Combining the political intrigue of She Who Became the Sun with the gorgeous world-building of Children of Blood and Bone, BIRTH OF A DYNASTY is the start of a thrilling epic fantasy trilogy centered around three families’ fight for power in Ahkebulin, a land where magic is feared, giants are real, and prophecy holds sway.
BIRTH OF A DYNASTY
by Chinaza Bado
Harper Voyager, July 2025
(via Nancy Yost Literary)
We shall not forgive. We shall not forget. We will have our vengeance.
After witnessing the massacre of everyone he’s ever known and loved, M’Kuru Mukundi, the sole surviving member of the High Noble House Mukundi of Madada, vows revenge. M’kuru flees to a small village where he hides under the guise of farm boy Khalil Rausi… unaware that the real Khalil’s father is the bloodthirsty General of Zenzele army, and under the direction of the King’s scheming son, Prince Effiom, was responsible for the murder of M’kuru’s people. When an imposter claiming to be M’kuru shows up in the village, the real M’kuru—now Khalil—must bide his time amongst his enemies, pretending to be everything that he hates in order to get vengeance.
In another part of the country where giants roam free, young Zikora Nnamani, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, knows nothing of political intrigue—she wants little more than to be a fierce Seh Llinga warrior. But a well-known prophecy places too much potential power on her small shoulders, and—as far as Prince Effiom and the King know—she is the only living threat to their dynasty ruling forever. However, when a messenger arrives to “invite” Zikora to stay at the palace, her family is not in a position to refuse. Before she is taken away, she begins The Rite of Blessing, a magical inheritance that she will need to learn how to use, but that may also bring the world one step closer to the completion of the prophecy that Prince Effiom so fears.
Between scheming ladies at court, backstabbing princes on the prowl, and paranoid kings, M’kuru and Zikora must do what they can, no matter how terrible, to save their people and claim vengeance for their families. But they are just two young people against an entire kingdom—and a prophecy destined to thwart their dreams—and the last thing they can do is trust anyone…even each other.
Chinaza Bado was born in Canada but is a daughter of a father from Obizi Mbaise in Imo state and mother from Okija in Anambra, both of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. The Igbo people are located in the Southeastern region of Nigeria. She grew up listening not only to stories of great Igwe’s, Eze’s, Obi’s, travelers, and native rulers, but also of myths and legends from all across the world.
Our dauntless heroine wakes up cold, filthy and naked in Kair Toren, a city in the kingdom of Rellas, a world she knows intimately from the pages of a famously unfinished epic-historical-fantasy series she’s been reading, re-reading (and reading again!), while waiting (years!) for the final novel.
Screenwriter Molly Marks is a love cynic, despite the fact that she writes rom-com screenplays for a living. She thought ghosting her high school boyfriend, Seth, was the end of her chance at love—until a 15-year reunion sets something in motion that some would call fate—but absolutely not Molly Marks.