The Sixth Nik

by Daniel Kraus

Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks’s The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down and Whalefall.

Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue.

The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Space Opera, Mystery, Space, Adult

464 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2026

About the author

“Kraus brings the rigor of a scientist and the sensibility of a poet.” – The New York Times

DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His novel Angel Down was the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2025 ,and a national bestseller. His novel Whalefall received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more.

With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. He cowrote The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, and more.

Kraus’s work has been translated into over 25 languages. He lives with his partner in Chicago. Visit him at danielkraus.com.

Reviews

[Liana Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Galaxy ✨ stars!! Whoa! This is a cosmic horror novel I didn’t know I needed. This was intense, dense and overly intergalactic. This book takes body horror, space opera and science fiction onto next level. I mean, this book was a living, breathing biological tissue. It was so disgusting, my eyes were bulging and I couldn’t put it down. The intricate world building and extensive scientific concepts the first quarter of the book had my brain spiraling out of control. The complexity of the moral questions it imposed really made me think on a deeper level about what it means to be human. The philosophical and ethical dilemmas on top of its overall weirdness made my skin crawl and hairs stand up. I swear, I haven’t read anything like this yet and this might be by far the most creative book I’ve read this year.


I highly urge to do an immersive read.
FULL REVIEW TO FOLLOW


A little bit about it:
Set in the future, the female children live to a maximum of 12 years. They peak in intelligence around 9-11 years old and are sent off to complete a task at a distant planet where a small colony was exiled decades ago. The ship the children board is a living and breathing organism all on its own..but things don't go according to the plan.

From space horror, gore, body mutations, this is a total banger!


I am trying to read more science-fiction this year as I feel like this is my weakest genre in terms of how many books I read per year. I am doing another immersive read (physical and audio) because I know this will be hefty in world building!!

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, What the hell was that?!!? I was not prepared for how horrifying this was. The cover makes it seem blue and serene. But there’s pus and goo and every content/trigger warning you can think of. I hope you have a strong disposition.

If I had a nickel for every time I read a book this year with screwworms I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

I could not have predicted where the plot was going at any point. Highly recommend if you are tired of predictable scifi. There were a couple plot points towards the end that didn't surprise me, but overall I was wowed by The Sixth Nik.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy. All opinions are very much my own.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

A living spaceship. A crew that walks among throatways and lungs with a captain living in its skull. A crew that consists of a heavily modified engineer, a peyote addicted doctor, a Murder, (an assassin), a 9 year old girl, (Sisilla), and a non modified, possibly insane captain. This crew is tasked with investigating a planet that has gone rogue. And this is just the beginning!

I don’t even know where to begin, this story is so wild and the world building so incredible. This is a science fiction story and as most good science fiction does, it features an undercurrent of social commentary that hits hard at times. Women’s rights. Political brainwashing. Obfuscation of the truth for personal gain. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t some kind of political novel, it’s a horror/science fiction mash up that doesn’t skimp on the blood and gore.

I’m not going further into the plot because it’s too hard to explain. In addition to the imaginative settings, the characters here are well drawn and I was quite attached to a few of them. The empathy I felt for most of them made the denouement even more impactful.

Fresh off winning a Pulitzer for his last book, Angel Down, Kraus tackles important issues of the day disguised as a bloody tale of horror and fantastic fiction, and I am here for it. You should be too!

Daniel Kraus can write in any genre he wants and you can count on him to ace it. Highly recommended!

*ARC from publisher

[domsbookden · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 65%

The worldbuilding in The Sixth Nik is meticulous and exhaustive. I had to reread the first few sections just to wrap my head around what was happening—a testament to just how much detail is packed into this world. It's ambitious and demands a lot from the reader upfront.

The writing is also much more experimental than Whalefall, which a greatly enjoyed and gave 5 stars. It took me a while to adjust to the style, and even now I'm still not sure whether I liked it; I suppose when combined with the extravagant worldbuilding, I would have to say the writing ultimately didn't work for me. That said, I still enjoyed the first 30% and was curious to know where the story would go. A particular body horror scene involving an eye was fantastic and exactly the kind of imagery I was hoping for.

Unfortunately, everything that followed felt like the book was spinning its wheels.

