Stormland

by John Shirley

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Pub Date Apr 13 2021 | Archive Date May 27 2021

Sci Fi & Fantasy

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Description

They call it Stormland: a sprawling, largely abandoned region of the southeastern coast of the USA, where climate change’s extreme weather conditions have brought about a “perfect storm” of perpetual tempests; where hurricane-strength storms return day after day, 365 days a year.

The heart of Stormland is Charleston, South Carolina, a flooded ruin where hundreds of people remain for their own peculiar reasons; where thugs prey on the weak, and a strangely benevolent cult tries to keep everyone insanely sane. Here, plutocratic evil takes advantage of Stormland’s lawlessness to cultivate a weirdly puppeted theater of cruelty.

Swept into the turbulent vortex of Stormland is an unlikely duo—a former serial killer and a former US Marshal—who must work together to bring light to America’s late twenty-first century heart of darkness.

A cyberpunk detective thriller set in a maelstrom of climatic upheaval, classism, and corrupt power, Stormland paradoxically dramatizes the resilience of the human spirit.

A Note From the Publisher

John Shirley is one of the original cyberpunk writers. He is the author of numerous novels, including Demons, Crawlers, Wetbones, Cellars, Bleak History, City Come A-Walkin’, Bioshock: Rapture, and the Song Called Youth trilogy. His story collections include the Bram Stoker Award–winning Black Butterflies. He is coscreenwriter of The Crow, has written an episode of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television series, as well as animation scripts.

Advance Praise

“Set in a nightmarish future where extreme weather perpetually batters the coast, Stormland portrays human tenacity and ingenuity within a Hobbesian universe. John Shirley has created a vivid, hurricane-soaked canvas and a cast of memorable characters, none more so than a reluctant detective and a reformed serial killer who work in tandem to solve a series of perplexing crimes. A feat of dystopian imagination, Stormland cements Shirley’s voice in the upper echelon of the cyberpunk genre.”

--Jon Bassoff, author of Captain Clive’s Dreamworld

“Set in a nightmarish future where extreme weather perpetually batters the coast, Stormland portrays human tenacity and ingenuity within a Hobbesian universe. John Shirley has created a vivid...

Available Editions

EDITION	Hardcover
ISBN	9781094017822
PRICE	$26.99 (USD)

Additional Information

Average rating from 12 members

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Featured Reviews

Brad H, Reviewer

Stormland by John Shirley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Without spoiling it for anyone, I'll just go ahead and confirm that the blurb on this book is right on target for what you should expect.

Storms, storms, storms.

What you should also expect is chaos. Lots of floating bodies. A technothriller with cyberpunk aspects perfectly in line with John Shirley's earlier novels, but rather than taking a revolutionary tack, this feels more like a survival/mystery/thriller. The chaos is much more than the storms, although they also feature very prominently.

I will say, right off the bat, that if you like the complicated and deeply detailed styles of Sean Stewart's Galveston or the feel of some of Tim Power's darker, modern-placed novels, then I can promise you that you'll probably enjoy this very much.

As for the story's conclusion, leaving aside spoilers, I'm not entirely sure I believe the kind of partnership, but there are plenty of internal reasons why it ought to work, so I'm not complaining that much. I prefer good cyberpunk chaos anyway. Nothing says that unlikely friendships CAN'T happen.

It certainly happens here.

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Penny N, Reviewer

I have never read a book by this author, so I really didn’t know what to expect. It was only about a third of the way into this that I found who this author was and his accomplishments. Anyway, this book was a storm-filled, atmospheric-loaded thriller of how the spirit of humanity lives on even when in the worst of situations. Webb starts out his job of finding a killer and ends up realizing that people kill for many reasons when put in a no-win situation. I am not a huge fan of post-apocalyptic books, but this one was very good. The author was a master at making the reader feel everything that was going on around the characters even if sometimes I didn’t know the characters as well as I would have liked. This is a standalone well-worth a read. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.