Cover of Akata Warrior

Akata Warrior

core novel 2017 The Nsibidi Scripts

Record

First published2017
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating4.22 (14,746 ratings, collected 2026-09-15)
Page count496
First-edition ISBN9780670785612
Internal chronology2

Synopsis

Akata Warrior takes place about a year after the events of Akata Witch, following thirteen-year-old Sunny Nwazue, now an established member of the secret Leopard society in Aba, Nigeria, alongside her friends Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha. Sunny begins experiencing recurring visions of a burning city and receives an unusual comb from the spirit Mami Wata while out gathering a rare, magically tainted pepper, unsettling signs that something significant is approaching. When she breaks the rules of Leopard society by using magic to frighten men threatening her brother at university, she is sent to confront a djinn in the depths of the Leopard Knocks library as a consequence, a trial that strains her relationship with her strict mentor, Sugar Cream, and with her own father, and draws her spiritual double, Anyanwu, into growing danger.

Where it sits

Awards (verified)

  • Locus Award (Best Young Adult Book), 2018: won; Confirmed via Reactor's (formerly Tor.com) own ceremony announcement post.

Notes

  • From the series record (The Nsibidi Scripts): Complete YA fantasy trilogy set primarily in Aba, Nigeria, following Sunny Nwazue and the magical Leopard People society grounded in Nigerian culture, folklore, and Nsibidi script magic. Akata Witch was published in Nigeria and the UK under the title What Sunny Saw in the Flames.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.

  • Reading order, within the series The Nsibidi Scripts: position 2 of 3: previous Akata Witch (2011) · next Akata Woman (2022)

Sources

← The Nsibidi Scripts dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.