By Jim Mcleod 
The Red Labyrinth, by Ben Peek, Snuggly Books, May 2025
A review by Kyla Lee Ward
This novella is proof positive that you don’t need an 800 page hardback to build a world, tear it down, or stun the reader. Through the tale of Zoja Rose, an impoverished wig-maker in the realm of the Red King, Peek reveals staggering vistas of cruelty, tyranny and eternity, but also of courage and hard-won hope.
The Red King and the Black Queen are gods who set the order of all things: without them, there would only be chaos. Now chaos consumes the realm of the Black Queen, after a man used forbidden knowledge to overturn her throne. To say anything else, to know anything else, is to risk being condemned to the Red Labyrinth, made to enter the underworld that is the fate of all the dead while still alive.
The tale is told with deceptive simplicity, a rational unfolding of consequences, with details that may appear quite banal. But there is not a word that does not contribute to the greater picture, effortlessly providing the reader with the tools to comprehend how the act of sharing stories can challenge a regime. But don’t think this is some fluffy fable about the power of truth.
“None had been spared, no matter how old or young they were. They’d been cut up, crushed and broken. It seemed like just about every manner of brutality had been done to them. It was just them, though. There was no sign of another army. There was no fallen enemy, no bit of broken armour or a lost weapon. There weren’t even tracks… outside the cities we found the fields and orchards, but nothing was growing in them. Some were smouldering, waiting for new fuel. I don’t know how, but they were.”
If this is a fable, it is about how ego seeks power and power feeds ego, so nothing can ever be enough. In an extraordinary aside, we learn that the two tyrants decided to give their children all the names in the world, so that all subsequent children would be named after them.
If there is a moral, it is something about the kind of relentless pressure that turns an ostensibly ordinary person into a rebel and the pen into the sword – make no mistake, there must be blood and fire, and blazing wasps. Or perhaps it concerns the kind of conservatism that is so entrenched, it will sever its own head rather than change. This book is horrible, jaw-dropping, admits no easy answers and yet everything within is so utterly clear.
For the record, Peek has built worlds in 800+ pages and done so triumphantly. Having read this, you might consider turning to The Godless, Leviathan’s Blood and The Eternal Kingdom. Even so, I think the images and characters of The Red Labyrinth will linger – Nathaniel, the guerilla librarian who insists that even the Labyrinth can be read. Or Jan, the holy torturer, who made me want to wash my brain. The one we can never really know, of course, is Zoja she is already a legend, a story, even if shared by the one who claims to know her best.
This is consummate dark fantasy, or horror considered as a literature of extreme empathy. It shows just what the old symbols can do in the hands of someone who has honed their craft and really thought things through. Peek extends the reader the courtesy of assuming they too are thoughtful. Sufficiently short and gripping to read at a sitting, it will linger, as I have said. There is bitter food here, and not a little rage.
The Red Labyrinth, by Ben Peek
The Red Labyrinth is the story of the anarchist Zoja Rose.
Presented to the reader as a speech given by Zoja’s most infamous disciple, Illanana, The Red Labyrinth tells of the violent histories of the Red King and the Black Queen, the twisted maze they lived in, and the cruel, tattooed monks who oversaw their rule.
Written by the critically acclaimed author Ben Peek, this dark fantasy brings his stylistic resourcefulness to bear in a compelling vortex of a short novel that is at once an existential journey, a harrowing exploration of the abuse of power, and a violent call to arms.
Ben Peek
Ben Peek is an Australian author of speculative and slipstream fiction. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Western Sydney and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of New South Wales. The author of The Children dark fantasy trilogy, he has been nominated for the Aurealis Awards and David Gemmel Legend Awards. He is the second-most nominated individual never to win a Ditmar Award, and if you trust his autobiography, Twenty-Six Lies/ One Truth, he cannot be.
Kyla Lee Ward
Based in Sydney, Australia, Kyla produces short fiction. articles and poetry, including Stoker and Rhysling nominees, and is co-author of the Aurealis Award-winning novel Prismatic. She is a founding member of Deadhouse Productions and a guide with the Rocks Ghost Tours. Her interests include history, occultism and scaring innocent bystanders
Further Reading
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Damascus Mincemeyer 
Carmilla Voiez