A long-overdue audiobook review! This time, I'm dipping my toes into the wonderfully unsettling world of Arkham Horror.
I've been meaning to explore this series of books for quite some time, but somehow I've never quite found the time. There are always other books to read, miniatures to paint and far too many adventures waiting to be had!
However, when I spotted this title and saw it was written by Josh Reynolds, I knew I was in safe hands. I thoroughly enjoyed his Fabius Bile stories, so I was more than happy to give this one a go.
And who knows? Maybe it's time to revisit some good old-fashioned Lovecraftian horror. So, without any more waffle, let's get into it!
The Details
Title: Wrath of N'Kai (Arkham Horror #16 – because why on earth would I start at number one? Haha!)
Author: Joshua Reynolds
Format: Audiobook / Paperback
Commercial Fluff
The first in a new range of novels of eldritch adventure from the wildly popular Arkham Horror universe. An international thief of esoteric artefacts stumbles onto a nightmarish cult in 1920s New England.
Countess Alessandra Zorzi, an international adventurer and thief, arrives in Arkham pursuing an ancient body freshly exhumed from a mound in Oklahoma. Its origins are curious, and its characteristics even more peculiar.
Before she can get her hands on it, another party beats her to the prize. A gunfight at the Miskatonic Museum follows, and when the Countess makes eye contact with the petrified corpse, her adventure takes a decidedly unexpected turn.
Caught between her mysterious employer, the police and a society of necrophagic connoisseurs, Zorzi finds herself hunting a resurrected mummy — and the star-born terror gestating within it.
Well, that sounds like a perfectly normal day in Arkham!
The Review
What a great reintroduction to the world of Arkham Horror and Lovecraftian fiction! I've reviewed a few Lovecraft-inspired stories over the years, but I've only recently started exploring some of the newer fiction created around the Arkham Horror setting. Having listened to Wrath of N'Kai, I'm left wondering why I waited so long.
The story takes us into the classic Arkham setting, firmly rooted in the 1920s. We're talking gangsters, bootleggers, pulp detectives, smoky bars and mysterious goings-on in the darker corners of town. It's an era I absolutely love for this sort of adventure, and leading the charge is Alessandra Zorzi.
Zorzi presents herself as a Countess, but she's actually a specialist in acquiring rare and forbidden artefacts. In other words, she's a thief; albeit a rather sophisticated one! She's an interesting lead, confident and capable, with a knack for finding herself in trouble. She's also backed up by an equally strong companion, Pepper, who makes for a great addition to the story. I wasn't sure whether this was Zorzi's first adventure in the series, but it certainly works as an introduction. She's a character I could happily spend more time with, and I enjoyed following her as she navigated the increasingly strange events unfolding around her.
The story begins with the classic mysterious employer hiring Zorzi to steal an ancient mummy. The body has been discovered in the middle of America, in a location that seems rather unusual for such a find. Naturally, things don't go according to plan. Just as Zorzi is preparing to acquire her prize, a trio of criminals gets there first. What follows is a cracking pulp adventure as she tries to track down the missing mummy, while various rival groups begin moving around Arkham, each with their own reasons for wanting it, and that's where the fun really begins.
A City Full of Secrets
One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the setting. Josh Reynolds does a fantastic job of bringing Arkham to life. I genuinely felt transported into the 1920s, from the language used by the characters to the descriptions of the city's less respectable establishments. You can almost smell the smoke-filled rooms, hear the conversations in the back of the bars and picture the shady characters lurking around every corner. There's a wonderful pulp detective atmosphere running throughout the story. Zorzi is trying to work out where the mummy has gone, who's behind the theft, and which of the various groups operating in the city can be trusted.
