A gripping SF thriller in a brilliantly realized alternative Russia - a superb debut.
Peter Higgins read English at Oxford University and Queen's, Ontario. He was a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and worked in the British Civil Service. His short stories have appeared in Fantasy: Best of the Year 2007, Best New Fantasy 2, Asimov's Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Zahir and Revelation, and in Russian translation in the St Petersburg magazine Esli. He lives with his family in South Wales.
Higgins's strong and darkly weird debut relates the difficult life of Investigator Vissarion Lom in an alternate 1940s Russia where the stone bodies of dead angels are harvested and repurposed. Lom, who bears a sliver of angel stone in his forehead that keeps him well behaved, is summoned from his provincial beat to the capital and ordered to find a revolutionary terrorist, one Josef Kantor. Kantor is also sought by his daughter, Maroussia Shaumian, who is one of the people perceiving the slips in reality between nature and the industrialized, and between the past and possible futures. The machinations of the humans and their organizations are reflections of a larger conflict between the alien fantastic entities known as the Archangel and the Pollandore. Sentient water, censored artists, mechanical constructs, old-fashioned detective work, and the secret police are all woven together in this rich and fascinating tapestry. Agent: Ian Drury, Sheil Land Associates. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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