The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion

by Margaret Killjoy

Overview

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy pits utopian anarchists against rogue demon deer in this dropkick-in-the-mouth punk fantasy that Alan Moore calls "scary and energetic."

Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious suicide, Danielle ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa, and witnesses a protector spirit — in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer — begin to turn on its summoners. She and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town — or get out alive.

“Intelligent and fiercely imagined.” —Alan Moore
“A dark story of the human need for power.” —Eileen Gunn
“Daring anti-fantasy.”— Nick Mamatas
“A unique bite of punk culture.” — Delilah S. Dawson
“Important, thought-provoking…thrilling ride.” —Lewis Shiner
“Always vivid.”—Tobias Buckell
“As relatable as it is harrowing.” —Leanna Renee Hieber
“Utterly engrossing…it refuses to let you go.” —Mur Lafferty

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765397362
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Series:	Danielle Cain , #1
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	152,331
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

MARGARET KILLJOY is a transfeminine author, born and raised in Maryland, who has spent her adult life traveling with no fixed home. A life on the road has given her a healthy respect for hobos, street kids, and other elements of the criminal class. A 2015 graduate of Clarion West, Margaret’s short fiction has been published by Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Vice’s Terraform, and Fireside Fiction amongst others. She founded SteamPunk Magazine in 2006, and her nonfiction books have been published by anarchist publisher AK Press. Margaret’s wrote A Country of Ghosts, a utopian novel published by Combustion Books in 2014. She is also the author of the Danielle Cain series, starting with The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, from Tor.com Publishing.

Editorial Reviews

06/12/2017
Killjoy (A Country of Ghosts) packs this novella full of suspense, intrigue, and a surprising amount of heart. Danielle Cain is a runaway who finds a home in Freedom, Iowa, a town populated by a group of squatters. The residents’ guardian spirit, a three-horned deer named Uliksi, has seemingly gone rogue, killing members of their community—the very people who had summoned it. Danielle encounters danger at every turn, learning hard lessons about trust and safety. The mythology surrounding Uliksi is spare, and the writing speaks more to the successes and failures of anarchist politics in a highly charged, supernatural setting. Evocative of a desolate future, Killjoy’s writing is populated with characters that are as human as they are unique. The suspenseful narrative flows smoothly, with plenty of humorous asides from Danielle and her cohort. Perhaps most refreshing is the work’s concision. Nothing is superfluous. Killjoy allows the reader to glimpse a beautifully chaotic world, leaving just the right amount to the imagination. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Fast, eerie and crackling with disarmingly matter-of-fact phantasmagoria, Margaret Killjoy’s The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion maps a wilderness peopled by marginalised outsiders where everything from sexual identity to material reality is in the same state of fluid drift. Intelligent and fiercely imagined, this book is a passport to a world hauntingly similar to our own, in which disturbing unreality appears to have become an accepted universal condition that is scarcely worth mentioning. Scary and energetic, this is ideal reading for a winter’s evening in a post-truth world. Highly recommended.” —Alan Moore, author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta

“Packed with mystery, suspense, intriguing characters, a dash of humor, and big helpings of anarchist politics, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion does what the best fantasy is supposed to do, making ideas literal—in this case, incarnating Justice as a wild beast. This is important, thought-provoking stuff and a thrilling ride besides.” —World Fantasy Award-winning author Lewis Shiner

“A dark story of the human need for power. Margaret Killjoy writes of the inner nature of anarchy at a time when old systems of government are breaking down. Read it now.” —Eileen Gunn, author of Questionable Practices

“The greatest thing a story can do is expand your horizons while punching you in the gut, and The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is a rare treat does both while laughing. A unique bite of punk culture wrapped in a mythic, bloody fantasy that will shock and delight.”— Delilah S. Dawson

“Margaret Killjoy’s fiction is a peek at a world that lies right next to ours, always vivid, thought provoking and full of itinerant magic.” —Tobias Buckell

“A daring anti-fantasy and anti-utopia where even anarchists need to be careful what they wish for.”—Nick Mamatas, author of Sensation and I Am Providence

“Utterly engrossing from the first sentence; it refuses to let you go.” —Mur Lafferty, Award-winning author of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

“A powerful, visceral voice and an immediately compelling story. As relatable as it is harrowing. An immediate, exciting addition to speculative fiction. ”—Leanna Renee Hieber, Award-winning author of Strangely Beautiful and The Eterna Files

"Each passage and paragraph breathes originality and, most importantly, a thoroughly fantastic story." —RT Book Reviews, 4 stars

"Killjoy allows the reader to glimpse a beautifully chaotic world, leaving just the right amount to the imagination." —Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful, well-characterised,well-constructed, and tightly paced. Where Killjoy excels is in the atmosphere she creates in this novella. The lingering presence of the unknown, unknowable, implacable spirit is juxtaposed against the sharply observed anarchist collective, familiar and alive and full of queer bodies and ways of living. The blend of horror and social commentary makes for an interesting experience, and, I think, an effective story.” — Locus


For A Country of Ghosts:

“This gritty evocative novel explores the question of what an anarchist community can do to resist the assaults that are sure to come if any such social formation were to exist. Yet more important still is that this is an exciting and mysterious novel, a story of war and love in some fictional mountainous country with echoes of nineteenth century Latin America, eastern Europe, central Asia; by the time you’re done you feel you’ve gotten a glimpse into a forgotten part of our history that is nevertheless very real.” —Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars trilogy

“This is a fierce, intelligent, hopeful book—a fantasy (of sorts) of unusual seriousness, humanity, and wit.” —Felix Gilman, author of The Half-Made World

“Gulliver’s Travels meets The Dispossessed. It’s a wild ride, and you don’t want to miss it.” —Gabriel Kuhn, author of Life Under the Jolly Roger

For What Lies Beneath the Clocktower:

“Reading What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower is a bit like play­ing Dungeons & Dragons with a bunch of grad students while Monty Python’s Flying Circus marathons in the background. It offers the pleasure of watching someone very smart do some­ thing very silly, and do it with style and skill. You will laugh­ and while you laugh this trickster author will unleash goblins in your mind to ferment a cognitive revolution.” —William Alexander, for Rain Taxi

From the Publisher