A novel Bustle Magazine says "read if you're not over The Matrix Resurrections." This is a story about how in a single moment the years twist in and about themselves and weave back and forth. In that span of time, the past, the present, the future collide. And Cora, a once innocent abducted girl, experiences everything...Read an excerpt
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“I got about halfway through and just started turning pages faster and faster, saying
'holy shit' out loud — the story just kept getting more and more intense and wild
and catching me off guard. Every time I thought I knew where this was going,
I was surprised and amazed. The world of this book is also so complex and mind-blowing,
and it's going to change the way I think and write about alien worlds in the future.
Destroyer of Light is brutal, intense, emotionally potent and totally essential.
I got goosebumps from the ending.”
[see full review]
— Charlie Jane Anders
Author of All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night
Author of All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night
“This story is much larger than its page numbers suggest. A saga that combines many of
sf's most beloved tropes — a remnant of humanity struggling to survive on a far away
world, aliens whose goals are dangerously unknowable, alien/human hybrids with
unpredictable abilities, suspense, plot twists, and that good old sense of wonder.
Hugely ambitious, impressively accomplished.”
— Karen Joy Fowler
Author of The Jane Austen Book Club and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Author of The Jane Austen Book Club and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“Destroyer of Light, the stunning follow-up to Jennifer Marie Brissett’s brilliant
debut novel Elysium, confirms Brissett as one of our finest and most ambitious
novelists, unafraid to confront humanity's future in a world-spanning epic that
explores and explodes what it’s like to be both human and post-human.
Gorgeously written and heartfelt, it’s quite simply one of the best books
I've read in a very long time.”
— Elizabeth Hand
Author of The Book of Lamps and Banners and Curious Toys
Author of The Book of Lamps and Banners and Curious Toys
“Destroyer of Light is the thoughtful and unique
futurist science fiction novel that I didn't know I'd been waiting to read.
Stitching together and moving seamlessly through differing moments in time, the
story grapples with themes of both the human and post-human experience in a way
that is wholly original and seductively engaging. Brissett builds a richly layered
and imaginative world that reflects much of our own--the good, the brutal, and
the truly monstrous--while daring us to dream of something more. This is a tale
not only of becoming and transformation, but about the choices we make that bring
us to our destinations. In a time of new, meaningful, and thrilling science fiction,
Destroyer of Light is a must read.”
— P. Djeli Clark
Author of Ring Shout and The Black God's Drums
Author of Ring Shout and The Black God's Drums
* * *
“[A] dark, poetic tale of struggling human colonists and ambiguously motivated aliens on
a distant planet. Brissett uses the alien setting to explore contemporary issues,
including racism, the complexities of allyship, and the trauma experienced by child
soldiers. The author's updated take on a classic myth is both clever and entertaining...
Richly developed and profound.”
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Destroyer of Light is a book that sneaks up on you. If you can make it
through the disorienting (somewhat intentionally because there is a lot of
world building to do) first couple dozen pages, the reward is vast. Brissett
has built a story that the 21st century needs...”
“... masterfully weaves together years (and lightyears) through a Hades
and Persephone retelling filled with the devastating impacts of war and
kidnapping, the power dynamics between people and aliens, and the psychic
powers that could save — or destroy — them all, again.”
“Reading Destroyer of Light is a disorienting experience. As with so much of
the best science fiction, the details of its worldbuilding sound crazy and
arbitrary if you just summarize them flatly ... And yet these details coalesce
into compelling and disturbing patterns as you read the novel as a whole and
reflect upon the implications not just of its plot, but also of the overall
environment that it renders. Brissett creates a weird and alien world,
but one that resonates deeply with our own contemporary concerns.”
“Destroyer of Light is a remarkable novel of lyrical intensity, deep human
insight, powerful drama and sharp commentary on human society.”
“[For] those who enjoy powerful, intricate, dark works which use speculative
elements to delve deeply into multi-faceted characters and social commentary.”
“Brissett retells the myth of Persephone in this dystopian Afro-futuristic
thriller. It is a wonderful story of transformation, survival, and what it
means to be human. As effortlessly as she weaves between the past, present,
and future, Brissett also blends sci-fi fantasy with a little whodunit. If
you enjoy Afrocentric stories and characters this is a book for you.”
“Cherise Boothe and Landon Woodson give exceptional performances that evoke
a sense of mystery laced with sadness and hope in this wildly imaginative
futuristic tale of humanity's survival on a new planet ... The narrators'
contrasting vocal choices work beautifully together, enhancing the tension
within the intertwined stories as the characters come together to stop an
impending alien invasion that could destroy them all.”
— Audiofile Magazine
(for the audiobook)
* * *
Interviews —
How and Why the Myth of Persephone Resonates with Women [Audio]
— A Conversation with Rob Wolf on the New Books Network via LitHub
Bringing the Persephone Myth to Sci-Fi
— Interview by SyFy Wire
Destroyer of Light Puts Persephone in Space
— Interview by Den of Geek