Starred review from August 5, 2024
YA author Clarke (the Scapegracers trilogy, written as H.A. Clarke) makes their adult debut with a slick and sexy queer fantasy western. Ignavia City is on the cusp of industrial revolution and roiling with discontent. When Marney Honeycutt’s family and childhood sweetheart are murdered in a strikebreak, she swears revenge on Yann Chauncey, the foundry owner who ordered the massacre. Fleeing the city, she falls into the hands of the Highwayman’s Choir, a troop of bandit revolutionaries fighting to bring about the Hereafter: a golden future with no work, wages, or poverty. Thanks to in-utero exposure to ichorite, the toxic, eerie metal on which Yann Industry’s fortune was built, Marney can control the metal and perceive memories of how it’s been worked but suffers debilitating fits if she touches it. The Choir give Marney shelter, family, and identity, but don’t hesitate to use her powers to further their cause. Together they hatch a plot that hinges on Marney seducing Gossamer Chauncey, Yann’s daughter. Clarke delivers a masterful and tragic exploration of the intersections of violence, faith, sexuality, and power, perfect for readers of challenging political fantasy in the vein of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers series. Lyrical prose, meticulous worldbuilding, and steamy lesbian sex scenes make this a surefire hit.
August 16, 2024
Marney lost her family and her best friend when their employer, ichorite baron Yann Chauncey, broke their strike with a massacre. She, the sole survivor, is lustertouched, a hallucinatory illness that develops in ichorite workers. After building a career as a bandit, Marney sees a chance for revenge when Chauncey's daughter invites eligible suitors to compete for her hand in marriage. She'll have to fake a noble identity and conceal her past long enough to outlast the competition, charm an heiress, and strike her enemy down. This novel is a rollicking, anti-capitalist fever dream with vivid prose that grows hallucinogenic at points from Marney's illness and all-encompassing grief. The worldbuilding is as intricate as the language, with vying factions and different religious traditions that complicate her quest for vengeance. VERDICT Clarke's ("Scapegracers" series, writing as H.A. Clarke) adult debut, an irreverent queer fantasy novel, will thrill readers and appeal to fans of the "Locked Tomb" series by Tamsyn Muir, while the fusion of technology and magic and clash between industrialists and outlaws is reminiscent of Netflix's Arcane.--Erin Niederberger
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September 15, 2024
Marney Honeycutt's family and everyone she knows are gunned down for having the temerity to demand better working conditions. She stumbles onto a train and is rescued from whatever terrible fate awaits orphans in this grim, industrial world by a gang of dashing robbers--whom she in turn rescues with her own strange, "luster-touched" ability. She is raised by the inhabitants of the Fingerbluffs, a haven created when the servants of its hereditary owner rose up and took his place. She becomes the Whip Spider, known for manipulating ichorite, the strange metal that drives industry and has become increasingly indispensable. Marney can be forgiven for being something of an unreliable narrator, having been thrown quite young into a life of crime motivated primarily by the drive for revenge. Eventually, she will have her opening: the man who ordered her family's murder has an heiress who needs a suitor. More sex than romance, plenty of adventure, and a significant exploration of industrial-labor issues--this is certainly a thrill ride, and fans of Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth (2019) will particularly appreciate the snappy roughness of Marney's narrative voice.
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