From the Publisher
Powerful…. Brimming with philosophical conundrums… Cargill’s world is abundant in detail and imagery in the service of the story. … Will keep readers entranced.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Hard to put down…this is definitely going to attract readers of contemporary fantasy, particular those who enjoy Neil Gaiman’s adult books or Lev Grossman’s The Magicians.” — Library Journal
“As a result, Dreams and Shadows is a potent introduction to a world where the wondrous is rarely wonderful, the best intentions are guaranteed to roam farthest astray, and the reader is destined to keep turning the pages until the (somewhat) bitter end.” — BookPage
“A thoroughly enchanting debut novel” — Starburstmagazine.com
“In this beautifully written debut.... The universe is richly detailed, and issues of destiny and sacrifice give the story depth…for those that enjoy a rollercoaster ride into the depths of strangeness and despair.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Exceptional worldbuilding, sure-handed plotting and well-rounded characters, even the nasty ones, abound, and the whole impressive enterprise moves smartly along through a fairy culture with a structure and motivations sharply different from that of humans. A mesmerizing and highly original debut.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Richly imagined...an auspicious debut.” — Booklist
“Dark, comedic, and unsettling, Dreams and Shadows is everything an urban fantasy sets out to be.” — Tor.com
“Cargill proves with Dreams and Shadows that he’s not just a writer capable of creating and presenting dense mythology well — Breitbart/ Big Hollywood
“[T]his is a fantasy about mythmaking, learning the uses of power, and living with the consequences of one’s behavior. Recommended for readers of Lev Grossman’s Magicians series and Neil Gaiman’s adult contemporary fantasies.” — Library Journal on QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS
“Cargill’s screenwriting chops bring to life a vivid mix of real and imaged folklore in his fantastical second novel. While the mix of urban fantasy, Guillermo Del Toro-like monsters and academic explanations of this magical world shouldn’t work, it absolutely does.” — No Source on QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS
Booklist
Richly imagined...an auspicious debut.
Tor.com
Dark, comedic, and unsettling, Dreams and Shadows is everything an urban fantasy sets out to be.
BookPage
As a result, Dreams and Shadows is a potent introduction to a world where the wondrous is rarely wonderful, the best intentions are guaranteed to roam farthest astray, and the reader is destined to keep turning the pages until the (somewhat) bitter end.
Starburstmagazine.com
A thoroughly enchanting debut novel
Breitbart/ Big Hollywood
Cargill proves with Dreams and Shadows that he’s not just a writer capable of creating and presenting dense mythology well
No Source on QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS
Cargill’s screenwriting chops bring to life a vivid mix of real and imaged folklore in his fantastical second novel. While the mix of urban fantasy, Guillermo Del Toro-like monsters and academic explanations of this magical world shouldn’t work, it absolutely does.
Booklist
Richly imagined...an auspicious debut.
Kirkus Reviews
2014-04-16
Sequel to Dreams and Shadows (2013), an urban fantasy following the career of young Austin, Texas, wizard Colby Stevens.As a young boy, Colby met Yashar the djinni and obtained the usual three wishes; Yashar didn't tell him that all the wishes he grants come to bad ends due to a curse. Colby asked Yashar to make him a wizard, and now he's the most powerful wizard in the world, though he earns a scolding from the beautiful Austin, embodiment of the city, for infringing on her prerogatives. Then comes bad news: A dark presence in Australia's Outback, calling herself the Queen of the Dark Things, has arisen and must be stopped. As we learn in extensive flashbacks, Colby spent time in the Outback learning wizardry from the Clever Man, so has reason to suspect the queen is Kaycee Looes, descendant of mutineers whose evil ghosts tricked her into doing their bidding. And, he discovers, this is all tied up with the Clever Man's plotting and a small legion of demons so forbidding that even Colby can't challenge them directly. So Colby must dicker with the five most powerful demons and somehow outwit them, with the price of failure too horrible to contemplate. Once again, the backdrop is exceptionally well-developed, even if early events bear little relation to the developments in Australia. Colby's exacting bargaining with the demons is by far the high point of a meandering plot that sometimes grips but otherwise tends toward complication as an end in itself.Highly impressive while not always fully engaging, though fans of the first book won't be disappointed.
