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Bel Dame Apocrypha #1.5
Apocalypse Nyx
Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter Nyx is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.
Nyx’s disreputable reputation has been well earned. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices. Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.
Apocalypse Nyx is the must-have collection of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx adventures.
Nyx’s disreputable reputation has been well earned. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices. Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.
Apocalypse Nyx is the must-have collection of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx adventures.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2016
142 people are currently reading
823 people want to read
About the author
Kameron Hurley
94 books2,465 followersKameron Hurley is the author of the upcoming science ficition thriller These Savage Stars (2026), The Light Brigade, and The Stars are Legion, as well as the award-winning God’s War Trilogy and The Worldbreaker Saga. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Gemmell Morningstar Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed and numerous anthologies, and appears in two collections: Future Artifacts and Meet Me in the Future. Hurley has also written for The Atlantic, Writers Digest, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Bitch Magazine, and Locus Magazine. Her most popular essays, including the viral hit "We Have Always Fought" are collected in The Geek Feminist Revolution. She posts regularly at KameronHurley.com. Get a short story from Kameron each month via: patreon.com/kameronhurley
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
April 16, 2018
Apocalypse Nyx is a group of five shorter works about Nyx and her team of misfits from Hurley's Bel Dame series that begins with God's War. 'The Body Project' and 'The Heart is Eaten Last" seem novella length (my ARC does not do word count) accounting for 57% of the book, and as such, provide the most detail about the Bel Dame universe.
It's a complicated, fascinating place, made up of insect technology, semi-mystical body part repair and replacement, and shapeshifters. The state Nyx is from, Nasheen, is matriarchal although at least one of the neighboring states is not. The culture is heavily influenced by the war between Nasheen and the neighboring state of Chenja, which has been going on for decades and impacts every facet of Nasheen life. I suspect Hurley of using it to explore themes of loss, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder and the resulting dysfunction. Nyx is the protagonist of the series, but is painfully hard to like. The Chenjan magician, Rhys, acts as a moral and ethical compass, but would be easier to listen to if Nyx didn't have such a talent for pulling success out of disaster.
"The Body Project"
Nyx and Rhys are on a bounty hunt when they find a headless body on the street, the head magically swinging six stories above. It turns out she recognizes him, a man who used to be with her squad when she was at the war front.
"We're here for a parole violator, not a deserter," Rhys said, paging through the slick green papers of his little book of bounty contracts. "Should I update Taite on the delay?" "Not yet," she said... she wasn't sure how deep this was going to get yet, and didn't want to involve any more people than she had to until she understood why a good man who died a thousand miles from here lay mutilated on the streets of Bahora."
"The Heart is Eaten Last"
It has been two years since Rhys joined the team and Nyx finds herself taking a job for a lovely woman whose family's weapon plants are being sabotaged. The woman fears it may be a bel dame behind it. The team needs to work with a shifter and finds Khos.
"He hated her, so why did it hurt to see her get what she deserved? This was the life she'd chosen. And she would keep choosing it. She would come home every day bloody and drunk and spouting nonsense. Resigning was the only way to be free of her. Distance was the only way he could get himself to stop caring."
"Soulbound"
The team is looking for some technology that seems to be hidden in dead bodies when they meet Abdiel, a mechanic, who is researching the location of the soul. Their search takes them to the war front.
"Crossroads at Jannah"
This job is finding some bugs used to store data that have been disposed of in an acid lake. A quick little story, it epitomizes the approach Nyx has to her jobs and her team.
"Paint Red"
Everyone gets a day off, even Nyx. Too bad her day off repaying an old favor turns out even worse than a day with her normal team. The job is finding some tech at a parrot temple. Another harsh slice of Nasheenian reality.
***************
Nyx is hard to like, but a interesting character in a complex world. Those looking for sympathetic mains would be better off looking elsewhere. These are definitely of the dark fantasy variety. I suspect these stories would work best for those who are already familiar with the Bel Dame universe and the complexities of the team's relationships. In full disclosure, I had read two of these stories earlier as part of Hurley's Patreon rewards, so clearly I find a lot to value in Hurley's work.
Many thanks, as always, to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley.
It's a complicated, fascinating place, made up of insect technology, semi-mystical body part repair and replacement, and shapeshifters. The state Nyx is from, Nasheen, is matriarchal although at least one of the neighboring states is not. The culture is heavily influenced by the war between Nasheen and the neighboring state of Chenja, which has been going on for decades and impacts every facet of Nasheen life. I suspect Hurley of using it to explore themes of loss, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder and the resulting dysfunction. Nyx is the protagonist of the series, but is painfully hard to like. The Chenjan magician, Rhys, acts as a moral and ethical compass, but would be easier to listen to if Nyx didn't have such a talent for pulling success out of disaster.
"The Body Project"
Nyx and Rhys are on a bounty hunt when they find a headless body on the street, the head magically swinging six stories above. It turns out she recognizes him, a man who used to be with her squad when she was at the war front.
"We're here for a parole violator, not a deserter," Rhys said, paging through the slick green papers of his little book of bounty contracts. "Should I update Taite on the delay?" "Not yet," she said... she wasn't sure how deep this was going to get yet, and didn't want to involve any more people than she had to until she understood why a good man who died a thousand miles from here lay mutilated on the streets of Bahora."
"The Heart is Eaten Last"
It has been two years since Rhys joined the team and Nyx finds herself taking a job for a lovely woman whose family's weapon plants are being sabotaged. The woman fears it may be a bel dame behind it. The team needs to work with a shifter and finds Khos.
"He hated her, so why did it hurt to see her get what she deserved? This was the life she'd chosen. And she would keep choosing it. She would come home every day bloody and drunk and spouting nonsense. Resigning was the only way to be free of her. Distance was the only way he could get himself to stop caring."
"Soulbound"
The team is looking for some technology that seems to be hidden in dead bodies when they meet Abdiel, a mechanic, who is researching the location of the soul. Their search takes them to the war front.
"Crossroads at Jannah"
This job is finding some bugs used to store data that have been disposed of in an acid lake. A quick little story, it epitomizes the approach Nyx has to her jobs and her team.
"Paint Red"
Everyone gets a day off, even Nyx. Too bad her day off repaying an old favor turns out even worse than a day with her normal team. The job is finding some tech at a parrot temple. Another harsh slice of Nasheenian reality.
***************
Nyx is hard to like, but a interesting character in a complex world. Those looking for sympathetic mains would be better off looking elsewhere. These are definitely of the dark fantasy variety. I suspect these stories would work best for those who are already familiar with the Bel Dame universe and the complexities of the team's relationships. In full disclosure, I had read two of these stories earlier as part of Hurley's Patreon rewards, so clearly I find a lot to value in Hurley's work.
Many thanks, as always, to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley.
July 19, 2018
Originally posted at: https://1000yearplan.com/2018/07/19/a...
For those unfamiliar with Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha (God’s War, Infidel, Rapture), Nyxnissa so Dasheem (a.k.a. Nyx) is a hard-drinking, hard-fucking mercenary with sliding scale morals, working mostly as a headhunter on the planet Umayma, as the never-ending holy war between her home nation of Nasheen and their rival Chenja drags on. True to Hurley’s cacophonous approach to sci-fantasy worldbuilding, the details of the Bel Dame universe sound outrageous to the ear (insect-based technology?!?) but function with such an earthy coolness and insistent internal logic that they come off as realism. Hurley’s new book in the Bel Dame canon, Apocalypse Nyx, is a five-story cycle set in the time between the first and second novel of the trilogy; the stories are all standalones, though they are arranged chronologically and certain themes and character arcs thread through the book, giving it a satisfying, unified feel.
In “The Body Project”, Nyx and her team are on a job when they come across the mutilated corpse of Jahar, a former squad mate from Nyx’s time at the front. The problem is, Jahar should already be long dead – Nyx was there and blames herself. Nyx pretends to be a bel dame to get access to the building Jahar’s head is swinging from, only to cross paths with a long-estranged frenemy named Anneke who has her own reasons for investigating Jahar’s death. Then the real bel dames show up.
Anneke has joined the team by the time “The Heart is Eaten Last” begins, as Nyx takes a job hunting down domestic terrorists who are bombing weapons plants in southern Nasheen. Nyx’s estranged sister Kine comes calling, and her magician Rhys is finally getting sick of Nyx’s shit and starts looking for employment elsewhere, and a shapeshifter named Khos joins the team. “Soulbound” finds Nyx and the gang investigating a smuggler moving contraband in dead bodies when they come across a woman dissecting corpses while looking for the “seat of the soul”. The shortest work in the collection is “Crossroads at Jannah”, where Nyx is hired to retrieve some discarded data casings from an acid lake before they dissolve – a job that ends up being far more dangerous than it sounds.
The nightcap to all this madness, and the best of the five stories, is “Paint it Red”. With the rest of her team taking some downtime, Nyx tries to take a day off, but Mahir, a fellow former inmate shows up to call in a favor, and hijacks Nyx for a smash-and-grab job while providing distressingly little in the way of details. The details don’t come until much later, when it leads to someone from Nyx’s past.
Nyx isn’t always an easy sell as a protagonist; she’s an objectively terrible person, but then Hurley tends to build worlds where only terrible people have fortitude/resources/luck to survive the day. In Hurley’s stories, the environment, culture, commerce, etc. is relentless in placing demands on your time, your mind, your body. Nyx’s coping mechanisms – drinking and fucking – are nothing new, and little changes in her temperament from the opening page to the last. This is a predictable feature of its placement within the canon of the trilogy – Nyx can’t really grow as a person any more than the space between God’s War and Infidel allows, and it’s doubtful Hurley would want her to anyway. Fans show up for the fatalistic prose, acid-tongued banter between hard-bitten mercenaries, over the top violence and female-centered action storytelling - Apocalypse Nyx delivers on all those fronts.
Big thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity to read this ARC.
