I so badly wanted to like this book but alas, I just haven't been able to get into it. I am a fan of multiple points-of-view usually but 9 is it at least 4 too many. Due to the number of points-of-view, all of the characters felt very one-dimensional. I was unable to connect with any of the characters and came to view the book as a chore since I didn't want to not finish it. I could rant more but won't, this book just wasn't for me unfortunately.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

OoOoOo what a fun new fantasy series! I cannot convey how much I LOVE all the SFF fiction with postcolonial, anticolonial vibes coming out in recent years. Bassa is a past-its-heyday empire with a strict racial caste system. Dark-skinned individuals are the “Bassai ideal” and hold the highest positions in all government and academic institutions. Those of mixed-blood and refugees are relegated to the fringes of society. Never quite fitting this ideal, Danso is nevertheless being trained at an elite institution. That is, until an outsider turns his life upside down and exposes him to a magic he never thought existed. A magic that his deceased mother’s island people may also have possessed before they were destroyed.

Hunted by his former homeland, whose new ruler covets this long-hidden magic, Danso seeks refuge and answers.

Son of the Storm is exciting and intriguing world-building. And the female villains--Danso’s fiance and her mother--are loathsome perfection. That said, I found Danso’s character pretty dry and uncomplicated. For all his desires to leave Bassa, he doesn’t initially question his home very deeply and its darker secrets have to be exposed for him. Thankfully, Son of the Storm is multiple POV. Looking forward to the next installment!

I have to say that I went in reading this because of the hype and I really wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

This book is seriously one of my top 10 favourite Fantasy books of this year. I found it so entertaining and I just couldn't put it down.

Son of the Storm is an epic fantasy that is so well written.
I now can't wait for the next book in this series and yes you bet I will be pre-ordering the next book because I can't wait to read more.

I do highly recommend

My Review: Exciting West-African-inspired Fantasy!
Rep: West African, non-binary, LGBTQIA+

What a complex epic fantasy! I really enjoyed reading this book and learning more about West African culture through the vivid storytelling!

The Pros: What Worked For Me

The worldbuilding was incredible! The author didn’t skip a single detail in creating this magical world. From the clothing to the political climate, every aspect was carefully described and vivid.
The female characters were very well done. Esheme was my favourite and I’m looking forward to reading more about her in the next novel!
I loved learning about West African culture! This is a story told completely from an African perspective and it is wonderful.
The magic system was well developed and there is great scope for it as the series continues.

The Cons: What I Didn’t Like

I was not a fan of Danso. He was simply too naive for my liking and I couldn’t connect with him.
At times, the pacing of the story was slow; this book was great for setting up the stage but interesting moments only happened after the first half.

In all honesty, I found this to be a fun read. It was well thought out and has great potential as a series. I’m excited for what the next book will have in store, so I’m giving this a solid 3/5 stars!

This is now one of my favs in the fantasy genre. Love the characters and the worldbuilding. This an authour I will be looking out for more of their work. Highly recommend this.

I wanted to enjoy this, I really did! I just couldn't get into it at first and then after seeing an unexpected interview/review from the author about certain language he used in the book, I'm genuinely turned off from him and his books. Not for me, sorry! Thank you for the chance to read and review this book though!

Thanks to Netgalley for the earc!

Wow, this book REALLY surprised me.

This bloody and brutal coming of age story follows Danso on his quest to learn the truth about himself and Bassa. It’s multiple POV (yay!) AND IT’S QUEER!! Hello nonbinary rep & very not straight sex.

The first half was slow for me and I had a really hard time caring about any of the characters except for Danso. Everyone has different things that interest them so you may have a different experience than me, but the beginning of this book didn’t really keep my attention. Which then had me thinking this was going to be a 2-star for me.

But then things started happening. And let me tell you: it’s SO worth getting past the first half to get to the action.

