⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing me with an early review copy!

Spoiler-free review:
Benjamin Liar’s The Failures is a captivating debut that boldly ventures into the realms of “new weird” fantasy, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic storytelling. The first installment in The Wanderlands trilogy, this novel delivers a masterful blend of genres, evocative world-building, and intricate storytelling that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter of this epic saga.

World-Building at Its Finest
The standout aspect of The Failures is, without a doubt, its world-building. The mechanical, god-crafted expanse of the Wanderlands is as intricate as it is haunting, evoking comparisons to China Miéville’s gritty, otherworldly settings. The blend of genres works beautifully here—balancing the grand scope and redemption themes of epic fantasy with the grim, claustrophobic atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic tale and the precision of hard science fiction. Liar’s attention to detail in constructing this world ensures that readers are fully immersed, even when the plot takes its time to unfold.

Plot and Characters
The story revolves around a diverse group of protagonists, each burdened by past failures and driven by prophetic dreams to save—or doom—their world. The multiple POVs are a highlight, with each character’s perspective adding a distinct voice and deepening the reader’s connection to the story. Among them, “The Killers” stood out as my favorite POV, providing some of the most intense and engaging chapters in the book.

What truly sets The Failures apart is how Liar seamlessly weaves together these disparate storylines. By the second half of the book, as timelines converge and mysteries unravel, the narrative rewards readers with well-crafted reveals and satisfying payoffs. It’s a puzzle-like experience reminiscent of the show LOST, where piecing together the clues feels both challenging and rewarding. While I managed to predict about 70% of the twists, the remaining surprises kept me thoroughly engaged.

Style and Pacing
Liar’s prose is sharp, evocative, and often tinged with wit, giving the story a unique voice that balances the dark and the humorous. However, the dialogue sometimes leaned too heavily on snark, which occasionally came across as overly self-aware or “trying too hard” to sound clever. This was a minor drawback but one that could benefit from refinement in future installments.

The pacing, while slower in the beginning, is understandable given the novel’s ambition. As the first in a trilogy, much of the early chapters focus on establishing the world, characters, and overarching lore. Although this deliberate pacing might not suit every reader, the payoff in the latter half more than justifies the time invested.

Standout Moments and Final Thoughts
The second half of The Failures is where the book truly shines. The carefully foreshadowed mysteries come to light in a series of expertly crafted reveals, tying together plot threads across time and space. It’s a testament to Liar’s storytelling prowess that these moments feel both earned and impactful.

While there are still some unanswered questions—likely to be addressed in the coming books—The Failures sets a solid foundation for a trilogy that promises to be as ambitious as it is original. My primary hopes for future installments are improved pacing and a subtler approach to dialogue for certain characters.

Recommendation
Overall, The Failures is a must-read for anyone craving a fresh and imaginative entry in the fantasy genre. Its unique blend of styles and compelling narrative will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman or China Miéville. For readers who enjoy piecing together intricate plots in richly detailed worlds, this novel is a rewarding experience. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the next installment to see how Benjamin Liar continues to explore the fascinating Wanderlands.

*** Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All quotes used in this review have been verified with a finished copy.

I made it through 10 % of this book. While the opening chapter was intriguing, it soon became clear that the writing style of this book was not to my taste.

There is excessive swearing in the dialogue within each POV which kept pulling me out of the story.

"Okay," Jackie said, finally. "What."
"What do you mean, 'what'?" Gun cut another V-shaped wedge of stone.
"What the fuckin' what?" Jackie said. "What's your problem?"
"Nothing."
"Fuck off, you're on my tits with this morose bullshit. Cut it out."

Additionally, the descriptions were descriptive to the point of being overwritten.

"And yet, this door was quite different.
The most obvious and striking difference, of course, was the fact that most doors by their nature openings, passageways, portals from one contiguous space to another. They were demarcations between states. They were slabs of material that said this space was outside and this space was in. But this particular door made no such demarcation; it stood alone in the center of the plaza. It was set into no wall and had no transitive property that could be easily discerned. There was nothing to indicate that, if the door was opened, it would provide any passage other than through an empty frame."

Here's my money, give me the rest of the series as this beginning is excellent and I want more.
Fascinating and chilly world building, good character development, excellent storytelling
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The buzz around this book was deafening. Unfortunately, I found the prose to be a bit lacking, Obviously others are appreciating this more than I did.

