Cathedral of the Drowned

 
Nathan Ballingrud, Cathedral of the Drowned (Tor Publishing Group: 2025).

You might not expect poignant sub-text and strong theme from a novella that includes a washed-up mad scientist, gangsters in the spider silk trade, a giant centipede, and Catholic missions that involve launching cathedrals into space. But Ballingrud delivers on all of this in his pulpy and intelligent sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider.  Not only do we learn more about the moon spider silk introduced in Crypt, but this is a story about people struggling with their identity when they recognize that the different sides of their personalities and psychologies stand in deep tension with one another. The novella manages to breathe fresh life into the old sci-fi fixture of a collective mind by taking it on in the context of individuals trying to integrate their own fragmented personalities into a cohesive whole. Enjoyable on so many levels!


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