For those unfamiliar with Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha (God’s War, Infidel, Rapture), Nyxnissa so Dasheem (a.k.a. Nyx) is a hard-drinking, hard-fucking mercenary with sliding scale morals, working mostly as a headhunter on the planet Umayma, as the never-ending holy war between her home nation of Nasheen and their rival Chenja drags on. True to Hurley’s cacophonous approach to sci-fantasy worldbuilding, the details of the Bel Dame universe sound outrageous to the ear (insect-based technology?!?) but function with such an earthy coolness and insistent internal logic that they come off as realism. Hurley’s new book in the Bel Dame canon, Apocalypse Nyx, is a five-story cycle set in the time between the first and second novel of the trilogy; the stories are all standalones, though they are arranged chronologically and certain themes and character arcs thread through the book, giving it a satisfying, unified feel.
In “The Body Project”, Nyx and her team are on a job when they come across the mutilated corpse of Jahar, a former squad mate from Nyx’s time at the front. The problem is, Jahar should already be long dead – Nyx was there and blames herself. Nyx pretends to be a bel dame to get access to the building Jahar’s head is swinging from, only to cross paths with a long-estranged frenemy named Anneke who has her own reasons for investigating Jahar’s death. Then the real bel dames show up.
Anneke has joined the team by the time “The Heart is Eaten Last” begins, as Nyx takes a job hunting down domestic terrorists who are bombing weapons plants in southern Nasheen. Nyx’s estranged sister Kine comes calling, and her magician Rhys is finally getting sick of Nyx’s shit and starts looking for employment elsewhere, and a shapeshifter named Khos joins the team. “Soulbound” finds Nyx and the gang investigating a smuggler moving contraband in dead bodies when they come across a woman dissecting corpses while looking for the “seat of the soul”. The shortest work in the collection is “Crossroads at Jannah”, where Nyx is hired to retrieve some discarded data casings from an acid lake before they dissolve – a job that ends up being far more dangerous than it sounds.
The nightcap to all this madness, and the best of the five stories, is “Paint it Red”. With the rest of her team taking some downtime, Nyx tries to take a day off, but Mahir, a fellow former inmate shows up to call in a favor, and hijacks Nyx for a smash-and-grab job while providing distressingly little in the way of details. The details don’t come until much later, when it leads to someone from Nyx’s past.
Nyx isn’t always an easy sell as a protagonist; she’s an objectively terrible person, but then Hurley tends to build worlds where only terrible people have fortitude/resources/luck to survive the day. In Hurley’s stories, the environment, culture, commerce, etc. is relentless in placing demands on your time, your mind, your body. Nyx’s coping mechanisms – drinking and fucking – are nothing new, and little changes in her temperament from the opening page to the last. This is a predictable feature of its placement within the canon of the trilogy – Nyx can’t really grow as a person any more than the space between God’s War and Infidel allows, and it’s doubtful Hurley would want her to anyway. Fans show up for the fatalistic prose, acid-tongued banter between hard-bitten mercenaries, over the top violence and female-centered action storytelling - Apocalypse Nyx delivers on all those fronts.
Big thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity to read this ARC.
August 31, 2022
*** 4.25 ***
Short Stories
I just finished the short stories and wow! I know this is not Grim Dark, but it actually is more disturbing at times than anything Grim Dark I have ever read.... Nyx is one of the most brutal "protagonist" that is out there, and maybe even more so, because we are conditioned, in our society as a whole, to think of women as more nurturing, and if not, at least to look for some soft edges in them... What I find Kameron Hurley does best with NYX's character is that in the few moments of her being vulnerable we, the readers, time and again have some hope that maybe there is something we could root for within her, other than her exceeding capacity for survival and ability to kill... And 99.9% of the time we are reminded that she is not our typical human... I am disturbed by how much I love this series, because there is little "light" in it, the bleakness and brutality of this world is overwhelming, and yet I keep wanting more... I guess I am gluten for punishment...
Short Stories
I just finished the short stories and wow! I know this is not Grim Dark, but it actually is more disturbing at times than anything Grim Dark I have ever read.... Nyx is one of the most brutal "protagonist" that is out there, and maybe even more so, because we are conditioned, in our society as a whole, to think of women as more nurturing, and if not, at least to look for some soft edges in them... What I find Kameron Hurley does best with NYX's character is that in the few moments of her being vulnerable we, the readers, time and again have some hope that maybe there is something we could root for within her, other than her exceeding capacity for survival and ability to kill... And 99.9% of the time we are reminded that she is not our typical human... I am disturbed by how much I love this series, because there is little "light" in it, the bleakness and brutality of this world is overwhelming, and yet I keep wanting more... I guess I am gluten for punishment...
December 12, 2019
Love Nyx 🥰❤ love this world! Love Rhys and the team. I need to finally pick up book 2.
April 8, 2018
This is solidly sandwiched between Hurley's Nyx's first and second novels right where we can still enjoy scenes with Rhys.
Short novellas or short stories.
And this perfect for all us fans who loved this wild bio-punk world full of "magicians" who pull wild bioengineering stunts in the name of a religious war and mercenaries who feel like they're losing their souls. It's also great for all you hard-drinking, hard punching, embittered readers who like a lot of grit in their post-apocalyptic hard-SF Biopunk. :)
So was this good on its own, too? I think so! Short quests, jobs, and Nyx really shines darkly. Well, she's a mess. :)
Short novellas or short stories.
And this perfect for all us fans who loved this wild bio-punk world full of "magicians" who pull wild bioengineering stunts in the name of a religious war and mercenaries who feel like they're losing their souls. It's also great for all you hard-drinking, hard punching, embittered readers who like a lot of grit in their post-apocalyptic hard-SF Biopunk. :)
So was this good on its own, too? I think so! Short quests, jobs, and Nyx really shines darkly. Well, she's a mess. :)
March 30, 2018
Apocalypse Nyx is exactly the kind of science fiction I like - it's dark, violent, and has, at its core, a deeply flawed heroine who is hard as steel and has whiskey running through her veins. Nyx is a gal that sees few problems that can't be solved with her scattergun, and is always a hairsbreadth away from cutting off all ties with those that work for her and, if she were a more emotionally accessible and less war-wounded woman, people she might even call friends if she were drunk enough. Nyx is rugged and mean, and this collection from Kameron Hurley serves as a wonderful introduction to the former assassin turned ultra-violent problem solver, particularly if, like me, you haven't read the Bel Dame Apocrypha series proper.
I believe most, if not all, of the stories collected within Apocalypse Nyx were initially written and published for Hurley's Patreon supporters prior to their publication by Tachyon in this single volume. Gathered here are five stories set within the original Bel Dame Apocrypha, but which do not require any prior reading. You might get more out of these stories, or welcome a reintroduction to Nyx and her world, if you've been following this character previously but it's also highly accessible to newcomers.
The world Hurley has created here is as intense as it is interesting. The alien desert world Nyx inhabits is caught up in perpetual war, and Nasheenians like her are drafted to fight against their rival, darker-skinned Chenjans. The ruling body is highly matriarchal, but also heavily influenced by Muslim doctrine, with daily routine calls for prayer and a plethora of masques. On the technology front, bugs are king. Society has adapted to and grown reliant on insect-based tech - beetles are ground up to power vehicles, and form a communications network based on pheromones and body colors. Even the bullet casings and walls are rooted in creative uses of various bug life.
Story-wise, Apocalypse Nyx has a welcoming stand-alone episodic structure to it (quick, somebody call Netflix!). Although the various jobs and missions Nyx and her crew take in order to stay solvent are unrelated, taken as a whole there is a decent, if minor, character arc at play binding these stories together. I suspect there's a deeper arc to Nyx across the main trilogy, but I also kind of suspect that Nyx may be too violent, introverted, alcoholic, and deeply set in her ways to grow too much. Besides, she's more interesting without the happily ever after, at least in this volume, and Nyx is the type of character that it's hard to even imagine a happy ending for anyway.
I've been wanting to read about Nyx for quite a long while now, but somehow never made room for her. I happy to have finally corrected that with Apocalypse Nyx, and I now feel a greater urgency in exploring the trilogy of novels focusing on her. After this book and Hurley's prior release, The Stars Are Legion, if I've learned anything it's that from here on out all new releases from Kameron Hurley are to automatically move to the top of my mountain of TBRs. Count me among the number of faithful converts, because I am officially a fan of Nyx. This lady is one serious bad-ass.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
I believe most, if not all, of the stories collected within Apocalypse Nyx were initially written and published for Hurley's Patreon supporters prior to their publication by Tachyon in this single volume. Gathered here are five stories set within the original Bel Dame Apocrypha, but which do not require any prior reading. You might get more out of these stories, or welcome a reintroduction to Nyx and her world, if you've been following this character previously but it's also highly accessible to newcomers.
The world Hurley has created here is as intense as it is interesting. The alien desert world Nyx inhabits is caught up in perpetual war, and Nasheenians like her are drafted to fight against their rival, darker-skinned Chenjans. The ruling body is highly matriarchal, but also heavily influenced by Muslim doctrine, with daily routine calls for prayer and a plethora of masques. On the technology front, bugs are king. Society has adapted to and grown reliant on insect-based tech - beetles are ground up to power vehicles, and form a communications network based on pheromones and body colors. Even the bullet casings and walls are rooted in creative uses of various bug life.
Story-wise, Apocalypse Nyx has a welcoming stand-alone episodic structure to it (quick, somebody call Netflix!). Although the various jobs and missions Nyx and her crew take in order to stay solvent are unrelated, taken as a whole there is a decent, if minor, character arc at play binding these stories together. I suspect there's a deeper arc to Nyx across the main trilogy, but I also kind of suspect that Nyx may be too violent, introverted, alcoholic, and deeply set in her ways to grow too much. Besides, she's more interesting without the happily ever after, at least in this volume, and Nyx is the type of character that it's hard to even imagine a happy ending for anyway.