This is a big, ambitious, and most of all STRANGE trip to another world. It's dark enough to remind one of the Dark Souls videogame. The writing is superb, and the world is extremely unique and interesting.

This book grew on me since reading it. I moved the rating from four stars to five as a result.

Definitely looking forward to more from this author!

Absolutely a smashing read.. the ebook, from what I saw is close to 200 pages more than the printed book, so I would definitely let the net galley readers know that for sure if they have committed to other reads..

Let me just say, I had so much fun with this book. The multiple point perspective and how the story tied together was very well done. This book read like a Tim Burton movie. It had levity in a dark manner and I felt like I was watching a reverse Alice in wonderland, a nightmare before Christmas tied in with Batman. We had villains, heroes, antiheroes. We had backstories that fit so elegantly into the narrative that I was constantly saying ‘holy shit, I knew it’. It’s a bit longer but thoroughly enjoyable.

This book really just drops you in without any context, and then... BUILDS. The world is one of the most interesting ones in recent books- and it's unique. The work is incredibly rich and detailed, but the plot takes a little while for the plot to go anywhere.

The complex characters explored and the rich world building were my favorite parts- and I will definitely be tuning in for book 2!

This is my first DNF of 2024. I gave this book a better than fair chance before succumbing to the full understanding that it just was not for me. It started very slowly for me, which isn’t a deal breaker, but it never picked up enough steam to overcome gravity. I did not care at all about the characters and the plot did not flow naturally. I simply could not finish. YMMV.

My thanks to DAW via Netgalley

Holy shit, this was good. It did take me some time to get into the book. But meeting everyone and seeing how fits where and just being in this world was so incredibly intriguing. It could get confusing at times because we are following many people within different timelines, but I feel as though the book does a fantastic job at solving that as we slowly figure out who is who and where exactly they fit. This is complex and intriguing. No one in the book has perfectly fine morals - and that's really what I love the most. As soon as I finished it, all I could think was that I immediately wanted/needed more.

What a strange book both in terms of content and my enjoyment. At first I couldn't get into it as it really just drops you in with no context. Then it starts introducing one of the most interesting and unique worlds I've read in fantasy and I absolutely could not get enough. Then as I read more I found myself getting frustrated. Frustrated because the author keeps layering on awesome worldbuilding and mysteries but I was hard to feel like the story itself was going anywhere. Characters and specifically character motivations were lacking or opaque so when something is revealed it doesn't quite hit like it should because we don't have enough information to know if it should be a big deal. Also I have some gripes with particular storylines but they would be spoilers. But I think overall they all kind of come down to the same thing. That not everything in terms of plot and characters was thought out as well as the world. And all that is to say that even though I had gripes I couldn't make myself quit thinking about this book.I always wanted to pick it up and find out more. And I definitely will be checking out the sequels because this book does kind of feel like a long prologue and I want to know where it goes.

3.5/5 rounded up

The Failures by Benjamin Liar weaves an ambitious and highly imaginative science fantasy about a motley crew of unlikely heroes who are trying to stop an apocalyptic entity known as the Giant who has awakened once more and threatens to plunge the world in utter darkness.

This book is sweeping in scope and epic in every sense of the word—complete with a large cast of colorful characters, intricate worldbuilding, and planet-ending stakes. The story comes off as convoluted and confusing at first. However, it’s worth persevering through because once the pieces start clicking into place in the final third, boy, does the story come together beautifully.

By far my favorite aspect of the book though was the world itself. The story is set on a dying planet filled with automatons, monsters, and labyrinthine tunnels. Items generate in bird baths and the whole premise of characters trying to hold the hope of light in a world where it’s fading gave me complete Dark Souls vibes, which I’m an absolute sucker for.

However, as much as I adored this book, it was by no means perfectly executed. My main issue with its writing is that I felt like the descriptions for characters and settings became rambling and redundant at times. For instance, take the following passage:

"The plaza in the center of the city was lined with silver columns, a sort of silver that was more than silver, a kind of silver that gave off delicious light and made one think of immense effort expended to achieve a very subtle effect. Like the Dark, it was unique enough for its own superlative: Silver."

Ultimately, I feel like so many of Liar's long-winded descriptive passages could have been cut down if he had chosen better fitting adjectives or less basic nouns.

Overall, the book is difficult for me to rate because parts of it are so conceptually unique and brilliant. I just feel like it could have benefited from tighter editing.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! I wish I liked this one more than I did -I DNFd pretty early on. The characters and “edginess” really broke my immersion, and j couldn’t continue.

This book is the start of a new epic fantasy series with steampunk elements.

There are few points of view and they interweave incredible well at the end. They go from a group of antiheroes/villains, a coming of age story of two brothers, the story of a mysterious powerful being, the story of a former child hero who may have to become a hero again in their adulthood and two friends from what appears to be Earth going to this other world.

The most interesting characters for me were the villains and the Earth people. I think the following books the Earth people will have a lot of focus too alongside the former child hero. I also hope the villains get more screentime, especially one villain who was very fascinating.

The steampunk elements come from the machines that are used from transport to beings capable of friendship. Steampunk is a genre i dont ussually gravitate but the blend with fantasy was very well done and i cant wait to get to explore more of the world and the steampunks elements.

If you want an epic fantasy with a lot of point of views from different types of characters but which converge very satisfyingly then this book is for you.

This book has been moved to my "To be continued" pile. I'm roughly 25% through the book and while I am intrigued by the world that Benjamin Liar is building I am struggling to find motivation to push forward. The characters are interesting enough but some of the dialogue is a bit rough and sometime sounds like middle schoolers that just learned how to use curse words. I really wanted this to be an epic page turner and it could still turn out to be that way and this early part is building up to it, but I need to take a break and come back to it to find out.

About 10% in and I had already decided this was going to be one of my favorite books of the year. The writing is great, the characters and setting were incredibly interesting, and it had this strangeness and dreamlike quality that made it feel familiar yet unique at the same time. I can’t wait to see what this author does next!

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t do this book justice, no matter what I say, but I’m going to try. It’s epic: in scope, in scale and, yes, the slang works, too.

It’s a story of monsters, made by people and circumstance. It’s also about those that life tried to make into monsters but who, against all odds, kept their heart intact.

You’ll meet so many characters: complicated, multifaceted characters. Those who are overwhelming good will do bad things; sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not. The characters you will love to hate may surprise you with their capacity for good. No one is what they first appear.

You’ll meet Sophie, who saved the world when she just was a kid. She followed this feat with a couple of decades of debauchery with her friends, the Killers. Each Killer is carrying a secret from their past that could change everything.

There are Giants and Behemoths and made things that belong in your nightmares.

It’s dark and there’s the Dark. There are doors and Doors. You’ll encounter magic that creates and magic that destroys. This is a world where you follow your dreams.

You will need to pay attention. The details matter. If the door is red, remember there’s a red door because you may see it again and the fact that you remember it will tell you something the next time you encounter it.

With some characters living for lifetimes, there are plenty of backstories to catch up on. Alliances are formed and broken. Motives change over time. Names no longer fit as well as they once did.

This story is nonlinear. This is also where your attention to detail will be rewarded. Your reactions to reveals will likely run the gamut of “I knew it!’ to ‘Huh?’ to ‘OMG!’ Knowing what you now know, though, you’ll be eager for a reread to pick up clues you missed the first time around.

You will curse the fact that the next book hasn’t been published yet because you need it right now! In fact, you need the whole series, dammit!

But you’ll wait, because you don’t have any other option. There’s no other option, right?

While you wait, you’ll take the time to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. You’ll appreciate trees in a way you didn’t before. When you see a butterfly, a delight may bubble up in you that you haven’t felt in a long time.

You will wait and you will think about these characters who are neither all good or all bad, and you will look forward to the day you get to see them again.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW Books, an imprint of Astra Publishing House, for the opportunity to read this book.

The Failures wasn't a bad book. I don't think, anyway. The writing was pretty awesome. I was... fairly curious about what was going on. Here's the thing: it ended up leaning far more to the "fantasy" spectrum as opposed to the "sci-fi" side than I expected. Unfortunately for me, sometimes I have issues with fantasy, and wrapping my head around more complex fantasy worlds, of which this one was. There are also quite a few characters to keep track of, and while they definitely were not hard to tell apart, they were a bit hard to keep track of. I was deep into work and school, and I just don't think my brain had the processing power.

So I won't even say I didn't finish this, because there is a chance I'll come back to it. I keep reading rave reviews, but when I read it I was getting frustrated, and me being frustrated while reading helps no one. So, if you have read the whole thing, should I come back around? Let me know!

Bottom Line: Definitely a case of "it's not the book, it's me". I'll keep you all posted if I try again!

ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher DAW in exchange for my honest review.

