Tochi Onyebuchi's 'War Girls' Is A 'Black Panther'-Inspired Sci-Fi Novel

Marvel’s Oscar-winning Black Panther was a cultural phenomenon and a massive win for representation, but more importantly, it has unprecedentedly made room in the mainstream sci-fi and fantasy genre for more stories by and for black people.

Acclaimed Nigerian-American author, Tochi Onyebuchi, has written an immersive, action-packed, deeply personal novel inspired by Black Panther, called War Girls.

(Photo: Tochi Onyebuchi)

War Girls is set in a futuristic, Wakanda-esque version of Nigeria, and here is the official synopsis:

“Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria.

The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.

In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.

Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.

And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there.”

Onyebuchi already earned acclaim for his 2017 debut dystopian fantasy novel, Beasts Made of Night, and its 2018 follow-up, Crown of Thunder, so we have no doubt that War Girls will be a masterpiece – it already sounds like it would make an amazing movie.

War Girls is out October 15, 2019, but you can read an excerpt from the first chapter here; and then pre-order the novel here.