Exordia - by Seth Dickinson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Michael Crichton meets Marvel's Venom in award-winning author Seth Dickinson's science fiction debut, named one of The New York Times' Best SFF Books of 2024.

"Agonizing and mesmerizing, a devastating and extraordinary achievement."--The New York Times

"Magnificent. . . . A science fiction action juggernaut."--Tamsyn Muir

"Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. It's very unlikely that you'll die right now. It wouldn't be narratively complete."

Anna Sinjari--refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker--has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes.

While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.

Review Quotes

One of The New York Times' Best SFF Books of 2024

Praise for Exordia

"Agonizing and mesmerizing, a devastating and extraordinary achievement."--The New York Times

"Dickinson brings the same richness of characterization that made his Baru Cormorant series (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, 2015) so compelling, but this one reads like a Michael Crichton thriller on psychedelics--in a good way."--Booklist, starred review

"Magnificent. . . . A science fiction action juggernaut."--Tamsyn Muir, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Locked Tomb series

"A white-knuckled brilliant up-all-night thriller. . . Like Michael Crichton, but if someone cut the brake lines."--Max Gladstone, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling This is How You Lose the Time War

"Exordia is an avalanche: an inevitable, overwhelming, pell-mell landscape-scale transformation of a book. Dickinson uses science fiction as an ethical scalpel, and the results are breathtaking: viciously funny, vivid to the point of horror, and entirely profound."--Arkady Martine, Hugo Award-winning author of A Memory Called Empire

"Beautiful, introspective, and unbelievably tense. It feels like being in a hospital waiting room in the best and worse sense, the suspended moment right before you find out what's going on."--Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

"A mind-shredding first-contact epic. . . . There are nukes, alien brain locks, intergalactic warfare and a scope that keeps expanding long after the stakes seem clear. This thrilling novel grips hardest when Dickinson's characters must reason through the science of seemingly impossible phenomena."--Scientific American

"An energetic, suspenseful melange of alien invasion and military action...there's no question that it will be many sci-fi fans' favorite book of the year, especially those willing to surrender to it, and be consumed."--BookPage

"Adroit . . . Dickinson skillfully puts the cosmic scale of the Exordian rebellion into manageably personal terms. With cool alien technology, admirably hopeful heroes, and SFF pop culture references littered throughout, this will have readers hooked."--Publishers Weekly

"Violent, vivid, vicious--this is an innovative military, sci-fi thriller that is equal parts action and introspection. It's conceptually profound and touches upon many ethical and metaphysical subjects. . . . Authentic and thought-provoking."--Library Journal

"Exordia is a comprehensive taxonomy of violence at every level, from the subcellular to the intergalactic, as well as every possible scrap of pain, pleasure, and connection that might result from it. It's an apocalyptic chanson de geste, with a dizzyingly fractured Round Table who experience damnation not just spiritually but literally, formally, communally and visibly, as well as a comprehensive study of natural history, moral lessons, spiritual and cultural translation, and the hierarchy of all possible passions. There's a deeply original spiritual order in this universe that sharpens the significance of every moment, and I found myself wrung out and exhilarated as I came unwillingly to the end of it."--Daniel M. Lavery, author of The Merry Spinster

"Conceptually mindblowing. Viscerally horrific. Hofstadter meets Lovecraft during a really bad acid trip, but better written."--Peter Watts, Hugo Award winner

"A gorgeous, breakneck, incisive book that doesn't pull any punches. Dickinson balances grim geopolitical realism with unnerving explorations (and distortions) of the human soul to create something overwhelming and exhilarating at the same time; once I started reading, I couldn't stop simply because there's no place to stop until you're clear through to the end."--Reactor, Reviewer's Choice, Best Books of 2024

"With vibes of Independence Day (except where the extraterrestrials are at least our frenemies) and Michael Crichton, this bonkers-sounding adventure is high-concept, horrific, and perfect to fill the Baru-sized hole in my TBR."--LitHub

"The most anticipated books of 2024 explore the deep roots of the moral and philosophical quandaries shaping our times. Many depths are visible in Exordia (Tor), Seth Dickinson's clever take on a first-contact-with-aliens, military sci-fi, moral philosophy tome. If all that hasn't got you running away screaming, this book is for you."--The New Scientist

"A novel about complicity in violence, moral dilemmas, and ultimately, hope in humankind. It's also about spaceships made of math. All of these topics together create a sharp, action-packed, and deeply entertaining work of sci-fi that will leave readers excited for what else Dickinson has in store."--The Harvard Crimson

"Works the brain and tugs at the heart."--Ancillary Review of Books, "2024 Notable Books"

About the Author