“You killed your mother twice over, you know,” said Grandmother.
She pinched my cheek ironically and chewed on her gnarled old pipe stem. Grandmother seemed to get more from rolling it around between her white teeth than from the scant smoke that leaked out.
I sat still in the dirt at her feet and rubbed my cheek where her thumbnail had left a deliberate indent.
Read the rest of the excerpt here.
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A thrilling debut in the vein of Spinning Silver and The Traitor Baru Cormorant following a plucky, sardonic con artist who must “prophesize” her way out of peril—discovering along the way that the keys to power and politics are nothing more than the stories that we can sell as truth.
October 4, 2022 / $27.95 / 400 pages
Kalyna’s family has the Gift: the ability to see the future. For generations, they traveled the four kingdoms of the Tetrarchia selling their services as soothsayers. Every child of their family is born with this Gift—everyone except Kalyna.
So far, Kalyna has used informants and trickery to falsify prophecies for coin, scrounging together a living for her deteriorating father and cruel grandmother. But Kalyna’s reputation for prophecy precedes her, and poverty turns to danger when she is pressed into service by the spymaster to Rotfelsen.
Kalyna is to use her “Gift” to uncover threats against Rotfelsen’s king, her family held hostage to ensure her good behavior. But politics are devious; the king’s enemies abound, and Kalyna’s skills for investigation and deception are tested to the limit. Worse, the conspiracy she uncovers points to a larger threat, not only to Rotfelsen but to the Tetrarchia itself.
Kalyna is determined to protect her family and newfound friends, but as she is drawn deeper into palace intrigue, she can no longer tell if her manipulations are helping prevent the Tetrarchia’s destruction—or if her lies will bring about its prophesized downfall.
Elijah Kinch Spector is a writer, dandy, and rootless cosmopolitan from the Bay Area who now lives in Brooklyn.
Kalyna the Soothsayer is his first novel.
Photo credit: Sylvie Rosokoff
Praise for Kalyna the Soothsayer
"[D]elightful debut fantasy adventure.... [P]ut your trust in Kalyna's hands and let her build a story around the two of you. Parts of it will speak to your own specific fears and desires; other aspects will be entertaining fictions, until you discover the devastating shard of truth within." —NPR Books
“A gorgeous, layered debut, both intricate and propulsive, with a singularly brilliant heroine at its center. Kalyna is a twisty, entrancing, and totally unique entry into epic fantasy.” —Ava Reid, internationally bestselling author of The Wolf and the Woodsman
"Kalyna is a character after my own heart: a conniving liar whose love for her family threatens to be her downfall. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, Kalyna the Soothsayer is a reminder that if you can't see the future you want, sometimes you have to make it." —C. L. Clark, author of The Unbroken
“Full of hilarious wit, intrigue, spycraft and charlatans, Kalyna the Soothsayer is a classic adventure with a sardonic twist. At the turn of the last page, I was sad to leave these lovable rogues. I've been waiting a long time to read an intelligent swashbuckling story like this... it's the perfect fantastical escape.” —Marissa Levien, author of The World Gives Way
“Kalyna the Soothsayer is dangerously good: a spellbinding story, captivatingly told, with a cast of unforgettable characters and plot twists that kept me turning pages past my bedtime.” —Melissa Caruso, author of The Obsidian Tower