I've been wanting to read about Nyx for quite a long while now, but somehow never made room for her. I happy to have finally corrected that with Apocalypse Nyx, and I now feel a greater urgency in exploring the trilogy of novels focusing on her. After this book and Hurley's prior release, The Stars Are Legion, if I've learned anything it's that from here on out all new releases from Kameron Hurley are to automatically move to the top of my mountain of TBRs. Count me among the number of faithful converts, because I am officially a fan of Nyx. This lady is one serious bad-ass.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]
October 8, 2018
I love everything with Nyx in it. What a great, totally messed-up, yet still great character. And I also love her great but messed-up world. I choked up a bit when reading this, realizing some characters in it are now dead in book 2 or 3. But I also remembered how I came to love every single one of them.
A fabulous addition to the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy.
A fabulous addition to the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy.
August 28, 2018
Las mercenarias más chungas del lugar. Historias para gente a la que le guste la acción y la turbiedad (alguna cosa me ha recordado incluso a Clive Barker) a todo gas con ambientillo rollo Basora, año 2003-2004. Mi personaje prefe: Anneke, aunque el rollo mago-de-insectos, las bel dames y los cambiaformas dan mucho juego.
July 15, 2023
Really liked it, bur dark and futureless and not a nice main whom i like the premises of, however to much glorification of alcohol as a solving of issues still a fashinating glimpse of a dark future world.
June 27, 2018
Kameron Hurley is yet another one of those authors that I've read and heard a lot about. She has a regular column that appears in Locus magazine, where she writes about, well, just about anything. Up until now, her Locus columns are the only items of hers that I've read. I wasn't quite sure where to break in with reading her fiction; THE STARS ARE LEGION is her most recent novel and highly thought of in the field, so I've thought about starting there. The Bel Dame Apocrypha - a trilogy consisting of GOD'S WAR, INFIDEL, and RAPTURE, didn't seem like it was for me. Now that I've read Apocalypse Nyx, however, it may time time to at the very least add GOD'S WAR to my to be read list.
Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five novellas in the Bel Dame Apocrypha universe. Nyx - full name Nyxnissa so Dasheem - is the titular character of the stories. She is a bounty hunter, a former Bel Dame, a sort of government assassin. Now Nyx and her team take jobs for money. She typically retrieves items, but sometimes she ends up solving problems. But just about
all the time, the job is nasty, dirty, and bloody. And so is she.
The setting for the stories is a planet engulfed in what seems to be a never-ending war. The place is so dystopic it you'd find a picture of it next to the word dystopia in the dictionary. Or maybe you'd find a picture of it in an article that is trying to define apocalyptic. This place is mean and, well, weird. Bugs that seem to be everywhere and do everything, from power modes of transportation, to heal injuries under direction of magicians (mysterious people who demonstrate unusual powers in an otherwise (somewhat) rational world), to act as all sorts of weapons. There are shape shifters too. Nyx's band of misfits includes these and a couple of others, a young communications technician as well as someone who should probably be thought of as a sharp shooter.
Nyx is a dubious character at best. Her methods are, well, less than savory. She is violent and angry. She is trying to survive in the world, while at the same time trying to make it a better place. She gets involved in straightforward retrieval jobs, as well as morally questionable tasks, and manages to get involved in the middle of a dispute between members of a powerful family. She's just trying to do the best she can in a world that is out to get everybody. She has a nasty
reputation, and, as I gather from these stories, the reputation is well deserved.
Still, deep down underneath that facade, there appears to be a decent person just dying to get out. If she were your manager at work, you'd quit in a heartbeat. She is mean and heartless, and on the outside doesn't seem to care about the people in her employ. The job may come first - after all, the money is the most important thing when you're trying to survive in this world - but the people that help you complete that job are important. On the surface, she doesn't care about her team. She constantly threatens them with bodily harm or expulsion from the team. But when the team is in danger, she just can't bring herself to follow through on her threats. It seems to me that she was damaged during her life as a Bel Dame, but doesn't want to admit it. Rather, she goes through life projecting a bravado that seems to be hiding something deep inside.
As I said, there are five stories in this collection. The first two are my favorites; "The Body Project" and "The Heart is Eaten Last" are more than a bit violent and brutal, but like all the other stories in this collection ("Soulbound", "Crossroads at Jannah", and "Paint It Red") there are morals to be told and lessons to be learned, both by Nyx AND the reader. Each one will have you walking away thinking that you didn't see that coming.
Even though this book is being released in the summer, this is not light summer reading - unless you like your beach reading with a healthy dose of blood, violence, and snarky dialogue. If you do, then this book is for you.
Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five novellas in the Bel Dame Apocrypha universe. Nyx - full name Nyxnissa so Dasheem - is the titular character of the stories. She is a bounty hunter, a former Bel Dame, a sort of government assassin. Now Nyx and her team take jobs for money. She typically retrieves items, but sometimes she ends up solving problems. But just about
all the time, the job is nasty, dirty, and bloody. And so is she.
The setting for the stories is a planet engulfed in what seems to be a never-ending war. The place is so dystopic it you'd find a picture of it next to the word dystopia in the dictionary. Or maybe you'd find a picture of it in an article that is trying to define apocalyptic. This place is mean and, well, weird. Bugs that seem to be everywhere and do everything, from power modes of transportation, to heal injuries under direction of magicians (mysterious people who demonstrate unusual powers in an otherwise (somewhat) rational world), to act as all sorts of weapons. There are shape shifters too. Nyx's band of misfits includes these and a couple of others, a young communications technician as well as someone who should probably be thought of as a sharp shooter.
Nyx is a dubious character at best. Her methods are, well, less than savory. She is violent and angry. She is trying to survive in the world, while at the same time trying to make it a better place. She gets involved in straightforward retrieval jobs, as well as morally questionable tasks, and manages to get involved in the middle of a dispute between members of a powerful family. She's just trying to do the best she can in a world that is out to get everybody. She has a nasty
reputation, and, as I gather from these stories, the reputation is well deserved.
Still, deep down underneath that facade, there appears to be a decent person just dying to get out. If she were your manager at work, you'd quit in a heartbeat. She is mean and heartless, and on the outside doesn't seem to care about the people in her employ. The job may come first - after all, the money is the most important thing when you're trying to survive in this world - but the people that help you complete that job are important. On the surface, she doesn't care about her team. She constantly threatens them with bodily harm or expulsion from the team. But when the team is in danger, she just can't bring herself to follow through on her threats. It seems to me that she was damaged during her life as a Bel Dame, but doesn't want to admit it. Rather, she goes through life projecting a bravado that seems to be hiding something deep inside.
As I said, there are five stories in this collection. The first two are my favorites; "The Body Project" and "The Heart is Eaten Last" are more than a bit violent and brutal, but like all the other stories in this collection ("Soulbound", "Crossroads at Jannah", and "Paint It Red") there are morals to be told and lessons to be learned, both by Nyx AND the reader. Each one will have you walking away thinking that you didn't see that coming.
Even though this book is being released in the summer, this is not light summer reading - unless you like your beach reading with a healthy dose of blood, violence, and snarky dialogue. If you do, then this book is for you.
May 22, 2018
Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of short fiction from the Bel Dame Apocrypha universe. These stories are set before most of the events in God's War and follow Nyx and her squad on various missions in which they risk their lives.
I liked this collection more than the actual book. My favorite aspects of God's War were the characters and their dynamics, more than the plot (which wasn't that surprising) or the worldbuilding (which I didn't love).
The Body Project - ★★★½
Nyx is investigating the death of a man she once knew at the front.
In this story we see how Anneke became part of Nyx's squad, which was really interesting. My favorite part of this was definitely Nyx's and Rhys' banter (it killed me). The worldbuilding is still disappointing and I don't think that's going to change - I'm not sure what's going on with Nasheen's foreign politics because there are too many countries, all of them stereotyped. So much wasted potential, but I'm here for the characters and not that.
The Heart Is Eaten Last - ★★★★
This one had some seriously creepy parts. The heart scene - the scene that gave the title to this story? - was awful in the best way possible and I totally understand Rhys. I would have liked this story more if it had been shorter, but again, I liked it more than the book. It's about a failed Bel Dame trying to frame Nyx, and Khos joining Nyx's team.
Rhys and Nyx's not-relationship is more developed in these stories than in the book (I guess it helps to have more quiet scenes, they kind of got sacrificed in God's War).
Soulbound - ★★★★½
Nyx and her squad meet a woman who is dissecting bodies to find their souls.
This was fast-paced and short and hilarious and exactly what I wanted from this collection. I love all the characters now - I almost feel like they work better in short fiction than in novel format.
This is a story about souls and believing and what war does to faith when faith drives the war. I really liked how the religious themes were explored in this story (I didn't love what God's War did with them because again, wasted potential, but this was perfect).
Crossroads at Jannah - ★★★
Finally some more details on the biopunk insect technology! Another of my minor problems with God's War was how little detail we got on the bug sci-fantasy system, which is probably the most interesting aspect of the worlbuilding.
The story itself didn't have much depth and it was kind of predictable, but I really liked the ending.
Paint It Red - ★★½
Nyx can't rest even on her days off, because someone is either always trying to kill her or asking her to repay some kind of debt.
This felt unnecessary. I'm reading this book for the squad dynamics, not for Nyx to go and fight with other people I don't care about. But the f/f/f threesome was almost worth it.
Average rating: 3,5 stars
I liked this collection more than the actual book. My favorite aspects of God's War were the characters and their dynamics, more than the plot (which wasn't that surprising) or the worldbuilding (which I didn't love).
The Body Project - ★★★½
Nyx is investigating the death of a man she once knew at the front.
In this story we see how Anneke became part of Nyx's squad, which was really interesting. My favorite part of this was definitely Nyx's and Rhys' banter (it killed me). The worldbuilding is still disappointing and I don't think that's going to change - I'm not sure what's going on with Nasheen's foreign politics because there are too many countries, all of them stereotyped. So much wasted potential, but I'm here for the characters and not that.
The Heart Is Eaten Last - ★★★★
This one had some seriously creepy parts. The heart scene - the scene that gave the title to this story? - was awful in the best way possible and I totally understand Rhys. I would have liked this story more if it had been shorter, but again, I liked it more than the book. It's about a failed Bel Dame trying to frame Nyx, and Khos joining Nyx's team.
