From screenplay to top 10: how The God Weaver found its readers

ABUJA, Nigeria: When Duke Terry Gbande’s The God Weaver book was launched at XL Creative Hub, the debate in the room was about artificial intelligence. The book now ranks No. 10 on Amazon’s African Myths & Legends best sellers list, which suggests readers are engaging with the work itself.

The novel grew out of a screenplay by Tejiri Awanovwe, also titled The God Weaver, and is a novelisation of that film story. Gbande, an AI prompt engineer, wrote it using AI as a tool, a method he and his fellow panellists discussed openly at the live podcast hosted by JustBarny.

The story follows Omolara, a self-made fashion designer estranged from her family’s mysterious heritage. A forgotten dress changes her best friend’s fortunes, and the friends must weigh the cost of what they have been offered.

Its mythological spine invites comparison with Children of Blood and Bone, the forthcoming Hollywood film. Both stories draw on Oshun mythology, the Yoruba tradition of the goddess of rivers, love and abundance. The film will bring that world to a global cinema audience, and The God Weaver offers readers a Nigerian perspective on the same tradition.

The launch panel argued that the writer, not the machine, owns the story’s emotional life. Poet and journalist Dr Emman Usman Shehu said AI learns from existing patterns, while the writer’s decisions give a familiar structure its meaning. “You do not surrender your creativity to the machine,” he said. Lawyer and performance poet James Eneojile said the personal experience behind a work is what allows readers to connect with it. “The problem is not AI itself, but the use of AI,” he said. Entrepreneur Ani Ugochukwu Bob described AI as an aid to his thinking, with professional judgement still required for major decisions.

The Amazon ranking shows that a work shaped with AI can still reach readers when human voice and judgement remain in charge. For XL Creative Hub, it also shows a story moving from screenplay to page and, in time, back to the screen.