Publishers Weekly
11/06/2023
Survival is the measure of success for people overwhelmed by alien forces in this adroit alternate history of first contact from fantasist Dickinson (the Baru Cormorant trilogy). Anna Sinjari, a Kurd living in 2013 New York City, finds an eight-headed extraterrestrial casually snacking on turtles in Central Park. Bound soul to soul by a mysterious alien force, Anna and Ssrin, who turns out to be a rebel from the Exordia galactic empire, attempt to recover a crashed spaceship and avoid the enforcers coming to nab Ssrin. The trail leads them back to Kurdistan, where Anna must confront her mother, Khaje, and fellow villagers, who are all still wary of Anna after she made a devil’s bargain to help them survive an Iraqi-led genocide. The rest of the world notices their struggle, bringing in a swarm of special forces units and nuclear-armed aircraft to an otherwise peaceful countryside. Layering in a bromance, an odd-couple pair of female physicists, an Iranian fighter pilot with a Top Gun obsession, and mother-daughter conflict, Dickinson skillfully puts the cosmic scale of the Exordian rebellion into manageably personal terms. With cool alien technology, admirably hopeful heroes, and SFF pop culture references littered throughout, this will have readers hooked. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Most anticipated by Goodreads and LitHub
Praise for Exordia
"Agonizing and mesmerizing, a devastating and extraordinary achievement."—The New York Times
"Dickinson brings the same richness of characterization that made his Baru Cormorant series (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, 2015) so compelling, but this one reads like a Michael Crichton thriller on psychedelics—in a good way."—Booklist, starred review
"Magnificent. . . . A science fiction action juggernaut."—Tamsyn Muir, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Locked Tomb series
"A white-knuckled brilliant up-all-night thriller. . . Like Michael Crichton, but if someone cut the brake lines."—Max Gladstone, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling This is How You Lose the Time War
"Exordia is an avalanche: an inevitable, overwhelming, pell-mell landscape-scale transformation of a book. Dickinson uses science fiction as an ethical scalpel, and the results are breathtaking: viciously funny, vivid to the point of horror, and entirely profound."—Arkady Martine, Hugo Award-winning author of A Memory Called Empire
"Beautiful, introspective, and unbelievably tense. It feels like being in a hospital waiting room in the best and worse sense, the suspended moment right before you find out what's going on."—Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth
"A mind-shredding first-contact epic. . . . There are nukes, alien brain locks, intergalactic warfare and a scope that keeps expanding long after the stakes seem clear. This thrilling novel grips hardest when Dickinson's characters must reason through the science of seemingly impossible phenomena."—Scientific American
"An energetic, suspenseful melange of alien invasion and military action…there’s no question that it will be many sci-fi fans’ favorite book of the year, especially those willing to surrender to it, and be consumed.”—BookPage
"Adroit . . . Dickinson skillfully puts the cosmic scale of the Exordian rebellion into manageably personal terms. With cool alien technology, admirably hopeful heroes, and SFF pop culture references littered throughout, this will have readers hooked."—Publishers Weekly
"Violent, vivid, vicious—this is an innovative military, sci-fi thriller that is equal parts action and introspection. It’s conceptually profound and touches upon many ethical and metaphysical subjects. . . . Authentic and thought-provoking."—Library Journal
"Exordia is a comprehensive taxonomy of violence at every level, from the subcellular to the intergalactic, as well as every possible scrap of pain, pleasure, and connection that might result from it. It's an apocalyptic chanson de geste, with a dizzyingly fractured Round Table who experience damnation not just spiritually but literally, formally, communally and visibly, as well as a comprehensive study of natural history, moral lessons, spiritual and cultural translation, and the hierarchy of all possible passions. There's a deeply original spiritual order in this universe that sharpens the significance of every moment, and I found myself wrung out and exhilarated as I came unwillingly to the end of it."—Daniel M. Lavery, author of The Merry Spinster
"Conceptually mindblowing. Viscerally horrific. Hofstadter meets Lovecraft during a really bad acid trip, but better written.”—Peter Watts, Hugo Award winner
“Grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go: Dickinson creates a world that feels twice as vivid as normal and does it without ever slowing down the frenetic pace of the plot…it’s an incredible work.”—Reactor Mag
"With vibes of Independence Day (except where the extraterrestrials are at least our frenemies) and Michael Crichton, this bonkers-sounding adventure is high-concept, horrific, and perfect to fill the Baru-sized hole in my TBR."—LitHub
"The most anticipated books of 2024 explore the deep roots of the moral and philosophical quandaries shaping our times. Many depths are visible in Exordia (Tor), Seth Dickinson’s clever take on a first-contact-with-aliens, military sci-fi, moral philosophy tome. If all that hasn’t got you running away screaming, this book is for you."—The New Scientist
"A novel about complicity in violence, moral dilemmas, and ultimately, hope in humankind. It’s also about spaceships made of math. All of these topics together create a sharp, action-packed, and deeply entertaining work of sci-fi that will leave readers excited for what else Dickinson has in store."—The Harvard Crimson
Library Journal
11/17/2023
Recently dumped by her boyfriend and fired, Anna, a Kurdish refugee, already has enough to deal with before her close encounter with the wounded alien on her kitchen floor. Being that he's an officer in the Joint Special Operations Command, Erik's life mission is to bring order to chaos, and he's sorely tested as he investigates what appears to be an alien starship. Clayton schemes in the background, willing to do anything to protect humanity. Hostile first contact brings these characters together, and then it's a race against the clock to prevent nuclear Armageddon. Violent, vivid, vicious—this is an innovative military, sci-fi thriller that is equal parts action and introspection. It's conceptually profound and touches upon many ethical and metaphysical subjects, including a peek into Zoroastrianism and a unique interpretation of souls. This doesn't necessarily make for easy reading, but there's no denying the intelligence in the writing. VERDICT This stand-alone story from Dickinson (The Tyrant Baru Cormorant) thrives on the unexpected, and while the characters aren't necessarily likable, the way they wrestle with doing the right thing versus doing the hard thing is authentic and thought-provoking.—Andrea Dyba
