Kinning - (Everfair) by Nisi Shawl

About the Book

Traveling the world via aircanoe, siblings Tink and Bee-Lung spread spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus to build bonds between people, while Everfair's Princess Mwadi and Prince Ilunga are unwittingly manipulated by their mother who pits Europe's influenza-weakened political powers against each other.

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Fantasy and Sci-Fi Book of The Year by Elle!

Nominated for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel!

Kinning, the sequel to Nisi Shawl's acclaimed debut novel Everfair, continues the stunning alternate history where barkcloth airships soar through the sky, varied peoples build a new society together, and colonies claim their freedom from imperialist tyrants.

The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes' stories are far from done.

Tink and his sister Bee-Lung are traveling the world via aircanoe, spreading the spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus. Through these spores, they seek to build bonds between people and help spread revolutionary sentiments of socialism and equality--the very ideals that led to Everfair's founding.

Meanwhile, Everfair's Princess Mwadi and Prince Ilunga return home from a sojourn in Egypt to vie for their country's rule following the abdication of their father King Mwenda. But their mother, Queen Josina, manipulates them both from behind the scenes, while also pitting Europe's influenza-weakened political powers against one another as these countries fight to regain control of their rebellious colonies.

Will Everfair continue to serve as a symbol of hope, freedom, and equality to anticolonial movements around the world, or will it fall to forces inside and out?

Review Quotes

"Kinning is a profoundly well-realized feat of world-building. Sprawling in its characters and themes, vaguely reminiscent of Game of Thrones' political dramas, Shawl's afrofuturist sequel. . . is a complex, challenging story, but without question an impressive one."--Elle

"The scope of Shawl's imagination will leave the reader in awe, and their attention to detail is unparalleled. Kinning is a beautiful, hopeful, stunning evolution of one of the most unique alternate histories ever conceived."--Booklist, STARRED review

"Kinning is a rare sequel that says something entirely new, while deepening the central themes of the original."--Locus

"In this ambitious outing, Shawl broadens the scope of their alternate history of the early 20th century . . . . Readers are in capable hands with Shawl, who has clearly done the research to create this expansive and well-crafted world."--Publishers Weekly

Praise for Nisi Shawl:

"A beautifully written and thrillingly ambitious alternate history . . . It's a tribute to Shawl's powerful writing that [their] intricate, politically and racially charged imaginary world seems as believable--sometimes more believable--than the one we inhabit."--The Washington Post on Everfair

"Nisi Shawl's Everfair is a book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies. Set against the big canvas of King Leopold's horrific rule in the Congo, [their] engaging, passionate characters struggle to make the right choices in a world that is almost ours, but not quite. Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement."--Karen Joy Fowler on Everfair

"From the exotic, baroque complexities of 'At the Huts of Ajala' to the stark, folktale purity of 'The Beads of Ku, ' these fourteen superbly written stories will weave around you a ring of dark, dark magic."--Ursula K. Le Guin on Filter House

About the Author

Nisi Shawl (they/them) is a multiple award-winning writer and editor of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They're the author of Everfair and co-author of Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction. Other recent titles include Speculation, a middle-grade historical fantasy; a new volume of the acclaimed New Suns anthologies; and the story collection Our Fruiting Bodies.