They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, whose latest anthology, Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and African Diaspora, comes out in one week on August 17th!
What does Oghenechovwe love when he’s not writing and editing amazing speculative fiction from the African Diaspora? Spoiler alert: a space opera set in futuristic Kenya, a character that provides a heady rush every time you put down the controller, and a show that explores life and connectivity all across the word. Intrigued? Read on to learn more!
My Favorite Thing I’ve Read
The favorite thing I’ve read lately is a short story that’s not yet out in public. Coincidentally, it’s being published in my forthcoming anthology. IKR, I like everything I publish, and every story I picked from the slush. But this one was different. It spoke to me, specifically, and happens to be not just my favorite story in the Dominion Anthology, but also my favorite I’ve read generally, in a long long while. “Clanfall, Death of Kings” by Odida Nyabundi is a space opera story set in futuristic Kenya. It features lost princesses needing saving, some very impressive guns and combat tech, swords, insane killer robots, tricksters, and death star sized spaceships. The story is really reminiscent of my early years, and my earliest forays into SFF. I was an ardent lover of Star Wars and Dark Matter. I was also a huge fan of Ben 10. Odida’s world gives me that old, classic feel of the specs opera universes I love so much. But asides arousing my old love for space opera and accompanying nostalgia, his story is a hard hitting one that marries these classic space opera tropes with the complex politics of the warring clans and is rich with the culture of Kenya. I do believe there’s nothing quite like it out there. This amongst a number of other reasons makes me excited for the release of the anthology, so you all can share my joy at that amazing piece of writing.
Favorite Thing I’ve Played
That one is a hard pick as I’ve done a lot of gaming, on and off. More recently, it would be between Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. If I absolutely had to choose, I would go with Tomb Raider. While Uncharted 4 had a more endearing story, [SPOILER ALERT] it turned out to be the end of Nathan’s story. Tomb Raider was just more rugged and offered a fuller gaming experience. It had assorted weaponry, for a start. From pickaxes, to shotguns, assault rifles, to arrows of varying kinds; flame arrows, explosive arrows, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. The terrain was more interesting, and playing as Lara Croft, an entirely hardy and unbelievably amazing character, was a heady rush that left me gasping for breath anytime I out the controller down. Also worthy of mention is The Prince of Persia saga on PlayStation2: Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones. I had a mad love for those games, being a sword and sorcery, epic fantasy guy growing up. Another honorable mention, God of War.
Favorite Thing I’ve Watched
What I watch most of the time is fantasy/sci-fi and superhero shows. The most prominent of these I watched, Altered Carbon, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Dark Matter, The OA, Legion, Into the Badlands… there’s too many to name. But the show that I found most enriching was Sense8. Firstly it was written by my favorite writers, The Wachowski sisters, the people who brought us The Matrix. And like The Matrix it has a most scintillating sci-fi idea: a group of people from different backgrounds and locations whose senses were linked and they could partake of each other’s experiences through this connection. The show, apart from exploring such a fascinating idea, was a visually stunning and beautiful to watch. Possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Its characters were endearing, and I could appreciate all their issues as diverse as they were and the way their lives, both problems and solutions, mingled. I have a feeling that the show had some extraordinary insights for us, if it hadn’t been cancelled for some inexplicably heartbreaking reason.
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a Nigerian writer, slush reader and editor. He has been recognized by the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, which awarded him an honorable mention, twice. His short story “The Witching Hour,” published in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, made the Tangent Online recommended reading list for 2018 with two stars and won the Nommo award for best short story by an African. He has been published in Dwart Online, Anotherealm, African Writer, Strange Horizons, Selene Quarterly, Tor, and other venues. He has a short story forthcoming in Omenana, and a number of other works in several journals, magazines and anthologies.
He has guest edited and co-edited several publications, including The Selene Quarterly, Invictus Quarterly, and Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora. He also has a novella, Ife-Iyoku: Tale of Imadeyunuagbon, forthcoming.
He is a member of the African Speculative Fiction Society, Codex, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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