Màgòdiz

Calderón’s debut, a fresh take on the classic epic fantasy fetch-quest, takes readers to a world reeling from ecological and informational collapse, and violently controlled by supernaturally evil Enforcers, where merely existing is an act rebellion. In the nuclear cataclysms that left Earth sunless and poisoned, almost all human knowledge has been forgotten, and the world has been invaded by evil Madjideye spirits that want nothing more than to destroy the old magicks. Against this dystopian backdrop, a storyteller, a healer, a firekeeper, an engineer, and a warrior—all Indigenous, disabled, and/or queer—find each other and together work to escape the relentless Enforcers and heal from the trauma of their pasts. When the band of heroes capture an Enforcer, they learn that the sum of their ancestral powers may be enough to send the evil away for good—if they can stay together, and alive, long enough. Calderón’s writing, elegantly infused with Anishinaabe stories and language, feels modern and urgent in its message, while being grounded in traditions old enough to touch the roots of a dying world and help regrow them. Fans of Rebecca Roanhorse will be especially thrilled. (Nov.)