Rhys and Nyx's not-relationship is more developed in these stories than in the book (I guess it helps to have more quiet scenes, they kind of got sacrificed in God's War).
Soulbound - ★★★★½
Nyx and her squad meet a woman who is dissecting bodies to find their souls.
This was fast-paced and short and hilarious and exactly what I wanted from this collection. I love all the characters now - I almost feel like they work better in short fiction than in novel format.
This is a story about souls and believing and what war does to faith when faith drives the war. I really liked how the religious themes were explored in this story (I didn't love what God's War did with them because again, wasted potential, but this was perfect).
Crossroads at Jannah - ★★★
Finally some more details on the biopunk insect technology! Another of my minor problems with God's War was how little detail we got on the bug sci-fantasy system, which is probably the most interesting aspect of the worlbuilding.
The story itself didn't have much depth and it was kind of predictable, but I really liked the ending.
Paint It Red - ★★½
Nyx can't rest even on her days off, because someone is either always trying to kill her or asking her to repay some kind of debt.
This felt unnecessary. I'm reading this book for the squad dynamics, not for Nyx to go and fight with other people I don't care about. But the f/f/f threesome was almost worth it.
Average rating: 3,5 stars
March 14, 2019
The world of Umayma is still rocked by the ongoing war between the nations of Nasheen and Chenja. Former bel dame assassin turned freelance mercenary Nyx is still profiting on the sidelines of the war, slowly gathering a team of trusted associates to more effectively take on contracts, and hoping she doesn't get them killed in the process.
Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five short stories (a couple approaching novella size) set in the world of Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy. The stories take place before the trilogy (God's War, Infidel, Rapture) and serve several functions, including being an origin story for several of Nyx's associates. Interestingly Nyx herself doesn't get such backstory, perhaps as the novels told that story well enough or because Hurley is holding onto that story for another time.
Instead, we get the stories of how Khos and Anneke join the team, how the team operates together, why Rhys stayed with them for so long and the sort of small jobs that keep the team ticking over between the more epic events of the novels. It has to be said that these are all splendid. Like the trilogy, these stories feel like a pint of science fiction mixed with a pint of fantasy and washed down with absinthe. The stories brim with attitude and verve, even moreso since Hurley can set up and resolve the story in a few dozen pages rather than across hundreds.
There aren't too many problems as such, although those who enjoy short story collections for variations in tone may be disappointed: the collection retains the same bloody-minded attitude as the novels, with a fair amount of violence, mayhem and adult content. The short length of the stories does allow for a sharper focus though, and the stakes are correspondingly a lot lower. It's interesting to see how readily Nyx hits the self-destruct button when the team are tasked with a simple data retrieval mission, perhaps explaining how she reacts when the fate of the nation/world are at stake in the trilogy.
The most successful story is the last one, "Paint It Red", where Nyx is offered the chance to join another team of mercenaries. The idea of not being in charge and not having responsibility appeals to Nyx, but soon she discovers the price of working for a team whose morality is a lot more compromised than her own. The reader realises that Nyx, for all her myriad faults, has a sense of fairness and honour that sets her apart from others of her kind, and makes her ultimately a protagonist worth rooting for.
Apocalypse Nyx (****½) is a fine collection of razor-sharp, bloody-minded tales from one of the most interesting voices in modern genre fiction. It is available now in the UK and USA.
Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five short stories (a couple approaching novella size) set in the world of Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy. The stories take place before the trilogy (God's War, Infidel, Rapture) and serve several functions, including being an origin story for several of Nyx's associates. Interestingly Nyx herself doesn't get such backstory, perhaps as the novels told that story well enough or because Hurley is holding onto that story for another time.
Instead, we get the stories of how Khos and Anneke join the team, how the team operates together, why Rhys stayed with them for so long and the sort of small jobs that keep the team ticking over between the more epic events of the novels. It has to be said that these are all splendid. Like the trilogy, these stories feel like a pint of science fiction mixed with a pint of fantasy and washed down with absinthe. The stories brim with attitude and verve, even moreso since Hurley can set up and resolve the story in a few dozen pages rather than across hundreds.
There aren't too many problems as such, although those who enjoy short story collections for variations in tone may be disappointed: the collection retains the same bloody-minded attitude as the novels, with a fair amount of violence, mayhem and adult content. The short length of the stories does allow for a sharper focus though, and the stakes are correspondingly a lot lower. It's interesting to see how readily Nyx hits the self-destruct button when the team are tasked with a simple data retrieval mission, perhaps explaining how she reacts when the fate of the nation/world are at stake in the trilogy.
The most successful story is the last one, "Paint It Red", where Nyx is offered the chance to join another team of mercenaries. The idea of not being in charge and not having responsibility appeals to Nyx, but soon she discovers the price of working for a team whose morality is a lot more compromised than her own. The reader realises that Nyx, for all her myriad faults, has a sense of fairness and honour that sets her apart from others of her kind, and makes her ultimately a protagonist worth rooting for.
Apocalypse Nyx (****½) is a fine collection of razor-sharp, bloody-minded tales from one of the most interesting voices in modern genre fiction. It is available now in the UK and USA.
November 1, 2018
Definitely a must read for the Nyx, Bel dame Apocrypha Universe!
And also, if you love a apocalyptic world with a arabian influence, lots of sand, a lot of mechanical animals and insects, magicians and genetic manipulators, and a various bounty hunters crew with multiple mysteries in the background, and a lot of adventures, then this is for you!
It was good to see the Universe of Apocalypse Nyx extending and adding more informations to the Big Picture.
Recommended!
And also, if you love a apocalyptic world with a arabian influence, lots of sand, a lot of mechanical animals and insects, magicians and genetic manipulators, and a various bounty hunters crew with multiple mysteries in the background, and a lot of adventures, then this is for you!
It was good to see the Universe of Apocalypse Nyx extending and adding more informations to the Big Picture.
Recommended!
August 1, 2019
Hmmm... A roman noir military fantasy? Nyx and her gang of mercenaries, kidnap, steal and murder for their clients. Nyx is all about the job, doing whatever it takes in a brutal, war-torn world, no matter what the cost, very much in the line of a Dashiell Hammett character. While it's a fantasy, magic is used as a replacement for technology, ex. bug shooters rather than guns, rather than a plot fixer. This is a collection of five shorts, so you can read one to see if you like Nyx and company. While this is part of a series, I had no problem figuring out what was going on despite this being my first book. A decent, but very dark read.
December 29, 2018
Good intro to Hurley's Bel Dame universe and her "brutal women" ethos. And Nyx is brutal. A remorseless bounty hunter and assassin, she inhabits her war torn world like a titan. Truly unique grimdark sci-fi/fantasy. If you like this at all you must read the Bel Dame novels.
June 15, 2018
Nyx was a soldier. Nyx was a government backed assassin and bounty hunter. Now she works for herself with her own rag-tag team making a living in the grim, war-torn land of Nasheen
Life isn’t good, a centuries long war has turned Nasheen pretty apocalyptic and winning is surviving to see the next day - and maybe earning enough money to drink enough not to remember yesterday
This book with all its short stories is gritty with a capital grit. At many points in the story I expected something - I expected Nyx to soften, I expected her to see her crew as more like family, I expected her to see her to melt towards Rhys especially.
But everything about this is gritty, dark and messy. There’s no love, there’s just the release of casual sex. There’s no companionship - there’s just people Nyx works with (and that grudgingly) and every time we feel like we’re getting closer to something more
I say all this not as a criticism of the book, or even as a warning but as a clear depiction of what the book is. And in some ways it’s unique for it. I’ve read a lot of books that bring in the melodramatic grimdark, usually with lots of rape and torture for the sheer gratuitous purpose. But few pull off the gritty, certainly unrelenting gritty, gritty without some bright sparks, gritty without some sense of a happy ending or a happy moment or something. For unrelenting grimdark, this book works and is just perfect for it
This works because this is the world that Nyx lives in, this world far from Earth but clearly colonised but Earth people, this world where two nations have been at war for generations, a brutal horrific war complete with weapons of mass destruction used with such regularity that they have become a normal part of everyone’s day, with a border where the atrocities have piled up so much that mounds of bodies just don’t even feature. We have a state, Nasheen, where large branches of quasi law enforcement are dedicated to little more than hunting down deserters from the devastating wars, where we have people bred expressly for that war and conscription that consumes entire lives
On top of this we have both the grittiness of the war - chemicals, weapons, violence etc, but also the dangerous nature of the world itself with its multiple suns and high cancer rates which translates into some really strong messages on class divide as the poor obviously can’t spend time inside behind filters so they are susceptible to skin lesions and cancer - while the rich have smooth skin that is saved from the touch of the sun
In this we have Nyx, a deeply unlikeable character… which is perfect. Why should she be likeable? She’s a war veteran from a war that has destroyed her country from before she was even born. She’s been destroyed, remade, suffered immense trauma, watched many people around her die, been on an array of missions most of which have not exactly gone well, worked some rather unsavoury professions. She’s led a terribly traumatic, awful life, in a terrible traumatic, awful world: why would she be nice or pleasant or likable? Why would she even care about these things? It would break this whole theme, world and story if she were a woman with hope and positivity or had somehow managed to come through all of this still shiny would completely change the whole tone of the book. Even as Nyx has regrets and moments of guilt she drowns them in alcohol and so many times I think she’s so close to making the kinder choice…
We also have a really really fascinating world, a mix of sci-fi and magic - and the whole idea of magic involving insects and the way this works with technology and the general blending of it into society is incredibly well done (and I love that, i love how magic/sci-fi elements are not just used for the big showy stuff but also work for the day to day lives of everyone in the world, fascinating and just makes me want to investigate more of this world and kinda poke the author with a stick - because how do you even come up with this? *poke poke*.
