Monday, August 8, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Kalyna the Soothsayer by Elijah Kinch Spector

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 9, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     


Kalyna the Soothsayer is the debut novel of author Elijah Kinch Spector, and is a fantasy example of a pretty classic genre: the fake psychic story (think Psych or The Mentalist), where a character pretends to have visions of the future and instead relies upon intuition or incredible observation skills to make it work for whatever purposes.  In this case, unlike the usual story, Kalyna is the story of a girl in an actual soothsayer (future teller) family, where she's the first one to not have the gift of foresight, to the embarrassment of her grandmother and to her own internal shame.  Naturally this doesn't stop her from getting involved in a fantasy tale filled with court intrigue, as she gets forcibly drafted to the service of a Prince in a Kingdom cracking at the seems...both politically and perhaps in reality as well.  

And despite Kalyna the Soothsayer featuring an absurd satirical narrative about its ridiculous kingdom setting - something that tends to get on my nerves more than make me chuckle - I found it to be highly enjoyable by the end, as its tale featured a number of enjoyable characters, surprises, and a protagonist in Kalyna who very much does not make the traditional choices you expect along the way.  It's probably a bit too long - the book is listed at 400 pages but shows up in my eReader as something closer to 500 - but by the book's last act I was eagerly turning the pages to see how it would all wind up, and while some things are resolved a bit easily, it all fits and winds up in a really satisfying ending.  A very interesting debut novel.


--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Kalyna's family has made its living for generations using their unique family Gift - the Gift of being able to see the future.  And now it's Kalyna's turn to perform the family task (with her father overtaken by foresight and too ill as a result to be productive) to earn money for the family as they travel the four kingdoms of the Tetrarchia.  There's just one problem: Kalyna doesn't have the Gift at all...the first member of her family in generations to be without it.  

And so, to her angry screeching grandmother's dismay, Kalyna fakes it - using context and spying to make it so her prophecies seem more plausible to their paying listeners.  And after all, it's not as if the future can't be changed as a result of people acting on genuine foresight, so all Kalyna has to do is to take action - sometimes violently - to make sure her own prophecies can always be acted upon to keep the con going.  

Unfortunately, Kalyna's reputation becomes good enough that she attracts the wrong type of attention - that of a Prince in the underground Kingdom of Rotfelsen.  Soon she finds herself kidnapped by the Prince's spymaster and tasked with helping the Prince stop the constant plots against his brother the King.  To keep her secret - as well as he head - Kalyna will have to continue the con on a whole new level...and to make matters worse, her father had a genuine prophecy of the Tetrarchia apocalyptically falling apart, a prophecy clearly connected to her new role.  Kalyna will thus be forced to decipher a strange land, with strange cultures and multiple strange factions and armies, all of which seem to be plotting against each other, all for the sake of not just protecting her own secret....but the lives of all its people as well....
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Kalyna the Soothsayer is told entirely from the first person perspective of its protagonist, who narrates the story seemingly as if she's telling it from a bit in the future, as if the things she's talking about are in the past (with her giving hints at things to come at ends of chapters, for examples).  It's also a narrative that's incredibly matter of fact about the absurd things that Kalyna encounters, and this book is basically a satire at times of dysfunctional ruling societies, so there are a lot of utterly absurd things: a kingdom with a Prince who will plot to ensure he doesn't get to rule even though the ruling King is basically just a figurehead, four armies following four rulers each with their own different philosophies and agendas that never really make any sense (one army is dedicated to the Court Philosopher of all things).  And the various peoples and Kingdoms, and even the peoples within the kingdoms have even more different views on how the world should work, such as different roles for women (can they duel? can they fight?  etc. etc.) even as non-hetero relationships are in some places largely accepted (our protagonist is interested in both women and men).  And then there's the extreme ridiculous segregation of roles in the bureaucracy, such as one eccentric man whose job is entirely about the picking of fruit for the Royalty's events, or another who has a hereditary role as an ethicist, etc.

It's a type of ridiculousness that I sometimes find hard to read, and don't really love whenever it's not super pointed in its political commentary.  But it works here mainly due to Kalyna, who is a really great character, with so so much depth.  Kalyna is a girl who is good-hearted really, who wants to help her family....really her father, but also doesn't want to harm people with her prophecies if she can avoid it...even to the extent of getting dirty with a weapon to ensure that certain bad actors don't ruin them in murderous ways.  She gets close to various people - the aforementioned Master of Fruit, whose simplicity and earnest mindedness really appeals to her; a noble man who tries overly hard to charm her; a bartender who she tries trolling for information; and even one of the Prince's soldiers, an attractive and incredibly dry-witted women - and well, despite running a con wants to try and do the right thing....and finds herself haunted not just by the prophecy of doom, but also what could happen if she guesses the wrong thing.  

And these morals, even as she is perfectly willing to lie, steal, and cheat to get her way, make her react in some really surprising ways that will keep you guessing and keep this from being the normal "fake psychic saves the day through observation" type story.  And with everyone and their factions trying to plot and anticipate her and the others in ways that lead to gambit pile ups among gambit pile ups (to say nothing of the Prince, who so badly doesn't want a job that he's basically doing it anyway...even as the role itself is so much less serious than he actually thinks), that the story went from a grating style to one that is absolutely charming in the end, as things come to a head in what is a little bit abrupt (how they avert the apocalypse is a bit of a let-down) but is still incredibly satisfying.  

And hell, the book even plays with genuine prophecies by having them not necessarily come true, especially with regards to Kalyna's future, leading to some personal choices near the end that just mad me really fall in love with her as a character.  And that brings this book up a level to where I wound up enjoying it more than I thought I would.  If only it was about 100 pages less it'd probably be really good, but you still can't go too wrong giving this one a try.  

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