Stormblood, Jeremy Szal
Stormblood, Jeremy Szal
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Stormblood

Author: Jeremy Szal

Narrator: Colin Mace

Unabridged: 16 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: 06/04/2020


Synopsis

Vakov Fukasawa used to be a Reaper: a bio-enhanced soldier fighting for the Harmony, against a brutal invading empire. He's still fighting now, on a different battlefield: taking on stormtech. To make him a perfect soldier, Harmony injected him with the DNA of an extinct alien race, altering his body chemistry and leaving him permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. But although they meant to create soldiers, at the same time Harmony created a new drug market that has millions hopelessly addicted to their own body chemistry.

Vakov may have walked away from Harmony, but they still know where to find him, and his former Reaper colleagues are being murdered by someone, or something - and Vakov is appalled to learn his estranged brother is involved. Suddenly it's an investigation he can't turn down . . . but the closer he comes to the truth, the more addicted to stormtech he becomes.
And it's possible the war isn't over, after all . . .

'A high-power augmented SF adventure that will keep you reading!' - Garth Nix
' This is what 21st century Sci-Fi ought to be' - Miles Cameron, author of Artifact Space

'A serious punchy space opera espionage that never loses sight of the human cost. Szal is adept at interweaving big SF ideas and fast-paced action to craft a compelling story' - Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time

About Jeremy Szal

Jeremy Szal was born in 1995 and was raised by wild dingoes, which should explain a lot. He spent his childhood exploring beaches, bookstores, and the limits of people's patience. He's the author of over forty science-fiction short stories, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. He was the editor for the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa until 2020 and has a BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from UNSW. He carves out a living in Sydney, Australia with his family. He loves watching weird movies, collecting boutique gins, exploring cities, cold weather, and dark humour. STORMBLOOD is his first novel. Find him at http://jeremyszal.com/ or @JeremySzal


Reviews

Goodreads review by Petrik

Milestone achieved: This is my 400th review! ARC provided by the author and publisher—Gollancz—in exchange for an honest review. A captivating military sci-fi debut. Stormblood tells a splendid story about two brothers divided by war that is full of comradeship, actions, and conflict. Here’s an ugl......more

Goodreads review by Nick

There are certain books that are difficult to review because they were so good and there was so much going on that you want to be able to do all of it justice. Problem is, most times you can't, but I will try very hard to see if I can do just that. STORMBLOOD by Jeremy Szal is also a tough book to ca......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Update: reread 11/25/22. Just as exciting and fun as the first read. Highly recommend. Alright Mr. Jeremy Szal, you and me need to make a deal. I agree to give you all my money and in return you have to write at least six books a year because this here is everything I love about reading. It's dark......more

Goodreads review by Khalid

"I realised this was a bad idea at around the time the alien biotech started pulsing with dark pleasure under my ribs." A modern Hard Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk & Space Opera(...?) that was well written. I realized from the first sentence that: 1. I like the writing. 2. And I'll like the ideas and scientific......more

STORMBLOOD is an excellent debut, and the audiobook is very well narrated by Colin Mace. I'd heard this book described as a mash-up of Altered Carbon and Mass Effect, and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better tagline than that. What not every review mentions, however, is that this book is infu......more


Quotes

STORMBLOOD is a high stakes adrenaline filled adventure featuring two estranged brothers suddenly on opposite ends of an addict's war. And it's real damn good Nick Martell, author of THE KINGDOM OF LIARS

A captivating military sci-fi debut. Stormblood tells a splendid story about two brothers divided by war that is full of comradeship, actions, and conflict Novel Notions

A magnificent and explosive adrenaline-fest . . . Szal's debut is an absolute must read for fans of gritty, action-packed, detective and military SF Grimdark Magazine

Stormblood feels like a superb combination of the actions in Red Rising Saga and the world-building of Mass Effect. Exciting, thought-provoking, and full of incredibly intense moments. Military sci-fi readers would be treating themselves well by putting Stormblood on their radar Novel Notions

This frenetic, grisly sucker-punch of a book manages to be everything you could want from sci-fi, while also carving out its own niche with a rusty slingshiv. Fantasy Book Review

Szal's world is an insane, twisted place, and STORMBLOOD is one of the best scifi stories you'll ever read Rob Boffard

Razor sharp and vicious, Stormblood is an adrenaline-driven vision of a dark future. Highly recommended! Michael R. Fletcher

Vakov Fukasawa is a former soldier, addicted to the biotech inside his own body that makes him constantly crave for action. And there is plenty of action in this fast moving novel, but not at the expense of ideas, or of humanity, or of vivid descriptions of Szal's carefully imagined war-torn galaxy Chris Beckett

An intriguing mix of rich worldbuilding, meaty twists and ballistic ultraviolence SFX

Delivers visceral, bone-crunching fight sequences and a strong emotional core SFX