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Children's & YAYA FictionYA

The White Guy Dies First

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

How do you like your horror? Perhaps you’re a fan of creeping dread, or gory goings-on are more your speed? The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power, editor Terry J. Benton-Walker’s anthology featuring authors of color, explores a variety of tropes for readers who enjoy disturbing, thought-provoking fare.

Despite their varied approaches, settings and baddies, all the ominously entertaining stories in The White Guy Dies First have two things in common: They center people of color and, per the book’s title, the white guy indeed dies first. Also evident throughout is an appreciation for horror. As Benton-Walker—author of the bestselling Blood Debts and Alex Wise series—notes, “The genre has always been a medium to deliver terror that’s most often intertwined with a deeper message, which can be far more horrifying than any superficial scare.”

Chloe Gong’s blood-spattered slasher, “Docile Girls,” features Adelaide Hu, head of the prom committee that includes her ex Jake Stewart and his snide friends. Jake had relegated her to “an exotic smiling accessory,” but on the fateful night before the big dance, Adelaide is anything but docile. And in Mark Oshiro’s suspenseful home invasion story, “Wasps,” Nina Ortiz defends her Abuela Carmen’s Brooklyn house from a gentrifier who wants to take their home—despite not knowing just how dark things can get in the Ortiz family’s basement.

There’s body horror (Naseem Jamnia’s “Break Through Our Skin”) and occult magic (Lamar Giles’ “The Protégé”), too. And an angry, hilariously profane haunted house narrates Benton-Walker’s own contribution, “The Road to Hell,” in which a Florida manse that spent centuries wanting love from occupants who “abandoned me, deeming me unlovable, unworthy . . . haunted” pulls out all the terrifying stops in an effort to make its current residents stay put.

Readers won’t want to put down The White Guy Dies First until they turn the last spooky page of this creative and creepy collection in which expectations are subverted and underrepresented groups claim their power from ghouls and demons both real and supernatural.

 

Readers won’t want to put down The White Guy Dies First, a creative and creepy collection in which expectations are subverted and underrepresented groups claim their power from ghouls and demons both real and supernatural.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Wolfgang in the Meadow

Review by Alice Cary

Who doesn’t love a friendly little ghost? Readers will fall in love with the delightful hero of Wolfgang in the Meadow, who yearns to be a master of causing fright, but whose happy place is basking in the wonders of a nearby meadow. When he’s not casting spells and “twirling in the air,” Wolfgang loves to hug trees, pick wildflowers and gaze at the sky. His goal is to follow his hero, The Mighty Hubert, as guardian of the Dark Castle. After 999.5 years of his reign, Hubert is about to pick his successor.

As Wolfgang studies the dark arts, he no longer has time to enjoy the splendors of the sunny meadow. Once he achieves his goal and holes up in the castle, he starts to flounder because something is missing. How can Wolfgang continue following this dream while not losing his essence as a nature-loving ghoul?

Author-illustrator Lenny Wen achieves eye-catching contrasts between the gentle meadow and fearsome manor with a combination of graphite and acrylic gouache. Children will delight in the spooky, darkly-tinted Dark Castle, which brims with lightning bolts, skulls and secret potions. The tone is perfect for young audiences, with well-balanced—“frightful,” but ultimately nonthreatening—scenes featuring pint-sized spirits. Nightmares are highly unlikely to ensue from all of this spooky cuteness. These eerie scenes stand out vividly against the bright colors of Wolfgang’s meadow, and together they provide a visual feast that helps readers understand the pleasures of both of Wolfgang’s passions, and how one feeds the other. Wolfgang himself—whose huggable shape resembles a puffy marshmallow—pops out amidst the lush green landscape, filled with wildflowers and woodland creatures.

With Wolfgang in the Meadow, Wen has created a fine story arc about making one’s own way in the world, defying stereotypes and the pleasures of leading a well-rounded life. It’s full of heart and humor, and Wolfgang’s dilemma will speak to readers of any age trying to navigate clashes between joy and ambition.

Wolfgang in the Meadow is full of heart and humor, and Wolfgang’s dilemma will speak to readers of any age trying to navigate clashes between joy and ambition.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

We Are Definitely Human

Review by Nicole Brinkley

When three distinguished visitors crash their “car”—which is definitely not a spaceship—and knock on Mr. Li’s door to ask for help, they’re disappointed that he doesn’t have the parts they need to repair their vehicle. Dejected, they start to walk away, but Mr. Li kindly offers them a place to sleep and to take them shopping for parts the next day.

