Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil

[DarkChaplain]

The Requiem Infernal audiobook is out and bloody hell, Emma is on the ball. For those who've read it before:

 

Remember how in Chapter Ten, the "Testimony of Asenath Hyades" gets usurped by Sister Mercy? Jumpscare moment! Emma let's fully loose as Mercy, and it's glorious

 

Keep listening after the outro for the Afterwyrd, they actually included it - as well they should have!

[DarkChaplain]

Confirmed contents for Damnation:

 

The Greater Evil (short story)
Fire Caste (novel)
Out Caste (short story)
A Sanctuary of Wyrms (short story)
Altar of Maws (short story)
Vanguard (short story)
Fire and Ice (short story)
Cast a Hungry Shadow (short story)
Cult of the Spiral Dawn (novel)

 

Guessed correctly, then. They DID mislabel Fire and Ice as a short story, even though it is clearly a novella.

Edited January 24 by DarkChaplain

[SkimaskMohawk]

I hadn't read any of Fehervari’s works; I looked into it a couple years ago but was a bit thrown off by the reading order and shorts buried in anthologies. Thought it was the perfect time to start with the omnibus and ya, he's very good.

 

I've been reading all week when time permits and just started Cast a Hungry Shadow. His guard remind me of Abnetts best work in Gaunts Ghosts; I've never really read tau novels, but his tau feel exactly how I imagined them coming across. The mechanicus in vanguard was a nice break from both and had some throwbacks to the Fire Caste...cast. 

 

More than anything though, the world building is really really good. It gives me a lot of malazan vibes; there's a lot of cruelty, a lot of just plain miserable moments, "allies" are anything but, characters get warped by their experiences and can turn into very dislikeable and antagonistic characters. The atmosphere he creates on Phaedra is just absolutely crushing.

 

Really excited to get to the next novel and then look into the reading order for the rest!

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

malazan vibes;

 

I agree. What defined those books for me was the sense of deep history, that the characters were walking over the accumulated death and debris of thousands of years of civilisation and conflict. The world was old. Things unexplained and unexplainable happened, and even the most practised could only fumble around their edges. Phaedra is like that. Something is obviously wrong with it, but it's not obvious what it is. Fehervari doesn't show you a Bloodthirster(tm), there's no cackling sorcerer going 'you fools! I have drawn you into the Realm of Chaos!(tm)', there's no xenobiologist adjusting their glasses and delivering a monologue about alien flora and fauna.

 

Is it just a Death World? Is there Warp shenanigans? Is the thing alive and hostile, or just so vastly inimical to life? Have people made it that way, or are we just anthropomorphizing some natural - if terrifying - process or place in an effort to rationalise it? Or is everyone involved just crazy to greater or lesser degrees? Fehervari gives hints, clues, herrings and tangents, but he lets the characters (and the reader) find their own evidence and draw their own conclusions, as Erikson does. Probably explains why the Dark Coil has a similarly fervent fanbase to the Books of the Fallen, I'd say.

[System Sound]

11 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

I agree. What defined those books for me was the sense of deep history, that the characters were walking over the accumulated death and debris of thousands of years of civilisation and conflict. The world was old. Things unexplained and unexplainable happened, and even the most practised could only fumble around their edges. Phaedra is like that. Something is obviously wrong with it, but it's not obvious what it is. Fehervari doesn't show you a Bloodthirster(tm), there's no cackling sorcerer going 'you fools! I have drawn you into the Realm of Chaos!(tm)', there's no xenobiologist adjusting their glasses and delivering a monologue about alien flora and fauna.

 

Is it just a Death World? Is there Warp shenanigans? Is the thing alive and hostile, or just so vastly inimical to life? Have people made it that way, or are we just anthropomorphizing some natural - if terrifying - process or place in an effort to rationalise it? Or is everyone involved just crazy to greater or lesser degrees?

Yes.

 

That's one of the great things about Fehervari, a descent into madness and chaos , as a story and as a reader.

