★ 07/18/2016
Launching the Nevernight fantasy series, Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy) creates a splendid world of corruption and violence. Mia Corvere is the last survivor of her family’s fall from grace in the capital city of Godsgrave. After witnessing her father’s execution as a traitor and her mother and infant brother’s imprisonment by the consul of the Itreyan Empire, she dedicates her life to bloody revenge. She escapes her own murder and has nothing left but shadows and the help of a pitiless tutor. Making the most of these meager treasures, she sets out to become a weapon fit to shatter an empire, though she may destroy her own world with it. Kristoff portrays a world as rife with villains and treachery as the ancient Italian civilizations it echoes. Absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness, this beginning promises (and delivers) equal shares of beauty and decay. With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling, and satisfying. (Aug.)

"Launching the Nevernight fantasy series, Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy) creates a splendid world of corruption and violence. Kristoff portrays a world as rife with villains and treachery as the ancient Italian civilizations it echoes. Absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness, this beginning promises (and delivers) equal shares of beauty and decay. With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling, and satisfying." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Nevernight

"A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won't be able to put down."—Kirkus on Nevernight

"The world-building is delightfully detailed, its baroque flourishes supplied by sarcastic footnotes, but we are drawn through the narrative by Mia’s triple quest: to rescue her family members, to avenge her father’s death and to survive her education at the church, where the ultimate test is to avoid being killed by the training." -The Daily Mail on Nevernight

"Assassins, magic, strange creatures are all pluses for me. But my favorite thing about this book is the voice...I adore well-done omniscient narrators with snark and a slight bit of disdain for either the reader or the main character."—Book Riot on Nevernight

"Kristoff's bold writing style...joins lyrical high fantasy with f-bombs aplenty, Pratchett-like humor and unflinching descriptions of violence."—SciFiNow

“Harry Potter meets The Lies of Locke Lamora”—USA Today

"The innovative setting, fast-moving plot, vivid descriptions, and thrilling action scenes make this a refreshing addition to the steampunk canon." - Publishers Weekly, starred review on Stormdancer

"Soars higher than the arashitora Kristoff writes about; superb." - Kirkus, starred review on Stormdancer

"Stormdancer is an intoxicating joyride into steampunklandia with a magical dose of mythology, the supernatural, violence, dystopian themes, and a top-notch brassy heroine who rivals Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. Yes, I did say that!" —Huffington Post

"Murder, magic, sex, and humor—the first installment in Kristoff’s new fantasy series is off to a rollicking start... Kristoff has created a rich, vibrant world for readers, borrowing heavily from historical Italian political structures, which provide a base of stability and familiarity to the new creations. Footnotes accompany the story,...embellishing and further developing the world, and providing a welcome and often biting wit. Dense and measured, this will appeal to fans of traditional and political fantasies."—Booklist

12/01/2015
Set in a world of multiple suns that make daylight almost continuous, this follow-up to Kristoff's high-profile "Lotus War" series sends Mia Corvere to a school for assassins. All the better to prepare herself for vengeance, as her father was executed after leading a squashed rebellion.

03/01/2017
At the age of 10, Mia Corvere was forced to watch as her father was hanged from the city scaffold, her mother and baby brother were marched off to prison, and her precious cat's neck was broken by the man who was planning to kill her. Mia has wanted nothing but vengeance from that day forward, and now she is finally ready to train as an elite assassin for the Red Church. Her unique affinity with the shadow world gives her an edge. But competition is fierce, only a small number are chosen, and notwithstanding her deadly skills, Mia is not the sociopath that many of her fellow students seem to be. Murder, she believes, should be deserved. Kristoff has created a medieval-style world lit by three suns, where true night is a rare occurrence, magic is shunned as evil, and religion is derived from belief in a family of gods whose love has turned to hate. The first in a new series, this violent, nonstop science fiction/horror story is an intense read from start to finish. It's hard to imagine that Kristoff didn't intend this as a young adult book, but a few graphic consensual sex scenes explain the adult designation. VERDICT Older high school and college fans of speculative fiction will appreciate this addictive title.—Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

2016-07-19
A dark and bloody fantasy about a young woman bent on revenge—at almost any price.Mia Corvere was 10 years old when she watched her father be hanged as a traitor, saw her mother and infant brother hauled away to die in prison, and escaped death herself at the hands of two trained Luminatii soldiers. She’s darkin, which means she can control shadows, and her constant companion, a cat made of shadows, drinks her fear. But even that won’t be enough to get the revenge she craves on the powerful men who destroyed her family. That’s why she’s traveled out to the ends of civilization to gain entry to the Red Church, where “the greatest enclave of assassins in the known world” worships the goddess of night, Niah, “Our Lady of Blessed Murder.” If she can get inducted into the Red Church, she’ll have the skills she needs to exact her revenge. She just has to survive her training—at the hands of the world’s most deadly, amoral assassins. Kristoff (Illuminae, 2015, etc.) comes on strong from the start, creating a shadowy world dripping with blood, in which our feisty, determined heroine must claw her way to the top of a deadly pecking order. Mia manages to find connection and even caring in the black pit of the Red Church—but how long can it last? A sensuous, shades-of-moral-gray world; a compelling, passionate heroine; a high-stakes quest for revenge—this is a fantasy fans won’t be able to put down.