Wild Seed

OCTAVIAAAAA BUTLEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!

This book was WILD. I saw a couple Goodreads' friend reviews that said as much, and I didn't really understand why. But this book's plot was like a runaway freight train - and, man, you are climbing aboard from page 1. What's funny is that the description of the plot really doesn't capture the urgency of it? But I read this voraciously and spent a lot of time wanting to put it down and just SCREAM. I mean, there is sex and violence and craziness - abounding! - on page after page. But it's also - smart???

OK, briefly, the plot: Doro is a guy, well, more like a spirit. He can't die. Instead, he can jump into other people's bodies and, ahem, WEAR THEM. He is very old (like, thousands of years) and has 1 hobby: breeding more people with supernatural abilities. We start the book in west Africa - sounds like Nigeria? - where he is annoyed that one of “his” villages (of descendants/”breeding stock”) has been pillaged.

While wandering in search of his villagers, he feels something - think Yoda and the Force. He follows the feeling and lands on Anyanwu. Immediately, he understands that she too is special and has supernatural abilities. She's 300+ years old and can mold and shape her body. He's like, dude, great, WILD SEED (TITLE OF THIS BOOK), awesome, you'll make a great addition to my breeding experiment. Anyanwu is like, wow, another super special guy, yes, let's hang. She has a few compunctions, as she realizes how powerful he is... and what a dick he is! And this obsession with BREEDING, mamma mia!

Anyway. They hike back to the coast (Ghana?), where the slave trade is in full force. And - you can just read on. BUT IT'S ALL NUTS, OKAY.

This felt very similar - and similarly delightful - to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Both are historical fiction + fantasies that are VERY rich and tactile, that are as invested in the fantasy elements as the historical context, and that illuminate the historical context THROUGH the fantasy elements. Both are also SO compelling, and had me reading voraciously/hungrily/crazily. Can't recommend this enough!!