Long Live Evil

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Be careful what you wish for — on the verge of death, this romantasy lover gets a second chance at life in between the pages of her favorite books. Loving this villain is a not-so-guilty pleasure you'll want to tell all your friends about.

This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain's shoes, for an adventure that is both "brilliant" (Holly Black) and "supremely satisfying" (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue's gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.
 
When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favorite fantasy series.
 
She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.
 
So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

THIS IS A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316568722
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	08/27/2024
Series:	Time of Iron , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	1,328
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Sarah Rees Brennan was born in Ireland by the sea. After world travel and surviving stage four cancer, she settled there in the shadow of a three-hundred-year-old library. Writing young adult fiction, she was a Lodestar, Mythopoeic and World Fantasy finalist, Carnegie nominee and New York Times bestseller. Long Live Evil is her first adult work.

Editorial Reviews

05/06/2024

YA author Brennan (In Other Lands) hooks readers from page one of her spellbinding adult debut. Rae, who has cancer, delights in having her sister Alice read from their favorite fantasy series, Time of Iron, in her hospital bed. One night, she dreams of a mysterious woman from the world of the series, who offers her a cure. All Rae has to do to be cancer-free is enter the books and pluck the Flower of Life and Death. But if she fails, she’ll die in her earthly body and wind up trapped in the story forever. Rae takes the deal and is transported into Time of Iron—in the role of villainess Rahela Domitia. Arriving in medias res, she must evade execution or risk dying in both worlds. Brennan has a lot of infectious fun with her meta conceit, and as Rae interferes with the plot she knows so well, the stakes ratchet up and the story takes some unexpected turns. Readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Rae’s adventure begins with tremendous wonder, and there are many laugh-out-loud moments as she revels in the fun of being a fictional femme fatale. But as Rae gets closer to her goal, Brennan brings the people and the world of Eyam to vivid, often heartbreaking life with such incredible skill that readers will be even bigger fans of Time of Iron than Alice. Absolutely wonderful.”—Kirkus (Starred)

"Brennan's adult fantasy debut is two great stories in one: the romantasy in the background and Rae’s adventure in the foreground."—Booklist (Starred)

"Brennan hooks readers from page one of her spellbinding adult debut. Brennan has a lot of infectious fun with her meta conceit, and as Rae interferes with the plot she knows so well, the stakes ratchet up and the story takes some unexpected turns. Readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough."—Publishers Weekly

"A clever, funny and thrilling novel with a heart."—The Guardian

"A wholehearted embrace of, and a commentary on, the highfantasy high-angst high-romance end of the fantasy genre. Very entertaining."—Locus

"Entertaining, subversive, and downright fun, Brennan delights in turning expected aspects of the familiar villain’s tale on their heads and asking readers to consider whether the bad guys are really... all that bad."—Paste Magazine

"Funny, audacious, and supremely satisfying, Long Live Evil is the chosen one we've been waiting for. It succeeds as both a brilliant meditation on the pleasures and perils of fiction, and a sweeping, romantic adventure in its own right. Get ready to laugh out loud, cry in public, and cheer on the villains as Brennan smashes through tropes with witty, wild glee in this delicious, subversive treat of a book."—Leigh Bardugo, New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House

"Brennan’s brilliant Long Live Evil harnesses clever banter, delightful turns of phrase, and epic backdrops in the service of exploring the nature of stories and the freedom that comes with embracing being named a villain—and maybe actually becoming one. Most of all, it introduces us to Rae, who uses her quick-thinking, loyalty, and ferocity to sidestep (and do the occasional musical number around) doom."—Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Book of Night

"The fantasy novel that every fantasy reader has been waiting for." —Jay Kristoff, author of Empire of the Vampire

"The compulsion Sarah Rees Brennan casts over her readers is unholy. Not only could I not put Long Live Evil down, I barely remembered to blink. It was so immersive that when I finished I put my face in my pillow and screamed in actual devastation at being kicked out of the story. Utterly magical. Sarah Rees Brennan is a genius of emotional control. No other author can make me cry by page two, be laughing out loud three pages later, and then rip my heart out with a smile."
 —Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

