3.5/5✨

Fantasy. Sci-fi. Afrofuturism. POC author. 2023 release.

Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor is an imaginative blend of sci-fi and African-inspired fantasy, exploring themes of identity, resilience, and the clash between tradition and technology. The story picks up after the events of the previous book, from a new point of view: Dikéogu’s.

One of my favorite aspects of this series remained the vibrant and immersive worldbuilding. The layering of folklore, advanced technology, and complex social structures made it stand out from other, specifically Western, speculative fiction. I also ate up the complexities of Dikéogu, Eiji, and Arif’s developing relationship. It’s always refreshing to get to see non-traditional relationships highlighted.

My main struggle with this story was the shift to a new narrator. I enjoyed Eiji’s voice so much in the first book, that I felt a bit disappointed not to get it again here. Although the transition to Dikéogu’s voice proved challenging at first, I grew to appreciate the further into the book I read. I also sometimes struggle with the author’s narrative style. It’s a lot more direct (i.e. telling more than showing) than I’m used to. However, if you’ve enjoyed the author’s narrative style in the past, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Ultimately, I think Like Thunder is a successful addition to the series. Its complex themes, nuanced characters, and unique worlbuilding make it a standout. While I did enjoy the first book more, I was still able to appreciate what this story had to add.
[Note: Check Trigger Warnings]

It is challenging to review a sequel because I would highly recommend this book to those who enjoyed the first one. But you can't easily hand sell a book to some who hasn't read it. That being said, as a whole I would highly recommend this wonderfully world built scifi duology. Okorofor's imaginative African futuristic world building cannot be topped.

So, I have made it my goal to read through all of Nnedi Okorafor’s works as I have loved everything I’ve read by her. But… this was the first book to give me pause. We are back in the world first introduced in Shadow Speaker which I loved, but in a different perspective—Dikéogu’s. Dikéogu had a terrible past—being sold into slavery. And in Shadow Speaker he found himself and became empowered—both literally and figuratively. But… in Like Thunder, he felt like an old curmudgeon. He had some sentiments that felt disrespectful to burqa wearing individuals and sex workers and I couldn’t feel the necessity of including those in the book unless to highlight a dated and unacceptable way of thinking? I know he eventually comes around for various reasons (after seeing that the father of his burqa wearing lover wasn’t a controlling machismo and that the sex worker was kind) but it still felt weird to read. Apart from that… the storyline kind of pittered on with a whole section of the story being obscured because the main character blacked out. And the resolution/fight/reclamation of Ginen was very anticlimactic to me. Though the characters remained the same in both books, they seemed unrelated to each other in their mood/sentiments. Sorry to have not liked this one but…😔 thanks to the publishers for the early access to this book.

This time, we get the story from the male character's POV. Individually, some of the things here are memorable, but as a whole, it's a bit on the bland side, and again, early work of Dr. Okorafor's that was not reedited in the republishing of the book. Interesting to read an early example of her work, but not that remarkable beyond that.

3.5 stars rounded up. I requested this book not realizing it was the second book in a duology, but I chose to read it anyway and I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would. Like Thunder is a post-apocalyptic Afrofuturism novel that follows Dikéogu, a young man with powerful storm magic, in a not-so-distant future Africa where there was a massive Change- some technology stopped working, some humans developed supernatural abilities, and humanity now has to deal with powerful beings from other realms. He teams up with other enhanced persons he had met in the first novel to exact revenge on his influential, prejudiced parents, and along the way discovers there is some larger, more sinister presence pulling the strings of the current violent chaos directed at Changed humans.
This world gives me Rosewater meets X-Men vibes, and is an indulgent blend of science fiction and fantasy. We content with the ramifications of child slavery, violent discrimination against altered humans, pre-existing racial and tribal tensions, media mis-information, magical madness, and mythical monsters of old. The plot timeline is a little funky, but if you just roll with it you'll pick up in the details you need. I liked that our teenage/young adult characters felt their age- they definitely have a cynicism and determination born out of their massive traumas, but still have the emotional impulsivity and broody-ness of the almost-adult. I appreciate that our protagonist has many aspects that make him unlikeable (and who could be easily likeable after all he has been through?), but there are enough other aspects where you still root for his success.
The worldbuilding is great. I think the integration of the real-world state of Africa and the what-if of this future world is powerful and insightful. I'm definitely interested in picking up the first book, and I'll continue to be exciting for future releases from this author.

