Nigerian author Wole Talabi has released his second novel, The Fist of Memory, a science-fiction thriller that follows an encounter with extraterrestrial life through the experiences of a Nigerian assassin and a South African astronomer.
Published in the United States on October 27, 2026, by DAW Books, the 416-page novel follows the international release schedule, with Gollancz publishing the UK edition. Masobe Books is scheduled to release the West African edition on November 16.
A first contact thriller rooted in African memory and myth, The Fist of Memory centres on Tope, a Nigerian assassin employed by a witch doctor known as Baba, whose routine assignment spirals into a global crisis. He is joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, and together they must find a way to survive and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange and motivated assassin obsessed with a single memory.
The Fist of Memory follows Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, published in 2023 by DAW Books and Gollancz, which won the 2024 Nommo Award for Best Novel and the 2024 Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel. It was also shortlisted for the 2023 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2024 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the 2024 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. His short fiction is collected in the books Convergence Problems (2024) and Incomplete Solutions (2019). His writing has earned him the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, the Nommo Award for African speculative fiction, and multiple nominations, including as a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus awards and the Caine Prize for African Writing. He has edited five anthologies, including Africanfuturism and Mothersound.
Click here or here to get your copy of The Fist of Memory. Readers in West Africa can also preorder the book from Masobe Books ahead of its November 16 release here.