Esheme is an AMAZING character. I mean, she’s definitely not a good person—she’s not even morally gray—but I love her anyway. Not in a “I support your decisions” kind of way. But. She’s just INTERESTING. I never knew what she was going to do or what her choices would lead to. And while there are some things that just… don’t quite add up in my head about her, it doesn’t even matter, because DAMN.

Danso is definitely more predictable because he’s a consistent and reliable character, but I loved his POV because this is where we get the adventure. His quest for the truth takes him away from Bassa, which extends our understanding of the world they live in.

I can’t wait to read what happens next in the second book!

The writing style and pacing were a little slow for my taste, but this was still a phenomenal read. Basically, it was difficult to get into the world of the story at first, but after a handful of chapters it picked up and I was fully immersed.

An African-inspired fantasy with rich world-building, Son of the Storm was the perfect book for me to pick up when I was in the middle of a book slump.

Going in, SotS reminded me a lot of a book I had recently read with a very smart main character who ends up making the worst decisions at every point and I realised I'm attracted to this trope (Or maybe I am this trope). That's what drew me into this book in the first place.

Some other things I loved:
x The lush setting and rich world-building.
x the magic system.
x a smart main character who is also adorably dumb (As I said, I love them)
x the queer rep. (One of the main characters is Bi, maybe pan and has a relationship with a non-binary side character)
x the not-so-cute animal companion/familiar. Didn't expect that.
x the underlying themes of discrimination because of one’s skin color, and the feeling of not belonging really hit the spot.
x it also doesn’t hurt that the cover is THAT gorgeous!

I really enjoyed this book till the 80% mark. But that is when it hit me that the character who I thought would be just a minor antagonist was actually THE VILLAIN of the series. And my main problem was that her villain origin story left something to be desired. I didn't understand her motivations. Nor did I understand why EVERYONE got swayed so quickly by her one speech. I found her to be despicable (maybe that's the point of a villain), and also felt things were handed to her too easily. Apart from the mixed feelings about the villain, I loved the other two main characters of the series - Danso and Lilong.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one and will be looking forward to the sequel!

I think the writer was not as interested in the bit of the story that were interesting to me. Many of the things that happened in the book seemed implausible, perhaps because I did not get a good enough foundation of this world. I love Lilong though. She is a complicated character and her mission is compelling. I wish she had been the hero of the story. Suyi definitely has a talent for epic fantasy and I think he will write better books going forward.

This perfectly paced fantasy had my heart pounding and my brain screaming to read faster! I adored the world building and the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an advanced copy for review.

Son of the Storm was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021. It promised fantastic characters, an original story line, and a well-written world. It definitely did not disappoint. I loved everything about this book, from the diverse characters and setting, to the relationships that felt so fleshed out. I loved Danso, our main character, and absolutely cannot wait for book two! I would recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy or simply a good story.

I like to thank NetGalley and Orbit for allowing me a chance to read this book.

This was a tough book to read. While I think there was a story in this, it was marred by difficult writing and use of grammar.

If belonging to both the highest and lowest castes in the land at the same time taught one anything, it was that when people had to choose where to place a person, they would always choose a spot beneath them.

Danso lives in the city of Bassa, the seat of the great Bassa Empire. Although he is a brilliant scholar in training, he’s a Sashi, a child born between a member of the Bassai elite and an outlander. His engagement to up-and-coming politician Esheme (the daughter of a fixer) should help his status, but Danso’s feelings of unease and frustration have only been increasing. Until he witnesses a mysterious outlander performing forbidden magic, and his entire destiny shifts.

“I didn’t quite think this through, did I? I’ve been so fixated on a quest for my own truth that I didn’t consider the consequences.”

*hyperventilating wheezing*

That. Is. How. You. Do. Epic. Fantasy!

The scope, the stakes, the characters, the world-building. Everything was fantastic and spot on and all-encompassingly breathtaking.

I loved how deftly Okungbowa weaved the layers of this story together, and how gorgeously intricate the world of the continent of Oon was. It’s not just a quest between several runaways searching for answers and magic, but an insightful and damning look into imperialism and forced cultural assimilation and power.

In the city of Bassa, the ruling elite are isolated and brainwashed into believing that Bassa is All. There is an inherent superiority of culture within the rulers, reinforced by rhetoric, power and the way the city is structured. Outlanders are allowed inside the city and can become proto-citizens, but they are forbidden to speak of the world outside or anything that is not Bassa, because Bassa is the universe and the world. It’s nationalism and xenophobia taken to the nth degree, and it works so well.

Danso, Esheme and Zaq are each different aspects of Bassa, all held back by the cultural structures in place to keep people in their place.

She was right, after all. He might have left Bassa, but it would take a long time, and a lot of intentional effort, for Bassa to leave him.

Danso, as a half-Sashi scholar and the son of a disgraced scholar turned healer, is literally a genius and is able to rise high within the structures of Bassai academia, although he’s quickly realizing the strange ways Bassa changes history to best suit its current goals. He is well aware of the fact that no matter how hard he tries and how much he succeeds, he will never truly fit in, because his face will always be wrong and signal him as an Other. He sees freedom in the form of escape, but slowly realizes how deep the roots of Bassai prejudice live within him.

Esheme knew that rules only worked for those who fit neatly within them.

Esheme is the daughter of a fixer in one of the middle districts of Bassa, and her mother has fought long and hard to place Esheme in a position where she can gain power and respectability for them both. I really, really liked Esheme, who was practical, ruthless and understands how power and control operates better than she should. She was also completely lacking in empathy, and became more and more ruthless as the story continued.

“You made me come, a decision that will change my whole life, and you didn’t even consider the weight of that sacrifice for me. You didn’t wonder, How can I protect Zaq, who doesn’t have the same privileges as me? You made me come, because you think me dispensable.

Zaq is Danso’s protector, assigned to Danso because Zaq is an immigrant and that is one of the tasks assigned to immigrants looking to gain access to Bassa. While Danso is focused on his own lack of privilege, he fails to see the lack in others, particularly in Zaq, who is forced to follow and assist and then face the consequences Danso will never see due to his Bassai self. If Danso is a reflection of Bassai prejudice and the intersections of mainlander and outlander within the elite, Zaq is the reflection of the everyman, the lower classes who are just trying to survive and thrive—and he is. Until Danso forces him along and Zaq must follow.

Anyway, there’s a whole lot more going on besides power differentials and inequality and imperialistic prejudice and cultural superiority, to include magic and genocidal reservations and a lot more, including Lilong, who is the outlander Danso spots and then follows.

However, while the third act is pretty much nonstop action and movement, the plot is rather slow to start. The build is literally forever, but once I was hooked I was HOOKED.

Definitely a must-read if you are into epic fantasy.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

