Kalyna the Soothsayer
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A plucky, sardonic con artist must “prophesize” her way out of peril—discovering along the way that power and politics are nothing more than stories sold as truth.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spector debuts with a promising fantasy that stumbles a bit in delivery. Kalyna Aljosanovna is widely believed to be next in line to a family of soothsayers in Tetrarchia. But in truth, she possesses none of her clan's gift and heavily relies on her ailing father's magic to fake psychic powers for her clients, otherwise "telling customers what is apparent, what they want to hear, and what is deeply vague." After Kalyna helps a patron evade a deadly ambush, she is abducted by Prince Friedhelm, who wants Kalyna to use her supposed gift to look into the growing turmoil within Tetrarchia. Having no other means to escape the palace, Kalyna must commit fraud on a higher level than ever before, offering fake predictions for Tetrarchia's royalty. But the longer she feigns divining everyone's fates, the more deeply entwined she becomes with court politics. Kalyna's resolve to escape her captors propels the story forward, and there's plenty of tension and intrigue at court, but exposition bogs down Kalyna's stilted first-person narration, making the stakes feel low and the peril less than immediate. The premise will draw readers in, but many will grow frustrated by the style.
