The Wolfhound Century is here!

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Wolfhound Century, a 2013 Gollancz Geeks title, is out now in paperback and we’ve got a special blog post from the book’s editor, Simon, to share with you. 

Anyone unfortunate enough to be around me over the past year or so has had to put up with me wittering on about a book. A book I love so much that I simply haven’t been able to shut up about it since I was lucky enough to acquire it.

I could go on about it again now, about the beautiful prose, about the stunning imagination, about how it taps into the deep and profound well of literature and legend that has sprung up from Russia, but I can see you backing away with alarm in your eyes so let me, instead, take a step back and let you see what just some authors and a few reviewers have said about Peter Higgins’ debut novel WOLFHOUND CENTURY, instead.

Don’t listen to me, listen to them. You won’t regret it.

And if you are intrigued come back tomorrow and see what the Gollancz Geeks thought of Wolfhound Century and read some chapters to decide for yourself.

*Goes off to collar another hapless innocent with tales of angels, secret police, witches and sentient rain*

AUTHORS

“Like vintage China Mieville, but with all the violent narrative thriller drive of Ian Fleming at his edgiest” RICHARD MORGAN

“An amazing, fast-paced story in a fantasy world poised dangerously on the edge of quantum probability, a world where angels war with reality” PETER F. HAMILTON

“I absolutely loved WOLFHOUND CENTURY. Higgins’s world is a truly original creation, Russian cosmism and Slavic mythology filtered through steampunk and le Carre. What really captured me was his beautiful style and language” HANNU RAJANIEMI

“A brilliant exploitation of the power of fantasy: the tender green soul of Russian history set free for uncanny battle with its grey, gunmetal carapace” FRANCIS SPUFFORD

“Very good indeed. Dark chocolate with a softly whipped centre of brain matter” IAN McDONALD

“Richly written, vivid, clever: Soviet Russia as dark alt-reality phantasmagoria” ADAM ROBERTS

REVIEWERS

“An extraordinarily accomplished debut from a real master of atmosphere. Peter Higgins has managed to create a completely unique fantasy world with a plot that wouldn’t be out of place in a modern day thriller” FANTASY FACTION

“The surprises keep on coming … but quietly and subtly, like a dreaded knock on the door of an apartment in a brutalist concrete tower block in the dead of night. An excellent debut novel” THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

“The vivid descriptions and pulsing action sequences are very reminiscent of Fleming. Add this to an SF mystery, blending an alternate totalitarian state with an ancient mythical world and you have a potent mix” FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

“An intriguing thriller. The plot unfolds swiftly and with an engaging clarity. The world Higgins creates is immersive and often compelling” STRANGE HORIZONS

“With a beautifully descriptive style, this imaginative thriller is impossible to put down” WE LOVE THIS BOOK

“A finely-written and compelling story. Higgins has created an engrossing fantasy world which is a million miles away from the more played-out ends of the genre and all the better for it” THE WERTZONE

Brilliant world-building, great writing, and a pace that challenges you to put it down and then slaps you in the face with a constant niggling itch to return – a truly excellent debut, and Higgins’ writing style ensures it just keeps flowing. Very highly recommended” BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY”

“Every so often there comes along a book that manages to make you go wow, one that stands out as a book that is destined to become a classic…this year Wolfhound Century takes that honour. An incredibly rich, rewarding novel that has an amazing feeling of depth. The immersion is absolute, carried forward by the rich quality to the prose that borders on the poetic in places” SFBOOK.COM

“His prose style is splendid, his world-building comes across as immersive and encompassing, with hints of a greater world than the plot dictates, and the plot is enticing and promising in and of itself. Beautiful prose, elegant book, exciting times” ONE CHAPTER MORE

“Well paced action.. This world of a totalitarian state pitted against equally extremist revolutionaries is gripping” THE SUN

“We can expect great things of Peter Higgins… his debut novel is uniquely intriguing” SCI FI NOW

“Peter Higgins’s fantastic debut…sparkles at times with searing, polished brilliance…The true wonder of this book is in the dark yet beautiful setting” NERDS OF A FEATHER