Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In the dystopian world of Mafinga, Jasmin must contend with a dictator’s sorcerer to cleanse the socialist state of its deadly pollution.

Mafinga's malevolent king dislikes books and, together with his sorcerer Atari, has collapsed the environment to almost uninhabitable. The sun has killed all the able men, including Jasmin’s husband Godi. But Jasmin has Godi’s secret story machine that tells of a better world, far different from the wastelands of Mafinga. Jasmin’s crime for possessing the machine and its forbidden literature filled with subversive text is punishable by death. Fate grants a cruel reprieve in the service of a childless queen who claims Jasmin’s children as her own. Jasmin is powerless—until she discovers secrets behind the king and his sorcerer.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Lyrical prose...maybe sometimes too lyrical for its own good...telling a tale of monopoly, abuse of power, an apartheid of haves and have-nots, that not coincidentally resembles the modern technological world metastasizing across the agrarian peasantry of Africa and keeping its fruits entirely apart from those who feed them.

The worldbuilding is *stellar*, the narrative drive does not let up, and the plot speaks to my Social Justice Warrior soul. So what happened to that fifth star, you wonder. The story is told in eight parts, each of many chapters, and in almost as many viewpoints. I get that this is a choice made to facilitate the slightly seasick sense of the story’s walled-off world, where nothing is shared, nothing is given away, and the walls that enclose you form strict limits that are transgressed at the greatest possible risk to life and limb. When we learn that technology emanates from actual aliens, it comes less as a surprise than as a peek over a wall...not, for this reader, the best way to induce full investment. The upside of the structure for me was that I was always in a state of readiness for the next shift, the next magical revelation, and the horrors that always lurk where magic and technology collide. But I was always riding along, moving forward, keeping up...never getting to know anyone well enough to feel deeply with them in their tragedies, not even Jasmin.

In a time where the tsunami of Information is drowning the wisdom and the guidance humans need by replacing stories with infotainment, this book’s lushness of both imagination and prose, its demand for you to pay attention to where you are, who is speaking to you, and what they want you to know, is very evocative. It summons darkness, it rings the feeding bell for the monsters implicit...even inherent...in totalitarian systems. Learn what those who least want you to resist least want you to know if you plan to live instead of exist.

Resistance is not, in fact, futile.

Costly. Dreadfully painful. But never futile. Villains can, and must be, fought at every level and with every atom of one’s being. The price is awful, but the price of submission is even worse. ( )

A parable about abuse of power and the ultimate victory of the individual. As AngelaJMaher already said: Powerful prose fitting short fiction rather than a full-size novel, where it made for a rather strenous read. The world building defied suspension of disbelief, torture and murder scenes were over the top. What with the message being rammed home with a sledge hammer, I could not bring myself to finish. ( )

A dystopian story of struggle and mystery. Wonderfully strange and original.
And yet, I struggled with it. The literary style is masterful but doesn't lend itself to extended reading. Mostly I could only tackle one chapter at a time. The descriptive prose is wonderful, but overwhelming when used to this degree in a long work. ( )

Alchemy can be defined as the process of taking something ordinary and transforming it into something extraordinary and, in a nutshell, this captures the essence of Eugen Bacon’s totally enthralling storytelling. Since first being introduced to it when I read Claiming T-Mo (her 2019 debut novel) and then my subsequent reading of various collections of her short stories and other novels, I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate her eloquent, lyrical and passionate use of language, her portrayals of convincing, memorable characters, her ability to create stories within stories, to seamlessly blend genres and to inexorably draw me into her fictional world-building.
These previous experiences meant that not only was I feeling excited about reading Mage of Fools, but that my expectations were already high! So, I’ve been delighted to discover that not only has she lost none of her magic touch, but I think that this is her finest novel yet. As I think the publisher’s synopsis gives enough clues to intrigue potential readers, I don’t want to risk introducing spoilers by going into too much detail about how the story unfolds so will focus my reflections on what made it such a rewarding, and enchanting, a read for me.
The story is divided into eight sections (Prologue, Jasmin, Ujamaa [the omnipresent corporation which controls all aspects of life for the citizens of Mafinga] The Royal Household, Atari, The Resistance, Denouement and Epilogue) and each of the main sections is divided into short chapters. I found that this construction worked very effectively to tell Jasmin’s story through a gradual portrayal of the background to the horrors she, her children and fellow-citizens are facing in the dark, dystopian world of Mafinga. Although it’s clear from the beginning of the story that Atari, the mysterious sorcerer, is an all-powerful, malign character who wields enormous influence over the king, it isn’t until more than halfway through the story, that the reader discovers who he is and how he ended up in Mafinga. In less confident hands this sudden switch from sections which had Jasmin at their heart, to one in which she didn’t appear, could have felt disruptive but instead felt perfectly timed.
The tension-inducing two-page prologue begins at a future point in Jasmin’s story before pausing to rewind and offer snapshots of what has already happened and what is yet to come. This powerful and intriguing introduction immediately drew me into her world, the remaining chapters kept me there and, finally, the one-page epilogue served as a reminder that good stories can never truly end because the reader will continue to wonder what the future holds for the characters.
Brave, resourceful Jasmin is a wonderful character who, even though she struggles to remember what life was like before, and is still mourning the loss of her husband Godi, is determined to continue using his now forbidden story machine to remind herself, and tell her much-cherished children, stories of a better world. I loved all the literary allusions which threaded their way through the storytelling, the blend of contemporary literature with ancient folklore providing a reminder that storytelling is ageless and serves many functions. The descriptions of her interactions with four-year-old Omar, in his ‘all-over flying dragon jammies’, and two-year-old Mia in her two-piece unicorn ones, provided not only some delightful moments of lightness, but also served as a reminder of the lengths a mother will go to protect her children.
Although the author’s dystopian world of Mafinga is an imaginary one, much of the power of her story lies in the fact that, with its depictions of a totalitarian regime which pays lip-service to equality whilst practising menticide (be warned, some of the descriptions of the brutality employed to control the population and discourage rebellion are truly horrific), of the devastating effects of climate change, of the inequalities in society (most of the citizens are living in shipping-containers whilst a small, elite group enjoys a life of palatial luxury), it is a depressingly recognisable one.
The marketing categories are listed as ‘Afrofuturist, fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction and dystopian’ but whilst it’s true that there are elements of all these genres in Eugen Bacon’s novel, it’s the creative skill with which she weaves them together which make this such an affecting story to read. Yes, it’s dark and disturbingly brutal at times but it’s not without moments of humour, hope and a belief that a better future is possible and I have no hesitation in recommending it. If you’re already familiar with the author’s writing you’ll need no persuading but if you aren’t, I think Mage of Fools would make good introduction to her captivating storytelling. ( )

I did not enjoy this book. I thought some elements of the dystopia worldbuilding were very interesting, but overall I was just bored reading it. I never connected with any of the characters, and even though it is short, I struggled to get through it. I would not recommend it. ( )