The City of Factories, set in an alternative steampunk Nigeria, is a tale of community sheltering, resistance, and technological responsibility.
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About The City of Factories
1859, Nigeria. In the fishing village of Itu Agan, nine-year-old Alabi and his inventor father test a new steamboat prototype when a platoon of automaton soldiers raid their village. The metal invaders execute the village chief and capture Korede, Alabi’s father, leaving him and his mother alone and devastated.
There is no choice but to accept the new order. All the village boys begin work as fishermen and plantation farmers as soon as they become teenagers and, for nine long years, Alabi must put the promise of invention nurtured in his childhood to rest.
When he discovers that his father Korede is alive, working for the colonizer regime, Alabi is determined to reconnect with him. After years of hard work to obtain a travel permit and with threats of his mother’s imprisonment should he not return in two months, Alabi sails to the city of factories, unprepared for the resistance that is brewing and the adventure that awaits.
The City of Factories is an intense, action-packed novella of community building and sheltering, personal daring and persistence, the longing to reconnect with one’s past, and an enduring tale of resistance. The protagonist discovers the personal responsibility of creation through conflict with colonizers and a geopolitical landscape that highlights technology can be both danger and salvation.
Praise for The City of Factories
In The City of Factories, “Eselojor’s vivid transformation of Apapa into a cacophonous city of factories is enthralling while attentive to the colonial history that bore the real city. If you’re looking for Afrocentric steampunk with earnest and scrappy heroes, in the tradition of Tobi Ogundiran and P. Djélì Clark by way of Arcane, you’ll find it here.”—Suyi Davies Okungbowa, award-winning author of Lost Ark Dreaming and The Nameless Republic trilogy
“Written with a sure voice and masterful pacing, Eselojor’s story of young Alabi seeking to rescue his father from the clutches of oppression highlights the painful and sometimes doomed choices one must make in the face of tyranny. [The City of Factories is] a riveting story from a writer to watch!”—Tobi Ogundiran, British Fantasy and Ignyte Award-winning author of the Guardians of the Gods series
“The City of Factories is a soulful steampunk tale of automation and industrialism, mortality and the cost of our decisions, the search for family, challenging binaries and biases, and resistance.”—Ai Jiang, Ignyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula Award-winning author of Linghun
“The City of Factories is a complex father-son relationship and coming-of-age story ensconced in a larger tale of oppression, resistance, and reclamation. It feels like being pulled into a beautifully vivid, alternate 19th-century world where clockwork and culture mix. The narrative handles massive themes of colonial subjugation and family fracturing with a surprising gentleness and intimacy that keeps you rooted in Alabi’s perspective.”—Somto Ihezue, Nebula finalist and Locus Award-winning author of We Begin Where Infinity Ends
“The City of Factories is a powerful debut, set in a richly crafted world that is as gripping as it is moving. Eselojor’s deft storytelling draws you in and makes it easy to root for the young inventor Alabi, desperate to find his father in a city run by an automaton army. Eselojor takes us on a thrilling ride as Alabi faces a shadowy resistance and a mysterious empire holding its cards close. There are plenty of surprises on the way, and lovers of dystopian steampunk will relish every step of the journey.”—Cheryl S. Ntumy, author of They Made Us Blood and Fury
“If you love Nnedi Okorafor and Naomi Novik, you need to read this book. With The City of Factories, Eselojor puts forth an impressive debut indeed, a powerful steampunk fairy tale that examines colonialism, cultural conflict, and complicity. Ultimately a resistance tale, this novella emphasizes empathy, showing that even a small kindness can be an act of revolution. Once I picked it up, it was incredibly hard to put down. This book is electric.”—Kemi Ashing-Giwa, scientist and USA Today bestselling author of The Splinter in the Sky
About Naomi Eselojor, Author of The City of Factories
Naomi Eselojor is a speculative fiction writer from Nigeria and a global talent migrant endorsed by Arts Council England for her contributions to Africanfuturism. She is the recipient of the 2023 Utopian Award for Short Fiction and the 2024 Wilson Okereke Prize for Short Stories, and has also been a finalist for the Nommo Award as well as nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Ako Caine Prize for African Writing, and Utopian Awards.
Naomi’s works have appeared in Afrofuturism Short Stories, African Ghost Short Stories, 2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction, Omenana Magazine, Lolwe, Hexagon Magazine, Dark Matter Magazine, and elsewhere. Among other programs, Naomi is an alum of the Milford Writer’s Workshop, the Voodoonauts Fellowship, and served as a SprinNG mentor in 2024 and 2025. Most recently, she was selected to run a workshop with the London Writers Centre’s Developing Tutors 2025/2026 season. She resides in the United Kingdom.
You can connect with Naomi Eselojor on her website, Instagram, and Threads.
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Africanfuturist Steampunk Novella | Independent Publishers Group
ISBN Trade Paperback 9781968143206
Pub Date: Oct 13, 2026
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