Rosewater Book 1 of the Wormwood Trilogy, Winner of the Nommo Award for Best Novel
Reviews
I love a good antihero, and the protagonist Kaaro is the definition of such. Years before the book begins, aliens have crash landed on Earth, and brought with them organisms called xenoforms. These xenoforms together form a network that provides certain individuals with "superpowers". Kaaro is one of these individuals; he gains the ability to read minds and influence others' actions by tapping into the 'xenosphere', a dream-like alternate state of consciousness created by the collective xenoforms. But people like Kaaro are dying out quickly, and part of his role as an agent with S45, the government intelligence organization, is to determine what is happening to 'sensitives' like him. This is what Kaaro is dealing with in the current timeline, but this story jumps between multiple timelines, presents a huge range of characters and plots, and it doesn't make it easy on the reader. I often found myself confused, or not remembering what had previously happened in each timeline since it jumps back and forth so often. I'm really only scratching the surface with this synopsis. There is also a massive alien dome in Rosewater, Nigeria, that heals all human illnesses once a year to those individuals who are lucky enough to be in the area. America is basically non-existent by 2066 and nobody knows what happened. There's a community of people living... not really anywhere (still trying to wrap my head around this one), led by the mysterious Bicycle Girl. There are evil aliens. There's a nice alien. There's an angel who spontaneously combusts. We even have a somewhat standard (ish) love story! There is a lot happening here but I definitely recommend this fascinating story.
In Rosewater, Tade Thompson uses an alien invasion scenario to explore Nigeria's present and future international and internal geopolitical roles. However, the sf subgenre it closely adheres to in terms of theme and structure is cyberpunk. I didn't like that the protagonist is a generic Middle-aged Angry Dude. I did like that the setting and conflict between different factions felt complex and fully realized.
I really give this a 3.5 star review. I do think that the story was great and I really liked the near-futuristic approach taken. The overall story was great but I have two main issues with the book: 1. The narrator is incredibly sexist and heavily values women because of their attractiveness rather than any other quality. 2. The story was a bit convoluted. I would have liked it better if it was told in chronological order rather than jumping between parts, but it certainly wasn’t my least favorite thing.
Rosewater sounded promising. An alien bio-dome, Wormwood has anchored itself into the Nigerian landscape. Due to the healing powers it radiates once a year, a city dubbed Rosewater has grown around the dome. Kaaro, our main character, is a Rosewater resident and a psychic able to access the xenosphere created by Wormwood. In this xenosphere, Kaaro and others like him can read the thoughts of other, find lost items, and to a certain extent control minds. For this reason, they are both feared and utilized by the government. This blend of alternate history and a future dictated as much by the organic influence of Wormwood as by technology sounded so intriguing. Unfortunately, I was almost bored to tears. I can’t pinpoint exactly why this book didn’t connect with me. One contributing factor is Kaaro. Even though the story was told from his first person perspective, I was never able to connect with him. Despite the extensive personal history we are given about him in alternating chapters, he felt incredibly two-dimensional. All of the characters did. I couldn’t care about any of them. I didn’t connect with the setting. I was never invested in the plot. The idea of the xenosphere was interesting, but it felt like the author mainly used in for weird sex and to show the ways in which minds can decay or be turned against their owners. I also thought that the source of the xenosphere being fungal was a pretty original concept. But in my opinion, that is literally all this book had going for it. I’m sure plenty of people have enjoyed this book, and will enjoy it in the future. Sadly, I am not one of those people. It did nothing for me. I know this is a trilogy but I will definitely not be continuing it past this first installment. I’ve come to realize that most science fiction isn’t for me. While there are notable, wonderful exceptions, Rosewater is not one of them.
I've been hungry for strange and imaginative books lately, and this one was satiating. I'm surprised it's not more popular; it's some of the better scifi I've read recently.