TL,DR: Son of the Storm is an epic fantasy set in a second world based on Africa. It's the first book of a series and sets up a complex and fascinating magical system that is intertwined with an equally thorny political landscape.
A huge thank-you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Let me begin with this: Son of the Storm is slow to start. As with much epic fantasy, Suyi Davies Okungbowa has a lot of groundwork to lay down, and he does so with a very large number of points of view. I don't think he'll quite hit Robert Jordan levels of POV characters (148 in total across fourteen books), but there are many -- and, as much as I loved the different POVs in WoT, I sometimes wish I could just stay in one head for a little longer in this book.
I spent the first 150 or so pages making myself continue, though I really enjoyed the hints of magic and political landscape and had a clear favourite from the beginning: Esheme, an utterly perfect character who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Son of the Storm takes place in a colonizing country that has extremely strict rules and no magic. Danso, our main-est main character (in conjunction with Esheme and Lilong), is a mixed-race scholar who can't seem to keep out of trouble, much to the frustration/irritation of Esheme, his perfectionistic betrothed. When a "yellowskin" (i.e., albino) is spotted in his country, everything starts going horribly awry. Throughout the novel, we traverse the continent; find all sorts of magic; and see Danso make mistake after mistake. By the end of the book, the world has become infinitely vaster and more cruel, and Okungbowa leaves the reader with the knowledge of many more challenges to come without a strong sense of what they will be.
In all, I recommend Son of the Storm for everyone who enjoys epic fantasy and exquisite villains. I'm glad I pushed through to read this book in spite of what felt like a slow start to me; the magic system is interesting and I truly am fascinated by Esheme. I also love the general lack of romance in the book -- I'm not sure if it will continue on this way, but the hyperfocus on survival and achievement just felt right here. Even though I'm not sure I'll continue the series, it feels very much an "it's not you, it's me" problem; I was in a reading slump for a while leading up to reading this book, and I might just not be vibing with it in the right way.
The last thing I'll note: the phrase "yellowskin" rubbed me wrong at first, given the waves of anti-Asian violence that have been sweeping the US in recent months. The author has a very thoughtful post on the usage of this term on GoodReads; essentially, it means "albino" and comes from an African-centric view of language. It took me (not of East Asian descent) a little while to get used to it, so I can only imagine that for some readers, this may be insurmountable.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy with lots of political machinations and/or awesome female villains.

The author went all out with the world building, he crafted vibrant and vivid settings. His characters were very well developed, each had their own unique thoughts and personalities. The magic system was interesting and I am really looking forward to seeing more of it in book 2. I really enjoyed reading this but for some reason it took me longer than usual to finish but there was enough action and political maneuvers to keep me entertained, it's just the pacing was a little off at times. The author is a more tell then show style.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is an internationally known author whose shorter works have appeared in Strange Horizons, at Tor.com, and in Fireside, to name only a few. Son of the Storm is the first novel of the Nameless Republic epic fantasy trilogy, but his first novel is David Mogo, Godhunter, which won the Nommo Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction by an African.

Nigerian, Okungbowa hails from Benin City, where his parents, both professors, still reside. Benin City (originally Edo) was born of the ancient kingdom (or empire) of Benin, which flourished in West Africa from, approximately, the eleventh through the nineteenth century before it was forcibly incorporated into British Nigeria in 1897. Ancient Benin was the inspiration for Son of the Storm, but Okungbowa also took inspiration from other African empires, including Mali, Ghana, Dahomey, Senegambia, and Egypt. He loves epic fantasy, but wanted to write a non-Tolkienesque tale. (Yes! Tolkien set the bar high for epic fantasy, but too much of the current European medieval-based fantasy is derivative.) So far, with Son of the Storm, he has succeeded.

The world Okungbowa has created is very different one most historical fantasy readers know. The society of Bassa has grown organically from specific cultural, sociological, anthropological, economic, and geographic conditions. It is rich and elaborate and engrossing. Power is situated in the Great Dome—I could not help but think of National Geographic’s pictures of Timbuktu—and weakens the farther one moves outward from the center. Readers will feel the stifling nature of a rigid society defined by caste and patriarchy; it’s what drives Danso, a scholar whose curiosity cannot be contained within such narrow parameters, nuts and makes his intended, Esheme, a woman of spirit and intelligence, so fierce. It’s a system that takes little of the individual into account, and it puts all immigrants into secondary status—at best. Immigrants have their lives horribly controlled; the limitations they suffer are humiliating and infantilizing. Readers will chafe right along with the characters, especially Zaq who has managed to work the system about as well as be expected, until Danso’s actions hijack his life.

