Saboteur

The sequel to Ruiner is a political epic fantasy that shows us what it takes to win.

In this second book of the Tellers series, Kell, a proud, misfit teller, trained to project elaborate creatures of glowing storylight, returns to her people empty-handed and bereft of memories. The sacred pulsar stones that have guided navigators across the desert since time immemorial have been seized in Imperial Soogway’s relentless pursuit of resources, and her mission to win them back through story combat has failed. In a world without physical violence, Kell has paid a great and terrible price for her attempt.

Conventional channels exhausted, Silaya, a quick-tempered wayfinder experienced in the vagaries of the harsh desert climate, joins a small group fighting Soogway’s extraction teams, putting their own bodies between the enormous machinery and the remaining pulsar stones. When their plan goes horribly awry, Silaya finds herself an object of contention, having violated the Roamer’s greatest taboo. Alliances and tactics soon change.

Meanwhile, other forms of resistance are brewing across the empire, with forces at work both seen and unseen. In a fight to stop irreversible destruction and defend ways of life from the maws of a voracious regime, this tale asks us to imagine what we would give to win. In Saboteur, Lara Messersmith-Glavin breathes to life a lush and high-stakes battle whose moral questions feel prescient for our times. This sequel combines the intrigue of How to Blow Up a Pipeline with the grand world-building of Kim Stanley Robinson and Ursula K. Le Guin.