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About the Book
We think we understand the laws of physics. We think reality is an immutable monolith, consistent from one end of the universe to the next. We think the square/cube law has actual relevance.
We think a lot of things. It was perhaps inevitable that some of them would turn out to be wrong.
When the great incursion occurred, no one was prepared. How could they have been? Of all the things physicists had predicted, “the fabric of reality might rip open and giant monsters could come pouring through” had not made the list. But somehow, on a fine morning in May, that was precisely what happened.
For sisters Susan and Katharine Black, the day of the incursion was the day they lost everything. Their home, their parents, their sense of normalcy…and each other, because when the rift opened, Susan was on one side and Katharine was on the other, and each sister was stranded in a separate form of reality. For Susan, it was science and study and the struggle to solve the mystery of the altered physics inside the zones transformed by the incursion. For Katharine, it was monsters and mayhem and the fight to stay alive in a world unlike the world of her birth.
The world has changed. The laws of physics have changed. The girls have changed. And the one universal truth of all states of changed matter is that nothing can be completely restored to what it was originally, no matter how much you might wish it could be.
Nothing goes back.
My Review
I’m absolutely fascinated at the way Seanan McGuire is able to write under so many names and have each one possess its own completely unique style and voice. I enjoy all of her variations, but have a soft spot for the Mira Grant books because I do enjoy the way she blends sci-fi and classic horror concepts so artfully. I listened to this one, which was a new experience for me with a Grant book – but definitely one I shall seek to replicate as soon as possible. I think her storytelling style lends itself to an audio format quite nicely, largely because she focuses on characters and world building so much in her stories. The narrator was excellent and really captured the essence of the characters and the story.
The story itself was fabulous, full of all the twists and turns you’d expect from Grant, as well as the wholly original world-building that seems to be a hallmark of any of the authors writings. I love that there is always a journey and that the journey never quite looks like the reader – or the characters – expect it will when they start out, yet by the end things always seem to wind up wandering down the only path that, in hindsight, makes sense. Grant’s vision of the future is always a somewhat horrifying one, yet her characters navigate their difficulties in ways that leave me optimistic for our own future, whatever (dark) form it may take. The ingenuity and resilience of the human spirit is always on display, even if it doesn’t often look the way anyone expects it to. I find that to be an endearing quality in her stories that makes them resonate, no matter how dark or unusual the circumstances – or creatures – encountered…
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
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