Microreview [book]: Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston

A dense, rich adventure which puts its characters on very different, satisfying journeys

Master of Poisons took me approximately forever to read. Very little of that is the book's fault: while Andrea Hairston's writing style does require more attention than some, packing a great deal of worldbuilding and information into deceptively simple but poetic prose, its certainly no more than I would expect to give to an author of this calibre. It's not like Master of Poisons doesn't open with some super intriguing stuff: right off the bat, we've got poison deserts, scheming advisors, a deceptively confident first protagonist and a plucky young second one all conspiring to draw me in. It's even got an opening paragraph ("We are more likely to deny truth than admit grave error and change our minds...") that feels like an shoe-in for the pantheon of great literary opening statements about human nature. Unfortunately, 2020 being 2020, with all its effects on my confidence, reading ability and attention span, the experience of reading Master of Poisons turned in my mind from "will be awesome, just need to focus" to "insurmountable reading challenge". This is a book that I wanted to give my full attention to, and that meant leaving it on my bedside table for far longer than I wanted to. But! We would not be here if I had not Successfully Read the Book, and I'm here to tell you that this is a book that you, too, can and should read!

Master of Poisons centres around two characters on very different journeys, within a multiethnic African-inspired land dominated by the Arkhysian Empire. Djola is the Master of Poisons in that empire, a northerner who has risen to a senior position and won the trust of the empire within a set of scheming advisors. When we're introduced to him, he feels utterly comfortable in his position: middle-aged, married with children, happy with the political game he's playing and willing to take a risk or two to see his plans through. However, with the empire's attention taken by a poison desert which threatens to overtake the land on which the empire is built, Djola's plan to harness forbidden magic backfires on him, and he finds himself exiled, pushed to the margins of his home and separated from his wife and children until he returns with a solution. Djola's exile takes him out to sea, where he spends a considerable amount of time with slave-taking pirate captain Pezarrat and his awful crew, trying to figure out his own direction and what his empire needs from him. It's a journey that tears him down before we see any progress in his goals, and watching him grapple with his failures and try to uncover and harness magic that the empire he serves has driven to the margins is hard to watch, even as his initial overconfidence makes it a fitting arc.

The other main character is also embedded in magics outlawed by the empire. Awa is a "green sprite", 12 years old at the start of the book, who is being brought up among a group of Lahesh conjurers. Having been sold by her father after being exposed to the Smokelands, a supernatural realm which her mother has taught her to access, Awa has a traumatic entry into her new world, but her anger at her father and brothers for their actions is tempered by her flourishing in the Green Elders camp, where she learns to navigate the smokelands and begins training as a griot. Unfortunately, Awa's early sections were home to the language choice I just couldn't get on board with in Master of Poisons: the italicisation of the neopronoun "vie" for those who identify as veson, neither man nor woman. The empire doesn't recognise veson (are you starting to see a pattern here), meaning they are largely associated with marginalised supernatural groups; along with other italicisation choices, the italicisation of "vie" seems to be to show how the veson are an "othered" cultural element to the empire. However, when applied specifically to a neopronoun (which doesn't change with case, so he/him/his translates to vie/vie/vie) it's an uncomfortable choice, to say the least. That said, without familiarity with the cultures Master of Poisons is drawing on, I may be missing crucial context here, and apart from the italicisation I appreciated the book's portrayal of a range of queer and nonbinary characters. 

The world of Master of Poisons is richly drawn, its different cultures intriguing and distinct even as the book portrays their erosion by a homogenising empire. After the initial set-up, both Djola and Awa take their time in their respective situations: Awa spends that time growing into her power and learning about what she can achieve in the Smokelands and in the waking world, while Djola, as mentioned, is sad and frustrated on a pirate ship. This initial period spans years, and its not until the midpoint when things suddenly take a sharp left turn, with Djola reclaiming agency over his mission and Awa being subjected to significant external forces that change her destiny and separate her from her found family, forcing her to draw on hidden resources (and make new friends) to survive as a captive in the empire's grasp. Things in the second half move significantly faster than the first, but the themes remain consistent: this is a book with lots to say about trust and survival in hostile circumstances. If there's a criticism to be had in this second half, its that some of these relationships don't land as effectively without the space to breathe of the slower first half.

