If you are a fan of epic fantasy, stories entangled within political intrigue, or righteous characters who rise from oppression and trauma onto a path of justice and revenge, then Chinaza Bado’s debut novel Birth of a Dynasty should immediately go onto your list of books to read.
If you haven’t already heard about this first novel of a planned trilogy from Harper Voyager, I recommend not seeking out plot synopses, which often seem to reveal too much. It’s simply enough to know whether you’re a fan of this genre, and perhaps to know that the world of this series comes from African historical and cultural inspirations and features a strong diversity of characters. The novel is hugely entertaining and compulsively readable, while achieving a great deal of moral depth and nuances in its characters and plot, as well as some fascinating world-building.
Though I don’t want to spoil things, I can give a little context for the setup of things. The story is set in the continent-spanning Ahkebulin Empire. (The inspiration here is that Ahkebulin is a historic name thought applied to “Africa” by at least some natives of the continent, and thus can be used in present day in place of a name applied by colonizers.) There doesn’t seem to be a name for the planned trilogy series as yet, and “Ahkebulin” might be tempting to apply.
However, the empire doesn’t represent the heroes, but rather the antagonists, a system of oppressive familial power that holds a fear of magic and prophecy rooted in a now quasi-mythological past of dynastic origins. Under the empire’s control are vassal states of more localized familial power. Despite general loyalty to the empire, two of these vassal states (and the families who lead them) become targeted by individuals in the empiric dynasty who fear potential threats that may one day arise to challenge their power.
Betraying the High Noble House Mukundi of Madada, a Prince of the empire slaughters most all of the Mukundi family in a surprise attack. Only young M’Kuru manages to survive and flee, vowing violent revenge against those who killed his beloved parents and siblings. But, under the guidance of a wise adoptive father who protects him, M’Kuru, taking the name of Khalil in hiding, quickly begins to learn the virtues of patience and that situations may not be as clear-cut as he might expect or desire, including what revenge looks like.
Meanwhile, eight-year-old Zikora, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, is taken from her homeland to the Imperial palaces for ‘protection.’ With dreams of becoming a member of an elite warrior caste in her native lands dashed (or on hold), Zikora begins to learn the intricacies of successfully navigating survival and power within a hostile stronghold.
This relatively limited summary still reveals perhaps a bit too much, I went into reading this with nothing but that it was African-inspired fantasy. But, what I’ve laid out above as the set-up probably rings very familiar in a generic sense of fantasy series expectations. As its title definitely implies, Birth of a Dynasty is a novel that sets up a whole lot more. And clearly there is going to be a change of power coming, and presumably our protagonists are going to be the foundation of this.
Aside from its cultural inspirations that are less common in the genre offerings of the past, Bado doesn’t necessarily break a lot of new ground here. The novel sticks to common genre tropes and plot points that are familiar to political intrigues and the coming-of-age hero’s journey. But that’s fine because Bado does it all so well, not just including expected elements for the sake of doing so or ticking off boxes, but integrating them well in meaningful ways through very compelling characters and an avoidance of making the moral themes strictly black/white.
There are some surprises in Birth of a Dynasty in terms of plot and character, but the main trajectory of Khalil and Zikora’s paths go exactly as one would suspect. This ends up making the novel feel fulfilling rather than dull, but it also makes this first novel work very well in setting up excitement for the future novels where there is a lot more uncertainty in my mind of where things can, and will, go from here.
