Rosewater

My default stance in life is ‘Meh,’ which infuriates my children, but it's pretty hard to get a rise out of me because I've seen some shit.

Nigeria is such a dysfunctional country full of laughter, sunshine, secrets, and puppeteers; it made everything in this book seem feasible. Like, if you stretch my country out like taffy we'd get to a mad stage that everyone would still shrug off and accept.

It validated the heck out of me, let me tell you. 

Rosewater is the first book of the Wormwood Trilogy. This adult science fiction story takes place in the decades after a massive alien lifeform dubbed Wormwood lands on Earth and infects Earth (and humanity) with fungal artificial lifeforms that leave some people “sensitive” – able to read thoughts, find objects, and see the future.

Thompson’s narrator, Kaaro, is a sensitive who was once a thief but now works for a secret agency inside the Nigerian Government. Rosewater is non-linear – it jumps back and forth between different moments in Kaaro’s life. This lets Thompson directly contrast young Kaaro’s narration with… show more.

This is an amazing Sci-Fi cyberpunk feeling book. Is it African futurism? I suppose so, but you get swept up in this book so quickly that really its category becomes irrelevant. On one level you could say it’s an alien invasion novel, except the alien arrived before the story started and you’re piecing together clues of this alien mind, what it wants, is it a goody or a baddy, or either. Unpicking it all with us is our last great hope for humanity, Kaaro, the least likely hero and the least willing to be a hero if he can help… show more.

Multiple award-winning Rosewater had me hooked from the start: a fungal network of alien lifeforms that allows the protagonist Kaaro access to others’ minds? Sold! Connectivity is such a huge issue in today’s world. Yes, please! A topiary labyrinth that acts as a hideout? So cool! Africanfuturism/biopunk/romance based in Yoruba culture? I am here for it! The prose, too, delivers on the promise of the premise. When I finished Rosewater by Tade Thompson, I immediately wanted more. The British-born Nigerian psychiatrist was already on it: there are two more books in the Wormwood trilogy (and a ton more texts in… show more.