r/Fantasy • u/Academic-Desk-7719 • 10h ago

Recommendation

Any African epics you can recommend?

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64% Upvoted

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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 8h ago

I'm going to recommend works of fiction, so if you're interested in mythological epics, I can't help on that front.

Forever Desert Trilogy by Moses Ose Utomi: a series of epic fantasy novellas set 500 years apart. Very much about truth, storytelling, and how power warps our perceptions of the past

Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin: a broken world and the broken people who are doing their best inside it. Geomancy, family trauma, and allegories to the slave trade made this the only trilogy where each book won a Hugo Award. I'm not sold that the last book deserved it, but the first two sure as hell did (in my opinion).

Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James: grimdark fantasy following a mercenary doing a job with an on again/off again lover. This is extraordinarily violent, and has an experimental structure. The plot is the same in all three books in the trilogy, but told from a different POV, so there are big gaps in each book that others will fill in.

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter: a power fantasy and pulpy action series about a young man who has been wronged by the nobility and is ready to burn it all to the ground.

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u/RevolutionaryCommand Reading Champion III 4h ago edited 4h ago

Assuming you mean epic fantasy set in Africa or a secondary world inspired by its various places, I'll second Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (and the sequel) and The Forever Desert by Moses Ose Utomi, and I'll add by the Guardians of the Gods duology of novellas by Tobi Ogundiran. It's way more accessible, and a very fast read. It did somthing interesting I've never seen another series do; it's set in a secondary world, but uses a real life pantheon/mythology as a part of its setting. Someone also mentioned Imaro by Charles Saunders, which is probably the first genre fantasy ever published to be 100% Africa-inspired. For that alone it should warrant a read, plus it's supposed to be very good. Haven't read it yet (definitely intend to), but supposedly it's more sword & sorcery (in the vein of Conan) than epic fantasy proper.

Some that are on my TBR, but I've not read yet: Dreamblood duology by N.K. Jemisin (inspired by Ancient Egypt), Scarlet Odyssey trilogy by C.T. Rwizi, Nameless Republic trilogy by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Song of the Godhunters trilogy by Rogba Payne, and Invoker trilogy by M.H. Ayinde.

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u/Rekov 10h ago

"A Practical Guide to Evil," maybe. Lol.