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 September 16, 2025 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.
Audition for the Fox is the first piece of long fiction by Martin Cahill, known in the SF/F space for short fiction and for being an editor at Erewhonian (and probably other places too before that). The story follows a young woman Nesi who desperately seeks a position as an acolyte of one of the 99 Pillars (deities) and reluctantly seeks the position from T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks...only for the Fox to send her back 300 years in time to the time her people were conquered and oppressed and challenged to find a way to start a revolution. The result is an excellent setting and world, with a really strong lead character, excellent storytelling, and some solid themes of family, oppression, emotions and hurt, and justice.
