Amazon Editor''s Pick, Best SFF September 2023 • The Strand, Science Fiction Pick of the Month October 2023 Deluxe, expanded edition of an out-of-print early novel from Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor, with a brand-new introduction from the author. Niger, West Africa, 2074 It is an era of tainted technology and mysterious mysticism. A great change has happened all over the planet, and the laws of physics aren’t what they used to be. Within all this, I introduce you to Ejii Ugabe, a child of the worst type of politician. Back when she was nine years old, she was there as her father met his end. Don’t waste your tears on him: this girl’s father would throw anyone under a bus to gain power. He was a cruel, cruel man, but even so, Ejii did not rejoice at his departure from the world. Children are still learning that some people don’t deserve their love. Now 15 years old and manifesting the abilities given to her by the strange Earth, Ejii decides to go after the killer of her father. Is it for revenge or something else? You will have to find out by reading this book. I am the Desert Magician, and this is a novel I have conjured for you, so I’m certainly not going to just tell you here.

Autorentext

Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Igbo (Nigerian) immigrant parents. She holds a PhD in English and was a professor of creative writing at Chicago State University. She has been the winner of many awards for her short stories and young adult books, and won a World Fantasy Award for Who Fears Death. Nnedi's books are inspired by her Nigerian heritage and her many trips to Africa.

Zusammenfassung
**Amazon Editor's Pick, Best SFF September 2023 •  The Strand, Science Fiction Pick of the Month October 2023

Deluxe, expanded edition of an out-of-print early novel from Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor, with a brand-new introduction from the author.**

Niger, West Africa, 2074
 
It is an era of tainted technology and mysterious mysticism. A great change has happened all over the planet, and the laws of physics aren’t what they used to be.
 
Within all this, I introduce you to Ejii Ugabe, a child of the worst type of politician. Back when she was nine years old, she was there as her father met his end. Don’t waste your tears on him: this girl’s father would throw anyone under a bus to gain power. He was a cruel, cruel man, but even so, Ejii did not rejoice at his departure from the world. Children are still learning that some people don’t deserve their love.  
 
Now 15 years old and manifesting the abilities given to her by the strange Earth, Ejii decides to go after the killer of her father. Is it for revenge or something else? You will have to find out by reading this book.
 
I am the Desert Magician, and this is a novel I have conjured for you, so I’m certainly not going to just tell you here.

Leseprobe
Desert Magician Smoke

You again.

Why do you keep coming back? You are seeking something within these pages. But you’re only going to dig up more questions, and they will make you itchy. And prickly. Like mental heat rash. A distant discomfort. An inflammation of the imagination. You’ll have to choose your own way.

I built this bonfire for you. Sit there, warm your nyash and soul. You’ve come a long way just to see the Desert Magician, no? Well worth the trip. This is important. I can make water spring from where there is none. Watch and see. Be amazed.

Sit up straight. I don’t enjoy looking at you all slumped over like that. You look like one of those nonsense vultures roaming the sky out there. When they land they stand all slumpy slump, like so. The damn things can barely walk, though they glide in the sky more perfectly than machinery. Beautiful beasts. Make good stew, too. Their meat is sweet; melts in your mouth. They’re easy to catch on nights like this, when the desert is still hot and dry after the sun has set.

You smell that dry air? It clears the sinuses. Prepares the ears. Opens the brain. You need water? Well, watch the magician at work. Watch closely. Give me that cup behind you while you let me answer the question in your mind: yes, it’s made of bone. Now, watch my hand. I dig it in the sand like this, fingers first. See how the hole fills up and all I have to do is dunk the cup in and scoop out as much as you want. Here, take. Drink. It’s cool. It’s fresh.

You are smart, but more importantly, you are lucky. That’s the plight of your kind. Human beings. You all stumble about each world, kicking and stomping and breaking and somehow, hearty and resilient, you live. And get comfortable. You relax. You get rested. Clarity comes. You invent. You enjoy. Then you kill. And then you kill again.

See my feet? Do you have any idea where these feet have been? The bottoms of them are as thick as the borders between here and there are thin. I have walked the tops of the Air Mountains, strolled down the streets of Kwàmfà, danced in a parade in Agadez, left dirty footprints in the halls of the Ooni Palace, marched behind masquerades in Arondizuogu, and of course, I have sauntered across the hot sands of many deserts.

I have heard firsthand about the beginning. Small small groups of you called it Original Sin. But that’s some bullshit. You didn’t come from any clay. Your ancestors never ate a magic apple. If they did, the man would eat first. If woman found the Apple of Knowledge, she wouldn’t share it. And she’d eat it in the sunshine. All the way to the core. And then look for more.

Mmm mmm, smoke oily sweet. Watch how it creeps over the fire. See how it does not dissipate. See? It forms a small billowing cloud, like a giant ball of gray cotton. Now look into it and see. More killing here, more killing there. Heh heh, it’s amusing. You may be my people, but not really. I don’t care much for you. All I care about is a good story.

Once in a while I’ll jump in there, stir up the detritus, move things along, kick up some water. Is that not the Desert Magician’s job? Make water appear where there is none? Without water, do things not grow dry and cracked, immobile?

Let it begin in the way many things begin, with an egg. Sit back and make sure you’re comfortable because you aren’t going anywhere for a while. I will give you what you’ve come for. See my duology unfolding in the smoke. The change will be great, like thunder. Ah, you will think you’ve landed on another planet, maybe another dimension. Or a place that will never exist, right? How else can you explain the fact that you’ve arrived in an African future? One that is so specific, so real. You can see it on the map, right there. How do you even pronounce its name?

Cough if the unfamiliar concept irritates your throat. Cough some more. And now relax because it is here. The water where there once was none. Smooth, clean, refreshing, cool, and maybe just a tiny bit bitter. You’ve been warned.

Welcome to Book One.

Prologue

Ejii was on her bed typing into her e-pal when the ground began to shake. From the kitchen, Ejii heard the clank-bang of a pot falling and then her mother’s shout of surprise.

“Mama!” she shouted, dropping her e-pal and rolling off the bed to a crouching position on the floor. She listened, sweat forming on her forehead, her eyes darting around her room. Two books on her desk were shaken to the floor. The model globe on her dresser bounced onto its side and bumped against the wall. The clothes in her closet danced on their hangers. Outside her bedroom window, the red-flowered tree growing there softly quivered to the rhythm of the Earth.

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