Kay Kenyon is the author of thirteen science fiction and fantasy novels as well as numerous short stories. Her work has been shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick and the John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, the Endeavour Award, and twice for the American Library Association Reading List awards. Her series The Entire and the Rose was hailed by The Washington Post as “A splendid fantasy quest as compelling as anything by Stephen R. Donaldson, Philip Jose Farmer, or yes, J.R.R. Tolkien.” Her novels include At the Table of Wolves, Serpent in the Heather, Bright of the Sky, A World Too Near, City Without End, Prince of Storms, Maximum Ice (a 2002 Philip K. Dick Award nominee), and The Braided World. Bright of the Sky was among Publishers Weekly’s Top 150 books of 2007. She is a founding member of the Write on the River conference in Wenatchee, WA where she lives with her husband.
At the Table of Wolves
Audio MP3 on CD
(Unabridged)
- ISBN-13: 9781543666144
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Publication date: 11/14/2017
- Series: Dark Talents Series , #1
- Edition description: Unabridged
- Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets X-Men in a classic British espionage story. A young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plot and stop an invasion of England.
In 1936, there are paranormal abilities that have slowly seeped into the world, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. The research to weaponize these abilities in England has lagged behind Germany, but now it‘s underway at an ultra-secret site called Monkton Hall.
Kim Tavistock, a woman with the talent of the spill - drawing out truths that people most wish to hide - is among the test subjects at the facility. When she wins the confidence of caseworker Owen Cherwell, she is recruited to a mission to expose the head of Monkton Hall - who is believed to be a German spy.
As she infiltrates the upper-crust circles of some of England‘s fascist sympathizers, she encounters dangerous opponents, including the charismatic Nazi officer Erich von Ritter, and discovers a plan to invade England. No one believes an invasion of the island nation is possible, not Whitehall, not even England‘s Secret Intelligence Service. Unfortunately, they are wrong, and only one woman, without connections or training, wielding her talent of the spill and her gift for espionage, can stop it.
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Veteran SF/F author Kenyon turns to historical paranormal fantasy in this compelling recreation of an alternate 1936 Britain rife with espionage, intrigue, and moral ambiguities. Idealistic young journalist Kim Tavistock, raised in America but now settled into her father’s stately home in Yorkshire, grapples with the suspicion that her father may be, like many of his aristocratic class, a Nazi sympathizer. King Edward will soon abandon the throne for “that woman,” Wallis Simpson, who is herself dangerously close to Erich von Ritter, a character loosely based on the seductive real-life Nazi agent Joachim von Ribbentrop. Kenyon adds enormous fuel to this smoldering prewar scene with the bloom, a sudden appearance in 1918 of psychic talents affecting about one in 1,000 people. It’s suggested that this manifestation was produced by the mass trauma of the Great War. Kim’s psychic gift is spill, which causes others to reveal their deepest secrets to her. The Nazis are a decade ahead of the British in finding military uses for psychics, and Kim is drawn into a quixotic attempt to foil a Nazi plan for invading England, risking her heart and her life in the “tawdry, morally wretched” game of spying. Kenyon’s finely tuned historical atmospherics and her sure-handed development of even minor characters make this novel a superb adventure, worthy to launch a distinguished historical fantasy series. (July)
Kim Tavistock possesses a hidden power known as the spill. People can't help but reveal their secrets to her, but she has very little control over when and how she uses her ability. Which is a shame, because it would sure come in handy when she tries to unmask Nazi agents operating in the heart of 1936 London. And when those agents also have paranormal powers and are plotting an invasion, England's very survival may be in jeopardy. Kenyon's ("The Entire and The Rose" series) focus is very much on creating a wartime spy thriller, and in that she succeeds. However, she could have spent more time developing her characters and exploring the consequences of their psychic abilities. VERDICT Fans of Connie Willis and V.E. Schwab should appreciate this historical fantasy, set in a pre-World War II Britain.—Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.