 

P.s. Had to look up what Malazan is. Guess I have a new series to binge.

Edited February 8 by System Sound

[DarkChaplain]

Having a nicely arranged reading order is certainly a boon, but keep in mind that publishing order was very different in places for one thing, and for another you're not expected to read things in order anyway. The Dark Coil is a puzzle, and you're only ever adding to it, the deeper you dive. You can read things on their own, but things click into place in a synergystic way that makes you want to double back and check other material for references. There's a lot of "oh wait, wasn't there something"-moments along the way - and there usually was something.

 

There's nothing at all wrong with going with the reading order of the Omnibus - it's logical, thematic and somewhat chronologically arranged, and that's making it much easier to get into, yes. But neither would any other reading order be wrong. It's a large canvas that can be overwhelming to start painting in, but it'll grow and connect from wherever you decide to begin, one route or another. And that's just extremely satisfying to experience, no matter how you get there!

[SkimaskMohawk]

4 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Having a nicely arranged reading order is certainly a boon, but keep in mind that publishing order was very different in places for one thing, and for another you're not expected to read things in order anyway. The Dark Coil is a puzzle, and you're only ever adding to it, the deeper you dive. You can read things on their own, but things click into place in a synergystic way that makes you want to double back and check other material for references. There's a lot of "oh wait, wasn't there something"-moments along the way - and there usually was something.

 

There's nothing at all wrong with going with the reading order of the Omnibus - it's logical, thematic and somewhat chronologically arranged, and that's making it much easier to get into, yes. But neither would any other reading order be wrong. It's a large canvas that can be overwhelming to start painting in, but it'll grow and connect from wherever you decide to begin, one route or another. And that's just extremely satisfying to experience, no matter how you get there!

 

Ill admit I'd prefer a more curated order to free form, but it was more the issue of trying to buy a bunch of the stories back when i looked it up. Some just weren't available at the time, or were really bad value. That's what really killed the desire for me. 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

The Dark Coil is a puzzle, and you're only ever adding to it, the deeper you dive.

 

To really encourage System Sound to read Malazan, the Books of the Fallen do this too in much the same way and I absolutely adore it. It's a series that always tells you something more about what happened previously, and always gives you insight about what's to come if you're paying attention - and, perhaps most importantly, always delivers on its mysteries. I always use this as an example, but characters keep ending up in this weird 'pocket dimension' of sorts. It's got a lot of water in it, some weird catfish, and this mysterious boat full of dead, decapitated people that nobody recognises the origin of. People keep passing through it, the boat itself ends up being very useful down the line, but it's a constant mystery that takes until book five for us to find out more about. And it's awesome. 

 

There are so many moments, so many lines where you'll think 'wait, hold on, that sounds familiar...' and find more of the puzzle filling in and, as with the Dark Coil, more questions being posed by your greater understanding of the puzzle itself. It's great.

[SkimaskMohawk]

2 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

book five

 

Book five is definitely a bit jarring to say the least. It of course pays off later, but going in blind it can take a bit to get over the lack of connection to the two story lines from books 1/3 and 2/4. 

 

But back to the Coil. Culture and belief. These are handled really well and we get to see how each group has their own culture, and how each individual in that group has their own spin on the religion or ethos. It's easy to say the death ship is standard imperial religion with it's grimdarkness; it's much more fun to say it can be the standard depending where you go, and it clashes (and is still terrifying to) with more moderate beliefs. People doing horrible things to prove/support their twisted ideology is a real good one, and it can be small level and just as impactful.

 

Something thats a staple of malazan as well....

[System Sound]

9 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

To really encourage System Sound to read Malazan, the Books of the Fallen do this too in much the same way and I absolutely adore it. It's a series that always tells you something more about what happened previously, and always gives you insight about what's to come if you're paying attention - and, perhaps most importantly, always delivers on its mysteries. I always use this as an example, but characters keep ending up in this weird 'pocket dimension' of sorts. It's got a lot of water in it, some weird catfish, and this mysterious boat full of dead, decapitated people that nobody recognises the origin of. People keep passing through it, the boat itself ends up being very useful down the line, but it's a constant mystery that takes until book five for us to find out more about. And it's awesome. 