Although there are three principal characters, it is Danso’s story. He’s a jali novitiate, just finishing up at the University. For him, this is a coming of age story, a story of growing up—there is a touch of Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita in Danso. Lilong, the warrior practicing illicit magic who ignites Danso’s imagination and his longing to know his heritage, plays at best a reluctant Krishna. Mostly, she’s hostile, suspicious, and closed off to him, for he represents Bassa, and all that’s wrong with the world. Esheme, on the other hand, makes the most out of a weak position left to her by mother Nem and grows quickly into her power. That bodes no good for anyone. Ruthless, cold-blooded, well educated (she’s counsel novitiate), and wily, she is on the verge of becoming of a monster.

Danso is Shashi, a man of mixed ethnic heritage; he is considered Ibu on account of his daa, but his deceased maa was an islander, an Ajabo. Danso is always uncertain of his status, and it shows in his behavior. On one hand, he’s a immature, privileged brat, and on the other, he is curious and reflective and willing to consider his flaws. His intended, Esheme, isn’t in any better social position than Danso, whom she barely tolerates. Nem is a fixer with a dubious background and a dangerous array of enemies, collected over decades of fixing political problems. Danso is threatened with expulsion from the university for stealing a forbidden codex on magic by the Manic Emperor that he’s already read and committed to memory. He’s accused because he’s Shashi and already a known troublemaker. He doesn’t have the codex, he can’t get it back, and he’s had enough of Bassa, so he’s leaving for Whadusha. At the same time, Nem has used ibor, a magical source also known as stone-bone, to assassinate an Elder whose daughter has gone beyond the Soke Mountains. This wayward daughter is a problem Nem can’t fix because the hunthands who were sent to retrieve the girl failed, and worse, allowed in a skin-changer, an ibor-worker, an Abenai warrior, who is derogatorily referred to as a ‘yellowskin’. Lilong ends up in Danso’s father’s barn, injured after a confrontation with Nem. With hunthands hot on her trail, she teams up with Danso and his unwilling Second, Zaq to escape Bassa. They run into the Breathing Forest, Zaq and Lilong knowing they are being pursued with a bounty upon their heads. Danso, in his naïveté, believes they’ll make it to Whadusha, and everyone will abide by the Peace Treaty. He has no idea of the bad spot in which he’s placed himself, Zaq, and Esheme. The last inherits the enemies, the fearful power politics, blackmail, and loss of status with precious little information from Nem. Forced to make alliance with radicals within Bassa, it’s hard to tell who Esheme hates more—her mother or Danso.

The magic system is consistent, as is the moral point. Use power or magic, and you pay for it. Using ibor depletes a body, so strict diets have to be followed to avoid the long-term consequences of drawing magic. Furthermore, power chooses you. Esheme, with help from her mother’s notes, deduces what red ibor means and how it works, and willingly uses it. That choice leaves her in a in a grotesque situation. Danso and Lilong must figure out why he can use red ibor whilst on the run. They have more respect for ibor—what it can do and what it costs to use.

While the world building in The Son of the Storm is magnificent, ably aided by a magnificent cover, the pacing is uneven. The author dedicates the first quarter of the book to getting everything and everyone in place for the first plot point, when Danso, Lilong, and Zaq flee.The ending feels rushed and is somewhat unsatisfying. The narrative never devolves into “info dumps”, but it does get confusing and hard to remember which group is which and where they are in the social hierarchy. Although the author has said in a response to an online review on Goodreads, that references to skin coloration is not race-based, that “yellowskin” derives from African approaches to albinism, it is hard to distinguish what is class, what is ethnic, or what is immigrant grouping—and yes, they overlap. Also, we don’t get as many reminders later in the narrative, which we should. I was glad to see a map to aid a reader in visualizing the land, but a glossary of terms would’ve helped enormously.

