Shattering the Spear — P. Djèlí Clark

Shattering the Spear, written by P Djèlí Clark.Available in the anthology, The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Vol 1.

Having just read Djèlí’s Dead Djinn books and totally enjoyed them, i had no choice in my good book reading avarice but to go hunting for everything i could find by Djèlí and start reading it all in publication order, and you guessed it, Shattering the Spear is, i think, the first story published.

Shattering the Spear seems to me to be based upon an African tribal warrior, in a land that reminds one of those vast pictures of African grasslands.   It’s also full of Animist religious ideas, which, being an Animist myself, is really nice to find in a book these days.   There’s also some good fight/action scenes, with the same great writing that you find in the Dead Djinn books.   In fact, there’s quite a lot packed into this short story.

Next up on the Djèlí list is Skin Magic, but before i get around to that i’ve got a few other writers and their books to catch up with and read first.

P. Djèlí Clark’s Page

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