"Sarah Rees Brennan’s charms are unmatched. Her books makes you feel as if you’re in on the joke and always invited on the most fantastic and romantic adventure."—Rainbow Rowell, author of Fangirl

"Long Live Evil is a glorious, swoon-worthy villain romance. What a delicious read."—Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne

"Long Live Evil is truly one of the most inventive fantasy books I've ever read. I can't decide what I liked best: the witty banter, the genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, or the clever wordplay. The good news is that I don't have to pick, and it all worked together seamlessly. If you're looking for a fresh voice in fantasy that twists your favorite tropes into new brand-new favorites, then run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore. Long live evil, indeed."—Nisha J. Tuli, Bestselling author of Trial of the Sun Queen

“Is Sarah Rees Brennan accepting applications for minions?? If so, sign me up immediately. This is a defiant shout of a book, so entertaining and funny that you almost don't notice its devastating, razor-sharp heart until it's smiling sweetly into your face while it withdraws the knife.” —Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light

"Layers laugh-out-loud comedy and swoony romance over an emotional core of powerful anger and loss. I loved it." —Emily Tesh, author of Silver in the Wood

"Long Live Evil is the huge-hearted and whip-smart meta-fantasy of my dreams. I went in laughing and came out crying, and so will you."—Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"Utterly brilliant. I can’t stop thinking about Long Live Evil, which has rocketed to the top of my list of all time favorite fantasy novels. Pick this up immediately, Brennan will take everything you think you know about fantasy and turn it on its head."—C. S. Pacat, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Rise

"Laugh out loud, heartfelt and seering in the same breath. Simultaneously a send-up and a tribute to the tropes, fandom and power of fantasy, Long Live Evil is a  romp that leaves you asking: are we all the villains in someone else's narrative?"—Eliza Chan, author of Fathomfolk

"Absolutely hilarious, a wild joyride through subverted narrative tropes that's surprisingly poignant but also made me laugh until people looked at me on the train."—Everina Maxwell, author of Winter's Orbit

From the Publisher

Moira Quirk is a virtuoso in narrating all manner of fantasies. Here she delights in turning to the dark side. When a lonely, bookish adolescent is offered a magical deal to hop from a cancer ward to the realms of her favorite fantasy novels, she jumps at the opportunity--with one caveat. She wants to be one of the villains. As this wonderfully campy send-up of bodice-ripping, backstabbing palace intrigue blasts along, Quirk has a fine time giving voice to a murderous lady-in-waiting, a moody knight, and a backstreet rogue, among others. But where Quirk is exceptional is in adding just the right tone of anger and wonder to the voice of a girl who is coming of age at the same time that she's facing death. Enchantingly light and dark. B.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2024 - AudioFile

★ 2024-05-31
A young woman with cancer is presented with a fantastical opportunity to save herself in this adult debut.

Rachel Parilla is sick. Very sick. She used to be a cheerleader. She used to take her younger sister, Alice, to conventions for Alice’s favorite book series,Time of Iron, a melodramatic epic fantasy in which characters like the Iron Maid and the Golden Cobra have bloody adventures and torrid love triangles in the magical land of Eyam. When Rae was getting her first cancer treatments, Alice kept her entertained by recounting the plot of the first book in the series. Soon Rae became a fan herself, but her aggressive cancer makes it hard for her to hold a book, let alone read it. One day she wakes in her hospital bed to see a strange woman who has an even stranger offer: She can stay in her own world and die of cancer, or she can embody a character inTime of Iron, find the magical Flower of Life and Death, and come back to a cancer-free body. Rae scoffs at the idea, but lo and behold, there is a door waiting for her—and when she opens it, she finds herself in the body of the books’ infamous villainess, Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped in Blood, immersed in the world of Eyam. Rae’s adventure begins with tremendous wonder, and there are many laugh-out-loud moments as she revels in the fun of being a fictional femme fatale. But as Rae gets closer to her goal, Brennan brings the people and the world of Eyam to vivid, often heartbreaking life with such incredible skill that readers will be even bigger fans ofTime of Iron than Alice.

Absolutely wonderful.

Kirkus Reviews