others, and while there’s an era-appropriate supernatural element with the followers of Camazotz, the core of the story revolves around de Castro’s faith and family. It’s mostly told from a god’s eye perspective, which allows for details to be filled in quickly and easily, and makes for a plot that’s easy to follow, but does diminish the impact of the creepy vampires and Mayan mythology.
While the Camazotza might have benefited from being kept at a bit more of a remove, to shine more of a light on the fear they inspire in de Castro and his companions, events rattle along at a good pace and the overall plot is engaging and enjoyable. Brendan’s no-nonsense prose makes for an easy, entertaining read, and there’s enough to de Castro for him to make a sympathetic sort of unlikely hero. Look elsewhere for really grim darkness, properly spooky supernatural goings on or a truly in-depth character study, but if you’re looking for a fun read with evocative historical elements and a little bit of Mayan mythology thrown into the adventure, this might just hit the spot.
