Publishers Weekly: Transporting readers to a blood-soaked Ireland, Sharpson (When the Sparrow Falls) delivers modern horror at its best. One stormy night in 1979, Etain comes across a faceless corpse on the road; days later, she’s found half dead near a burnt-out farmhouse, her shattered mind a blank. Then, one of her twin daughters disappears in 1989, and soon after, her husband is found dead in a suspected suicide. By 2003, the only person still looking for an explanation to this mysterious series of events is Etain’s surviving daughter, Ashling, a university drama student who’s just entering into a passionate love affair with a woman. Ashling’s convinced, however, that what she remembers of her sister’s disappearance can’t possibly be true: it involved a popular children’s TV show about a goat puppet that would only come out of his box if someone had been very bad. According to everyone else who watched the show, the box never actually opened—but Ashling remembers it differently, and the more she investigates, the more she comes to fear that what’s inside is no cuddly puppet, but something old, crafty, and hungry. Sharpson does a masterful job of weaving together the three timelines, handling each story with tremendous sensitivity and skill while supplying genuine scares. By turns tender and terrifying, sexy and stomach-turning, heartwarming and heartrending, this folklore-steeped exploration of generational trauma is a high-water mark for the Irish horror novel.
Locus: Cassandra Khaw has cemented their status as horror royalty, once and for all, with their latest novella, The Salt Grows Heavy. All hail and long live! Here’s the thing, though: I’m not even sure how or where to start telling you about The Salt Grows Heavy. Nothing I say can quite capture the creeping body horror, the marvelous disorientation, or the toothy, sumptuous, and marvelously off-putting prose of the thing. Fans of Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth will be happy to see that Khaw’s vision and aesthetic remain as dark as ever, and relish that—in my opinion—they have managed to push further into the weird and the unsettling….for those of us who find darkness irresistible, especially when beautifully presented, The Salt Grows Heavy is a grotesquely perfect feast.
Publishers Weekly: Heartfield (The Chatelaine) injects some magic into European history with this lush and enchanting outing. In 1768, close-knit sisters Charlotte and Antoine, daughters of the Habsburg emperor, are sent their separate ways to marry powerful husbands: Charlotte to Naples and the brutish King Ferdinand, and Antoine to France, where she is renamed Marie Antoinette and weds the future King Louis XVI. Isolated and alone, the two rely on lessons from a book of spells they discovered as children to reclaim power over their lives while trying to do right for their respective nations. As tension mounts both politically and in the magical world, the sisters find themselves on opposing sides, turning from close confidants to bitter rivals. Heartfield’s accounts of both queens are detailed and insightful, with a fresh take on Marie Antoinette and a fascinating look at her less famous sister. The magic system, which demands a sacrifice for each spell cast, is a cool concept, but in execution it’s a bit murky and occasionally feels like an afterthought to the story at hand. Still, fans of historical novels looking for just a touch of the fantastic are sure to be sucked in.
Booklist: Fetter is enmeshed in a cycle of violence as his mother severs his shadow from him at birth and forges him into a weapon to murder his messianic father and dismantle his religion. As an adult, Fetter rejects her indoctrination. He physically and ideologically distances himself from both parents by settling in Luriat, the urban antithesis to his rural hometown, and recalibrating his raison d’être to peace: he assists fellow refugees, heals his trauma through therapy, cultivates intimate relationships, and investigates Luriat’s mysterious, unopenable, brightly painted doors. Nonetheless, Fetter is reeled back into his family’s conflict and becomes entangled in discord arising from government-endorsed systematic oppression, causing him to lose his place in society and calling into question his life’s purpose. The story line unravels in the final arc, paralleling Fetter’s unmoored state… However, the lyrical, precise prose, the original, organic nature of the world building, and the complex themes of purpose, identity, and the biased, often violent, incomplete nature of history-telling will engage readers long after finishing.
New York Times: Reversing that trajectory, Martha Wells has followed up her best-selling series of Murderbot novellas with a return to full-length, epic fantasy. WITCH KING (Tordotcom, $28.99, 414 pp.), a deeply immersive throwback to a beloved (and for me, foundational) species of 1990s fantasy doorstop, is full of cataclysmic intrigues between mostly immortal families, complete with map and dramatis personae.
The titular Witch King, Kaiisteron, or Kai, wakes from an enchanted sleep to find that he and his best friend, Ziede, have been betrayed and imprisoned by someone close to them. Kai is a demon, able to wield magic and possess the bodies of the living; Ziede is a witch, able to converse with the elemental world. They use their powers to subdue and escape their would-be captor, but discover that Ziede’s wife, Tahren, is missing.
Together — gathering waifs and strays along the way — they embark on a quest to find her and root out the conspiracy that separated them. As they search for answers, Kai remembers his early life fighting necromantic wizards called Hierarchs and rebuilding the world they broke.
Kai is very good at protecting those he has chosen to care for, and part of the pleasure of “Witch King” comes from seeing his keen-edged competence at work, contrasted with moments of profound, bewildered vulnerability. Kai’s timelines play off each other wonderfully: Elements introduced in a dizzying rush of world building become welcome context for the flashbacks, which in turn escalate tension in the present. Wells is working at the height of her powers here, and it’s relaxing to be carried along for a ride in the company of such a phenomenal storyteller.