The customers at the general store are also fascinated by Mr. Li’s blue-skinned guests, and offer to help them fix their oddly shaped car. Though the travelers don’t understand local customs, like parties or music, the help of their new friends might get these “definitely human” visitors back to their home.

Which, despite their claims, probably isn’t Europe.

Jon Klassen fans, rejoice: a new laugh-out-loud book can be added to the read-aloud rotation. X. Fang’s We Are Definitely Human is a delightful, humorous romp about human kindness towards strangers.

Fang, author of Dim Sum Palace, pleasantly subverts the text with illustrations that will leave kids giggling as Mrs. Li finds the guests sleeping on couches in all the wrong ways, serves breakfast only for one of the strangers to use their toast to clean their armpits, and listens as they explain their European identities and jobs like “making business” and “wearing hat.” The strong, striking shapes of the definitely human visitors, which Mr. Li finds “very hard to describe,” make for memorable character design.

This warm and giggle-worthy tale will please young readers—whether human or definitely human. Pair with Klassen’s The Rock from the Sky and Jess Hannigan’s Spider in the Well for a perfect storytime.

A new laugh-out-loud book can be added to the read-aloud rotation: X. Fang’s We Are Definitely Human is a delightful, humorous romp about human kindness towards strange visitors.
NonfictionScienceNature

What the Wild Sea Can Be

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

We are inundated by media updates about global warming, from statistical warnings and satellite images to news and weather reports on the latest storms, fires and floods. These ever-present alerts often focus on what’s happening to the land, but what about threats to the unique ecosystems of our oceans?

This vast water world is the focus of marine biologist and author Helen Scales’ latest book, What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean. Organized into three sections covering the ocean’s history, vanishing species and habitats, and the ocean’s restoration and future, the book takes a global perspective while also highlighting how specific regions and their wildlife are affected by the changing climate. Statistics drive home the immediacy of the crisis: “Within just the past fifty years, as people have been overexploiting species, destroying habitats, and releasing pollutants, the total mass of vertebrate life in the ocean has halved.”

Scales explores key issues impacting marine life, from warming waters, to disease-causing bacteria and viruses, to plastics contamination, along with striking examples of how these trends play out. For example, whales have a particularly high risk of microplastics consumption due to the shrimp and krill they eat: During migration to the coast of California, blue whales consume more than 10 million of these plastic particles, which can accumulate in tissues and alter expressions of genes, per day. Ecosystem shifts cause invasive migrations that upset the ecological balance, such as that of lionfish; native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, they are now found along America’s east coast and in the Mediterranean. These invasive lionfish number five times their population in their native waters, and they threaten to consume other species to extinction.

But as the title suggests, the book is not all gloom and doom. In her introduction, Scales encourages readers to take part in “mental time travel” and “keep seeing the glory and feeling wonderment in the ocean.” By offering hopeful scenarios and advice for making “conscious decisions about the future of the earth’s biodiversity,” she provides the reader with a level of positivity not often heard amid the overwhelming climate news that can often make us feel helpless. “I hope this book will offer an antidote to the rising tide of eco-anxiety and fears for the future of the planet,” Scales writes. “Turn that fear into commitment and initiative.” What the Wide Sea Can Be provides a glimmer of light in a darkening world.

Helen Scales’ inspiring What the Wild Sea Can Be addresses climate-caused threats to our oceans, while providing a glimmer of light in a darkening world.
Children's & YAYA FictionYA

Time and Time Again

Review by Tami Orendain

For weeks, Phoebe Mendel has woken up, eaten pancakes with her mom, played Scrabble with her dad and gone to bed hoping the next day will come. It never does. Phoebe’s stuck in a time loop—one that keeps her trapped in the same dry summer day, alone in the repetitions. That is, until her old friend Jess Friedman accidentally hits her with their car and becomes aware of the loop too, urging Phoebe to use the extra time to let loose and have fun. As they spend their repeating days together, feelings grow and secrets are revealed, but ultimately, their hopes for the future depend on escaping the time loop once and for all.

Chatham Greenfield’s debut novel, Time and Time Again throws a new twist into the age-old time loop scenario: What if you had to experience with your childhood friend and crush to whom you haven’t spoken in years? For Phoebe and Jess, the loop is a supernatural way to figure out their relationships—with each other, their loved ones and themselves.

