book cover of The All-Consuming World
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The All-Consuming World

(2021)
A novel by

 
 
Awards
2022 Locus Award for Best First Novel (nominee)

“A visionary, foul-mouthed, gory sci-fi adventure, dripping viscera, violence, and beauty in equal measure. . . . The All-Consuming World will consume your attention and linger in your thoughts, a very good ride and a remarkable what-if.”—NPR

“What a @#*% ride!—P. Djèlí Clark, award-winning author of
Ring Shout

In Locus and British Fantasy Award nominee Cassandra Khaw’s first novel, a crew of diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission. But the universe’s highly-evolved AI has its own opposing agenda... and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling them again.


In space, everything hungers.

Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies during her dangerous career with the Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. 

The highly evolved AI of the galaxy will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle both sapient ageships and their own traumas, in order to settle their affairs once and for all. 

 



Genre: Science Fiction

Praise for this book

"What a @#*% ride! Cassandra Khaw has written an utterly bold and bombastic sci-fi novel—complete with sentient warships, conniving AI, and quite possibly the most dangerous and violent foul-mouthed lady cyborg mercenaries in the known universe! And I am absolutely here for all of it! Khaw has built a world as scarily beautiful and complex as their expansive imagination. Be warned though: once this book gets a hold of you, it won’t let go until the mind-bending, explosive end!" - P Djèlí Clark

"Explosive, evoactive prose...Khaw ability to transform the mundane into the deeply phan-tasmagorical is nothing short of magical." - Kameron Hurley

"Cassandra Khaw wields words like a butcher’s knife—with expert grace and blunt violence. The All-Consuming World is a lean story of traumatized near-immortal ex-mercenaries, ancient AI warships, and mind-bending biotech. It’s relentless, profane, and weird—and I mean that in a good way." - Fonda Lee

"Profane and gorgeous, The All-Consuming World is the angry queer space opera you've been waiting for. Khaw's style is as ferocious as their characters, and I love the rusty intimacy of the world they’ve built around the interconnected fates of flesh and machines." - Annalee Newitz

"Reminds me of the first time I read Snow Crash — The All-Consuming World has that frenetic, urgent energy that doesn’t so much compel you to read further as it grabs you by the chin and drags you across the pages. Khaw has written a surly, sneering, zero-g, sharp-toothed poem of vulgarity and violence, and I am here for every electric word of it." - Chuck Wendig


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