The longer I reflect on A Song for the Void, the more I appreciate it, which is something I value highly in books. A perfect representation of cosmic horror blended with historical fiction; we follow a first-person narrative of a surgeon on a British naval ship in the midst of the Opium Wars in the 19^th century. While in pursuit of a fleet of Chinese pirate ships, strange things begin to happen on the Charger (the British warship) that increasingly cannot be explained away by science or logic.

Many characters in the story are struggling with opium addiction, and Piazza uses this aspect to further explore the liminal space between reality and illusion. What is reality anyway? And how are we to know that what we are perceiving with our senses represents the truth of things? A Song for the Void explores these concepts in depth and I found both the questions asked and the answers provided (or not provided) to be extremely thought provoking. I also loved how Piazza brings the title of the story into play both literally and metaphorically by the end of the book- it makes the philosophical musings feel all the more intentional.

There is quite a bit of gore in here so if you are squeamish please keep that in mind, but for me I found that it heightened the sense of dread and fear that permeated the crew as their ship navigates further and further out to sea. As a character-based reader I found that I cared quite deeply for those we followed and fight scenes had me extremely afraid to lose someone. The writing is also gorgeous. I highlighted almost the entire first page of the novel as soon as I started reading and knew that I was going to be in for a treat prose-wise.

I thoroughly enjoyed my read of this books and plan to get a hard copy to grace my shelves!

As a side note, if you are a fan of Zamil Akhtar’s Gunmetal Gods, I firmly believe you will also enjoy A Song for the Void- many of the themes they tackle are similar, and the cosmic horror element is comparable as well.