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Wickhills
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers... even at the threat of war.
Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency she works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue, and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon ― and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different... and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light.
Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency she works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue, and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon ― and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different... and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light.
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 8, 2026
About the author
Premee Mohamed
87 books855 followersPremee Mohamed is a Nebula award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod and the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this on NetGalley because Premee Mohamed was the author. Her novella Butcher of the Forest blew me away, so I leapt at the chance to read something else written by her. Unfortunately, Wickhills didn't have the same effect on me Butcher of the Forest did, but I think I just wasn't the right audience.
To be fair, it's simply a different genre than Butcher of the Forest. While still fantasy, Wickhills is a cloak-and-dagger spy novel, with a "Who watches the Watchmen?" motif running through it. That's not really my usual genre, so someone more into secret agent type stories would likely enjoy it more. It did a good job creating a high level of suspense and mystery. The main character Ferec still comes off as an excellent agent, despite the fact that the shadowy enemies seem to consistently catch up to him and the defector he's protecting, despite him using every trick in his playbook, heightening the tension even more. How "they" are finding him becomes equal to the mystery of why "they" are searching for him so intensely and who "they" are.
The city of Wickhills is a great setting. It's magical in the true sense of the word - magic moves its streets around, makes walls appear at random, causes strange and dangerous creatures to live in its various environs. The different districts of the city are as varied and crazy as you'd want them to be. However, it's magical, not whimsical. It has dangers and slums and crime and pollution and homelessness just like any contemporary city would, so it feels gritty and more realistic than a typical fantasy city would.
That said, I really need to get attached to the characters to love a book, and the very qualities that make Ferec good at his job make him a rather unappealing main character for me. His job requires him to be detached, amoral, and have no priorities beyond his mission. He does an excellent job at this, but his professional detachment and unwillingness to reveal any details about himself make him a tough character to get attached to or care much about. There are many points in the story where it seems he might die and at one of these points I realized that I wouldn't have been that upset if he did. I'm not even sure Ferec would be that upset if he did. To be clear, I didn't want him to die; he just doesn't inspire much affection from the reader, so you aren't as emotionally invested in his journey, more frustrated by the mystery and obstacles he has to deal with.
Additionally, the cryptic nature of everything felt forced at times. There are numerous times where characters withhold vital information because "it's not time yet" or "you don't need to know" or even just "I'm annoyed and don't want to tell you." Some of it felt natural; some of it felt like it was just happening to drag out the mystery. The reveal of the overall danger to the city also just felt a little clunky to me. I can't really say more than that or I'll spoil a major aspect of the story.
Overall, if you think you'd like a fantasy spy story and you are ok with an emotionally detached main character, give this a shot. It's well written, but I much prefer the style of Butcher of the Forest to this.
I requested this on NetGalley because Premee Mohamed was the author. Her novella Butcher of the Forest blew me away, so I leapt at the chance to read something else written by her. Unfortunately, Wickhills didn't have the same effect on me Butcher of the Forest did, but I think I just wasn't the right audience.
To be fair, it's simply a different genre than Butcher of the Forest. While still fantasy, Wickhills is a cloak-and-dagger spy novel, with a "Who watches the Watchmen?" motif running through it. That's not really my usual genre, so someone more into secret agent type stories would likely enjoy it more. It did a good job creating a high level of suspense and mystery. The main character Ferec still comes off as an excellent agent, despite the fact that the shadowy enemies seem to consistently catch up to him and the defector he's protecting, despite him using every trick in his playbook, heightening the tension even more. How "they" are finding him becomes equal to the mystery of why "they" are searching for him so intensely and who "they" are.
The city of Wickhills is a great setting. It's magical in the true sense of the word - magic moves its streets around, makes walls appear at random, causes strange and dangerous creatures to live in its various environs. The different districts of the city are as varied and crazy as you'd want them to be. However, it's magical, not whimsical. It has dangers and slums and crime and pollution and homelessness just like any contemporary city would, so it feels gritty and more realistic than a typical fantasy city would.
That said, I really need to get attached to the characters to love a book, and the very qualities that make Ferec good at his job make him a rather unappealing main character for me. His job requires him to be detached, amoral, and have no priorities beyond his mission. He does an excellent job at this, but his professional detachment and unwillingness to reveal any details about himself make him a tough character to get attached to or care much about. There are many points in the story where it seems he might die and at one of these points I realized that I wouldn't have been that upset if he did. I'm not even sure Ferec would be that upset if he did. To be clear, I didn't want him to die; he just doesn't inspire much affection from the reader, so you aren't as emotionally invested in his journey, more frustrated by the mystery and obstacles he has to deal with.
