Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston
ISBN-10: 1250260566 (trade paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781250260567 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 9781250260550 (ebook – released on 09/08/2020)
ISBN: 9781250772718 (Digital audiobook – released on 09/15/2020)
ASIN: B082RTK2XT (Kindle edition – released on 09/08/2020)
ASIN: B0876HRFHZ (Audible audiobook – released on 09/08/2020)
Release Date: August 31, 2021 for Trade Paperback
Publisher: Tordotcom
Genre: Fiction | Fantasy | Speculative Fiction
Named a Best of 2020 Pick for Kirkus Review’s Best Books of 2020
NEW MATERIAL FOR A NEW EDITION!
This trade paperback includes an extensive, conversational interview between the author and Daniel José Older!.
The world is changing. Poison desert eats good farmland. Once-sweet water turns foul. The wind blows sand and sadness across the Empire. To get caught in a storm is death. To live and do nothing is death. There is magic in the world, but good conjure is hard to find.
Djola, righthand man and spymaster of the lord of the Arkhysian Empire, is desperately trying to save his adopted homeland, even in exile.
Awa, a young woman training to be a powerful griot, tests the limits of her knowledge and comes into her own in a world of sorcery, floating cities, kindly beasts, and uncertain men.
Awash in the rhythms of folklore and storytelling and rich with Hairston’s characteristic lush prose, Master of Poisons is epic fantasy that will bleed your mind with its turns of phrase and leave you aching for the world it burns into being.
Praise for Master of Poisons
“This is a prayer hymn, a battle cry, a love song, a legendary call and response bonfire talisman tale. This is medicine for a broken world.” —Daniel José Older
“Hairston dazzles with this complex epic fantasy about people struggling to survive in the world they’ve helped destroy…this is an urgent, gorgeous work.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“This book’s lyrical language and unsparing vision make it a mind-expanding must-read.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Master of Poisons is a lush, literary fantasy novel full of folklore and magic.” —Buzzfeed
“Epic fantasy readers, you’re about to read your new favorite book. With its large cast of characters, stunning worldbuilding, gorgeous prose, and fascinating magic, Master of Poisons will shake you to your core. Andrea Hairston has done it again. All hall the queen.” —Tor.com
“You could practically smell the brine, hear the gulls by the sea, and taste the nut butter and sweet mango slices…This is a vast world that you are dropped in.” —Women of Color Read
“Master of Poisons makes me laugh, gasp, and dream of the world we are so desperately holding onto and of a better world yet to come . . . I am so grateful Andrea hasn’t given up on us! May she keep gifting our world with her expansive imagination throughout the years!” —Sheree Renée Thomas
“Nobody does it better than Andrea Hairston, and if you doubt it, just open Master of Poisons and follow her into the light.” —Pearl Cleage
“Andrea Hairston’s writing is not to be missed. Her fantasy is rich with evocative detail, stunning and original, and her characters deeply humane and engaging. This is the kind of fantasy that expands your mind and warms your heart.” —Martha Wells
Meet The Author
Andrea Hairston is a novelist, essayist, playwright, and the Artistic Director of Chrysalix Theatre. She is the author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Tiptree Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award, and of Mindscape, shortlisted for the Phillip K. Dick and Otherwise Award, and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. In her spare time, Hairston is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. She has received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for outstanding contributions to the criticism of the fantastic.
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