Publishers Weekly: Shirley (Halo: Broken Circle) veers from gaming fiction to near-future military techno-thriller in this competent, straightforward novel of U.S. Army Rangers in space. Lt. Art Burkett’s marriage is failing due to his wife’s worries over his continuous insertion into dangerous missions, when he is yanked away yet again, this time into a hostage rescue that involves a drop from space. The mission runs into complications: an undercover agent is killed by friendly fire, the agent’s brother vows vengeance, and the Russians look to solidify their hold on near-Earth orbit by finishing off the spacecraft carrying Burkett and company back to safety. Shirley includes most of the archetypes common to military adventure fiction, including the officer torn between public and private duty, the spy whose suspicions are not mere paranoia, the gruff leader who stands up to the Big Brass, and the Big Brass themselves, whose pettiness is paid for by personal sacrifice. Sure-footed descriptions of spaceflight and the toils of working without gravity enhance the plot without the technobabble ever pulling focus from the soldiers as they fight for their lives and honor. Shirley’s fans will be pleased.
Wall Street Journal: Regular readers of sci-fi know Martha Wells from her Murderbot Diaries (if you don’t, go get them immediately). “Witch King” is a fantasy novel about as far from Murderbot as it’s possible to get, and the fact that the author does it so well is a testament to her range and abilities.
We start in the middle of the action, meeting the main character and his companion when they wake up after a mysterious betrayal and attack. Kai uses his supernatural powers to drain the life out of his enemies just in time to rescue Ziede, who has been locked away in a vault. But what starts off seeming to be the tale of two vampiric lovers who kill and consume anyone in their way turns into a story far more complicated and fascinating.
Kai, we soon learn, is a demon from the “underearth,” a creature whose formidable abilities are connected to the experience of pain. In the world of “Witch King” demons are decidedly non-spiritual creatures who have a complex relationship with the people of the Grasslands; they are invited into the bodies of the dead and then treated like family. Ziede is a witch, which here is more a race than a profession. She is close friends with Kai but married to a missing woman called Tahren—who has Fallen from another group, the Immortal Blessed.
“Witch King” across two different timelines: Years ago, when Kai, Ziede and Tahren first meet and help save the world from the crushing invasion of the Hierarchs, and in the story’s present, when the Rising World—an alliance of the surviving nations—is in jeopardy.
Ms. Wells creates uniquely fascinating cultures and abilities for the people who live in her universe, including magic systems that are fully developed and beautifully described. When Kai swallows a magical “intention” into his chest you can practically see it.
The heroes’ adventures together are exciting and their escapes clever; quibbles with the book are just that. There is supposed to be a grand conspiracy trying to topple the Rising World, and it would have been nice to see it in action outside the main group of characters. Also, there are a lot of names to keep track of. Fans of intricate fantasy may love that—but my aging brain needed a wiki.
A wonderfully original world, sympathetic characters and a solid quest make “Witch King” the satisfying fantasy you yearn for when named swords and cursed rings begin to grow stale.
Publishers Weekly: Okosun’s stunning debut puts a Nigerian spin on epic fantasy tropes to create an addictive tale of political intrigue, love, loss, betrayal, and magic. Nine-year-old Dèmi was born during a time of transition, when the queen of Ifé was replaced by a king who fears and hates hereditary magic users, called Oluso, leading to an ongoing genocide. Dèmi, an Oluso herself, assists with her mother’s forbidden but necessary magical healing work—until she is forced to flee their village after they are betrayed by a former client, leading to her mother’s death. Nine years later, the politician Lord Ekwenski tasks Dèmi with kidnapping the crown prince as part of his scheme to rise in power and become a voice for the Oluso on the king’s council. This dangerous mission is complicated, however, when Dèmi discovers a surprising connection—and attraction—to the prince and uncovers secrets about her family’s past and her own powers. Okosun’s elaborate worldbuilding is lavishly detailed and meticulously constructed, but it never feels overwhelming. The result is an impressive and refreshingly original page-turner that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the second volume.
Publishers Weekly: Sinn, the pseudonym for siblings Rachel Hope Cleves (Unspeakable) and Aram Sinnreich (The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property), spin an insightful and emotional story of quantum time travel in their fiction debut. It’s 11:33 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2045, when coder Nev Bourne finalizes SavePoint 2.0, an upgrade to the cutting-edge brain implant that allows users to skip back in time by five seconds. She hits run—and wakes up the morning of September 22, reliving the same day. Then, at 11:33 p.m., the same glitch resets her to the morning of September 21. So it goes: every 24 hours she travels back in time by one additional day. When she runs into notorious hacker Airin Myx, she accuses them of causing the glitch—but instead they reveal that they’ve been working with her to fix it for weeks. On a “collision course with her past,” Nev sets out to mend relationships with her needy boyfriend, domineering mother, and estranged best friend—all while falling for Airin, who’s traveling through time in the opposite direction. The authors infuse this plausible near future with clever science and heartwarming explorations of love and second chances. At the heart of this brilliant sci-fi conundrum is a deeply human story.
Publishers Weekly: Harrison delivers her signature blend of high stakes urban fantasy and soap operatic interpersonal drama in the 18th installment to her Hollows series (after 2022’s Trouble with the Cursed). Witch-born demon Rachel Morgan has successfully claimed the role of subrosa, or leader of Cincinnati, Ohio’s supernatural communities, but now must defend that title against challengers. Her latest enemy, a mysterious mage, sets out to undermine her power base by targeting her allies, including her friend David, who is harassed by renegade werewolves. Meanwhile, the coven of moral and ethical standards is breathing down Rachel’s neck regarding her use of an unsavory charm, and her boyfriend, elven businessman Trent Kalamack, faces punishment for his own illegal dealings. Rachel must protect her loved ones, prove her innocence to the coven, and defeat the enemies gunning for her before she loses everything. There are a lot of balls in the air, but Harrison juggles them gracefully. Longtime readers will be gratified to see both increased momentum in the overarching series plot and callbacks to much earlier installments. This series still has some surprises up its sleeve.