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

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

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[Burma Turner]

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

[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.

[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?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[Matt Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you come into this book knowing Kraus for Angel Down and nothing else you’ll find yourself wondering wtf is going on. Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror mix together as we explore a future where humanity has caused and had to deal with various challenges and illnesses. Kraus describes these with the relish and precision you only usually see in horror, and some have the ick factor you may not be used to. But, typically, it’s rendered as literature as much as genre.

The world and its setup are carefully designed, sure, but the first person plot is character driven. Our protagonist is an 11 year old girl, chosen for her capacity to serve an essential purpose in modern society, imbued with special capacity and concomitant responsibility. We follow her through this world and others, seeing the tech and creatures that populate it, as she navigates the conflicting emotions and loyalties her duties engender.

Entirely captivating and brilliant.

[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!!

[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!

[ella reads hella]

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

[Ryan Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to all involved in receiving the advance copy. I’m a fan of Kraus and enjoyed the opportunity to get it. In fact, Angel Down was a favorite read from last year. Sadly, I will not remember this one as fondly.

To be clear, it’s a very well written, fascinating world and my criticisms lay solely in my own personal taste and mood. This novel did not hit me right. Some of the disconnect may be in the cover that, to me implies a sort of high fantasy-ish sci-fi tale when in fact this book is pure horror. Sure, there’s very futuristic elements and a central mystery sorta but at its core, it’s a very grim, very dark (not to be confused with grimdark) very brutal series of escalating scenes of body horror.

Admittedly, body horror isn’t really my thing but my central issue involves the nature of the main character and something that happens about 40% thru the book that made me very unhappy for the duration. It’s terrible, seemingly unnecessary and the book proceeds to wallow in its implications nonstop. In fact, had I know (I won’t spoil beyond that it’s SA) I probably would not have read the book in the first place.

Mr Kraus is an innovator and can clearly write and I’m sure a lot of folks will like this one I just wasn’t one of them. Thanks again for the ARC and the opportunity to support real, human made art, even when it’s not necessarily to my taste.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Progress was necessary. Progress was the whole reason for my existence. It did not matter what fueled it in the end, even if that fuel was hate.

4.5 stars. Although I am by no means an expert on Daniel Kraus’s work, having only read three of his books, one thing I do know is that I’m blown away by his range as a writer. In the high-stakes thriller Whalefall, he took us into a sperm whale’s stomach; in the Pulitzer Prize-winning historical fantasy/horror Angel Down, he transported us to WWI battlefield; and now, in the sci-fi horror epic The Sixth Nik, he introduces us to a future world barely recognizable as our own, as we journey with a cast of intriguing characters through the far reaches of space.

The protagonist of The Sixth Nik is a nine-year-old girl named Sisilla, who was raised by cultists for the sole purpose of performing a specific task to benefit humanity before dying at the ripe age of eleven. Her brain has been enhanced by “niks,” an esoteric type of tech that heightens her intelligence while dulling her emotions and shortening her life significantly. Aboard The Sickness, a ship made of biomatter, deep in outer space, Sisilla is charting towards her assigned task to investigate a rogue planet named Fém. What she finds there – and along the way – has potential consequences for all of humanity.

Nothing about The Sixth Nik is easy reading; in fact, it will likely end up being one of the most challenging books I read this year. The world building is almost overwhelmingly immersive and precise, and there are deeply philosophical, dense passages relayed in Sisilla’s pragmatic voice that require close reading to fully digest. But I found it to be an incredibly worthwhile reading experience, from atmosphere to characters to commentary. The book’s major settings, The Sickness and Fém, are so strange and menacing, each in their own specific ways. The idea of a sentient ship made of human body parts is viscerally unsettling – especially when it begins interfering with its crew in unimaginable ways. Fém gives all appearances of being a utopian society, until it horrifically reveals what’s lurking beneath the surface.

