A fast and engaging read! Genre-bending through medieval fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. This goes several places you weren’t expecting in relatively quick fashion. With an incredibly interesting plot, and twists that you won’t expect, I would definitely recommend this! Especially if you like: medieval horror, A24 fantasy movies, or weird novellas.

THE DAGGER IN VICHY gives engrossing proof that author Alastair Reynolds can write Science Fiction Fantasy and post-Apocalyptic genres just as capably as he can Hard Science Fiction. Truly a can't-stop-reading page-turner, this novella is a one-sitting read packed brim-full of content, adventure, interpersonal conflict and coming-of-age, blending a tale resonant of Medieval Fantasy with a Post-Technological Era, long following the apocalyptic end of Technology, in which machines are sort of archaeological artifacts, and sometimes items very dangerous, even fatal, for the former Technology was far advanced over what we know. Not a moment's lapse in this story: an adventure to read, and well deserving of rereading as well.