Gary K. Wolfe Reviews In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran
In the Shadow of the Fall, Tobi Ogundiran (Tordotcom 978-1-25090-796-7, $20.99, 160pp, hc) July 2024.
There are probably hundreds of examples of how the Chosen One motif has served SF and fantasy, and there’s a certain boldness in the way in which Tobi Ogundiran hints at it on the very first page of In the Shadow of the Fall, the first in a two-novella sequence called Guardian of the Gods. Ashâke, a young acolyte who has watched her peers chosen for the priesthood by one or another of the orisha, has been repeatedly passed over herself, and eventually decides to take matters into her own hands: She attempts to summon and bind one of those gods, in violation of just about all the rules and protocols of the temple where she has lived her entire childhood. Of course it goes awry, and of course she gets in serious trouble with the High Priestess, but since we know these tales better than Ashâke apparently does, we’re already suspecting that this business of her being passed over so often is a surefire sign of something far more special in store. When, with the aid of a witch doctor she has befriended, Ashâke escapes the dungeon where she has been imprisoned and flees the temple, it’s only a matter of time until she finds reason to question almost everything she thinks she knows about the world, the orisha, and herself.
While Ogundiran may indeed be playing with some familiar elements, that narrative boldness I mentioned propels his story forward at an almost breakneck pace, packing in material that other writers might wallow in for hundreds of pages – but at the same time adroitly sketching a variety of characters, from Ashâke with her own defiant quest for self-determination; to the conflicted High Priestess Iyawalo; a kindly elder named Mama Agba, who briefly takes Ashâke in; and a particularly fearsome body-switching villain named Yaruddin, who is in service to an even more ominous figure called the Teacher. In addition, Ogundiran finds room for a couple of spectacular set pieces, including a remarkable chapter in which a poem recited by a Master Griot gives rise to an apocalyptic vision of the fall of the gods and a massive earthquake that remakes the entire continent. But even that turns out not to be the whole story, as Ashâke continually peels away layer after layer of the history of her world. In the Shadow of the Fall neatly sets up the sequel, promising even larger stakes, but already the tale achieves a convincing mythic resonance and is a provocative consideration of the nature of faith, the function of gods, and the possibilities of individual agency in an unstable world. Just as important, though, it’s enormously enjoyable.
Gary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and a reviewer for Locus magazine since 1991. His reviews have been collected in Soundings (BSFA Award 2006; Hugo nominee), Bearings (Hugo nominee 2011), and Sightings (2011), and his Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature (Wesleyan) received the Locus Award in 2012. Earlier books include The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction (Eaton Award, 1981), Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen Weil, 2002), and David Lindsay (1982). For the Library of America, he edited American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s in 2012, and a similar set for the 1960s. He has received the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and a Special World Fantasy Award for criticism. His 24-lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works appeared from The Great Courses in 2016. He has received six Hugo nominations, two for his reviews collections and four for The Coode Street Podcast, which he has co-hosted with Jonathan Strahan for more than 300 episodes. He lives in Chicago.
This review and more like it in the June 2024 issue of Locus.
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