I don't call things "shock value" very often because I think the term gets thrown around too casually, but I genuinely don't know what else to call some of the darker material included. To be clear, the content itself did not bother me, it was the lack of narrative justification for it. It's one thing for disturbing content to be interrogated poorly, but it's another for there to be no thoughtful authorial examination of it at all. There was virtually no reflection, thematic development, and connections drawn between the dark elements and the novel's larger scope. It’s very possible that I missed something while wading through the writing and worldbuilding, but without that foundation much of the brutality felt hollow and baseless.

Right up until I decided to throw in the towel with this read, I kept asking myself the same questions: What was the point? What/Who was this for? What was the goal? I kept searching for a lynchpin to tie all of the ideas together but I couldn’t found it, and I wasn't interested enough to keep searching.

If you're looking for a sci-fi/horror read that, in my opinion, does a far superior job of developing crew dynamics aboard a spaceship, I recommend Paradise-1 by David Wellington. Additionally, if you're looking for a sci-fi/horror read that handles a child FMC with more care and has a cleaner thematic execution, I recommend The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

After about fifty pages, The Sixth Nik really takes off and the storyline grows so compelling. I think as a YA sci-fi, this is going to be a challenging book for many younger readers due to the local color in the diction the author uses to world build. However, advanced readers will devour this book--it is the sort of adventure that pulls you along, and the main character is endearing and lovable. Her initial innocence, in fact, is what creates so much tension because TSN is no happy, joy, feel good trip through the galaxy. There is a very dark, graphic horror here, and the author's frank tone serves to underscore it.
Quite timely, TSN is a sci-fi/horror/fantasy combo about the great danger of AI and rapid fire techno advancements out pacing morality.

I started this at a time when I was extremely busy and could not find a moment to read for more than 15 minutes at a time, and even given those conditions, I was still eager to get back to the plot and completely invested. The language is so vividly descriptive (without ever getting heavy handed or purple) that it is so easy to see this world spread out before you. I sincerely enjoyed it.

The book revolves around a protagonist who is nine years old when we meet her. She is unquestionably treated like a second class citizen, used/sacrificed for the good of society, and she knows that her life will be short. Yet despite this, she feels honored and cherished--special, if alone. There are numerous honors and ceremonies surrounding her life, and readers meet her when she is about to leave her home and go out into the galaxy to fulfill her "task." Taken from her parents as a newborn, she has never known any other life. Six niks were inserted into her brain when she was only a few weeks old. Niks are basically nanotech that makes it possible for these chosen children to merge with the software and help their society make huge advancements. It is horrifying--clearly readers are supposed to find this tradition horrifying--but the protagonist's perspective is fascinating and even beautiful as she is so well written. It is quite the juxtaposition.

****Anyone watch The StarGate1 series? They had an episode with this same basic premise during which children took "nanites" into their brains to help society advance, and then they were removed, leaving the child all kinds of messed up. I think there was a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode like this too, only the child was fed to a computer. But please have no fear, the basic premise is where similarities begin and end. TSN is certainly its own, unique story. And the richness of the world alone (developed naturally with zero info dumps) makes this book well worth reading.

There is definitely some gore--so I like to warn readers just in case that's an issue. But overall, if you like well written sci-fi, this is one you don't want to miss.

[Kaden Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, bizarre, and beyond creative. If you can handle some body horror, I recommend going into this blind for the best experience. Books like this give me hope that there are still unique trad books being published because few people take the bold moves Kraus did in this novel

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kraus won last year’s Pulitzer for Angel Down, in which a quartet of American doughboys rescue an angel tangled in barbed wire in the hellscape no-man’s-land of a French battlefield. I thoroughly enjoyed that one. And the novel before that, Whalefall, in which a diver accidentally swallowed by a sperm whale has to battle his way out of that massive body before his air runs out. Here we depart the realm of fantasy and informed-by-science almost-reality and enter the world of flat-out sci-fi. And speaking of worlds, Kraus does some admirable world-building, but I strongly suggest you don’t read this one if you have a weak stomach. It’s set several centuries in the future, and the Tri-World (Earth, Mars and Europa) have sent an 11-year-old girl on a mission to a light-years-distant planet (essentially a leper colony peopled by folks from Earth infected with a bizarre and fatal infectious disease) to investigate what appears to be a dying-off of all life-forms on that planet’s moon. But this is not just any 11-year-old. She’s Sissilla, the latest in a long line of girls implanted with the mysterious niks, and she’s a tough little genius raised to be a wonder. But the ship that takes her and her small crew across the galaxy is bioengineered of human-like tissue and being inside it is like being inside a body that wants to invade you back. (If you read this, you’ll see what I mean.) Yuckety, yuck, yuck. Body horror to the max! And there’s more body horror awaiting Sisilla when she gets to the planet. But she’s one tough little mother!

[Mogsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2026/06/25/...

Daniel Kraus is one of those authors whose stories are rarely straightforward, often featuring ideas that are strange, symbolic, and once in a while even psychologically disturbing. There’s almost always more happening beneath the surface than what first appears, and that’s what I expected from The Sixth Nik. What I didn’t expect, however, was just how demanding it would be. Perhaps the most challenging of Kraus’s novels I’ve read so far.

My following summary will be woefully inadequate because there’s so much I want to say but can’t because I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll do my best. The story follows Sisilla, one of the Niffakoq, a line of specially chosen children implanted with six experimental brain enhancements called niks. These implants make them stronger, smarter, and far more powerful at reading and understanding the emotions of others. Each individual Niffakoq are also destined to undertake an important and dangerous mission called a Chore before their short lives come to an end, which usually happens around their eleventh or twelfth birthday. But Sisilla has never felt like she fit the mold and knows for a fact she is different. This is because, years earlier, she did the unthinkable by ripping out one of her own niks, and having one less has forever changed what she was meant to become.

Now, at nine years old, Sisilla sets out to undertake her Chore as part of the Niffakoq’s greater calling to serve the common good. She finds herself aboard The Sickness, a grotesque living vessel which will carry her and a motley crew to the distant planet of Fém to find out why this strange metal world that has cut off all contact with Earth. Journeying with her is the ship’s cold and distrustful captain, a beautiful engineer whose body has been rebuilt through countless cosmetic alterations, a warmhearted medic whose quiet wisdom makes him one of our protagonist’s few sources of comfort, and a stoic security officer with a mysterious past known only as Murder 005. And although their trip starts out fairly smoothly, it soon appears that someone is trying to sabotage the mission. The question becomes not whether Sisilla will complete her Chore, but whether she can stay alive long enough to try.

As always, Kraus delivers memorable characters in The Sixth Nik, though in many ways, they’re more important in what they represent. Sisilla is an incredibly complex protagonist, but she’s also tough to process because while she’s technically still a child, you can’t really think of her as one. Niffakoq chosen for this path are made to endure a lot, but nevertheless, as someone with children around her biological age, that fact never completely left my mind. It adds an extra emotional weight to scenes that would already be disturbing if they involved adults. Watching Sisilla endure a relentless string of cruelties and impossible decisions becomes emotionally exhausting, not because it’s gratuitous necessarily, but because the novel does little to soften the consequences of what she’s forced to experience.

The story itself is equally rough. Of course, there were stretches where I was completely absorbed, ready to uncover another piece of the plot or another layer of Kraus’s worldbuilding. At the same time, the pacing wasn’t always consistent. Particularly in the book’s second half, the narrative would occasionally drift into long, abstract passages where I found myself losing my bearings—and some of my interest. There were moments when it felt as though the story was circling the same ideas without moving forward, making it harder to maintain momentum. As such, this is the kind of novel that definitely requires a lot of patience, but to be fair, it rewards you too if you stick with it.

And in the end, I do admire what Kraus was trying to accomplish. I can see how, to many readers, this would be considered a horror novel, and yes there is plenty of gross body horror that made me feel queasy just thinking about it. But its horror is also built around larger ideas about identity and the ways people can become trapped by belief systems they never chose for themselves. As Sisilla begins to understand the truth behind her existence and why outsiders might view her as a cultist, the story evolves into a coming-of-age tale tangled with emotional trauma, physical hardship, and difficult questions about duty and autonomy. The more she uncovers, the more appalling her reality becomes.

Ultimately, The Sixth Nik is another bold novel from Daniel Kraus that is darker and more abstract, but despite its difficult and sometimes frustratingly opaque themes, it’s also one that will stick in your mind for a long time. While I am left emotionally exhausted from reading it, I still came away impressed by its scope.