Alright alright, I ordered the first book already... As much as my endless "to read" pile is hissing at me in protest...

[DarkChaplain]

I have to admit, I have yet to read Malazan myself, despite wanting to do so since... Well sh-, 2016/17.

 

Figure this is as good a time as any to dive in, if it is being so favorably compared to Fehervari here.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Finished Cult of the Spiral Dawn and the omnibus as a result.

 

I definitely get that some of the connect the dots fun is lost due to Fire and Ice only being separated by Cast a Hungry Shadow; i definitely knew most of the players, and it was kinda funny that basically the majority of them came from oblazt. But it was also interesting to learn that both those shorter stories came out before Cult, so it was only off in the sense of getting to read them all back to back.

 

I like how Redemption is different from Phaedra, but still wrong as far as planets go. Cast a Hungry Shadow kinda let the exact wrongness out of the bag a bit, but I'm more interested in the creepy sisters of battle effigy of the emperor and what influenced their particular brand of the Creed than the simple fact that there's chaos corruption on the planet. 

 

I also like how every faction feels generally competent and believeable. All the guard regiments feel like they could (theoretically, if it wasn't for Phaedra you know) get stuff done; the tau, gsc and mechanicus are the same way with distinct cultures. 

 

The small quibble about hellguns vs hot shot lasguns was amusing, as i also relate to that reaction.

 

The last thing i really really liked was how the epilogue of Cult is verrrry similar to the flashbacks in Greater Evil at the start of the omnibus. Very similar, yet distinctly different; it almost comes full circle, but diverges. Like a spiral, or a coil. Fun little bit of writing and editing the omnibus into shape. 

Edited February 15 by SkimaskMohawk

[Jareddm]

14 hours ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

Finished Cult of the Spiral Dawn and the omnibus as a result.

 

I definitely get that some of the connect the dots fun is lost due to Fire and Ice only being separated by Cast a Hungry Shadow; i definitely knew who all the players were, and it was kinda funny that basically the majority of them came from oblazt. But it was also interesting to learn that both those shorter stories came out before Cult, so it was only off in the sense of getting to read them all back to back.

 

I like how Redemption is different from Phaedra, but still wrong as far as planets go. Cast a Hungry Shadow kinda let the exact wrongness out of the bag a bit, but I'm more interested in the creepy sisters of battle effigy of the emperor and what influenced their particular brand of the Creed than the simple fact that there's chaos corruption on the planet. 

 

I also like how every faction feels generally competent and believeable. All the guard regiments feel like they could (theoretically, if it wasn't for Phaedra you know) get stuff done; the tau, gsc and mechanicus are the same way with distinct cultures. 

 

The small quibble about hellguns vs hot shot lasguns was amusing, as i also relate to that reaction.

 

The last thing i really really liked was how the epilogue of Cult is verrrry similar to the flashbacks in Greater Evil at the start of the omnibus. Very similar, yet distinctly different; it almost comes full circle, but diverges. Like a spiral, or a coil. Fun little bit of writing and editing the omnibus into shape. 

Might be fun for newcomers to just randomize their table of contents and read the omnibus in that order instead!

[DarkChaplain]

You haven't seen the last of Redemption 219 - or the first? hard to tell with the Coil, innit?

 

Quote

The Dark Coil: Ascension, the second in the series, comes out later next year and contains the novels The Reverie and Requiem Infernal plus eight further short stories – The Crown of Thorns, The Sins of My Brothers, The Thirteenth Psalm, Nightbleed, <Nightshift Nineteen>, Aria Arcana, The Walker in Fire, and Nightfall.

