The Atrocity Engine

Waggoner (A Hunter Called Night) offers a fresh variation on the trope of a covert agency combating evil in his blood-drenched Custodians of the Cosmos series opener. Neal Hudson is an agent of Maintenance Control, an organization seeking to delay the entire Omniverse from being drained by the Gyre, a “great emptiness” at its center. Opposing Maintenance are the Multitude, dark demigods who spread Corruption, a force that creates monsters. Neal is thrown into the thick of the action upon witnessing a bizarre scene at an Ash Creek, Ohio, playground: a bully dizzy from the merry-go-round vomits Corruption on another child’s mother, erasing her facial features. Neal intervenes, but not before the regurgitated Corruption animates three sculptures that turn violent and butcher other parkgoers. After the tragedy, Hudson must work with his new partner, Gina Sandoval, whose parents have a history with Maintenance, to track down the source of the bully’s infection. The investigation leads them to a member of the Multitude who’s seeking to magnify her powers by building an Atrocity Engine, which would “increase her strength a thousandfold.” Waggoner’s writing is crisp, and his worldbuilding creative, but the gory violence will put off some readers. For those with strong stomachs, however, this promises good things from the series to come. (Apr.)