While the speculative aspects may grab readers’ interests, the characters drive the heart of this book. Both Phoebe and Jess, whose families initially bonded over shared Jewish identity, also both have chronic illnesses that impact every decision they make, granting glimpses into life with irritable bowel syndrome and oligoarthritis. Phoebe is reflective and self-aware, but often has trouble standing up for herself, whether that means demanding that a fatphobic doctor take her IBS seriously or acknowledging her feelings toward Jess. Jess, on the other hand, is bubbly and brash, but they tend to retreat into secrecy, making Phoebe wonder who they really are and how they really feel.

In fact, the entire cast of this time-bending story is vibrantly multidimensional. Phoebe’s parents are divorced and co-parent their daughter along with the help of her uncles Gabe and Adrian. Jess’ brother Zahir is part of a rowdy band with friends from different classes, backgrounds and identities—all of whom amaze Phoebe with their kindness. Their small town is full of characters with real-feeling histories, preferences and hopes.

Time and Time Again is about being honest with others and with yourself, and finding the courage to dream for your future—and work for it, too. As Phoebe and Jess are given the chance to work on their most important relationships, readers may reflect on what they might do with the same opportunities. Readers looking for a sweet, moving love story will enjoy getting to know Phoebe and Jess in this fun, speculative queer romance.

Readers looking for a sweet, moving love story will enjoy getting to know Phoebe and Jess in Time and Time Again, a fun, speculative queer romance.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Tiny Jenny

Review by Callie Ann Starkey

All is aflutter in the Wren family when Mr. and Mrs. Wren’s eggs hatch—except out of one egg comes a baby fairy! This is not the only peculiar thing: the baby fairy doesn’t have wings. The wrens name her Tiny Jenny and raise her with love. Unable to fly to find food like the other wren children, Tiny Jenny searches for things to eat in the brambles, and ends up causing plenty of mischief. When Tiny Jenny overhears her neighbors complaining to Mr. and Mrs. Wren—”Letting a fairy run riot in the woods. How could you?”—she runs away in search of other fairies like herself.

And find them, she does. Although the fairies smirk at Tiny Jenny’s lack of wings, the Fairy Queen agrees to grant Tiny Jenny her own wings if she can keep up with their parade.

In an unexpected twist, the fairies prove themselves to be much worse menaces than Tiny Jenny to the woodland creatures as they stomp and crash through the forest. The fairies don’t even look for food, they simply choose destruction! Suddenly, Tiny Jenny isn’t sure she wants to be a fairy at all. Luckily, the birds of the forest arrive just in time to remind her where she belongs.

Author-illustrator Briony May Smith, whose colorful mind brought us Margaret’s Unicorn and The Mermaid Moon, delivers a mischievous and spirited adventure in Tiny Jenny: Little Fairy, Big Trouble that will make readers laugh as they discover that things are not always what they seem. Smith uses muted browns and greens for the forest and bolder colors for flowers in lively illustrations that bring the story to life. The same bold colors are used on the fairies’ dresses, and Tiny Jenny’s clothes match the bluebells seen throughout the forest.

Readers of all ages will enjoy watching Tiny Jenny learn the difference between playfulness and truly bad behavior in this tale of embracing differences and finding your family.

 

Readers of all ages will enjoy watching Tiny Jenny learn the difference between playfulness and truly bad behavior in this tale of embracing differences and finding your family.
FictionLiterary Fiction

There’s Nothing Wrong With Her

Review by Arlene McKanic

In Kate Weinberg’s There’s Nothing Wrong With Her, a young British woman ironically named Vita suffers from a ghastly, debilitating condition that doctors have no name for. She calls its worst symptom, a crushing tornado of pain and helplessness, The Pit. Because Vita’s condition is unidentifiable, doctors won’t attempt to treat it. From there comes the diagnosis that gives the book its title.

The reader might think that Vita’s mysterious illness has something to do with the painful events in her past: the deaths of her mother and sister, a wicked stepmother, the boyfriend who got away, a stuttering career in the performing arts. Vita lives in a weirdly laid out basement apartment with Max, a surgeon who cares for her but too often treats her like one of his “really sick” patients. She spends much time contemplating her goldfish, Whitney Houston, and she’s visited now and then by the ghost of Renaissance soldier and poet Luigi da Porto. (He was the author of the original Romeo and Juliet, which Shakespeare pinched later on. Vita wrote a screenplay about him that went nowhere). Just as Whitney spins in her goldfish bowl, Vita spins in her unhappiness, and Luigi spins in his memories of the woman who jilted him after he came back as broken from war as Vita is broken from her life.

