Nigerian Godpunk is something that I think everyone needs a little more of in their life, however, I was greatly disappointed in some of the decisions that were made and the overall writing style of this book. The concept of this book is great. It's intriguing and could be great, however, the structure of this book is a problem. It's written in shorter almost episodic sections that if they had been expanded upon and developed more could have been full books in their own right. The author is well known for his short stories and it shows in this aspect. It felt like he put his short stories together into a book. But it doesn't flow. There isn't enough character development, enough shown world building, the side characters aren't used enough, the whole thing just needs to be a bit more developed. This also leads the main plot points to be told to the readers rather than shown and developed in a natural way. The villain basically lays out his plans for everyone right there on the page. No guessing of motives, or hows, or whys. It is just there.

The author does more telling than showing. This is done in large exposition dumps and inner monologue within the main characters mind. As it is told in the first person perspective, the latter happens quite a bit. But also this fills in a lot of the gaps between the short episodic moments of action and drags the whole thing down. It makes it slower than it needs to be. Also there is a large divide stylistically between the pidgin English that is used to communicate and the more "proper" English that is used as the writing style and in some other places. This is a 2.5 rounded up. Which is such a shame. I love the idea, but the execution just isn't there for me. I think it would be amazing maybe as a comic.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book, however, the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is one of the most surprising book for me that I have read in quite a while. Not only provided it twists and turns in the story of the superhero who realises that he needs other people in order to succeed in his quest, it also holds an interesting and diverse cast of characters.

First of all we have David Mogo, half god half human with more than human powers but not fully divine, He sets out onto a quest to find out about and understand his godhood, the powers he has, but he also wants to set things right between the humans and the gods that have descended upon earth, more precisely onto Lagos and create havoc wherever they go. And there is Papa Udi, the wizard who took David Mogo in, when his mother left him on the wizard's doorstep many years ago.

And then there is a whole cast of characters who come in as the story unfolds. One of the things I loved most in this book is its relational character, how people bond and connect together and you have such a variety of relationships, barely ever based on the bloodline, but based on circumstances and based on choice and care and love and how you want your life and that of your community to be.

The world, respectively Lagos we encounter in this book is dystopian at least, vast parts have been laid bare by the catastrophic event of gods arriving in the human dimension and not returning to their abode. The book is fast paced. It is part urban fantasy but also more. There is a lot of fights and gore and torment in this book, don't get me wrong. But my impression is that when you put this book into one category you miss out onto the whole that it has to offer as expectations might be raised that will not be met by this book., because, possibly the best way of putting it is, that it has been written in-between various genres.

There are at least two other languages represented in this book apart from English. For one of them I got somewhat the hang of, with the other, I wouldn't understand at all, but it didn't matter as David Mogo stuck to his English and sometimes you don't have to understand the words in order to get the meaning.

This was a book that took me out of my comfort zone of Western UK and US publications of science fiction and fantasy writing, and I am so glad I got this opportunity to read this book. It is one of the most gender including books that I have come across in quite a while, where male and female meet in a balance, and mutual respect is the basis for the building of any kind of community.

And last, but definitively not least, what I am particularly happy about is, that, for once, the mother has not gone missing.

The eARC for this review was provided to me from the publishers Rebellion Publishing and Abaddon via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

The gods have fallen to Earth and the world has been irreversibly changed.

This is the story of David Mogo, a demigod who occupies his time in this post-Falling time by hunting down creatures called godlings and sending them back to the area of Lagos that has been occupied by the fallen gods. One day, he gets a proposition from a local wizard to score a lot more cash for a much more dangerous job. What happens afterwards changes David's life forever.

This book is broken into three parts, following David and the aftermath of the decisions he makes. The last two sections I enjoyed immensely! They were fast-paced, gripping, and incredibly readable. I tore through the last two parts so quickly and the ending was so satisfying. You're probably wondering why this book is only getting three stars if I liked it quite so much.

