OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile
Narrators Cherise Boothe and Larry Herron work together to bring listeners a rich listening experience that maximizes the fantastic world at the heart of this epic. Herron's baritone calls up another world, full of royalty, magic, and disaster. The chapters he narrates as Djola, the ruling magician of Arkhysia, resound with his vibrant performance. This sets up a lively contrast with the chapters presented by Boothe, as Awa, a powerful wood sprite. The characters, like the narrators, cooperate to create a tale of daring survival against apocalyptic odds. Those who love fantasy will find much to admire in this title. The world-building is extensive and expertly handled by the narrators. This audiobook is best listened to during a long drive or a quiet evening with few distractions. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 07/06/2020
Hairston (Will Do Magic for Small Change) dazzles with this complex epic fantasy about a people struggling to survive in the world they’ve helped destroy. A poison desert is spreading across the Arkhysian Empire, killing everything in its path. Djola, Emperor Azizi’s second in command, has tried to warn the population for years, urging them to save their homeland—but to no avail. Now that it’s too late for any minor precaution to help, he sets out to find a solution. As Djola works to stop the world from burning, he discovers the darkness lurking within the empire and in his own heart. Meanwhile, garden sprite Awa, a young griot in training, struggles to find her own place in the uncertain future. In stirring prose (“As long as sweet water fell from the sky every afternoon and mist rolled in on a night wind, everybody promised to change—tomorrow or next week. Then crops failed and rivers turned to dust.”), Hairston weaves a rich tapestry of folklore and adventure, inviting readers into a well-developed, non-Western fantasy world, while navigating pressing issues of climate change and personal responsibility. This is an urgent, gorgeous work. Agent: Kristopher O’Higgins, Scribe Agency. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Named a Best of 2020 Pick for Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2020
Praise for Master of Poisons:
"Master of Poisons is sheer, undiluted brilliance. Epic, courageous, unapologetically fierce. The world needed an epic fantasy from the unstoppably creative mind of Andrea Hairston, and it's right on time. This is a prayer hymn, a battle cry, a love song, a legendary call and response bonfire talisman tale. This is medicine for a broken world." —Daniel José Older
"Master of Poisons makes me laugh, gasp, and dream of the world we are so desperately holding onto and of a better world yet to come . . . I am so grateful Andrea hasn't given up on us! May she keep gifting our world with her expansive imagination throughout the years!" —Sheree Renée Thomas
"Nobody does it better than Andrea Hairston, and if you doubt it, just open Master of Poisons and follow her into the light." —Pearl Cleage
"Andrea Hairston's writing is not to be missed. Her fantasy is rich with evocative detail, stunning and original, and her characters deeply humane and engaging. This is the kind of fantasy that expands your mind and warms your heart.” —Martha Wells
"Hairston weaves a rich tapestry of folklore and adventure, inviting readers into a well-developed, non-Western fantasy world, while navigating pressing issues of climate change and personal responsibility. This is an urgent, gorgeous work." —Publishers Weekly starred review
Praise for Andrea Hairston:
"[A] beautifully multifaceted story...with deep, layered, powerful characters. Highly recommended."—The New York Times on Will Do Magic for Small Change
"The entire work is filled with magic, celebrating West Africans, Native Americans, art, and love that transcends simple binary genders. Hairston's novel is a completely original and stunning work."—Publishers Weekly on Will Do Magic for Small Change
"A heartbreaking, game-changing, life-affirming, truth-telling powerhouse."—Daniel José Older on Will Do Magic for Small Change
"An affirmation of the power of joy to transform the world, and reading it will make you sing like a bird while wishing for wings with which to fly."—Nisi Shawl on Will Do Magic for Small Change
OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile
Narrators Cherise Boothe and Larry Herron work together to bring listeners a rich listening experience that maximizes the fantastic world at the heart of this epic. Herron's baritone calls up another world, full of royalty, magic, and disaster. The chapters he narrates as Djola, the ruling magician of Arkhysia, resound with his vibrant performance. This sets up a lively contrast with the chapters presented by Boothe, as Awa, a powerful wood sprite. The characters, like the narrators, cooperate to create a tale of daring survival against apocalyptic odds. Those who love fantasy will find much to admire in this title. The world-building is extensive and expertly handled by the narrators. This audiobook is best listened to during a long drive or a quiet evening with few distractions. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-07-29
An epic fantasy set in an African-inspired world on the brink of ecological disaster.
Djola, the Arkhysian Empire’s Master of Poisons, has a plan to stop the spreading poison desert. Hezram, a powerful priest, offers to use dark blood magic. But Djola believes in his “map to tomorrow,” which involves searching for a powerful spell to unravel the cause of the dangerous void-storms. Awa has an affinity with bees and a talent for traveling to Smokeland, the spirit realm. Sold to the Green Elders on her 12th birthday, Awa comes of age on the margins of empire, learning from Yari, the griot (storyteller) of griots. Along the way, she will learn to question much of what she’s been taught: about the Elders, about people the Empire calls "savages," and about “vesons,” who, like Yari, are neither man nor woman. Both Djola and Awa will be tested, and both will make enormous sacrifices to save the people—and the world—they love. This complex story spans years, travels to every corner of a richly imagined fantasy world, and even dips into the minds of elephants, bees, and rivers: “The Bees...dream of pools of nectar, clouds of pollen, and evening dew heavy with flower scent. Why dream of anything else?”
This book’s lyrical language and unsparing vision make it a mind-expanding must-read.
