Nnedi and Ekaterina

Two authors. Two blurbs. I'm rather proud to point out that I had the privilege of endorsing two terrific new books.

The first one, Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor is out now.

I read this awhile ago, and was very impressed. Enough so that I wrote: "WHO FEARS DEATH is urgently topical, at times brutal, and always wholly original. It’s no surprise she’s been racking up awards. There are more to come, surely."

Yep. It's serious stuff. Don't believe me? Here's what Publishers Weekly wrote in a Starred Review:

Well-known for young adult novels (The Shadow Speaker; Zahrah the Windseeker), Okorafor sets this emotionally fraught tale in postapocalyptic Saharan Africa. The young sorceress Onyesonwu—whose name means Who fears death?—was born Ewu, bearing a mixture of her mother's features and those of the man who raped her mother and left her for dead in the desert. As Onyesonwu grows into her powers, it becomes clear that her fate is mingled with the fate of her people, the oppressed Okeke, and that to achieve her destiny, she must die. Okorafor examines a host of evils in her chillingly realistic tale—gender and racial inequality share top billing, along with female genital mutilation and complacency in the face of destructive tradition—and winds these disparate concepts together into a fantastical, magical blend of grand storytelling.

The second is The House of Discarded Dreams, by Ekaterina Sedia. Here's how I responded:

"The House of Discarded Dreams is a moody feast of the fantastic, dreamy, surreal, all rendered in visually poetic prose that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki films. Oh, and that guy with the crazy hair was awesome! Terrific stuff. Just the right fusion of thematic depth and unbridled creativity that I’m always looking for, but rarely find."

This one isn't out until the fall, but keep it in mind...

Here's an interview with her at Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews.