A cosmic war reignites and the fate of the orisha lie in the hands of an untried acolyte in this first entry of a new epic fantasy novella duology by Tobi Ogundiran, for fans of N. K. Jemisin and Suyi Davies Okungbowa.

” The novella of the year has arrived!” ―Mark Oshiro, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priest and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood.

Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha―any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.

It is refreshing to find a novella length fantasy story, and to remember that the doorstop width epics were not always the fantasy norm. For example Michael Moorcock’s first Elric of Melnibone book was a slim 180 pages. In Science-fiction, Martha Wells’s Murderbot opener All Systems Red was a modest 144 pages. Tobi Ogundiran’s tale of priests and gods falls neatly between these two brackets at 160 pages and is a salutary reminder that, in speculative fiction, sometimes less is more.

The protagonist Ashake is an acolyte who has lived her entire life within the temple. She wonders why she alone of her peers has been denied the grace of the divine orisha and the opportunity to travel out into the wider world beyond the temple to deliver its mission. Like a child kept back a year countless times at high school, Ashake is frustrated enough to try and force the hand of the divine in a reckless secret rite but instead alerts darker forces that gather on her and those she holds dear.

I enjoyed Ogundiran’s worldbuilding, for example in little linguistic details like the honorific ‘baba’ with which an urchin accosts a visitor to the city, or the communal lifestyle of the nomadic Griots – living and travelling on river boats and sharing everything prioritising the large collective family, rather than individual units.

“The concept of strict filial ties was moot, so that one child would as soon suckle from his mother’s breast as suckle at the breast of a woman from the next boat.”

The nature of the main antagonist Yar is also interesting – not wanting to deliver too many spoilers – but suffice to say he shares some attributes with Elric of Melnibone’s sword – Stormbringer.  The underpinning mythology reminded me a bit of The Silmarillion, a supreme being supported by a chorus of angelic valar-like orisha – but Ogundiran decisively upends that comfortable familiarity.

Ashake makes an engaging protagonist, rebellious, naïve, frustrated and conflicted. Events – and her own stubborness – carry her out into a world she doesn’t know, haunted by dangers she doesn’t understand. Besides Ashake, my favourite character was Ba Fatai the witchdoctor whose ability to appear where he is most needed is the subject of a nice twisting reveal. As a sort of ally to Ashake he adds an additional dimension to what could otherwise appear a rather linear dynamic between sulky acolyte and autocratic priesthood.

The prose flows smoothly and has some nice lines like this one.

“Weaker.” Yar turned the word in his mouth, and found that he liked the taste. “That is good. That is very good.”

The plot revolves around the central mystery of why Ashake alone of her peers cannot talk to or be heard by the gods, and her desperation to make some kind of priestly progress is the spark that kindles a firestorm. The narrative does answer this key question and set Ashake (and her enemies) on a road to further adventures, but Ashake leaves behind so many of the supporting characters that she seems to be advancing virtually alone into the next volume. In Martha Wells’ murderbot novellas, the rogue sec-unit’s origin story is almost a subplot, or backdrop to the main events of each novella which have their own beginning middle and end, and there are some continuity characters besides the genderless murderbot that help tie the novellas together.

With In the Shadow of the Fall, Ogundiran’s focus appears to more on giving us Ashake’s origin story, alongside some impressive worldbuilding, so as to set her on a path into the next book. The series is described as a duology – so just two books? Given the break in setting and cast that Ogundiran’s ending has imposed one might expect something of a Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2 kind of structure. The analogy even extends to the epilogue where the Bill-like character of the boss antagonist makes an appearance, promising further danger ahead for Ashake.

I will be curious to see how Ashake handles the tools that the orisha have left for her, and what new enemies and friends she might meet in the next book.

In the Shadow of the Fall is due for release 19th August, you can pre-order your copy HERE