My Thoughts:

This is book 2 of the Desert Magician Duology by Afrofuturist author Nnedi Okorafor. Because Okorafor spends so much energy building this postapocalyptic world (or worlds), this last book is a little more chaotic. Told from the point of view of Dikéogu Obidimkpa, the rainmaker who accompanied young Shadowspeaker Ejii Ubaid in Book One. Taking place several years after the two separate, the book starts at the point where Dikéogu is losing his mind in a world that is also losing its mind.

Like the first book, Okorafor weaves magic and ecological warfare, world building, as well as world destruction into a cautionary tale reminiscent of Ursula K. LeGuin. The power of this duology for me, though, is the smaller scenes of mental chaos. It changes the perspective in this novel because Dikéogu is so unreliable as a narrator.

At the end, because I wanted to hear the correct pronounciation for Okorafor's book, I ended up finishing this book as an audiobook. I would recommend this as a read along. I recommend reading this book and then listening to it again with Délé Ogundiran as narrator on the audiobook. I needed a second "read" to be able to notice things that I rushed through in the first reading so that I could get to the conclusion.

From the Publisher:
Niger, West Africa, 2077

Welcome back. This second volume is a breathtaking story that sweeps across the sands of the Sahara, flies up to the peaks of the Aïr Mountains, cartwheels into a wild megacity—you get the idea.

I am the Desert Magician; I bring water where there is none.

This book begins with Dikéogu Obidimkpa slowly losing his mind. Yes, that boy who can bring rain just by thinking about it is having some…issues. Years ago, Dikéogu went on an epic journey to save Earth with the shadow speaker girl, Ejii Ubaid, who became his best friend. When it was all over, they went their separate ways, but now he’s learned their quest never really ended at all.

So Dikéogu, more powerful than ever, reunites with Ejii. He records this story as an audiofile, hoping it will help him keep his sanity or at least give him something to leave behind. Smart kid, but it won’t work—or will it?

I can tell you this: it won’t be like before. Our rainmaker and shadow speaker have changed. And after this, nothing will ever be the same again.

As they say, ‘Onye amaro ebe nmili si bido mabaya ama ama onye nyelu ya akwa oji welu ficha aru.’

Or, ‘If you do not remember where the rain started to beat you, you will not remember who gave you the towel with which to dry your body.’

Publication Information:
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Publisher: DAW (Nov 28, 2023)
Print length: 303 pages
Narrator: Délé Ogundiran
Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio (Dec 5, 2023)
Listening Length: 10 hours 23 minutes

Here’s the thing: I usually enjoy Nnedi Okorafor’s writing, but I struggled with this one. In general, her writing style is somewhat spare, almost terse. The Desert Magician’s duology has this kind of random, eclectic Alice In Wonderland energy, in which strange and marvelous things happen at random and without foreshadowing. Between the somewhat chaotic events and the bare-bones style, I had a difficult time getting invested in the characters or the story.

This second installment takes a darker turn than the first book. I liked what the story had to say about dehumanizing and othering people who are different, and about modern-day slavery and mass production. I’m not giving this book a middling rating to suggest that it was inherently mediocre, but it was not a great fit for me, in large part because of the style and structure.

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley prior to this book’s release, but ended up reading it in hardcover after the fact, for whatever that’s worth. 🙂

No matter whether now, 30 years in the future with Brooks or 50 years in the future with Dikéogu, there’s something appropriate about facing a rapidly transforming world as a young man with special resources. A sense of invincibility, increasing autonomy, dangers of isolation, incipient mental coherence, relational insecurity — these are the developmental hallmarks of late teenage boys but also of a world facing a series of existential threats without supervising superpowers.

