The Sparkle Shelf

Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill

Tachyon, $16.95

ISBN 9781616964443

Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Vintage, $18

ISBN 9780593469316

By Donna Lee Miele

We fly under the star-spotting radar most of the time in Rockland, but are home to unique creative voices. Two cases in point today are fantasy author Martin Cahill, who has a long track record of published short stories and makes his debut as a novelist this year with Audition for the Fox, and speculative fiction author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, who made a huge splash with his short story collection Friday Black in 2018 and whose first full-length novel, the stunner Chain Gang All-Stars, came out in 2023. Martin hails from Nanuet, Nana from Spring Valley, and both are still locally based.

For fantasy fans craving a fresh voice and new approach to narratives on justice and friendship and advanced young readers seeking a mythic new world to explore, Audition for the Fox is a must-read. Set in a world that recognizes a pantheon of animal spirits, the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven, the story centers on Nesi, a would-be acolyte to the Fox—after she’s failed to earn the patronage of ninety-six other deities. The Fox, trickster that they are, throws Nesi hundreds of years into the past on a life-threatening quest to free her people from oppressive and brutal occupying invaders. Plenty of intrigue, swordplay, and magic provide dazzlement and thrills. Two big delights for me were the Fox slowly proving themselves an admirable, if ever vexing, mentor and the portrayal of friendship between Nesi and the comrades who rally to her aid. Through these characters, who in the end inspire each other to be their best and most courageous selves, Cahill injects a thrilling account of a seemingly hopeless quest with quirky humor and tenderness. 

Humor, tenderness, and so many other breathtaking displays of humanity also find their miraculous way into Chain Gang All-Stars, Adjei-Brenyah’s lushly dystopian near-future novel, alongside untenable state-and-corporate-sponsored brutality. The economic powerhouses of reality TV, professional sports, and the American prison system come together to give the United States CAPE, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program, whereby prisoners serving long-term to life sentences for murder and other violent crimes can earn their freedom in three years. The heartless dystopian catch is that the prisoners’ “service” thereafter consists of gladiator-style battles to the death for public consumption. Even out of the arena, chain-gang members, called “links,” are in the public eye, as tiny drone cameras capture their interactions and live-stream it all to fans. The battles are bloody and relentlessly depicted, but Adjei-Brenyah counterbalances the brutality with unforgettable characters and relationships, notably Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker, whose prowess as warriors is equaled only by the examples they provide as lovers and friends. Just like the viewers that Chain Gang depicts, readers will find they cannot turn away. I read this novel on audiobook, and highly recommend the experience. 

As a bookseller, I am never more pleased than when I can introduce readers to themselves through literature. In both of these cases, Rockland, I’m pleased to meet you. 

Donna Lee Miele is a writer, freelance editor, and bookseller from Rockland County. She owns The Sparkle Bookstore in Sparkill, New York.