Then, one day there’s a leak from the upstairs apartment. Max isn’t home, and Vita must leave her bed to interact with her neighbors, the ebullient and not-quite-elderly Mrs. Rothwell, and Jesse, an American who helps Mrs. Rothwell around the house. Vita befriends both immediately. Is this her first step on the path to health?

Weinberg, author of The Truants, packs a lot into this slender novel. There’s rage at a medical establishment that won’t take women’s pain seriously, and a cargo ship’s tonnage of familial trauma. But there’s also the life-enhancing, life-saving power of love and friendship, and the strength of Vita’s unquenchable need to be healthy in body and mind. Maybe her name isn’t so ironic after all.

Kate Weinberg, author of The Truants, tells the story of a woman with an illness that doctors can’t identify, with rage at the lack of belief in women’s pain as well as hope for the life-saving power of love and friendship.
FictionLiterary FictionHistorical FictionDebut Fiction

They Dream in Gold

Review by Melissa Brown

Playwright and director Mai Sennaar’s debut novel, They Dream in Gold, crackles. Her prose is elemental, flowing like a river at times, then burning like fire, heightening the reader’s senses until all five mingle into one. Over the course of 400 pages, Sennaar moves swiftly back and forth across continents and generations to tell a vividly realized story of family, identity and love.

Mansour, a child first of Senegal and then of the world, exudes music and wants to make his mark as a musician. Mama Eva, who raised Mansour and keeps her own secrets, aspires to culinary heights. And Bonnie, an only child raised by her grandmother, is entranced by Mansour’s sound on a demo CD before she ever meets him. They all have, as Sennaar writes, “a need for a life of wonder.” After Mansour goes missing while on tour in Spain, the lives of the women who love him are strung painfully taut as they wait for news: Back in her crumbling mansion in Switzerland, Mama Eva worries as she cooks for her long-awaited restaurant’s opening day, while pregnant Bonnie broods and paces.

They Dream in Gold wends from Mama Eva’s 1940s youth in Dakar to Bonnie and Mansour’s first meeting in 1960s New York City, to a Brazilian music festival in the middle of Carnival where Mansour’s star is born. The novel’s five parts flow in and out of each character’s past and present, examining the people who have shaped them, although some side characters are less compelling. Bonnie, Mansour and Mama Eva have each been orphaned in different ways and are looking for home, a place to stay and belong. Unreserved and confident, Sennaar’s piercing narrative voice reverberates through a novel pulsing with all the intensity it takes to compose a life and make it sing.

Mai Sennaar’s prose in They Dream in Gold is elemental, flowing like a river at times, then burning like fire, heightening the reader’s senses until all five mingle into one.
NonfictionSocial Science

The Quiet Damage

Review by Anna Christensen

One evening in 2020, I happened across a Twitter thread miles long. The original post had been yet another news item about the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon, and the replies were flooded with grieving users telling stories of loved ones who had all become so entrenched in the theory’s dark fever dreams that the users had finally been forced to cut contact. For people such as these, and those in journalist Jesselyn Cook’s debut, The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family, QAnon is more than an over-the-top threat to our democracy. It is a destroyer of homes and marriages, a force that orphans and isolates.

QAnon’s most radical believers think that Donald Trump and Q, an anonymous government insider, are locked in a secret battle with “a satanic cabal” of pedophiliac global elites to liberate the country and ensure democracy. Other believers embrace some but not all of the core conspiracy theories. In total, Cook writes, they number twice the population of California.

The Quiet Damage is thoughtful and nuanced, delving into the destructive phenomenon of QAnon through the very human stories of believers and the loved ones who become collateral damage. Cook defies stereotypes, featuring a diverse group of people: a brilliant and formerly progressive lawyer in Tennessee at war with her three grown children; two once-inseparable Black sisters, the relationship irreparably sundered by one’s fascination with conspiracy theories; a young husband and father at risk of losing his family as he binges endless YouTube videos; and a 50-years-married couple facing their first real divide over the wife’s disbelief in COVID-19.

