The novel “War of the Marionettes” by Adam-Troy Castro was published for the first time in 2010 in a German edition as “Sturz der Marionetten”. It’s the third novel in Andrea Cort’s series and follows “The Third Claw of God“.
Andrea Cort and the Porrinyards arrive on Vlhan, a planet home to a truly unique sentient species. The Vlhani have displayed extraordinary skills, but no one can fully understand them. In fact, among the other sentient species, very few individuals can even partially understand them. Despite this, many people are interested in their periodic ritual, even though countless Vlhani die each time it’s conducted.
Even by Andrea Cort’s standards, her situation is complex. The request to find a girl who arrived on the planet some time ago to participate in the ritual after physically transforming into a Vlhani doesn’t help. The Vlhani accept Andrea Cort as a friend, but this may prove to be completely useless when their ritual is disrupted by an attack from other Vlhani. This is unprecedented behavior, and, according to the AISource, the Unseen Demons are behind this anomaly.
“War of the Marionettes” is the third and almost certainly final novel featuring Andrea Cort. It has a unique history in that Adam-Troy Castro sold two novels in the series to his American publisher and three novels to a German publisher. This led to the third novel being published in a German translation, and only a few years later in an English edition.
This novel is set in a fictional universe in which humanity is only one of many sentient species. Adam-Troy Castro has written several stories set in this fictional universe, including some featuring Andrea Cort as the protagonist. He has also written two previous novellas focusing on the Vlhani and their unique ritual: “The Funeral March of the Marionettes” (1997) and “The Tangled Strings of the Marionettes” (2003). For this reason, this novel is both a sequel to the two novels in the Andrea Cort series and to the two novellas about the Vlhani.
The two novels in the Andrea Cort series are very useful for understanding the protagonist. Adam-Troy Castro includes a lot of references to her complex personal history, which are helpful for readers unfamiliar with her. All of this helps us understand her relationship with Oscin and Skye Porrinyard as well, but it can’t replace reading two novels that reveal, among other things, both her strengths and her fragilities.
The first two novels offer much more information about the protagonist and the ancient artificial intelligences divided into two factions known as AISource and the Unseen Demons. Even reading only “War of the Marionettes,” it’s clear that, despite those names, AISource isn’t necessarily a faction of good entities, and the Unseen Demons aren’t necessarily worse than their enemies.
This novel represents a turning point in Andrea Cort’s personal story and a key moment in the clash between the artificial intelligence factions. What happens to the Vlhani represents a kind of collateral damage, revealing more than ever the manipulations carried out against sentient beings, which in this case, means an entire species.
The novel’s tone isn’t simply dark, but veers toward body horror. On one side, there are people who understand the Vlhani language better than almost any other sentient being and radically transform their bodies to participate in their ritual. On the other side, a sort of civil war breaks out among the Vlhani, involving everyone else on the planet, quickly causing a carnage that becomes even more brutal over time. I could easily imagine David Cronenberg directing a film adaptation of this novel or another story centered on the Vlhani ritual.
Compared to the previous novels, “War of the Marionettes” is less sophisticated, with more explicit manipulations. Its strong horror, sometimes even splatter, overtones have made it controversial even among fans of Andrea Cort’s stories, but I still think it’s worthwhile. Adam-Troy Castro has written other stories set in this fictional universe, and I hope he reprises this character in some way. You can find it on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
