Publishers Weekly
05/20/2024
Liar debuts with an ambitious, genre-bending tale set on a perpetually dark postapocalyptic planet called the Wanderlands. As a child, Sophie Vesachai had a strange, prophetic dream that appeared to instruct her to retrieve ancient artifacts, free the imprisoned giant Kindaedystrin, and thus restore the realm’s light. As an adult, she discovers that others across the Wanderlands had the same exact dream and forms a ragtag group she calls the Killers, “a gang devoted to discovering the meaning and purpose behind the dream.” The only thing uniting these misfits is the visions, making for some shaky group dynamics as they set out to free Kindaedystrin from the Keep, a vast underground fortress. But Queen Jane Guin, the Keep’s leader, has her own plans for Kindaedystrin: she aims to kill the giant, believing that this alone will restore light to the Wanderlands. As Sophie and Jane clash, Liar digs deep into the characters’ psyches through fragmentary narration that toggles between the past and the present. This occasionally creates confusion, but Liar ties up the plot’s many threads by the end. The worldbuilding, meanwhile, offers a heady mix of magic and science. The result is a dense but worthwhile adventure. (July)
From the Publisher
"The Failures reminds me of so many good things, not least Stephen King’s Dark Tower stories and Mervyn Peake’s arch-Gothic creation, Gormenghast. I also detected undertones of China Miéville, Roger Zelazny, Ursula Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, as well as other amazing fantasy and science-fiction writers. Most importantly, though, whatever his influences might truly be, Benjamin Liar has a new and unique voice of his very own, and this book is one of the best things I’ve read in a long, long time." —Tad Williams, New York Times-bestselling author of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
"Innovative and fascinating! Recommended!" —C. J. Cherryh, Hugo award-winning author of the Foreigner series
“Quirky and wondrous, The Failures presents a fantastical world filled with enigmas and magic, engaging oddball characters, exotic tableaus, and meticulous worldbuilding.” —Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of Dune: House Atreides
“Liar’s writing is like the world it depicts: a finely-tuned piece of clockwork. The Failures is the kind of science fantasy little made these days—sacrificing neither the fantastic for the scientific, nor the reverse, but offering both—and the sort of book I could read again and again.” —Christopher Ruocchio, internationally award-winning author of the Sun Eater novels
“The Failures is the kind of book you find maybe once, under a blood moon, if you’re lucky enough to wander off the trail...an unabashed triumph of speculative fiction. It’s not exactly science fiction, not quite fantasy...deep, thrilling (I’m looking at you, Deadsmith), and masterfully atmospheric.” —Daniel Cohen, author of the Coldmaker Saga
“A wonderful and gripping fantasy tale of misfits trying to save the world in their own twisted ways...engulfs the reader in a sinister yet thrilling chase where intentions, good or bad, are never quite enough. Benjamin Liar is a master storyteller who reinvents dark fantasy through familiar tropes he takes an obvious pleasure in deconstructing. If you love Steven Erikson, Patrick Rothfuss, or the early VanderMeer, you will immediately be hooked.” —Seb Doubinsky, author of Missing Signal