Additionally, the cryptic nature of everything felt forced at times. There are numerous times where characters withhold vital information because "it's not time yet" or "you don't need to know" or even just "I'm annoyed and don't want to tell you." Some of it felt natural; some of it felt like it was just happening to drag out the mystery. The reveal of the overall danger to the city also just felt a little clunky to me. I can't really say more than that or I'll spoil a major aspect of the story.
Overall, if you think you'd like a fantasy spy story and you are ok with an emotionally detached main character, give this a shot. It's well written, but I much prefer the style of Butcher of the Forest to this.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received a free copy from Tor Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date September 8th, 2026.
I adored Mohamed's Siege of Burning Grass, but the widely praised Butcher of the Forest did nothing for me, so I was interested to see where her latest would land. In Wickhills, Ferec is an agent for the city-state of Wickhills, helping the secret police round up traitors and dissuade potential rebels. When a mission goes badly wrong, Ferec suspects that there's a mole somewhere within the Seaborne—and the resulting investigation will embroil him in a battle over the fate of the city itself.
Wickhills is, as the title might suggest, a setting-first book where the city is a main character. The worldbuilding is spectacular, featuring a city that's a little bit of Ankh-Morpork and a little bit of Ennes' Works of Vermin but mostly very much itself. Mohamad has a talent for sneaking in unsettling little tidbits about the worldbuilding: the building in downtown keeps growing new pillars, the streetlights are some kind of creature, don't look into the six inches of water that floods this district or something will Get you. The worryingly organic architecture is paired with the city's tempestuous history and constant undercurrent of revolution barely held in check by the Seaborne, the secret police.
Ferec, our main character, holds sway over the plot by virtue of knowing the city better than anyone else. He's deeply amoral and apolitical, and is governed solely by a strongly held code of professional competence. He's worked for the Seaborne since he was a teen in a high mortality career, and he thinks he ought to feel something when he kills someone, but he never does. However, his complete emotional distance from other human beings makes the narration a little cold. Excellent characterization for Ferec, but it lacks the underlying melodrama that I'm fond of. Ultimately, this is a story about smashing convictionless Ferec against the truth of the Seaborne and the City, and what he will do if his blind loyalty to his profession is shaken. The bittersweet ending is the perfect conclusion to a truly excellent fantasy novel and its morally grey protagonist—it's not the sort of plot to be tied off in a happy bow.
A tautly plotted spy versus spy novel with a creeping atmosphere of paranoia set against the backdrop of first-class worldbuilding. The characterization is a little bit too cold for me to make it a standout favorite, but it's an excellent work of craft. Reminded me very strongly of Hiron Ennes' Works of Vermin from last fall.
I adored Mohamed's Siege of Burning Grass, but the widely praised Butcher of the Forest did nothing for me, so I was interested to see where her latest would land. In Wickhills, Ferec is an agent for the city-state of Wickhills, helping the secret police round up traitors and dissuade potential rebels. When a mission goes badly wrong, Ferec suspects that there's a mole somewhere within the Seaborne—and the resulting investigation will embroil him in a battle over the fate of the city itself.
Wickhills is, as the title might suggest, a setting-first book where the city is a main character. The worldbuilding is spectacular, featuring a city that's a little bit of Ankh-Morpork and a little bit of Ennes' Works of Vermin but mostly very much itself. Mohamad has a talent for sneaking in unsettling little tidbits about the worldbuilding: the building in downtown keeps growing new pillars, the streetlights are some kind of creature, don't look into the six inches of water that floods this district or something will Get you. The worryingly organic architecture is paired with the city's tempestuous history and constant undercurrent of revolution barely held in check by the Seaborne, the secret police.
Ferec, our main character, holds sway over the plot by virtue of knowing the city better than anyone else. He's deeply amoral and apolitical, and is governed solely by a strongly held code of professional competence. He's worked for the Seaborne since he was a teen in a high mortality career, and he thinks he ought to feel something when he kills someone, but he never does. However, his complete emotional distance from other human beings makes the narration a little cold. Excellent characterization for Ferec, but it lacks the underlying melodrama that I'm fond of. Ultimately, this is a story about smashing convictionless Ferec against the truth of the Seaborne and the City, and what he will do if his blind loyalty to his profession is shaken. The bittersweet ending is the perfect conclusion to a truly excellent fantasy novel and its morally grey protagonist—it's not the sort of plot to be tied off in a happy bow.
A tautly plotted spy versus spy novel with a creeping atmosphere of paranoia set against the backdrop of first-class worldbuilding. The characterization is a little bit too cold for me to make it a standout favorite, but it's an excellent work of craft. Reminded me very strongly of Hiron Ennes' Works of Vermin from last fall.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews