Gifts for Readers 2: Walking Through Fire

Here’s another fine gift for the reader in your life.  Or for yourself.

Sherri Cook Woosley is another Taos Toolbox veteran whose book appeared in the same week as my previous recommendation, Lauren Teffeau’s Implanted.

Walking Through Fire, from Talos Press, wasn’t workshopped at Toolbox, but we workshopped the sequel, and it was a nonstop rocket ride through a contemporary landscape that has had, basically, the entire content and architecture of myth and fantasy dropped in its lap, with horrific and unpredictable results.

Here’s the blurb from Walking Through Fire:

For fans of American Gods, a dark, humorous, and richly written, dystopian fantasy about the unbreakable bonds of family and the undying strength of a mother’s love.

The end of the world begins as literal fire rains down from the heavens. Ancient gods are released from their prison, eager to reestablish their long-lost power. But Rachel Deneuve has bigger, more contemporary concerns than a divine war.

Her son Adam is in the middle of a fight against leukemia, and Rachel is determined to keep focused on that battle. But when humans begin picking sides and the fighting escalates, their home in Baltimore becomes a war zone, one she can’t ignore.

Desperate to stay away from the carnage—as well as the germ-ridden refugee center—Rachel and Adam flee to their remote mountain cottage, only to find their refuge marred by mutated, grotesque plants and animals. Eventually, the cancerous cells in Adam’s body begin evolving as well, threatening his life and forcing Rachel to venture back into the eye of the storm. Left with no other choice but to sacrifice her own freedom for her son’s safety, she must become an unwilling warrior in a battle unlike anything seen in millennia, or lose everything she holds dear.

One reason to like this is because it’s about a mom fighting for her kid, and you don’t see a lot of that in genre fiction.  Another is that it features both a Jewish motorcycle gang and a dragon.

You can find Walking Through Fire in paperback, ebook, and audio at the following locations.  (I’m adding the one for Kobo myself, and my guess is that you can find it at all the usual places.  I really must tell the Toolboxers that, insofar as they actually have a web page, they should put thereon links for everyplace where someone might find their book.)

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Talos Press

Kobo