THE EMPEROR'S SON, immersive historical fiction

THE EMPEROR'S SON
VAMBA SHERIF
Iskanchi Press
$25.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Vamba Sherif’s The Emperor’s Son tells the story of Zaiwulo, a young boy sent off to the ancient city of Musadu to study under Talata, a great scholar and head of the legendary Haidarah family. The boy soon notices that there is more to the story of his presence among the Haidarahs, and as he grows older and becomes a soldier fighting alongside Emperor Samori whom the French nicknamed “the Black Napoleon”, his resolve to unravel the mysteries of his childhood propels him into an adventure that leads him back home in the forests where there awaits a revelation with far-reaching consequences.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Historical fiction set in Africa, written by an African author? Sign me up...I love Marlon James's and Kai Ashante Wilson's African-set and -themed fantasy novels, Tade Thompson's Rosewater SF series, and on and on...the genres I read are populated with African writers, and I seek them out.

Until now, historical fiction has not been populated. I have hopes that this will change because this story is awesome. I won't go through a book report because I hate that in a review, but I will say that "the Black Napoleon" as Samori Touré, a Mandinka Muslim cleric, military strategist, and founder of the Wassoulou Empire, is called in this book, was a fascinating character indeed. Start with the Wikipedia article linked and keep going...look up the events in the book...don't stint on the research!

Or do none, that won't harm your pleasure in the story of a young man caught up in the heady slipsteam of a leader who wants, plans for, and wages an effective war to gain independence and self-determination. The people of Western Africa then incorporated into France's colonial empire were working with him, and that kind of personality is fascinating to read about.

The story is deeply immersive, impressively involving, and a delight to read. Any younger reader, say from sixteen up, will not find anything in the story that hasn't passed before their eyes many times before. The violence is not overplayed, or lingered on in a prurient way. It is a fact of war. The balancing factors are the immense amount of cultural knowledge that Author Sherif puts in logical and necessary places. I felt the way he placed them, the level of detail he provided, gave me a deeper picture of the world I was reading about.

At over 500 pages, this is the best kind of immersive, dense, textured read for an adolescent or older person to get as a #Booksgiving gift. What better way to escape the family closeness so many readers dread, in such a pleasant and acceptable way?

Strongly recommended.