It's because of the first section. The first section just dragged for me. I couldn't connect with the characters, I couldn't connect with the story, and it just felt blah until the very end. I was close to DNFing the book before the end of the first section picked up and compelled me to read the rest. I think my main issue with the first section was that there was no depth to the characters, especially our titular character, David Mogo. He felt so flat and boring, which you would think would be hard to do with a demigod. Thankfully, he felt much more fleshed out in the subsequent sections, which is why I think I enjoyed them so much. Also, the action was better paced in the last two sections as opposed to the first, where it felt like it was all crammed in at the end.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book if you can power through the first third of it! I think it's worth it to keep going!

I love any novel that revolves around mythology and this is the case here.

Welcome to Africa, where the gods were expelled from their kingdom to end up on Earth. The gods presented in this book all come from the African mythology and I loved that. Above all, the author takes the time to explain their roles, their stories and I liked to discover this mythology which is completely new to me. In addition, the author has located his story in the heart of Central Africa and he describes lifestyles, culture which is also another asset. We are seeing more and more novels centered on North Africa but here we have something new with Central Africa and there is need to see more from this region.

David Mongo, our hero, is a demi-god who drives the gods out of his world when he can. He is willing to help the humans, but he does not always know how to do it right. He is a complex character who is in search of his story, his function in this world and he will clearly not make the right choices all the time. It's a kind of anti-hero.

As for my opinion, I really liked the universe and the plot in general. It is build in 4 large parts that revolve around the evolution of our hero. There is rhythm throughout the book and the action is present. However, what may be displeasing is the style of the author, he gave David a rather unique inner voice and I think it will not please everyone. So it's a book that I found nice, more adult than my usual reading, but sometimes it feels good.

David Mogo, Godhunter is the fantasy novel debut of Nigerian author Suyi Davies Okungbowa. Described by the author as "godpunk," the story takes place in a future (although seemingly a pretty near-future) Nigerian in which African Gods have descended onto Nigeria - and especially Lagos, and caused a massive disruption in life. The story is told in three parts; it's essentially three novellas that occur one after the other, with small time gaps in between.

The end result is....well, it's fine, but unremarkable honestly. Each of the three parts works okay as a whole, with solid plots and a solid main character, but there really aren't any developed characters other than said main character. In particular, there basically aren't any women characters of note until the final part of the book. There's certainly promise in this book's setting, but so many characters and gods are kind of interchangeable and so while the book never comes close to being bad, it never manages to stand out in any way, which is a shame.
---------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Over a decade ago, "The Falling" occurred in Nigeria - in which African gods of various pantheons fell to Earth, and those gods, godlings, etc. began to make new homes on Earth - sometimes with little regards for who exactly was in their way. In Lagos, those with money reacted by using it to secure their homes on the Upper Island, while everyone else tried desperately to survive amidst the chaos caused by the now present Gods, Wizards, and everything in between.

David Mogo is a demigod, found one day by a local wizard in Lagos and taken-in. He knows nothing about his godly mother - who she is, or even what pantheon she is - except for the occasional cryptic dreams he has of her. David makes his living as a "godhunter", using his skills and some enchanted weapons to stop godlings from causing problems in the neighborhood. It's not a glamorous life, but someone has to do it.

But when a powerful wizard, with great ambitions, asks David to hunt and capture not just godlings, but a pair of actual High Gods, he finds himself in more trouble than he could've bargained for - and with the fate of the whole city of Lagos, if not the country, in his hands. And as events continue to get more complicated - forcing David to come to grips with who he is as a demigod and what he can do - David will find that he has more to lose than he ever thought possible....and that his dangerous enemies and their divine powers threaten to cause him that loss.....
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As I mentioned above, David Mogo, Godhunter is split into three parts, Godhunter, Firebringer, and Warmonger, with each part being essentially its own complete story (part 2, Firebringer, does have a significant cliffhanger at the end, but it comes after its story is complete really). Each subsequent part expands the magical/godly nature of the conflict in the story, with the first part starting with a god-possessed villain and the third concluding with an all out massive conflict of gods on all sides.

