Like Thunder

As a big fan Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death and The Book of Phoenix, when I contacted the folks at Daw Books to request a review copy of Shadow Speaker, in my excitement I somehow forgot that the bulk of the author's early career years were spent writing YA material. Hence my disappointment when I realized that her latest was definitely YA.

Indeed, other than the Africanfuturism setting and some Africanjujuism elements, Shadow Speaker was more akin to Binti than the aforementioned novels. Likewise, Like Thunder, its sequel, is YA through and through. Nothing wrong with that, as I mentioned in my previous review. But your mileage will vary based on your expectations. Those looking for adult science fiction will need to look elsewhere, for the Desert Magician's duology is a black and white YA series which offers very little in terms of shades of gray.

Here's the blurb:

Niger, West Africa, 2077

Welcome back. This second volume is a breathtaking story that sweeps across the sands of the Sahara, flies up to the peaks of the Aïr Mountains, cartwheels into a wild megacity—you get the idea.

I am the Desert Magician; I bring water where there is none.

This book begins with Dikéogu Obidimkpa slowly losing his mind. Yes, that boy who can bring rain just by thinking about it is having some…issues. Years ago, Dikéogu went on an epic journey to save Earth with the shadow speaker girl, Ejii Ubaid, who became his best friend. When it was all over, they went their separate ways, but now he’s learned their quest never really ended at all.

So Dikéogu, more powerful than ever, reunites with Ejii. He records this story as an audiofile, hoping it will help him keep his sanity or at least give him something to leave behind. Smart kid, but it won’t work—or will it?

I can tell you this: it won’t be like before. Our rainmaker and shadow speaker have changed. And after this, nothing will ever be the same again.

As they say, ‘Onye amaro ebe nmili si bido mabaya ama ama onye nyelu ya akwa oji welu ficha aru.’

Or, ‘If you do not remember where the rain started to beat you, you will not remember who gave you the towel with which to dry your body.’

If you look at the date, you'll realize that 3 years have passed since the events chronicled in Shadow Speaker. Which means that the truce agreed upon at the end of the first volume is about to expire. I was expecting Okorafor to be less parsimonious in this sequel, but the worldbuilding continues to be subpar. As was the case in its predecessor, the cool concepts and ideas found throughout Like Thunder are seldom developped adequately. If at all, truth be told. Once again, this impacts the overall reading experience in negative fashion.

I wasn't sure how much work the author put into the revised edition of Shadow Speaker. I felt that it was the work of a much less mature Nnedi Okorafor and it showed. She explored many of the themes that would be at the heart of her future novels and short fiction, and the post-apocalyptic African environment was another fixture she would learn to refine and end up calling Africanfuturism. Unfortunately, though you could clearly catch glimpses of the talented writer she would become, I opined that Shadow Speaker was a YA offering that didn't resound with much depth. Oddly enough, though it was written recently, it feels as though Like Thunder is another older and out-of-print title that Okorafor decided to bring back to life. Not a new work written by an experienced pro writing at the top of her game.

Once more, the characterization leaves a lot to be desired. As the title implies, this book is told through the perspective of Dikéogu Obidimkpa, Ejii's companion from the first installment. He is the son of a famous and wealthy Nigerian family that rejected him because he is a metahuman who can control rain, lightning, and thunder. The structure of this novel can be a bit weird, for a good chunk of Dikéogu's tale is told through a series of transcripts of audio recordings he made. This plot device works well at times, but it can occasionally be clunky and I wonder why Okorafor thought that this would be a good way to go. As much as I disliked him in Shadow Speaker and with so little character development and growth over the course of two separate volumes, discovering the extent of Dikéogu's back story was my favorite part of Like Thunder. Another highlight was what happened to him in the aftermath of his return from Ginen. Which is probably why I didn't enjoy how that storyline got cut off, simply so he could be reunited with Ejii. From that point on, the rest of the book is a somewhat uninteresting continuation of the events from Shadow Speaker. With everything being so black and white, I struggled to maintain interest. Had I been younger, perhaps I would have loved this series. Alas, at my age I often found it hard to keep turning those pages.

Like its predecessor, Like Thunder is another relatively short novel that suffers from pacing issues. The narrative flows well at first, then becomes sluggish when Dikéogu and Ejii are reunited. The same goes for the travelogue portion before the endgame, as is usually Okorafor's wont.

Speaking of endgames, this one was more exciting than the one that brought the previous volume to a close. Still, although the ending offered enough closure, its execution was more or less satisfying. As such, it failed to bring the Desert Magician's duology up to par with Nnedi Okorafor's best works. Hence, I only recommend that you read this series if you are a YA fan. Otherwise, you are bound to be disappointed.

The final verdict: 7/10

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