Tuesday, June 6, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi

 


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 August 8, 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.

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon is the debut novel of acclaimed Nigerian SF/F writer Wole Talabi. Talabi's short fiction has been fantastic when I've read it, so I was super excited to read this novel - his first work of published long fiction (at least in the US). The novel promises an urban fantasy story inspired in large part by West African/Yoruba myth, but featuring myths, deities, magics, and beings from other myths as well. Indeed the story follows a West African Nightmare God (the eponymous Shigidi) as he breaks free of a corporate structure of godhood and embarks on a heist of the British Museum alongside a Succubus he loves, and if that's not a hook that interests you, well...you have different tastes than mine.

The result is.....uneven, but largely enjoyable. The novel's setting is utterly fascinating, with the gods and deities of each religion reimagined as having formed corporate boards that negotiate and compete for influence (with mortal faith giving them power), such that the African gods are struggling to maintain power amidst everything else...and our heroes struggle for freedom from this corporate structure after they've escaped. The heist of a relic of West Africa with deific power (the eponymous Brass Head) is well done, and the way the two main characters (Shigidi and Nneoma) are built up through frequent flashbacks, along with a famous magician they pick up along the way, works pretty well. There's even some themes of fighting foreign and colonial influence interwoven throughout the story. That said, the constant flashbacks, the in media res beginning, and the way it all plays out made this a bit less fulfilling than I would've hoped in what seems to be the start of what should be a longer series.


----------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------
Shigidi was just a low level and nightmare god in the Orisha spirit company, abused constantly by his superiors (his boss Shango's wifes, who were put in charge thanks to Nepotism) and generally unhappy in his job - being called by worshippers to kill people in their sleep while they're suffering from a nightmare he inflicts upon them. He hates his physical form (he thinks it ugly) and his life and even his job, but sees no hope of it ever changing. Until one day he gets called to a job featuring two women in bed, one of which he is to kill....except the other is a Succubus named Nneoma, a woman there for the very same soul. And when Nneoma offers to transform him and change him in a way that he can be free...his life finds itself drastically changing.

Months later, Shigidi's and Nneoma's freedoms have been threatened by the Orishas and they find themselves obligated to help Olorun, the original founder of the Orisha spirit company, in order to keep that freedom. So when Olorun offers them full freedom in exchange for one last special job - a heist of a lost West African Relic containing hidden power that's held in the British Museum - the two of them have to take it. Yet the job will require them to fight through defenses in both the mortal and spirit worlds and to face near impossible odds especially as Olorun only gives them a single day to breach the Museum's mortal, magical, and godlike protections......
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This novel starts with what's usually more of a TV trope - the in media res opening cliffhanger - and honestly, it's a trope that's silly and pointless in that medium and silly and pointless here since it never justifies that choice. But it's the start of a narrative that does keep jumping back and forth in time, as it first starts telling a narrative that leads to that opening chapter cliffhanger and intersperses within that narrative chapters that flash back to its characters' histories to explain how they go up to this point in their development. And that narrative largely works, although there's at least one flashback which feels kind of pointless even there dealing with Nneoma seducing a mortal who gets away which doesn't really seem to serve any purpose.

But again in large part this novel works due to a combination of things: its characters and its setting. Its characters mainly consist of Shigidi and Nneoma, a pair of fascinating supernatural beings with their own desires and worries. For Shigidi, he was once seemingly an ugly (physically) god whose powers weren't fun - killing people with nightmares - and who was bossed around by an asshole boss and his flunkies, who got there solely due to their relation to him (a relatable problem to have). And so when Nneoma suggests and shows him that there's more out there, he delights in that freedom...and more seriously, falls for Nneoma for showing him it, and worries about her failing to reciprocate. Shigidi is smart and creative and the way he tries to get past a life that many office workers in our world deal with every day makes him really easy to root for. For Nneoma, well she may be a succubus who fell from Heaven after siding with Lucifer in Christian theology (despite her name, she comes from there rather than African myth), but she once had a beloved sister, who was lost when that sister chose supporting the one she loved in a dangerous endeavor over fleeing with Nneoma. And so she's absolutely afraid of following her sister's example in admitting to love, and desperate to remain free to go anywhere without obligation...and is thus terrified at her fate being bound to Shigidi now and at her possible feelings for him. Her system of doing everything through debts and paying them back - sometimes lethally - is a lot of fun even as you're rooting for her as a literal spirit sucking Succubus.

These characters combine with a setting that is fascinating, where the different theologies all exist alongside each other - and the gods of each form essentially corporate entities (the Christian one is mentioned as being the followers of Yeshua) that struggle within their own agreed upon rules to build their faiths - faiths they rely upon in order to stay in existence and in power (with falling belief, the Orisha office Shigidi works in is often without power for example). This setting is fascinating and really fun and well done, and sets the stage for an excellent heist and a plot that has some fun adventurous moments, as our heroes run into beings of myth dedicated to stopping them - like a couple of giants taking a bunch of statue horses out for a chariot ride....It's not a serious plot, despite it hitting on some serious themes through it all (a heist involving the British Museum features some natural internal commentary about the stealing of cultural artifacts from colonized peoples for example), but it works and is enjoyable throughout, and the story is not long enough to ever outstay its welcome, despite the above-mentioned problems.

The story ends in a way that's sweet in some ways and completes one arc of Shigidi's journey as he learns who he wants to be, finds love, and makes all of that the new core of his identity, without still fearing what he used to be will come back, but at the same time, the story does feel a little incomplete, with hints at more in the end. So hopefully a sequel will come sooner rather than later, because despite starting this review a little negative, I did have a good bit of fun here, and I would really love to see more of this setting.

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