Of course, in a place like Arkham, trusting anyone is probably a terrible idea! What makes it particularly enjoyable is that Reynolds doesn't immediately throw us headfirst into pages of complicated Lovecraftian mythology. Instead, we're given a mystery to follow, with strange discoveries and little breadcrumbs of lore scattered along the way. Zorzi herself isn't particularly interested in investigating the great cosmic mysteries of the universe. She's more concerned with getting paid, keeping herself alive and figuring out who's trying to kill her.
And I rather like that approach. The reader gets to experience the strange world of Arkham through the eyes of someone who is just trying to get on with their job. We discover things as she does, and that makes the unfolding mystery all the more engaging. It also leaves plenty of little details for anyone unfamiliar with the wider lore to investigate afterwards. I love that sort of storytelling. Give me a mystery, drop a few hints, and let me disappear down the rabbit hole afterwards!
The Audiobook Experience
As this was an audiobook, the narration played a big part in my enjoyment. The descriptive writing really lends itself to the format. I could easily picture the different locations, the characters and the atmosphere of the period as the story unfolded. It helped pull me into the world, and I found myself happily following Zorzi's adventure.
If I had one criticism, it would be the number of characters involved. There are quite a few different personalities and groups moving around Arkham, and at times I found it a little difficult to keep track of everyone and their individual motivations. That said, Arkham is a big little city, and there are plenty of people with an interest in the mummy. So perhaps that's to be expected!
It never spoiled my enjoyment, but there were moments when I had to pause and remind myself who was working with whom.
Final Thoughts
Wrath of N'Kai was a fantastic reintroduction to the world of Arkham Horror. I loved the combination of pulp detective adventure, 1920s gangster atmosphere and creeping supernatural horror. It never goes too far down the rabbit hole of Lovecraftian lore, instead giving us an engaging mystery with just enough strange discoveries to keep us curious.
Josh Reynolds once again shows that he knows how to create an entertaining setting and populate it with characters worth following. Zorzi is a strong lead, Pepper makes a great companion, and the whole thing left me wanting to explore more of this world. If you enjoy a good whodunit with a healthy dose of the otherworldly, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a listen or picking up the paperback.
More importantly, it's reignited my interest in the Arkham Horror books, and now I'm wondering which one I should tackle next.
So, over to you! Which Arkham Horror novel would you recommend I pick up next? I'm very much open to suggestions, whether that's another Zorzi adventure or something completely different.
Cheers for reading, and I'll see you on the next adventure!
A Sector 102 Adventure // The Mummy of the Cursed Earth
(A proposed Sector 102 idea inspired by Wrath of N'Kai.)
Now, this book has got me thinking about something rather nasty for Sector 102.
Imagine a recovery team discovering an ancient burial mound somewhere in the Cursed Earth. Inside lies a perfectly preserved body, apparently untouched by the radiation and mutations that have devastated the surrounding landscape. Naturally, somebody wants it.
A mysterious private collector commissions a group of Helltrekkers to retrieve the remains, promising a handsome reward. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones interested. A local mutant cult believes the body is sacred, while a group of black-market antiquities dealers has already sent its own recovery team, and then there's the body itself.
Perhaps it's an ancient mutant king, a forgotten pre-Apocalypse experiment, or something that arrived on Earth long before humanity developed civilisation. Whatever it is, the moment the burial chamber is disturbed, strange things begin happening.
Communications fail. People experience shared nightmares. Animals flee the area, and the locals begin reporting strange lights above the mound.
For tabletop gaming, this gives us a cracking little campaign:
The Recovery: A group of Helltrekkers enters the ruins to locate and retrieve the body.
The Competition: Rival scavengers and cultists arrive, turning the expedition into a three-way firefight.
The Awakening: The burial chamber opens, and the players discover that the remains are not quite as dead as they assumed.
The Escape: Everyone suddenly has a very good reason to get out of there!
I could use ancient Egyptian miniatures, undead, mutants, cultists, sci-fi explorers or just about anything else I have in my collection. And the best part? You don't even need to explain exactly what the thing is. Perhaps some mysteries are better left buried. Especially in Sector 102.
