HBO has optioned sci-fi fantasy novel Who Fears Death to develop as a series, with George R.R. Martin attached to executive produce, according to the book’s author Nnedi Okorafo.

Okorafo tweeted the news this morning. HBO would not confirm, and we hear no deals have closed.

My novel WHO FEARS DEATH has been optioned by @HBO & is now in early development as a TV series with George RR Martin as executive producer. pic.twitter.com/POF7Dj2hWP — Nnedi Okorafor, PhD (@Nnedi) July 10, 2017

DAW

Who Fears Death, published in 2010 by DAW, an imprint of Penguin Books, is set in a fictionalized post-apocalyptic future version of Sudan, where the light-skinned Nuru oppress the dark-skinned Okeke. The protagonist, Onyesonwu (Igbo for “who fears death”), is an Ewu, the child of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru man. On reaching maturity, she goes on a quest to defeat her sorcerous father Daib using her magical powers.

The book received the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award “for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity.” Okorafor followed Who Fears Death with a prequel, The Book of Phoenix, published by DAW in 2015.

As Game of Thrones heads into its final two seasons, Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire book series, is involved in the planned GoT spinoffs currently in development at HBO. Nightflyers, a supernatural thriller based on Martin’s novella and the 1987 film, also has received a pilot order at Syfy.