Forged by Blood is Spellbinding, mesmerizing, and utterly gripping!
From the first page, we're not just introduced but smacked upside the head with highly detailed prose that makes the reading flow smoother than butter.
“Please heal him,” the woman says, begging Mummy with tear-filled eyes. “Please.”
My mother grunts, but she takes the boy from the woman and sets him on our cot in the corner of the room.
This woman will get us killed, I know it.
But I waddle over, dragging the calabash behind me, its heavy wooden body leaning against my legs like a cow about to give birth. When I reach the edge of the cot, I open the neck and pour palm wine into the cracked bowl lying next to it. Mummy pulls the boy’s eyelids up and peers at pale irises ringed with red cracks. Then she unbuttons his tunic and examines the network of bulging red veins spread across his pale skin.
Then comes the magic or, rather at that point, some generic folk healing plus some bit of ancestral spirits blessings that offer a stunning glimpse of the fantasmagorical treat awaiting us of the incredible magical system based on mythology from my homeland (Nigeria). Coming from this new author's superb and unique imagination, Ehigbor Okosun weaves a tapestry of world-building stunning in its uniqueness and some intricately detailed structures.
“Dèmi?” she says.
“Okonkwo poisoning. It’s been at least six hours. He won’t last another,” I say.
She nods. “Good. How long will the recovery be?”
“If he is healed now, then at most a day. But the healer will be exhausted for three.”
She smiles, brushing a lock of my tightly coiled hair from my face, brown eyes shining with pride. Then she turns to the woman. “Even if he’s healed, your son might still pay a price in the future. Are you prepared?”
The woman’s tearful face morphs so quickly into a mask of disgust that I fear I imagined her tears. She spits on the floor—our floor—before tossing a cloth bag on the ground. Several gold coins roll out, littering the mud like the kwasho bugs that crawl around in summertime. There is at least twenty lira, enough to feed us for two years, even with the extra trade taxes.
“Pure gold,” she sneers. “More than you’ve ever seen in your miserable lives. That should be enough. Or do you need more?”
I bristle. “Gold will not stop the spirits—”
Mummy shoots me a glance and I swallow my words. She straightens her back. We only have the small kerosene lantern to light our hut, but her skin—brown like fresh kola nuts—glows golden in that light. Her braided hair is a crown adorning her heart-shaped face. For a moment, I see her again as she used to be, before she was cast out, a princess of Ifé.
And this is from just a few pages of reading!
The main character in Forged by Blood is a brave and rather angry young woman who's been an outcast all of her short life; her people conquered and ostracized within her kingdom for possessing magic. She's excellently depicted among many other amazing characters, and her story starts after a harrowing and violent clash with the invading soldiers.
I want to scream in her face. The woman spits again, and it takes everything I have to hold myself still. Meascan. Adalu. It’s times like these, when these insults wash over me, that I drown in a well of anger. There are so many words for what we are, words sung over me like a lullaby of curses since my birth. The message is the same: We are not human. We are tainted. Tools to be used and discarded.
So, after a misfortune that finds her seeking vengeance for herself, her tribe, and her family, she embarks upon the classic heroes' quest to find herself and her powers in a cruel and evil world.
Forged by Blood is set in an ancient fantastical West African kingdom based on the Yoruba lore and the Ife Dynasty. The author expertly orchestrates her knowledge of the lore of those ancient times and adds her imagination to make a spellbinding journey into the heart of one of the greatest kingdoms ever to dominate in the sub-Saharan continent. Very detailed and immersive!
Forged by Blood is told from the first-person perspective. The writing leaves no detail untouched or undissected, be it the main character's inner monologues, the immersive world-building, or even the fantastical magic system (elemental); it just gives so much fun to read, and you find the pages flying by in no time at all.
There's not much to say here about Forged by Blood except that I've been impressed, and the setup she makes in this one for the rest of the books makes me rather excited for the release—cliffhanger ending as usual.
This journey is set in a unique world based on Yoruba mythology, magic, and lore. Forged by Blood is excellently written and superbly executed; my highest recommendation for those wanting to dabble into this kind of Fantasy (Mytho-Fantasy) but haven't yet.