[Ellery Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

My feelings are pretty mixed on this one.

Brilliant writing and world building, but there were times I spaced out (no pun intended) while listening to the audiobook. I think it was partially the book format and partially the fact that I often felt a disconnect with the characters.

I had no problem with the body horror or the killings. Murder 5 was hands-down my favorite character. Not sure why their voice outdone the rest. Maybe it was because they didn’t speak a lot but said a lot. Our MC was a little too verbose for me (like a kid that wants attention).

Reading this book made me realize something about myself which I had been unaware of until now. I like science fiction most when it features a human main character. I think that kind of grounding allows me to connect with settings and characters sprung straight from the author’s imagination.

There’s much to unpack in The Sixth Nik and I think it would make for a great busy read or group discussion.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.

I am going to start by saying I don't read much sci-fi. But I am an avid Kraus fan and knew I couldn't miss his next novel.

This is a bizarre story set in a futuristic world filled with characters best described as unique and haunted, many having undergone mutations and enhancements. Kraus is an excellent world-builder, and this story is no different. I could visualize the ship and the horrors to the tiniest detail, accomplished with my own imagination, prompted by Kraus's prose. And please believe when I say "horror" I mean it. Some of the most visceral and gruesome scenes that I've ever read from DK, or from many authors, for that matter. Stomach-churning at times.

I will say there were times I got lost, more my own fault than the author, but the last quarter of the book was a whirlwind of action. I was captivated. A truly original story that I believe fans of sci-fi and body horror will dig.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this thinking it was fantasy. It is a little fantasy, a lot science fiction and also horror. My dyslexia made reading this a slog and I hated nearly every moment of it. The book is full of hard to read made up words, it is magic, space and robots. I should have DNF'd, but I won the copy on Goodreads, and I read and review books I am given for free. In fact, the picture of the book I thought I won was not what I got. I got an early copy, so I can't even donate it. I waited to rate and post my review, I knew it was going to be a two stars half way through. Now that the book has been out a couple of weeks... here you go. Maybe you will love the chaos. I very much did not. Especially the r@ping and impregnating of a 9 year old.

[Emma Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

So. Hmm. I have no idea what to think. Will sleep on it.

ETA: my brain is too fried from my own writing all day to write a proper review. Maybe I’ll come back to it but if you love creative world-building to the nth degree, science, prognostication of what the future might hold based on where we are currently, and don’t mind body horror, this book is for you.

[Matt M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy hell.

If you’ve read Daniel Kraus before you know that he is an incredible writer and that you never know what you’re going to get genre-wise. The Sixth Nik, his latest (and follow up to his Pulitzer-winning Angel Down), is a sci-fi novel, yes, but this is absolutely also a horror novel.

I don’t read a lot of science fiction and when I do I prefer dark, horror-adjacent tales. The Sixth Nik has some of the most visceral, beautifully grotesque writing I’ve read in a long time. You can see, feel, hear, and sometimes even smell the body horror. And there is a LOT of body horror. Self-mutilation, spaceships made of fleshy organs and tumors, body modifications. So much more. This is not for the faint of heart. There is also a scene involving a character entering something called the Snarl (which you will learn about when you read) that was one of the most psychologically upsetting sections of writing I’ve read. And it’s so well done in the audiobook performance (which I highly recommend).

There are so many layers to this novel. It explores themes of bodily autonomy, power and control, the dangers of giving away tasks to artificial intelligence, destiny versus free will, abuse of power, and exploitation.

Whalefall and Angel Down are two of my favorite novels of this decade and I can safely add The Sixth Nik to that list too. An ambitious swing of a genre-bending nightmare that will leave you thinking about it long after you’re finished.

I received a gifted copy of this book from the publisher and publicist team. Thank you for the gifted copy! I also listened to portions of this novel on the audiobook.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Whalefall was about fathers, The Sixth Nik is about mothers. Before I start this review, I want to say that I appreciate Kraus’ ability to move thought out different genres and for his fascinating story concepts and quality of writing. However, this was a huge miss for me.