After I signed up to review this book, I started seeing it everywhere. But sadly I did not really understand the hype. This book takes a whole new perspective on 'sensitives' and mind-reading abilities, with the cause being an alien fungus. I liked this - I especially liked the amount of detail included, the scientific terms and explanations. But as far as the actual plot is concerned... I was completely lost. I was bored, and I had no idea who was who by the end of it. I just got too confused by it all. There were emotional moments, but I never really connected with the characters. This may all just be my own personal preference - I'm sure other people will enjoy it far more than I did. But I did not particularly enjoy it, sadly, and am giving it 2.5 - 3 stars.
I really enjoyed this book! The writing is very similar to N.K. Jemisin’s which I really liked. As I also enjoyed Jemisin’s the The Broken Earth Trilogy. I enjoyed the characters, the funny bits and uniqueness of the writing. I got about 60% through and restarted it just because I was enjoying the book that much. I have already purchased the second and third books in the trilogy and can’t wait to get to them.
Really enjoyable and strong novel, especially notable for how it moves outside genre conventions and doesn't follow Hero's journey (you'll notice how that manifests when reading it). I cackled a bit when they referenced that America had gone dark (Nigerian-centric scifi.) Other disparate thoughts: I love sff which has "pulp" elements and weaves them together. Rosewater has that: aliens, psychic powers, govt organisations, the works, but done in a serious and intriguing style.
In a near-future Nigeria the settlement on Rosewater has grown up around the “ground zero” of an alien appearance. A mysterious presence has established itself beneath a biodome known as Utopicity with huge consequences for Nigeria and the world at large. An alien fungal spore has penetrated Earth’s atmosphere creating links to every living thing and, in the process, gifting a small percentage of humans with psychic-like gifts, allowing these “sensitives” to access the minds and emotions of others via this odd bio-network, the xenosphere. Our narrator Kaaro is one of these sensitives. Ostensibly employed as part of a psychic-human firewall in a bank he is also a criminal press-ganged into work for a shadowy government agency known as Section 45. In the course of his story he encounters people miraculously cured by the presence of Utopicity and corpses reanimated whenever the dome briefly opens. He negotiates his way through a psychic-criminal underworld, suspicious government agencies, dissident groups and vanished populations, not to mention the constant brooding presence known as Wormwood within Utopicity itself. So far, so mind-boggling and refreshingly original but this barely scratches the surface of his hugely ambitious and complex novel. Kaaro’s tells his story from several different points in the timeline, jumping between his early years and later events so that the plot emerges slowly and partially as the reader pieces together the different episodes to build a picture of Kaaro and his world. The tension builds as the reader slowly gathers understanding of the situation and the narrator. Viewing a character this way, at several points of his own story and through his own eyes is a difficult task superbly realised as Kaaro assesses his own actions both as actor and as observer. While not exactly likeable he is certainly relatable. He is full of weaknesses and contradictions; selfish, misogynistic, shallow and often cowardly. As a younger and more unpleasant man he seems rather proud of these failings but his older narrator-self recognises them for what they are and finds the roots of his current situation in these earlier days. His narration is matter-of-fact, self-deprecating, wry and rarely emotional and harks back to the narrative voice of the noir detective with his sarcastic asides and winks to the reader as he invites us to join him in rolling his eyes at his younger self. Negotiating so many levels of plot is a hugely ambitious task, the multiple “realities” of the world and the xenosphere’s dream-like states and the interlinking timelines it would be so easy for the writer to become hopelessly tangled. Thompson maintains an impressively firm grip, providing that essential thread that the reader can follow through the complex narrative. He doesn’t make it too easy though and by withholding the answers and leaving some aspects of his world and plot obscured he quite ruthlessly immerses his reader in his story. You can’t coast through this one, it demands your attention and your effort and it certainly pays dividends. The supporting cast revolves around the women in Kaaro’s life, colleagues, partners, co-conspiritors and in almost every case it is these women who, for good or ill, hold the power in these relationships. They’re strong, flawed, fully-formed women with identities and motivations that Kaaro can only guess at. Indeed, the