Cover Reveal: “Son of the Storm” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
The book cover of the first book in the Nameless Republic trilogy by Nigerian fantasy, science fiction and speculative fiction writer, Suyi Davies Okungbowa was unveiled on Monday, 5 October 2020.
Recall that in January 2020, Orbit Books (a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group, USA and Little, Brown UK) acquired the publishing rights of The Nameless Republic. They described it as "an evocative tale of myth and magic [that] invites readers into a rich and vibrant world inspired by West-African empires."
Okungbowa himself said, "This series is my love letter to all of us who know the magic that makes West-Africa tick–the lore and music, the harmattan and petrichor, the jollof rice and fried plantain."
Son of the Storm is the first in the trilogy and has been slated for release on 11 May 2021.
Set in pre-colonial West Africa, it follows the story of Danso. In the thriving city of Bassa, Danso is a clever but disillusioned scholar who longs for a life beyond the rigid family and political obligations expected of the city’s elite. A way out presents itself when Lilong, a skin-changing warrior, shows up wounded in his barn. She comes from the Nameless Islands- which, according to Bassa lore, don’t exist- and neither should the mythical magic of ibor she wields.
Now swept into a conspiracy far beyond his understanding, Danso and Lilong will set out on a journey that reveals histories violently suppressed and magic only found in lore.
See cover below:
Illustrated by Dan Dos Santos and designed by Lauren Panepinto, the cover shows a fierce-looking male enclosed in an open cage of the sort. He looks young and has a braided mohawk on his head, two white points above and below his eyes and a yellow line that runs from his forehead, but stops at the tip of his nose. Across his nose is another yellow line each end, immediately next to the two points. There is another line across his left shoulder, maybe both shoulders but what he is enclosed in doesn’t let us see. There is a glowing piece at the center of a necklace he is on and right below the necklace is a another attached with two curved flat metals. He can pass as a warrior, a traditional warrior.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian science fiction, fantasy and dark fiction writer. His debut was the godpunk fantasy novel, David Mogo, Godhunter (Abaddon, July 2019). His work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Fireside Magazine, and Apex Magazine.
His work is heavily influenced by the histories and cultures of West Africa and Nigeria, and discusses themes of identity, challenging difference and finding home. WIRED’s Peter Rubin referred to him as "one of the most promising new voices coterie of African SFF writers."
Read the prologue of Son of the Storm here.
It is also available for pre-order. Do that here.
