The Death of Mountains

by Jordan Kurella

"When the Death of Mountains came for us, we had been aching for a long time. There is so much loss in being a mountain; it is a terribly long time to live. Yet something awoke within us when they arrived, their face a stone skull, their hands obsidian bones that cracked and crackled like fracking. It made us hurt to hear their earthquake step across the ground as they arrived. Their breath was like coal dust, the stuff their cloak was made from. They left a trail of oil behind them as they walked.

When they spoke, their breath was hot, volcanic; it made us wither at first. We, however are a middling hilld of the Appalachians. And we have seen much worse.

Far worse than death."

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Science Fiction Fantasy

122 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2025

About the author

Jordan Kurella has lived all over the world (including Moscow and Manhattan).

In his past lives, he was a photographer, radio DJ, and social worker. His work has been nominated for the Nebula Award and long-listed for the British Science Fantasy Award. He is the author of the fantasy novella, I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY, the short story collection, WHEN I WAS LOST, and the climate fiction novella, THE DEATH OF MOUNTAINS. Jordan lives in limbo with his perfect dog and practical cat.

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gut-punch of a novella. A plundered mountain, almost utterly destroyed by humans with their machines, is visited by Death--but the mountain does not want to die. The back and forth flow of the tale is written with eloquent prose, with an ending both powerful and surprising.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a taut thriller or literary horror book: they are all I read, to be honest. However, we all need a palate cleanser sometimes, and Lethe Press was kind enough to place this gorgeous novelette into my hands at Stoker Con this weekend. The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella is not horror. It’s not sci fi or even fantasy, and yet, in a way, it’s speculative fiction at its best, an allegory of ecological and grief fiction with prose so beautiful, the number of pages I earmarked for their memorable, poetic passages is innumerable.

Buy this if you are a poet or lover of poetry, even though it is written in prose. Buy it if you like smart fiction. But most of all, buy it if you just need a breath of fresh air from all of the garbage on the news and ugliness on social media. It’s a poignant, dreamy, thought-provoking vacation from our technology-soaked, navel-gazing lives, and I’m grateful to have been able to read it.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a speculative fiction poetic novella, which was nominated for Nebula in 2026. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for April 2026 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group. Before the story, there are accolades by writers I enjoy, including Karin Tidbeck and Premee Mohamed.

The very premise of the story is great: not only humans die. Mountains die too, and to them also comes a physical incarnation of death, specially for them, the Death of Mountains. Here, the Death comes to the Plundered Mountain, almost destroyed by men and their machines, cut in two by a road. However, the Plundered Mountain doesn’t want to die, so they decide to tell stories to each other to persuade what to do next.

The stories are interesting chiefly by their twist, for they often start with a tired trope and then change it. However, per se (assume you read these stories as standalones), they aren’t very strong, albeit poetic. So, the setting has an interesting premise with a great potential, there are interesting twists of the inserted stories like three doves living together but with some stuff I cannot agree with, like yes, machines kill, but they also save, and even military machines may be used defensively. Moreover, the forest was cut and machines were used to print this very book in its paper version, and inks for printing usually contain carbon, driers (cobalt/manganese) to accelerate drying, most likely mined from another plundered mountain.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this more than five stars, I would.
This novella comes at a time when my life as a human is winding down. I’m 68 and see life as less permanent bows I am watching parts of the earth of my youth be destroyed by the powers that be and for their own gain. It is absolutely true that the “nature of all shoulders” is to “hold up the cares that weigh upon them” and I worry every day that less people care about that burden.

It’s still a hopeful read. It is hopeful without a sense of Pollyanna anywhere in sight.

[Runalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooh I loved this very arising, very ingenious and the use of language is a great. Thoughtful and humane fantasy strongly recommended

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was SO SO beautiful! One I will read again and again. One I want to buy and give to people. Just gorgeous wise storytelling.

[WBTM BOOKSHELF]

Review by Alex Brown:
https://bookjockeyalex.com/2025/04/24...

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot of charm in the concept and the writing (see the description). But this kind of approach is not easy to sustain. The author's fans obviously don't agree with me.

[Chanel Chapters · Rating 4 out of 5]

POV: you are an ancient mountain and humans are your worst era

3.75

[Vanessa Ricci-Thode · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting and mournful, but darkly funny, beautiful and full of life and hope.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely little book

[Lorelei · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t decide how to describe this story. What if a mountain has a soul and doesn’t want to die? What if the psychopomp tasked with escorting her soul doesn’t like their job but also is afraid of being fired?

None of the characters here are people but every one of them has a wonderfully distinctive narrative voice. They seem like they shouldn’t coexist neatly and yet they do. Usually when people call a prose book poetic or lyrical they mean it has a lot of metaphors and detailed flowery descriptions. What I mean when I call this poetic is that every word was chosen with a very deliberate meaning and effect in mind.




I do, because I can’t help being myself, wish that someone who worked on this book knew that cottontail rabbits don’t dig warrens. They shelter in shallow nests, which is why it’s so easy to stumble across the babies in spring. I just think Plundered Mountain would know and care about these details of her inhabitants! And it mostly stood out because everything else is so careful.

[Jess Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put simply: my need for this book was realized in reading this book.

The grounded, lyrical prose of Jordan Kurella carries the tether of a Scheherazade banter, through an achingly beautiful and painfully wonderful existence. There is no more a distilling work of art as this bone-deep novella by Kurella. A true love letter to bittersweet and enduring hope (or ingenuity?)..

"We cannot stop ourselves from doing what it is we need to do."

"Yet in the abundance of joy we have experienced in our lifetime, we are still in pain."

"We suppose it comes back to what the poet had said: Is it not in the nature of all shoulders to hold up the cares that weigh upon them?"

[Eliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Death of Mountains
Overall Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I really enjoyed this book and I found it to be a thoroughly unique and engaging read. I think the world-building struck the perfect balance of just close enough to real life to hit while still feeling like a separate fictional world (at least, to me). I loved all of the little insights that the characters have and I think this book really makes readers think more deeply about its core themes of death, destruction, and (semi) immortality. I think the format and structure of the stories really helps to enhance the reading experience and made it all the more unique of a read. Despite being so short, this book really packs a punch and I think it benefits from taking breaks to think more deeply about the events and insights that are interwoven throughout.

[Angie Milena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short novel! The writing style is very unique, the storytelling is beautiful. It's a story I'll read again, I'll loan out to people or give to people. Such a meaningful story within these 114 pages. Highly recommend.

[Mary Soon Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of six novellas nominated for this year's Nebula award. I found it by turns charming and upsetting. Much of the book is narrated by Plundered Mountain, who describes themself as a middling hill of the Appalachians. I loved Plundered Mountain. I can't recall ever reading a story told by a mountain before.

The plot is delivered in little bite-sized pieces, including question-and-answer segments and stories within the main story. Some of the stories-within-the-main-story are told by the eponymous Death of Mountains (another very likable character), some by the Death of People. I was initially anxious that the book would be unrelentingly downbeat, but that proved not to be the case. There's great sweetness in here too.

Four and a half out of five canary stars.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

[Mads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

As a certified West Virginian, this story means a lot to me as someone who grew up watching the hills around me be desecrated by humans and their machines.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Jordan at a workshop in Utah some years ago, and I've followed their writing ever since. The Death of Mountains is at times poetic, thought-provoking, and funny. The POV shifts from character to character in a way that reminds me of Chaucer.

This is their strongest work to date (and was shortlisted for at least one award). Read it.

Good on ya, Jordan. Well done.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a memorable, imaginative, and striking story. The prose is lyrical; the storytelling fable-esque. The story is so imaginative and beautiful. Mountains are the main characters--which, if it were up to me, mountains could be the main characters in every story.

"As a mountain, we feel and know all things that touch us: all roots, all hands, all embers. All things left behind. We have been burned and reborn. We have been cried upon and died upon. We have been cleaved in and gored out. Birthed upon and coupled upon. Time has told its tale upon us over and over and remade us"

The Death of Mountains comes to visit The Plundered Mountain- a mountain who has been stripped and mined by people and is near death. Death and the Mountain swap stories back and forth--about things they know and have seen and experienced. Death talks about other jobs--the Death of People and Machines and it's just so amazing, like this system of environmental checks and balances has always existed and Jordan Kurella just exposed it to readers-feels timeless and true. I love it

*perfect for your trans rights readathons too

[Lark Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfect novella to take on any long ride through the American wilderness. Kurella portrays small moments of nature and decades-long industrial erosion with equal intimacy. For a story about the killing of a mountain there is a love of life in every page of this piece. The structure of this novella is a series of tales that Death and the Mountain tell each other as a way for both of them to procrastinate on the Death's job of reaping mountains. These stories-within-a-story then go on commentate on the setting and character motivations of the protagonists while also being punchy narrative gifts of their own. This reminded me greatly of prose like How Much Of These Hills Is Gold and The Tiger's Wife.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a surprisingly deep story about a conversation between a dying mountain and the being tasked with ushering it to its death. I'm having trouble saying what it was really about, but I think that's a sign that I need to sit with it a bit longer. Philosophical conversations like this book seems to be are usually not my cup of tea, but this one kept me reading the entire time - an impressive feat. And when I try to understand what it was about, I get a feeling instead of words, and I'm okay with that - but it makes it harder to write a review! But I like how the two main characters find a way to follow a different story than the one they're supposed to be following.

[Saphana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some sentences have more than two negations and from the context it is clear, only one should be there.

Some sentences stand as a complete non-sequitur.

Some sentences have severe grammar errors and that's coming from me, an ESL.

So, all in all, the editing was subterranean.

Other than that, some impressions from the Plundered Mountain are pretty repetetive and don't add anything, except being annoying.

The overall prose is serviceable, tho not sufficient for the poetry of the setting and the dove polycule was really unnecessary as was the Death of Mountains repeated stares down the slopes, the gully, up the peak and so on.

[Huang Chu · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DEATH OF MOUNTAINS is a bold, fresh, memorable book and the only book I have encountered starring mountains as the main characters. I particularly appreciated the evocation of the Appalachian setting, and the intersection of the environmental themes with the idea of fractured and nested storytelling. That felt like a very timely, but elegant approach to the treatment of climate change in an era of fake news. The plural protagonists also resonated with me as a refreshing departure from Western storytelling conventions.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic, eerie little novella about a mountain that sees its death coming for it, and decides to try to negotiate with it. This is an absolutely amazing dialogue between various forces of nature that deals with questions we all ask as we deal with mortality and sometimes as you're trying to reckon if you actually want to keep doing your job or not. Absolutely worth picking up in physical copy from the publisher (I got this digitally).

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because I saw the author on Bluesky saying they'd had a rough day and some sales of their book would be nice. I was in the mood for a new book and the author seemed nice so I took a chance. It was a strange and lyrical book but injected a note of hope I didn't know I needed.

[Doctor Science · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't work for me because I could never forget how *old* the Appalachians are, and Plundered Mountain just doesn't sound older than bones. Most mountains die by erosion, and the Death of Mountains doesn't sound like that kind of guy.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella was nominated for the Nebula award in 2026.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Okay, that was it, that was the story”

A miss for me, I didn’t quite understand this. I found the prose odd at times, and it was tedious despite being a so short.