On top of this we have a fascinatingly diverse world. Nearly everyone in this book are POC, though they are not on Earth and direct analogues are not easy, it feels Nasheen is made up of people of Middle Eastern Descent (including Nyx herself) while the country they’re at war with, Chejan (Rhys’s nation) are Black people. We have other nations mentioned which don’t feature prominently but there’s also an interesting addressing of mixed-race characters and how they meld or adopt different aspects of their nations cultures. I also appreciate that, even with the short story format, there is still some really excellent world building of these related nations. This is also reflected in the clothing - Nyx most often wears burnouse and dhoti.
Read More
Life isn’t good, a centuries long war has turned Nasheen pretty apocalyptic and winning is surviving to see the next day - and maybe earning enough money to drink enough not to remember yesterday
This book with all its short stories is gritty with a capital grit. At many points in the story I expected something - I expected Nyx to soften, I expected her to see her crew as more like family, I expected her to see her to melt towards Rhys especially.
But everything about this is gritty, dark and messy. There’s no love, there’s just the release of casual sex. There’s no companionship - there’s just people Nyx works with (and that grudgingly) and every time we feel like we’re getting closer to something more
I say all this not as a criticism of the book, or even as a warning but as a clear depiction of what the book is. And in some ways it’s unique for it. I’ve read a lot of books that bring in the melodramatic grimdark, usually with lots of rape and torture for the sheer gratuitous purpose. But few pull off the gritty, certainly unrelenting gritty, gritty without some bright sparks, gritty without some sense of a happy ending or a happy moment or something. For unrelenting grimdark, this book works and is just perfect for it
This works because this is the world that Nyx lives in, this world far from Earth but clearly colonised but Earth people, this world where two nations have been at war for generations, a brutal horrific war complete with weapons of mass destruction used with such regularity that they have become a normal part of everyone’s day, with a border where the atrocities have piled up so much that mounds of bodies just don’t even feature. We have a state, Nasheen, where large branches of quasi law enforcement are dedicated to little more than hunting down deserters from the devastating wars, where we have people bred expressly for that war and conscription that consumes entire lives
On top of this we have both the grittiness of the war - chemicals, weapons, violence etc, but also the dangerous nature of the world itself with its multiple suns and high cancer rates which translates into some really strong messages on class divide as the poor obviously can’t spend time inside behind filters so they are susceptible to skin lesions and cancer - while the rich have smooth skin that is saved from the touch of the sun
In this we have Nyx, a deeply unlikeable character… which is perfect. Why should she be likeable? She’s a war veteran from a war that has destroyed her country from before she was even born. She’s been destroyed, remade, suffered immense trauma, watched many people around her die, been on an array of missions most of which have not exactly gone well, worked some rather unsavoury professions. She’s led a terribly traumatic, awful life, in a terrible traumatic, awful world: why would she be nice or pleasant or likable? Why would she even care about these things? It would break this whole theme, world and story if she were a woman with hope and positivity or had somehow managed to come through all of this still shiny would completely change the whole tone of the book. Even as Nyx has regrets and moments of guilt she drowns them in alcohol and so many times I think she’s so close to making the kinder choice…
We also have a really really fascinating world, a mix of sci-fi and magic - and the whole idea of magic involving insects and the way this works with technology and the general blending of it into society is incredibly well done (and I love that, i love how magic/sci-fi elements are not just used for the big showy stuff but also work for the day to day lives of everyone in the world, fascinating and just makes me want to investigate more of this world and kinda poke the author with a stick - because how do you even come up with this? *poke poke*.
On top of this we have a fascinatingly diverse world. Nearly everyone in this book are POC, though they are not on Earth and direct analogues are not easy, it feels Nasheen is made up of people of Middle Eastern Descent (including Nyx herself) while the country they’re at war with, Chejan (Rhys’s nation) are Black people. We have other nations mentioned which don’t feature prominently but there’s also an interesting addressing of mixed-race characters and how they meld or adopt different aspects of their nations cultures. I also appreciate that, even with the short story format, there is still some really excellent world building of these related nations. This is also reflected in the clothing - Nyx most often wears burnouse and dhoti.
Read More
March 9, 2019
Turns out this is a compilation of novellas and shorts! That are part of a larger series! Neither of which is mentioned in the blurb at all!
So I was very confused when I started the first story. By the second, I'd picked up enough to have more context, but... I wonder how many people give up early and just think it's bad and confusing.
I am curious about continuing the series now that I've started, it's really interesting worldbuilding and very complex character morality. The one piece of credit I will give the blurb is that it gets the tone of the stories pretty close -- it's not so much dark humor as it is the bright light of a hot climate where even the shadows are bleached into misery by the blazing sun.
CW: violence, body horror, sex (m/f, f/f), magic, lots of swearing, lots of drinking, war -- either based on religion or culture or both, I'm not sure, but it's very long-standing so there's a lot of the kind of fall-out you might expect from that
So I was very confused when I started the first story. By the second, I'd picked up enough to have more context, but... I wonder how many people give up early and just think it's bad and confusing.
I am curious about continuing the series now that I've started, it's really interesting worldbuilding and very complex character morality. The one piece of credit I will give the blurb is that it gets the tone of the stories pretty close -- it's not so much dark humor as it is the bright light of a hot climate where even the shadows are bleached into misery by the blazing sun.
CW: violence, body horror, sex (m/f, f/f), magic, lots of swearing, lots of drinking, war -- either based on religion or culture or both, I'm not sure, but it's very long-standing so there's a lot of the kind of fall-out you might expect from that
January 21, 2021
I like the middle eastern themes, interesting magic bug-punk world building, and the format of little mini stories of varying lengths. The protagonist is unlikeable, the supporting characters are simple, and the plots are not memorable, but the overall experience does stick in one's mind after finishing the book.
P/S: I did find the overly generous use of the word f*ck (multiple times on the the same page/paragraph, even in the same sentence!) to be jarring and slightly juvenile.
P/S: I did find the overly generous use of the word f*ck (multiple times on the the same page/paragraph, even in the same sentence!) to be jarring and slightly juvenile.
May 3, 2018
I think these short stories would be a great place to start for someone who hasn't read any Nyx books. They give you an overview of the incredibly original world Hurley has created and Nyx and her team.
But, as someone who has read all of them, I was excited to read more about Nyx and her team. I was not disappointed. We need more Nyx!
But, as someone who has read all of them, I was excited to read more about Nyx and her team. I was not disappointed. We need more Nyx!
November 22, 2018
A perfect collection of short stories featuring Nyx and her crew in between the first and second books of the Bel Dame Apocrypha. These were all laser-focused on Nyx's character and the interpersonal relationships between her and her crew, as well as the origin stories for Anneke and Khos! A great addition to the collection for any Hurley fan.
July 25, 2018
I will readily admit my own bias but I think this was a fantastic addition to the Nyxnissa so Dasheen mythos. I love reading Nyx stories for the 90's action hero esthetics and the modern day introspection. I also much appreciated the thirsting in this book. 5/5 would read again.
January 11, 2019
"You make everything awful," he said. "Every hand someone holds out, you chop it off."A foul-mouthed, amoral bounty hunter, habitually drunken and continually sex-obsessed, a surly loner who still accumulates loyal followers despite abusing them at every turn... hmm, where have I met this character before? Recently? Ah, yes—Nyx sounds a lot like Hakan Veil, in Richard K. Morgan's Thin Air, the book I read just before this one. I swear it was just coincidence, though—I picked Kameron Hurley's collection Apocalypse Nyx off the library shelf mostly because I'd liked her earlier space opera, The Stars Are Legion. Before that, I didn't know anything about Nyxnissa so Dasheem.
—p.129
Besides, apart from their protagonists, these two volumes aren't really that similar. While Thin Air is fairly straightforward (perhaps even too straightforward) science fiction, Apocalypse Nyx's chunky, gooey, crusty milieu comes across more like a mashup of China Miéville with William S. Burroughs. These stories are set in a hallucinatory realm, where vehicles run on bug juice and shapeshifters flock to desert temples; where the call to prayer rings out from minarets five times a day but the police are all women. The place names aren't in any atlas or gazetteer I've ever seen, and there are two suns in the sky during the day. The biological "magic" which surrounds Nyx might actually be science in disguise, but any hints about that remain inconclusive. You can get a new body—even switch genders, for a price—but you'll likely lose it again the next time the perpetual war turns against the nation you're in, and you have to be resurrected. The name of Earth is never spoken.
In short, Nyx lives in a weird-ass place—but I liked it.
Apocalypse Nyx does have some issues. This is a collection of related stories, originally posted online, mostly on Hurley's Patreon... and the transitions from one story to the next often feel rough—this isn't a "fix-up" novel, in other words. But, since these are related works, reintroducing us to the characters and setting each time slows things down and frequently seems redundant. I also noticed a few proofreading glitches—the back-to-back appearances of "destressed" instead of "distressed" on p.232, and "principals" instead of "principles" on p.233, were especially distracting to me.
Whatever its flaws, though, Apocalypse Nyx carried me along with its exotic scenery and visceral intensity, and I ended up thinking this was a pretty good book. And if Hurley ever decides to revisit these tales, to polish them into a single narrative, perhaps with a few more adventures added in... I think it could be great.
April 1, 2018
As I mentioned in my review of The Stars Are Legion last year, Kameron Hurley originally came to my attention when God's War was nominated for the Nebula Award for best novel in 2012. I instantly fell in love with that book, and the same goes for the two sequels, Infidel and Rapture. Dark, violent, complex, touching, compelling, populated with flawed but endearing and unforgettable characters, I felt that the Bel Dame Apocrypha could well be the very best speculative fiction series of the new millennium. And a few years later, I still believe this. At the top of her game, I claimed that Kameron Hurley ranked among the best SFF writers out there. I couldn't wait to see what the future had in store for her. I went so far as to say that Hurley had now joined my short list of speculative fiction "must read" authors.