Through it all, our story focuses on its eponymous hero, David Mogo, the demigod godhunter. David's a pretty solid if unexceptional hero as a man (well half) whose central goal is helping those he cares about - and can occasionally get led astray by those wishes. He's a man who rests his emotions on his sleeve, and his reactions to loss, anger, and betrayal are very real, if not necessarily the best possible for his own sake. Still, while he's easy to root for as a result, he has - and so do others to be fair - moments of stupidity that are kind of annoying to read, which especially show up in the book's second part and seem there only to prolong the story.

Alas, David is basically the only interesting character developed in the story. The book spends only rare moments developing the backgrounds or personalities of the other characters in the story, to the point where they often feel like blank slates - for example - our most prominent woman character is a mute teenager whose first big act is to simply exist in the right place at the right time. There are fragments of interesting potential characters here - the grizzled exiled wizard estranged from his god, the war goddess who seeks no longer to fight wars, the commander of the special forces who has to try and lead ordinary people to fight in the midst of gods - but the book just doesn't devote any time to them, to the point where significant developments in their relationships occur off screen. Hell even the antagonists don't get enough page-time, appearing mainly for their major plot moments and that's it - the main antagonist gets an interesting backstory/worldview finally in the final part...only for it to turn to nothing. And that final part introduces a number of new antagonist goddesses who get no development at all, and if I didn't have some knowledge of who a few of those goddesses were from other stories, I would've been really lost.

It's kind of a problem in a book where a big theme is the David's realization that he has come to find himself with a growing family of people he cares about, since David's relationships with those characters happen near entirely off screen. David spends a substantial time in parts 1 and 2, and even a little in part 3, on his own, and while these parts are written well, with the plot unfolding at a nice pace and in interesting ways (plot-induced stupidity in part 2 mentioned above aside), the result is that I basically never cared about the other characters David cared about.

Again, David Mogo, Godhunter has an interesting setting and the plot is never boring, so I don't want to suggest this book is bad. But the book doesn't reach a level above "fine" due to its lack of any other interesting characters other than its title protagonist. Ah well.

This book was really good. It was an unique story with an amazing worldbuilding and characters. Cover was gorgeous too. I really liked the authors writing and will definitely check his other works too.

Well. That was amazing. The first thing that told me this book was going to be right up my alley was the code-switching. Which, for those of you who don't know, is a linguistic thing where people's phrasing and grammar order etc changes between situations. It's particularly prevalent among multi-lingual cultures. I loved how Okungbowa writes Davids speech without trying to explain it. The book is unshamedly Nigerian and this is just one of the ways it does this.

Then there is the worldbuilding. Long story short, a whole bunch of gods have been thrown into the human world and this is causing some major conflict. The main character is a half-god who is something of a pest control except fr supernatural creatures wreaking havoc called godlings. I really loved how Okungbowa wrote the gods and provided an explanation for the different pantheons and how they interact. (view spoiler)

As for the characters, they paled a little in comparison to the worldbuild, and felt mmm slightly superficial? Outside of David, I never got much of a feel for other characters. We get a bit of a history on Papa Udi, but nothing much on Fatoumata or Onipede or even his mother. Part of this is perhaps because of the way the book is staged. I've seen some people say it's really three stories published as one, but it's more like three acts. And each act has a bunch of new characters introduced so the characters that show up later have less of a chance to stand out.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this novel. It's about found families and communities, it's about coming together when the world is on the verge of ending, it's about finding home where you can and the cost of greed.

Lagos, the largest city on the continent of Africa, is the site of The Falling, the day the gods took to the Earth. They have been semi-quarantined on the Island, yet lose themselves on the people on the Mainland to cause trouble. A demigod named David Mogo has made a business around helping people rid themselves of thes minor spirits. He's good at it. His godessence is strong and has been honed my his wizard mentor, Papa Udi. He's a stoic old man who has agreed to guide David through his training and provide him with his wards...