 

Interestingly, Nightfall was the first story in the Coil to be published, back in Heroes of the Space Marines from 2009. Crazy, isn't it? It's about as old as Tales of Heresy and Fallen Angels, A Thousand Sons had yet to happen. It's a contemporary of Gunheads and Cadian Blood. Black Library had just released its first Audio Dramas back then. Kyme's first Salamanders novel launched that year (with a tie-in story in the same anthology). Space Hulk relaunched with its 3rd edition that year.

 

It would take 4 years before Fehervari got Fire Caste published, after first launching on Sarastus....

 

Either way, Dark Coil: Ascension will bring on the full Angels Resplendent/Penitent experience!

[DukeLeto69]

2 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

You haven't seen the last of Redemption 219 - or the first? hard to tell with the Coil, innit?

 

 

Interestingly, Nightfall was the first story in the Coil to be published, back in Heroes of the Space Marines from 2009. Crazy, isn't it? It's about as old as Tales of Heresy and Fallen Angels, A Thousand Sons had yet to happen. It's a contemporary of Gunheads and Cadian Blood. Black Library had just released its first Audio Dramas back then. Kyme's first Salamanders novel launched that year (with a tie-in story in the same anthology). Space Hulk relaunched with its 3rd edition that year.

 

It would take 4 years before Fehervari got Fire Caste published, after first launching on Sarastus....

 

Either way, Dark Coil: Ascension will bring on the full Angels Resplendent/Penitent experience!

Ah but is time real in the coil?

[The Scorpion]

On 2/11/2025 at 6:16 PM, SkimaskMohawk said:

I'm more interested in the creepy sisters of battle effigy of the emperor and what influenced their particular brand of the Creed than the simple fact that there's chaos corruption on the planet. 

 

This is high-key the best thing in all of the Dark Coil: the Lethean Revelation, the Angels Penitent, and anything related to thorns really. Is it Chaos? Is is just Humanity's darkest morbidity allowed to blossom by the age of the Dark Millenium? So many questions...

 

The Emperor Condemns!

[SkimaskMohawk]

Alrighty, my adventure continues. I did a quick reread of some of the omnibus shorts, and bought a smattering of his other works. Im very happy that they're all available separately; dark chaplains breakdown of how in accessable some of the shorts where back on page 1 is what initially deterred me from starting.

 

Spoiler tag from now on in case there's other new enjoyers like myself.

 

Spoiler

First reread was Greater Evil. It started as a recheck of the humans infection to see if Cult of the Spiral Dawns epilogue came full circle, but I stayed for the ride. Always knew it was earlier than Fire Caste because of storm light, but I didn't realize it was that much earlier that the top water caste guy was considered super young in that one. 

 

Second (and last) reread was Cast a Hungry Shadow. By the end of Cult I realized i had critically misread something in Shadow, because I had come out of that one thinking it took place after the events of Cult (knowing it was a GSC focused book). And ya, I had, and it all made sense.

 

For the new book, i started with nightfall. Pretty unconnected from what I've read so far, but it was still very good. The only thing that stood out to me was the needle with black spikes that could be related the the Black Needle talked about at the end of Cult. Always love some well done night lords. 

 

Next I did Aria Arcana. This was the first I've read of the Angels, and from context over the years (and some of the posts in the last week!) on this subforum I knew they were important. Some great characterization for the Resplendents right away, and in a lot of ways it was giving me Horus heresy vibes by seeing a location and group before an inevitable calamity. Very enjoyable, very weird, and thought I had spoiled the corrupting force of the chapter by reading the end. Very curious to know what else happened on water era Redemption (i know it's called something else, but i forget what lol). 

 

Third was Walker in fire. I knew this was set back on Nightfalls planet, and wanted to bounce across some of the locations to try and prevent too much through line overlap, so i was pleasantly surprised to see another Resplendent. Another great one, with some marginal otherness from when the seargent fell through the hole. Enjoyed the reference to the inquisitor lord that got assassinated in Fire&Ice, and really enjoyed that it connected back to the facility in A sanctuary of wyrms. Ill have to reread to remember exactly what was said about the nids and fungus there, but presumably they leaked onto the neighbour planet from Greater Evil via Phaedra.