In the following months, something quite unexpected happened. Kameron Hurley gradually became known more for her blog posts, genre-related articles, or essays, and not necessarily for her novels. Nothing wrong with that, of course. She also became somewhat of a poster girl for the online SJW SFF clique. Which is why, in the end, I was so reticent to read The Mirror Empire, the first installment in The Worldbreaker Saga. Yes, I am aware that I've just said that Hurley was now part of my "must read" authors and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into whatever she would publish next. Problem is, the advance praise for that book scared me. You see, all those reviews went on and on about what Hurley was trying to do. Not much was being said about the story itself. It was nice to learn that she had not just subverted all those fantasy tropes and clichés. She kicked them in the balls, kicked them while they were down, set fire to them, and then pissed all over them. Good for her. But I'm a plot kind of guy. Always have been and always will be. I wanted to know just how good the story was. But all I was reading about had to do with gender role reversal and gender non-conformity, yada yada yada. Kameron Hurley was being applauded for coming up with something totally different. But not, as far as I could tell, for writing an awesome and captivating story. Understandably, The Mirror Empire was an extremely divisive work among readers when it was released. Still is to this day. And although I've bought both the first volume and Empire Ascendant, I'm still quite reticent to read these books. I'll get to them at some point, no doubt about it, but I'm in no hurry to do so.
Then the announcement came that Hurley's The Stars Are Legion, a space opera stand-alone novel featuring a female-only cast, would be published in 2017. Again, this was acclaimed by the SJW clique and the book, more than a year prior to its release, received a lot of coverage from those sources. I had the same reservations about that book, yet I resolved to give it a shot. This was a single, self-contained science fiction tale, and I wanted to review it. Overall, it turned out to be a good read. However, it suffered from too many shortcomings to even come close to the greatness that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha such an amazing series. The violence, the anger, the general badass vibe; it was all there. Unfortunately, the depth, the originality, and the superior characterization were absent, and The Stars Are Legion was a much weaker work for that.
But when I received an email offering me an early read of Apocalypse Nyx, I jumped for joy! Four of the five novellas that comprise this book were initially written and published for Kameron Hurley's Patreon supporters and will now be widely available for the first time, thanks to this nice Tachyon edition. It was pure delight to be reunited with Nyx and Rhys, if only for the span of five short fiction pieces. This collection recaptures everything that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha such a memorable read and is a must for anyone who's a fan of the original series. Apocalypse Nyx is also the perfect opportunity for newcomers to get a feel for the universe and its protagonists for the first time. It may lack the full depth of the trilogy, but it certainly introduces Nyx with a bang!
Here's the blurb:
Move over Mad Max—here comes Nyx.
Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter Nyx is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.
Her disreputable reputation has been well earned. To Nyx’s mind, it’s also justified. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices.
Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.
Apocalypse Nyx is the much-anticipated print edition of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx novellas, as well as the first e-book collection of her gritty, exciting adventures.
The worldbuilding that serve as the backdrop for the Bel Dame Apocrypha was top notch. Hurley's vision was quite unique and the world she created came alive in a manner that is seldom seen. Islam has taken to the stars, but the religion has evolved over the centuries. The author's narrative created a vivid imagery that made the ravaged world leap off the pages. Add to that some strange insectile technology and magic, as well as some cool concepts such as the bel dames and alien gene pirates, and you realized that Kameron Hurley has created something truly special. If you are one of those jaded science-fiction reader believing to have seen it all, think again. The novella format prevents elaboration on most of the ideas introduced in the series, so in that regard existing readers might get a bit more out of each tale than newcomers. And yet, each story is written in a way that makes them accessible even if you have not read the trilogy.
In a war-torn and contaminated world, you cannot expect goodie-two-shoes men and women. The product of a brutal and unforgiving environment, the characters are what you expect them to be. Hurley's characterization is similar to that of authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan, and George R. R. Martin. Forget black-and-white protagonists, for every single protagonist has shades of grey. Hence, not for the faint-hearted, but oh so satisfying. As a matter of course, Nyx takes center stage in every novella. Rhys, her contracted magician, plays an important role in most of them. The supporting cast is made up of interesting characters such as Anneke, Taite, and more. Going through these novellas made me want to abandon my scheduled reads and reread the Bel Dame Apocrypha. Yes, it is that good!
Although each novella acts as a stand-alone vignette and is episodic in nature, the five stories form a whole that works quite well. Hence, even if Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five different stories, there are enough threads linking them together to create a work that stands well on its own.
The rhythm throughout is fast-moving, making Apocalypse Nyx another page-turner. My only complaint would be that you reach the end too quickly, thoughroughly satisfied but begging for more. Here's to hoping that Kameron Hurley is planning additional Nyx stories, because I for one will be waiting in line to read whatever comes next for our favorite alcoholic bounty hunter!
The author's prose is dark and brooding, the rhythm often balls-to-the-wall, yet Hurley nevertheless finds ways to hit you with touching moments that pack a powerful punch in terms of emotional impact.
If the legendary Frank Herbert, Richard Morgan, and Joe Abercrombie had ever teamed up to write something together, the Bel Dame Apocrypha is the sort of creation they would have come up with. Indeed, the trilogy deserves the highest possible recommendation and I encourage you to give the first installment a shot. Brutal, uncompromising, brilliant, enthralling: That's God's War in a nutshell.
But if you find yourself in need of a primer, so to speak, something that works as a great introduction to one of the most badass heroines in SFF history and to one of the best science fiction series of the new millennium thus far, then Apocalypse Nyx is just what the doctor ordered.
I would like to thank Kameron Hurley for this chance to revisit these remarkable protagonists and their unforgettable setting. The genre needs more Nyx.
For more reviews, check out www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com.
In the following months, something quite unexpected happened. Kameron Hurley gradually became known more for her blog posts, genre-related articles, or essays, and not necessarily for her novels. Nothing wrong with that, of course. She also became somewhat of a poster girl for the online SJW SFF clique. Which is why, in the end, I was so reticent to read The Mirror Empire, the first installment in The Worldbreaker Saga. Yes, I am aware that I've just said that Hurley was now part of my "must read" authors and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into whatever she would publish next. Problem is, the advance praise for that book scared me. You see, all those reviews went on and on about what Hurley was trying to do. Not much was being said about the story itself. It was nice to learn that she had not just subverted all those fantasy tropes and clichés. She kicked them in the balls, kicked them while they were down, set fire to them, and then pissed all over them. Good for her. But I'm a plot kind of guy. Always have been and always will be. I wanted to know just how good the story was. But all I was reading about had to do with gender role reversal and gender non-conformity, yada yada yada. Kameron Hurley was being applauded for coming up with something totally different. But not, as far as I could tell, for writing an awesome and captivating story. Understandably, The Mirror Empire was an extremely divisive work among readers when it was released. Still is to this day. And although I've bought both the first volume and Empire Ascendant, I'm still quite reticent to read these books. I'll get to them at some point, no doubt about it, but I'm in no hurry to do so.
Then the announcement came that Hurley's The Stars Are Legion, a space opera stand-alone novel featuring a female-only cast, would be published in 2017. Again, this was acclaimed by the SJW clique and the book, more than a year prior to its release, received a lot of coverage from those sources. I had the same reservations about that book, yet I resolved to give it a shot. This was a single, self-contained science fiction tale, and I wanted to review it. Overall, it turned out to be a good read. However, it suffered from too many shortcomings to even come close to the greatness that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha such an amazing series. The violence, the anger, the general badass vibe; it was all there. Unfortunately, the depth, the originality, and the superior characterization were absent, and The Stars Are Legion was a much weaker work for that.
But when I received an email offering me an early read of Apocalypse Nyx, I jumped for joy! Four of the five novellas that comprise this book were initially written and published for Kameron Hurley's Patreon supporters and will now be widely available for the first time, thanks to this nice Tachyon edition. It was pure delight to be reunited with Nyx and Rhys, if only for the span of five short fiction pieces. This collection recaptures everything that made the Bel Dame Apocrypha such a memorable read and is a must for anyone who's a fan of the original series. Apocalypse Nyx is also the perfect opportunity for newcomers to get a feel for the universe and its protagonists for the first time. It may lack the full depth of the trilogy, but it certainly introduces Nyx with a bang!
Here's the blurb:
Move over Mad Max—here comes Nyx.
Ex-government assassin turned bounty-hunter Nyx is good at solving other people’s problems. Her favorite problem-solving solution is punching people in the face. Then maybe chopping off some heads. Hey—it’s a living.
Her disreputable reputation has been well earned. To Nyx’s mind, it’s also justified. After all, she’s trying to navigate an apocalyptic world full of giant bugs, contaminated deserts, scheming magicians, and a centuries-long war that’s consuming her future. Managing her ragtag squad of misfits has required a lot of morally-gray choices.
Every new job is another day alive. Every new mission is another step toward changing a hellish future—but only if she can survive.
Apocalypse Nyx is the much-anticipated print edition of Kameron Hurley’s five newest Nyx novellas, as well as the first e-book collection of her gritty, exciting adventures.
The worldbuilding that serve as the backdrop for the Bel Dame Apocrypha was top notch. Hurley's vision was quite unique and the world she created came alive in a manner that is seldom seen. Islam has taken to the stars, but the religion has evolved over the centuries. The author's narrative created a vivid imagery that made the ravaged world leap off the pages. Add to that some strange insectile technology and magic, as well as some cool concepts such as the bel dames and alien gene pirates, and you realized that Kameron Hurley has created something truly special. If you are one of those jaded science-fiction reader believing to have seen it all, think again. The novella format prevents elaboration on most of the ideas introduced in the series, so in that regard existing readers might get a bit more out of each tale than newcomers. And yet, each story is written in a way that makes them accessible even if you have not read the trilogy.
In a war-torn and contaminated world, you cannot expect goodie-two-shoes men and women. The product of a brutal and unforgiving environment, the characters are what you expect them to be. Hurley's characterization is similar to that of authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan, and George R. R. Martin. Forget black-and-white protagonists, for every single protagonist has shades of grey. Hence, not for the faint-hearted, but oh so satisfying. As a matter of course, Nyx takes center stage in every novella. Rhys, her contracted magician, plays an important role in most of them. The supporting cast is made up of interesting characters such as Anneke, Taite, and more. Going through these novellas made me want to abandon my scheduled reads and reread the Bel Dame Apocrypha. Yes, it is that good!
