Audition for the Fox

Cahill’s ambitious but overwritten debut secondary world fantasy opens, somewhat confusingly, with 21-year-old Nesi reflecting on her immediate past while making sense of being sent 300 years back in time at the whim of the Fox, a trickster god, for whom she is auditioning to be an acolyte. Though information is doled out in an often convoluted way, eventually this setup becomes more clear: Nesi has failed 96 auditions out of a possible 99, and without a god to watch over her she’ll be trapped within one temple or another until she dies. Now the Fox has set a test for her: she has four months to lead a historical uprising. The book is beautifully designed, full of fox-themed intertitles and chapter headers, and Cahill clearly put a lot of thought into his inventive worldbuilding. Unfortunately, however, the flow of the story is frequently interrupted by excerpted fables that go on too long. Meanwhile, Cahill’s penchant for overloading every sentence with description, combined with his slightly off-kilter word choices, often obscures meaning. It’s a fascinating premise that falters in execution. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc. (Sept.)