The book consists of three story arcs, you might call them separate novellas, Godhunter, Firebringer, and Warmonger. Each has David learning more about the nature of his power and the internal struggle struggle of being a demigod who is policing the gods. The first story pits him against a greedy wizard who tries to create an uprising by controlling children to do his bidding. The action is crisp and the ramp up is pretty tight.

This piece of Nigerian urban fantasy is overall a good read. The pacing is a bit off in places as the author gives up information too quickly. Even though I liked the world and David's voice, there could has been some nuance to the storytelling. And unfortunately, it seemed the organization of each novella was too similar.

There are several parts of those info dumps that I did like. For example, the recipe and procedure to create the wards was pretty cool. I could see them measuring, stirring, and boiling that wicked stuff in preparation of taking on the kiddie zombies.

Overall, David Mogo: Godhunter has many things I like in a book: a distinct mythos, an engaging main character, and a good mentor relationship, but the storytelling was garbled and at times repetitive.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rebellion Press, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Review of a free Netgalley Review Copy.

David Mogo is a hunter of godlings, a cleaner of messes made by the minor deities running loose in Lagos, Nigeria after an event called the Fall, when Gods and Goddesses of Africa's pantheon(s) come to earth and start raising havoc. He himself is a demigod, the son of an unknown goddess who possesses strength, stamina, and an attitude to match.
His mentor, Papa Udi, is a wizard and a man of few words, and together they begin to take on stronger gods who plan to take over...The world! (Or maybe just Lagos. Or Nigeria? Plans change).

This was a very fun read. The action is meaty and fast, the overall story engaging, and the characters unique and convincing. But for me, and I think for a lot of readers like me (American fantasy fans) the novelty of the setting, and the richness of the language involved, is what is most appealing.

The story and pacing are not incredibly unusual for this kind of urban fantasy--a damaged protagonist possesses extraordinary powers and uses them to battle beings with even more extraordinary powers in a modern setting in a real place. But the details are so much more inviting in this book.

For one thing, despite being an actual demigod, David is immensely human. He is unsure and hesitant at times, but driven by compassion and a desire to do good. He is not your usual urban fantasy banterer, either. He is sincere, if emotionally conflicted, and it's refreshing.

The people around him are also complex and involved in their own stories, and things happen around the protagonist without him knowing, making the world seem that much more three-dimensional. And what a world!

I know almost nothing about Lagos, but this book brings the city to life in a way that only someone who truly loves it could. It is flawed (there is a shocking amount of feces mentioned) but vibrant, despite its fallen state in the book. I want to know so much more about the city and its people now.

The god characters are also a fun take. They appear to come from the Yoruba pantheon, based on the names, and their natures are both familiar (gods of war and birth are not uncommon in many pantheons) and new (their characters and expressions are unlike the more familiar European pantheons in many ways). I genuinely felt like I was experiencing something new every few pages, which has gotten to be a rare experience as I get older.

And then there are the languages!

This is where the book really shines. David, the protagonist and POV, uses fairly standard English. However, the characters around him use a variety of languages that you would actually encounter in Lagos. Papa Udi speaks Pidgin, which I imagine many American or European readers will find challenging. Some characters speak Yoruba, which David does not--so the words are left untranslated and an enigma. There are names of clothing and cars and places I have never heard of, and I find it almost thrilling to have that kind of linguistic adventurism in a book like this.

This is not a high-brow work of literature. This is not an essay about African culture. It's an urban fantasy, a fun afternoon-snack book, that still doesn't handhold its readers through linguistic challenge. I love it.

For those worried about that challenge, though, it's OK. The book is clear enough that you can get through it fine without puzzling over the Pidgin or translating the Yoruba. You can just sit back and enjoy the ride as David battle gods, gets to know his roots, and becomes an even bigger bad-ass.

Thank you to the publisher and to Suyi Davies Okungbowa for the chance to read this book!

