The Promise of the Child

an incredibly impressive debut novel novel, with an engrossing plot and delightful oddness that should satisfy any space opera aficionado - Sci-Fi Now

Marvellous…a space opera of surpassing gracefulness, depth, complexity, and well, all-round weirdness - Locus

Intense, bold writing; inventive worldbuilding; excellent plotting. - SF Signal

The prose is baroque, the pacing stately - Financial Times

To call The Promise of the Child one of the most accomplished debuts of 2015 so far is to understate its weight-instead, let me moot that is among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years. Granted, you’ve got to give it your all, but give it that and you’ll get all that and more besides back - TOR.COM

This is the purest example of space opera we’ve seen in some time, thoroughly blurring the line between science fiction and fantasy. The wildly divergent post-humans of our future galaxy could just as well be from the pages of Tolkien; the science can be indistinguishable from magic. (Not unrealistically, come to think of it.) A lot of sci-fi draws straight lines between now and all the tomorrows to come, but Toner posits a weirder, wobblier path to the future. This first-in-a-trilogy builds an intriguing new world, and gives us every reason to have high hopes about what’s coming next. The book is challenging, ambitious, and rewarding, and it’s impossible not to admire Toner’s wild imagination and carefully constructed world. This thing is bonkers, no question. It’s also one helluva debut. - BarnesandNoble.com