RT Book Reviews: Priest continues to cement her reputation as a master of modern gothic with a haunted house tale that’s a slow burn with an utterly addictive finale. Though it feels like more could be done with the ghosts of the Withrow house, the living characters do more than their fair share of lifting with interactions that are charming and funny. That said, fans and new readers should walk away satisfied and just a little bit worried when in the house alone.
NPR: But it was that rare ability of Kowal’s to make what could have been a completely goofy add-on to the British war effort into something that felt completely wedded and solid that sold me that spark of a great idea, well-executed. It is a story that just works. That lays out a presumption (ghosts are real), builds a plot architecture around it (they might be useful intelligence assets), and then grounds it with emotional weight (those forced to talk to the ghosts of the young and dead might not come out of it unscathed).
Booklist: The destruction or ending of the world as we know it is a common backdrop for examining elements of humanity. The numerous ways in which humanity and our world are going to crash and burn are terrifying and fascinating. Malfi adds an interesting new angle to the mix by placing the story in a world infected by the Wanderer’s Folly, a disease that blurs the lines between dreams and reality. While the disease and its impact on the human race are interesting, moving, and effective, the story’s real drive is the relationship between a father, David, and his daughter, Ellie. Ellie is a special girl; she is able to calm her parents when they are angry and cause people pain by merely touching them. Ellie’s abilities and the fact that her mother was immune to the Folly draw unwanted attention to the pair. David’s drive to protect his daughter at all costs and Ellie’s developing skills make for an emotionally compelling and interesting read.
Booklist: In Priest’s gothic haunted-house story, workers at failing architectural salvage company are given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reverse their fortunes, if they can survive the ghosts plaguing the property. Dahlia Dutton, the daughter of Music City Salvage’s owner, loves old houses. She’s still sore over losing her own beautifully restored home in her divorce. Once Dahlia arrives at the grand, well-preserved Withrow estate in the Tennessee mountains, she wishes she could save it; instead, she and her crew — her estranged cousin Bobby; his lovable son, Gabe; and salvage rookie Brad — have mere days to rescue the valuables before demolition. To save money, they sleep on-site, when the mansion’s romantic charm turns menacing. Strange occurrences and spectral sightings increase as the crew dismantles the house, exposing the With row family’s secrets. Priest spices up a standard haunting with an irresistible premise focused on the “hidden treasure” aspect of salvage work. Careful character building accentuates the novel’s slow build, so by the time the salvagers are in real danger, they feel like real people, too. Despite lulls in pacing, the final scenes are terrifying. Highly recommended for fans of contemporary ghost stories.
Kirkus: A novel of unsung voices and alternate World War I history, Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal is a wonderful, fraught, and heart-wrenching read. Set against the backdrop of World War I, it reinvents history to allow unheard stories to be told, whilst at the same creating a marvellous piece of romantic speculative fiction.
And then we have the unsung voices: the voices of those who we often don’t talk about when we remember WWI. The voices of women, people of colour, the disabled: the heroes in this novel. Ginger is a heroic, resourceful, determined, and complex character aware of her privileges (intersection feminism is a thing here), just like most of the characters – Helen, the person with the real power here is wonderfulin the novel are. The people in power dismiss them off-hand because of who they are, and the social injustices of the day are hard to read – reality often is and we oughtn’t to just brush them off. The point here is that the reader is satisfyingly rewarded by the examination of those, by the strong implication of their wrongness and by having the unsung heroes becoming the ones to save the day.
Publishers Weekly: Horror author Khaw (Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef) brilliantly combines the self-aware, on-point tone of her gumshoe narrator with the invasive rhythm of the language of pulsing terrors. The drearily everyday is infused with Lovecraftian dread in a marvelously horrifying, tightly built novella that spins a satisfying tale while doing honor to both of its core sources. London PI John Persons, whose “stubbornly human” form disguises his horrifying true nature, reluctantly takes a job for 11-year-old Abel—killing the boy’s abusive stepfather—after hearing Abel’s rationale for choosing him: “You’re a monster too.” Persons’s name is apt: he is desperate to hold on to his humanity and his compassion, and he refuses to give in entirely to his inner urges, which want to “rip tear bite cut” in response to his target’s testosterone-fueled insults. His struggle hooks the reader, cutting deeply without losing the characteristic emotional distance of the noir style. Khaw’s mash-up of gritty and eldritch is anything but incongruous, and the story is self-contained while leaving the door wide open for Persons’s next case.