I really really wanted to like this one but I just never felt like it hit its stride or found its rhythm... I was struggling almost from the get-go with this story. It's a great concept and I think has tremendous potential, but it reads awkwardly. There is a strange shift between vernacular and more rigid grammatical speech as the text shifts between the narrative and the dialogue - it made the story feel off pace for me and made me slow down each time I fell into a new strain and reacclimate with the language being deployed. There are also a lot of linguistic references that I didn't understand that wouldn't translate or come up in wikipedia on my kindle and it meant a lot of skipping back to the computer to try to understand since many of these were not easy to decode based on context - which also kept pulling me out of the narrative. The whole rhythm of the book just felt off to me - self-conscious and not quite sure what it wanted to be. It felt like the author was occasionally trying to write his story in the format/style of other authors to ensure the broadest possible audience, and the result was oddly jumpy and uneven in pacing and style. It's a shame because there's a very cool core concept here and there are moments where the author seems to find his voice and use it brilliantly - but those moments were somewhat thin on the ground and surrounded by ones in which I struggled to follow things and stay engaged...

David Mogo is a demigod. His mother is the god of war and chaos and his father, well, he was just a common man- a mortal which is why he hunts gods and godlings, because his essence can sense their presence. And also their presence in Lagos causes nothing but chaos for human beings and he is not pleased about it, not one bit.
But David’s not perfect: he is conflicted about a host of things that go as far as his birth, being abandoned by his mother, always feeling like he doesn’t belong and now the fact that he’s got high gods after him, seeking to kill him.

It’s an interesting read and David is vivid in his description of what he’s feeling just as he is rash in fighting. For example he says at some point during a fight “Tonight though, it’s because my body aches like I was built by angry carpenters.”

Like in any book, there’s a likelihood that you’ll be taken in by a character or characters and in this book, my favorite character was Papa Udi also known as Payu. He speaks Pidgin and he doesn’t say much, but you realize that he’s the one David listens to and respects the most. He is also the one that David does not want to let down and that kind of pressure does a number on David’s focus in fighting the gods.

Payu shakes his head. “No, no, no. Na die two of una dey and I cannot follow you for such a thing. Good luck if you wan go die, but you cannot drag me along. David, no. I say no. No!”

Like in Chapter Twenty Two, Papa Udi chastises Kehinde when he says:

“You for no talk am like that,” and adds “Wise god my bumbum.”

What the author succeeds in is in thrusting you into a world of chaos, magic, anger and vengeance whilst serving it through Pidgin, and highlighting aspects that are indeed akin to Nigeria and the culture of some tribes therein. It’s also a hilarious read because between the back and forth of Payu and David you cannot help but appreciate their relationship, one as the nurturer and the other son or grandson.

I saw this book on the Netgalley dashboard and I had to read it, because if it’s by an African author, I’m interested-period! It’s been a fun read, there are bits and pieces I relate to and my only sad point is that I cannot quote all of Payu’s lines (yeah, there’s that disclaimer to Advance Readers).

This book took me a while to get into. I found myself picking it up, reading a chapter or so, and then putting it down again. I've been pondering why that was and I don't exactly have an answer but I've got a few ideas. 

A criticism I've seen from some other reviewers is that they felt that this book told rather than showed. That's something I've noticed in some other Rebellion books so I'm tempted to see that as more of an editorial choice but perhaps I'm wrong. While initially, I wasn't so keen on this, by the end of the book I actually found it to be one of the strongest factors in this book. It felt to me as though this book was...the transcript of a story being told by David Mogo, the first person narrative and the occasional tangents into explaining how something worked totally lend themselves to that style of writing. Seen through that lens as opposed to the style of other fiction (which, let's be honest, is edited with a western reader in mind because publishing is hugely Eurocentric) this becomes a strength for this book as opposed to a weakness. I wonder if having that in mind from the start would have helped me to get into the story quicker - we may never know. 

The book is split into three sections, each around 10-12 chapters long. I thought this was a great decision as it actually feels more like three novellas that take place one after another - again adding to the sense that this is a story being told in parts. I liked that each story had its own distinct arc - it made for really balanced reading. What impressed me was how balanced the book felt despite this split. For a book that isn't very long, it manages to fit a lot of worldbuilding, information and plot and still feel exciting and compelling throughout. 

