The Sauútiverse is the first in an exciting new Shared World series that is guaranteed to both entertain readers and introduce them to a new world of science fiction and fantasy by talented African writers. Featuring stories that are set in Sauúti – an Africa-inspired science-fantasy secondary world created by Africans, for the world, Sauúti is like Black Panther meets Wild Cards with all the rich spacefaring worldbuilding of Dune. The Sauútiverse Shared World contains short stories and novellas set in this fictional civilization based on a blend of African cultural worldviews. The name Sauúti is taken from the word “Sauti” which means “voice” in Swahili. Sauúti is a five-planet system orbiting a binary star, rooted deeply in a variety of African mythology, language, and culture. Sauúti weaves in an intricate magic system based on sound, oral traditions, and music. It includes science-fiction elements of artificial intelligence and space flight, including both humanoid and non-humanoid creatures. Sauúti is filled with wonder, mystery, and magic.
An elderly woman in early 22nd-century Lagos is called in to help test the artificial intelligence built from her genius mother’s mind, but all is not as it seems in the Nommo Award–winning story “The Regression Test”.
Exiled from Earth for a crime of passion, a young man must learn to survive a barely habitable prison planet and come to peace with his past in “Polaris”. “Wednesday’s Story”, nominated for the 2018 Caine Prize, is at once a retelling of
nursery rhymes and folklore and a meta-fictional meditation on the mechanics, art and power of storytelling.
In the novella “Incompleteness Theories”, an international team, led by a Nigerian physicist, try to invent teleportation technology with haunting, unforeseen results.
From the bustling streets of Lagos to the icy moons of Jupiter, this debut collection of twenty stories from the vivid imagination of the award-winning Wole Talabi explores what it means to be human in a world of accelerating technology,
diverse beliefs, and unlimited potential, from a uniquely Nigerian perspective.
