Warrior of the Wind

• Author: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: November 21, 2023
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Nameless Republic #2

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

DNF @ page 102/480 (~21%)

CONTENT WARNING (as provided by author): albinism, animal death, artificial insemination, blood/gore, caste and class segregation, colorism and discrimination, death, pregnancy loss and miscarriages, murder, PTSD and anxiety, violence, and xenophobia.

THERE IS NO PEACE IN THE SEASON OF THE RED EMPEROR.

Traumatized by their escape from Bassa, Lilong and Danso have found safety in a vagabond colony on the edge of the emperor’s control. But time is running out in their refuge.a new bounty makes every person a threat, and whispers of magic have roused those eager for their own power.

Lilong is determined to return the Diwi—the ibor heirloom—to her people. It’s the only way to keep it safe from Esheme’s insatiable desire. The journey home will be long, filled with twists and treachery, unexpected allies and fabled enemies.

But surviving the journey is the least of their problems.

Something ancient and uncontrollable awakens. Trouble heads for Bassa, and the continent of Oon will need more than ibor to fix what’s coming.

Let me start this review out by saying that I genuinely try as hard as possible to read and review every book that a publisher is kind enough to send me a copy of. With that being said, I’m sure that everyone understands that not every book is for every reader. 

There’s an eye-catching and stunning cover, and while I was lukewarm on the first book, I received this book in the mail and decided to give it a try anyway. The author begins the book with a recap of significant events in the story thus far, which is always appreciated on my end. It’s not easy to remember everything between books when I don’t binge read them, and I don’t always have time to reread, so an author-provided recap is ideal—they remind us of the important things before we jump into the continuation of the story.

The world-building is what really blew me away in the last book, but the characters kind of left me a little cold. I found it really hard to connect with them, and that was a concern for me in this book. As it turns out, I was right to be worried. In this book, the stage was already set and the story followed the characters on their various paths. But for me, I never really connected with any of the characters because I found each of them to be relatively distasteful. They’re all flawed, which I expect to see in characters, but not a single one was likable at any point in the first book. 

I struggled with this book early on, but found myself putting it down and having a hard time wanting to pick it up again. I didn’t find the characters to be any more likable in this book, and up until where I stopped reading, it simply followed the characters around. This character went here and did this, that character stayed here and did this, these characters were doing this, and I just couldn’t get invested in the story or the characters. Rather than push myself through the entire book only to rate it poorly, I’d rather just admit that it isn’t the right book for me and move on to another book. And since I didn’t read enough of the story for much of the plot to make an appearance, I didn’t feel like it would be right for me to rate it. This would be a good fit if you like characters who are morally gray and can handle unlikable characters, stories based on precolonial Western Africa, and complex political fantasies.