New York Times: It’s easy to get lost in the kaleidoscopic world-building of NINEFOX GAMBIT (Solaris, paper, $9.99), the first novel by the well-regarded story writer Yoon Ha Lee. Lee submerges readers without explanation into the hexarchate – a star-spanning far-future society whose culture relies on advanced mathematics to produce “exotic effects” that are nigh magical. …. The story is dense, the pace intense, and the delicate East Asian flavoring of the math-rich setting might make it seem utterly alien to many readers yet metaphors for our own world abound. Mathematics is often lauded as a universal language, but this is blatantly untrue; for universality to work, adherents must believe in the same basic truths, or principles, to the same degree. Lee’s quasi-religious treatment of mathematics, and Cheris’s need to simultaneously exploit and rely on Jedao, both serve as metaphors for colonialism. (As does the quiet, oblique rebellion taking place in the background amid the hexarchate’s artificially intelligent servitors.) And the lesson of colonialism applies as well: Brute-force domination gets you only so far. For stability, trust is key.
Readers willing to invest in a steep learning curve will be rewarded with a tight-woven, complicated but not convoluted, breathtakingly original space opera. And since this is only the first book of the Machineries of Empire trilogy, it’s the start of what looks to be a wild ride.
Read N.K. Jemisin’s The New York Times review of Ninefox Gambit here.
Booklist: Book two in McCammon’s highly entertaining vampire-western series finds reluctant vampire Trevor Lawson and his human sidekick, sharpshooter Ann Remington, still on the hunt for LaRouge, the woman who turned Lawson during the Civil War, in the hopes that killing her will allow Lawson to become human again. It’s now 1886, and a new job takes the pair from New Orleans to the frontier town of Perdition, Montana, to rescue a wealthy young man from a band of outlaws. Lawson tries to extricate the man without violence, but between the outlaws and the vampire Dark Society, it appears a peaceful getaway is not going to be an option. This thrilling story culminates with a fantastic battle scene on a train, where unlikely alliances are formed, adding a new wrinkle to Lawson’s quest for freedom from his vampiric curse. Readers can jump right in, as the backstory details are supplied without sacrificing the pace. This is perfect for Deadwood fans and those who enjoy the American Vampire graphic-novel series by Scott Snyder. Clear a couple of hours, you’ll want to devour this in one sitting.
B&N SFF&F Blog: Kowal retains her crown as one of the most imaginative SFF writers working today with a thoughtful new book that imagines the “Spirit Corps” of the British Military of 1916. Led by American Ginger Stuyvesant, the Corps communicates with recently dead soldiers on the killing fields of Europe in order to glean vital intelligence. When Ginger’s fiancé, Captain Ben Harford, tips her off concerning a German plot to destroy the Corps, she has to use the its powers, as well as a series of unlikely but effective allies, to protect it. Kowal brings her keen eye for historical detail and an impeccable sense of plotting to bear on a smart, exciting story that combines an accurately rendered World War I setting with occult flourishes.
RT Book Reviews: Once again, Kowal takes an innovative premise and executes it superbly, imaginatively marrying history with a fresh fantasy concept. Though the romance between Ginger and Ben is bittersweet, the story never becomes maudlin — in fact, it’s absolutely riveting. The story moves briskly as Ginger struggles to identify a spy in the English army, revealing itself as an engrossing amalgam of romance, historical fiction, fantasy and mystery. I only have one caution: When you start Ghost Talkers, clear your schedule — you won’t be able to put it down.