Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue. The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound.
Mr. Kraus lets it rip here: A disease that fills your guts with hair, a hyperspace drive fueled by an amped-up Nazi salute, oceans made of grinding chains traversed by diamond boats, and a feral internet that induces trauma. With body horror that would put H.R. Giger off his lunch, upsetting plot twists that would short-circuit Murderbot, and a child predicament that makes Ender’s Game look like summer camp, Mr. Kraus takes startling risks in scene after scene, as though this is the last book he’ll be allowed to write. But one suspects that Mr. Kraus—one of the most versatile, imaginative and prolific writers of his generation—is just hitting his stride.
Kraus proves his skill and originality yet again. The novel teems with what makes for the very best science fiction: thought-provoking scientific ideas, strong characters, evocative scenery and descriptions, strange worlds, and the exploration of individual and societal morality ... Overall this novel is to be celebrated.
Brutal and imaginative ... Blends visceral body horror with larger ideas about control, identity, and sacrifice, grounding the story in Sisilla’s emotional awakening. Strange, intense, and impossible to look away from, this is sf at its most daring.