Although each novella acts as a stand-alone vignette and is episodic in nature, the five stories form a whole that works quite well. Hence, even if Apocalypse Nyx is a collection of five different stories, there are enough threads linking them together to create a work that stands well on its own.
The rhythm throughout is fast-moving, making Apocalypse Nyx another page-turner. My only complaint would be that you reach the end too quickly, thoughroughly satisfied but begging for more. Here's to hoping that Kameron Hurley is planning additional Nyx stories, because I for one will be waiting in line to read whatever comes next for our favorite alcoholic bounty hunter!
The author's prose is dark and brooding, the rhythm often balls-to-the-wall, yet Hurley nevertheless finds ways to hit you with touching moments that pack a powerful punch in terms of emotional impact.
If the legendary Frank Herbert, Richard Morgan, and Joe Abercrombie had ever teamed up to write something together, the Bel Dame Apocrypha is the sort of creation they would have come up with. Indeed, the trilogy deserves the highest possible recommendation and I encourage you to give the first installment a shot. Brutal, uncompromising, brilliant, enthralling: That's God's War in a nutshell.
But if you find yourself in need of a primer, so to speak, something that works as a great introduction to one of the most badass heroines in SFF history and to one of the best science fiction series of the new millennium thus far, then Apocalypse Nyx is just what the doctor ordered.
I would like to thank Kameron Hurley for this chance to revisit these remarkable protagonists and their unforgettable setting. The genre needs more Nyx.
For more reviews, check out www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com.
February 22, 2021
Apocalypse Nyx
Author: Kameron Hurley
Publisher: Tachyon Publishing
Publishing Date: 2018
Pgs: 283 pgs
Disposition: Interlibrary Loan - Richardson Public Library - Richardson, TX via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
_________________________________________________
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Nyx is a mercenary and assassin. Nyx’s world is a Middle Eastern based alien world where humanity came from somewhere else to settle. Here women rule. Men are fodder for the front lines and the wars that rage between the major powers of this world. Bounty hunting is good. Not the way Nyx does it, but it’s profitable enough that it isn’t going away. Whiskey, sex, and a good fight. ...and threatening to run off her team, though she stands by them...even if she doesn’t want to.
_________________________________________________
Genre:
Hard Science Fiction
Science Fiction
Genetic Engineering
Bugpunk
Godpunk
Desertpunk
Apocalypsepunk
Why this book:
Cause I love Nyx and her team. And Kameron Hurley writes them awesomely.
_________________________________________________
Favorite Character:
Nyx is a walking weapon...when she’s not blind drunk.
Favorite Scene:
Damn the heart. Of course now I wonder... Hmmm, eww.
Favorite Quote:
“You don't have to be mean about it. How long have you been in Nasheen? Of course, I have to be mean about it.” Nyx is a product of her world. Broken...drunk...honorable, in her own way...badassed.
“God doesn't go away, even if you do.” Great line.
Favorite Concept:
Bugpunk is awesome.
Hmm Moments:
The hanging head of a man whose body littered the street below who was supposedly killed more than a hundred miles away. That a helluva hook.
When your paranoid bug magician tells you that something may be a trap, maybe you should listen to him.
So, not only do they rebuild and reanimate bodies...if bodies are left alone, they get up on their own zombie style. Great. Great place. Wouldn’t want to visit. Wouldn’t want to live there. But awesome worldbuilding.
Juxtaposition:
In the second story, Nyx begins to remind me of Clint Eastwood from A Few Dollars More.
Nyx can't make up her mind who she wants to have sex with and who she wants to kill. Of course, sometimes, she almost seems to want to do both.
Life is cheap in Nyx’s world. The bodycount the heroes, antiheroes, run up is huge. Are they heroes or just survivors?
Missed Opportunity:
I like Rhys and Nyx. She seems more broken than him but he's hiding something. Course they all are. And if the author answered all the questions where would the next story go?
Dreamcasting:
Gal Gadot as Nyx.
Chris Hemsworth as Khos. Though it might be too small a part for as big a star as he’s become.
_________________________________________________
Pacing:
These books are crunchy. You read a little bit, you think about it, and, then, you read a little bit, and you think about it.
_________________________________________________
Author: Kameron Hurley
Publisher: Tachyon Publishing
Publishing Date: 2018
Pgs: 283 pgs
Disposition: Interlibrary Loan - Richardson Public Library - Richardson, TX via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
_________________________________________________
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Nyx is a mercenary and assassin. Nyx’s world is a Middle Eastern based alien world where humanity came from somewhere else to settle. Here women rule. Men are fodder for the front lines and the wars that rage between the major powers of this world. Bounty hunting is good. Not the way Nyx does it, but it’s profitable enough that it isn’t going away. Whiskey, sex, and a good fight. ...and threatening to run off her team, though she stands by them...even if she doesn’t want to.
_________________________________________________
Genre:
Hard Science Fiction
Science Fiction
Genetic Engineering
Bugpunk
Godpunk
Desertpunk
Apocalypsepunk
Why this book:
Cause I love Nyx and her team. And Kameron Hurley writes them awesomely.
_________________________________________________
Favorite Character:
Nyx is a walking weapon...when she’s not blind drunk.
Favorite Scene:
Damn the heart. Of course now I wonder... Hmmm, eww.
Favorite Quote:
“You don't have to be mean about it. How long have you been in Nasheen? Of course, I have to be mean about it.” Nyx is a product of her world. Broken...drunk...honorable, in her own way...badassed.
“God doesn't go away, even if you do.” Great line.
Favorite Concept:
Bugpunk is awesome.
Hmm Moments:
The hanging head of a man whose body littered the street below who was supposedly killed more than a hundred miles away. That a helluva hook.
When your paranoid bug magician tells you that something may be a trap, maybe you should listen to him.
So, not only do they rebuild and reanimate bodies...if bodies are left alone, they get up on their own zombie style. Great. Great place. Wouldn’t want to visit. Wouldn’t want to live there. But awesome worldbuilding.
Juxtaposition:
In the second story, Nyx begins to remind me of Clint Eastwood from A Few Dollars More.
Nyx can't make up her mind who she wants to have sex with and who she wants to kill. Of course, sometimes, she almost seems to want to do both.
Life is cheap in Nyx’s world. The bodycount the heroes, antiheroes, run up is huge. Are they heroes or just survivors?
Missed Opportunity:
I like Rhys and Nyx. She seems more broken than him but he's hiding something. Course they all are. And if the author answered all the questions where would the next story go?
Dreamcasting:
Gal Gadot as Nyx.
Chris Hemsworth as Khos. Though it might be too small a part for as big a star as he’s become.
_________________________________________________
Pacing:
These books are crunchy. You read a little bit, you think about it, and, then, you read a little bit, and you think about it.
_________________________________________________
July 15, 2019
Hurley definitely has a touch for world building without exposition dumps, and for writing good dialogue. So why only a three star rating?
Short stories are hard to write, and one of the drawbacks of that format is getting enough story in to keep it short, and to create interesting characters. In Nyx Hurley creates a damaged, severely damaged because of environment and PTSD, person in Nyx. But, Nyx is arguably quite unlikable as a person, and sometimes it is mildly difficult caring about her because of that.
Nyx's world is, IMO, a mix of science fiction, steampunk, and maybe a little fantasy. even though magicians seem more apt to be controlling insects and animals, and not doing what most readers would call magic. There are shape shifters, Nyx has one on her mercenary team, com-techs, etc.
This is definitely a good introduction to Nyx's world, enough so I'm likely to pick up the novels featuring Nyx.
Short stories are hard to write, and one of the drawbacks of that format is getting enough story in to keep it short, and to create interesting characters. In Nyx Hurley creates a damaged, severely damaged because of environment and PTSD, person in Nyx. But, Nyx is arguably quite unlikable as a person, and sometimes it is mildly difficult caring about her because of that.
Nyx's world is, IMO, a mix of science fiction, steampunk, and maybe a little fantasy. even though magicians seem more apt to be controlling insects and animals, and not doing what most readers would call magic. There are shape shifters, Nyx has one on her mercenary team, com-techs, etc.
This is definitely a good introduction to Nyx's world, enough so I'm likely to pick up the novels featuring Nyx.
February 1, 2021
These are enthralling adventure novellas with compelling heist/procedural elements and deeply sexy characters who get into fights and having ill-advised hookups. The stories are bleak, especially when you move between novellas and realize how much time has passed without Nyx, Rhys, Anneke, Taite or Khos changing their deleterious circumstances. But Nyx's adventures are compelling, all the moreso when you're furious with her or someone else on the team - or if you're heartbroken for them.
Hurley is consistently my favorite SFF author for queer themes. I love the casual inclusion of trans characters and Nyx's fluid, voracious sexuality. Hurley is also one of my favorite authors for sex and romance; the way she talks about attraction, zooming in on details like the length of someone's fingers or someone's height when talking about a character's desire for them captures something real and vivid that I feel like I don't get from most literature that talks about desire.
Hurley is consistently my favorite SFF author for queer themes. I love the casual inclusion of trans characters and Nyx's fluid, voracious sexuality. Hurley is also one of my favorite authors for sex and romance; the way she talks about attraction, zooming in on details like the length of someone's fingers or someone's height when talking about a character's desire for them captures something real and vivid that I feel like I don't get from most literature that talks about desire.
April 18, 2018
*copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*
Apocalypse Nyx is a selection of short stories starring the titular Nyx. Once a member of the Bel Dames, a brutally effective group of government assassins. Nyx is now a bounty hunter – though she’s lost none of her skillset. Or her attitude, as she guides her team of bounty hunters through the vicissitudes of life on a world wracked by war and magic.