(For those who winced every time they read “yellowskin”, please read the author’s comments about this word here: Author's Comments )

I appreciate the author not wanting to resort to action to move the narrative along and to show people solving problems through dialogue and co-operation. This is a thoughtful story wherein the theme is diversity and open-mindedness allowing alliance with others, and that is the best route to survival. Still, the story does have to move. And it does, albeit a herky-jerky fashion. Once we get past the flight of Danso and Lilong, the narrative picks up steam. Danso and Lilong spend a lot of time explaining and hammering out things between them, not usually successfully. Esheme talks less and does more, but she moves too quickly to the dark side. Lilong, but especially Danso, hate that they have to reach for violence. Esheme, however, reaches for it quickly and discovers she likes it; the cost to her is horrific and morally disturbing.

Overall, it is an impressive beginning to a new epic fantasy series. Danso starts growing up before the eyes of the reader; Lilong begins to evaluate all she has been taught; Esheme elevates herself to power, yet renders herself morally bankrupt. There’s more than enough there to make me come back for the second novel, due out next summer.







Received as an ARC from NetGalley

Son of the Storm, is a compelling high fantasy fairytale.
- The setting and people of this world are very heavily inspired by the West-African people
- The magic of this world is based around creatures and magical minerals called ibor. It's very weird and unique in its way that I have never seen before. It would be interesting to explore it more as the mystery unveils as the books progress.
- the story has a lot of plot filled with political upheaval, colorism and oppression. Social and racial hierarchies. Revolution.
- the world building is very interesting. The main city is like in concentric circle, with the higher class in the middle and it lowering down as we move far away from the circle.
- MCs; ah tbh I didn't like most of them 😂. Danso, he was just so stupid high on sunshine and rainbow when the world around him was anything but. Esheme, yeah I do not like her tbh. Idk some people might relate to there but I did not enjoy her arc at all.
She was ambitious and hunger for power .
- Lilong, is the only characters that I liked and I think she got the least pages. Again would love to get to know her more. Because there is a lot of mystery around her.


Overall, it was a slow paced book. It had excellent world building and lots of culture. I just couldn't really like most of the MCs.

Released May 11, 2021

Son of the Storm
By. Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Orbit Books
P. 545
Format: eArc
Rating: **
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I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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**Spoilers Below - I tried to be as vague as possible but it couldn’t be helped**

I want to start by saying that I really, really, really wanted to love this book. The cover is probably the best cover to come out this year. The premise of the book is amazing. It should have been epic. . . But as you can see from my rating I did not find it so.

Son of the Storms looks at an empire in pre-colonial West Africa. Bassa is the empire’s capital. It was once an empire to be feared, but now it has created its own history that it hides behind and punishes anyone who would dare think differently. Danso is bi-racial. His father conceived him with a yellow skinned islander that are now gone, their islands have sunk into the sea. Danso has doesn’t fit into his society’s cast system. He is too light skinned to be upper class, yet he his intelligence landed him a spot at the elite university.

Intriguing right? Like I said, I wanted to love this book. It should have been amazing.

My issue mainly came with gender representation in this book. There are two main female main characters, both were described by mensuration for the first half of the book. One female character’s menstrual cycle lasted for over six days while she was unconscious and seriously hurt. Then the second female character had her menstrual cycle mentioned also. WTF - women do more than bleed.

Then there is a pregnancy mentioned in the book. This pregnancy happened to one of the characters above. The character was “late” even though they conceived less than a week prior. Not only did they know they were pregnant a few days after a missed period, every other character figured it out also. Then there was an entire plot line around this collection of cells - because a simple internet search would have shown that the fetus would not have even developed organs - but hey lets allow it to be a conducted for magic. The entire span of this book took place within a few weeks, and the child was conceived during that time period.

There is also a Non-Binary character. I would usually be all over this. Except that this character did not make sense. There is a character that had to hide that he could not conceive children because he feared for his life. A main tenet of Bassa culture is procreation. Yet there was no cultural issue with a gender divergent character? Then this character mostly killed things and had sex. This book made me realize that maybe sometimes no rep is good rep.

The story itself is slow. There are awkward sections that are described from the weirdest point of views which minimizes how the reader connects to certain critical scenes. I mean we loose one of the main characters, but the current narrator ends up blacking out while it happens. It made me disconnect from the story and did not allow me to properly morn the character.

