What happens when the fate of an entire people rests on the shoulders of a cursed warrior and a healer who can barely trust his own magic? In U. M. Agoawike’s debut novel, Black as Diamond, the answer unfolds across a sprawling fantasy world filled with magic, ancient histories, dangerous alliances and characters forced to confront the consequences of what came before them.

The novel follows Asaru, a winged eresh keyel warrior whose investigation into his missing brother leads him into the human realm and into a fatal curse that threatens not only his life but the survival of his people. There, he encounters Wren, a former healer whose experiments with magic have left him emotionally wounded and dangerously reckless. When a spell binds the two together, they are forced into an unlikely partnership as they search for the Chronicler, the keeper of the eresh keyel’s history who may hold the answers they need.

But Black as Diamond is interested in more than the mechanics of an epic quest. Agoawike uses its fantastical world to explore queer identity, history, power and the ways the actions of previous generations can continue to shape those who come after them.

A Nigerian Canadian writer, Agoawike brings an expansive approach to fantasy, drawing inspiration from ancient histories, cultures, and religions. They have described worldbuilding as one of their favourite parts of writing, with the magic system of Black as Diamond serving as one of the foundations from which the novel’s world developed.

Published by Bindery Books in March 2026, Black as Diamond has been praised by Publishers Weekly for its expansive worldbuilding and its central duo, calling the debut a work overflowing with “colour, queerness, and magic”.

Here’s the synopsis:

A cursed warrior. A reckless healer. A chance to save the world or condemn it.

Like the rest of the winged eresh keyel, warrior Asaru has spent his life fighting the remnants of a long-dead enemy. When his brother’s squadron disappears from a border keep, Asaru travels into the human realm to investigate, only to become ensnared by a fatal and unbreakable curse that could wipe out his people.

When he inadvertently commits a terrible crime, Asaru is thrown into the path of Wren, an emotionally tortured former healer playing with dangerous magic. Bound to one another by a spell gone wrong and on the run from freelance killers, they set out to find the Chronicler, keeper of the Eresh Keyel’s history, who could bring them answers, redemption, and the cure to Asaru’s curse. But the truths they uncover about the past have the power to break the world into pieces, ending human civilisation and settling its remnants into something entirely new.

Buy Black as Diamond here.