📘⚙️ BOOK REVIEW O'CLOCK! ⚙️📘
🏭Title: City of Factories ✍️Author: Naomi Eselojor 🌬️Genre: Speculative fiction Book length (number of chapters): 10 Chapters + Epilogue 📜Tropes (at least 3): African steampunk, historical, colonial allegory 🤳Format read: E-book (Epub) 💫Star rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⚠️Content warnings: War and oppression 🗓️Publication date: October 2026 🗂️Publisher: Ruadan Books
Plot Very fresh and imaginative yet immersive. Imagine living in an alternative 1859 steampunk Nigeria where automaton soldiers raid your quiet fishing village, execute your chief, and drag your father away to serve an oppressive empire! Poor Alabi lives this reality. Nine years later, Alabi, now eighteen-year-old, hear a rumour that his inventor father is still alive in the brutal City of Factories. Given a strict 60-day travel permit (where overstaying means his mother gets thrown in prison), Alabi heads straight into the heart of the empire, is pulled into an underground resistance, and fights against time to bring his father home.
Cover and interior design The character art of Alabi captures his background and humble beginnings so well. While I wished the background showed off more of the high-octane steampunk vibe, it still looks super neat! As for the interior formatting, scene separators are as industrial wheel cogs, which fit the mechanical theme so seamlessly.
Characters The main character, Alabi, undergoes an extraordinary growth arc, maturing from a naive boy who believed the world revolved around a simple life into a courageous liberator confronting harsh realities. Korede, Alabi's father, is a complex "victim of necessity" whose difficult choices reflect the desperate sacrifices one can sometimes be forced to make. Justice for Imadi, Alabi's mother, whose heartbreakingly resilient personality added a deep emotional weight to Alabi’s journey. And to the chilling villain initially thought to be immortal or entirely robotic, Queen Mother, her cryptic warnings at the end hint at even darker forces on the horizon.
Settings From the coastal fishing village of Itu Agan to the bustling City of Factories and the Benin Kingdom, the world-building is deeply atmospheric and transported me into a vivid world that scintillated my senses. Every page immersed me in steam, clanking metal, and machine-like precision.
Writing style I loved how intense, descriptive, and brilliantly structured the writing style is. The author weaves clever narrative loops—starting and ending the story with steamboat inventions and ticking countdown timers—giving the story a deeply satisfying climax.
Themes This book explores colonial subjugation, the cost of tyranny, empathy as resistance, and the realization that adored parents can be flawed humans. Alabi’s frustrations and triumphs deeply relatable.
Overall verdict Anyone who loves Africanfuturism, steampunk, or stories of resistance against dystopian governments like I do will deeply appreciate this book. If you loved books like Noor by Nnedi Okorafor, or movies like Arcane, Treasure Planet, Blade Runner, pick up this book and thank me later.