Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon featured in my January round-up, but I wanted to write a full review of this fresh new voice in urban fantasy.
What Is Shigidi?
Nominally, this book is a heist novel. The main thread of Shigidi is the liberation of the Brass Head of Obalufon from the British Museum.
After an opening sequence that occurs after the liberation of the head, the bulk of the novel is a series of flashbacks that will ultimately lead us back to where we started.
Shigidi, the novel’s central character, is from the pantheon of Yoruba deities, a god of nightmares. In the 21st century, Shigidi is on his uppers. The Yoruba pantheon has become a spirit corporation, concerned about numbers, boardroom politics, and the bottom line. With his believer numbers down, Shigidi is but a shadow of his former self. Albeit a shadow that can kill you whilst you sleep.
Through the novel’s flashbacks, we see how he meets Nneoma, a succubus, who works outside of the spirit corporation. She shows Shigidi that there is another way. Nneoma encourages Shigidi to tear up his contract and leave the corporation and for the two of them to set up on their own—taking the sustenance they need whenever and from wherever they want it.
The pair had not allowed for the complex political games of the Spirit company’s board members. While nominally free they still find themselves at the bidding of a higher power, and that’s where the British Museum heist comes in.
Why Read Shigidi?
Don’t read this book if you’re looking for some Ocean’s 11-type shenanigans with a complex twist. It’s not that kind of heist novel. This is not to say the robbery of the British Museum is not entertaining; it’s just not filled with tricksy misdirection. Instead, it’s more of an indictment of Britain’s colonial past and its penchant for having borrowed artifacts from around the world and then refusing to give them back.
A much closer comparison is with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, though I must confess to not particularly enjoying Gaiman’s massive novel when I read it. I much preferred Wole Talabi’s rendering of the Yoruba pantheon in Shigidi. I knew very little about the Yoruba gods before reading this novel, but Talabi makes them as interesting as any tale by Gaiman or one of the many explorations of Norse mythology that are out there.
Wole Talabi treats his readers to a journey steeped in mysticism that pits powerful personalities against one another. It’s also downright terrifying in places. The story brings in some modern British folklore too, via the “magician” Aleister Crowley as one of Nneoma’s acquaintances and possible rival for Shigidi in the quest for her affections. The book draws on centuries of African history and legends, as well as Nigeria’s modern colonial past. The gods as members of a corporate board is perhaps not a new device, but it feels something altogether different in Talabi’s hands.
The book mainly works thanks to Shigidi and his effervescent relationship with the forthright, kick-ass Nneoma, a woman who (sort of) knows what she wants and is happy to rely on herself to get it. They make a great pairing.
Will we see more of them in future novels? I hope so. While the “case” of the Brass Head of Obafulon is resolved by the end of the novel, there is plenty of scope for further adventures of Shigidi and Nneoma, as well as further intrigue and in-fighting at the top of the Yoruba pantheon. There is also an opportunity for widening the stories into exploring the spirit world’s communities across the globe. Talabi’s underlying world-building is reminiscent of that in N.K. Jemisin’s Great Cities duology, and I would favorably compare the two. I’d love to read more stories centered around the spirit-culture clash.
Wole Talabi’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon heralds the arrival of a fresh new voice, and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon you can do so here in the US and here in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
