Spiderglass: A Tale of Durstan by George Mann is a fantasy novella that feels bigger than its 100-page length. The story lays out a rich setting in the ancient city of Velin, exploring themes of truth-seeking and the suppression of history.
Aliza can fix all manner of things—from table legs to prosthetic limbs—but her dream is to find an artefact from the ancient ruins beneath her home city of Velin. With a significant enough artefact, she hopes to bargain her way into becoming an apprentice to the Reliquistors, the writers and keepers of Velin’s history. To Aliza’s great fortune, she comes across an extraordinarily rare and precious artefact—a spiderglass, part of a little-understood religious practice that captured the souls of the recently-dead in a tiny delicate bottle. With this find, Aliza can ask for almost anything. But, as she comes to learn more of the spiderglass and its contents, she begins to wonder if her dream is worth realising, and if the Reliquistors really are the keepers of fact as they claim.
The history that Aliza is interested in, and the truth she learns throughout this story, feels vivid and real, rich with detail and imagination. This is a story that works cleverly with scale, bringing readers into a large and richly-wrought fantasy setting, with the story set around a tiny object that changes not only the protagonist’s life, but the course of Velin’s history. In the fantasy world of Durstan, Mann has created a setting that feels like a glimpse at a world that continues bustling and turning long after the final page.
Spiderglass is perfect for fans of high fantasy and stories of truth-seeking within the official records of history—a timely and important theme for our age.
This review first appeared in Aurealis magazine, issue #184.
