Publishers Weekly
04/04/2022
Heuler (The Inner City) throws together a young witch, an egomaniacal cat, and thinly veiled allegories in a quirky coming-of-age story that never fully delivers. Eleanor and her arrogant, misogynistic roommate, Stan, do not get along. So, she curses him, transforming him into a bow-tie-wearing, beer-guzzling cat. As punishment for her rash spell-casting, her New York coven exiles her and Stan to the new country of Liberty (formerly Texas). The president of this humourously depicted dystopia distracts citizens from the dire water shortage through endless parades and stunts, including a treasure hunt. As Eleanor occupies herself with the search for the missing water witch, Daria, who she believes may be key to understanding the draught, shadowy figures lure Stan with the promise of hidden treasure, and both roommates attract the attention of some powerful political players. The whimsy and topical satire ought to carry this, but Heuler keeps things disappointingly shallow, with a thin plot and characters as two-dimensional as Liberty’s propaganda newsprint. While the ingredients are enticing, brought to a bubble, this witch’s brew fails to pass the taste test. Agent: Christine Cohen, Virginia Kidd Agency. (June)
From the Publisher
"A sharp, lively, funny contemporary fantasy with the feel of an up-to-date, more adult version of L Frank Baum’s Oz books."
– The Guardian
"Karen Heuler’s The Splendid City is a wonderful fabulation, both humorous and contemplative, about the desperate state of US politics and society. In this world without a moral center, Eleanor, a witch, and her black cat familiar, Stan, who walks on two legs and packs a gun, much like Behemoth from Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, are called to solve a mystery. The writing is engaging and smooth, with excellent banter, as the communal power of women works to find a purpose in a crazy world."
– Jeffrey Ford, author of Big Dark Hole
"A thoroughly original and quirky novel. You'll find witches, cats, animatronic politicians and much more besides - plus sinister undertones combined with laugh-out-loud surrealism."
—Liz Williams, author of Comet Weather
"Karen Heuler's soaring imagination is matched only by her integrity of vision and humanity. She's always a must read."
– Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Pallbearers Club
"A sly and wild and funny book which uses witches, talking robotic heads, water shortages, the internet, a revolution, and a cat who used to be human (and who is now pretending to be a human with a skin condition) to cheerfully dissect the travails of what it is like to live in contemporary America. Satirical, and yet somehow more than just a satire, the joy of The Splendid City lies in the quirky and all-embracing exuberance of Heuler's imagination."
– Brian Evenson, World Fantasy Award winner of Song for the Unraveling of the World
"With its whimsy, compassionate characterizations, and sly satire, The Splendid City recalls the best of Terry Pratchett. A delight from start to finish."
– Gregory Norman Bossert, filmmaker, writer and World Fantasy Award winner
"The Splendid City is a splendid read indeed! How can anyone resist talking cats? I know I can’t. This novel is so much fun and yet there is a deeper, darker story here. Seriously, the best political fiction sneaks its way into our hearts and minds rather than hitting us on top of our heads. Heuler’s excellent imagination and biting humor brings it all together.
– Ann VanderMeer, Award Winning Editor of The Big Book of Modern Fantasy
"It might seem impossible to see the humor in the nightmarish absurdities, disinformation, paranoia, and fanaticism of contemporary life... but Karen Heuler's specialty is accomplishing the impossible. In a world filled with malevolent surveillance drones and animatronic President heads, a gun-toting cat with a hair-trigger temper and a witch with an inconvenient penchant for the truth have to contend with a reality that makes them look sensible by comparison. Pre-order this book immediately. It is a joy."
– Chandler Klang Smith, author of The Sky Is Yours
"A fun, whimsical, fantastical satire that rips open the absurdity of everything yet still somehow manages to leave the beating heart intact."
– Yume Kitasei, author of The Narrow Road to the Deep Sky
"Whimsical, satiric, and bursting with imagination, The Splendid City is the novel we've all been waiting for from Karen Heuler, one that takes all the ingredients she's honed over decades of publishing quality literary and fantasy fiction and distills it into a perfect nugget of a novel. I've long thought Heuler deserved a larger audience, and this funny, accessible novel should be what finally draws them in. Also, as a cat owner, I felt a lot of this deep in my soul!"
– Nicholas Kaufmann, bestselling author of The Hungry Earth
"It's a novel that weaves its own logic and ends up making a lot of sense."
– SFX Magazine
"Both sad and hilarious, by mixing the madness of our modern-day political landscape with the fantasy rules of witchcraft, The Splendid City crafts a perfect quirk that ramps to wtf levels of genre-bending weirdness while packing enough common sense and humour to deliver something meaningful in a story about a white witch and her human-cat that shoots old ladies who disagree with him at the bus stop."
– SciFiNow
"The dialogue is clever and the satire spot-on. The social commentary hits the nail on the head."
– Booklist
"loved how cleverly and deftly Heuler balanced the absurd with the political."
– Locus Magazine
"The Splendid City is a compelling book, compulsively readable."
– Grimdark Magazine
