Synopsis

Entertainment is control.

Petya and the tooth-eating imps are dispatched to Arabasia: another land of lucre and new forms of corporate corruption. Under the directives of the new President, they are tasked to find Neon Essence, the most powerful resource known to humanity.

With new additions to the team and a gaping hole, Petya battles between pleasing his superiors and searching for the Naoma, who has been sold to a new entertainment company with hidden motives.

Will Petya and the Imps survive serving their master who hunts them as much as their enemies?

Conspiracies are spiraling. Ghosts are speaking. Corruption is creeping.

Quick Review

Chromatic Creep is full of action, mystery, and unexpected revelations. It’s a truly strange follow-up to Kaden Love’s Toothsucker, which made me reconsider what I thought I knew about the series.

Full Review

When I reviewed Toothsucker a few months ago, I said that Love’s cyberpunk vampire book was “offering something that nothing else is quite doing.” With Chromatic Creep, that’s dialed all the way up to eleven. For some people, I think that’s going to make this book a ton of fun. For me, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

What Chromatic Creep seems to do well, in my opinion, is build upon the ending of Toothsucker. The finale of the last book introduced a ton of new concepts that were never really explored—and explore them is most of what this book does. The Gui who inhabits Petya’s body is a consistent presence in this book, and as conspiracies unravel we learn some of how they’re connected to the rest of the world.

All of this is happening while the crew is attempting to solve a mystery surrounding some missing kids. A group of luxists have been blamed for their disappearance, but the truth leads Petya and his friends all across the city, pursuing a number of leads and having to work alongside a few people they’re not sure can be trusted.

Like with Toothsucker, there’s a lot going on, making the sequel feel a bit unfocused—especially in the first 30–40%. Chromatic Creep attempts to explain what we didn’t have time to before, to build upon a new setting, and introduce new characters (many of which I actually really grew to like, by the way). The book also seems to be walking back some of the things that didn’t land as well last time, namely Naoma’s character and her relationship with Petya. I like her in this book much better. By the time Naoma shows up, she seems more confident, and more in control.

There’s also some really interesting and insightful moments in this book. For example, a vampire who wants to cure his condition, but needs it to take down his enemies; a setting which has enabled entertainment corporations to become more powerful than law enforcement… Any one of these could be the basis of a book on its own.

The problem is once again that this is simply a lot to try and accomplish. There are portions of Chromatic Creep where I frankly felt like the story wasn’t going anywhere at all, as all these plot threads were being juggled at once. For example, the team is supposed to be working for the president, but they more or less ignore him for the entire story, and when he shows up again it ends in what I found to be an anti-climactic way. Petya also spends a lot of time doubting himself, hesitating; while I think that’s an important part of the story, the way it was handled sometimes made a scene slow to a crawl.

That’s all separate from the ending of this book, which once again I was not prepared for. If Brandon Sanderson has a “sanderlanch,” where the action ramps up in the last 30%, I’m beginning to get the sense that Love has something similar. Except, in the “Lovestorm” (working title), the last 30% of the book is filled with revelations that absolutely shatter your understanding of what’s going on. In both Toothsucker and Chromatic Creep I was left reeling from the ending, wondering not just what would happen next, but fundamentally asking what genre this series is.

I recommend Chromatic Creep. I think it’s an important series, the way it embraces fun and weird ideas, and as I said last time it’s worth a try. If you enjoyed Toothsucker, you will probably enjoy this. I feel like Love’s work here is noticeably tighter this time around. I still have some mixed feelings about this story, but I think that’s more about me than it is about Chromatic Creep.

The fact is, I don’t know that this series is for me anymore. I showed up for a cyberpunk story with a paranormal twist, but I don’t think that’s what Love is trying to do here. These books read to me as paranormal, perhaps cosmic horror, with a cyberpunk setting. They feel more inspired by something like anime and manga than sci-fi or even other cyberpunk stories. It’s a change in expectations that—at time of writing—I am personally struggling with a bit. 

Despite that, I may still come back to book three… There’s a part of me that, despite the fact I’m still not quite on board with everything, I am curious to know where Love takes things next time. I think it’s that willingness to do the unexpected, and the way Love provides stories that are so addictively strange, which will make this series a favorite for a lot of readers.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.