This was a fun little novella, but it was missing something. I was more interested in the world than the plot and almost wished it was a full length book so there could’ve been more world building.

3.5/5

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid little novella, I enjoyed reading it but it didn't really blow me away. The mixture of sci-fi and fantasy was pretty good and the sci-fi elements are more explicitly called out than other genre bending books that make the line between magic and technology more fuzzy. So the approach is fairly unique. I just think the plot wasn't that interesting and the themes didn't really have a lot to say so I was whelmed but think this is a bit skippable.

I've enjoyed Reynolds' work in the past and will continue to read more by him in the future.

This is my first book by Alastair Reynolds and he has me interested in his work! I really love alternative history speculative fiction and this is top-notch. Will be checking out his other work and hope he writes more like this.

4.25 stars. First, thank you to Subterranean Press, Alastair Reynolds, and NetGalley for the ARC!

This novella was so unique and intriguing that I couldn’t resist finishing it in a single evening. Reynolds blends science fiction and fantasy with finesse—never diving so deep into the worldbuilding that it slows the pace, but offering just enough to suggest a world that feels uncannily like our own.

I’ve always been fascinated by stories set in regressive futures, and I really enjoyed the exploration of what remains when technology is stripped away.

Overall, this was a very fun read, and I’m a little sad to leave this strange, vivid world behind.

I requested this one because the premise of a far future that had regressed to a medieval society with bits of hyper-advanced technology sounded amazing; sadly, I found it highly unsatisfying.

First, the world building is seriously lacking: Reynolds just gave a vague sketch of medieval Europe and dropped a couple of handwave-y science fiction elements in. He could have set it in the actual middle ages and replaced the tech with some sort of spirit and it would have made zero difference to the story.

The characters were underdeveloped, and it was very clear by the fifty percent point how the story was going to end. All in all, it's a great premise that was very poorly executed.

Two and a half stars, rounded down.

Thank you Subterranean Press, Alastair Reynolds and NetGalley for this ARC!


The Dagger in Vichy is the type of story that, the less you know, the better. It follows a theater group (in a very distant future) that stumbles into a dying knight with a strange request.

The novella is 120 pages long and you will devour in one sitting (unless you’re like me and is an extreme mod reader).

The Dagger in Vichy is tight - as a novella, it should be, but there is no space wasted on the page. It evokes a sense of creeping further to a dreadful conclusion in a way that is oddly (and pleasantly) reminiscent of a Goosebumps book for adults. The world-building is so, so charming - set in a pseudo-medieval France centuries following some kind of apocalypse or disaster, technology seems to have fallen completely to the wayside. However, relics of a bygone era can still be found and have been maintained. The seemingly anachronistic nature of it is so interesting and leaves me hungry for more exploration of this theme or idea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for the e-ARC! All thoughts are my own.

Alastair Reynolds conjures a dying world steeped in myth, mystery, and memory—a medieval far-future where echoes of ancient technologies pulse beneath the dirt and dust of crumbling cities.

When a ragtag troupe of traveling performers is tasked with delivering a strange, sealed box to the Imperator, their journey unfurls into something far more perilous than mere theater. At the heart of the tale is Rufus, a young thief-turned-player, whose loyalty is tested by the impossible thing whispering from within the box—and the uncanny truths it reveals.

Reynolds blends golden-age adventure with the grim wonder of Station Eleven, casting a long shadow of dread over a road trip through a world on the brink. With shades of Gene Wolfe and Ray Bradbury, this novella is as much about performance and identity as it is about ancient intelligences, collapsing civilizations, and the stories we use to survive.

Spellbinding, unsettling, and beautifully strange, this is Reynolds at his most lyrical—and most chilling.

A Dagger in Vichy is set in humanity’s far future after an apocalyptic event has left the world without much technological advancement, no cars and no phones.

A short novel with an interesting and effective plot, the pace of the novel is good, as it is a short novel you cannot get attached to the characters.




Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC thru NetGalley!

Alastair Reynolds blends science fiction with historical drama in this intriguing novella about a washed-up playwright and his performing troupe as they make their journey by cart across war-torn France. While stopping by the roadside for rest, they encounter a dying soldier who entrusts them with a sealed box containing a "priceless relic" and instructions to deliver it to the Imperator. Before long, curiosity gets the better of the playwright as he secretly opens the box and attempts to use the item contained within for his own benefit. The results of that decision unfold as infighting within the troupe threaten the box's safe delivery.

Cleverly written, the only thing wrong with this brief story is that you'll wish there was more of it.

4 stars

3.5 rounded up

Medieval-based SFF is having a moment in 2025, and this Subterranean Press novella is taking it in an interesting direction - a far future, after some catastrophe, that has fallen back into medieval times while remnants of technology remain. The plot is that a playwright, his theater troop, and his veteran soldier protector stumbled across a dying Imperial solider who gives them a quest: take a strange box to the Imperator without letting anyone know they have it... or opening it. Things start to go awry when whatever is locked in that box starts speaking to the playwright, and begins turning him against the others. The story's perspective is from one of the actors, Rufus, who is recollecting this event much later in his life.

While the setting was extremely interesting, ultimately the novella felt like it was missing something. Maybe it's because our point-of-view character is probably the least interesting person in the story? It felt like a character-heavy book but all of them, including the two the plot really moves around, were a bit flat to me. There is a thread of (something that's a spoiler) in the story that I thought was neat, but I felt it didn't really have a strong theme or point. I did greatly enjoy the reveal of what, exactly, the title means.

Thanks you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While this does blend genres, it doesn’t defy them. It feels very certainly like sci-fi but with some early modern apparel. Is it great? No. Is it bad? Nope.