strength of these characters is deliberately thrown into stark relief by Kaaro himself who, especially in his earlier years, presents some unpleasant attitudes towards women. Thompson manages to address some of the misogyny and female stereotypes lingering in his future Nigeria as well as a still-surviving homophobia. This world is rich in detail, combining the history and culture of present-day Nigeria with the bio-technical consequences of a future intimately affected by an extra-terrestrial presence. It’s a world that is both recognisable and – in this alien, unsettling future – new and unfamiliar. Of course, the appearance of an alien race on the African continent is nothing new, this time it just happens to be extra-terrestrial and apparently benign. Thus, Thompson’s wonderfully fresh take on the idea of first contact also offers a new novel window onto the painful story of colonialism. Through Kaaro and his associates we see the varied reactions of the colonised, eagerness to take the advantages offered, wariness and fear of unclear motivations, outright rejection and ultimately the paralytic power of familiarity, breeding apathy rather than contempt. The reaction of Western nations is also pointed, the destructive reaction of the UK where Wormwood first landed and the secretiveness and insularity of a US that has elected to “go dark”, effectively cutting itself off from the rest of the world rather than share intelligence. It’s not a flattering picture and it is hugely refreshing to see someone overturn or recondition so much of what is familiar in predominantly white sci-fi in order to comment on the lamentable racist and colonial tropes that continue to dog the genre. Rosewater is a hugely complex and hugely rewarding reading experience just bursting with ideas and originality and breathing fresh life into more genres than I can even name, from cyber-punk to neo-noir apocalypse thriller. Keep your wits about you and dive in, you won’t be disappointed.
4/5 ⭐ I didn't expect to love this as much as I did. Full review to follow once my brain cooperates.
** spoiler alert ** This book has excellent characters and world-building, and I liked the main plot. The magic system was interesting and I want to learn more about it. However, there were too many characters and there was too much going on that I lost track of things, especially with the chapters going back and forth from past to present. I blame this on the format though, since I listened to it on audio. I will reread this in physical form/e-book before continuing with the series.
Thoroughly decent. Story was decent. Characters were decent. Ideas were decent. Nothing bad or wow. That said, it feels like what Black Leopard Red Wolf was going for (but missed)
What a deeply imagined, deeply engaging, and rewarding novel. Rosewater isn't easily categorized. It is a near-future science fiction tale, while partaking of fantasy. It is also a mystery/crime story. And it is also set in Nigeria, an usual locale for those genres, and that location matters very much to the story as well as to many readers. In the middle of the 21st century some things have changed. An alien organism has appeared on Earth and begun altering the planetary ecosystem, seeding the world with spores. The lifeform's biggest presence is near Lagos, where a kind of alien city has grown up, surrounded by a burgeoning human settlement, the titular Rosewater. Some few humans now have the ability to connect with the alien ecosystem, giving them access to other lifeforms, including humans, in a way that's a combination of telepathy and virtual reality. Our narrator, Kaaro, is one of those sensitives. Formerly a thief, he now applies his talents for a shadowy government agency. We learn about Kaaro through different times of his life, gradually fleshing out his character as chapters arc back and forth between decades. Kaaro falls in love, finds missing objects, tracks a messianic political dissident, learns about the alien, and tries to figure out why fellow sensitives are dying... ...and I'll cut the plot summary right there, since following his adventures is not only spoiler territory, but some of the novel's pleasures. Kaaro is a well balanced character, contradictory and flawed, proud if often ignorant, sympathetic yet frequently making things worse for others and himself. He grows well through Rosewater. Through Kaaro's eyes and alien-assisted mental probing we receive glimpses of a near future world. Some technologies have developed, like new digital displays, bird-like drones, and a post-internet internet. Poverty and human squalor persist. America has turned inwards and disappeared from the world stage. I'd like to offer one point which most reviewers have missed, but will need to dip behind spoiler shields to do so.