BUY THIS BOOK NOW: The Traitor by Michael Cisco
I’m on a mission, and I’m pissed, and I’m not going to take it any more.
Michael Cisco is a surrealist master who has been completely and utterly ignored for the most part since his IHG-award-winning The Divinity Student. He’s been screwed over by publishers, he’s had more bad luck than I can remember any writer having, ever.
And now, finally, The Traitor, a true masterpiece, is out from Prime Books, and this book needs to do well. It needs to do well for Cisco, but also for us, because this book deserves your attention. It deserves to be on year’s best lists, and it deserves as many sales as it can get. This was going to be a Ministry book before the Ministry folded, and it’s one of my favorite novels of the last ten years. I think it’ll be a very depressing sign for the state of our field if this novel gets ignored.
Right now, the best way to buy it is on Amazon. So, please, go buy the book. I’ll be blogging about it on Amazon, doing reviews of it elsewhere, etc.
If you buy it and you like it, please tell others and blog about it yourself.
Paul Tremblay’s description of the book on Amazon:
One of my favorite reads of the year. Surrealistic setup; the narrator is a soul burner, employ of the Empire, and must hunt down Wite, a soul burner turned spirit eater. Cisco turns the strange and exotic into something so personal. The key here, is the narrative voice. So many writers don’t know how to use first person to their advantage (and I love me a good first person) and Cisco nails it in this book. The narrator’s voice/rhythm was hypnotic, mesmerizing, the repeated bits like incantations. It builds suspense and release at the right times, and the last line of the novel, after the narrator has flogged and implicated the reader, then made the reader want to be a part of humanity’s destruction, that last line is just pitch perfect.
October 16, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Adding it to Ye Olde “to buy” list…
October 16, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Here’s the blurb I gave for the novel, which sums up pretty well what I think of it.
Michael Cisco’s The Traitor is a sinister, hilarious, and profound story, hallucinatory in its language magic - a tale of Betrayal in all its forms; characters, scenes, ideas swirl like ghosts and devour themselves. An ingenious, crackpot nightmare in the very best sense of the phrase. Lovers of dark fantasy will find something utterly unique and compelling here.”
October 16, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I meant to pick this up at Capclave this past weekend, but forgot. I’ll definitely be correcting that mistake. Definitely someone more people should be reading.
October 16, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve got all his other books and had forgotten this one was coming out. He is definitely overlooked and a definite must read.
October 16, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Jeff: That is a great quote. Thanks!
I don’t mean to come off too strong about this, but it’s a critical book for Cisco and I mean to hand-sell as many as I can. :)
JeffV
October 16, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I am so excited to read this. A friend’s birthday is coming up, so I will pick up a copy for him too.
October 16, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Ok, ordered.
October 16, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Yeah, Cisco is a good writer. His story in Leviathan 3 was my personal favourite.
October 17, 2007 at 12:30 am
At your command, Master . . .
I’ve ordered a copy too. I like the sound of it. At least it’s not one of them danged YA novels :-)
October 17, 2007 at 12:44 am
Oh, Garth–you know I was joking about that! LOL! Although I guess I’ll have to do a Why I Rarely Read New Weird top 10 to convince you!! (Besides–I’ve read your young adult novels–they’re good!)
Jeff
October 17, 2007 at 1:08 am
I knew you were joking. I’m working on a squidlish story, though, because I know when you’re serious as well.
It reminds me that about three or four times a year I have to tell people that the piece I wrote called “My New Epic Fantasy Series” is a joke.
October 17, 2007 at 8:41 am
Oh, I loved the Divinity Student- I bought it so long ago. I didn’t know he was still writing! He’s been under my radar. I will buy.
October 17, 2007 at 9:53 am
Yes yes yes! BUY THIS BOOK! I need to go make a post of my own about this. If you EVER get the chance to hear Michael read, go do it. He’s amazing.
May 27, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Ordered and devoured. Am now relishing Divinity Student. What a writer!