Friends, we have continued our lucky streak of fantasy books that work really well for me. A little bit different to the high-action, anxiety-inducing stories of late, this book is one of intricacy, unfolding in a way that works best for the tale at hand. Son of the Storm, a West African inspired adult fantasy, delivers a story that is just as vibrant and detailed as its gorgeous cover.

Though we mainly follow the story of three characters, SON OF THE STORM gives meaning to the ‘multi’ in multi-POV. We spend at least a couple of chapters with 9 different characters. This was by far the most ambitious POV adventure I had ever embarked on, and I was grateful to find that I enjoyed each chapter perspective as much as the next. A rare feat made possible by the fact that the characters, both side and main, were interesting and captivating characters all around. Each perspective allows us a glimpse at the different ways in which this world works, no matter how brief.

Our three main characters, Danso, Esheme, and Lilong, each come from different backgrounds and have different goals, but there is a deep seeded connection between them: the fact that they are considered outcasts/outsiders to the mainlanders of Bassa. This ultimately drives the characters actions and it was incredibly interesting to see how these three, who could ultimately share ambitions and choices, differ so greatly instead. We see them each on contrasting paths, with contrasting values, yet have all been driven by this idea of not falling within the Bassai Ideal.

The contrast between Esheme and Danso was my favourite to witness. They are both idealistic in their ambitions and desires, yet at the same time have differing views on how to achieve them. They are both painfully aware of their standing in society and how Bassa sees them, yet again choose completely different ways in which to deal with that and to work their way to a sense of belonging. This exploration was so much fun to read, and I cannot wait to see in which ways their paths connect and stray over the rest of the series.

The characters add so much to this world. From seeing the different caste systems at play to the effects the actions and teachings of the mainland, Bassa, have on the choices made throughout, the characters play a vital role in our understanding of intricate workings of the world. We learn how the mainlanders have shaped an entire system on the beliefs of their superiority, and how far reaching this belief system goes, erasing whole identities and histories along the way.

The pacing of SON OF THE STORM, though glacial, definitely benefits the story being told. While not a lot of action takes place, we learn a lot – about the world, the characters, their history and motives. My only issue with it was though it didn’t bog down the story in any way, it did make it easy to put the book down for long periods of time. I wasn’t dying to know what happened next until the 80% mark, and though that didn’t bother me, it did allow for the reading experience to be a long one. It felt more like a story you hear from a friend you rarely see as it develops – while you’re with it, it’s intriguing and fun, but while you’re away you’re perfectly fine as well.

The writing style is extremely detailed but also accessible. A lot of key ideas are revisited from different perspectives so by the end of the book we fully understand the motives of our characters and the world.

From the first chapter the book introduces the theme of knowledge being power. And on top of that, the truth of said knowledge being even more so powerful. We learn fairly quickly that the Bassai have a history that supports the superiority of the mainland – that those with ‘humus’ are more human than those without. And this goes as far as being the basis of the caste system in place. The darker the skin, the coilier/kinkier the hair, the higher you are seen.

However, rank and status does not make one privy to the truth. It becomes clear that Bassa thrives on having a history that has been heavily revised. Danso, a jali novitiate, is studying to become a storyteller at the start of the story. Storytellers are responsible for the recording and sharing of Bassa’s history, and we soon find out that even they are not allowed access to the truth. There are whole parts of history that are kept from not just the public, but those who should carry this history forward. SON OF THE STORM begins an exploration on the dangers of withholding the truth, the fear it feeds, and the ways it can be manipulated.

A leisurely paced story with characters that are quick to steal your heart no matter how wayward their choices may be, SON OF THE STORM is a well-grounded beginning to what has the potential to be a gorgeous story. I will be patiently waiting to be reunited with these characters in the upcoming books of The Nameless Republic series.