12/13/2021
World Fantasy Award winner Cooney (Bone Swans ) underwhelms with this lugubrious tale of political assassinations between necromancers and bird-wizards, which sees a potentially breathless sword-and-sorcery fantasy bogged down by a torrent of exposition. Miscellaneous “Lanie” Immiscible Stones is a necromancer with an unusual allergy to physical harm, showing symptoms at even the mention of violence, while her sister, Amanita “Nita” Muscaria, is an assassin with the power to compel others to do her will. Queen Erralierra of Brackenwilds commands Nita to assassinate the Parliament of Rooks, Queen Bran Fiakhna of Rook’s harem of 24 wizards. But after Nita kills 22 of the wizards, Queen Bran takes her revenge, and it’s up to Lanie to save Nita’s annoying, sociopathic daughter, Datu, and keep Queen Bran from taking over Brackenwilds. Though Lanie’s bittersweet romance with nonbinary fire priest Canon Lir adds some charm and the magic system is meticulously worked out, it isn’t enough to balance the constant overexplaining of the novel’s worldbuilding and character relationships, with info dumps and backstory often interrupting moments that are crucial to the plot. It makes for a slog only suited for Cooney’s most devoted fans. Agent: Markus Hoffmann, Regal Hoffman & Assoc. (Apr.)
Edgy, romantic, earthy, and colorful.“ — Amy Goldschlager, Locus
Locus Magazine - Amy Goldschlager
Desdemona and the Deep is an eloquent, elegant novella about power, art, consequence and change. It’s also pleasantly queer and drunk on language, which appealed to me deeply. I recommend it.” – Liz Bourke, Locus
Locus Magazine - Liz Bourke
"The writing is dense with poetry, festooned to the eyelids — occasionally to the gills and other body-parts — with fantastic imagery that comes together in the end in unexpected and entirely satisfying ways." — Patricia A. McKillip
"Stories of surpassing delicacy and wit, told by a lady of rare talent.” — Ysabeau S. Wilce, Andre Norton Award-winning author of Flora's Dare
"A rococo romp through strange and eerily familiar worlds."— Erin Downey Howerton, Booklist
Booklist - Erin Downey Howerton
C. S. E. Cooney is one of the most moving, daring, and plainly beautiful voices to come out of recent fantasy. She’s a powerhouse.” — Catherynne M. Valente, NYT-bestselling author of the Fairyland novels
CSE Cooney’s prose once again delivers on the promise of the wild magic and music. Saint Death's Daughter will leave you feeling she's actually summoned a new world, and you might just stumble upon it around the next corner. Glorious.”—Angela Slatter, award-winning author of All the Murmuring Bones Saint Death’s Daughter she proves she’s a master of long form fantasy as well. Cooney sets her budding young necromancer adrift in a dazzlingly dark, weird, engaging and strangely warm world alive with memorable characters, hidden secrets and sinister intrigues. Everything, from tiny elements of characterization to overall pacing to information about the setting, is handled with a deft skill others should strive to emulate. This is a masterful work from a writer at the top of her game. I can hardly wait to see what she conjures next!”—Howard Andrew Jones, author of the Ring-Sworn Trilogy —Lisa L. Hannett, author of Songs for Dark Seasons —Kathleen Jennings, author of Flyaway —Caitlyn Paxson —Robert V. S. Redick, author of Master Assassins Saint Death’s Daughter is a triumph of a book, gorgeous beyond measure , fizzing with Cooney’s love for language, her inventiveness in prose; it is also unbearably tender in how it addresses the idea of death and legacy, the love we can gather into a life before we curl to sleep in Death’s arms.”—Cassandra Khaw, author of The Salt Grows Heavy Saint Death’s Daughter is filled with lavish world building, lyrical prose, and characters to die for. C S.E. Cooney is a faerie queen barely trying to pass in the mundane world. This book is as luminous and flamboyant as she is.”—Tina Jens, award winning author of The Blues Ain’t Nothin’: Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub Gorgeous, sexy, cruel and compassionate and funny. Such rich, delicious world-building and frankly lovable characters (even the baddies are compelling!). I relished every word.”