Available in the anthology, The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Vol 1.
Having just read Djèlí’s Dead Djinn books and totally enjoyed them, i had no choice in my good book reading avarice but to go hunting for everything i could find by Djèlí and start reading it all in publication order, and you guessed it, Shattering the Spear is, i think, the first story published.
Shattering the Spear seems to me to be based upon an African tribal warrior, in a land that reminds one of those vast pictures of African grasslands. It’s also full of Animist religious ideas, which, being an Animist myself, is really nice to find in a book these days. There’s also some good fight/action scenes, with the same great writing that you find in the Dead Djinn books. In fact, there’s quite a lot packed into this short story.
Next up on the Djèlí list is Skin Magic, but before i get around to that i’ve got a few other writers and their books to catch up with and read first.