We follow Sisilla, a young girl who has been augmented by mysterious technology, ‘Niks’, in a way that gives her extraordinary abilities of logic, knowledge, and perception, but at the cost of dying by age 12. Before their death, they are sent on a ‘chore’: the one thing that will give them meaning by solving critical problems or creating much needed solutions. But on her chore, Sisilla is confronted with the unthinkable failure that may be related to a troubling secret, but which also may lead her to new freedom.

What I liked: Interesting worldbuilding, classic ‘rag-tag’ found family character development.

What some might not like: this has a lot of body horror and it is *wet* and gross.

What lowered this book’s rating for me; I’ll the small stuff: I felt like it ran out of steam with the last third, many of the more interesting questions were never answered so I felt like I invested a lot of emotional energy into the wrong things, the mother subplot was a mess and unsatisfying on any level.

The book killer for me [SOILERS]: I almost DNFed this book at about 44%. I actually had to put the book down for 2 days and it has taken me two weeks to even get the mental energy to write this review. There is a critical plot point that, essentially, involved the forced SA and impregnation of the 9-year-old MC through, essentially, Henti. There was even a line where she essentially says “Good thing I will die soon anyway so I won’t have to process this trauma”. Like, WHAT? The whole scene is treated almost as a throw away joke, further minimized by having everyone seem annoyed that they were also SAed. She then spends a substantial amount of the last part of the book trying to terminate and being thwarted, including people who want to force her to give birth. I stuck with it because I really wanted to see where this was supposed to be taking us and all I can say is: it wasn’t worth the journey. It got close to trying to justify this, but the minimizing of this literal child’s experiences for plot points that could have been arrived at differently was extremely disappointing.



Thank you to @sagapressbooks and @netgalley for this ARC for review.

[Camelia Rose]

Paused after 20%. I really want to love this book. It has many elements I love: space travel, aliens, symbiosis/parasites, AI, etc… But there is something that bothers me. Is it too gooey, the writing too verbose? Or it is just that I am not in the right mood. I will try again later.

[Janereads10 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like my mind broke reading this. My imagination had never been challenged quite like it was with The Sixth Nik, specifically its main setting, a ship called The Sickness, made entirely of biomatter. A word of advice: don't read this on a full stomach. But in all seriousness, The Sickness was unlike anything I'd read before.

This wasn't like any of Kraus's other books. The world-building was dense and the pacing slow, but I stuck with it, because like his other works, I wanted to know what he was trying to say. I was glad I did. The main character's journey was worth it.

Sisilla, the protagonist, is a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech who leads a crew to investigate a planet called Fém. The crew was an interesting bunch. Much like Angel Down, these characters carried Kraus's signature social commentary. Sisilla was meant to remain neutral, but she grew a bond with her crew. Not my usual found family dynamic, but I felt the fondness among the cast.

The settings, both The Sickness and Fém, were horrific in a quiet, creeping way rather than a loud one. The Sickness was sentient and unreliable, and what it did to the crew deepened the horror of the mission. There were moments so astounding I had to put the book down and step away for a couple of hours before continuing. Fém, while seemingly utopian for its inhabitants, was far from it. Its own horror was worth discovering.

Kimberly Woods' narration kept me going through the slower moments and elevated the horrific ones. I'd recommend pairing print with audio. Print for the world-building, audio to carry you through.

Overall, I didn't love this as much as Whalefall or Angel Down, but it was the book that pulled me into space horror. Kraus used the crew to deliver sharp commentary about bodily autonomy, class divides, and religious control. Space horror as a mirror to our world. The character arcs and sheer imagination behind it made it worth the slower patches.

Thank you Saga Press, Simon & Schuster Audio, and NetGalley for my free review copies. All opinions are my own.

[Burma Turner]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
This book just isn't for me. I did not finish at 30%.

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Saga Press for my free ARC of The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus — out now!

» READ IF YOU «
🩵 love characters with mommy AND daddy issues
😭 enjoy your heart getting blasted to smithereens
💙 want a little (well, a lot) of space horror in your life

» SYNOPSIS «
Sisilla is only nine years old, but she’s spent her entire life preparing for her most important mission to the planet of Fém. With a ragtag crew, she’ll board a ship grown from human teeth (I told you it was horror) and take off for Fém—but there are so many dangers in store along the way, and what kinds of fresh hell await them on the rogue planet itself?

