Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English
Categories
Fantasy

THE GRAND DARK

Richard Kadrey

From the bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrisona subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos.

The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war's horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonismdrugs and sex and endless partiesdistracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can't mask.

Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions. A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city's streets and its secrets intimately. His life seems set. He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotionand maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation: a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets.

But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward. Others have a vision of life very different from Largo's, and they will use any methods to secure control. And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms.

Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim novels. The first book in the series, SANDMAN SLIM, was included in Amazon's "100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime," and is in development as a feature film with Chad Stahelski (John Wick) slated to direct. His other books include THE EVERYTHING BOX, THE WRONG DEAD GUY, METROPHAGE, and BUTCHER BIRD. He also writes the Vertigo comic Lucifer.

Available products
Book Published 2019-06-01 by Harper Voyager

Comments

"THE GRAND DARK is a miracle of the old and the new: a tale of weimar decadence that is also a parable for our New Gilded Age. . . . It's a fun and terrifying ride, gritty and relentless, burning with true love and revolutionary fervor." Cory Doctorow

THE GRAND DARK is set in an intriguing new world, unlike anything Kadrey has written before. . . . Themes of oppression, choice, and coercion are rich soil for someone with Kadrey's creativity and insight. . . . The novel feels almost China Mieville-esque in its tone and themes.

Superb. . . . If you read SANDMAN SLIM, you know that Kadrey can do hard-boiled like nobody's business, like a Tom Waits ballad in novel form. And you know that he can do plot like hell, a fast-burning, violent and relentless storytelling mode that propels his gentleman loser antiheroes along with great energy, in the face of adversity. . . . THE GRAND DARK is a miracle of the old and the new: a tale of Weimar decadence that is also a parable for our New Gilded Age. . . . It's a fun and terrifying ride, gritty and relentless, burning with true love and revolutionary fervor. (Cory Doctorow)

The very best science-fiction and fantasy is often set somewhere else, during another time, while still also very much being about the here and the now, and THE GRAND DARK continues that essential tradition. Kadrey has written for us a beautiful nightmareone that's often eerily familiarshowing a theatrical world set on the edge of war, and losing itself in the shadows of brutality and oppression. Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of Wanderers "Artisanal gene mod and robots and coal dust and a big middle finger to the oligarchs, plus bicycles!" New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne "Stunning. The hard, spare, considered voice that's driven Kadrey's gonzo supernatural noir has been honed to a deft Kafka-esque edge. Unsettling and dreamlike, seductive and bleak, the jaws of THE GRAND DARK gape to devour you." Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever

"THE GRAND DARK is more than just another reliably strong outing from a veteran writer. It's the work of a major science fiction/fantasy creator going way out in a limb in the effort to wholly redefine himself, all while crystallizing what's made him great." (Jason Heller) Read more...

Wildly ambitious and inventive fantasy from an author who's punching above his weight in terms of worldbuildingand winning. (starred review)

Offer this to readers who like morally complex characters and enjoy their fantasy on the dark side.