Resisting the all too common temptation to mock the believers who have fallen far enough down the proverbial rabbit hole to believe in the most extreme core conspiracies, Cook instead opts for a considered and thorough investigation into the psychology of what drives people into the arms of conspiracy theorists. The Quiet Damage employs an empathy that invites the reader to feel for both the alienated, hurt families as well as the believers. And as Cook begins to explore the delicate art of bringing the lost back to reality, she makes abundantly clear that empathy and radical compassion, not ridicule, are the most important tools at our disposal.

The Quiet Damage investigates the destructive impact of QAnon on individuals and families, exploring the delicate art of bringing those lost to conspiracy theories back to reality.
FictionPopular FictionHistorical Fiction

The Seventh Veil of Salome

Review by Matthew Jackson

There is magic in the work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, even when the story she’s pursuing isn’t overtly magical. The genre-bending novelist (Mexican Gothic, Silver Nitrate) infuses every page with a sense of mythic power, ensuring that readers will be gripped, while also channeling the feeling of a fairy tale that could turn dark at any moment. With The Seventh Veil of Salome, Moreno-Garcia turns that remarkable gift to a Hollywood story and conjures another piece of prose magic.

Inspired by the biblical legend of Salome and its long cultural trail, the story focuses on three women. Vera Larios is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when she nabs the leading role in The Seventh Veil of Salome, the latest sword-and-sandal epic to emerge from the Technicolor machine of 1950s Hollywood. Nancy Hartley, an aspiring actress who’s so far been consigned to bit parts, is instantly filled with fury, believing the role to be hers. Then there’s Salome herself, who is caught in the middle of a power struggle in the first century while falling in love with a mysterious and rebellious preacher who threatens to bring turmoil to Galilee.

As each narrative moves forward, Moreno-Garcia captures her characters’ strikingly vivid emotions—Vera’s longing for creative transcendence, Nancy’s lust for success and Salome’s tortured matrix of desire and duty—all while examining the power structures and influences, often male, that threaten to box them in. Each of these women wants something, and their desires and fears weave together across the story, driven by the evocative and carefully structured prose, which is so precise that it’s impossible to mistake one woman’s story for another even as they mirror and complement one another. Vera’s story is not Salome’s, even as she’s playing Salome. Neither is Nancy’s, even as her own desire for agency and power turns darker. Instead, Moreno-Garcia leads readers to question how the legend of Salome has informed our view of driven, creative, seductive, influential women through the ages. It’s an ambitious idea, and one the author captures without ever losing the book’s vivid drive.

The Seventh Veil of Salome is another triumph from Moreno-Garcia, a page-turning historical drama with mythic overtones that will please readers of her realistic fiction and her more fantastical work alike.

The Seventh Veil of Salome is another triumph from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a page-turning historical drama with mythic overtones that will please readers of her realistic fiction and her more fantastical work alike.
Children's & YAMiddle GradeChildren's

The Night Librarian

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

While the National Archives may be the nation’s official library, the New York Public Library is often first in the hearts of book lovers. Christopher Lincoln’s engaging, gorgeously illustrated graphic novel The Night Librarian is a shining addition to books that celebrate this iconic library.

“Magic builds in books,” declares the prologue, and we’re told the longer a book has been around, the more likely the characters get so bottled up “living the same scene over and over” that they must escape. Luckily for Turner and his twin sister, Page, there are librarians specially trained to handle these magical eruptions: night librarians.

Page and Turner are city kids who have a flaky nanny and absentee jet-setting parents. Allowed to go to the library on their own, they arrive one day with a bag containing their dad’s rare copy of Dracula, with the goal of researching the story of an ancestor who may have met author Bram Stoker at a 1901 reading. We get to see the twins using a microfilm reader, but they don’t find any mention of their relative. Instead, they discover an 1899 newspaper article with the foreboding headline, “Earthquake reported in the stacks.” On this same visit, their book bag starts making strange thumping noises—as if something is trying to get out.

The twins meet the stylish night librarian, Ms. Literati, who promises to research their copy of Dracula further. When they return the next afternoon, the book bag’s thumping intensifies, until something emerges from Dracula, and takes the book with it. Soon, there’s a whole string of literary escapees, including a dragon and the beanstalk from “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Time is of the essence to keep the entire library safe from the ensuing damage.

So the adventure begins, since clearly Ms. Literati needs dedicated volunteer help. Full of humor, friendship and just the right amount of danger and villainy, this beautifully designed novel has a clever time-travel plot twist and a satisfying emotional conclusion. As an added bonus, the many literary allusions are bound to delight adult readers as well, and may lead to further book adventures for curious readers.

