SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on September 26, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Shadow Speaker is a new expanded edition of a young adult africanfuturist fantasy novel first published over 15 years ago by renowned author Nnedi Okorafor (before the renown part). The novel is being republished in new form this fall by DAW, together with a sequel that Okorafor had previously planned but never apparently had gotten the opportunity to write. And well, if you're familiar with Okorafor - writer of Binti, Who Fears Death, Akata Witch and so so much more - you might understand why this is an exciting thing - Okorafor is one of the more well known Africanfuturist authors for a reason, using African myth, religions, culture, and realities to create strong and interesting science fiction and fantasy with some really interesting themes throughout her books (even as the books range in subgenres). So yeah, I was super excited to get an early chance to read this novel.

Shadow Speaker is another very solid novel, although it's one that certainly feels like it was written before some of Okorafor's earlier works, almost like it is a predecessor to the Akata Witch/Nsibidi Scripts series which it resembles to a certain extent (with a hint of the post apocalyptic world of other Okorafor books). The story features a future Africa after magical Peace Bombs were unleashed upon the world causing a great change, resulting in persons being born with powers, and parts of our world and other worlds beginning to merge. Such is the world where 15 year old Ejii, who can talk to Shadows (amidst the other hard to explain powers she has), grows up and has to go on a journey to seemingly avert a war between the various other worlds out there and our own. The result is a story dealing with power, oppression and greed, misogyny, and the struggle to make things better through means other than violence, and it works pretty well thanks to its excellent main duo of characters. At the same time, it is kind of scattered and not super focused, so readers may find it a little unsatisfying.

Obvious disclaimer: As a White Jewish American reader its always possible I'm missing something in a book that is different from my cultural experience - with the book being based in the culture, history and myth of Africa, particularly both African Muslims and other African religions. So be aware of how my perspective affects my review, as opposed to a reader who comes from such cultures.
Plot Summary:  

The year is 2074, in the town of Kwàmfà in what was once known as Niger, West Africa, years after the Great Change changed the world. 15 year old Ejii Ugabe is not just any 15 year old girl in Kwàmfà - she is a Shadow Speaker, one of four such humans in Kwàmfà, able to see through the darkness and to hear the whispers of the Shadows. But perhaps just as significantly, she is the daughter of the man who took advantage of a power vacuum in Kwàmfà to seize power and to use that power to restrict the rights of women and girls like Ejii, such that they are only allowed to be wives and tools of other men. Or at least that's how it was until the legendary warrior woman Jaa came back to Kwàmfà and took off her father's head and restored things to how they were...even if not everyone is so happy about that.

Now, years later, an Earthquake has been felt, one which everyone can feel is a strange sign of things to come. And rumors abound that Jaa is planning on leaving Kwàmfà once again, such that Ejii and others fear what might come next for Kwàmfà. And then there's the strange feeling Ejii is beginning to feel, that she must go with Jaa...or else something bad will happen. It's a feeling Ejii can't ignore, despite her mother's refusal to let her travel, and soon Ejii will find herself out of Kwàmfà for the first real time in her life, on an unknown quest through strange and dangerous lands...lands that are parts of various parts of Earth...and might even be from worlds beyond Earth, filled with strange peoples and beings. And Ejii may be the only one who can stop all of the peoples of these lands from a devastating war....

Shadow Speaker is preceded by a prologue written as if it's the challenging speech of the Desert Magician (whose name is in the title of this duology, The Desert Magician Duology) as he challenges the reader to experience this African future world and to understand it despite it being different from their normal expectations (the book's plot summary online is similarly written as if he's the speaker). The Magician is himself a character who shows up at a certain point, but other than that prologue the story is simply told from Ejii's third person perspective, as she finds herself changing as she struggles on her uncertain adventure and journey to a place and with people she doesn't quite understand.

And well Ejii struggles internally with it all. Here is a girl whose father was cut down in front of her - a father she knows was a bad man, who led people to treat girls like her (and Shadow Speakers or magically inclined people even moreso) as if they were lesser - and who fears that she may have some of his power hungryness inside of her. She's also a girl with a power she doesn't understand, which calls to her in ways she can't quite hear, and despite having some friends and a mentor shadow speaker in town, doesn't quite have anyone who knows everything she needs to learn to whom she can cling. Ejii is a kind goodhearted girl at heart, but she struggles with all of these conflicting emotions and unknowns, especialy as she faces conflict even in town from her half-siblings and others who supported her father and wish to reinstate his Order as soon as Jaa leaves.

And then there's Jaa herself, this paragon of virtue....whose main method of trying to make things better does tend to be chopping at things with a sword, something Ejii just can't come to grips with, even as she admires Jaa deeply. Add in a secondary character who joins for most of the book, the mysterious boy Dikéogu, who contains marks of a slave and a weird connection to lightning, and you have a strong cast who challenges Ejii throughout to come to terms with who she is and what she can and wants to do. And you have a setting which constantly puts Ejii into contact with beings straight out of African (and possibly Islamic, as Ejii is muslim) myth and culture, whether those be on Earth or in other worlds, ala some of Okorafor's Nsibidi Scripts works, and you have a very vibrant and full book here to carry its plot and themes.

All of this is in service of a story that deals with issues of power, of fear of others, of colonialism, oppression and greed, and more. Despite the setting using magical Peace Bombs to change the world's status quo, which have given people magical powers and eliminated the powers of modern weapons and pushed peoples magically closer together, struggles of power and greed and oppression remain. Just as much too we see conflict due to lack of understanding between peoples, such as when a group of human ambassadors from Earth stupidly ignore advice (ignorance is a big common factor here among people) and try to take human technology into a place where tech is entirely biological...such that the pollution from Earth is harmful and inadvertantly devastating. And in all of this, where all of these negative aspects of the world still exist and are magnified, Ejii and the book argue that the way forward is not merely violence or trying to chop off the heads of the worst of the worst, but to find a new bargain to hopefully find a way through.

Shadow Speaker doesn't simply carry a single plot from beginning to end, dealing with little instances and events from time to time, and it's a bit scattered. Like I said above the jump, it feels very similar to Okorafor's other works (which came after she first wrote this novel), so in some ways you may think you've seen much of this before if you've read her works. And so the scattered nature of this book, which doesn't give it that feeling of a cohesive plot from beginning to end, may not fully satisfy some readers (and not because this book ends on a cliffhanger, because it really doesn't). But Shadow Speaker generally works pretty well and is an excellent place for both new readers of Okorafor and old ones to pick her work up, so definitely give this one a try if you're interested in pretty solid Africanfuturist literature.