I think I am coming to realize that Okorafor just doesn't work for me as much as I want her to. I have read the three Binti books, the three Akata books, some of her comics, and just none of it clicks. (Except for the second Akata book, which I liked.) Most of her books are ambling, with character just kind of moving from place to place without any kind of clear throughline from an emotional or plot standpoint. This is more of that. It clearly works for lots of people, but I think this might be it for me and Okorafor.

I recently finished Shadow Speaker by @nnediokorafor from @dawbooks, and y’all, it is wonderful. While quite a bit of the story revolves around an impending war, there is an always-present sense of optimism and hope.

Ejii lives in a future world that has been devastated by nuclear war but also changed forever by Peace Bombs that have created magical changes everywhere. Ejii is a shadow speaker, and the shadows have told her that she will help to prevent another war, this one with Ginen, one of the other worlds that has been connected with Earth by the Peace Bombs.

Throughout Ejii’s journey, she gains allies and friends, as well as new connections to her emerging powers. She also learns life lessons that help her understand her place in the upcoming war, and helps her understand that violence is not the way to peace.

The story is beautifully told, the imagery is vivid, and the character development is strong. This is an earlier work of Okorafor’s that is being rereleased, so doesn’t have quite the polished edges of her more recent work, but it is still a remarkable story. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the duology, Like Thunder, just released this week.

A huge thank you to DAW and @netgalley for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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If you haven't had the chance to read anything by Nnedi Okorafor, please do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books. She has a writing style that is so original and fresh, it's truly unlike anything else you will read. Most of her books are a fairly fast read but the amount of world building and character development you find in her stories are more of what you would find in much larger books yet somehow she makes it fit into a much shorter story.
Ejii, our protagonist and Shadow Speaker is a young girl in West Africa who decides, against her mothers wishes, to join up with Jaa, the leader of her tribe who several years ago beheaded her father. She is not joining her in order to avenger her father but to join her at a meeting regarding the Great Merge that is joining other worlds to our own and the shadows have told her that she needs to be there in order to stop a war. On her journey on her talking camel Onion, she finds another young person who was a former slave and he is also discovering his power over storms. The two form a difficult friendship on their way to find Jaa.
This story kept me fully engaged and I will definitely be reading the 2nd book of this duology to find out how everything turns out ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Desert Magician's Duology, a reprint of a series that was originally released in 2008. I got this as an ebook from NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: This is the first book in the Desert Magician's duology. This is a re-release of this series which was originally released in 2008. The second book in the series will be titled "Like Thunder" and release in Nov 2023. I liked this but thought it definitely had some flaws as well.

This book follows Ejii a young girl who is a shadow speaker. She lives in a future post-apocalyptic earth where some humans have gained special powers because of the merging of the Earth with other worlds. Ejii decides to leave her village after the shadows tell her she must accompany a warrior woman to some special peace talks in order to stop a war. She gains some friends along her adventure and faces many dangers.

I enjoyed this but didn't love it. I really liked the idea of humans gaining these strange powers but didn't think they were explained very well. I also enjoyed Ejii's journey across the desert, but it seemed a bit anti-climatic...there was supposed to be all of this danger and Ejii seemed to overcome her trials fairly easily because in my opinion her powers are just way too crazy powerful but only at really convenient times.

In general, this just felt more choppy and immature compared to Okorafor's other books. It's an interesting story. However, the premise here is fairly sophisticated and the writing style didn't match well for me. I struggled with the flow of the story some. I really loved the beginning but the ending felt a bit jumbled.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall I liked this but found it a lot less impressive than Okorafor's "Binti" series. It just feels a bit clunky and the main characters seem very overpowered (at convenient times). Right now I don't plan on reading the second book in the series. ( )

Amazing, inventive, unexpected storylines. ( )