STORMLAND by John Shirley-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 13, 2021

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.

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REVIEW:  STORMLAND by John Shirley is an adult,  near-future, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk detective thriller set in the year 2039.

Told from third person perspective following several intersecting paths STORMLAND focuses on what was once Charleston, South Carolina and the eastern seaboard of the USA. An environmental apocalypse has rendered the eastern seaboard inhospitable and mostly under water as daily hurricanes and storms ravage the shores and the remaining few who are willing to fight but those who remain behind are caught up in a game controlled by the rich and powerful, leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. Enter former US Marshall Darryl Webb, who has been tasked with returning an escaped serial killer, a killer who is unlike anyone Darryl has ever met. As the number of bodies increase, Webb and his Stormland counterpart Gerald, begin to notice a pattern, including a physical injury between the victims.

STORMLAND is a story of power and control; of manipulation and murder; of nano-technology and mind control. John Shirley pulls the reader into a dark, edgy world of constant storms, and haunting virtual realities. The tragic few who remain struggle to survive against the odds, odds that worsen as technology, designer synthetic drugs, and the collapse of the city begin to take its’ toll. The character driven premise though provoking, gritty and edgy; the characters are tragic, desperate and wounded.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy