"a mythic tale of disgruntled gods, revenge, and a heist across two worlds" was quite the sell for this novel and it delivered just that. A great debut that could easily expand to a series set inside this world.

This audiobook was given to me in exchange for an honest review

Gods, Heists, Steamy and Chaotic.

Shigidi and the brass head of Obalufon is the recent published work of award winning Nigerian Speculative Fiction author, Wole Talabi.

Firstly, if you missed Aké Arts and Book Festival 2023, sorry because I have a personally signed copy of this book. That's all.

Shigidi and the brass head of Obalufon is a refreshing take at Speculative Fiction especially on Africanjujuism and Yoruba Mythologies in Fiction.

The story sets off literally in a speed car chase with our main character, the nightmare god, Shigidi, barely able to stay alive after a heist gone wrong.

Growing up, I've always been fascinated with mythologies, particularly Nigerian mythologies. And like every story we only get to explore major gods. And it's no different from Yoruba mythologies.

So, reading Shigidi and the brass head of Obalufon and discovering a new lesser god, Shigidi, meant a lot to me.

The story follows Nightmare god, Shigidi created with only one job— to give humans nightmares. It reminds me Dream in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

Shigidi is a story that raises the stakes of self discovery but on a god level. In his conversation at Aké Arts and Book Festival, Wole Talabi (paraphrasing) spoke about how raising the scales of a simple Speculative question by making the subject in question endowed with inhumane powers or abilities.

In simple words, Shigidi is a character who questions his existence and his need and his role in the bigger picture.

The intriguing play Wole makes with this fantastical novel is making the Orishas a capitalist company that runs on human praise/worship currency.

Like Neil Gaiman's American gods and even Good Omens that takes a play at humanising these deities and cosmic beings. We see these gods in a humane lens. Their desires, their schemes and coys ways to continually replenish their worship banks in a world that no longer recognises the powers of old.

Set in the 20th century, Shigidi is forced to make deals alongside with his succubus lover, Nneoma, as they attempt to break into the spirit side to steal from the British Museum, London.

The characters of this books are intriguing from the main characters to the side characters.

Because of how Wole writes, we see Shigidi in a more passionate, intimate simple lens that I really enjoyed.

Often times, Fantasy stories emphasis on the power levels of these gods and not necessarily on their weaknesses.
We see how vulnerable Shigidi as well as Nneoma becomes when the decide to embark on changes and meet challenges on different accounts in this book.

This books sparks a lot of conversation about who we are and how much of our own heritage is being lost over the years due to different reasons like colonisation and so many others.

Shigidi and the brass head of Obalufon is an epic wild ride of gods who scheme and use dirty tricks like humans. gods that are willing to do anything to stay relevant.

I absolutely enjoyed listening to this audiobook via Recorded Books Media. Thank you for the arc audiobook.

If you're looking for a fast paced novel about gods, heists, passionate lovers and of course risks and chaos. Shigidi and the brass head of Obalufon should be on your cart this December and your reading lists and Book Club picks.

This book was… alright. I thought the idea of having different religious traditions represented at companies was clever and interesting and I liked the characters for the most part.

I felt like Nneoma’s character didn’t really get enough development or backstory until too late in the story so she felt kind of like an accessory to Shigidi.

The heist takes place over the span of three days yet it felt like most of the story was flashbacks. I didn’t personally enjoy the amount of timeline jumping. It made the pacing feel a bit chaotic at times.

Also trigger warning for questionable consent and rape-y vibes that made me so uncomfortable I almost DNF’d :-/

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi is his debut fantasy novel. The story follows Shigidi, a nightmare god, and his partner Nneoma, a succubus, through different time periods and various places where they face other gods, mythical creatures and old friends while they try to pull off a heist that will either save or doom the Orisha spirit company they are involved with.

Writing
I enjoyed the writing, but it was nothing special. There was a nice balance between action, description, and dialogue. I believe Shigidi was the narrator throughout the story so there were no POV changes, which made it easy to follow. I cannot say much about the punctuation since I listened to the audiobook. I have little to say about the writing – as you can probably tell.

Worldbuilding
The world was what made me request the ARC. African mythology combined with a heist? Sign me up! I thought the idea to portray the godly hierarchy by putting them in a modern-day company was brilliant, but I feel like it didn’t reach its full potential in the story. I enjoyed the portrayal of the various deities and creatures and their powers. Very fun world that I wish was explored even further.

Plot
Now the plot is a bit hard to follow but if you pay attention to the beginning of each chapter, you should be good. I struggled a little because I listened to the audiobook and felt like I missed some parts of the story. Especially, the heist. It was, unfortunately, only at the very end of the story and felt a bit rushed. I would’ve enjoyed the story more if it had been structured a bit better. I believe others had similar issues. Generally, it was a very intriguing story, though!

Characters
The title feels a bit misleading to be completely honest. Nneoma was clearly the main character and by far more interesting. Her character is complex and deep and her development throughout the story is dynamic, whereas Shigidi is a static, one-note kind of character. I would’ve much preferred to read about her POV. I only cared about Shigidi in relation to Nneoma.

Relationships
The relationship between Shigidi and Nneoma is very interesting and complex. Considering they are deities/mythical creatures, applying rules of conventional relationships feels out of place. But it is still unhealthy and abusive in some ways that are relatable to humans. I find complicated dynamics like theirs much more fun to read about than simple romances. They destroy each other but also push each other to stay alive and keep going. It is intense and thought-provoking. Definitely not a relationship I envy, but it is one that will make you think.

Conclusion
It took me quite a while to finish this one, but it was a good story. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to a lot of my fellow readers, but I also wouldn’t say I regretted reading it.

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi was a mixed experience. It's that type of book where if you decide to pass up on it, the story will creep into the crevices of your mind later.

SATBHOO is a slow-moving book with many intricate woven timelines to get to the bigger picture. The randomness of jumped timelines put me off, but it was something you had to go through to understand the characters and how they moved. Once I figured out the author's writing style, I understood the navigation of the story.

The backstories of Shigidi and Nneoma are what make the book. Though they are immortal, their characters are what makes them human and relatable.

Overall, I rated this book 3-stars. I might even throw in a quarter-star. It wasn't bad, but I understand why so many DNFed it. Hell, I almost DNFed it a few times. It just took too long to get to the damn point. I was more focused on the book's setup than the actual story. I wish the author would have focused more on the heist since that's what I was sold on, but the wrap-up justified all of what the author was getting at.

Oh and the narrator was cool. Nothing spectacular, but cool.

This story honestly left me pretty confused. I think I may just need to revisit it at a later time because I love a good heist story, but the time skipping was difficult for me to follow while listening to the audiobook. I think if I do revisit this book it'll be with a physically copy, which is unfortunate because I liked the narrator.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

(Content warnings: rape, graphic sexual content, body shaming, violence)

Okay, how do I say this...

There's a couple aspects of this book I did enjoy.

The world of mythos and religion reimagined as a corporate hellscape is something i've come across a couple times, and it never fails to entertain me. It makes for scathing satire of capitalism while being hilarious in its absurdity, and this book does it very well.

And with a British Museum heist as one of the subplots, you know we get into some first-rate critiques of colonialism and the museum's practice of proudly displaying stolen artifacts from cultures that would *very much like them back*. Shigidi's anger in the chapters that explore that is so palpable and infectious.

Also, the audiobook's narrator does a great job, no notes.

However.

Nneoma, one of our two protagonists - you know, the flawed, complicated but ultimately lovable protagonists we're meant to root for? - is a succubus. She's also a rapist. I think there's bound to be questions around consent and morality with succubus characters, and that if done tactfully it could be an interesting thing to explore; what this book does instead is simply ignore all that and act like the multiple graphic sex scenes ranging from questionable consent to straight up explicitly rape are just like... no big deal, I guess. All the while the romance between her and Shigidi is meant to be the emotional core of the story. Yeah, no, thank you, that is not something I can simply overlook in a character whose side I'm supposed to be on.

(Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!)

ALERT: NEW AUTO-BUY AUTHOR FOUND!!!
I don't care if anyone else doesn't like this because this book was CLEARLY written for me.

"His vision was not yet blurry enough from the booze to not immediately realize how stunningly beautiful she was. She had radiant ebony skin like polished midnight, and the edges of her frizzy afro refined the stray bits of light from the array of hanging bulbs to an eldritch fringe, like a halo. She seemed, in his mind, to be Africa made flesh—dark, mysterious, and just a little bit dangerous."

This was OH SO SULTRY. There's poly rep with so much African Mythology featuring a Nightmare god and Succubus in a way that very vaguely reminds me of an adult version of Strange the Dreamer. This is a debut contemporary fantasy by Nebula-nominated Nigerian author tells a mythic tale of disgruntled gods, revenge, and a heist across two worlds, while taking a journey around the world we are familiar with.

This is magnificent. An absolutely immaculate masterpiece. I co-read the ALC with the ebook I purchased cause I wanted to highlight passages - that's how much I enjoyed this book.

As for the narrator, Ben Arogundade's voice and delivery was just as impeccable as the narrator who presented Evan Winter's Rage of Dragon books. I will admit that there were times the rustle of clothing and breathing did take away a little from the reading experience but overall such a stunning performance.

This book is extremely character based and the "heist" of a plot takes a massive back burner to the way these characters meet and develop, what influences their choices, and how they grow as people and in their relationship. We are met instead with amazingly complex main characters who live in a world layered with the intrigue of gods and their political shenanigans. I truly enjoyed Shigidi's origin story and the way we truly see through him.

Did I mention yet how much I like Wole Talabi's writing style? The magic this author weaves through words left me spellbound. How do I even describe this? It’s not lyrical. It’s not visceral. Each word has a purpose. Perfectly balanced descriptions with emotions and intentions. There’s such a strong authorial tone in his writing that I really don't have much to compare it to. There was a certain dreamlike quality to Talabi's writing that truly added to this Shigidi's voice as the Nightmare god. You could feel his hopelessness and desperation, his passion and his love, and ultimately the realization that while he and his world may not be perfect, it was perfect enough for him.

What a PHENOMENAL breath of fresh air. I will be singing this book's praises to everyone who will listen and hope that they would love it as much as I do.

Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media, Recorded Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tengo entendido que es muy importante a la hora de vender una novela que el primer párrafo enganche a la persona que lo está leyendo de forma que capte su interés para seguir leyendo. Desde luego, Wole Talabi se ha tomado esta sugerencia al pie de la letra porque el impacto que causa en el lector una persecución en taxi por las calles de Londres de un semidios con un brazo recién arrancado de cuajo por varios seres mitológicos es de los que no se olvidan fácilmente. El problema puede venir luego si el resto del libro no cumple con las expectativas creadas, como me pasó con Some Desperate Glory, por ejemplo. Afortunadamente, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon es una novela compensada, que aunque no mantenga el altísimo ritmo con el que empieza siempre mantiene el interés del lector.


No es la primera vez que leo sobre la modernización de los dioses en nuestra época y la comercialización del poder que obtienen de la adoración de sus seguidores, sin ir más lejos, toda la saga Craft Sequence de mi querido Max Gladstone se basa en esta premisa. En esta novela, el protagonista comienza siendo un subalterno de baja categoría en una gran corporación de orishas. Shigidi es un dios de las pesadillas, pero entre el poco poder que tiene y su aspecto repulsivo tiene pocas perspectivas en su inmortalidad. Su relación con la súcubo Nneoma cambiará radicalmente su forma de desenvolverse, pero no será algo fácil escapar de las garras de sus empleadores.

La forma de narrar que escoge Talabi, con muchos flashbacks tanto de la historia de Shigidi como de la de Nneoma para ir completando lo que no sabemos de ellos es convencional, pero muy efectiva. Se manejan distintas líneas del tiempo, pero mientras que el momento “actual” (por llamarlo de alguna manera) avanza muy pausadamente, los relatos del pasado a veces ocupan capítulos enteros, un poco como en Salvation de Hamilton. El autor consigue que los distintos puntos de vista y momentos temporales estén bastante bien compensados, tarea que no debe haber resultado banal.

También seremos testigos de diversas conspiraciones, ya que el hilo conductor del libro es la “recuperación” de una poderosa máscara tribal africana que mira tú por dónde, está en el Museo Británico (como si en este museo hubiera algún elemento que perteneciera a otras culturas, ¡qué imaginación le echan algunos autores a sus obras!).

Mi recomendación es ignorar la poco afortunada elección de la cubierta y dejarse llevar por una novela fantástica de magnífico ritmo que se disfruta de principio a fin.

I was initially attracted to this book by the concept of religions as individual companies. The idea of Shigidi being an Orisha who has fallen out of public favor was also really interesting.

In some ways, this book reminds me vaguely of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Perhaps, it's the grittiness of the writing and the gods or Orishas as main characters. Unfortunately, the similarities stop there.

This book had amazing moments, but overall didn't really work for me, There was a lot more graphic sex than I typically prefer in my books. I'm no prude, but I don't love reading sex scenes in every other scene, nor do I love nonconsensual or grey-consent type scenes.

The narrator of the audiobook did a good job. His voice was pleasant to listen to and it was easy enough to follow what was happening as he read.

First and foremost, I struggled with this audio purely because the narrator, who has a beautifully deep and rich voice, had too low of a voice for me to truly understand him a lot of the time.

This book was ok, just not for me. The flow of narration was long and winding, and I would often get lost as to who was talking or what was going on. There was a main story with random chapters of other stories that would come along, and I didn't understand why we were shifting gears so much. Finally, I just didn't enjoy the amount of sex in the book. It is understandable when one of the main characters is a succubus, but I just didn't enjoy it, personally.

I just got a bit frustrated with this, so I ended up DNFing at about 28%.

Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an interesting project, and I really appreciated the thematic discussions here. Wole Talabi was able to weave together traditional mythologies with discussions of faith, capitalism, and colonialism. The story jumps through centuries and continents and culminates in a heist, complete with a car chase across the “real” world and the shadow world.

