Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2023
400 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.
Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She's been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she'll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.
Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah – and the entire world - directly in the path of annihilation.
The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw's cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey's gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York's magical underbelly.
"[A] deliciously down and dirty urban fantasy...Khaw's and Kadrey's styles are a perfect match throughout, melding Kadrey's knack for punchy action sequences and Khaw's talent for gorgeous descriptions as they maneuver their enormously fun cast through a filthily rendered New York. Fans of urban fantasy, neo-noir, and pulp horror won't want to miss this raucous adventure." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An original, thought-provoking, and entertaining title that will call to readers from multiple dimensions." —Booklist (starred review)
"Khaw and Kadrey create an excellent grim and gory tale that levels up urban fantasy in this series launch." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Everything old is new again in this comically horrific team-up between prolific Malaysian horror writer Khaw and Kadrey...An enchanting introduction to a magical bitch on wheels, to be continued." —Kirkus Reviews
"Khaw and Kadrey are a powerful team of genre-blending mad geniuses, and The Dead Take the A Train is a gore-covered cake for horror lovers." ―Tor.com
"An addictive, sprawling yarn. This city brims with underhanded dealings and odd magic, and every corner writhes with fresh horrors and delights." ―Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Worm and His Kings
"The Dead Take the A Train incorporates everything that's best about both authors into a seamless whole and adds a touch of something uniquely weird and wonderful. The result is fun, thrilling, and compulsively readable." —John Langan, author of The Fisherman
This information about The Dead Take the A Train 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.
Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon's "100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime," and is in production as a feature film. Some of Kadrey's other books include The Grand Dark, The Everything Box, King Bullet, and Butcher Bird. In comics, he's written for Heavy Metal, Lucifer, and Hellblazer.
Cassandra Khaw is the USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and the Bram Stoker Award-winner, Breakable Things. Other notable works of theirs are The Salt Grows Heavy and British Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist, Hammers on Bone. Khaw's work can be found in places like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Tor.com. Khaw is also the co-author of The Dead Take the A Train, co-written with bestselling author Richard Kadrey.
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