The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Set in Africa in 2070 after The Great Change-the return of magic-has changed the world, Ejii is a Shadow Speaker and the oldest, all-but-disowned child of a power-hungry chief well on his way to being a dictator before he’s beheaded by Jaa, a female liberator who objects to his government, especially since he’s doing things in her name. When the voices that speak to her tell Ejii that she should join Jaa, she sets off across the Sahara desert to find her, joined along the way by a boy named Dikeogu.
It’s larger in scope than Zahrah, but never really has the sense of danger you think you should have with a pair of teenagers questing through the Sahara desert, threatened by both the supernatural and various human factions, plus the potential of the end of the world. But the world is very developed and imaginative, and there’s a very grand scope to the plot. I particularly liked that things weren’t all neatly tied up in the end, and the people still have to work at things, and I liked how, instead of thinking about how she has to get revenge on Jaa for killing her misogynistic father/prove herself worthy as his daughter, Ejii and Jaa are more uneasy allies, and she’s conflicted by almost feeling relieved that Jaa killed him.
It’s larger in scope than Zahrah, but never really has the sense of danger you think you should have with a pair of teenagers questing through the Sahara desert, threatened by both the supernatural and various human factions, plus the potential of the end of the world. But the world is very developed and imaginative, and there’s a very grand scope to the plot. I particularly liked that things weren’t all neatly tied up in the end, and the people still have to work at things, and I liked how, instead of thinking about how she has to get revenge on Jaa for killing her misogynistic father/prove herself worthy as his daughter, Ejii and Jaa are more uneasy allies, and she’s conflicted by almost feeling relieved that Jaa killed him.