“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.” —Cassandra Khaw, author of The All-Consuming World
Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. But with ninety-six failed auditions and few options left, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T’sidaan, the Fox of Tricks…but will she be clever enough to save her own ancestors?
A trickster Fox god challenges a quick-witted (but 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?
“Fox-fleet and brazen, merry and mischievous.”
—C. S. E. Cooney, author of Saint Death’s Daughter
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.
“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.”
—Cassandra Khaw, author of The All-Consuming World
“Fox-fleet and brazen, merry and mischievous, haunted by mercies: Martin Cahill’s Audition for the Fox has the trick of doling delight. The language leaps and laughs, teeming with a trickster’s teasing. This book made me happy: both while I was reading it, and long after I’d finished.” —C. S. E. Cooney, author of Saint Death’s Daughter
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. Visit him on the web at https://martintcahill.wordpress.com/.
Audition For the Fox
Martin Cahill
“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.”
—Cassandra Khaw, author of The All-Consuming World
Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. But with ninety-six failed auditions and few options left, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T’sidaan, the Fox of Tricks…but will she be clever enough to save her own ancestors?
Audition For the Fox
by Martin Cahill
ISBN: 978-1-61696-444-3 (print); 978-1-61696-445-0 (digital)
Published: September 16, 2025
Available Format(s): trade paperback, ebook
A trickster Fox god challenges a quick-witted (but 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?
“Fox-fleet and brazen, merry and mischievous.”
—C. S. E. Cooney, author of Saint Death’s Daughter
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.
“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.”
—Cassandra Khaw, author of The All-Consuming World
“Fox-fleet and brazen, merry and mischievous, haunted by mercies: Martin Cahill’s Audition for the Fox has the trick of doling delight. The language leaps and laughs, teeming with a trickster’s teasing. This book made me happy: both while I was reading it, and long after I’d finished.”
—C. S. E. Cooney, author of Saint Death’s Daughter
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. Visit him on the web at https://martintcahill.wordpress.com/.
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