While it's a great read throughout, Master of Poisons really sparkles from the point at which Djola and Awa's stories intersect. The two bring an initial scepticism to each other's missions that soon evolves into respect and then into genuine care, a chemistry that draws the reader in against the backdrop of an evocative supernatural journey. Their relationship re-energises the book's focus: which is, after all, about saving an empire from what is technically a poison desert but is actually about its own complacency and greed. That ending, when it comes, is fast paced but ultimately satisfying, a culmination of a serious journey of a book that left me very happy with the whole experience, despite how long it ultimately took me.

The Math

Baseline Score: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 Characters with satisfying journeys that get even better on joining forces

Penalties: -1 The sheer amount of characters and worldbuilding can get overwhelming, particularly in the fast-paced second half

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

POSTED BY: Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy

Reference: Hairston, Andrea Master of Poisons [Tor dot com publishing, 2020]

Interview: Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

When I started seeing promotional material for Andrea Hairson's Master of Poisons,  there was a turn of phrase that caught my eye: "Poison desert eats good farmland".   Something to know about me is that I live in a college town that is surrounded by farm land. And we're pretty protective of our farm land  and fresh water sources around here.  Anything that harms the land and the water, that harms how we feed ourselves, thems fightin' words. With its sorcery, floating cities, empires on the edge of collapse, powerful storytelling and deadly storms, Master of Poisons is obviously about much more than protecting the land. But, if we don't have land to live on, land to farm to feed ourselves, then what?  Come for the "save the farmland!" basics, and stay for the fact that this book pulls together research and stories that the author has been collecting for her entire adult life.

Hairston's previous novels include Will Do Magic for Small Change (finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Tiptree Awards), Redwood and Wildfire, (winner of the Tiptree and Carl Brandon Awards) and Mindscape. (winner of the Carl Brandon Award).   

Of her newest novel, Master of Poisons, Hairston says:

"Master of Poisons is about denial and the empire of lies we’re willing to believe. It’s about decolonizing the mind. I wanted to write myself out of the hopelessness we feel facing devastation. This is a book about the stories we tell and the communities we make to do the impossible. . . .I am an Afro-Futurist in league with Indigenous-Futurists. I want to bring the wisdom of recovered ancestors into conversation with the future."

Not one to limit her artistic endeavors to just ink on a page, Hairston is a playwright and Artistic Director of the Chrysalis Theatre in Western Massachusetts, which has produced everything from scifi comedies to musical workshops, to radio shows and more.  To learn more about Hairston's fiction, essays, and stage work, you can visit her website at andreahairston.com, and follow her on twitter at @AAHairsto.  

After learning about Master of Poisons, I had about a million questions for Hairston, from her inspirations for this novel, to her worldbuilding methods, how music and language plays into her storytelling, to her work on the stage. She was able to take some time out of her schedule to answer many of them.  Let's get to the interview!

NOAF: On a Tor.com post announcing the book, you talked about how you "wanted to write myself out of hopelessness we feel facing devastation". Can you tell us more about this? Was writing Master of Poisons emotional for you, because of the feelings of hopelessness? (as someone who lives in a small city surrounded by beautiful farmland, the idea of farmland dying makes me want to cry!!) 

Andrea Hairston: Some days a wave of despair inundates me. I feel like a brief speck of dust, struggling to survive the whirlwind, the hellfire. Writing is like prayer. Writing challenges me to feel the world, to find myself in relation to the dirt, the people, the rain, the bees, all living things.  

That’s how and why I wrote Master of Poisons. My emotions are fuel for activism, not a drain. 

We all use our emotions as fuel to create and sustain the changes we want to make, have to make. So, when writing, I don’t feel alone. I don’t feel helpless, hopeless, useless. I know that what I do matters. What we all do matters.  

NOAF: What were some of your inspirations for the novel?  

AH: The films of Guillermo Del Toro—he shows us the other worlds, beautiful and terrible, in our world. Frans De Waal’s books on animal emotion and intelligence—De Waal asks are we smart enough to know how intelligent animals are or wise enough to sense how much they feel? The plays of Pearl Cleage, Alice Childress, Anna D. Smith, and Tess Onwueme—these women recovered lost history, reinvented the present, and reached to the future. The novels of Octavia Butler, Michael Ende, Ursula LeGuin, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tad Williams. They made me feel at home in Science Fiction, and Fantasy. 