To give a comprehensive review of the Failures in a few paragraphs is difficult to say the least. The novel is a blending of science fiction and epic fantasy. It is a world full of doors to other worlds. It is a world where most of it is in darkness, and light itself is precious and fleeting. It is a world where the Giant Kindaedystrin brought most of the land into darkness and has been held captive in an underground prison for ages. It is a world where a group of colorful enemies have come together inside of a Mountain in the Underlands on behalf of Winter, a wizard of the Wise. Winter has a proposition that they form a cabal and travel deeper underground near the city known as the Keep, to visit the imprisoned Giant and “to kill the fcking thing.” But to do this they will need weapons, like the monsters at the top of the Mountain, in Dead City. These monsters will just need a little push.

The novel is broken up into several POVs with multiple storylines. Below are some of the major storylines.

The Monsters, who live at the top of this Mountain in Dead City, come from a portal from another world. Their names are Jackie and Gunnar. Gunnar one night meets a bartender named Jackie and convinces her after heavy drinking to go on an adventure where they enter a portal and are transported to the top of the Mountain. Gunar and Jackie have been rebuilt after going through the portal into instructible beings. They are the only two individuals left in this lost city. They are bored and having difficulty entertaining each other. Jackie likes to destroy the buildings with her might, and Gunnar enjoys smashing things with a mighty sword he brought through the portal into this world. Gunnar and Jackie, while they have each other are lonely. And are wishing for some excitement. Soon their boredom will be over as they fight hundreds of robotic demons and meet a mysterious man Mr. Vutch. From this, Jackie and Gunnar decide it is time to leave the mountain and travel down into the darkness towards a small speck of light, where they hope they will meet others, and maybe even get to spend some time at a bar and get a good drink. But while they don’t want to be considered monsters, destruction will follow.

Sophie Veschai an ostracized member of the ruling family of the Keep, and her crew The Killers like to hangout drinking and getting into trouble. Sophie, now a drunk, was once a hero that saved the Keep and thousands of lives after using her magic of embedded silver with a book that controlled a large number of robots. The magic she used though is forbidden and she would be executed if she uses it again. When Sophie and The Killers meet up with a mysterious disguised individual Mr. March, things change. Mr. March has a job for The Killers to open a silver vault and steal what is inside. And for doing this, Sophie and The Killers will be paid handsomely in battle drugs.

Then there is James and Chris in Cannoux-Town, as many of the children do, dream of a world of trees and sunlight. James has always felt inferior to his brother, Chris, as Chris is highly intelligent and is learning Dirt Magic from a local wizard. James, on the other hand, is one that doesn’t mind a good fight. James with the help of his mechanical fairy Buckle and a girl start a quest to find the Silver Key with the hope that it will help open the world of their dreams.

Finally, half-way through the novel we meet the Deadsmith. The Deadsmith is a supernatural being that is tasked to hunt down and assassinate an individual that has stolen an object that allows the individual to control the minds of others. It is a journey that will be full of bloodshed and introspection as The Prey through grisly reminders makes the Deadsmith revisit his past before he became this supernatural killer. For myself, I found this was my favorite POV of the novel.

More time could be spent giving a synopsis of the multiple storylines, but it would certainly ruin the surprises of the book. The author is praised for creating a novel with many well-developed main characters and several minor characters with their own back stories.

While the plot was certainly enjoyable, the highlight for me was the author’s writing ability and especially his ability to write dialogue. The dialogue reminds me of the best of Quintin Tarantino. There may be some that feel the use of the F-word is gratuitous, but for me it plays like music. The dialogue is lyrical and poetic.

While I truly enjoyed the book, I can’t give it five stars. In some ways this is a great book, but the ambition of the author in this novel did take away from my reading experience. The novel is told through many POVs and different timelines where it is not clear if you are reading something in the present or past. By the end it becomes clear to the reader as this large tapestry of POVs and timelines come together, but feeling the necessity of having to re-read the novel after completing it to truly enjoy the novel does take away from the experience.

Overall, this is an excellent introduction to a new voice in adult speculative fiction that I hope others will also enjoy and discover in the coming months.

What a debut. One of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. I might be biased (I'm on the publicity team) but I think everyone should go read asap.

This book is insane! Quite the ambitious debut. It's a blend of sci-fi and fantasy.

There are multiple pov's in this and I liked them all. When they started coming together, I was blown away. I might have sworn out loud multiple times throughout this book. I never saw any of it coming and was just amazed by how this author's mind works. I loved it!