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The night the sky fell, Jack and Nora Abernathy's daughter vanished in the woods. And Mia's disappearance broke her parents' already fragile marriage.
Unable to solve her own daughter's case, Nora lost herself in her work as a homicide detective. Jack became a shell of a man; his promising career as a biologist crumbling alongside the meteor strikes that altered weather patterns and caused a massive drought.
It isn't until five years later that the rains finally return to nourish Seattle. In this period of sudden growth, Jack uncovers evidence of a new parasitic fungus, while Nora investigates several brutal, ritualistic murders. Soon they will be drawn together by a horrifying connection between their discoveries—partnering to fight a deadly contagion as well as the government forces that know the truth about the fate of their daughter.
Award-winning author Benjamin Percy delivers both a gripping science fiction thriller and a dazzling examination of a planet—and a marriage—that have broken.
"Percy's masterful second Comet Cycle genre-bender combines a missing-person case, romantic reconciliation, and a riveting sci-fi what-if imagining of a sentient fungi...sci-fi fans will appreciate Percy's extraterrestrial biological lore. It's a thoroughly satisfying near-future glimpse of both disaster and salvation." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Percy is a master of horror...There's a spattering of gore, a connection to a psychopathic serial killer, and a secret government agenda to introduce alien matter into human genes—in other words, a little something for everyone, science fiction fans and mystery fans alike. Terrifying, entertaining, and thought-provoking." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Unfamiliar Garden was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Jennifer Percy
Benjamin Percy has won a Whiting Award, a Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, an NEA fellowship, and the iHeartRadio Award for Best Scripted Podcast. He is the author of the novels The Ninth Metal, The Unfamiliar Garden, The Dark Net, The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding; three story collections; and an essay collection, Thrill Me. He also writes Wolverine and X-Force for Marvel Comics. He lives in Minnesota with his family.
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