I can’t do this book justice, no matter what I say, but I’m going to try. It’s epic: in scope, in scale and, yes, the slang works, too.
It’s a story of monsters, made by people and circumstance. It’s also about those that life tried to make into monsters but who, against all odds, kept their heart intact.
You’ll meet so many characters: complicated, multifaceted characters. Those who are overwhelmingly good will do bad things; sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not. The characters you will love to hate may surprise you with their capacity for good. No one is what they first appear.
You’ll meet Sophie, who saved the world when she just was a kid. She followed this feat with a couple of decades of debauchery with her friends, the Killers. Each Killer is carrying a secret from their past that could change everything.
There are Giants and Behemoths and made things that belong in your nightmares.
It’s dark and there’s the Dark. There are doors and Doors. You’ll encounter magic that creates and magic that destroys. This is a world where you follow your dreams.
You will need to pay attention. The details matter. If the door is red, remember there’s a red door because you may see it again and the fact that you remember it will tell you something the next time you encounter it.
With some characters living for lifetimes, there are plenty of backstories to catch up on. Alliances are formed and broken. Motives change over time. Names no longer fit as well as they once did.
This story is nonlinear. This is also where your attention to detail will be rewarded. Your reactions to reveals will likely run the gamut of “I knew it!’ to ‘Huh?’ to ‘OMG!’ Knowing what you now know, though, you’ll be eager for a reread to pick up clues you missed the first time around.
You will curse the fact that the next book hasn’t been published yet because you need it right now! In fact, you need the whole series, dammit!
But you’ll wait, because you don’t have any other option. There’s no other option, right?
While you wait, you’ll take the time to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. You’ll appreciate trees in a way you didn’t before. When you see a butterfly, a delight may bubble up in you that you haven’t felt in a long time.
You will wait and you will think about these characters who are neither all good or all bad, and you will look forward to the day you get to see them again.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW Books, an imprint of Astra Publishing House, for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Welcome to the Wanderlands.
A vast machine made for reasons unknown, the Wanderlands was broken long ago. First went the sky, splintering and cracking, and then very slowly, the whole machine — the whole world — began to go dark.
Meet the Failures.
Following the summons of a strange dream, a scattering of adventurers, degenerates, and children find themselves drawn toward the same place: the vast underground Keep. They will discover there that they have been called for a purpose — and that purpose could be the destruction of everything they love.
The end is nigh.
For below the Keep, imprisoned in the greatest cage ever built by magicians and gods, lies the buried Giant. It is the most powerful of its kind, and its purpose is the annihilation of all civilisation. But any kind of power, no matter how terrible, is precious in the dimming Wanderlands, and those that crave it are making their moves.
All machines can be broken, and the final cracks are spreading. It will take only the careless actions of two cheerful monsters to tip the Wanderlands towards an endless dark … or help it find its way back to the light.
Schizanthus Nerd 