Donald Maass Literary Agency

Tor.com: Brimstone is a haunting and surprisingly funny book – at turns raising the hair on your arms, and a laugh from your belly. Cassadaga is a delight, and being able to experience its intricacies and eccentricities through a newcomer’s eyes, reminded me of exploring Hogsmeade from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, or Hopewell, Illinois from Terry Brooks’s criminally underrated Running with the Demon.

Priest has laid enough groundwork that a sequel seems inevitable, but also wraps things up nicely enough for the experience to feel whole and complete. With its unique mix of Americana, post-war themes, likeable characters, and swift plot, Brimstone is easy to recommend.

Publishers Weekly: In this genre-bending debut novel, a science fantasy set in 2064, newly awakened demigods and artificial intelligences battle for the fate of South Africa. As a new drug spreads through the population, it unlocks long-hidden abilities and animal affinities, remnants of a mythological time when humans and nature intermingled. While an ancient demigoddess schemes to regain her full powers by causing terror, other people are swept up in the tide of events, including a politician who dreams of embracing his female side as a stage performer, a pop diva, a gay teen in love with his best friend, and an AI collective unsure of its role in the world. Drayden uses numerous perspectives to weave an engaging story that’s populated by a diverse cast and enhanced by fascinating concepts. There’s a lot to take in as the various plot threads interweave and converge toward a surprising climax, but Drayden balances the genre elements skillfully, creating a world where genetic manipulation, sentient robots, and folkloric origin stories can coexist plausibly, if not peacefully.

NPR: Brimstone is a deeply loving book. Cassadaga is a real place, with a real lineage of devastating fires, and the respect and affection for its history and residents glows from each page.

Full of charm and care, with light-hearted fun woven gently into compassionate renderings of sorrow and loss, Brimstone is equal parts affectionate romp and affecting story ­ not least because, given the state of the world, it’s good to read books in which hate is scarier than ghosts, love is stronger than hate, and witches simply refuse to burn.