ARC Review: Black as Diamond by U.M. Agoawike

Black as Diamond is a gem! This is a debut standalone fantasy novel that explores questions around identity, politics, and how the past and power can impact different experiences for a long time.

Bullet points for those short on time:
– debut standalone fantasy
– queer identity & relationships
– quest and “found family” group
– epic world-building
– two magic systems
– indie publisher Bindery
– queer Nigerian-Canadian author
– check trigger warnings

The story begins when Asaru, winged warrior of the eresh keyel, discovers his brother’s squadron disappeared after a curse was unleashed. When investigating in the human world, a bit of the curse infects Asaru. On his path to find his brother, Asaru survives possession, becomes a wanted killer, and is inadvertently bonded through a spell gone wrong to healer-in-training, Wren. Now, they must set out on a quest to find a cure for the curse, find Asaru’s brother, and not get caught by the hunters sent after them…all while unravelling secrets and feelings.

I am loving the unique works of craft and art that Bindery is introducing to the world. This one is no different! It’s fresh, novel, and exciting.  

I enjoyed getting to know the characters most in this book. Each character that comes along as part of the protagonist’s group is unique in terms of motivations, lived experiences, past trauma, and perspectives.

The way some scenes are written was a bit confusing at times, as the writing style made it a little hard to follow what was happening without re-reading back over it.

I think Publisher’s Weekly said it well with “Readers will have to put in work to keep up, but those who do will be rewarded with tantalising bits of lore on every page and a dynamic and devoted central duo.”

I’m not a fan of romance, so I didn’t care too much for these parts, but that’s a personal preference, and I can’t fault the book for it. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for their next fantasy read!

Thank you to Bindery for the eARC via NetGalley for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Content Warnings:

From the author’s website…explicit gore, murder/death, violence, mutilation, corpses, blood, atypical depression, suicidal ideation, depictions of religion and practices, implied sexual content, sex work (mentioned), non-consensual kiss, non-consensual drug use, ethnic discrimination, near drowning, indentured servitude (mentioned), body horror, emesis, excessive alcohol consumption, poison, physical scars, possession.

Book Cover:

Illustration: Christian Chang


Design: Charlotte Strick

About the Author:

The media kit wasn’t working, so here is the bio from the author’s website:

U.M. Agoawike is a queer Nigerian-Canadian author of speculative fiction. They also may or may not be an evil duck. Follow them on BlueSky!

About the Publisher:

Imprint: Run by Jaysen, “Ezeekat Press publishes books that invite readers to escape to other worlds where they might find new friends, family, and adventure.”

Bindery: “Bindery is a membership platform for tastemakers of the book world to cultivate community, champion the authors and stories that matter to them, and earn a sustainable income doing so from the most passionate members of their audience. Tastemakers with larger communities, upon invitation, may open a publishing imprint that surfaces new books by authors their communities will love. Bindery partners with the tastemaker to design their imprint brand, solicit submissions, and manage editorial, design, printing, publicity, and distribution everywhere books are sold.”

They offer a standard $10k advance and higher royalty rates relative to most traditional publishers.

Does Bindery’s contract include AI protections?
Yes. We believe strongly in the human arts of curation and creation and are here to support artists. We will never use AI-generated art, narration, or text in our books, nor will our materials be offered for machine learning. Our contracts reflect the Author’s Guild recommended protections in this area.

That being said by Bindery, their backer Baukunst invests heavily in startups and companies applying AI (71%). Do with this knowledge what you will. I will still support Bindery since the company doesn’t use AI and I want to see more of the books they are publishing out in the world. But, I will endeavor to support more other indie publishers that don’t have venture capitalist firms backing them which support AI use…

Also Baukunst prides themselves the “high” number of female founded startups at 43%. While this may be on the higher end of the industry, I would say, do better. With intention, this number could be 100% if a firm really wanted it to be. Also they don’t mention other marginalized communities being backed or supported in their demographics so is it mostly white founders they are supporting? Where are those stats of theirs? Of course, there’s always a reason why certain things are published and others are not. I’ll leave it there.

Bindery is backed by Baukunst, a collective of creative technologists advancing the art of building companies at the frontiers of technology and design, along with strategic angel investors from the book publishing and tech worlds.