The Blissful Dead

Review from April 2026
The other week Roxy pointed out to me that both our works lean towards the morbid. It's true. There is a difference though, I think. The death that I write about is the nightmarish void, the thing that necessitated gods. It's Mackenzie staring into the Atlantic, unable to close the curtains. When Roxy write a death it feels different. It's the quiet at the end of the struggle. It's a reassuring voice coming to greet you at the ending of the day. It is something that, in the midst of horrors beyond anything I could imagine, can be welcomed. It is a nightmare ending and it can also be beautiful. It's the same thing but they are different things at the same time. I find that compelling.

So, during the last month one of the major Mechsplo series of the last year finally drew to a close. The last chapter of AotKH was great. I loved the ending. I loved the taxidermy. I didn't love it as much as I loved the previous chapter but that's just because I'm Imeshan's biggest fan. Even more so than both of these though I loved the short story that followed.

I originally had a whole three paragraphs in this review comparing this story to the Herbert Howells/GK Chesteron post-WW1 Christmas anthem Here is the Little Door. But I cut that because I was starting to sound way too pretentious and I don't want to turn this into an analysis of mechsplo through the lens of liturgical music. The important point is that the aesthetics of the Great War often paint it as a meaningless struggle. The deaths achieved nothing, they were just numbers, but when it was over everyone had to try and make meaning out of the meaninglessness. That same line of thought is baked in to the Great War aesthetic of AotKH but this story really elevates those ideas.

In The Blissful Dead, death was never going to achieve anything. It was, from the outset and inevitably, doomed to mean nothing. That feeling lingers throughout the piece with the frequent mention of the point of view characters previous work in stables. Hesha craves to be useful, craves to give her inevitable death meaning, but we know it won't mean anything, at least not in the way she wants... There will be meaning though. The story's twist gives her purpose. It is nightmarish and horrible and I love this story.

The scene of the death itself is also just wonderful. Barbed wires that grab and tighten and pull Hesha closer and closer to the end until she is just wishing for that sleep that warmly greets her. Sublime, great, delicious. If you haven't already read this one then you should. It is amazing.