In a technically complex sci-fi plot, rife with the most disturbing body horror I’ve ever read in any book, The Sixth Nik nevertheless serves as a mirror for so many aspects of our lives now – exploring themes of found family and belonging, identity and duty, bodily autonomy, religious control, and cultural and class divides. Sisilla is the perfect character to bring these ideas to the forefront; as she begins to understand the truth about her origins, the book evolves into an emotionally and physically fraught coming-of-age story, and Sisilla evolves along with it. Her character arc is extraordinary.

The scope of this novel, the imagination and inventiveness behind it, are unfathomable. Kraus is a genius and has ruined all other space horror for me; I can’t imagine anything else in the genre living up to The Sixth Nik. Thank you to Saga Press for the early reading opportunity.

[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!

[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.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed arc on Netgalley. Daniel Kraus's first foray into outer space science fiction brings him back to his dark roots with a genre-blending stomach-churning bio-tech body horror Bildungsroman that may offend his newly acquired Pulitzer readers but will thrill long-time fans. Prepubescent Sisilla, groomed from infancy to carry out an arcane self-sacrifice as the seer of a remote and powerful mystic cult, carries within her skull six mysterious metal tech called niks, but she also bears the shame and fear of having displaced one in a gruesome exit through her eye cavity, leaving an eyeball tinged pink with blood. She carries this sixth nik as a secret talisman through the wild adventure of her assigned Chore, embedded in a biotech space craft grafted together with sickly diseased tissues and strange throbbing organs, with a bizarre crew of misfits and a demented, obsessive captain who reveals the secret of Sisilla's origin. Surrounded by death and disease, trained to sublimate feelings, and destined to die by age 11, Sisilla faces threats no normal child could bear, and through it all, finds her humanity. The Sixth Nik is highly recommended to fans of speculative fiction with caution to readers sensitive to triggers such as violence to children and animals and extreme body horror.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a triumph of absolute horror. It is awful. It is hideous. It reeks of “of course”. Of course it would be young girls turned to sacrificial lambs. Of course the progress of science rides on the bones of hatred. Of course the desperation to live results in death. Of course, of course, of course. It is one of the most repugnant stories I’ve ever read, and it is fantastically put-together. Every Kraus book could not be more different from the last. I love them all so far.

[Joe Caputo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wild. Bloody, intense, and heady. I really liked this one.

[Kira Hutchinson]

Whaaaaaaaaat was this book

[BeMandyReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sixth Nik

Wikipedia- Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is the genre of speculative fiction that imagines advanced and futuristic changes in technology, scientific knowledge, or biological systems.

It’s always interesting to me when a reviewer says, “I don’t read this genre” and then proceeds to explain why a book is bad even though they just stated it’s not their type of book.
With the current buzz around Whalefall, I feel like The Sixth Nik will end up with reviewers that don’t normally read sci-fi. Or maybe with the success of Angel Down (a Pulitzer!), more readers will be drawn to this book, even thought it’s not their norm.

I knew what I was getting into, kind of. Kraus seems to reinvent himself with each book, mashing genres and blurring lines. As a devote Kraus reader, I’m here for the story he’s telling, no matter the genre. For those that are new to Kraus, know that this one is SCI-FI. The world building is ambitious and fantastic, laying the groundwork for a tale full of horror and humanity.

This book is the story of a young girl named Sisilla, implanted with 6 devices (niks) in her brain that hyper amplify all senses. As a Niffakoq, Sisilla has been groomed for one task, to complete her assigned Chore while she is most efficient (from ages 9 to 11) before her brain swells and kills her.

I want to list each character and how they made me feel, but doing that would give away so much of the story so I’ll just give my recommendations. This book is for readers looking for sci-fi with imaginative world building and complex characters. It’s got elements of transhumanism, cyber punk and climate fiction, to name a few.

Sisilla, Niffakoq 55, is a character that will stick with me forever.


Highly recommend!


Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the eARC.