(view spoiler)[Rosewater is ultimately an alien invasion story, and one that seems to be ending badly for the human race. We dub the creature-system "Wormwood," and the Biblical resonance is correct. Wormwood's avatar describes the future to come whereby human bodies are gradually replaced by alien cells, until nothing human remains. It's a take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, just happening incrementally and over a longer period of time. There is the possibility that this transformation could be a eucatastrophe, a fortunate fall. Wormwood's avatar is, after all, named for flower ("Anthony"), and most of the novel opposes positive verdure to messed-up humanity. Towards the end we see an alien utopia where people are simply better off, and the ecosystem must repeatedly wall off human pollution. Perhaps this is a positive evolution for the human race. More darkly, it might be what we deserve, as with the desperate call for alien conquest in Three Body Problem. I don't think so. First, while Kaaro shows us many human cruelties, he doesn't depict a dystopia. People also conduct themselves well, generously, creatively. Humans neglect a dog to the point of suffering, but humans then work to save him. Second, fine vegetation in the novel is often a disguise. "Rosewater" is the town's name, because the settlement is a vile mess, complete with frequent violence and bad sanitation; the invocation of sweet-smelling floral water is well known to be, well, a fig leaf. "Anthony" may cover up for the cruel fact of subjugation. As Sessily Watt observes, the book is all about deception right from the first paragraph. Third, the novel ends on a theme of apocalypse. The final page compares Wordwood's conquest to climate change and a world-killing asteroid - then criticizes humanity for looking away. On top of that, our narrator is now powerless. Having been offered access to great power (through Anthony, through "Bicycle Girl" Oyin Da) Kaaro rejected them and instead does nothing with his skills and knowledge. He retires, in effect, while the world works to end humanity. Wormwood indeed. (hide spoiler)] Strongly recommended for all readers. My thanks to Steven Kaye for encouraging me to read this one.
Pretty interesting sci-fi book, a bit different than others, which is kind of refreshing.
Highlights
The questions tackled here swirl around personal identity and Earth identity. Kaaro got memories from other sensitives like Nike, but he also looks into memories of the persons he interrogates. In one case he felt depressed and sorry for a murder he didn't do - he just had the memory extracted from the killer. But he also got the love the killer experienced before he killed his wife. So now he felt bad for a killer he didn't do and in love with a woman he never met. At which point is he still himself with regard to the memories he owns? And how many memories from other persons does it take so Kaaro is not Kaaro anymore? And the same goes for the aliens. They even have fractions and have been here on Earth for a long time, it seems. They release their own biosphere. In some cases the alien is older and longer on Earth than the humans it interacts with. At which point is the alien not the alien anymore? At which point the humans become the aliens, because the biosphere changes? As with refugees, the point when this happens is usually the 2nd generation. The first still feels alien in the new surrounding. It's only their kids that feel at home in the new place. Hidden under all of this is, naturally, a bungled first contact between humans and alien. It is the nature of first contacts to be bungled, though.
What aliens say Kaaro is doing when he is doing his sensitive stuff (finding stuff), is being able to dissolve quantum behaviour in both directions time offers. The aliens enable this for (some of) themselves and know there might be humans who can do this, as well. After all, it now becomes clear there were at least four different alien visits before, though apparently the first few visitors died on impact or soon after. Why, we never get told. It seems that landing in the right spot and getting used to new surroundings without being detected too soon is very complicated, even for beings that can dissolve quantum behaviour into the future or past. It also seems that the 2066 Nigerian alien that established the Rosewater complex actually came from London via subearth tunnels. They simply took the tube, apparently.
Using the xenosphere some refugees use a building that is there and not there at the same time. You need a sensitive to open access to it, and the "building" is in itself mobile, or the access to it is, which is not really clear (it is alien tech, remember). But since the refugee building is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, it's a Schroedinger house.
Aminat is a drug inspector, or at least works in the same building as drug inspectors. Fake drug manufacture in Nigeria is an industry in itself. Almost every hospital has found some of its injections to be river water and its pills to be chalk. Inspections are a public safety concern. Bombings of inspectors is an old tradition dating back to the early 2000s. Not a very popular job and, if some exposés are to be believed, rife with corruption.
