My review: What Stalks the Deep, by T. Kingfisher

I read this (epub) on 14 May 2026.

This novella is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself.

I think this one takes my vote (sorry to Cinder House and Automatic Noodle, which also got this endorsement in their reviews). Honestly, I’ll probably reread all of the novellas before I cast my ballot, if I make time.

I greatly loved What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night, which are the preceding stories in the Sworn Soldier series by T, Kingfisher. This book does a good job of referencing the past action and using it as scaffolding for the character dynamics, but not requiring familiarity with the plots. The call-backs would likely feel natural, if not so evocative, to someone who had not read the prior stories.

The Sworn Soldier books center on Alex Easton, a retired soldier from the fictional land of Gallacia, where there are so so many pronouns (including for rocks, and for God) and a separate pronoun for soldiers, regardless of their assigned gender at birth. Alex does not like being called “she” or “he” but in this third book, when traveling to America, resigns kanself to using “he” because that’s better than being seen as a weak, unserious, and potentially victimizable woman.

As a person who usually goes with “he” and doesn’t bother to argue for the preferred “they” even after using it in introductions, I really feel for kan.

I would love to use neo-pronouns but that feels like a battle I just don’t want.

And, uh, the whole fucked up war vet thing. Which, happily, is not prominent in this story, even though it was a main theme of the second book, What Feasts at Night.

Anyway, I’m already familiar with, and sympathetic to the characters, but I really enjoyed that this book did different things. Same badass hero (who wouldn’t like either of those honorifics) going into a new horror on behalf of a personal relationship that matters. Like the other stories in this world, the crisis is both immediate and global – if they don’t save the day right here and now, this threat could be a world-ender in the future. Also, while the threat is kinda metaphysical, there is actually a scientific explanation and it can be dealt with.

There is compassion, there is adventure, there is gay romance, and the good guys win. I’m pleased!