Shadow Speaker
The Desert Magician's Duology: Book One
Format:
Available from:
Published by DAW Books (2023-09-26)
Deluxe, expanded edition of an out-of-print early novel from Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor, with a brand-new introduction from the author.
Haunted by vengeance. Destined for peace.
Niger, West Africa, 2074
When fifteen-year old Ejii witnesses her father’s beheading, her world shatters. In a time of mind-blowing technology and seductive mysticism, Ejii embarks on a journey to track down her father’s killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out — and with her own mystical ability. And then she discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a deeper purpose.
Nnedi Okorafor says this about Shadow Speaker: “An unexpected apocalypse, spontaneous forests, polyandry, strange insects, fast cars, a new type of Sahara Desert, male beauty contests, death, robust chiefs schooled in martial arts, crafty assassins, this novel has many lives.”
Now in an updated edition with a new introduction from the author herself, Shadow Speaker contains the powerful prose and compelling stories that have made Nnedi Okorafor a star of the literary science fiction and fantasy space and put her at the forefront of Africanfuturist fiction.
Haunted by vengeance. Destined for peace.
Niger, West Africa, 2074
When fifteen-year old Ejii witnesses her father’s beheading, her world shatters. In a time of mind-blowing technology and seductive mysticism, Ejii embarks on a journey to track down her father’s killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out — and with her own mystical ability. And then she discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a deeper purpose.
Nnedi Okorafor says this about Shadow Speaker: “An unexpected apocalypse, spontaneous forests, polyandry, strange insects, fast cars, a new type of Sahara Desert, male beauty contests, death, robust chiefs schooled in martial arts, crafty assassins, this novel has many lives.”
Now in an updated edition with a new introduction from the author herself, Shadow Speaker contains the powerful prose and compelling stories that have made Nnedi Okorafor a star of the literary science fiction and fantasy space and put her at the forefront of Africanfuturist fiction.
Book Details
Format:
Hardcover
Price:
27 USD / 37 CAD
Published: 2023-09-26
ISBN: 9780756418762
Imprint:
DAW Books
Page Count: 336
Trim Size: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
“Shadow Speaker is wonderful, highly original stuff, episode after amazing episode, full of color, life and death…. Nnedi also deals head-on with the fact that power and pain are closely linked, as are magic and blood. I think this book is marvelous.” —Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl’s Moving Castle and the Chronicles of Chrestomanci
“There’s more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness
“Shadow Speaker is endlessly imaginative, full of mystery and delight on every page. Nnedi Okorafor is a voice that will delight readers of all ages and backgrounds.” —Tananarive Due, American Book Award-winning author of Joplin’s Ghost
“As wildly inventive and suspenseful as her first novel, [Shadow Speaker] is at the same time more ambitious and thematically complex, and represents a major step forward for a storyteller who, in the tradition of Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson, is equally adept at combining that most contemporary of forms, science fiction, with the ancient beliefs and values of non-western cultures that have for too long been underrepresented in modern fantastic literature.” —Gary Wolfe, lead reviewer for Locus Magazine
“Many will also embrace the novel’s complicated characters, especially its women, and the unusual appearance of African, Muslim traditions in a science fiction context. Fans of Nancy Farmer’s The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm will want to give this a try.” —Booklist
