not a spoiler, since it's on the back of the book:
basically, it's about a powerful, brutal African king who found he couldn't have children with his queen, so he takes the son he had with one of his concubines to raise as his heir, and the concubine curses the king with immortality.
it goes beyond that, but I think it's a pretty cool premise.
I'm not too much into sci-fi, so before Black Panther, Afrofuturism wasn't something that was really on my radar, but I've come to appreciate it since then.
I also bought this one game that came out earlier this year called Beautiful Desolation, where it takes place during an dystopic, Afrofuturist take on South Africa.
just finished it (there wasn't too much text; usually a paragraph on each page, but sometimes more and sometimes less).
so, it's about this pre-colonial African warlord king who's cursed with immortality by one of his concubines for taking their son when he and his wife couldn't have children.
things were okay until he found he didn't age while those around him grew old and died. this made him depressed to the point invaders took down his kingdom, so he wandered Africa for hundreds of years until he found someone he allowed himself to love, but she eventually got sick and died.
down and alone, when the slave trade begun, he allowed himself to be taken without putting up a fight, and because of his strength, he was able to gain favor with his master, and built a life with one of the house slaves (who was suspected to be one of the master's illegitimate children).
the former king would also sometimes help slaves escape, which the master found out, and that led to the king's wife and kids being hanged.
the king got his revenge, wandered for a bunch of years, mostly getting into wars/conflicts until getting injured (had to wait for blown off limbs to grow back) and sitting back for some decades, but he eventually started investing, buying crypto, etc. and becoming really rich.
more time goes and the world is becoming overpopulated, and FTL speed is discovered, so he invests in that and uses his resources to colonize a world. unfortunately, the rest of earth does something similar, and some other expedition leads to a centuries long war with a race of aliens, which brings both races to the brink of extinction.
the king, through his immortality, develops special abilities which gives humanity the edge, but since he's close to being god-like at this point, decrees that both races stop fighting, and the races eventually come together creating hybrids.
as the sun is dying, the race that is now the result of the two races before it ask if they can leave to find a new world to live on, and he lets them.
he stays on earth as this kinda mountain thing (the earth grew over him over time) and he waits until the end of the universe, when he sees the concubine who cursed him, so he apologizes and asks why they're immortal, and she says that they aren't immortal, they only live a really long time.
then the universe dies, but the king is still alive.
a bunch more happened, but that gives you a pretty good idea about what went on.
just finished it (there wasn't too much text; usually a paragraph on each page, but sometimes more and sometimes less).
so, it's about this pre-colonial African warlord king who's cursed with immortality by one of his concubines for taking their son when he and his wife couldn't have children.
things were okay until he found he didn't age while those around him grew old and died. this made him depressed to the point invaders took down his kingdom, so he wandered Africa for hundreds of years until he found someone he allowed himself to love, but she eventually got sick and died.
down and alone, when the slave trade begun, he allowed himself to be taken without putting up a fight, and because of his strength, he was able to gain favor with his master, and built a life with one of the house slaves (who was suspected to be one of the master's illegitimate children).
the former king would also sometimes help slaves escape, which the master found out, and that led to the king's wife and kids being hanged.
the king got his revenge, wandered for a bunch of years, mostly getting into wars/conflicts until getting injured (had to wait for blown off limbs to grow back) and sitting back for some decades, but he eventually started investing, buying crypto, etc. and becoming really rich.
more time goes and the world is becoming overpopulated, and FTL speed is discovered, so he invests in that and uses his resources to colonize a world. unfortunately, the rest of earth does something similar, and some other expedition leads to a centuries long war with a race of aliens, which brings both races to the brink of extinction.
the king, through his immortality, develops special abilities which gives humanity the edge, but since he's close to being god-like at this point, decrees that both races stop fighting, and the races eventually come together creating hybrids.
as the sun is dying, the race that is now the result of the two races before it ask if they can leave to find a new world to live on, and he lets them.
he stays on earth as this kinda mountain thing (the earth grew over him over time) and he waits until the end of the universe, when he sees the concubine who cursed him, so he apologizes and asks why they're immortal, and she says that they aren't immortal, they only live a really long time.
then the universe dies, but the king is still alive.
a bunch more happened, but that gives you a pretty good idea about what went on.
^ it was because he took the son from her, and the kid was raised as the queen's child.
[LFAQs-redacted-quote]
I liked it.
the story was fairly straightforward, but the text and images complemented each other, and I thought it was cool seeing the growth of the character throughout the years.