I loved the themes here, but the back and forth pacing of the timeline jumps was jarring for me. We jumped between modern day and the backstories of Shigidi and Nneoma, and while I loved the backstories I really struggled believing in and rooting for their relationship, which left the ending to come across as unsatisfying to me.

Overall, I think this was an impressive debut and I’d be interested in seeing what he writes next despite this not being a complete hit for me. I mostly listened to the audiobook and I think Ben Arogundade’s narration really elevated my reading experience.

I was drawn to this book's title first because it reminded me of the Bronze statues that still remain in the hands of the thieving British in their royal museum.

But this story follows more than the history of looting and brutal colonial mindset of the brits. Here we follow Shigidi who chose to make a deal to remake himself in a visage that he believes is desirable, so that he could remove himself from beneath the thumbs of those who show him neither compassion nor respect.

Talabi shows real control as he is able to meld the world of orishas with fallen angels turned succubi, occult magicians, and a spirit world that has its own governing body and political relationships. He also explores power manipulation and dynamics as we see lower gods being used to maintain the status of higher deities.

With a new partner and new confidence in himself, Shigidi embarks upon a magical heist in order to be truly free and live the way he wants with no ties binding him to those who would only use him for their own ends.

I enjoyed how seamless the transition from past to present was, how he was able mold his main story around historical and biblical events and characters. All these elements made this read really good.

Shigidi is a nightmare god who hates his job in the Orisha spirit company. When he meets Nneoma everything changes for him. The synopsis was so fun, it caught my attention immediately. I love heist stories and when it involves gods it really increases the fun for me. I liked the idea of the religions represented as companies. It was a clever twist to the plot. While I initially expected this was just a heist story but it ended up being so much more. I enjoyed the multiple timelines. It was interesting to learn backstories but sometimes I had to listen more than once to fully follow along. But that's all on me because I usually listen to audiobooks while I read fantasy books. Maybe the author writes more stories about Orisha spirit company or spirit side. It will be amazing to read more about this world. As for the audiobook, the narrator did an excellent job of bringing the story to life. Overall, it was such a fun and solid read. I highly recommend it. 
Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for an audio ARC in return for my honest review.

I feel this book would have done better in attracting the right audience if the disclaimers were laid out straight. From the looks and blurb of it felt it would be a fantasy novel with God elements. However, it reminded me of 2 of Paulo Coelho's books (Eleven Minutes and Aleph), with those borrowed elements in a different setting being used to create an environment of escaping for freedom.

I started with an audiobook, but the narrator's voice did not work for me so I switched to ebook, which was still better. Had I not read the aforementioned book, my outlook on the story here would be different. I guess for someone who has never read anything like this before it would work better.

So let me take the opportunity to create disclaimers I felt were missing:
* It's not necessarily for the fans of Neil Gaiman, contrary to what's mentioned in the description.
* It has explicitly adult scenes. In fact, half of the book talks about the process of intercourse and it's climax
* It's not Sci-Fi, it's a mythical fantasy tale

Now on the basis of this, I want my fellow readers to make an informed choice, if this may or may not work for them.

Genre: contemporary fantasy
London, Lagos, Algeria, Malaysia, and points between; 1900-present

Shigidi is a nightmare god, the lowliest of deities in the Orisha Spirit Company. “Unmotivated, uninterested in executing any of the tasks demanded as conditions of his godhood…” basically sums up his existence. And then, on assignment, he meets Nneoma, a succubus, who offers him a deal: his freedom from corporate life to become a freelancing spirit and to become her partner. Now, they’re facing an impossible mission from a powerful deity, the chairman of the Orisha Spirit Company, who needs them to retrieve a totem from the British Museum. Shigidi and Nneoma embark on a dangerous adventure that may cost them their very essences.

Imagine if the gods turned themselves into corporate entities to compete in the contemporary world. Then add a heist. And a love story. While sometimes the threads of the timelines were difficult to maintain in my head while listening to the audiobook, the story itself was never too much. Talabi has struck the perfect balance between irreverent and poignant, funny and serious. The contemporary setting takes us around the world from Lagos to London, Malaysia to Algeria, and between our world and Spirit-side. While there is no explicit descriptive worldbuilding, Talabi has given some distinct local flavor to each of the locations providing a strong sense of bustling Lagos and the underside of London.

Ben Arogundade narrates the audiobook, breathing real life into Shigidi and Nneoma’s adventure. While there are many timelines and locations, the formatting of the audiobook does allow a listener to know where and when they are in each story. That said, it is a lot of locations and the story skips around, so I highly recommend this as a multi-format book experience for those who prefer to see a location and time with their eyes as they approach the story.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys diverse contemporary fantasy, irreverent deities, heists, love stories, and daring sacrifice.

Thank you to @DAWbooks and @astrahousebooks for a print ARC and @recordedbooks and Netgalley for the ALC. Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon is available now!