Son of the Storm

Son of the Storm is the first in a new series by Suyi Davies Okungbowa set in a rich West African based society.

When reviewers read books and subsequently post reviews, we attempt to convey our own interactions with the books. What captured our imagination, our level of engagement with the book and the emotive impact that it had to make us feel the way that we do.

Sometimes a book hits right to the very heart of all these things, and sometimes it misses. I suppose what I am trying to say is that whatever we write, positive or negative, the review is about the reviewer's own opinion, and whilst is not necessarily correct, it is how they feel.

Unfortunately, Son of the Storm did not hit the mark for me. I know a lot of reviewers will say ???I really wanted to like this book??? and I think that you can guess, that is pretty obvious because that is why I clamoured to review this book, and I am indebted to Netgalley and the publishers Orbit for a chance to review this book

There are a lot of positives in Son of the Storm, such as Suyi Davies Okungbowa???s vibrant voice that is prominent throughout this book. He writes with a distinctive voice that you can immediately grasp the vocal tones that the characters are speaking with.

In addition to that, he has created a world that is full of colour and it was one of the things that struck me with its vivacity.

He also describes a rich socio - political system that is complex and at times quite oppressive in its insular vision.

However, as I have said, I failed to make a connection with this book. It does have a lot of positive points, but I just could not get emotionally invested in the story. I have learnt in my time that sometimes this happens. Sometimes, a book fails to click and attach itself at the basest level. This led me to have difficulty with the book and rather than a growing investiture in the plot, I found myself becoming more and more detached from the book.

There is a multi point of view in relation to characters. Again, this was one of the areas I had problems. I could not relate to the main character of Danso and found myself not caring about what happened to the character in the story.

The breakout character for me was Esheme and her constant striving to increase her status. As a result of this she will do anything. She is a dichotomy of characteristics. On the one hand she is highly passionate about her standing, and on the other she is cold and dispassionate, and in her ambition she finds herself being led down a dark path.

As the story progresses, the character of Lilong is introduced, and similarly as with Danso, I found it hard to connect.

On the whole, I found a Son of Storms a mixed bag. Whilst there were positives, such as the vibrant world, the complex socio - political system and Suyi Davies Okunbowa???s distinctive voice but the book unfortunately did not grab me and narratively whisk me away

As I said at the beginning of this review, as a blogger the main thing that I try to convey is my opinion. There are times that I hope that you will agree with what I write. However, on this occasion, whilst I hope you understand that this is my perspective, I hope that you disagree with everything I say.

Son of the Storm is an intriguing addition to the fantasy genre - it takes a closed, African influenced society, buckling under the weight of immigration with a distant elite, eco disaster and racism, but all from a very different bias and perspective. The challenge is combining these elements into an accessible and fun story - in some ways it achieves this and in other places it falls a bit flat.

The story is told through a series of POVs, but I struggled a bit with a lot of the characters. Everyone here is flawed, and even if that is a realistic proposition I failed to find myself engaging with most of them. The best character is probably the out and out sociopath that is Esheme - she will do what it takes to get power. Danso and Lilong who fulfill the more heroic characters are a bit flat to me.

The world building is impressive however - the Eco disaster bearing down upon the society here, its struggles with immigration and the racism that breeds and the aloofness of the elites are brilliantly realised, especially the way everything is taken through an African tinted lens.

African fantasy is a bit of an emerging subgenre these days. I am pleased to see it, after years of white european fantasy it is refreshing to see stories influenced by different cultures. I have dabbled a bit and there have been some truly excellent examples (Rage of Dragons for example). This one has some lovely ideas, the execution is not perfect but it is a fascinating glimpse of a very different world

At 61%, it is time for me to unfortunately part ways with this book that I tried SO HARD to like. I usually give DNF a one star but I'm gonna give this one a two star because I don't think it's a bad book or a poorly written book, but damn, did I not care for it.

At 60% in, I do not care about anything happening. The main characters, barring one, are all uninteresting. The story is light- in a desperate attempt to continue reading, I did the ultimate book sinner move and skipped four chapters and tried to get to more “interesting” stuff. I didn't feel like I missed anything from those chapters! The magic system was very boring and confusing to me too. I'm unsure if I was skimming at the wrong time and just missed some information about the magic, but every single time magic was used, my eyes starting glazing over because it was described in a way that just didn't seem fascinating. I just had absolutely no desire to continue onto another page, and there are other things to read.

What I did like:
- The worldbuilding is good. I feel like the most amount of time was spent here. Maybe now that the first book has done the leg work, book two will be better. If this series starts getting rave reviews, perhaps I'll return to it.
-the exposure to African culture was interesting. Even some of the language for stuff made it very immersive.
-it was very well written. It wasn't overwritten, and there were almost no clunky phrasings that I saw. Okungbowa is definitely a good writer and I will be interested in other things from him.
-That cover! Daaaaamn

Things I was neutral on, but was strange?
-Halfway through the book, the MC says he's never seen someone with short hair before. Do bald people not exist in this world? Or is no hair not considered “short hair”, and thus, everyone who DOES have hair has long hair?
-Four times in this book someone is described as young and they are middle age. This is just super strange to me. A woman is described as “a young woman” at 37, and a man is described “still quite young, only 40 or so summers,” Unless people live a drastically longer life in this world, 37-40 is a nearly middle age person and it paints a different image entirely as to what a “young person” is. I don't think any 20-30 year olds even appear in this book? It's hard to know, because of things like this.

Maybe in a few weeks I'll power myself through the last 39% and be amazed but for now, I'm sorry we had to part like this, Son of the Storm.

Thanks to NerGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.