Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Sandymancer by David Edison!
Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi, Science Fantasy
Published on: 19th September 2023
Goodreads
A genre-bending mashup of The Wizard of Oz and Dune
All Caralee Vinnet has ever know is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. Those who can control the few elements left rule the world. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.
And Caralee has a secret—she can draw up power from the sand even though she isn’t supposed to. But she does… and winds up summoning a monster. Who happens to be the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and is bent on finishing the task.
Or maybe saving the world. He hasn’t decided if it’s worth the trouble, though.
Sandymancer is a funhouse fantastical Dorothy in Oz story with failed gods, dust magic, and murderous gigantic steel ravens. You think you are in a fantasy tale… and then you come to realize that what you are really in is one amazing science fiction story.
I adored Edison’s debut, The Waking Engine, for the incredible imagination that went into every aspect of it – it was, and still is, like nothing else I’ve ever read (and, you know, absolutely excellent on top of that!) – and I have been VIBRATING with anticipation for any new books from him!
(How did I know there would be more books? Because no storyteller that good writes one book and then gives up. I didn’t know if he’d self-publish or go trad-published again, but there was just no way Edison was out of stories to tell.)
Because I kept checking back, I discovered the title Sandymancer years ago, but couldn’t find any details about the story. So I waited. I waited patiently but passionately.
AND LOOK HOW THAT WAIT HAS BEEN REWARDED!!!
Sand magic and failed gods and science fiction masquerading as fantasy. The Wizard of Oz crossed with Dune. WHAT? WHAT EVEN?? OMFG??? That sounds so freaking WEIRD in the best possible way, and I am so happy that Edison has obviously decided not to try and tone down the weirdness after The Waking Engine and go mainstream instead. NEVER TONE IT DOWN, EMBRACE THE WEIRD AND THE WEIRD WILL EMBRACE YOU!
…Now I want embrace the weird and the weird will embrace you on a t-shirt.
Also: ARE THOSE FLYING WHALES ON THE COVER? ALIEN FAUNA? I DO NOT KNOW BUT I AM SO VERY EAGER TO FIND OUT!!!
And don’t think I missed the fact that the blurb mentions two characters but there are three on the cover. WHO IS THIS MYSTERIOUS THIRD PERSON AND WHY MUST I WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER TO KNOW???
So yes, I genuinely cannot wait for Sandymancer, I am rabid to pounce on a new Edison novel, SOMEONE TELL SEPTEMBER TO GETS ITS ARSE HERE ALREADY!
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