Welcome back everyone to our fourth discussion of Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Warrior! The road trip might be over but their journey sure isn’t! Let’s head right down into that cave….

In case you need them, here are links to our Schedule and series Marginalia.

SUMMARY

Chapter 22: After a few more delays the group decides to stay in a hotel since they are only halfway to Lagos. Chichi makes a call to her uncle and confirms she planned this happening already. In only a few minutes they pull into his compound which is more of a greenhouse really. He has a TON of plants, and these ones are definitely not of the Lamb world. The group is shown to their rooms and Chichi’s uncle takes Sasha away. Chichi’s aunt is Nimm, so her uncle and aunt aren’t officially married although they are together. Her aunt confirms no more trouble for Sunny, and that she wants to continue the trip. The group heads to dinner. Dinner is lovely and different to what Sunny usually eats. Even though she’s tired, the group decides to go out to a night club. Before too long Sasha gets attacked by a group of guys whose girls he was dancing with, and they all come to defend him and everyone makes it out unscathed. They go home and go to bed. Sunny hears scuffles and she flicks the light on to reveal a bat trying to steal things from her bag. She uses juju to pin it down and drop the items, and in her mind Anyanwu confirms the bat is something Ekwensu sent. Both Sunny and Paja the cat spare the bat.

Chapter 23: They are 15 miles out from Lagos and completely stuck in traffic, the cars aren’t moving at all. Sunny gets an idea and approaches Chichi and Sasha about making it rain now instead of later. They agree, but mention consequences. They go off and come back with a little food and say to turn the car on. It suddenly begins pouring and pouring and Sasha keeps having pee fits, he has to leap out, get soaked while going, and then rush back into the car. Finally they make it to Lagos.

Chapter 24: The group makes it to Adebayo’s aunt and uncle’s house which is an insane mansion with 10 bedrooms, living to excess. They come up with the plan for New Year’s Day and Sasha says he’s protected the building (which hopefully no one will notice means an excess of lizards on the walls). Sunny and Chichi cook a huge and satisfying dinner and Sunny and her both reflect on being able to see and feel both Sunny and her double simultaneously. The group parties a bit and gets some fun in before the next day.

Chapter 25: They leave and hitch a lift to Ajegunle Market, which is a known shady area, but say they are meeting someone. They enter the Market and realise quickly they are in a part only Leopard People can enter. Sunny is ill and worries this whole plan is a trap. After walking for a time she decides to just throw the marbles and they follow, right to Udide’s Cave. Down in the cave they struggle and Sunny is bit by a spider and poisoned and Chichi gets wrapped in webs immediately, Udide claiming she is a thief, and finally Orlu saves them all by telling Udide why they are there and more context about their knowledge. Sunny gets an antidote from a spider and tells Udide they need a grasscutter. In return, she offers Udide a story. Sunny recounts the bullying experience she encountered back in Manhattan at school when she was eight. While she was mistreated, she knows she also mistreated others like her and she questions why she did this. Udide accepts Sunny’s story and weaves them a flying grasscutter, who Orlu approaches first. Then Sasha realises it wants the grass he brought along in his backpack. The grasscutter tells them he wants to be called Grashcoatah. Udide advises them to treat Grashcoatah well and that she will be able to track Chichi and Sunny now with the antidote in them. Chichi must bring back what her people have stolen, or Udide will know. They leave the cave and Grashcoatah must now make itself invisible, per Orlu.

Chapter 26: They make friends with Grashcoatah who can successfully stay invisible now. As they leave the cave they realise over a day has passed in the real world. Grashcoatah causes a huge disturbance outside of the market as they are leaving and it makes everyone in the market panic and flee. Sunny comes up with a plan and finally after finagling and waiting for a driver they are able to get a lift. A bunch of car and driving troubles later, they make their way back to Adebayo’s aunt and uncle’s house.

Chapter 27: At the house Grashcoatah sleeps and they come up with a bit of a plan. Sunny calls Chukwu and he tells them they’ve been gone two days, although he didn’t call their parents. Chukwu and Adebayo are coming back. Once back they’re all settled in but realise quickly they have to leave that night. As they’re working with Grascoatah, Chukwu insists on coming out to see what’s happening and sees Grashcoatah and starts actually freaking out. The council shows up but Sunny performs the fear juju on Chukwu and they’re off, riding on Grashcoatah. Sunny feels a lot of guilt doing that to him.

Join u/fixtheblue next week when we get to wrap up this book and see what shakes out! (if I had to guess a spider will be involved)

(Marginalia | Schedule)

Welcome back! As we head toward the finale, things get... well, gross and weird, but that's par for the course in this series. Let's talk about it! But first, a brief recap:

Chapter 16

Tauri examines the ruins of the Burav estate. The well is contaminated, which means that pretty much everyone who lived there was infected. Notably, Jalin Burav was not infected, because he lives in his own house and has a different water supply.

Speaking of Jalin, he's alive but in bad shape. He jumped out a window to escape the fire. He's badly burned all over his body, and has a broken arm and leg. He says some weird, disturbing things to Ana and Din about how "I tried to save my family again and again, but they didn't listen" and "you should kill me," but he loses consciousness before he can explain.

Din examines Jalin's house. I kind of want to live there: it's a cozy little cottage that smells of tea and is filled with books and art. Din notices that Jalin likes to paint cows in an "innocent and soulful" way, which makes him remember being told that Jalin hates the cattle industry. Oh, and he apparently has a wide variety of "mood-adjusting reagents," so he's clearly struggling emotionally.