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is DISGUSTING. Don't be fooled by the calming blue of the cover, or the youth of the protagonist. The first glimpse of the intensity this book offers comes early in the book, when Sisilla, our 9-year-old hero, performs eye surgery on herself. This event is the origin of the book's title: as an infant, six "niks," little nickel sized pieces of metal tech, were implanted in her Sisilla's skull. These niks enhanced her senses, intellect, and developmental velocity. Over time, for some reason, one of them came loose, and lodged itself in between her eye and eye socket, causing immense pain. This little girl, all alone and in the dead of night, uses a butter knife to remove it. The scene is sudden, graphic, visceral. I found myself holding the book at a distance, like when you watch a horror movie through your fingers, as if that would soften the experience. After it was over. I immediately turned and read the passage to my wife to force her to experience the same thing.

This moment is just a taste of the viscerality "The Sixth Nik" offers, and, to be honest, it's one of the lighter moments. My biggest complaint might be it's too gross. Once Sisilla boards "The Sickness," it's a marathon with no respite. Kraus will write a particularly harrowing chapter, and you'll turn the page only to find a new equally disturbing horror.

If you have a weak stomach, this book is not for you. Gore, rape, body horror - all experience through the eyes of a (mature) nine year old girl. But the ideas! The themes! The presentation! It's one of a kind. As hard as it was to read, I love it. Though I think I'll read something light now to recover.

[Melissa Leitner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Saga Press for a gifted copy of the finished hardcover novel.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this one since science fiction is not my usual genre I gravitate towards. But I will read anything Kraus writes, so I jumped in headfirst. Wow, I need to start off by saying the body horror in this is unmatched. If people are put off because this book is marketed as something other than horror, trust me, there is plenty of horror within these pages. I cannot get over how stunning the world-building was, and this is a world that will stick in my brain for a very long time. I thought the way the story was crafted was so well done as to not overwhelm the reader with exposition, but also give them enough to ground them into the new reality being built. The ship design alone is some of the coolest and most unique world-building I have ever read.

I never wanted to put this story down, and I think it was perfectly paced. I was worried that part two of the book would be slower/ less engaging than part one, but I had nothing to fear. The way the story is crafted so that all these tiny details end up mattering in the end was extremely satisfying to read. I already knew Kraus was a phenomenal writer, but this book proved to me that he can write in any genre and knock it out of the park seemingly effortlessly. I definitely recommend this book to any science fiction fans out there, as well as horror fans and fans of phenomenal world-building in general.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo… what did I just read? LOL! I honestly do not often have that reaction to books, but this one? Holy cannoli - it was a TRIP, let me tell you. Organic spaceship made from reproductive organs and tumors…. Need I say more?

When I started this, I really wasn’t expecting it to be much on the HORROR side. I was expecting a bizarre scifi, dystopian. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely delivers on those two fronts. From the scifi perspective, this is ambitious book. The details of this futuristic world are fascinating and dense. It took me a while to become comfortable with the writing style, but once I did, I was hooked. There was so much science in this!! And I was like, I this real? It sounds real but there’s no way this can be real, right? It’s a truly immersive reading experience.

Next, this story has all of the basic tenets of a great dystopian: a young child with special abilities, a band of misfits sent on a dangerous mission, horror befalls them, child recovers in a deceitfully blissful place, etc. let’s not spoil it all. But you catch by drift!

What I was not prepared for (can anyone be adequately prepared for this?) was the incredibly, INCREDIBLY gruesome writing and plot line. I mean it’s just so damn bleak and horrible and bizarre and WEIRD and gross. I don’t even know how else to explain! I suppose I should have expected this to some extent because I read The Living Dead, which Kraus co-wrote, and I experienced that some gore and bleakness here. But wow! Shock factor of 8/10.

So did I enjoy this book? Yes and no. Yes, it was an audacious, extremely creative, and moving story. Once I got into it, I literally couldn’t put it down. But on the other hand, I will indeed be haunted by this experience, and not necessarily in a good way!