 

Full of humor, friendship and just the right amount of danger and villainy, Christopher Lincoln’s beautifully designed The Night Librarian is bound to delight readers of all ages.
RomanceContemporary Romance

The Pairing

Review by Katie Garaby

In Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing, two former flames, one food-and-wine tour across Europe and an unhinged hookup competition make for a delicious and decadent queer romance. 

In their nearly two decades of friendship, Kit and Theo have been many things to each other: childhood besties, first crushes, romantic partners and now, estranged exes. After a devastating breakup four years ago, mid-flight to the European foodie tour of their dreams, neither has heard a single word from the other. Theo has found their groove as a bartender and aspiring sommelier, Kit graduated from pastry school in France and both have left a wake of lovers in their path. With a month left before the voucher for the trip they never took expires, Kit and Theo both rebook the tour—only to find that great minds think alike. But time heals all wounds and both characters are completely over each other. So much so that when Theo makes a bet with Kit on who can hook up with their hot Italian tour guide first, it feels like a perfectly reasonable thing to accept. And heck, why not go all out with a full-on hookup competition? But as this “friendly” competition heats up, Theo and Kit find it hard to ignore what they’re really craving.

Two exes actively hooking up with other people doesn’t exactly sound like the traditional road to a Happily Ever After. But The Pairing is what happens when an immensely talented and much-beloved author levels up. McQuiston deftly crafts a complex love story, one that not just any writer could pull off, and the result is testament to their talent. The care Kit and Theo have for each other is clearly evident, manifesting in the tender way they handle their day-to-day travels together and discussion of their competition. While they may be actively sleeping with other people, they are never far from the other’s thoughts: In one particularly sexy scene, Theo and Kit find themselves on adjoining patios with their lovers, apart but together, the sounds they know so well fueling them towards their finish. Theo and Kit’s relationship is delightfully queer and nontraditional, playing with gender roles in and out of the bedroom, so it makes sense that their path back to each other would be similarly unconventional.

A Bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is best accompanied by a Campari spritz and a cornetto alla marmellata di albicocche, ideally whilst seated in a little Italian cafe. But regardless of the location, you will devour this book with unbridled gusto.

A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.
Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction

The Mercy of Gods

Review by Chris Pickens

Alien abduction gets a bad rap. It usually goes like this: One kooky neighbor gets beamed up into a flying saucer and returns to earth different, full of interstellar knowledge. But what if the scale was bigger . . . a lot bigger? What if the aliens came to take us all away? In their massive novel The Mercy of Gods, the author duo known as James S.A. Corey takes the term “survival of the fittest” to a whole new level.

On the far-flung planet of Anjiin, Dafyd Alkhor has it pretty good. He may be a lowly research assistant, but he’s a part of the most prestigious scientific team in the academy. Renown and glory await, but then things take a bit of a turn. Seventeen shining alien starships appear in the sky, rapidly subdue human resistance and abduct the best and brightest to be brought back to the alien homeworld. These aliens, the Carryx, have conquered and assimilated numerous species into their society over the centuries, building a veritable empire across galactic space. But even a species as powerful as the Carryx has an enemy that threatens to destroy them. Dafyd and his team are soon caught in a dangerous game: Find a way to help the Carryx defeat their foe or be discarded as unuseful. After all, for the Carryx, usefulness is survival.

Corey demonstrates a key skill when it comes to expansive sci-fi: balance. No single part of The Mercy of Gods feels unattended to, and details arise on the page just as the reader wonders about them. When the humans are trapped in their holding cells on the alien ship, Corey explains how the aliens account for food, water and other needs. He clearly loves dreaming up all the smart and sometimes grotesque ways one species might attempt to care for another. The interpersonal relationships of Dafyd’s research team are similarly balanced: The shifting, intimate perspectives from various members of the team bring readers close to the pain that would come with such an upheaval.

Corey is the author of The Expanse, an acclaimed sci-fi series that subsequently became an acclaimed TV show. As one would expect from such an accomplished writer, there’s a confidence present throughout The Mercy of Gods: It’s alternately thrilling, intimate, thought-provoking and inventive. In this first installment of a new series, Corey deftly creates a new universe of alien strangeness for humans to test themselves against. I’m excited to see how far we can go in future entries.

Thrilling, intimate, thought-provoking and inventive, The Mercy of Gods is a well-crafted start to a new sci-fi series from the author of The Expanse.

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