(no subject)

A little while back I read Nnedi Okorafur's Zahrah the Windseeker, and enjoyed a reasonable amount but did not love. Yesterday I read her follow-up, The Shadow Speaker, and, as I suspected I might, came much much closer to love! At any rate to extremely strong affection.

The Shadow Speaker's plot is similar to that of Zahrah the Windseeker, in that it centers on a girl with meta-human abilities who begins the book nervous and insecure, and goes on a journey of discovery that leads to her growing into both her powers and herself. This is a good plotline in and of itself, and in both books I really like the way it's emphasized that the girls have to stand up for themselves and make their own decisions instead of following others' leads; however, in Zahrah, Zahrah's growth happened a little too easily for me and a little too much in a vacuum. Ejii, on the other hand, the protagonist of Shadow Speaker, has a much more complex situation to deal with - her father spent quite a while as the despotic and oppressive ruler of her village before Jaa, the lady warrior-hero of the postapocalyptic Africa in which they live, came along and beheaded him. Now Jaa wants Ejii to come with her and train as her successor, and the shadows that Ejii talks to also inform her that her presence on the trip is important for world-saving purposes. Naturally Ejii has some conflicted feelings about this, even aside from the fact that if she leaves the village before she's trained enough there's a very good chance her powers might kill her.

I really liked the complicated mentor-antagonist relationship between Jaa and Ejii - how they disagree on fundamental things while both being heroic in their own ways, and also how Jaa is kind of certifiable and yet totally awesome. And has two husbands. Who are also totally awesome. I also really liked Dikeogu, the runaway slave Ejii meets in the desert, and the slow build of trust between the two - though I wish his parents had not been presented as so Evil. Through her relationships with Dikeogu and Jaa, you really get to see how Ejii is starting to grow into a heroine in her own right. There are also fascinating hints about the worlds besides Earth that make up this universe. Although there are links between the two books, I don't think it's necessary to read Zahrah first, and I would definitely recommend Shadow Speaker. I don't know whether Nnedi Okorafur is planning to write a sequel, but I hope she does - it's definitely open for one, and I would really like to read more about Ejii and her world and the inevitable Dikeogu makeouts.