Ahoy there me mateys!  I usually love Okorafor's work so I was extremely surprised at how hard it was to finish this duology.  I got both books from the publisher back in 2023.  I managed to read and enjoy about half of Shadow Speaker before I stalled.  I tried multiple times to finish part one and just couldn't get back into the story.  That brings us to 2025.  I decided to get copies of the audiobooks and try again.  Dele Ogundiran's narration was excellent and helped me finish the series but I ended up being lukewarm about the duology after completing it.

Part One deals with Ejii Ugabe whose father is killed when she is 9 due to his backward politics.  He wants the world to harken to "traditional" values where men dominate and women are second-class citizens and magic of all types is forbidden.  The problem is that the Great Change brought magic into the world and magic doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  Later Ejii is 15 and has developed shadow speaker abilities.  Ejii goes on an adventure to figure out her powers and gets drawn into helping avert war.

Part Two deals with Dikéogu Obidimkpa.  He and Ejii became friends in part one.  Several years have passed and Dikéogu has to deal with his rainmaker powers.  The first section of the book explains the his history of the past several years.  The current problem is that the former slave seems to be losing his mind.  The temporary peace is about to end and magic users are being slaughtered.  Dikéogu decides to fight back.

One of the major problems I had with this duology was connecting to the characters.  I often liked them but more often had a hard time sympathizing with them.  Both Ejii and Dikéogu can be extremely violent and hurt a lot of people.  I get when it is self-defense but lots of times, the two of them just lose control.  There did not seem to be enough self-awareness psychologically.  Of course they were just struggling to survive.  I also thought the romantic relationship between Ejii and Dikéogu was awful.  I wish they just would have stayed best friends.

Perhaps some of this comes down to world building in general.  Niger in 2074 is not very nice.  There are tribal disputes, gender disparages, prejudice about magic users, child slavery, and immense poverty.  These elements have also existed as long as humans have but reading about them in this duology set far into the future was unsettling.  Also the magic did not make sense a lot of the time.  Meditation seemed to be important but a lot of it seemed intuitive with no real rules.  This magic exists in other Okorafor books but only bothered me in this one.  Then there were the interconnected universes.  I am still unclear about how they worked or really related to each other.

I did like some aspects of these books.  I loved the personalities of the camels and the bird friends.  I liked the developments between Dikéogu and Arif.  I really appreciated Ajii's mother.  I liked Dikéogu's brief happy relationship though I was sad it ended for the plot romance with Ajii.  I appreciated Dikéogu getting to fight the slavers and save children.  I always appreciate strong willed women in Okorafor's stories.

Unfortunately I felt underwhelmed and ultimately confused at the conclusion of the duology.  I am glad to have finally completed it though.  Arrrr!