The Sorceress of Sky Serpents

COLONIZATION COMES TO A FANTASY WORLD

The Sorceress of Sky Serpents takes places on a terraformed, life-supporting planet on the edge of the Milky Way where six nations, based on Indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast, have been living for thousands of years. Their lives of peace and balance are shattered when Raiders from the South, directed by a people the Northerners know only as The Abominations, have stepped up the frequency and intensity of their attacks, killing indiscriminately, stealing food, kidnapping slaves, and carrying away the technology on which the Northerners rely.

Tky is the eldest daughter of the fearsome Guardian of the Eagle Clan. Despite Tky’s rank, and her mother’s expectations, Tky is an outcast. Having been raised mostly by her Shaman grandfather, she seems too comfortable with dead spirits and Forest People, a sentient race of non-human great apes. The villagers, and even her beloved sister, are coming to believe that she is a witch—or worse.

After her mother is killed in battle, Tky is determined to prove her worth by any means, and she sets out on a journey up the coast to a mysteriously abandoned village whose name no one will speak, determined to meet a sorceress who has promised her the gift of fire for a suspiciously low price.

a literary fantasy by Eden Robinson

PRAISE FOR SON OF A TRICKSTER

“A charmingly chaotic tale.”— THE TORONTO STAR

“Robinson has a gift for making disparate elements come together into a convincing narrative, breathing myth, lore and magic into otherwise harsh realities. The novel clips along with short, pointed sentences and lively scenes of Jared’s conundrum, building in raunchy crescendo as teen anger and spirit worlds collide.”— MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE

“This is an engaging novel whose characters come fully to life.”— THE VANCOUVER SUN

“Son of a Trickster is her best work. It’s heartbreaking, it’s hilarious, it’s subversive, it’s harsh, it’s brutal, and so deeply tender.” —MIRIAM TOEWS

“Eden Robinson is a masterful storyteller. Shimmering with deft prose, unforgettable characters, and haunting truths, Son of a Trickster reminds us that sometimes the surest way to solid ground is through believing in magic.”— AMI MCKAY, author of The Birth House, The Virgin Cure and The Witches of New York

“Son of a Trickster is filled with darkness and squalor and obscenity. And yet, startlingly, it brings the reader to a place of wonder and mystery and magic. It is a story of a boy born into a violent history. It is a story of a boy born into a magnificent culture. Robinson bravely reconciles these oppositions in a story that is equal parts irreverent humour and astute wisdom.”— Heather O’Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels

“Eden Robinson is a writer with a magical touch. Crisp prose, taut dialogue, and a cast of maniacal characters you sure as hell don't want living next door.”— THOMAS KING, author of The Back of the Turtle

“Eden Robinson is more than funny, more than intelligent, more than a novelist—she’s an enchanter. Son of a Trickster creates a terrifically believable teenage character who lives both on the rez and in a witchy soup of blood, sex and magic. Harry Potter goes to reform school. Full of sparks, full of pain, full of joy.”— Alix Hawley, author of All True Not a Lie in It

“If Raven and Trickster got a show on Netflix, no one could write it but Eden Robinson. Talking ravens, party drugs, deadbeat dads, murderous otters, Doctor Who—nobody brings together pop culture, indigenous culture and myth with more ferocity and humour. Son of a Trickster is my favourite book this year.”
— Annabel Lyon, author of The Sweet Girl and The Golden Mean

“Son of a Trickster is a unique, genuinely surprising novel from one of Canada’s finest writers, a blend of hardscrabble coming-of-age story with mythic fiction at its most powerfully subversive. It’s exactly as slippery as a trickster tale should be, changing direction and shape even as you convince yourself you know what’s going on, and what will likely happen next.… This is Robinson at her best.”
—  THE NATIONAL POST

Eden Robinson at the 2024 Inspire award ceremony attending a speech by Governor-General Mary Simon. Eden’s traditional outfit includes a cedar-copper hat with ermine.

Read an excerpt
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The Career of Eden Robinson

65,000 words
Manuscript available February 2025

RIGHTS SOLD
Canada: Random House, Spring 2026

ABOUT EDEN ROBINSON

Eden Robinson is the author of the bestselling Trickster trilogy, starting with Son of a Trickster (2017), a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a CBC Canada Reads contender. The sequel Trickster Drift (2018) won the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize for Fiction. The third volume, Return of the Trickster, was called “a gift” by the Vancouver Sun and “funny, tender, and emotionally true” by the Toronto Star. But it is her first novel, Monkey Beach (2000), winner of the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize and a finalist for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, that is a perennial bestseller and is required reading in schools and universities; 100,000 copies are in print in Canada. Recently Book Riot listed Monkey Beach as one of 22 must-read books by indigenous authors.

In 2017 Eden won the $50,000 Writers Trust of Canada Fellowship. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of British Columbia in 2018. She served on the five-member Scotiabank Giller Prize jury in 2020. In 2022 she was awarded the Blue Metropolis First Peoples’ Literary Prize in Montreal. Currently she is serving on the jury for the Carol Shields Literary Prize for Fiction. A member of the Haisla and Hieltsuk First Nations, she lives in Kitimat, in northern British Columbia near Alaska.

Eden Robinson receiving the 2024 Indspire award for Indigenous Excellence in the Arts