School of Shards

The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos' magical dark academia novel, a landmark in philosophical fantasy, brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey. The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one thing: a complex magic system that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous problem: the students in the world she just created, her “world without fear,” are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it's the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become-Speech-is the basis of the material world. And if she can't teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist. To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within themselves: her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learn-and understand-at any cost. But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher's desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle. And one she must break. To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn't break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish. Known as an assassin of reality, Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream-often her nightmare-and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.

Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, a former actress and a former psychiatrist, are co-authors of over thirty novels and numerous short stories and screenplays. They were born in Ukraine and moved to California in 2013. Their books have been translated into several foreign languages and awarded multiple literary and film prizes. Marina and Sergey are recipients of the Award for Best Authors (Eurocon 2005), Prix Planete SF des blogueurs (2020), Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (2020) and of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Rosetta Awards (2021). Sergey Dyachenko passed away in 2022, but his memory lives on in books.