Published in 2018 as a tie-in to the then-new Warhammer Underworlds sub-setting of Age of Sigmar, Josh Reynolds’ The Mirrored City introduces the city of Shadespire, exploring the curse laid upon it and its Katophrane rulers by Nagash, and the damned souls caught within its tangled streets. Seguin Reynar is one such soul, a deserter from the Freeguild who made his way to Shadespire seeking his fortune only to find himself hunted, trapped, and caught up in the schemes of one of the city’s ancient, bitter ruler-spirits. As he explores the city, battling its many and varied denizens and doing his best to avoid the attentions of the blood-crazed Chaos worshipper tracking him, Reynar searches for a way to escape both the attentions of Katophrane Sadila and the cursed city itself.
While Reynar is the key protagonist, this is told from two alternating perspectives, the second of which is Isengrim of the Red Reef, the champion of a Bloodreaver warband whose Khorne-given mission is to hunt down and slay Reynar. The plot rotates between Reynar and Isengrim as their paths weave in and out, each character having to learn to survive in Shadespire’s cursed streets, and to fit their own needs into the desires of their Katophrane patrons. While confined to a pale half-existence trapped within the shattered, scattered remnants of once-glorious Shadeglass, the Katophranes are still fully capable of complex plots delivered by living proxies. Without giving too much away, Reynar and Isengrim find themselves on opposite sides of an existing conflict, and through their eyes Reynolds explores the city itself and the realities of life for those trapped within, while weaving a twisting plot in which nothing is ever quite what it seems.
Though not quite a full-on horror story, this is definitely on the darker side of fantasy, not least with the influence of Nagash hanging over the whole thing in quite creepy ways, some obvious and others more subtle. Shadespire as a setting, with its endless, ever-repeating cycle of change without change, is both sinister and ambiguous, with a nonlinear sense of time and the shifting sands of loyalties and motivations within its population. Reynolds’ atmospheric descriptions of the city give a great sense of its bizarre, ever-changing contradictions and the malevolence lurking around every corner and within every pane of glass. There’s also the question of endless reincarnations, an idea that’s explored from a remove rather than dominating the plot, and is clearly shown to be a curse rather than a blessing. It’s a familiar theme for Age of Sigmar, what with the troubling nature of the Stormcast Eternals, but here it takes an even darker tone (and the few Stormcasts involved in the story are certainly not portrayed as glorious exemplars of humanity).
It’s also very Warhammer – there are no objectively ‘good’ characters here, and everyone is out for themselves first and foremost. Shadespire is clearly a neat background for a wargame, and Reynolds does a great job of expanding it out in such a way as to make sense from a storytelling perspective as well. This is the best kind of tie-in fiction, the sort that takes an interesting concept and brings it to life by way of a clever, compelling story which makes use of the core elements without solely relying upon them. Readers familiar with Warhammer Underworlds will recognise ideas and even named characters, but Reynolds looks beyond these to deliver something much more than a straight-up novelisation. All told it’s a great example of Reynolds’ always-entertaining approach to Age of Sigmar stories, blending together evocative descriptions, engaging dialogue and moments of explosive action, and while its inherent sense of ambiguity might not be to everyone’s taste, there’s no question that it’s a fitting depiction of Shadespire.
See also: my Age of Sigmar Reviews List for links to loads more reviews
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