The worldbuilding and the sheer range of characters, abilities, creatures, settings and more are what made me love this book. It feels like something about which the author knows and cares a huge amount and that is what really springs forth from the page. I rarely find myself liking an adult male protagonist, it's been the reason I have rated books poorly in the past - but I actually found David Mogo to be a very relatable and well-written character. The cast of supporting characters, even the antagonists are equally fascinating, I felt as though I could read a book from anyone's perspective and it would be just as powerful and interesting.

I'm left feeling profoundly glad that I read this book, it's widened my appreciation for diverse fantasy and I'm deeply pleased that it's come from a publisher local to me. I'm truly excited to read more from this author in the future. While this book won't be for everyone, I urge you to give it a try and to allow it to flourish for what it is.

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

David Mogo, Godhunter is out July 9th

Con este título y con el interés que está despertando en mi últimamente la literatura de origen africano, no podía pasar mucho tiempo antes de que leyera David Mogo, Godhunter. No he encontrado lo que buscaba, principalmente por problemas estructurales de la novela, pero puede que otro lector la disfrute más que yo.

El primer escollo que me encontré fue el lenguaje de los diálogos. Entiendo que no puedo esperar un perfecto inglés si se quiere algo de realismo en la ambientación africana, pero es que la mayoría de las conversaciones tienen lugar en una mezcolanza de palabras y fonemas que puede llegar a resultar desesperante. No creo que sea un experimento formal como el que realizó Iain M Banks con su El Artefakto, me temo que es una búsqueda de verosimilitud que ha traspasado la frontera de lo comprensible.
Con este obstáculo en el camino, seguía dispuesta a hacer un esfuerzo extra en la lectura, ya que la mitología yoruba me resulta fascinante desde mi desconocimiento. En ese aspecto, el libro ofrece mucha información aunque algo desestructurada, sirviendo de puerta de entrada para quien quiera profundizar más en el tema a través de nombres y referencias. Puede despertar nuestro interés aunque tampoco la representación mitológica sea totalmente fidedigna debido a la presencia de varios panteones y a las necesidades propias de la narración.
No se puede describir el libro como un fix-up, pues aunque tiene tres partes claramente diferenciadas, tampoco es que el autor haya realizado un trabajo exhaustivo para unirlas, utilizando de forma repetitiva unas elipsis tremendas. En cada tramo, justo cuando se alcanza el clímax, se corta la narración y se comienza otro relato en otra parte. Aunque conserva los mismos protagonistas y es continuada en el tiempo, crea la sensación permanente de que el autor nos está escamoteando algo.
No puedo recomendar el libro para un lector con gusto similares a los míos, pero si lo interpretamos como una serie de aventuras fantásticas en Lagos con algo de trasfondo mitológico, si puede ser de tu gusto.

The ideas are there but the execution is quite flawed. The book is formulaic with three parts that follow a typical question pattern: hero has problem, hero tries to fix problem, hero get solution wrong, someone tells the hero what to do, hero kills someone. This made it easy to anticipate. The book dragged overall and there was lots of info dumping with non-relevant information. This book needed an editor and to be about a third les long minimum. There also was hand waving away of real issues such as David’s abandonment by his mother instead of dealing with them within the book. Finally, Fati was a problematic character in how her apparent faith and disability were just removed when they were no longer plot points and just used to indicate her down trodden status. There was a moment at the end where I thought it might turn things but no, it stuck with the utterly predictable course. By the end, I would give it 2.5 stars.

I truly hate giving books low ratings but if I'm being honest this just wasn't working for me. And it's absolutely disappointing because hearing it described as "Nigerian god-punk" made me want to immediately dive in and devour this book. Our narrator David works as a freelancer, hunting down lesser godlings for profit - that is, of course, until a wizard decides to use one of these godlings to take control of the city and it is up to David to stop him. It sounds AMAZING but... the execution not so much.

There were far too many info-dumps, the pacing seemed to drag to a crawl at times, and while I found the various characters mostly enjoyable there was nothing about them that stood out or stayed with me after I put it down. Everything just felt "okay" to me rather than exciting or filled with tension. I have seen a few reviews mention that this book could have been shortened down to a novella length and given a faster pace to make for a better overall story and I have to agree.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publishers at Rebellion Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Look, it's inevitable: someone, somewhere, is going to make a long and persuasive argument about the linkages between "David Mogo, Godhunter" and Nnedi Okorafor's "Lagoon." And that person isn't going to be completely wrong, in the way that anyone tracing a linkage between Leila del Duca and Ursula K. Le Guin would not be completely ... wrong ... and they would also not be saying much of use, either, other than "here are two excellent creators who come from the same place." Which ... well, let's just say that we American reviewers are often guilty of seeing the continent of Africa as some sort of monolith, which it isn't, and are often content with surface-level reviews using terms like "timely" and "charged" and "entertaining" without much nuance. "David Mogo, Godhunter" is indeed set in Lagos. "Lagoon" is also, it is true, set in Lagos. They both involve some pretty weird, disturbing, and humorous investigations of class divisions, cultural heritage, and the limits of genre. And yes, they're both worth reading.

That's where comparisons probably ought to end.

"David Mogo, Godhunter" has legs, and it stands on them very well, indeed. The titular character is one of those smart, capable people whose life somehow spins out of control anyway, and who fumbles through the acclimation process like an actual human being. I mean, demigod. A demigod who still has to deal with power outages and checkpoints like a normal person, not to mention some well-earned problems with parents and other authority figures. So some gods happen to land in Lagos and contribute to forced dislocations and migrations? Not ideal. Obviously. But life, as David Mogo discovers, has a tendency of going relentlessly on despite such disturbances, whether we're ready for it to or not. With a wry sense of humor, Okungbowa lays bare the root of our own troubled relationship with diaspora fiction, entertaining readers of all points of origin even while showing us Americans exactly what we're least prepared to understand: enthusiastically diverse, culturally nuanced, sparklingly brilliant fiction that refuses to absolve us white Americans of our own tortured history with race and class relations. It's freaking magnificent, my friends.

Interested in learning more about Okungbowa and "David Mogo, Godhunter?" Check out our conversation on The Imaginaries Podcast, where we talk about the socioeconomics of the post-apocalypse! You can find it on SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/kmm-590827903/episode-78-suyi-davies-okungbowa), iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-imaginaries-podcast/id1142101499), and of course, our website (www.imaginaries.net).

Qualche anno fa il cielo si è aperto e gli dèi sono piombati sulla Terra. 

Dèi potenti e meno potenti, senzienti o inani, fastidiosi o tranquilli, dèi che hanno cambiato la vita nella Lagos di un tempo come mai ci si sarebbe aspettati, facendo germogliare nuove figure: stregoni, per dire, o cacciatori di dèi - semidei dotati del  potere  di catturare gli spiriti inquieti, intrappolarli e liberarli al sicuro, lontani dalla gente.

Un mestiere difficile, pericoloso e illegale - un mestiere necessario, e che permette a David Mogo di mettere insieme pane e companatico, se solo arrivassero abbastanza lavori. magari non come quello che gli propone un inquietante, ricchissimo stregone, che puzza di rogne lontano un miglio, ma insomma...

Un'idea geniale, un'ambientazione nuova per noi occidentale (anche se sdoganata in anni recenti da Nnedi Okorafor, che a me non piace ma ha un successo notevole di critica), un protagonista abbastanza interessante; peccato che l'esecuzione sia molto da esordiente, con uno stile traballante, ritmo incerto, e dialoghi un poco scalcinati.

Non un romanzo che consiglio, insomma, anche se aspetterò con curiosità la prossima prova dell'autore per vedere se c'è un margine di crescita.

David Mogo, Godhunter is a gritty narrative about the Lagos underworld, Isale Eko (or Eko Isale) after displaced gods start inhabiting the city. It is not a 'pretty' or 'flowery' novel. There is crime, blood, violence, and a good dose of profanity. A chunk of the dialogue is in Pidgin and broken English. However, the main character, David Mogo narrates the story in English (and quite dramatically if you ask me).

What did I like about this novel? I enjoyed the references to Nigerian mythology as a whole. Several gods from different tribes were featured in the novel, and I got to learn a little about each god during the course of the story. Though, it got a little confusing to keep track of the individual gods and their function in the story after I'd read about the 4th god.

The novel is set in Lagos, Nigeria, a fictional version, but Lagos nonetheless. I like that the author didn't shy away from that. He described the city beautifully. He also addressed Nigerians' attitudes towards native magic and religion--since magic is a central aspect of the narrative. And the novel comments on different Nigerian social issues like police brutality and the #EndSARS movement, child marriage, Boko Haram, and others.

The story moves quite slowly in the beginning, as the author established the setting and provided background details. While I enjoyed reading about familiar environments, it felt like the conflict would never surface. And when the conflict did surface, I didn't enjoy the descriptions or the long monologues from the different characters. They detracted from the excitement or the heat of the moment, and I was tempted to skip over those areas (even though I'd been pining for them since the beginning of the story).

In addition, there were a couple side-bars in the plotline that I didn't think were necessary to the main story. And some of the narration seemed overly dramatic to me. Like the main character was taking himself too seriously, I rolled my eyes a few times.

I liked the ending of the novel, and how the characters were 'called out' for their actions. I don't think any character was completely blameless for what happened to the humans in Lagos, and I like that the author highlighted that.

All in all, David Mogo, Godhunter tells a good story. The narration and style isn't something that I'm quite used to, it is definitely a unique taste. I would recommend the novel to anyone who likes dark urban fantasy, or African mythology in general. You should grab a copy if you're intrigued by the story.

David Mogo, Godhunter
by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Published by Rebellion Publishing, Abbadon Books
Publication date: 09 July, 2019

David Mogo, Godhunter stirs the past, present, future, and mythological together into an action-packed urban fantasy set in Lagos, Nigeria. My knowledge of Nigerian culture is limited to what I’ve gleaned from novels, but I am endlessly intrigued by it and so was very much looking forward to this book. It delivered on infusing the story with culture, doing so in a no-holds-barred way that I loved, not dumbing it down for the uninitiated. I think in another genre this might have been a problem for some people, but in fantasy, a genre with readers who are used to diving into the deep end and accepting world building as natural, I expect it won’t put many off.

Unfortunately, despite the positives, this book didn’t resonate with me; I perhaps wanted something a bit more nuanced and character driven, but instead found an almost episodic action adventure. This isn’t intrinsically bad, just not what I was expecting or hoping for. This said, I don’t tend to read much fantasy these days, sticking largely to the cross overs between fantasy and literary fiction, so though it wasn't what I was looking for, I do believe David Mogo, Godhunter could be very popular with the many people who read fantasy regularly. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it got optioned to be made into a movie and did really well in that format.

Though it wasn’t for me, there were aspects I admired; I’d recommend this book to those who like urban fantasy or superhero books.

This book was a fun read, I liked Mogo's writing style and world-building, the story was exciting and unique with good character development. I love the cover art and the cultural elements. I did not know I was a fan of the "Nigerian God-Punk" genre but this book convinced me!

Synopsis: "Since the Orisha War that rained thousands of deities down on the streets of Lagos, David Mogo, demigod, scours Eko’s dank underbelly for a living wage as a freelance Godhunter. Despite pulling his biggest feat yet by capturing a high god for a renowned Eko wizard, David knows his job’s bad luck. He’s proved right when the wizard conjures a legion of Taboos—feral godling-child hybrids—to seize Lagos for himself. To fix his mistake and keep Lagos standing, David teams up with his foster wizard, the high god’s twin sister and a speech-impaired Muslim teenage girl to defeat the wizard."