The Chronicles of the Countless Clans
by Cheryl S. Ntumy
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted April 15, 2026
Book One: They Made Us Blood and Fury
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I received a free ebook of this title direct from Rosarium Publishing, so thanks go out to the author, as well as Bill Campbell and Gina Gagliano at Rosarium. I have been reading more fantasy lately, and I find similarities in many books since there are a lot of retellings of fairy tales, myths, and legends from various cultures. With some a quick search might reveal the origin of the story, or meanings of names, or places. Sometimes the only results are for the book in question, but not this time. This book started slow for me because it was different than anything else I have read, with only a few things that came up as search results. One was a food, fufu, another I was vaguely aware of. Harmattan is a dry and dusty northeasterly wind from the Sahara towards West Africa during winter months. I think the nomads depicted, wandering traders who regularly return to the Sandlands, are patterned after the Bedouin or similar group. I found a couple of places in or near Ghana, where the author lives, but their histories are most likely the product of Ntumy's imagination.
For instance, the Anyi people are an historical group from southwestern Ghana, and their traditional system of governance is similar to how it is here. From Wikipedia: "[The Anyi] society is governed by chiefs and local headmen supported by councils of elders." I think Ntumy uses the term "Fia" to mean the chief or headman, or one of the members of the council. However, the Anyi are not as depicted in the novel. They have a different blood type, silvery-blue in color, as opposed to the "red bloods" all around them. There is a second book, originally self-published but now out of print, that will fill in some of the gaps of the region's history, but this new edition from Rosarium needs to do well in order for the second to be published. I wish I could start reading They Gave Us Stealth and Cunning right away. All Anyi have the silver blood, but only their Queen produces lifeblood, which has magical properties, as well as being used for medicines and other things, including fashioning into thread for fabrics, and forging weapons. From the very first page one of the lifeblood bearers is introduced, Dzifa, who I suspect will play a larger role in the second book. She is in later scenes too, but she is young, easily distracted, constantly saying the wrong things, and making mistakes that lead to trouble for herself and others. She is not the only one to make mistakes, but more on that later.
The word clan is used in two different ways, meaning a distinct group or tribe of people, but also indicating their village. Since they are "countless" I don't know how many unique clans there are. Only a handful are mentioned: Anyi of course, which may represent modern day Anyinam in southeast Ghana; Notsie (a town in Togo, east of Ghana); Duku (Nigeria); Selorm (a neighborhood in Accra). I guess Ka and Gbota are fictional. The myth of the Anyi said the gods bestowed gifts to all, but one woman was overlooked. The many clans grew envious of their neighbors, warring over the gifts that each had been given, spilling the red blood of other clans. Then the woman who had not been given a gift is found, and killed, her blood being silver. The people remembered their gift of red blood was meant to unite them, so they called a truce among the clans. When they returned to bury the woman all they found was a pool of silver-blue blood. A new clan rose up from that pool and built a city around it. At the beginning of this story Ka is the most powerful, with other clans under their protection, but there are still animosities between them. Anyi had shared their lifeblood with other clans, but otherwise remained distant from the others. Then problems arise within Anyi. The Queen is producing less lifeblood, the level of the reservoir lower and lower each day. The Queen is dying, but never in their history has a Queen died without their successor maturing into position. The Diviewe, the triplet daughters, are not prepared, or at least the council thinks they are not.
Without going into more details about the plot I will mention the main characters, several of whom do not know of the provenance of their powers. Aseye is an Anyi brought to Ka at the age of ten to work with the court's armorer. She is now twenty. Odeneho is the armorer, with Donkor apprenticed to him and to Aseye. Kwame is the Kahene's aide. He is from elsewhere too, but what he thinks is his home clan is not exactly correct. I think the last four letters of Kahene mean king or emperor or similar title. His Queen is Akosua. Back in Anyi the council of Elders are Fia Kofi, the clan leader who spoke for the people, Mamiga, the Soul Mother who spoke for the gods, and the three Diviewe, who spoke for the Queen. Another is Fafa, Aseye's adoptive father, who had trained her in her youth, although neither understood the full extent of the training, and the process entailed removing Aseye's memories. Remember when I said Dzifa was not the only one to make mistakes? Something occurs toward the end, when Mamiga follows the directions of the gods to journey to the dark and mysterious Nubueke forest. Avlega, the hunter goddess, confesses to Mamiga that she had made mistakes, one of those being what Aseye was trained for, as well as conspiring with Senanu, the first Anyi Queen, to hide some of the clan's history.
This ends on a major cliffhanger, so I hope I get to read the second book soon. I have inquired with the author and Rosarium but haven't received a reply yet. Please check the purchase links above. The paperback is reasonably priced, and while no ebook is listed yet, Amazon offers the audio book. No matter how ingenious the plot and the mythology, the major strength is the characters, their motivations and desires, plus their internal struggles as they try to unravel what they had always thought was the truth. Highly recommended.
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