» REVIEW «
Dude. Listen. I’m not a sci-fi girlie, but hear me out when I say that this story is less “science fiction” than it is “horror in space.” I was going to read it anyway because Kraus is a genius, but holy investment in this book and these characters!!!

And on that note, rude, Dan.

Sisilla is a little stiff at first, but you warm up to her specific flavor of precocity. And the rest of the heathens onboard? I adore them. This honestly feels like two books in one when you get to Fém itself, because there’s a whole ‘nother set of horrific hurdles to navigate. And that ending, wow. This story had me gripped the entire time, typical for a Kraus novel, and I highly recommend it. But be forewarned—it is GRUESOME in places. Certainly not for the faint of heart!

I’ve heard a rumor that there’s a second book 👀 so maybe we’ll be blessed with even more of this world?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[Marguerite Turley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously. I don’t think there’s a Daniel Kraus book that I read where I’m not in tears at the end. Just devastating and gorgeous, Kraus yet again gave me the MC of my dreams. I adored Sisilla and wanted to protect her with my life. And the writing! Jesus, this man has such a hold on the English language. Remembering a line near the end about the afterlife just brought me to tears again. It’s no surprise he won the Pulitzer, his writing floors me every time!! Another stunner to add to the Kraus collection!!

[Xanadu · Rating 1.75 out of 5]

In this bleak future version of Earth, we've terraformed Mars and Europa, traveling through space in biologically engineered vessels that resemble human organs. A religious ritual has evolved around equipping young children with biotech and assigning them to important tasks, in this case, to travel to a mysterious planet with a skeleton crew and investigate.

The ship containing our task-designated protagonist has a uterus and a womb, as well as other oversized organs which respond to the crew's behavior. And, it turns out, the young girl in question has just had her first period. If you're thinking this sounds a bit like Doom, and a little like Alien--you're not wrong, but Kraus is imaginative with his details and you'll find the story convincing, if not compelling. He experiments with prose form as he did in Angel Down, and it's impressive, but with a less glorious result.

As the resemblances to scifi classics start to take shape, so do unnecessary scenes of Cronenbergian grotesquerie. Get ready for bodily fluids, all of 'em--John Carpenter's The Thing is a cozy fantasy next to this hellscape. The plot never manages to break free from the scaffolding of its crib notes, rolling out one predictable shock-value development after another, until we're left with the ultimately empty, nihilistic ending that the story promised from its opening.

This should really be marketed as Splatterpunk rather than scifi/fantasy/horror. Fans of Kraus' two recent books should look elsewhere for dark sci-fi thrills, Mason Coile's Exiles, or the preceding W1ll1am would be a more meaningful and enjoyable version of the best parts of this book.


Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

[Melissa Stordahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Saga Press for the gifted copy of The Sixth Nik!

‘After that disagreeableness, the imperturbable voice asked ninety-three obtuse questions: What is the most unacceptable color? What makes for a boring evening? What mistakes do birds make? What is your most frightening talent?’

I lost count of how many passages I highlighted in this story, then sat staring at and pondering. What mistakes DO birds make? Our main character Sisilla, a nine-year-old Inuit chosen girl enhanced with brain implants known as niks, thinks about these and so many more as she prepares to undertake her secret task and then die shortly after as every other chosen Niffakoq has done.

This story sits in the Venn diagram of horror and science fiction. Just when you are caught up in imagining the future science described, waves of horror hit you like a brick and don’t let up for chapters. I’ve read quite a bit of body horror, but this was a LOT. Definitely read triggers for this one because I struggled to get through some of it. If you are reading this for the horror, it’s probably going to be five stars for you; I was torn and went with four because parts were just so far over the top.

Sisilla is one of the most captivating and intriguing characters I’ve read though; I found myself wishing this was a series in which she went on to have adventures in space. Even though the ending is what you might expect, the last bit was so satisfying.

I listened to a lot of the audio narrated by Kimberly Woods, and it was so helpful to hear her pronounce all the Inuit names and words! She did such a fantastic job; I highly recommend the 17 hour audio!

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really not sure what to make of this one. Or how to rate it. In a way it's brilliant, but in a way it's a mess.

