If Japan, with its lively American expatriate community, resembles Paris in the Roaring Twenties, then James Kendley is its Hemingway—but with greater technical proficiency, a larger spirit, a broader emotional repertoire, and an incomparably richer imagination.
— Bizarro fabulist Tom Bradley
Available now
A journey of recovery, redemption, and the terrible freedom of the open road.
Part travelogue, part deep dive into the belly of alcoholism and madness, this book also touches the weird world of Kendley’s paranormal series for HarperCollins, The Drowning God.
Other books by James Kendley
Critical Mass: The Devouring God
I enjoyed the vivid sense of place … the city becomes more than just a backdrop here, since the history of the place is important to the plot. Snippets of history, culture and day-to-day life gave the story an extra push that immersed me in the lives of the characters. The author lived and worked in Japan, and his experience as an American living abroad certainly informs his descriptions.
It’s refreshing to find an urban fantasy that doesn’t rely on a large organization bent on keeping the paranormal secret. If their straight jobs fall through, or they get fired, they’re on the street. There isn’t a secret quasi-governmental agency ready to swoop them off to safety. It raises the stakes, thus improving my enjoyment of the story.
Before you assume this book is all travelogue and mundanity, let me remind you that this is a horror story to the core. There are whispers of cannibalism in the history of this city, and the thing Takuda, Suzuki, and Mori are after is very, very hungry. It drives ordinary people to ritualistic murders that are both beautiful and grotesque in their execution.
Kay Nash, horrorwriters.com
From the Blogosphere
My tor.com blog post about five books that changed my mind about Japan and directly influenced The Drowning God and The Devouring God. British horror legend Ramsey Campbell takes part in the comments.