This novel is so much fun and yet there is a deeper, darker story here. “ The Splendid City is a splendid read indeed! How can anyone resist talking cats? I know I can’t. – Gregory Norman Bossert, filmmaker, writer and World Fantasy Award winner “With its whimsy, compassionate characterizations, and sly satire, The Splendid City recalls the best of Terry Pratchett. – Brian Evenson, World Fantasy Award winner of Song for the Unraveling of the World Satirical, and yet somehow more than just a satire, the joy of The Splendid City lies in the quirky and all-embracing exuberance of Heuler’s imagination.” “A sly and wild and funny book which uses witches, talking robotic heads, water shortages, the internet, a revolution, and a cat who used to be human (and who is now pretending to be a human with a skin condition) to cheerfully dissect the travails of what it is like to live in contemporary America. – Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the Worldand The Pallbearers Club “Karen Heuler’s soaring imagination is matched only by her integrity of vision and humanity. You’ll find witches, cats, animatronic politicians and much more besides – plus sinister undertones combined with laugh-out-loud surrealism.” The writing is engaging and smooth, with excellent banter, as the communal power of women works to find a purpose in a crazy world.” In this world without a moral center, Eleanor, a witch, and her black cat familiar, Stan, who walks on two legs and packs a gun, much like Behemoth from Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, are called to solve a mystery. “Karen Heuler’s The Splendid City is a wonderful fabulation, both humorous and contemplative, about the desperate state of US politics and society. “Both sad and hilarious, by mixing the madness of our modern-day political landscape with the fantasy rules of witchcraft, The Splendid City crafts a perfect quirk that ramps to wtf levels of genre-bending weirdness while packing enough common sense and humour to deliver something meaningful in a story about a white witch and her human-cat that shoots old ladies who disagree with him at the bus stop.” “A sharp, lively, funny contemporary fantasy with the feel of an up-to-date, more adult version of L Frank Baum’s Oz books.”
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