"Launching the Nevernight fantasy series, Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy) creates a splendid world of corruption and violence. Kristoff portrays a world as rife with villains and treachery as the ancient Italian civilizations it echoes. Absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness, this beginning promises (and delivers) equal shares of beauty and decay. With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling, and satisfying." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Nevernight
"A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won't be able to put down."—Kirkus on Nevernight
"The world-building is delightfully detailed, its baroque flourishes supplied by sarcastic footnotes, but we are drawn through the narrative by Mia’s triple quest: to rescue her family members, to avenge her father’s death and to survive her education at the church, where the ultimate test is to avoid being killed by the training." -The Daily Mail on Nevernight
"Assassins, magic, strange creatures are all pluses for me. But my favorite thing about this book is the voice...I adore well-done omniscient narrators with snark and a slight bit of disdain for either the reader or the main character."—Book Riot on Nevernight
"Kristoff's bold writing style...joins lyrical high fantasy with f-bombs aplenty, Pratchett-like humor and unflinching descriptions of violence."—SciFiNow
“Harry Potter meets The Lies of Locke Lamora”—USA Today
"The innovative setting, fast-moving plot, vivid descriptions, and thrilling action scenes make this a refreshing addition to the steampunk canon." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Stormdancer
"Soars higher than the arashitora Kristoff writes about; superb." - Kirkus, starred review on Stormdancer
"Stormdancer is an intoxicating joyride into steampunklandia with a magical dose of mythology, the supernatural, violence, dystopian themes, and a top-notch brassy heroine who rivals Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. Yes, I did say that!" —Huffington Post
"Murder, magic, sex, and humor—the first installment in Kristoff’s new fantasy series is off to a rollicking start... Kristoff has created a rich, vibrant world for readers, borrowing heavily from historical Italian political structures, which provide a base of stability and familiarity to the new creations. Footnotes accompany the story,...embellishing and further developing the world, and providing a welcome and often biting wit. Dense and measured, this will appeal to fans of traditional and political fantasies."—Booklist
2016-07-19
A dark and bloody fantasy about a young woman bent on revenge—at almost any price.Mia Corvere was 10 years old when she watched her father be hanged as a traitor, saw her mother and infant brother hauled away to die in prison, and escaped death herself at the hands of two trained Luminatii soldiers. She’s darkin, which means she can control shadows, and her constant companion, a cat made of shadows, drinks her fear. But even that won’t be enough to get the revenge she craves on the powerful men who destroyed her family. That’s why she’s traveled out to the ends of civilization to gain entry to the Red Church, where “the greatest enclave of assassins in the known world” worships the goddess of night, Niah, “Our Lady of Blessed Murder.” If she can get inducted into the Red Church, she’ll have the skills she needs to exact her revenge. She just has to survive her training—at the hands of the world’s most deadly, amoral assassins. Kristoff (Illuminae, 2015, etc.) comes on strong from the start, creating a shadowy world dripping with blood, in which our feisty, determined heroine must claw her way to the top of a deadly pecking order. Mia manages to find connection and even caring in the black pit of the Red Church—but how long can it last? A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won’t be able to put down.
