Wole Talabi is back with a second novel, and it is set in Nigeria. The Fist of Memory, forthcoming from DAW Books on 27 October 2026, is a first-contact thriller in which a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky and throws global powers into turmoil.

At the centre of the story is Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin in the employ of a mysterious witchdoctor known as “Baba,” whose routine assignment goes wrong at exactly the wrong moment, leaving him caught in a high-stakes scramble for the future. He is joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, and together they must survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. DAW is billing it as a meditation on memory, reality, and connectedness, and a first-contact novel for fans of Arrival.

This is Talabi’s second novel, following Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (DAW/Gollancz, 2023), which was named one of Washington Post’s top 10 best science fiction and fantasy books of 2023, won the Nommo Award for Best Novel in 2024 and the Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel 2024, and was nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. He has edited five anthologies including Africanfuturism: An Anthology (Brittle Paper, 2020) and Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology (Android Press, 2023). He is represented by Bieke Van Aggelen of the African Literary Agency and currently lives and works in Australia.

Preorder the book here.

Updated: May 14, 2024