We have a rather straightforward story about a scientific artifact, a playwright, and our narrator in a far future France that is somewhat like an early modern world. The story itself is straightforward. Doesn’t feel like Elfland at all, and I think then the only thing going for it is the premise. Like Elder Race by Tchaikovsky, it’s been done better by betters.

The Dagger in Vichy is a striking novella that takes us through a pseudo-medieval France that is both familiar and alien, as a troupe of actors stumbles upon an a mysterious relic they are charged with brining to the holy Imperator. The relic begins to unravel its own mystery, threatening the bonds of our characters and making them question what they truly hold dear. With simple prose embellished with chilling lines, archaic style, and premonitions of a future past we will live through, Reynolds has made a cunning little book that will delight and intrigue you.

If you want a short read to make you think about fulfillment, future, and the reality of the romantic adventure, I highly recommend this book. It reminds me of Station Eleven in its human approach to the world, with a touch of Between Two Fires’ medieval eldritch horror sensibility.

This book has one of the best parts of a novella to me, which is the wonderment at the end of how much an author has managed to fit into 120 pages. The world building of a post-post-future Earth turned medieval gets metered out to the reader in small detail, off-hand comments, stories, and conversations that allow it to help weave the tale of our narrator rather than overpower it.
There is a great sense of detail wherein not every question or odd word is answered, but with small details and broad strokes, we get a view of this staggering world history like the revealed under sketch of a masterwork painting.

The characters as well manage to pack their own punch in their relationships to each other. The book centers on Rufus, Guillaume, and Bernard doing a unique job of slowly filling in the details of their relationship to each other and the troupe through small words and interactions. The rest of the troupe gets less detailing, but still proves human in the small page time they get. I very much loved the characterization of Rufus, who succeeds, fails, and overall drives the story in the natural way of a young boy coming into his own.

I highly suggest picking this up for an afternoon of adventure through a world beyond ours that reminds us we are human no matter what our world looks like - friends, faults, and all.

The Dagger in Vichy is a sharp, stylish novella and more importantly witty, layered, and utterly compelling. Alastair Reynolds delivers a genre-blending masterstroke, guiding us through the haunting woods of France alongside a traveling troupe of actors. What begins as a historical drama slowly fractures into something stranger—a pocket of time where the echoes of the past bleed into a post-apocalyptic future. Horse-drawn carriages share space with soldiers wielding energy weapons, and the world feels both familiar and alien.

Told through the eyes of a young narrator, the story becomes a meditation on trust, loyalty, and the cost of survival in a world where history is doomed to repeat itself. It’s a dazzling sleight of hand, one that transforms quiet character moments into something mythic. This was my first encounter with Reynolds’ work, and in just a handful of pages, he’s turned me into a lifelong fan.

The Dagger in Vichy is an eerie, imaginative blend of fantasy and science fiction that showcases Alastair Reynolds at his most atmospheric. Set in a distant, decaying future that feels both medieval and otherworldly, the novella follows a troupe of traveling performers caught up in a strange and dangerous mission. When they’re entrusted with a mysterious box destined for the Imperator, tensions build as ancient intelligences and buried secrets begin to surface.

Reynolds weaves golden age adventure with haunting speculative elements, evoking a mood somewhere between Station Eleven and dark fairy tale. The characters—particularly the conflicted Rufus and enigmatic Master Guillaume—are vivid and compelling, and the creeping presence of the deathless Wald and the Empty Knight adds a chilling undercurrent throughout.

It’s a tight, moody story with rich prose and a steadily growing sense of dread. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans of thoughtful, genre-blending storytelling. A strong 4 stars.

I enjoyed this and while my first inclination was to note it’s not my usual genre, I realized it actually is. I do enjoy historical fiction, Sci fi, and fantasy but have never quite seen the combination in this book. I wavered between a 3 or 4 start review because it was a bit of a slow start for me but it was a much quicker finish. The genre bending style was interesting and I have the feeling that as I sit with this further, I’ll end up wanting to come back and try different books. A novella was certainly a great intro though and I definitely was surprised by the outcome.

DNF - I struggled with this novel. I don’t typically read books written by men. In this case, I was attracted to the fantasy, but this was truly rooted in history and I felt afloat instead of grounded at the beginning of the book. I had a hard time picturing the characters and where they were. I wasn’t able to continue through.

This reads more like a short story than a full novel— novella, perhaps? I enjoyed the setting, personally, but some readers may not find it in depth enough. I thought the character development was reasonably well done. Dagger in Vichy doesn’t tread too much new or revolutionary ground, but I don’t think it’s trying to. I feel like this could be a longer story, or last third of a story. Overall, this is a short, respectable entry to the genre.

The Dagger in Vichy feels a lot like one of Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas, although the setting is clearly a post-apocalyptic earth and the story is a bit of a riff on Emil St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, but with supernatural elements (or are they forgotten scientific techniques?). An old playwright tells of an episode from his youth with a traveling theater company, when a mysterious entity drives his master to murder and puts the young man in danger from humans and constructs alike while traveling through a devastated and dangerous France. While elements of the story are good, even intriguing, the author uses disability/ableism to effect the murder, and in a hackneyed way. The characters a bit dull and not terribly original or memorable; the setting is perhaps the most interesting thing about the book. It'd be nice if an editor could do something about the ableism before this gets its full release and if the characters were less old chestnuts and more real.

Set in a future France where a theatre troupe travels by wagon, this science fiction book follows them bringing a mysterious box to the Imperator. The book is short and while I wish there was more world-building for this speculative future, I did enjoy the story.