 

Fourth was Crown of Thorns. I was excited to see what the Penitents looked like, and nearly couldn't believe that the corrupting force was Gurdjief from Fire Caste. Like, I saw him described as a mortal, giant, with a belly wound and immediately went back to his death scene in fire caste to verify; he even fell into a body of water thinking about dreaming and came out of one asking about it. During the fire caste read I was surprised by how fast he (and the religious kid) died; like it was a waste of a great villain that had been set up so well. Lo and behold. So ya, I kinda instantly realized just how twisted the Penitents were going to be after that. When I said in an earlier post that i was glad that the version of the religion on the death ship wasn't the standard, and was terrifying to outsiders looking in...wow, didn't realize thatd be a main part of the coil. Darkly amusing the Penitent zealot got executed at the end.

 

Fifth and last that I've read is thirteenth psalm. Penitents keep on rolling strong by being deeply uncomfortable to think about the greater implications. We get to see oblazt during its Fire & Ice era (though I'm still curious about those black flags!), and see how the author continues to torture the hardcore zealot Penitents by having their new faith be rather fragile. It shouldn't be that fun to see them realize they've been terrible for no reason, but they're written so well that everything feels like a vindictive little victory. Like, I'm not sure how we got a better fall from grace narrative here than really anything we saw in the heresy. And it was done over 3 shorts!

 

The last one on my new purchase list is Requiem Infernal. I know from the forum that it's a doozy, and I know from the map and dramatis personae that it's during Resplendent/water Redemption era. Can't wait to jump in!

 

[byrd9999]

A totally randomised reading order sounds fun, and very thematic!

 

The only caveat I'd make is that Peter himself suggested that the Phaedra arc ought to be read in order because it builds a more dramatic narrative.

 

Maybe a randomised order would be more satisfying on a re-read, allowing for other connections to be formed.

[Jareddm]

5 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

The only caveat I'd make is that Peter himself suggested that the Phaedra arc ought to be read in order because it builds a more dramatic narrative.

Vanguard immediately after Fire Caste, for sure. Are there others that should be locked together for a randomization?

[DarkChaplain]

I'd say Aria Arcana after Requiem Infernal, as it plays into the endgame of that book.

[SkimaskMohawk]

2 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I'd say Aria Arcana after Requiem Infernal, as it plays into the endgame of that book.

 

.....woops

[byrd9999]

This is excepted from Michael Track-of-Words' excellent coverage on his website:

 

(Phaedra Arc is 9-15).

 

Nevertheless, here is a chronological order for the stories, based on when each story takes place in-universe. Here’s Peter with a little more context:

“This is a logical way to read them, but not the only one. For example, time doesn’t run entirely linearly in the Coil so characters might slip backwards, however the stories in the Phaedra strand are definitely best read in chronological order. The numbers in brackets are the order they were written in, which I don’t particularly recommend.”