Another series wrapped this week. The Desert Magician's Duology by Nnedi Okorafor concluded with "Like Thunder" (and plenty of lightning).

Dikéogu Obidimpka had a real good reason to smite some folks with lightning. And dismantling and industry and exploited and killed children. He has realized the job of saving the world never really ends. After leaving to learn more about his powers his path diverged to a town in which he found love and lost his mind. As his estranged parents continue to spout hate and cohorts turn people against the changed what's a person (who can bring the sky down if the mood strikes them) to do?

Reasons to read:
-They really go through it in this one, but they find reasons not to just smite everyone
-Creatures and technology that works in it's own way
-Great wrap up
-Another finished series? Yes please

Cons:
-Any of those green bombs floating around?

Much of the political intrigue in “Shadow Speaker” sets the stage and intensifies in "Like Thunder." Beloved characters witness unspeakable acts and must fight for their own existence in a world rife with growing bigotry toward people with their talents.

I had to DNF this one. The first book was rife with fatphobic comments from the main characters and had some elements that came across as transphobic.

This was unfortunately no different, with some added homophobia from the MCs. No thank you.

This follow up to the revised "Shadow Speaker" in the "Desert Magician's Duology" picks up some years later, and follows Dikéogu Obidimkpa, who fears he is losing his mind. Dikéogu can call the rain as he is a storm bringer, but things haven't been working all that well for him for a while, as his ability to control his gift/superpower is not in control.

Dikéogu has been on his own for some time, and is happy when he reunites with Ejii Ubaid, his best friend and shadow speaker. But she needs help too, and the problems the pair thought they had resolved years earlier really aren't. So, the two, along with Arif, get ready to fight for their world again.

There is much to like in this book: Dikéogu is a fantastic character, and his struggles following the last war, in the first section of the book, are hard reading, as this young man, for all his wonderful qualities, is reviled by his family, and struggles to be treated with respect thanks to the markings on his face which point to his past life as a slave. This section of the story is compelling, and I particularly liked that it's shown as transcipts from his free-flowing thoughts as he tried to live after the first war, even finding some small measure of peace before that, too, is ripped away from him, along with his increasingly scattered mind.

The second half of the book is where the book began to lose me. It concerns his reuniting with Ejii and Arif, and all their new struggles to defeat the evil that they thought they had vanquished before. It's full of action, interesting character moments, including Dikéogu helping Ejii deal with her trauma from the previous war. Unfortunately, I did not feel as engaged during the book's second half, and also was not sure that the romance author Okorafor included between Dikéogu and Ejii worked, as I preferred them as merely best friends.

I loved the mention of Nsibidi scripts in this duology, which indicates some slight connection perhaps between this and the Akata Witch series.

Even though this book did not entirely work for me, I love the future Nigeria conceived of by this author, and continue to be fascinated by its stories that are a mix of identity, magic and technology.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Astra Publishing House for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this sequel to Shadow Speaker! This installment was more angry, sadder, and broke my heart more than book one. It is a book that will stay with me.

Nnedi Okorafor is one of my auto buy and auto read authors. When I saw this new release, I knew I needed to have it. I was immediately interacted with the writing.

(4/5 stars) After reading the first book in this duology (The Shadow Speaker, my review here), I was looking forward to the sequel. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, I was looking forward to the sequel to see how much Okorafor's writing has evolved since the writing of the first book (2007). I was NOT let down. The second book in this series, following Rainmaker Dikéogu Obidimkpa was rawer and more emotional, but just as beautifully written as the first book in the duology. Like Thunder brings Shadow Speaker full circle in a compelling (and at times heart-wrenching) way.

After the amazing first book "Shadow Speaker" (minus the fatshaming and hat at the end) I was looking forward to the second installment in this duology.

From the start on I struggled, because (and that is my own fault) I wasn't aware that this book is not anymore from the view of Ejii but from her friend Dékuoge. In the first book he was okay for my but I liked the character arc of Ejii a lot more. And somehow I couldn't start liking Deku more after being in his perspective. A big part of this is the rather stormy way of storytelling. Even if this is fitting for Dekus powers I felt disconnected from the stations of his journey.