NOAF: I love these kinds of epic, lush, complicated worlds, how did you create and design the Arkhysian Empire?  

AH: I tried to write a novella, tried to squeeze the story and the world into 40,000 words or less and it just didn’t work! The characters demanded backstories, geographies, their own particular languages, histories, and cultures. The conjure system demanded a full cosmology. Each language had words that didn’t translate, that had to be explained by stories, myths, and experiences. Nobody ate the same food. Even the trees and rivers wanted to tell their story! 

NOAF: What kind of research did you do for this novel?  

AH: I’ve been researching this book since the ninth grade so that’s a very long time! I read history, cultural studies, novels, poems, plays. I love going to museums-- and looked at art, maps, sculptures, clothing, pottery, weapons, fabric, tapestries—all sorts of material culture. All praises to the Smithsonian Institute, particularly the Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of African American History and Culture. 

I’ve learned several languages. Learning a new language offers a particular way of seeing the world. Truly, every language makes a different world. 

Decades of doing theatre and performance was also good research. Theatre is great practice for getting inside characters and worlds that aren’t your own. I play balaphon –a West African Instrument with wooden keys and gourd resonators. The polyrhythmic West African music transports me, changes me. Like speaking a particular language, playing music offers me a portal to a new realm. 

NOAF: What is your writing process like? Are you a pantster or a plotter?  

A 12 key balaphon with gourd resonators

AH: So I do both! It’s a polyrhythm. I plot and then fly off with my muse, and then I settle in and plot and then fly off again until I find the end and then I can get the beginning to work. 

NOAF: Without too many spoilers, can you tell us if there was a particular scene that was your favorite to write? Was there a scene that was more difficult to write than you expected? 

AH: I loved writing stories from the point of view of the animals, of the non-human characters in the novel. These were some of the hardest scenes to write, but also the most fun. I’m allergic to bees and becoming a swarm of them was thrilling. 

NOAF: You are the Artistic Director of the Chrysalis Theatre, a cross cultural performance ensemble, and you teach theatre and playwriting. How has your experiences in live theater and playwriting informed how you write short stories and novels?  

AH: Doing live theatre means you have to rehearse and rehearse yet be ready to improvise with whatever comes up during the performance. Writing for theatre, I’ve rewritten lines after the show has opened. Performers wanted to kill me, but if the lines I handed them were better than what they’d been struggling to get behind, they’d cuss and fuss and then change. So I am a champion rewriter. I revise and revise until I get the story I want. 

I love dramatic storytelling—finding the action, the mystery that propels they story. As I playwright, I love finding the voice of each character, the idiom of their thoughts, the idiom of their world. I bring all that into my novels. 

NOAF: How is telling a story on the stage different than telling a story on the page? 

AH:On stage you have actors, sets, lights, costumes. A novelist has to conjure all that setting in the minds of the reader. No designers or performers to the rescue! No music to underscore or illuminate intentions, motivations, mood. In the theatre, the audience can breathe the same air as the performers. They can taste the actors’ hunger and joy, feel the music of the actors’ voices in their bones. Sitting in your seat, taking in the play, you sync up heartbeats with the rest of the audience and send your energy up on stage to support the performers as they reach beyond themselves. But playwrights don’t write the interior landscape of a character. Word by word, the novelist maps that often complex and always intriguing interior and invites the reader on an intimate journey from self to other. Hours can go by and lost in the book, in the setting and music that the writer has conjured, the reader forgets everything else. 

NOAF: Thank you so much, Andrea, for this enlightening interview!

POSTED BY: Andrea Johnson lives in Michigan with her husband and too many books. She can be found on twitter, @redhead5318 , where she posts about books, food, and assorted nerdery. 

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 new and forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about?

 

Abercrombie, Joe. The Trouble With Peace [Orbit]
Publisher's Description

A fragile peace gives way to conspiracy, betrayal, and rebellion in this sequel to the New York Times bestselling A Little Hatred from epic fantasy master Joe Abercrombie.

Peace is just another kind of battlefield . . .

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized, and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye . . . before it kills her.

Unrest worms into every layer of society. The Breakers still lurk in the shadows, plotting to free the common man from his shackles, while noblemen bicker for their own advantage. Orso struggles to find a safe path through the maze of knives that is politics, only for his enemies, and his debts, to multiply.