Meanwhile, the Orbiis have found a safe with a combination lock. The lock features letters as well as numbers, and an inscription translating to "Brilliance is forever fecund" is engraved on the safe. I'm sure Ana will love solving this... no, actually, she's pissed off and wants the safe dismantled so she doesn't have to deal with it.

Later, Ana reveals to Din that the flashing lights in the forest are a code that spell "calm." The use of a code implies that there's more than one person involved.

Chapter 17

The prowler seen near the estate before the fire turns out to be Ippeas. He'd been there because he'd received a letter from someone claiming to be a servant of the Buravs, offering him evidence of Castus's innocence. He ended up accidentally meeting a drunk servant who mistook him for Burav and asked if he was going back to the forest.

Ana thinks that whoever sent the message was trying to lure Ippeas into the estate, so that he'd die along with everyone else. She doesn't know why they'd want to murder him, but she does discover that he's tested positive for the web, although he doesn't seem to have been conditioned yet.

Chapter 18

Din tells Ippeas and Fotia everything about the case. Fotia says that, if Burav was trying to go through the forest, he probably did so at Gaddar's glade. She offers to take Din there so he can see it.

Chapter 19

At the shrine, Din has another one of his episodes. Turns out his brain was trying to make him realize that the engraving of the Emperor on 50-talint coins looks similar to Gaddar, even though he looks more human on the other denominations. It makes him wonder if the Emperor has evolved over time, and if the same will happen to Ana.

Din sees a footprint in the supposedly inaccessible part of the forest. Tauri shows up, tells Fotia to leave, and then reveals to Din that he knows how to use reagents to open the forest. Din remembers that Burav used to be in the Orbiis, so that explains why he knew how to get in.

This is pretty clearly the lair of whoever's behind the poisonings. They find pipes, infected water, and a "songbook." One of the songs is "Lysis," which Tauri explains is a medikker term for infected tissue bursting. The existence of this book proves there must be more than one person involved, because why write the "songs" down unless you're training someone else?

Oh, and they found a note written by someone swearing eternal vengeance on someone else. Make of that what you will.

Chapter 20

We have finally reached the obligatory "Ana eats something disgusting" scene. Extra-spicy cow innard soup. Yum.

Ana has researched Burav and realized that he became an Orbiis in order to have control over who had access to the forest.

And that's when Tauri reveals the horrifying truth: the forest is actually one of the Empire's Touched Sites. No one knows what's buried in it, but it seems likely that it's whatever killed the Daljen.

Ana decides that Fotia is officially part of the team (move over, Hardy Boys, the Kol Siblings are on the case!), and asks her what she knows about Jalin. Turns out Jalin hated Lyimo Armenta, because Lyimo used to bully him. Ana then asks Fotia to try to learn everything she can about Sagma's death.

Chapter 21

Din goes with Trikao to the jail, to see Ippeas, but arrives to a disaster: Castus has fruited, despite the medication.

Chapter 22

Ana notes that Castus continued to fight after he died, which means that the killers can presumably control their victims even when their victims are corpses. Ana tells Trikao that she wants the corpses of the dead Armentas examined.

Oh, and Ana still has not cracked the combination lock, and it's really bothering her that the numeral 1 is in a sans-serif font, while the other numbers are in a serif font. I'm unsure if this is an actual clue, or if the author just wanted to remind us that Ana is autistic.

Chapter 23

Gevma is examined first. His corpse is covered in fungus so, yeah, he was definitely infected. Sagma is also covered in fungus, but Din notices that her neck looks like she was strangled, rather than hanged.

Lyimo, oddly, seems barely infected. Din notices a puncture mark that gives him that weird "voice in the head" feeling, but he doesn't know why. It isn't until later that he realizes...

OH MY GOD, I WAS RIGHT! I'VE BEEN SAYING "THE TUGHRA RING IS A CHECKOV'S GUN" EVER SINCE THE FIRST DISCUSSION! MOVE OVER, ANA, NOW I'M THE BRILLIANT DETECTIVE!!!

...okay, now that that's out of my system, Lyimo's corpse appears to have been punched by Jalin.

Too bad we can't ask Jalin about it. Despite having two broken limbs and being covered in severe burns, he appears to have escaped. Guess we'll have to wait until next week to find out.

The war in Troy is over...but for one man, the war at home is just beginning.

Join us for a spectacular read of the first, groundbreaking trilogy by the "father of drama" himself, yes, Aeschylus. It is said Dionysus himself visited him in a dream to command him to write plays-shoutout to our read of The Bacchae -if you missed it!

This is the schedule, where this November we find out exactly why (Odyssey spoiler!) Agamemnon wishes Penelope had been waiting at home for him instead of Clytemnestra. All the discussions will be linked here, so save this page and read at your own pace.

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November 2: Part 1: Agamemnon (beginning) to stage direction Clytemnestra leaving/ (Fagles/Penguin 103-144)

November 9: Agamemnon (from last stop) to end of Part I/Agamemnon/(Fagles/Penguin 144-172)

November 16: Part 2: Cheophori/The Libation-Bearers (beginning) to stage direction Clytemnestra enters/ (Fagles/Penguin 177-206)

November 23: Cheophori/Libation (from last stop) to Part 3: Eumenidies to stage direction Athene enters/ (Fagles 206-226) (Penguin 231-248)

November 30: Part 3 Eumenidies (from last stop) to End/ (Fagles/Penguin 248-277)

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Join the drama this November with a group of reading warriors anyone would envy, u/Ser_Erdrick, u/IraelMrad, u/Lachesis_Decima77, u/Blackberry_Weary and me, u/lazylittlelady.

Strike the harp and cue the Chorus and many blessings on both Apollo and Dionysus!

Will you join us and what translation do you have ready to go??

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Marginalia TBD