“I am the secret they tried to maim; I am the secret back from the dead.”

“Womb City” is a stunning portrayal of Afro-futurist sci-fi. I wish I could end the review there because it’s the only thing I’m confident in explaining. With touches of Octavia Butler and George Orwell, Tlotlo Tsamaase’s debut (full-length) novel came out kicking and screaming. The horrors of surveillance, misogyny, and power blend around a sinister, duplicitous plot. Excellent world building, reliable sci-fi thematic elements, a ghost or two, and body horror galore drive the plot forward into an earth-shattering ending.

Reader beware: there is a content notice on the copyright page of the book and I’d recommend taking a peek at that before committing. This wasn’t the roughest ride I’ve had but I was absolutely taken by surprise at Tsamaase’s attention to detail, as gruesome as it was.

The narrative got repetitive but that could very well be narrowed down to cultural storytelling differences, not a non-negotiable and I really liked the author’s style. Characters don’t need to be likable, they don’t even need to be dependable, but sympathy goes a long way and I ended up becoming resentful towards the protagonists for a good portion of the story. This was a hard story to read for a lot of different reasons, but the plot and characters being mercurial as hell did not help.

3.5/5 At the very least, with this debut full-length novel, “Womb City” ricochets Tsamaase light years ahead of xer sci-fi peers.