As those wise sages The Rolling Stones once noted, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”
It’s a song that popped into my head as I was editing the following email interview with author Tobi Ogundiran about his new “secondary world fantasy story with elements of mythology and cosmology” novella At The Fount Of Creation (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), the companion to last year’s In The Shadow Of The Fall in his Guardian Of The Gods duology.
For people who didn’t read the first book, In The Shadow Of The Fall, or the interview we did about it, what is the Guardian Of The Gods duology about, and when and where is this story set?
Guardian Of The Gods tells the story of a disgruntled acolyte in the temple of Ifa, Ashâke, who yearns for the day she is made a priestess and sent out into the world to serve the orisha.
But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. She’s remained in the temple for years because she cannot hear the gods and therefore cannot graduate and become a full priest.
Desperate, she builds an idan, an effigy, to trap a god and demand answers. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.
Guardian Of The Gods as a series explores faith and religion and its insidious manipulation. It’s about secrets, lies, truth, and the delicate balance in which they exist.
The series is set in a fantastical world inspired by precolonial West Africa, specifically the Yoruba empire states.
And then for people who have read In The Shadow Of The Fall, and thus can ignore me writing SPOILER ALERT, what happens in At The Fount Of Creation, and when and where does it take place in relation to Fall?
At The Fount Of Creation picks up some six months after the events of In The Shadow Of The Fall, with Ashâke somewhat settled in her new role as Guardian — I use “settled” here loosely, as her struggles to master her new role undergirds much of the narrative. More secrets are unearthed to startling consequences.
I should also add that Creation explores the world set up in Fall, but where the major setting of Fall was the temple and riverbank; for Creation, we get to see more of the world, exploring locales both earthly and celestial.
So, why did you decide to split it into two parts as opposed to one? Or, for that matter, three?
I suppose both books could have been written as one long stand-alone novel, and there are those who have made such a comment. Indeed, when I first conceived the story, it wasn’t in parts.
Suffice to say that the reason for splitting it into two books is not so much an artistic one as a practical one borne of the vagaries of publishing. Though the books are physically split, I encourage readers to read them as one continuous novel. So reread In The Shadow Of The Fall, and continue with At The Fount Of Creation.
In preparing to write At The Fount Of Creation, did you look to any other books that were the second halves of duologies to get ideas of what to do, and what not to do?
I don’t think I looked at other books specifically. Rather, I had a solid idea the direction the story was headed and just wrote towards it. I knew there were certain things I wanted to cover, certain emotional beats and characters I wanted to explore.
The trouble, I guess, was keeping it novella-length, which I ultimately failed at. A novella maxes out at 40,000 words and this book is 48,000 words.
As you said in the interview we did about it, In The Shadow Of The Fall was a secondary world fantasy story with elements of mythology and cosmology. Is At The Fount Of Creation the same?
At The Fount Of Creation continues thematically and story-wise where In The Shadow Of The Fall left off, pulling on Yoruba mythology and cosmology with my own creative, artistic bent. It remains a secondary world fantasy, the stakes are much larger, and yet more personal.
So, are there any writers, or stories, that had a big influence on Creation but not on anything else you’ve written, and especially not In The Shadow Of The Fall?
I can’t say for sure. Influences are not always neatly delineated between projects. I am a sum of all the writers that have inspired me.
I will say that a particular scene that appears towards the end of the book, which features flesh-eating locusts, was inspired by the story of the Ten Plagues of Egypt in The Bible.
How about non-literary influences; was At The Fount Of Creation influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
None that I can think of.
So, is there anything else a prospective reader might need to know about At The Fount Of Creation and the Guardian Of The Gods duology?
The story is largely an exploration of choices, and the consequences of those choices, good or bad. My aim was not to provide any pat answers, but rather raise these philosophical and moral questions about the nature of power, personal agency, secrets and truth and the delicate balance in which they exist, and of course, choices and their consequences.
Finally, if someone enjoys In The Shadow Of The Fall and At The Fount Of Creation, they might be looking for something very different. So, what novella of someone else’s, which is nothing like yours, would you suggest they read next?
I recently read The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna al-Essa and I really enjoyed it. A clever and topical book, considering current conversations around censorship and book banning, and one I think everyone should read. It was shortlisted for the 2024 National Book Award, deservedly so, and one of the best translated literature I’ve read in recent memory. Icing on the cake: it can be read in one sitting.
