Reviews & Media
GREEN CORROSION
September 2023
IndieReader Review
“With the increased frequency of potentially cataclysmic global warming predictions for the future of planet Earth there could be no more pertinent time for a novel like GREEN CORROSION. Author Costi Gurgu’s speculative sci-fi has its roots in a dystopian world forever ruined by society’s abject treatment of the environment.”
Takeaway: “Full of fresh ideas and dynamic action sequences, Costi Gurgu has created a fine, detailed eco-based sci-fi thriller in GREEN CORROSION, with heroes and villains who walk a bleak landscape that serve as a stark warning for the future of planet Earth.“
GREEN CORROSION
September 2023
BookLife Review
“Gurgu (RecipeArium) creates a fresh post-apocalyptic hellscape filled with horrible mutations, petty tyrants, and the inescapable pull of market forces, but he also instills his narrative with hope and humanity.”
Takeaway: “Richly imagined post-apocalypse of mutations, humanity, and wild action.“
GREEN CORROSION
September 2023
Kirkus Review
“In Gurgu’s dystopian SF novel, a man fights to save his people from corrupt leaders and toxic weather.
In a future North America, the land has been rendered a desert courtesy of the devastating Black Rain that has turned water into a gel-like substance around the globe. Fresh, clean drinking water is now the planet’s “most coveted resource.”
Takeaway: “A colorful cast traverses this bleak but remarkably depicted world.“
SERVITUDE
October 2022
Booklife Editor’s Pick Review
“In this gripping near-future dystopian thriller, Gurgu (RecipeArium) explores, with uncommon persuasive power, a potential outcome of what could happen if class systems became even more dangerously one-sided.
Takeaway: A disturbingly realistic dystopian future that will get under readers’ skin in all the best ways.“
SERVITUDE
October 2022
IndieReader Review
“When slavery for those in deep debt is legalized, an American detective searches for his kidnapped wife while British operatives seek to grow their oppressive regime.
Costi Gurgu’s multi-perspective narrative structure amps up the stakes and bolsters the world-building in SERVITUDE, a compelling dystopian thriller with an explosive and surprising end.“
SERVITUDE
October 2022
BlueInk Review
“Speculative fiction writer Costi Gurgu’s novel Servitude imagines that corporations have discovered a lucrative new source of income: legalized slavery.
Overall, unusual, distinctive characters, the book’s intriguing scenario and big cinematic set pieces buoy an energetic, paranoid thriller that lives somewhere between 1984 and a James Bond movie.“
SERVITUDE
October 2022
Kirkus Reviews
“In a corporate/authoritarian future, a police detective tries to rescue his journalist wife when they are both targeted by a deadly conspiracy to sanction slavery in the United States.
Gurgu opens an SF series based on the potent political premise of a capitalism-yoked, tech-choked Earth of the not-too-distant future embracing slavery as an accepted economic engine. Following eco-collapse, war, and the “Black Crisis” that wrought 80% unemployment, corporations formed their own union to dictate terms most favorable to their survival. (…)
Even with a recursive narrative structure that regularly flashes back to account for how this ordeal came about, the novel keeps the momentum rolling along, and readers will feel chained to what happens next.”
RecipeArium
2016 / USA
Kirkus Reviews
“Gurgu’s intent in this offbeat fantasy is clearly to provoke readers, as he fills his pages with startling imagery. (…) But the author has created engaging characters within a bizarre, indelible world. Moreover, the protagonist has depth; he seems to have genuine feelings for Valiria and, at one point, questions whether Plabos’ Recipes are art or simply vice.
And with Gurgu’s rich descriptions, readers won’t likely forget characters reside in a huge creature: “The walls were formed by thousands of thin bones connected by dense cartilage, looking like a fence of deformed and bent poles held together with mud.”
An engrossing and disconcerting revenge tale that’s gleefully outlandish.”
RecipeArium
2016 / USA
Black Gate Review
The culture and world that Costi presents are absolutely bizarre, and with the detailed and expansive worldbuilding at play the way expert worldbuilding is supposed to work. (…)
The best word I can come up with to describe it (RecipeArium) is “visceral,” but in a unique way. Dark horror has its scenes of brutal murder, romance has its raw and heart-wrenching unions between characters…
It can be difficult sometimes to find science fiction that really stands out, but RecipeArium accomplishes that, hands down. If you’re looking for something weird and compelling, you’re gonna want to check out this novel.
RecipeArium
2016 / USA
Amazon Top Review
“Costi Gurgu has written the near impossible: a novel-length story set on an alien planet with no reference to anything terrestrial. Adding insult to delight, the book is infused with a decided whiff of the decadent. I do expect it to attract a cult following and would not all be surprised if it became a cult classic in due course.” (Peter Halasz)
Angels and Moths
2009 / USA
Strange Horizons
“Gurgu’s Angels and Moths approaches sparkle, bringing a surprising and compelling twist to what initially seems like a stock situation of interstellar diplomacy.”
Review by Nader Elhefnawy of Ages of Wonder, ed. by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin in “Strange Horizons”, 2009
Angels and Moths
2009 / USA
Fantasy Book Critic
“In Angels and Moths Costi Gurgu deals with a missed, in the first instance, alien contact. It is a story with substance and literary force that brings to the table controversial topics. The belief in Divinity, the lure of the soul, the inexorability of fate, the weakness of the spirit and human consciousness are just a few of them.”
Review of “Ages of Wonder” ed. by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin in “Fantasy Book Critic”, May 25, 2009
The Glass Plague
2017 / USA
SF Reader Blog
“The story with the most depth and character building: The Glass Plague – Costi Gurgu. Because the characters are really sticking with you, the mystery and the unknown Plague goes in the back of your mind and is very intriguing. The complexity of the characters struggling in a day to day basis has an important role in the evolution of the story.“
Cosmobotica
by Tony Pi & Costi Gurgu
2017 / USA
Fantasy Literature Reviews
“After Dragonfire, my favorite story was Cosmobotica, by Costi Gurgu and Tony Pi. This took me by surprise since this was the kind of story I’d have expected to find in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine or Analog.
The combination of an interesting story, lovely writing and a character I cared about all combined to make this a delightful read.
This suspenseful, action-packed story pinned me to my chair and wouldn’t let me up until I reached the end.”
“Green Corrosion”
Science Fiction / Post-apocalyptic / Cli-fi
The devastating Black Rain has transformed the once-lush
land into an arid wasteland, turning all water into a gel-like substance across the globe. Fresh, drinkable water has
become the planet’s most precious commodity, sought after by all. Some have chanced upon underground liquid reserves, while those with no choice but to drink gelled water become “Corrosives,” disfigured by a verdigrislike substance covering their bodies.
From the Golden Tower, Geo Woodman secretly leads the fight to save his clan and the people of Torono from the
dangers of corrupt leaders and the hazardous climate.
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