—Liz Duffy Adams, author of Tremontaine and Whitehall Saint Death’s Daughter is a tumultuous, swaggering, cackling story, a gorgeous citrus orchard with bones for roots.Amal El-Mohtar —Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists Saint Death’s Daughter is marvellous—Mike Brooks, author of The God-King Chronicles Saint Death’s Daughter to pieces. I loved the world-building and the characters and the way that every time I thought I knew what kind of book it was, it changed. There was an ebullience to this book, in its world-building (with footnotes!) and its prose and its characters, that I found both delightful and compelling . I enjoyed it tremendously and look forward to the next installment in the adventures of Miscellaneous Immiscible Stones.”—Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor infused with brilliantly intricate world-building, dark humour, diverse characters and even a touch of whimsy . As Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones navigates her world of familial strife, both natural and supernatural, and her own burgeoning powers, you can’t help but learn to love death alongside her.”—Rhianna Pratchett
"Is it extravagant? Yes. Does it flirt with camp? Oh, yes. Is it so beautiful, smart and joyful that I finished it gasping? Yes, yes, YES." — Robert V.S. Redick, author of The Fire Sacraments Trilogy , and The Chathrand Voyage Quartet
"Highly original, mythic in scope, lyrically told, just plain fun ." — Nicole Kornher-Stace, author of Archivist Wasp
"It's a treasure chest of a collection, and it's full of gems.” — Sharon Shinn, author of the Elemental Blessings series
Wildly inventive.”—Buzzfeed
Cooney’s prose is beautiful and intricate and glowing.”—The Colorado Sun
"C.S.E. Cooney's Bone Swans is like visiting a literary Ys. Coaxed by her deft hand, lands and people long lost to memory resurface, breaking through the hearts of readers with the force of a gentle tsunami. Once that wave has broken over you, you are never the same." — Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists
Memorable prose propelled by extraordinary ideas... Twisted genius!” — Locus
"These stories are a pure joy.” —Delia Sherman, author of Young Woman in a Garden: Stories
"Like one of her characters, C. S. E. Cooney is a master piper, playing songs within songs. Her stories are wild, theatrical, full of music and murder and magic.” — James Enge, author of Blood of Ambrose
"There is always the music of the writing, and the comic coloration, and the engaging and just awakening Desdemona to keep us entranced." — Rich Horton, Locus
★ 2021-12-24
Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones is born into a family famous for its executioners and assassins; she herself has a violent allergy toward, well, violence and violent death…a sign that she is destined to have the power to reject death itself (up to a point) as a necromancer. As her abilities increase over the years, so do her responsibilities and troubles. Her ancestral home is on the verge of being lost to creditors. Her only reliable teacher in necromancy is the ghost of her great-grandfather, whom no one else can see and who absolutely cannot be trusted. Her glory- and money-seeking sociopathic sister, Amanita Muscaria, has accepted a commission from the Blood Royal for a series of assassinations that results in Nita’s own brutal murder, leaving Lanie with a (justifiably) resentful brother-in-law and a willful, vengeance-minded young niece. The murderer, the sorcerer-queen Blackbird Bride, is after Lanie’s niece (to kill her) and Lanie (to enthrall her into becoming one of her many spouses). Can Lanie keep herself and those she loves safe, trust the new friends she’s found, and possibly find happiness with her beloved pen pal, the nobly born fire priest Canon Lir, who has their own considerable store of secrets? Cooney’s stories (such as in her World Fantasy Award–winning collection, The Bone Swans , 2015) typically include violence, abuse, death, ghosts, and the afterlife—elements which in other hands would also be accompanied by gloom and dreary cynicism. But Cooney also always infuses her works with joy, (often literal) lust for life, improbably lighthearted humor, and the possibility of hope; it is an unusual and surprisingly charming and poignant admixture. The concept of a kindhearted necromancer who is a friend to death (and Death, in the persona of the goddess Doédenna) rather than its foe makes perfect sense in this context.
Grisly, dark, lovely, funny, heartfelt.