Lets talk about that world for a minute. It’s one defined, at both the personal and macro levels, by conflict. Nyx’s nation has been waging war with one of its neighbours for what feels like generations. In pursuit of victory, they’ve used guns. Bombs. Espionage. Tailored viruses. Genetically engineered bugs. As have the enemy. All this has led to large portions of the country being uninhabitable. It’s also led to almost the entirety of the male population doing mandatory military service in fantastically lethal war zones, with a very low life expectancy. Socially, this is a world run by women, because all of the men are either fighting, or dead.
Of course, the world is broken, which makes everything a bit more difficult. It’s a world of faith – one where the call to prayer goes out on schedule, and where mullah’s are in competition for the attentions of the faithful. But also one which encourages a loss of that faith, in tragedy, in pain, in loss.
Then there’s the insects, and the magicians. The insects – well, they’re all over the place. This is a world which has embraced bio-mechanical and genetic engineering. Where the world as a whole is a tapestry of the waste of human potential, the sheer inventiveness here – of killer wasps, of spy-bugs which are actually, er…bugs, of ichor which can be used to build an arm – lets in a little creativity, a little humanity. Of course, that creativity is being used to create wasps big enough to be used as a swarm of guard dogs, but that’s Nyx’s home for you. There are these little sparks of ingenuity, of hope, of purpose, wrapped within an occluding sense that they’ve all been misused; that things are broken or decaying, systems and artefacts both, but only due to the hubris or neglect of people.
It's a vividly drawn world, to be sure. In its hopes for and expectations of humanity, it carries a raw emotional punch. Watching Nyx drive past an abandoned homestead, shattered by bio-bombs, or see a family struggling to survive in a desolate, dangerous landscape, caring for a war veteran now catatonic from the experience – it’s a punch in the gut. It may make you feel pain, sadness, or a bubbling frustrated rage, but it will definitely make you feel something.
What Nyx seems to feel, mostly, is a kind of quiet self-loathing, mixed with frustrated anger and pride. One of the ways this presents, both to her colleagues and to the reader, is by not taking any crap from anyone. Nyx is damaged, sure, but I don’t read her as broken. She’s aware – perhaps far too aware -of her flaws, digging into them, making a nest in her own refusal to engage, in a world which encourages that disengagement by, well, being terrible. Much of what we might see as emotional growth is in the subtext – as she cares for her team, whilst also being prepared, or indeed encouraging herself to abandon them. They, or she, are liabilities, failures and monsters with whom emotional connection can only end in disaster. Nyx constructs a wall around an emotional core, maybe out of fear, maybe out of awareness of her own lethal nature, maybe because she thinks she’s poison, or maybe because emotional vulnerability is so often met with cruelty. In between the drinks (and there are a lot of drinks), Nyx is smart, mad, bad, and dangerous to know. But she’s a complex character as well, not only an arse-kicking heroine, awesome as that is, but a complex individual, masking their thought and their hurt under something else.
You may be here to watch Nxy shoot some fool in the face with a shotgun, before disarming his two mates, breaking their necks, wiring a building to explode and stealing a priceless artefact under covering sniper fire. And you will not be disappointed. But you may be here for the quieter, sadder Nyx, who sees a relationship with one of her team as dangerous, who isn’t able to reach out, who matches affection and connection with abuse and frustration. Both are equally real, equally true.
I won’t get into the details of the stories in this collection, to avoid spoilers. But there’s a lot of great stuff here. There’s tense heists, to be sure. Then there’s comedy of errors, as Nyx’s team of badasses runs their own sense of competence up against reality. There’s moments that hint toward a larger agenda, and a lot of great background. If you’ve ever wondered how Nyx’s team got together, how they stayed together, then there are stories here to answer your questions. If you wanted to see more of the world, the bug bombs, the endless, society-breaking war, the glimpses of high technology wrapped in an enigma – there’s some of that, too. If you want to see Nyx and the gang kicking arse and taking names, painting the walls with blood, then drowning the memories in alcohol – this is one for you.
It’s fast paced sci-fi action, absolutely. It’s got enough blood and guts to satiate and satisfy, yes. But it’s also a thoughtful collection, one which gets us further into the characters heads, one which isn’t afraid to get the reader thinking about the way pain and hurt can make us act, and isn’t afraid to explore larger issues.
If you’re new to Nyx, this may be a good place to start, taking place before the current series of which she’s the star. If you’re already a fan, this adds some wonderfully bloody, emotionally sharp texture to an already intriguing world and characters – get on it.
Apocalypse Nyx is a selection of short stories starring the titular Nyx. Once a member of the Bel Dames, a brutally effective group of government assassins. Nyx is now a bounty hunter – though she’s lost none of her skillset. Or her attitude, as she guides her team of bounty hunters through the vicissitudes of life on a world wracked by war and magic.
Lets talk about that world for a minute. It’s one defined, at both the personal and macro levels, by conflict. Nyx’s nation has been waging war with one of its neighbours for what feels like generations. In pursuit of victory, they’ve used guns. Bombs. Espionage. Tailored viruses. Genetically engineered bugs. As have the enemy. All this has led to large portions of the country being uninhabitable. It’s also led to almost the entirety of the male population doing mandatory military service in fantastically lethal war zones, with a very low life expectancy. Socially, this is a world run by women, because all of the men are either fighting, or dead.
Of course, the world is broken, which makes everything a bit more difficult. It’s a world of faith – one where the call to prayer goes out on schedule, and where mullah’s are in competition for the attentions of the faithful. But also one which encourages a loss of that faith, in tragedy, in pain, in loss.
Then there’s the insects, and the magicians. The insects – well, they’re all over the place. This is a world which has embraced bio-mechanical and genetic engineering. Where the world as a whole is a tapestry of the waste of human potential, the sheer inventiveness here – of killer wasps, of spy-bugs which are actually, er…bugs, of ichor which can be used to build an arm – lets in a little creativity, a little humanity. Of course, that creativity is being used to create wasps big enough to be used as a swarm of guard dogs, but that’s Nyx’s home for you. There are these little sparks of ingenuity, of hope, of purpose, wrapped within an occluding sense that they’ve all been misused; that things are broken or decaying, systems and artefacts both, but only due to the hubris or neglect of people.
It's a vividly drawn world, to be sure. In its hopes for and expectations of humanity, it carries a raw emotional punch. Watching Nyx drive past an abandoned homestead, shattered by bio-bombs, or see a family struggling to survive in a desolate, dangerous landscape, caring for a war veteran now catatonic from the experience – it’s a punch in the gut. It may make you feel pain, sadness, or a bubbling frustrated rage, but it will definitely make you feel something.
What Nyx seems to feel, mostly, is a kind of quiet self-loathing, mixed with frustrated anger and pride. One of the ways this presents, both to her colleagues and to the reader, is by not taking any crap from anyone. Nyx is damaged, sure, but I don’t read her as broken. She’s aware – perhaps far too aware -of her flaws, digging into them, making a nest in her own refusal to engage, in a world which encourages that disengagement by, well, being terrible. Much of what we might see as emotional growth is in the subtext – as she cares for her team, whilst also being prepared, or indeed encouraging herself to abandon them. They, or she, are liabilities, failures and monsters with whom emotional connection can only end in disaster. Nyx constructs a wall around an emotional core, maybe out of fear, maybe out of awareness of her own lethal nature, maybe because she thinks she’s poison, or maybe because emotional vulnerability is so often met with cruelty. In between the drinks (and there are a lot of drinks), Nyx is smart, mad, bad, and dangerous to know. But she’s a complex character as well, not only an arse-kicking heroine, awesome as that is, but a complex individual, masking their thought and their hurt under something else.
You may be here to watch Nxy shoot some fool in the face with a shotgun, before disarming his two mates, breaking their necks, wiring a building to explode and stealing a priceless artefact under covering sniper fire. And you will not be disappointed. But you may be here for the quieter, sadder Nyx, who sees a relationship with one of her team as dangerous, who isn’t able to reach out, who matches affection and connection with abuse and frustration. Both are equally real, equally true.
I won’t get into the details of the stories in this collection, to avoid spoilers. But there’s a lot of great stuff here. There’s tense heists, to be sure. Then there’s comedy of errors, as Nyx’s team of badasses runs their own sense of competence up against reality. There’s moments that hint toward a larger agenda, and a lot of great background. If you’ve ever wondered how Nyx’s team got together, how they stayed together, then there are stories here to answer your questions. If you wanted to see more of the world, the bug bombs, the endless, society-breaking war, the glimpses of high technology wrapped in an enigma – there’s some of that, too. If you want to see Nyx and the gang kicking arse and taking names, painting the walls with blood, then drowning the memories in alcohol – this is one for you.
It’s fast paced sci-fi action, absolutely. It’s got enough blood and guts to satiate and satisfy, yes. But it’s also a thoughtful collection, one which gets us further into the characters heads, one which isn’t afraid to get the reader thinking about the way pain and hurt can make us act, and isn’t afraid to explore larger issues.
If you’re new to Nyx, this may be a good place to start, taking place before the current series of which she’s the star. If you’re already a fan, this adds some wonderfully bloody, emotionally sharp texture to an already intriguing world and characters – get on it.
November 16, 2018
I enjoyed the last story in this collection the best because in it Nyx spent much less time than in the other stories getting drunk and mooning over Rhys and squabbling with him. I loved the God's War series, and the jaded character of Nyx, but the self destructive drinking and the relationship destroying dialogue with Rhys was just a bit too much in these stories. I like Nyx best when she is relentlessly set on a mission.
June 16, 2019
Hurley really is out there writing some deeply flawed characters (and dynamics), and that's something I can appreciate.
I'm glad I read this collection because it had some genuinely good moments, but it didn't blow me away or change my feelings about the series in any way. My favourite story was definitely The Heart Is Eaten Last.
I'm glad I read this collection because it had some genuinely good moments, but it didn't blow me away or change my feelings about the series in any way. My favourite story was definitely The Heart Is Eaten Last.
January 2, 2021
A nice introduction to the character of Nyx and the strange, frightening world of Umayma. Hurley’s writing is a standout example of how inventive, exciting, and engaging modern SFF has become.
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