Son of the Storm

• Author: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: May 11, 2021
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Nameless Republic #1

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In the city of Bassa, Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness—only he doesn’t want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. The Bassai elite claim there is nothing of interest. The city’s immigrants are sworn to secrecy. 

But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders. And the chaos left in the wake of his discovery threatens to destroy the empire.

You know those books that you want to read strictly because of the cover? This was one of those. The cover is a stunner, with that strong and powerful image on the front. But let me get into more of what was inside the book.

The beginning was a slow start, but it gave me time to adjust to the complex and expansive world that Okungbowa built in this book. It is set in an African-adjacent world, and the author skillfully weaves some African beliefs and customs into this alternate world, while also creating some unique traditions and beliefs of his own. There is a caste system, a belief system, skin color-based prejudices with darker-skinned people being favored over lighter-skinned people, and a fascinating magic system that the reader learns about right along with the characters.

When it comes to the characters, this is where the author lost me. I struggled to connect with either of the main characters, who weren’t very likable. Danso is a strange mix of naïve and clever, two traits which don’t usually go hand in hand, especially for someone who has been pushed around for his entire life. As someone who is biracial, Danso has been on the receiving end of prejudice and xenophobia that is common to Bassai society. Esheme, on the other hand, just comes across as scheming and self-serving. There’s a significant side character who has albinism, and is referred to as “a yellowskin,” which the author notes is a common term used as a descriptor, not to be confused with the American-originated slur for people of Asian descent. But it does speak to the prejudice that people with albinism experience in Africa, and shows some of it in this story. There were a variety of characters, and especially when they only appeared for one chapter, it became a bit hard to track them all. 

Overall, this book was kind of hit and miss for me. My rating wound up being right in the middle because it was just a meh read—while the world-building was exceptional, my lack of connection to the characters made it hard to care about what happened in the plot. It did speak on a variety of important and heavy issues, such as colorism, xenophobia, colonialism, and even the prejudice that African people with albinism experience. This is a read that I don’t regret spending the time on, but probably won’t be continuing with the series.