The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

February 12, 2024
Nebula Award winner Clark (Ring Shout) returns with an electrifying romp following a group of undead assassins in the ancient port city of Tal Abisi. The Dead Cat Tails sell their souls to their goddess Aeril, the Matron of Assassins, who strips them of their memories and transforms them into killers. In exchange, they must adhere to her sacred precepts: the contract must be just (no killing innocents), the assassin can only kill the person they’ve been contracted to off, and once a job is accepted, it must be carried out. Eveen the Eviscerator is one of the best assassins in the league, but she’s historically had trouble following the rules. When she shows up to take out her current target, she finds herself somehow face-to-face with her past self. Hit by a whirlwind of forgotten memories of her past, Eveen can’t finish the job, leaving her past self alive to instead investigate who wanted her dead in the first place. Clark’s plot moves at a breakneck clip with quick wit, offbeat characters, and plenty of intrigue. This is pure entertainment.

February 1, 2024

Working for the goddess of assassins, the undead Eveen "the Eviscerator" has no memory of her living past but is disturbed that her latest target looks just like her; with The Dead Cat Tail Assassin, Nebula/Locus winner Clark enters a new world (125,000-copy first printing). Prepub Alert.

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March 1, 2024
In the thriving port city of Tal Abisi, Eveen is an undead assassin who has no memory of her life. She is supposed to operate within the strict laws of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins guild: only just contracts are authorized; assassins may not kill outside of a contract; and once a contract is accepted, the kill must be carried out. When Eveen is given a new job during the final night of a citywide festival, she's dismayed to discover that the girl she's been assigned to kill seems to be a younger version of herself, named Sky. With a deadline of dawn to kill Sky or face the retribution of her patron assassin goddess, Eveen and her target must work together to figure out who brought Sky into Eveen's time and how to avoid a deadly outcome. Unfortunately, the rest of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins have been assigned to finish the job, the Festival of the Clockwork King is in full swing, and wild magic permeates the city. Clark (A Master of Djinn, 2021) has created another memorable and intriguing fantasy setting in this fast-paced novella, which will be a hit with fans and newcomers alike.

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March 1, 2024
An undead assassin seeks to get out of an impossible contract. If a writer introduces three unbreakable laws (or in this case, vows), it's because they intend a character to break at least one of them. Eveen is a member of the Dead Cat Tail Assassins; when still alive, she promised her afterlife existence to the goddess Aeril, Matron of Assassins. Resurrected without any memory, she has vowed only to accept just contracts, never kill anyone she's not contracted for, and always carry out the hit. But on the night of Tal Abisi's Festival, Eveen runs into a conflict with vow number three: The target appears to be her younger self, Sky, pulled out of time. If she goes through with the contract, Eveen might blink out of existence; if she doesn't, Aeril will certainly punish her (and anyone connected to her) with a fate worse than death. Someone has clearly targeted Eveen for a nasty piece of revenge, and she's only got until dawn to find the mastermind and figure out a contract loophole, all while keeping Sky safe and dodging the assassins from her own guild, who intend to carry out the contract and stave off Aeril's wrath. Like the creations of the Clockwork King, whose defeat is celebrated during the festival, the plot's gears click along in a somewhat predictable and yet marvelous fashion; even if the reader can figure out where the story is likely to go, the payoff is fun and the journey is full of action and amusing dialogue. Eveen is a delightful character, trying to seize what joy and remnants of her moral compass she can. She's obviously bothered by not knowing what happened in her mortal life that led her to strike a bargain with Aeril; that concern comes to the fore when she encounters the innocent Sky, who can't comprehend how she would ever become someone like Eveen. Clark wisely doesn't answer all our questions on that front. The idea that the relationship between mortals and the divine could be founded on a legal contract rather than faith seems to be a favored concept of more than one fantasy author (most prominently, Max Gladstone), but there's still juice in that trope. Well crafted, exciting, darkly comic, and just gory enough.

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