Zimbabwean writer Lucille Sambo is set to publish her debut sci-fi novella in fall 2024. Titled Iridescent, the novella was acquired by Android Press and features an exciting cast of human-robot mutants who want to take over the world.

According to Publisher’s Marketplace, Sambo’s novella tells the tale of mutants from the human robot project who escape the labs and discover that they can recover the world using their own blood. However, to do so, they’ll have to stop the scientist who wants to harvest and sell off their mutations to the highest bidder.

Sambo is quite fluid as a writer when it comes to genre. She has previously published a nonfiction essay titled “The Immigrant” and a poem “Las Posadas at Que Pasa” on Brittle Paper. We love when African writers begin to dabble in speculative fiction and are able to engage with the genre to their fullest potential!

Sambo’s forthcoming novella sounds fascinating and we are sure that the excitement and fast-paced nature of the synopsis will translate to the sci-fi plot. Will these mutants be successful in recovering the world or will they get sold off by the evil scientist? I guess we have to wait for the book to come out next fall to find out.

Lucille Sambo is a storyteller, wanderer, and coder. She was born and raised in Zimbabwe, but is currently working in Germany. She was also longlisted for the 2021-22 Island Prize.

Congrats to Sambo on the debut novella!