The debut novel from a new voice in fantasy fiction, Brad Murgen.
Kother is a young Yanai boy that lives in the jungles of Kounna. He grows up learning the ways of the jungle and what is expected of a Yanai male, though with his own private doubts about the accepted traditions and rituals of his people.
When he embarks on the male Yanai "coming of age" mission to retrieve his soulstones, he realizes that he is not fit to be a Yanai, and has no true desire to be. This realization leads him on a quest beyond the jungles of his homeland, through deserts and tundra and mountains, encountering strange peoples and customs, searching for the meaning behind his existence.
What he finds is disconcerting... and what he eventually becomes is even more disturbing, for deception lies at the core of all things.