Our point-of-view character is a nine-year-old girl raised on Greenland to be somewhat superhuman, with six brain-enhancing discs inserted into her brain as a baby. The discs allow the person to achieve incredible feats of mental accomplishment and make world-saving solutions, but the individual will die around age eleven. Needless to say, these children do not act like children, but savants with incredible encyclopedic knowledge and the ability to read a person's behavior (to 'Nik' them) so well that they know what they are thinking.

Think of a Star Trek Vulcan with almost mind-reading abilities.

Each of these children, or Niffakoq, has a single mission to accomplish before they die. Our Niffakoq, Sissila, is assigned to join a crew to a far planet that was a home for leprous exiles (I won't describe the real disease), but somehow the exiles survived and then cut off communications. If there is a cure for this disease, civilization wants to know. So the journey begins.

So far, so much set up of plot. But it gets strange, very strange, as we meet the diverse crew and especially the ship, which has formed itself for the mission. It's basically made of meat and body organs, and the descriptions of its innards and the horrible damage that happens to the crew and others in the book make this book a kind of horror novel. The body horror can be excruciating (at least to me - if you're a horror fan it might be acceptable).

Sissila arrives on the mystery planet and encounters what appears to be a utopia, with people living indefinitely and no discord. You know that can't last, right? This is where we stray into the Le Guin territory that the blurbs mentioned, 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'. What does it take to sustain the perfectly balanced society? There's a secret, of course.

I am impressed by the amount of biology that the author had to master to put this across, and the various technical descriptions of machinery. In that sense this is a hard science fiction book, similar to space opera (cue the Iain M. Banks blurbs), but it also reads like a horror novel. (If you don't think spaceships and horror mix, I refer you to the movie 'Alien').

The author is trying to do a lot here, and I'm not sure it all gells together well. But separately it is impressive as hell, including the first-person voice of Sissila who is emotionally stunted and has an intriguing mentality to follow. It's a difficult character to write and I admire that.

Kraus has science fiction chops (he worked with Del Toro on the movie 'The Shape of Water'), but I don't think he's done anything like this before, based on the descriptions I've seen. This is Daniel Kraus cutting loose with a barrage of genres, characters, body horror, and complicated narrative voice. People who read him because he won the Pulitzer with his WWI novel 'Angel Down' may be confused as hell with this one.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

𝑆𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑.

Well. This sure was an experience.

I’m going to be honest, describing this novel is near impossible. I have loved everything Kraus has written so far, and while I did enjoy this release, I find it very different from his previous work. But not entirely in a bad way.

The story is beautifully written, but it is packed with some of the most grotesque and unnerving body horror I’ve read in a while. It packs a punch to the psyche by highlighting the dangers of societal conditioning while also focusing on the beauty of bodily autonomy. There’s a lot of ethical exploration into nature vs. nurture, what it means to be human, and the value of a life.

The world-building is immense but not overwhelming to digest. The characters are all unlikable to a degree, but you still feel the need to cheer for them.

In truth, this is by far one of the strangest books I have ever read. I wasn’t expecting so many trigger warnings, and honestly, I have to stop and ask - Kraus, you good, man? Because WTF.

Overall, I didn’t "enjoy" this book exactly, but I did appreciate the message behind it and Kraus’s ability to take something so obtuse and make it impactful.

Special thanks to Saga Press for sending me a finished copy of this unique book in exchange for my honest review!

[Sam Wescott · Rating 5 out of 5]

How on earth can I recommend this book highly enough when I can barely figure out a way to describe the plot? Daniel Kraus is so brilliant and so incredibly weird and I don’t know any author who has more disgusting, beautiful, insightful, and horrific ways to explore the concept of a body.

On the one hand, this book is the coming of age story of a child savior. On another hand, it’s an interlocking story of abandonment to death and persistent, creative freedom. On another hand, it’s a story of bodies and how they betray us and how they save us, how they hurt and how they heal. On another hand, it’s a story of murder and who gets to decide who has the right to live. And if you noticed that that’s too many hands, well, you should be prepared for a lot of unsanctioned body parts in unsuspecting places in this horrific, beautiful homunculus of a space opera!

If you’re like me, you’re gonna get really mad at about 80% of the way through. I beg you to push through. This book is stunning in both meanings of the word. I am going to read whatever this author puts out for the near future. I think he might be a mad man.

