The Lies Of The Ajungo - Moses Ose Utomi
- Publisher – St Martin's Press
- Published – Out Now
- Price – £16.99 hardback | £8.99 Kindle
This novella has been on my reading list all year and I've never got around to it, so when it showed up as a finalist for the Ignyte Awards I knew I should finally prioritise it. Here's what it's about:
They say there is no water in the City of Lies. They say there are no heroes in the City of Lies. They say there are no friends beyond the City of Lies. But would you believe what they say in the City of Lies?
In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirteen, to appease the terrifying Ajungo Empire and make sure it continues sending water. Tutu will be thirteen in three days, but his parched mother won’t last that long. So Tutu goes to his oba and makes a deal: she provides water for his mother, and in exchange he will travel out into the desert and bring back water for the city. Thus begins Tutu’s quest for the salvation of his mother, his city, and himself.
The Lies of the Ajungo opens the curtains on a tremendous world, and begins the epic fable of the Forever Desert. With every word, Moses Ose Utomi weaves magic.
Despite my disdain for numerical rating systems I sometimes refer to a book or a film as a "solid six out of ten", and this is exactly what I mean by that. It's a good story, told well, without any flash, and I enjoyed it. It doesn't need to be any more than that, and it's always a pleasure to read something that sits in that space.
The opening section of The Lies of The Ajungo has the feel and cadence of mythology, and while it switches to a more traditional narrative once we're through that prologue the mythic tone remains throughout. The world is painted in broad, thin strokes that never pull the focus away from Tutu and his emotional journey, giving us only what we need to understand the setting and the magic and nothing more. And for me it's this decision to eschew many of the worst indulgences of fantasy as a genre that are the most impressive part of the book. Utomi manages to make this barely-100-page novella feel like it has the scope and space of an 800 page epic by using just the lightest of touches.
This is the first book in a trilogy and I'll definitely be checking out the other two.
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