THE PLOT: ‘Firstborn of the Sun’ by Marvellous Michael Anson is an epic fantasy inspired by Yoruba culture. L’ore has a secret. She is the only person in the Kingdom of Oru without agbára – the ability to harness power from the sun. On pain of death, she must conceal it from everyone including her best friend, Alawani. But when the gods declare Alawani an Àlùfáà – a great honour where he will serve the Kingdom as a priest – he must undertake a brutal trial. Afraid Alawani might die, L’ore tries to save him. During her rescue mission, L’ore desperately attempts to channel agbára but an icy shadow magic pours from her hands instead…

SUMMARY: This book has all the right pieces but they don’t fit together properly. While I loved the detailed world-building and use of multiple POVs, the inciting incident and character motivations didn’t make sense to me. The whole premise is based on L’ore attempting to save Alawani from being a priest. However, it’s clear that Alawani has chosen this path and doesn’t want to be saved. Based on the initial set up of L’ore’s character – being the daughter of a coward and having no powers – there wasn’t enough motivation for her attempt to save Alawani in the first place and, as a result, the ensuing action feels hollow. This is certainly an impressive feat of work for a debut novel and I’d encourage lovers of intricate fantasy novels to read this book and make their own minds up. But I, for one, was not captivated enough to want a sequel.

GOOD BITS: This book is almost 600-pages and I read the whole thing so it’s clearly engaging. As it alternates point-of-view, I kept wanting to get back to Tofa and Milua’s chapters. Although they’re technically side characters, I felt their character development was the most interesting because they had clear goals and obstacles to achieving them. Plus, they had a complex set of expectations and pressures put on them from others, which made them both compelling as they had to navigate their own morals against the societal norms and demands. This ended with a great showdown between the four principal characters, which I enjoyed immensely.  

NOT SO GOOD BITS:  This novel needs to establish the characters, their friendship and their goals clearly at the start so the rest of their decisions make sense. I’ve set out my issue with the inciting incident but, on top of this, L’ore doesn’t have any sort of plan for after they escape. She wants to save her friend, but has no short-term aims for what happens afterward and no long-term goal for her life which this feeds in to. This stops her from feeling like a real person and it removes some dynamism from the plot because they end up floundering. While Alawani’s active goal and decision-making is clearer, it’s erratic. He spends a lot of time deciding whether he wants to accept the call to be an Alufaa, yet it’s also suggested that it’s a request he can’t refuse. This shifting approach as to whether its mandatory fundamentally undermines the whole novel. This inconsistency also leads to a lot of repetition and introspection. The author doesn’t trust the reader to understand the world-building

Personally, I think a lot could be fixed by editing the opening chapters. The fight with random bandits could be replaced with a scene in the arena that establishes Alawani, L’ore and Koya as friends, with a goal to become fighters, and with the Commander looking on as a strict but maternal figure. There could still be conflict as Koya and L’ore practice fight against others (who call L’ore a coward) and then the fight could escalate so Alawani and the Commander step in. During the fight, the reader could realise that L’ore doesn’t actually have any powers but is using her blades to deceive people instead. The next chapter could be Alawani’s call to the priesthood, which could happen immediately and by force – with no option of refusal – which would explain why L’ore enlists Koya to go and save him.

OVERALL:  I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘Witches Steeped in Gold’ by Ciannon Smart, ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi and ‘Blood Scion’ by Deborah Falaye. Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph for my #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This novel is out on 23rd October 2025 and is available to purchase on my bookshop.org page.