The old ways are swept aside, and the old leaders with them, but those who would seize the reins of power will find no alliance, no friendship, and no peace lasts forever.

Why We Want It: When I spotlighted Abercrombie's previous novel A Little Hatred, I noted "A Little Hatred may be an understatement. I expect a lot of hatred and a lot of violence and told in a way that only Abercrombie can." I was right. Once again I expect the title to be an understatement. There likely will be trouble with peace, but there will also be a lot of hatred and violence. Abercrombie is as good as he ever was. I can't wait.

Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi [Bloomsbury]
Publisher's Description

The long-awaited return from the author of the multi-million copy bestselling Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Piranesi lives in the House.
Perhaps he always has.

In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls.

On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and waterlilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.

Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?

Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite

Why We Want It: Clarke's previous (and debut) novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and I've been intimidated to read that thousand page foot noted door stopper ever since (I'll read it one day, I promise) - but that makes Piranesi a significant novel this year and something to pay attention to. As an added bonus, Piranesi is under 300 pages.

Ford, John M. The Dragon Waiting [Tor Essentials]
Publisher's Description

“The best mingling of history with historical magic that I have ever seen.”—Gene Wolfe

In a snowbound inn high in the Alps, four people meet who will alter fate.

A noble Byzantine mercenary . . .

A female Florentine physician . . .

An ageless Welsh wizard . . .

And Sforza, the uncanny duke.

Together they will wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester—and make him Richard III.

Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times-bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic.

“Had [John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would’ve been George R.R. Martin.” —Neil Gaiman

Why We Want It: I wonder how many readers today have heard of John M. Ford. I never would have, except that there were two years I attended Fourth Street Fantasy Convention and Ford was often mentioned. They knew him, personally, and they spoke of Ford and his work reverently and with love. He was only 49 when he passed, which is staggeringly young. Long out of print, Tor will be republishing all of Ford's novels, starting with The Dragon Waiting - his most notable work.

Hairston, Andrea. Master of Poisons [Tor.com Publishing]
Publisher's Description

Award-winning author Andrea Hairston weaves together African folktales and postcolonial literature into unforgettable fantasy in Master of Poisons

The world is changing. Poison desert eats good farmland. Once-sweet water turns foul. The wind blows sand and sadness across the Empire. To get caught in a storm is death. To live and do nothing is death. There is magic in the world, but good conjure is hard to find.

Djola, righthand man and spymaster of the lord of the Arkhysian Empire, is desperately trying to save his adopted homeland, even in exile.

Awa, a young woman training to be a powerful griot, tests the limits of her knowledge and comes into her own in a world of sorcery, floating cities, kindly beasts, and uncertain men.

Awash in the rhythms of folklore and storytelling and rich with Hairston's characteristic lush prose, Master of Poisons is epic fantasy that will bleed your mind with its turns of phrase and leave you aching for the world it burns into being.

Why We Want It: I've been circling around Hairston's work for a number of years now and even though I should have read Mindscape or Will Do Magic for Small Change years ago, there is no better time to correct my lapse and read Master of Poisons than right now.

McGuire, Seanan. A Killing Frost [DAW]
Publisher's Description

When October is informed that Simon Torquill—legally her father, due to Faerie’s archaic marriage traditions—must be invited to her wedding or risk the ceremony throwing the Kingdom in the Mists into political turmoil, she finds herself setting out on a quest she was not yet prepared to undertake for the sake of her future…. and the man who represents her family’s past.

Why We Want It: Readers of the Feather who have paid any attention to what I write about will know of my established love of Seanan McGuire's novels. A Killing Frost isn't the place to start with Seanan McGuire, it is too tied into the previous novels, but longtime fans of her October Daye series will be ready for this. I know I was. Seanan McGuire delivers.

Novik, Naomi. A Deadly Education [Del Rey]
Publisher's Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

“The dark school of magic I’ve been waiting for.” Katherine Arden, author of Winternight Trilogy

I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects me to do. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school itself certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

Why We Want It: After making her mark with the nine Temeraire novels, Novik really broke out with Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Though there is always something classist about magic schools, there is also an appeal - and Novik's darker take on the concept is something I want to read. Naomi Novik is a master storyteller who has only gotten better and we can't wait to see what she does with magic schools.

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 4x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.