Black Helicopters

April 9, 2018
Nominated for a World Fantasy Award when originally published in shorter form in 2013, this short novel is set in a world convulsed by skillfully evoked cosmic horrors and populated by the semisupernatural agents fighting them. It spans the period 1966–2152 but takes place predominantly in 2012, in the wake of an invasion of Lovecraftian entities off the coast of Maine. Among those fighting to contain the invasion are Sixty-Six, the descendant of a victim of a CIA behavioral engineering experiment, and the psionically gifted albino Ivoire. She and her identical twin, Bête, have been tracked by Ptolema, an ageless espionage agent with inscrutable motives, to Dublin. As the narrative ping-pongs among different decades and various locales, sinister associations emerge that link the tale’s events and their players, heightening the mood of paranoia and conjuring a sense of mysteries whose solutions may ultimately be unknowable. Kiernan’s novella is well-wrought dark fantasy struck from the template of the black-ops thriller.

May 15, 2018
In this nonlinear, sf-horror mashup populated by strong and brilliant women, Ptolema, an immortal assassin working for a secretive agency, is sent to Ireland to find and destroy the Twins. Meanwhile, across the ocean, a Lovecraftian creature is emerging off the coast of Maine, threatening to destroy humanity. Centuries into the future, the consequences of these two story lines are still playing out. Kiernan (Agents of Dreamland, 2017) lures readers in with her lyrical language, juxtaposing gorgeous prose with horrific scenes. The effect is stunning and uncomfortably satisfying. This novella is not for readers who want to know where the author is taking them but, rather, for those who are looking to be immersed in a rich, atmospheric, and slightly terrifying world. Suggest to fans of the new spate of weird fiction, such as critically acclaimed and popular works by Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation, 2014), Victor LaValle (The Changeling, 2017), and Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties, 2017).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)