Published By: Gollancz
Pages: 240
Released On: 01/09/2026
My job, when you think about it, isn’t so different from a lot of people’s.
The more old-fashioned crowd do still get hung up on the ‘killing people’ part of it, I guess, but that’s a them problem: it’s been perfectly legal to take out lifers for ages. Besides, once ultrawealthy morons realised they had a way to live forever – limited resources be damned – there was only ever going to be one genuinely practical deterrent.
So, sure, I have to deal with a tonne of boring planning. Inconvenient hours. Some pretty awkward face-to-face interactions. And like most of us, I’m really only clocking in to try and crawl out from beneath my debts. But someone’s got to do it.
Luckily, my genetic compatibilities make me really, really good at doing it.
Still. This next job . . . I don’t know. It’s something I haven’t had to deal with in years. Kind of the opposite of my regular duties. Strange, that it got thrown my way.
I’m sure it’ll all go totally fine though.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Gollancz for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have one of James’ books – The Will of the Many – but haven’t read it yet so I was going into this blind.
I’m not a big sci-fi fan (although I have been saying that a lot recently so I obviously have been reading more than normal), so I was a bit apprehensive, as they have to work harder for me to enjoy them.
This started with a bang, you’re straight into the action. But then it dwindles somewhat in the middle where it becomes mostly talking and not hugely gripping. The ending picks up a bit but not to the same level as the beginning.
It’s a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, thriller and adventure.
I will be honest…I didn’t really know what was going on overall. It throws you straight in, which is good, but there’s no real context. I only understood what was meant to be happening by reading the synopsis online. I’d have liked a bit more context to what was going on. For example, there is a group of people called “Lifers”, but it doesn’t really explain who they are until quite a way into the book. I don’t mind books that dripfeeds you information as you go, but I feel for a book set in a fantasy world, the reader does need more context than say if it was in a recognisable contemporary world.
I can’t quite figure out in my e-arc if it has chapters or not. It reads as if one big chunk of text, but every now and again there was the Scion title, which might have suggested the start of a new chapter but without seeing the finished copy, it’s difficult to say if they were chapters or formatting errors.
I have not read his writing before but it felt so effortless and natural to read.
Books By Your Bedside 