[Casey Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very different than what I had expected, and maybe that's my fault. Of course it's well-written, it's Daniel Kraus. And I have absolutely no issue with body horror, I like it. I was just expecting more of the sci-fi aspect..... I don't know, it just didn't land how I was hoping. Didn't hate it! Didn't love it. A solid ok.

Thanks SO MUCH to Saga Press for the gorgeous gifted copy!

[Coral · Rating 5 out of 5]

just what i've come to expect from the brilliant Daniel Kraus. readers are just kind of, thrown in to his stories. sure, you might struggle to understand the motion of the ocean, but once you do, it's so fulfilling.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I loved Whalefall and Angel Down, but after four hours with the audio (and 13 more to go) I pulled the plug.
I had misgivings because I don't care for science fiction, and this is a long book.
The storyline is good and I loved the MC, but it wasn't enough. I hope the science fiction fans enjoy it.
For me... 2 stars

[ella reads hella]

One of the most grotesque, invigorating things I've read in ages. I'd give my leg to adapt this. Ga!

[Andi-Roo Libecap · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sixth Nik is a masterpiece of literary sci-fi. Everything — every single tiny detail — serves a purpose in this story. No words are wasted, and nothing is mentioned without eventually coming back in the most surprising way, altho even at that, every surprise is earned. I could talk about the symbolism and the deeper layers beyond page-level story for hours and it wouldn't scrape the surface of what is happening in this brilliant, philosophically complex book.

Super giant warning that it's not for everyone, of course. Lots of body horror and gore and bloody grossness. We have violence including but not limited to rape here, so tread lightly and protect your heart. Details are not spared. I will say, I don't believe any of it is gratuitous, it's all necessary, and it all has a solid reason to be there. But that is likely to be little comfort to the squeamish or those who have experienced trauma. Any complaints about this are legitimate; i don't wish to downplay the lived exclusive of those who decide this book goes too far. It is, admittedly, A LOT.

One of the things I liked best about this book is that it's almost like three separate stories, because the mc, whom I affectionately refer to as Sis in my head, starts out in one place, travels for a great length of time, and ends up in a third place. The people who love and care for her in each section are all so extremely different from each other and each group have their own agendas, so naturally the story reflects each of the three settings in vastly different ways. Sis is not the same in each setting, either; or rather, she changes and grows as she comes to understand the greater world she's in, and thereby comes to understand herself a little better in each setting. The world building is simply masterful!

I'm not doing this justice, but I hesitate to overexplain that which is best experienced for oneself. Sorry to be overly vague.

Another of my favorite parts of The Sixth Nik is the three characters of Jane, Murder Five, and Doctor Feng. They are drawn so well! Each is a fully expressed person, and so different from each other except in the one thing that they somehow agree on: they come to care for Sis, and she for them. But now I've said too much, dammit! At any rate, they are wonderful, complex characters, actually as are all the other characters, but these three are my favorites. I mean, for obvious reasons.

She gains the most insight from them, and starts to develop her own moral code, to question her purpose, to become a full-fledged individual. If the first setting represents childhood, this section represents adolescence and young adulthood — the college experience, one could say. And the final part is where she finally grows up and uses all the things she has learned, unlearned, and sorted thru, like a true adult.

If life is a journey, and this story truly embraces that concept, then it really is about the friends we made along the way. Don't worry, the book would never be so trite; that's all me.

I listened to the audio, which was marvelously narrated, but I'm so grateful to have received a copy I won in a GR freebie giveaway. This is a book I'm happy to have on my shelf, and one i will be recommending for years to come. I can't wait for the moment when I decide I need to read it again, and this time I pull out the hardback, slowly paging thru it, knowing now what I didn't know when I first hit play.

My god, I loved this book so much!

[Laura Manders · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.6⭐
First of all a warning, the book has a lot of gore and not just one part but throughout the whole book. Like proper gore, see all parts that break and protrude in a horror movie...

But the story and the writing style make it hard to pause the book. And a lot happens in the book, but everything gets their own time so that it doesn't feel hurried.
It was refreshing to read because of the amount of science and not the standard story that a lot of books have at the moment.
You don't know what will happen and in the end it changes perspective on some parts of your own life.