This was supposed to be an interview with Martin Cahill about his debut fantasy from Tachyon Publications, the novella Audition for the Fox. Unfortunately I didn’t get the story read in time to allow for questions to flow back and forth to appear here on the blog, so we’ll just have a review here for now. But I’m planning still to get some questions sent out so that we can still fit in that interview in the weeks ahead.
I don’t know the word count for this work, or offhand where the official cutoffs of novel versus novella lie, but Cahill’s Audition for the Fox feels more akin to a short novel than a longer short story. Combining strong world building with thorough character development, a solid plot, and diverse themes, the story has that full course meal kind of feel.
As a person with divine blood in her, Nesi must find a chaperone among the pantheon of deities that comprise the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven: one who will take responsibility for guiding her and ensuring that she will not misuse the power of the gods she has inherited. However, after failing auditions with ninety-six of those deities (including her ancestor, Buffalo), Nesi fears that she might not ever find her match or her place in the world. Yet she yearns to be able to move on from the temple home where she has spent her formative years. In desperation Nesi reaches out a prayer of application to Fox, T’sidaan the Trickster.
Fox accepts Nesi for audition, but in typical prankster fashion throws her three hundred years into the past, in the middle of an era where Nesi’s homeland is occupied by the Wolfhounds of Zemin and her people oppressed by these followers of T’sidaan’s brother and nemesis Wolf, the one hundredth Pillar who has been exiled in Nesi’s now-future timeline. Nesi must discover whether she can find Foxlike cunning within her to survive this dangerous past and ensure the future for her people that is now threatened as only a potential.
The cover illustration for Audition of the Fox has a cartoonish, Disney-like vibe to it that might lead readers to think that the story is lighter than it is. While filled with optimism, hope, and ultimately a happy ending, the book also faces darkness head on.
Interior illustrations of the book give alternate representations of Fox that reveal the many faces and personalities to this trickster god character, one who understands that their unpredictable chaos is an essential balance to the qualities of the other Pillars. As much as the novel/novella exists as Nesi’s story, it also reveals the story of T’sidaan, with fable-like interludes between the main parts that follow the plot.
Between these interludes and the main narrative, Cahill manages to show the aspects of T’sidaan that lie within Nesi and the parts of Nesi that reflect T’sidaan. These similarities however also become contrasted to the differing outlooks of a human mortal and an immortal Pillar, to permit the two to learn from one another and each, in their own way, to grow.
The novel/novella thus deals with themes of discovering oneself and of overcoming self doubt through the characters. The historical situation that Nesi finds herself placed into touches onto themes of oppression, resistance, and rebellion. What is most interesting, however, is how Cahill chooses to resolve these themes that come from character and plot.
Rather than turning to direct attacks filled with hatred, anger, and violence, T’sidaan and Nesi use the indirectness of tricksters to reveal the truth of the situation to both the oppressed population as well as some of those oppressors who currently hold the power. Victory comes from subtle and longer lasting resilience through story, song, and disruption: achieving something more potent and lasting than what any rapid reactive force could ever accomplish.
Audition for the Fox should delight lovers of fantasy and fable, particularly those who enjoy a good Trickster tale. Packing a lot done well into a relatively short page count, it’s worth fitting into your reading schedule.
