I’m not sure if ‘contains plague and pandemic’ should be a trigger warning these days. I was reading a short story from an anthology a while ago that was about a pandemic sweeping unchecked across the world and how people’s response to it was too slow and too lax and frankly it did not make be feel good. I didn’t get the same feeling here but, considering the traumatic times we’ve all lived through, if you don’t want to read about a plague then I don’t bother you.

But it is a shame I have to say this about The Wrack. It’s a fantastic little book that was started in 2019 and had the great misfortune to come out in April 2020. In it we see the course of a plague in a fantasy world, from the first few cases to how it spiralled out of control and spread, changing the shape and cultures of countries and civilisations. It’s told through a series of short stories, leading and incredible breadth to the book. I’m always a sucker for big stories told through a bunch of little ones so this was right up my ally.

Like all of John Bierce’s books, it has both pretty intricate plotting and great world building. Reading back through I was delighted to see that hints of the transmission method had been scattered throughout, though in such a subtle way that there was no chance of you seeing them the first go through. The different cultures of the world also come alive. Prior to this I didn’t think I’d get emotional about writing down names but here there are at least two chapters that did it for me.

Like the Mage Errant series this is tied into a bigger multiverse but in a nice and restrained way. You don’t have to read any of the other books that he’s written, and The Wrack works excellently as a stand-alone book.

In the end I’m left feeling a bit sorry for Bierce. It takes a lot of guts to do something as drastically different from his normal series as this was and he pulls it off wonderfully. I really hope that the real-world events that echo this didn’t impact either the sales, the reception or his chances to try something like this again.