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Only This Once Are You Immaculate
When twins Afya and Aftab, along with their adopted brother Khaled, leave the shelter of a hidden valley, they are astonished by the bustle and noise of the outside world. But beneath this chaos is an order more threatening than bedlam. An army of shadows gathers, looking to break free from the navel of the world, where they have been subdued for hundreds of years. The Keepers of Truth are scattered; the once-powerful Empire is fragmented, its twelve territories now controlled by seven warlords, one of whom has taken control of the region once protected by the Keepers. Surrounded by bright, new discoveries, our innocents are lost in fascination, unprepared for the trials they will encounter, trials that will redefine who they are and what they believe. Blessing Musariri is a stunning new voice, and has created a rich universe, rooted in African landscapes, that recasts the realism of our world in an uncannily resonant new light.
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Published November 18, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 19, 2022
This YA novel revels in the uncanny.
Musariri’s novel leads the reader on a journey that spirals through the voices of four distinct characters in a battle between good and evil. As these characters find themselves in unfamiliar territory facing insurmountable challenges, they also find themselves and their purpose in life. Musariri skillfully uses the character perspectives to make the familiar, unfamiliar, creating moments of introspection for the reader.
While enjoying both an unpredictable adventure story set in an African near future and a deep dive into philosophy, readers contemplate one of the central conundrums of our existence: How is it that we humans are individuals in partnership, that our joy derives from both our individuality and our partnerships?
Readers will find themselves both turning pages to see what happens next and rereading certain passages to consider the world anew.
Musariri’s novel leads the reader on a journey that spirals through the voices of four distinct characters in a battle between good and evil. As these characters find themselves in unfamiliar territory facing insurmountable challenges, they also find themselves and their purpose in life. Musariri skillfully uses the character perspectives to make the familiar, unfamiliar, creating moments of introspection for the reader.
While enjoying both an unpredictable adventure story set in an African near future and a deep dive into philosophy, readers contemplate one of the central conundrums of our existence: How is it that we humans are individuals in partnership, that our joy derives from both our individuality and our partnerships?
Readers will find themselves both turning pages to see what happens next and rereading certain passages to consider the world anew.
March 29, 2023
This was unlike anything I have read before, in both voice and some of the themes. It is categorised on Amazon as fantasy and military/war - I am not sure that fits, exactly! But I don’t know what genre is would be, definitely speculative fiction. Anyway. On one level it is about two innocent (Immaculate) youngsters who have a mission/quest to save mankind from an evil Lord of Shadows and they must journey through a war torn land. On another level it is a story of good against evil. It is also about Being and learning who you truly are, that a Soul goes on towards some type of Enlightenment through various Journeys. There is a lot of spirituality, mysticism and philosophy but done in a way that although it is not light reading it is not too deep and heavy either. It was well worth the read and interesting to immerse myself in a different culture and way of seeing things.
December 6, 2022
“Every traveller begins his journey in the Valley of Souls; the very first gift of new life. It is only this once he is Immaculate.” So we are told in the first chapter “The Beginning.” From then on narration is in four hands. Those of Azad, whose emergence from the Primary Cycle identified him as a spirit keeper, so therefore guardian to Immaculate travellers; of twins Aftab and Afya, Immaculate travellers at first inseparable and acting as one but later forced apart (they also have the ability to be so still they can avoid being seen;) and of their adopted brother Khaled, a Foundling, brought back to the valley through its single entrance/exit from a previous journey by the twins’ Uncle Azad.
Immaculate travellers are on their first journey, Foundlings’ journeys are renewed and redirected. There are other travellers - Intermediaries, Interconnectors, Meanderers, Sleepwalkers, Interruptors, Interlopers and Infiltrators - whose particular characteristics are enumerated in a kind of glossary. Part of the mythology of the background here involves the Uunu who know “the way of the Human, Being, Ancient Traveller. All Ancients are the guardians of the secrets of being, the last custodians of the pathway to the true Valley of Souls.”
Our narrators are on a quest, then, with Afya and Aftab having particular significance since they each carry hidden about their bodies a certain type of powerful stone.
In this scenario an Empire has fallen some time ago and the land is divided into Seven Territories over which various Generals rule, and squabble. It is through this landscape of potential conflict that Azad, Afya, Aftab and Khaled set out on their journey. The stones have importance as one of the Generals is keen to acquire them. On the travellers’ way they experience various hiccups, their trip on the ship the Nairobi Queen (which is captained by a woman called Wangui,) is hijacked by Kasim, the son of General Demissie, as a result of which the twins are separated, then they fall into the protection of perhaps the most interesting character, Zinhle, daughter of General Dingane, who is keen to impress on her father that, as leader of the Sons of Kalano, she is worthy of serving at his side, by way of winning the Donga torunament at Ishunka.
The fantastical adornments of all this are somewhat at odds with the main thrust of the narratives which are for the most part resolutely familiar in form, with the technology totally recognisable - motor vehicles, guns and ships are not described as in any way different from those of our present day. There is a prefatory map of the setting which appears to be the area taking in the Horn of Africa but barring one mention of the Gulf of Aden (and the name Nairobi Queen) the geography might as well be invented. The setting’s relationship to our time as readers is also undetermined; it could be the future, a completely different timeline but is more likely an outright fantasy world.
References to Bereko Mountain as the cradle of mankind, the navel of the world, might be a reflection of historical reality but the star ruby, whoever possesses which has the power not only to conjure up beings from other worlds but also the power to send them back; Infiltrators as mortal beings simply travelling at a different frequency, and so, as a result, difficult to see; the tree at Uunu guarding the entry to the vault of the Ancients’ power of Banishment, to which the Uunu, Custodians of the way, were granted the secrets and so managed to banish the Infiltrators once before; and that a second banishment will destroy all portals, all lie more in the fantastical sphere. Time itself is somewhat fluid; occasionally Azad harks back to a previous journey involving Hiro, Riitho and Anahita, of whom Kasim, Azad and Wangui are reincarnations (of a sort.)
Musariri’s approach is manifestly African, rightly making little or no concession to other literary traditions. Her background as a poet is often in evidence but her decision to structure the narrative in short chapters seen from four different viewpoints at times tends to hinder its flow. Her totally human characters are well drawn but those with fantastical attributes can suffer from that genre’s inherent tendency to lack of full roundness. As an overall vision, though, Only This Once You Are Immaculate is notable.
Immaculate travellers are on their first journey, Foundlings’ journeys are renewed and redirected. There are other travellers - Intermediaries, Interconnectors, Meanderers, Sleepwalkers, Interruptors, Interlopers and Infiltrators - whose particular characteristics are enumerated in a kind of glossary. Part of the mythology of the background here involves the Uunu who know “the way of the Human, Being, Ancient Traveller. All Ancients are the guardians of the secrets of being, the last custodians of the pathway to the true Valley of Souls.”
Our narrators are on a quest, then, with Afya and Aftab having particular significance since they each carry hidden about their bodies a certain type of powerful stone.
In this scenario an Empire has fallen some time ago and the land is divided into Seven Territories over which various Generals rule, and squabble. It is through this landscape of potential conflict that Azad, Afya, Aftab and Khaled set out on their journey. The stones have importance as one of the Generals is keen to acquire them. On the travellers’ way they experience various hiccups, their trip on the ship the Nairobi Queen (which is captained by a woman called Wangui,) is hijacked by Kasim, the son of General Demissie, as a result of which the twins are separated, then they fall into the protection of perhaps the most interesting character, Zinhle, daughter of General Dingane, who is keen to impress on her father that, as leader of the Sons of Kalano, she is worthy of serving at his side, by way of winning the Donga torunament at Ishunka.
The fantastical adornments of all this are somewhat at odds with the main thrust of the narratives which are for the most part resolutely familiar in form, with the technology totally recognisable - motor vehicles, guns and ships are not described as in any way different from those of our present day. There is a prefatory map of the setting which appears to be the area taking in the Horn of Africa but barring one mention of the Gulf of Aden (and the name Nairobi Queen) the geography might as well be invented. The setting’s relationship to our time as readers is also undetermined; it could be the future, a completely different timeline but is more likely an outright fantasy world.
References to Bereko Mountain as the cradle of mankind, the navel of the world, might be a reflection of historical reality but the star ruby, whoever possesses which has the power not only to conjure up beings from other worlds but also the power to send them back; Infiltrators as mortal beings simply travelling at a different frequency, and so, as a result, difficult to see; the tree at Uunu guarding the entry to the vault of the Ancients’ power of Banishment, to which the Uunu, Custodians of the way, were granted the secrets and so managed to banish the Infiltrators once before; and that a second banishment will destroy all portals, all lie more in the fantastical sphere. Time itself is somewhat fluid; occasionally Azad harks back to a previous journey involving Hiro, Riitho and Anahita, of whom Kasim, Azad and Wangui are reincarnations (of a sort.)
Musariri’s approach is manifestly African, rightly making little or no concession to other literary traditions. Her background as a poet is often in evidence but her decision to structure the narrative in short chapters seen from four different viewpoints at times tends to hinder its flow. Her totally human characters are well drawn but those with fantastical attributes can suffer from that genre’s inherent tendency to lack of full roundness. As an overall vision, though, Only This Once You Are Immaculate is notable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews