Tuesday, May 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

 





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 May 11, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way (if I'd hated the book, I just would not have reviewed it). 


Son of the Storm is the start of a new epic fantasy trilogy by Nigerian author Suyi Davies Okungbowa, who previously debuted with 2019's "David Mogo, Godhunter" (which I reviewed here).  That book featured a post-apoc Nigerian story of a demigod dealing with the interference of actual African gods on what's left of life in the country, and had a really strong lead character....and pretty much nothing else.  The result was interesting, but not really something I loved due to the lack of character depth.  But that book was stand alone (and a debut) and so I was curious how the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy - a genre that more specifically relies upon a breadth of interesting characters - would work out in his hands.  

Son of the Storm very much justifies my decision, with the novel featuring really strong lead characters, and a fascinating dark epic fantasy plot with some really interesting themes.  The story takes a classic fantasy protagonist trope - the hero with a thirst for knowledge in a land that has clearly suppressed it - and subverts it in interesting ways, while centering particularly two characters who don't fit in a society with a strict caste system and who react to it in different ways.  Add in themes of race and being mixed-race (built into said class system), immigration, and the costs of defiance and you have some really strong themes that this story takes in some surprising directions....and the novel ends off in a place that makes me really curious what's coming next.  A really really strong start to a new series.  


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
The city-state of Bassa, known for its greatness on the mainland, maintains strict adherence to the Bassai ideal - the greatest people in the world are Bassai, and the greatest of the Bassai are the Idu caste, usually identifiable by their dark humus-colored skin, with the lesser castes being less worthy of rights and life.  And that's to say nothing of outsiders - such as the Desertlanders who don't try to indenture themselves to immigrate to Bassa....or the long-dismissed as myth people of the lost Nameless islands, the "Yellowskins."

Danso should be treated as Idu thanks to his father, but his mixed-race blood and skin color inherited from his unknown mother marks him as "Shashi Caste," a disgrace to Bassa.  He has made it to the position of a Jali Novitiate, a scholar, despite it all, thanks to his intelligence and memory retention, which cannot be fully denied even by his racist superiors.  But Danso doesn't care about any of that - he thirsts instead for knowledge, of the stories that Bassa refuses to tell, of magical artifacts and yellowskinned people who might've existed and changed the world, only to be written out of Bassai history - even if the thirst for such knowledge keeps getting him into trouble.  

Esheme, Danso's intended, is similarly looked upon at times as an outcast for her mother Nem's belonging to a lesser caste and Nem's role as Bassa's foremost fixer, looked upon as important but distasteful.   Esheme doesn't want to find a way to fit in to Bassa's caste system...she wants the power to rise above it, to go where she pleases.  And so while she admires Danso's insistence upon doing what he wants despite his skin, she wishes not to act in spite of the system, but to obtain the power to spite it.  

Danso and Esheme's desires, and their worlds, will soon be overturned when a foreigner - a legendary Yellowskin - appears in the city, searching for artifacts stolen by Esheme's mother.  And the two of them will react in very different ways, which will reshape not just their own identities, but the identity of the Bassai Empire itself.
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Son of the Storm's plot description on websites and its cover features basically only Danso, whose journey does take up somewhere around 60% of the plot of this book.  But this is not, unlike Okungbowa's prior novel, a single character-focused novel, with the story jumping point of view perspectives numerous times ala other epic fantasy novels (although unlike many of those other fantasy novels the book has no issue giving us multiple chapters in a row from the perspective of the same character).  As such, this is not just Danso's story, with the story of Esheme - usually taking place at a completely different place than Danso's - being just as prominent as a contrast.  And both Danso and Esheme's stories are often seen through other perspectives as well, which really hits home how everything they do impacts the others around them as well.  

The plot as described above takes place in a strictly xenophobic, class and race centric (with an explicit caste system) society, in which both of our main characters are outsiders and react to that status in different ways and struggle as a result.  For Danso, his skin marks him as the lowest caste - mixed race - despite his blood heritage and clear intelligence saying otherwise - but he doesn't care about that at all.  What Danso cares about is learning more, whether that be from a seemingly made former emperor's musings or from glimpses of legends long forgotten.  And so when Danso is confronted with a Yellowskin, a woman whose existence shouldn't be and should require him to report her to the authority, his reaction is to try to hide her and learn from her, especially when she showcases the magical artifacts he has read about but which Bassa has tried to forget.  

Yet, unlike many other stories with such a character, Son of the Storm is not kind to Danso for his curiosity, with him facing tragedy after tragedy as a result.  Danso is repeatedly told by others - like his second Zaq, an indentured desertlander immigrant trying to fit into Bassa's lies - that the search for truth isn't worth it, as the reckless pursuit of it causes only pain and destruction.  And Danso finds this out time and time again, to his horror, as his recklessness first gets himself and then soon others into trouble and destruction more than he could have imagined.  Danso's idealism never fully wanes....but it definitely diminishes a bit as the world isn't kind enough to allow for it even as he discovers things and powers long untold.  

By contrast Esheme isn't nearly as bad off as Danso in status - her mother is a lower caste but she's not mixed race and its as much her mother's profession as anything that makes others with status look down upon her.  But whereas Danso would prefer to do what he wants in pursuit of truth, Esheme believes the only way forward is to accumulate power - power so that no one would dare say anything as she walks among them, regardless of whether they're higher or lower caste.  Danso is a person with morals at heart, who reacts to killing with distaste....but Esheme is essentially a sociopath, showing no regard for anyone who gets in her way, no matter how little the slight, and has little ability to shed tears for anyone she might be supposed to care about.  And whereas Danso's lack of hesitation and recklessness is due to just a pursuit for knowledge above all, Esheme's lack of considering consequences is due to her desire to accumulate power above practically anything else.  And between her mother's connections and actions, her own intelligence and charisma, and more, Esheme can do an awful lot of damage in that quest for power.  

Esheme and Danso make up the contrasting reactions to being outsiders in a strict caste system and form the basis of this winding and fascinating plot, filled with a whole bunch of other interesting characters I'm not going to have time to go into here.  And with them both confronting the society in their own ways - deliberately in Esheme's case and inadvertently in Danso's - you wind up with a plot that deals with interesting themes such as: "How does a racist, xenophobic, class driven society deal with the idea that a mixed-race outsider people might have powers and magic they do not?"  Or "Is it any better for a weaker people to conceal their own truths than it is a giant Empire when it's for their own safety?"  Or "what is home when everywhere you go seemingly rejects you?"  There's a lot going on here (I haven't even mentioned that the magic system here is fascinating, revolving around possessing things and manipulating them, such as a Yellowskin woman being able to possess her own skin and change its color to pass in), as characters balance their own desires, the problems of power, and more, and it all winds around and around until it hits an ending that puts both our main characters through the ringer and leaves things open for things to come next.  

Son of the Storm isn't perfect, or even the hardest hitting or most enthralling of epic fantasy starters I've read, with occasional moments with lesser characters that don't quite work as hard or come off a bit abruptly.  But it's still really good and really fascinating, and I can't wait to see what happens next.  

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