1. Nightbleed (14th) – short story
Factions: Civilian; Location: Sarastus
2. The Reverie (15th) – novel
Factions: Angels Resplendent; Location: Malpertuis
3. Requiem Infernal (12th) – novel
Factions: Adepta Sororitas & Astra Militarum; Location: Vytarn; Sarastus; Oblazt; Phaedra
4. Aria Arcana (17th) – short story
Factions: Angels Resplendent; Location: Vytarn
5. Nightfall (1st) – short story
Factions: Night Lords; Location: Sarastus
6. The Walker in Fire (8th) – short story
Factions: Deathwatch & Adeptus Mechanicus; Location: Sarastus
7. The Crown of Thorns (7th) – short story
Factions: Angels Penitent; Location: Malpertuis
8. The Sins of My Brothers (16th) – short story
Factions: Angels Penitent; Location: Malpertuis
9. The Greater Evil (11th) – short story
Factions: T’au Empire; Location: The Rat’s Cradle
10. Out Caste (4th) – short story
Factions: T’au Empire; Location: Oberai
11. A Sanctuary of Wyrms (3rd) – short story
Factions: T’au Empire; Location: Phaedra
12. Altar of Maws (18th) – short story
Factions:  T’au Empire; Location: Phaedra
13. Fire Caste (2nd) – novel
Factions: Astra Militarum & T’au Empire; Location: Phaedra
14. Vanguard (6th) – short story
Factions: Adeptus Mechanicus & T’au Empire; Location: Phaedra
15. Fire and Ice (5th) – novella
Factions: Inquisition & T’au Empire; Location: Oblazt
16. The Thirteenth Psalm (13th) – short story
Factions: Angels Penitent; Location: Oblazt
17. Cast A Hungry Shadow (10th) – short story
Factions: Genestealer Cults & Chaos Cults; Location: Vytarn
Read with Cult of the Spiral Dawn, before or after
18. Cult of the Spiral Dawn (9th) – novel
Factions: Astra Militarum & Genestealer Cults; Location: Vytarn

[Taliesin]

Quick question for you guys, Fire Caste seems to have a really good reputation, what is that that makes this book so interesting?

[Malkydel]

1 hour ago, Taliesin said:

Quick question for you guys, Fire Caste seems to have a really good reputation, what is that that makes this book so interesting?

The character and the atmosphere, really. Incredibly organic worldbuilding and development that makes Phaedra feel - as it should - like a malignantly and maliciously living thing. Combine that with the novel take on regiments and philosophy, the personal stakes of vengeance set against the wider war, and the attention to detail committed to the regimental histories. It's a book with an incredible soul, and shows just why Fehervari has the reputation he does.

[byrd9999]

Peter Fehervari does 3 things very well:

 

1. He's a great writer. He knows how to construct a sentence. It sounds obvious, but I have read BL stories by people who don't seem to understand the basics of the craft of writing. He can nail a person's character in a sentence or two, and the reader will get a great picture in their head. His descriptions are spot on. The ability for the 'mot juste' is a sign of a talented and insightful wordsmith.

 

2. He "gets" 40k. The grit and the grime and the sweat and the horror of 40k grimdark. Everyone is compromised, everyone is broken, but each person is compromised or broken in their own unique way. His takes on Tau, Chaos, Genestealer Cults, Imperial Guard, not to mention his own Marine chapter, are all definitive.

 

3. His plots are fantastic. The spiralling descent into terror, the sudden twist of a nightmare, the body horror of our vulnerable flesh and blood, the spiritual terror of the inescapable. The metaplots and recurring locations/characters also fulfill the sense that these event are bigger than just the story you are currently reading. There's a whole wider picture and we're just glimpsing part of it.

 

A couple of examples from Fire Caste (currently re-reading):

 

- "How long had it been? Three years? Four? Caravajal himself had fallen in the second year, raving and incontinent with blood, unravelled from within by a borefly infestation."

 

'Incontinent with blood' is a fantastically horrifying description, saying a lot with few words, implanting disgusting images in the mind. And 'unravelled' gives both the sense of the intestinal disruption, but also referencing the wider 'Coil' theme and imagery.

 

- "But when the commissar stepped from the boat Cabeza had seen the truth of him. The newcomer's cap was tattered and his leather coat was more grey than black, its edges encrusted with a rime of mould. Up close he'd been pallid and unshaven, his grey hair hanging well below the shoulders. He was probably no more than forty-five, but already old with something that cut deeper than age."

 

I can *see* this man in my head. Such a complex description in a few words. No need for a whole backstory or ancdotes, we get an insightful description that shows us the "truth" of him. The 'truth' also feeding into the theme of lies and deception in the Dark Coil.