Yesterday was a very special day, a day full of joy and, of course, plenty of fantasy. África Vázquez won the 2026 Minotauro Prize for her novel ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’. A novel written by a woman from Aragon, featuring a remarkable protagonist: a fighter, invincible woman! We are certain it will delight both regular Minotauro readers and new generations of fantasy lovers.
The Minotauro Prize is the prestigious International Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Award from Minotauro Editions, an imprint of Grupo Planeta (Spain). Authors such as Pablo Tébar, Javier Negrete, León Arsenal, and Carlos Sisí are among its winners, and it has established itself as a benchmark in genre literature, being also one of the most lucrative prizes in its category worldwide. This year marks its 20th edition.
What is the novel about?
The embalmer Imet has sworn before the gods to exact revenge. To this end, she will travel to Waset, City of a Hundred Gates and capital of Ta-Mri, determined to infiltrate the court of Pharaoh Nekht-en-sen. But the secrets hidden in the heart of the Nile will not only shake the foundations of an empire. The land rots, plagues arrive, the water harbors unspeakable horrors. And the key to everything seems to lie beyond the land of the living, in the depths of the Underworld.
The award-winning title tells a dark, epic mythological fantasy set in a reimagined Egypt, where a disgraced priestess of the goddess Isis infiltrates the heart of the empire to avenge the dead… and defy the gods. It is a tale of downfall, rage, and redemption in a world where gods walk among men, the dead rise from the river… and a woman with nothing left to lose decides to change the fate of the world with her own hands.
Africa Vázquez brings a new heroine to the ranks of those already created by masters like Ursula K. Le Guin in The Tombs of Atuan and Madeline Miller in Circe. The Shadow of the Black Lotus will be to Egyptian mythology what Circe was to Greece and Rome.
Congratulations, dear África, from your agency team! We are so proud of you.
