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In this stellar debut fantasy, a trickster Fox god challenges an underachieving acolyte to save herself by saving her own ancestors. But are Nesi and her new friends from the past prepared to defeat the ferocious Wolfhounds of Zemin?
"If you love my worlds, you're going to love Cahill's: stunning imagination, daring premises, and deep character dives. A new author to watch."
-N. K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth series
[STARRED REVIEW] "A marvelous and heartbreaking tale."
-Library Journal
Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. As a child with godly blood in her, if she cannot earn a divine chaperone, she will never be allowed to leave her temple home. But with ninety-six failed auditions and few options left, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks.
In folk tales, the Fox is a lovable prankster. But despite their humor and charm, T'sidaan, and their audition, is no joke. They throw Nesi back in time three hundred years, when her homeland is occupied by the brutal Wolfhounds of Zemin.
Now, Nesi must learn a trickster's guile to snatch a fortress from the disgraced and exiled 100th Pillar: The Wolf of the Hunt. Martin Cahill has published short fiction in venues including Fireside, Reactor, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, and Nightmare. Cahill's stories "The Fifth Horseman" and "Godmeat" were respectively nominated for the Ignyte Award and included in The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019. He was also one of the writers on Batman: The Blind Cut and a contributor to Critical Role: Vox Machina - Stories Untold. Cahill, who works at Erewhon Books, lives just outside New York City.
• Fall 2025 Lead title
• In this much-anticipated novella, a trickster fox god challenges a quick-witted acolyte to save her ancestors, rallying them to a crucial rebellion. Quick-paced and emotionally resonant, this timely story delves into social bonding, bold action, inevitable sacrifice, and well-plotted subterfuge in the face of tyranny
• Will appeal to a wide range of readers of fantasy, mythology, and/or history within an immersive world of inventive magic and political intrigue
• National marketing plan to include author participation at New Voices, New Rooms and ALA
• Promotion targeting reviews and interviews in leading media venues
• Planned Indie Next campaign to include ABA bookseller outreach
• Author appearances to include ALA, New York Comic Con, and the World Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions
• Print and digital ARC distribution via Goodreads, NetGalley, and Edelweiss+
• Planned book giveaways to include Goodreads and Storygraph
• Online promotion to include Instagram/book blog tour, cover reveal, launch event and social media campaigns via Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, and other outlets An hour ago, Nesi had crept through the red and gold trees that were the Woods of the World, invited to prove herself. She knew to be sly in her audition for the Fox, remembering as many clay and cloud tales of their schemes as she could. T'sidaan, she knew, was a trickster, the first and only trickster of the Pillars, and any slip-up before them could certainly result in eyeteeth meeting eye.
She'd expected riddles, a test of wills. An ancient, unnecessarily complicated game of Grasshopper's Gambit with, yes, the extra pieces. Even a staring contest, with clear but unspoken cheating involved on both sides.
What she hadn't expected was coming to consciousness bound in chains, already in motion, walking with hundreds of others through a field of yellowing grass, the clouds above her gray and rumbling with thunder.
Marching in silence, not trusting herself to speak, it was a full hour before it came back to her: what she'd gotten herself into, how she'd gotten here, in the past, and the trickster who'd done it.
It came to her in fits an
"If you love my worlds, you're going to love Cahill's: stunning imagination, daring premises, and deep character dives. A new author to watch."
-N. K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth series
[STARRED REVIEW] "A marvelous and heartbreaking tale."
-Library Journal
Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. As a child with godly blood in her, if she cannot earn a divine chaperone, she will never be allowed to leave her temple home. But with ninety-six failed auditions and few options left, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks.
In folk tales, the Fox is a lovable prankster. But despite their humor and charm, T'sidaan, and their audition, is no joke. They throw Nesi back in time three hundred years, when her homeland is occupied by the brutal Wolfhounds of Zemin.
Now, Nesi must learn a trickster's guile to snatch a fortress from the disgraced and exiled 100th Pillar: The Wolf of the Hunt. Martin Cahill has published short fiction in venues including Fireside, Reactor, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, and Nightmare. Cahill's stories "The Fifth Horseman" and "Godmeat" were respectively nominated for the Ignyte Award and included in The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019. He was also one of the writers on Batman: The Blind Cut and a contributor to Critical Role: Vox Machina - Stories Untold. Cahill, who works at Erewhon Books, lives just outside New York City.
• Fall 2025 Lead title
• In this much-anticipated novella, a trickster fox god challenges a quick-witted acolyte to save her ancestors, rallying them to a crucial rebellion. Quick-paced and emotionally resonant, this timely story delves into social bonding, bold action, inevitable sacrifice, and well-plotted subterfuge in the face of tyranny
• Will appeal to a wide range of readers of fantasy, mythology, and/or history within an immersive world of inventive magic and political intrigue
• National marketing plan to include author participation at New Voices, New Rooms and ALA
• Promotion targeting reviews and interviews in leading media venues
• Planned Indie Next campaign to include ABA bookseller outreach
• Author appearances to include ALA, New York Comic Con, and the World Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions
• Print and digital ARC distribution via Goodreads, NetGalley, and Edelweiss+
• Planned book giveaways to include Goodreads and Storygraph
• Online promotion to include Instagram/book blog tour, cover reveal, launch event and social media campaigns via Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, and other outlets An hour ago, Nesi had crept through the red and gold trees that were the Woods of the World, invited to prove herself. She knew to be sly in her audition for the Fox, remembering as many clay and cloud tales of their schemes as she could. T'sidaan, she knew, was a trickster, the first and only trickster of the Pillars, and any slip-up before them could certainly result in eyeteeth meeting eye.
She'd expected riddles, a test of wills. An ancient, unnecessarily complicated game of Grasshopper's Gambit with, yes, the extra pieces. Even a staring contest, with clear but unspoken cheating involved on both sides.
What she hadn't expected was coming to consciousness bound in chains, already in motion, walking with hundreds of others through a field of yellowing grass, the clouds above her gray and rumbling with thunder.
Marching in silence, not trusting herself to speak, it was a full hour before it came back to her: what she'd gotten herself into, how she'd gotten here, in the past, and the trickster who'd done it.
It came to her in fits an