speculative fiction author, certified Blerd, fanfiction sommelier, lapslock aficionado, and staunch defender of comic sans.

Dangerous Magic Beckons

IN BOOKSTORES
MARCH 3, 2026

A fresh, dark, and thrilling debut that untangles questions of queer identity, history, and power, illuminating a society crushed by the lingering actions of a few.

Cover of Black As Diamond. The cover depicts a jagged dark blue gem sprouting from the bottom right with a twisted tree and tower embedded in it, and two white birds in the top left. Golden text for the title, white text for the author's name.
Cover of Black As Diamond. The cover depicts a jagged dark blue gem sprouting from the bottom right with a twisted tree and tower embedded in it, and two white birds in the top left. Golden text for the title, white text for the author's name.

Illustration: Christian Chang
Design: Charlotte Strick

A cursed warrior. A reckless healer. A chance to save the world—or destroy it.

Like the rest of the winged eresh keyel, warrior Asaru has spent his life fighting a long-dead enemy. When his brother’s squadron disappears from a border keep, Asaru travels into the human realm to investigate, only to become ensnared by a fatal—and unbreakable—curse that could wipe out his people.When he inadvertently commits a terrible crime, Asaru is thrown into the path of Wren, a former healer-in-training playing with dangerous magic. Bound to one another by a spell gone wrong, and on the run from freelance killers, they set out to find the Chronicler, who could bring them answers, redemption, and the cure to Asaru’s curse. But the secrets they uncover about the past have the power to break the world into pieces, ending human civilization and settling its remnants into something entirely new.

Now available to preorder:

Praise for Black as Diamond

“Black as Diamond is haunting and ethereal, balanced with the warmth of found family. This is a cast of characters you are bound to fall in love with as they fumble their way toward one another, seeking connection in a world that is falling apart.”

—Andrea Stewart, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Bone Shard Daughter

“Cast against a dark, lush world of intricate magic and dynamic characters, Black as Diamond is a fantasy of epic proportions.”

—C. S. Pacat, author of the Captive Prince Trilogy

“U. M. Agoawike combines truly epic world building and breathtaking action to create a wholly original, harrowing dark fantasy. Black as Diamond is a gut punch of a debut novel.”

—Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief

“With vivid prose, bone-rattling action, and a queer romance as tender as it is thunderous, Black as Diamond is a dark fantasy gem from the glittering heart of the genre.”

—Sophia Slade, author of Nightstrider

Read More

“This is the sort of fantasy I love. Layered, detailed world building, lush prose, lovable but flawed found family, and a central magical mystery tying it all together. Black as Diamond is a triumph!”

—M. H. Ayinde, author of A Song of Legends Lost



“A wickedly original epic fantasy bound by the familiar threads of friendship, family, and fate. Agoawike's masterful worldbuilding is in rare balance with characters who shine bright within a world where nobody quite fits, and nothing is as it seems. Dark but boldly hopeful, Black as Diamond is fantasy at its most brilliant!”

—Fiona Fenn, author of The Crack at the Heart of Everything

Artwork

Explicit gore, death, graphic violence, fight scenes, loss of limb, mutilation, descriptions of corpses, blood, bloodletting, nosebleeds, atypical depression, suicidal ideation, depictions of religion and religious practices, implied sexual content, sex work (mentioned), non-consensual kiss, non-consensual drug use, ethnic discrimination, near drowning, indentured servitude (mentioned), body horror, emesis, excessive alcohol consumption, poison, scars from poison

Short Fiction

Forthcoming

  • "Itsy Bitsy." Kaleidotrope.

  • "Family Will Eat You Alive." Consumed anthology.

  • "Divinity, Abloom." Tales and Feathers.

  • "Belletristic Lover." Baffling.

"Tapetum Lucidum." Augur Magazine Issue 8.3.

We often went to Darkwood to swim in the creek by the cottage.

"Teeth Sharper Than Moonlight." Blood, Sweat, & Queers anthology.

The damsel fled from the beast under the full moon's sentinel eye.

"Allomorphosis." White Wall Review Issue 54.

“Take off your skin and let me crawl inside you,” Bell, the alien, said as it unzipped its skin-tight body con dress.

"When The World Will End..." Saros Issue 3.

The technology that remains will be more flesh than metal.

[Khrysoverse]

Media

U.M. Agoawike

is a queer Nigerian-Canadian author of speculative fiction. they write short stories with vibes for plot and SFFH novels featuring everything but the kitchen sink.when not writing, they can be found reading fanfiction, watching horror movies, or playing video games.Black as Diamond is their debut novel.they also may or may not be a duck.

A fat round duck with bright orange feet and a bright orange bill

Get in touch!

For publishing inquiries, contact Emily Forney at BookEnds Literary