Skip to content

The Fraud, the Myth, the Legend: Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector

0
Share

The Fraud, the Myth, the Legend: <i>Kalyna the Cutthroat</i> by Elijah Kinch Spector

Home / The Fraud, the Myth, the Legend: Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector
Books book review

The Fraud, the Myth, the Legend: Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector

A review of Elijah Kinch Spector's new epic fantasy novel.

By

Published on January 27, 2025

0
Share
Cover of Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector.

It’s a gamble to open a fantasy sequel (even one billed as standalone) with an entirely new perspective. In Elijah Kinch Spector’s debut novel Kalyna the Soothsayer, the eponymous Kalyna Aljosanovna was such a compelling narrator because we were in on her secret from the start: She couldn’t actually tell the future like the rest of her fortune-telling family, yet was burdened with her ailing father’s vision that the world would end unless she could save the four disparate nations of the Tetrarchic Experiment from their own fractious in-fighting.

However, as it turns out in Spector’s alternately charming and poignant sequel, what’s even more fun than a grifter is a legend. A few years after the events of the first book, Kalyna the Cutthroat becomes a prominent character in someone else’s harrowing adventure: Radiant Basket of Rainbow Shells, a scholar of curses visiting the nation of Quruscan on a research visa from neighboring Loasht. Unfortunately, the conflict between the Tetrarchia and his home country has branded Radiant as an undesirable both abroad and at home, due in no small part to Loasht’s racist persecution against his Zobiski heritage. Desperate to reunite with his partner Silver Petals Alight on Sand, Radiant begs for help from resourceful Rotfelsen mercenary Dagmar Sorga, who in turn calls in the big guns. Enter Kalyna Aljosanovna, who time and money has made even more arrogant in her own spectacular abilities of deception, and even more ruthless in getting the job done.

But as established, Kalyna’s specialty is decidedly not foresight; it’s reacting to the factors in front of her in the present. All it takes is a couple of detours in the itinerary, and our erstwhile trio winds up off-course, seeking refuge at a fledgling commune—not a cult, except maybe it’s too early to tell—trying to build a utopia outside of Tetrarchic rule despite occupying land within its borders. The Lanreas River Guild simultaneously welcomes them in with no reservations, while also demanding that they help build a very particular, narrowly-defined sort of future. Whether Kalyna can deceive her way through this group makes for an engaging plot, and Radiant’s desperate need for her to do so keeps the character grounded even as her methods turn increasingly upsetting.

Here, cutthroat is as much a noun as an adjective—it has replaced soothsayer as Kalyna’s ersatz title, even if only Dagmar and Radiant refer to her as such. The Rot herself is a sellsword, and Radiant is constantly requesting precision of language between wizard (which instills awe and fear) and sorcerer (slightly better, if still not accurate). In fact, despite Kalyna eventually offering up some of her past exploits (which readers already know), Radiant does not witness her soothsaying prowess at all. Except that one could argue that she utilizes most of the same tools to reach the members of the Lanreas River Guild—namely, her ability to read people’s deepest unconscious desires, and her own racially ambiguous looks that make her blend in or stand out in the eye of the beholder.

Spector enlivens the familiar fantasy trope of this book being a written account of a past event by contextualizing it within Radiant’s scholastic collection. That is to say, he travels with a Commonplace Book (one of many volumes, though most left behind in Loasht and/or lost to abrupt flight) in which he copies down important research as well as pertinent bits of information. Documenting Kalyna’s escapades alongside passages from a melodramatic romance novel brings to mind Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, in which a bodice ripper changes the course of a war.

Buy the Book

Kalyna the Cutthroat
Kalyna the Cutthroat

Kalyna the Cutthroat

Elijah Kinch Spector

While there are enough new characters and enough of a framework that new readers could start here, the book will best land with those who followed along with Kalyna’s exploits in the trigger-happy Rotfelsen court, if only to better appreciate the contrast with the muddy interpersonal dynamics of the Lanreas River Guild. Utopian stories can often be flattened by the predictable plot of some sinister undercurrent turning everything into a horror story, but instead Spector finds the nuance in every corner of this town built on evolving definitions of labor and community. Despite their lofty pronouncements about everyone being welcome, the inhabitants look down on those who don’t immediately spring to help, or those whose numbers would swell the population toward a certain origin nation. (But also, having a guy whose entire job is roasting chickpea snacks for everyone as a little treat is the backbone of society!)

Everything in the sequel is bigger and better, from Kalyna’s crafty disguises to a harrowing flight in a hot air balloon. Spector strikes an excellent balance between establishing various forms of technology more familiar to our world, while not making them commonplace to all the characters—still preserving the sense of wonder (and/or horror) at confronting something new, especially the brainchildren of inventors rejected by their home countries.

At the same time, the smaller human moments are more finely tuned. Dagmar is more than just the brute she’s initially introduced as; she’s hiding a tender heart pummeled by the capricious Kalyna. The soothsayer-turned-cutthroat is now legitimately rich, but she clearly craves the danger, taking on Radiant’s case for a nominal fee. Radiant himself wrestles with different aspects of self-identity, comfortable in queerness and non-monogamy but ill at ease with the prospect of aging (losing his youthful beauty) and understandably burdened with what he calls “the Zobiski memory.” Radiant’s constant awareness that strangers and friends alike could turn on him or his people—as they did before, as there is always the chance they can do again—will resonate with any reader who has felt othered or unsafe.

Despite the hefty text, the ending comes upon us somewhat abruptly. Radiant gets his big moment putting his studies to work for the sake of the Zobiski people, and just like in Kalyna the Soothsayer, any good fortune is tempered by the reminder of what happens when you tap into ancient energies. In some ways this series brings to mind Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe (albeit fantasy instead of sci-fi) in how it depicts interludes of time in characters’ lives across long distances, with some familiar faces recurring, but overlapping rather than always existing side-by-side. Radiant’s story resolves while still leaving the rest of his life open-ended. Similarly, it’s not necessarily a spoiler that Kalyna parts ways with Radiant and the Guild. She is, after all, merely one (prolonged) chapter in other people’s lives. I cannot wait to see whose Commonplace Book or memoirs—or romance novel, or children’s book of myths!—she appears in next. icon-paragraph-end

Kalyna the Cutthroat is published by Erewhon Books.

About the Author

Natalie Zutter

Author

Learn More About Natalie
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments