Blood Scion

Blood Scion is a captivating and original novel from first-time author Deborah Falaye. The story draws on Yoruba-Nigerian mythology to tell a gritty story of colonization and rebellion. Sloan Shade is only 15 when she is drafted into the colonizer’s army to fight an endless war against her own people, the Yoruba, and particularly a subset of the Yoruba people, the Scions, who are capable of magic. The Lucis colonizers hate and fear the Scions and have been fighting the Shadow Rebels for Sloan’s entire life to rid the world of Scions. Unbeknownst to the army commanders, Sloan, herself, is a Scion with the power to create fire, and she plans to use her time at the army training camp to uncover the truth about the fate of her mother who disappeared two years ago. Sloan struggles to control her powers at the training camp while being subjected to the tortures and endless horrors of the brutal army training. Sloan’s quest to discover the fate of her mother brings her unexpected friends and allies and leads her to discover secrets she never imagined.

Blood Scion is a story of brutal colonization and child soldiers. Sloan is repeatedly put in kill or be kill situations, and she struggles to survive while attempting to retain a sense of her own humanity. The story is very violent at times though the descriptions are never gratuitous. Not all readers will be comfortable with the level of violence experienced and perpetrated by Sloan. The first half of the book is a seemingly endless series of horrors experienced by Sloan in her village and then at the army training camp. For much of this, Sloan is very passive; she struggles to endure the training camp and is unsure of her next steps. The second half of the novel sees Sloan in a much more active role. She accepts her own Scion powers and becomes more willing to use them to survive. Once she discovers the truth of her mother’s fate, her own plan for her future begins to crystalize, and she more actively works to achieve her goals.

This story of African colonization told through the lens of speculative fiction is refreshing and original. While Blood Scion is violent and brutal, it is also an enjoyable page turner with a winning and complex protagonist.