I also didn't feel to happy that his girlfriend has to die so he can finally move on to Ejii and the war that is brewing. As Deku met Ejiis old friend it was nice to see how they start connecting with each other.

But … I couldn't finish this book. I got to around 60 % and had to dnf it. There was the repetition of the fat hate from book 1. But also how Deku and Arif are making fun of Jollof and her queerness was unbearable for me.

I think there is so much in this story. The attempt on genocide is a powerful motive and gives this story another dimension especially as the Hamas attempt of jewish genocide escalated into a war between Israel and the Hamas. But if the roots of the story are based on hate on the aspects that define myself (being fat and queer) it is not possible for me to continue reading the story as I already struggled with Dekus voice of narrative.

Nethertheless I am very thankful to got the chance of reading this book, so thank you very much!

This story has a different tone than Shadow Speaker, but this makes it even more interesting. We are learning Dikeogu's story and seeing him find his way in this new and dangerous times.

Okorafor definitely writes younger characters that reach for her readers and draw them into their world, which is what keeps me coming back to her works.

Like Thunder is the second half of the Desert Magician’s Duology, and the follow-up to the utterly excellent Shadow Speaker. Like that first book, Like Thunder is a story within a story, as the whole duology is a tale of a possible future, and a lesson to be learned, told by the Desert Magician himself.

But it is not the Desert Magician’s story, no matter how much that being meddled with the characters and the events that they faced. Just as Shadow Speaker was the story of Eiji Ugabe, the titular shadow speaker herself, Like Thunder represents her best friend Dikéogu Obidimkpa’s side of the events that followed.

Shadow speaking is but one of the many transformations and strange, new powers brought into this world after the ‘peace bombs’ were dropped and the oncoming nuclear catastrophe was transformed into something survivable for the human population.

A survival that seems to be more contingent on the adaptability of not just the humans of Earth, but also the sentient populations of ALL the worlds that have become interconnected after Earth’s ‘Great Change’ caused a ‘Great Merge’ of several formerly separated worlds.

The story in Shadow Speaker very much represented Eiji’s perspective on the world, as Eiji’s first impulse is always to talk, and to listen. An impulse that combines her youthful belief that people CAN be better if given the opportunity, and is likely a result of her talent for speaking with not just the shadows of the dead, but directly into the minds of other people and animals.

Her talent is to see others’ points of view and to project her own. She’s young enough to believe that if there is understanding, there can be peace.

Like Thunder is not Eiji’s story, and it shouldn’t be. Instead, it’s a kind of mirror image. Just as Eiji’s talent leads her to foster peace and understanding, her friend Dikéogu’s talent is violent. Dikéogu is a stormbringer, someone who brings all of the violence of nature and all of the violence visited upon him in his scarred past to every encounter with his friends, with his enemies, and with his world.

And within himself.

The world through which we follow Dikéogu in this concluding volume of the Desert Magician’s Duology is the direct result of Eiji’s peacemaking in her book. Because, unfortunately for the world but fortunate for the reader enthralled with their story, Eiji didn’t really make peace because peace is not what most of the people present for the so-called ‘peace conference’ had any desire for whatsoever.

And have been maneuvering in the background to ensure that the only peace that results in the end is the peace of the grave. Someone is going to have to die. Too many people already have. It’s only a question of whether Dikéogu and Eiji’s feared and reviled powers will save the world – or end it.

Escape Rating A-: As much as I loved Shadow Speaker, I came into this second book with some doubts and quibbles – all of which were marvelously dashed to the ground at the very beginning of Dikéogu’s story.

Eiji and Dikéogu were both very young when their adventure began, but by the time they met they had both already seen enough hardship and disaster to fill a whole lifetime for someone else. But Eiji was just a touch older than Dikéogu, and the differences between her fourteen and his thirteen mattered a lot in terms of maturity.

In other words, Eiji was definitely on the cusp of adulthood in her book, making adult decisions with huge, literally world-shaking consequences, while Dikéogu frequently came off as a whiny little shit, an impression not helped AT ALL by the higher pitched voice used by the narrator for his character.

Dikéogu had PLENTY of reasons for his hatreds and his fears – but that doesn’t mean that they were much more enjoyable to listen to than they were to experience. Less traumatic, certainly, but awful in an entirely different way.

But Like Thunder takes place AFTER the events of Shadow Speaker. (This is also a hint that neither book stands on its own) Whiny thirteen becomes traumatized fifteen with more experience, a bit more closure for some of the worst parts, a bit more distance from terrible betrayals – and his voice drops. (This last bit, of course, doesn’t matter if you’re reading the text and hearing your own voice in your head, but matters a lot in audio.)

Dikéogu’s life experience, particularly after he was sold into slavery by his own uncle at the age of twelve, have taught him that the world is pain and strife and that he has to defend himself at all times and that people will believe ANYTHING if it allows them to stay comfortable and maintain their illusions and their prejudices.

He learned that last bit from his parents, Felecia and Chika Obidimkpa, the power couple of THE West African multimedia empire. They betrayed him into slavery, they betrayed him by pretending he was dead, they betray him every single time they broadcast a program filled with ridiculous nostalgia for a past that never was and disallows and disavows Dikéogu’s existence as a stormbringer, a ‘Changed One’ with powers granted by the ‘Great Change’ they hate so much.

It’s no surprise that his parents are in league with his enemies.

What is a surprise, especially to Dikéogu, is how much of his story, how much of his trauma and how many of his tragedies, are directly traceable to that first betrayal AND his inability to deal with its consequences to himself and the magic he carries.

So, very much on the one hand, Like Thunder is a save the world quest with a surprising twist at its end. A twist at least partly manufactured, and certainly cackled over, by the Desert Magician. And absolutely on the other hand, it’s a story about a young man learning to live with the person he has become – and very nearly failing the test. ALL the tests.

Whichever way you look at it, it is compelling and captivating from the first page – or from the opening words – until the very last line of the Desert Magician congratulating themself on a tale well told and a heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful message delivered.

Like Thunder (The Desert Magician's Duology #2)
by Nnedi Okorafor
The second book in an African Science fiction story. The book shows the nature of understanding, acceptance and divergence that causes and heals conflicts. The passing on of leadership, and heroic processes from elders to youth. This book shows that heroes although helped by the past have to make their own decision, to live or die. Your only choice is what you are willing to die for. Its an amazingly self analyzing book, looking at your own prejudices and ideology over and over again as the characters face a very dynamic, swiftly changing world that has conflict with ideology.

I think I would read anything this author writes - she is just fantastic. I never expected to like her books, but I kept seeing her on lists and finally gave in and read Binti and then just kept reading and here we are.

This second book in the duology was just as good as the first one [you MUST read that book first, or all that happens in this book will be tremendously confusing], though much, much different. Still set on Earth [in the not-so-distant future], it is several years after the end of the first book and many things have changed from that time. This time it is the story of Dikéogu Obidimkpa [a Rainmaker], who was a companion to Ejii [who is a Shadow Speaker] in the previous book and has been on his own since they parted at the end of book one, and well, things are REALLY not going well for him [he is, he believes, losing his mind] and so he goes looking for Ejii to see what she can do and if they can continue the mission they thought they'd accomplished already all while finding more of his powers and all he can do and be all while fighting a world that thinks people like himself and Ejii do not belong.

This book is MUCH angrier, sadder and much more heartbreaking than book one. Be prepared to ugly cry. Be prepared to be supremely angry. And be prepared to have a very hard time putting this down [much like book one, I had to force myself at night to stop and go to bed] because once you get started, it is very, very difficult to walk away.

SO. WELL. DONE.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nnedi Okorafor, and Astra Publishing House/DAW for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

**I cannot say enough about the narrator of this book [Délé Ogundiran] as well. She is just fantastic and I would listen to her narrate just about anything, and in the case of these two books, she really brings them to life and I highly recommend listening to them because of this. She is absolutely one of my all-time favorites. **