An apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist trade interwoven tales in order to enact revenge. Ukrainian author R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) returns to their legendary Birdverse in an ode to the transformative power of storytelling.
"Haunting, nuanced, and hopeful, Yoke of Stars is essential reading."
-Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart
In the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan waits for a first assignment. After their first kill, they will graduate and attain the coveted cloth of bone. But instead of a commission, Stone Orphan gets an inquisitive linguist, Ulín. Ulín has heard the Orphan Star's song of despair, mirroring her own, and drawing her to the School of Assassins. But Ulín is far more interested in learning Stone Orphan's language than deciding whom she wishes to kill.
Unable to contain their curiosity, Stone Orphan offers to exchange stories with Ulín to help her decide the fate of three men. By turns, Stone Orphan and Ulín narrate tales of love, suffering, exile, and self-determination, and two wounded souls find hope in each other through the radical act of listening.
Le Guin Feminist Science-Fiction Fellowship recipient R. B. Lemberg is a queer, bigender fantasist, poet, and professor. Lemberg's Birdverse novella The Four Profound Weaves was a finalist for the Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. Their stories and poems have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, We Are Here: Best Queer Speculative Fiction, Sisters of the Revolution, and many other publications. Lemberg was born in L'viv, Ukraine, and currently lives and teaches in Kansas with their family. "Haunting, nuanced, and hopeful, Yoke of Stars is essential reading. Lemberg refuses to look away from the hurt we can do to one another, while reminding us that through listening, labor, and mutual support, we can reject patterns of harm and cultivate something better. In these hard times, Yoke of Stars feels as necessary as air, as water, as kindness."
-Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart
"Yoke of Stars is a gorgeously wrought Birdverse tale. . . . The way the stories in the book touch and interweave, the way the characters in them tug and pull at each other, is beautifully done-and I love how deftly Lemberg pulls all the threads together into a complex, striking weave."
-Maria Haskins, author of Wolves and Girls
"Welcome back to Birdverse. At the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan sits alone in a room, waiting to learn about the job that will let her graduate. When prospective client Ulín arrives, Stone Orphan is intrigued by her language more than her case. For Ulín has three people who have wronged her, but she is not sure whom she wants to die. Curious about Ulín's path to their door, Stone Orphan asks to trade stories, to help her decide which of three men should die. As each narrates their journey to this moment, both learn about language, love, loss, and the decisions they have made. VERDICT Lemberg once again after (Geometries of Belonging) draws readers into their storyverse, playing with names, identities, and language itself. Alternating points of view show how separate paths can come together in more ways than one, highlighting the deeper connection of people, no matter their background."
-Library Journal
"For fellow word-nerds, Lemberg's linguistic explorations are a thought-provoking journey into how language influences all of us. Lemberg's command of language and narrative nuance makes this a haunting, beautiful read."
-Marian Crane, author of the Lonhra Sequence
"R. B. Lemberg's Birdverse is one of fantasy's most immersive, lyrical and mind-expanding universes, to which this dream of a novella adds dazzling new depths. Yoke of Stars is a beautiful tale about the stories we all live within, about the languages and connections that bind us to each other and trap us wi