"When Wormwood surges into awareness, we are unimpressed, even in our knowledge that it is the most significant event in Earth's history. We've seen colonisers before, and they are similar, whether intercontinental or interplanetary."
Kaaro wonders whether he feels like others do or not. Because he doesn't feel anything at all, or because he feels something but doesn't understand what to do about it, Kaaro came up with some sort of hobby. He regularly goes to the hospital to catch the thoughts of dying persons. This, he does and he likes these thoughts. Sometimes he even goes on to do what the dying persons wanted desperately do themselves one more time.
Meanwhile, we learn that Kaaro has many dead persons on his conscience. In his becoming a thief, there were deadly consequences, but of course his work for the intelligence service caused further deads. We also see no pets at his home, though he has some sort of relation to a stray dog. Kaaro doesn't have that many friends, which may come from his line of work. He never speaks with any neighbours, though if that is caused by his line of work or by the nature of his neighbourhood, we never know. In any case, Kaaro is sort of isolated.
They have a #makerscene in 2066 Nigeria, which call themselves Tech Scavengers. They collect wasted alienware and military robots and whatnot and try to hack it, hack implants and weapons etc. Sometimes it helps when one tries obfuscate their own traces, other times it's weapons for the black market. And sometimes it doesn't work and is not so good for the humans who use it. Kaaro flirts with his boss Femi alot. She thinks he is sexist. His insistence and endurance in this make her mad, which Kaaro likes for it makes Femi use "colourful language".
In chapter 14, we learn that someone built some sort of machine before 1960 that made a small town disappear. About 1,400 persons vanish. This seems to indicate that even than aliens had already landed on Earth and were offering mind connections via a small, local xenosphere. Or how would you explain this? I'm also not sure that all countries have alien domes. But if you don't, you're in a bad spot. Countries with alien domes have more and better sensitives. In any case, all countries still work against each other, spying, kidnapping sensitives etc. We don't hear from any cooperation of Earth nations against the aliens or something like that.
The alien dome opens yearly in two small spots. People who stay around the opening get healed from lots of sicknesses, even very fatal ones. But the opening has other effects, too: Some people want to be reconstructed: they put wings on their backs and the opening connects blood vessels, nerve issue etc. Others get reconstructed by chance: some had an accident where two victims got entangled right at the opening. They are now one with lots of limbs. There are also the reanimated, which are persons who died recently and who now walk again. But they've lost all their personality and become zombies. They get hunted right after the opening. Also, they are the reason why in 2066 Nigeria coffins get welded and the coffin pit is filled with concrete instead of soil.
I know of at least one dead person who not only has a complete personality in there, but has on one occasion 'possessed' a living body. But this is not her story.
Shared flatulence breeds trust.
My favorite quote so far, describing a situation where a street gang shares a single hall as their quarters.
Just some random observations about 2066 Nigeria in the book: They still have radio on ultra-short wave bands. Being gay is still forbidden in 2066 Nigeria. Thiefs, witches and gays can expect to be burned alive if caught by a mob. Such a burning is described in detail.
There is an old woman, also a sensitive, who let's herself perceived in a techno club as maybe the most beautiful woman ever. A group of young, excited men is around her, courting her. When Kaaro asks her about the young age of her admirers, she answers: > If I were a man, you would not bat an eyelid.
What you think of as your self is actually many things. At the core is your true self, of which you may not even be fully aware. Wrapped around this are several false selves that are used at different times in different situations, social selves that serve the function of translating your true self to the world. We swap between these effortlessly as we grow up, but they are elaborate fictions. Or they are real but alternative selves. It depends on where you stand epistemologically, but that‘s irrelevant.
"Ebun becomes completely conceptual in the xenosphere. She is an idea from infancy, the non-verbal stage. There are no words with which to understand her form, and there is no image. We are aware of her presence, but it is extremely abstract. The idea is her own, from her own early life..."