Name: Ryan Mateyk's review of Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Item: Rosewater
Rating: 4
Author: Ryan Mateyk

Tade Thompson

Tade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices. Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless - people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again -- but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Rosewater

***Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2019*** Winner of the inaugural Nommo Award for Best Novel, Africa's first award for speculative fiction Shortlisted for the Kitschie Award for Best Novel 2019 John W. Campbell Award finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel 'A magnificent tour de force' Adrian Tchaikovsky 'Smart. Gripping. Fabulous!' Ann Leckie 'Mesmerising' M. R. Carey 'An astonishing book. I wish I'd written it' Lauren Beukes Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless - people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumoured healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again - but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realisation about a horrifying future. Rosewater is the start of a vibrant and compellingly told trilogy by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices - perfect for fans of N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice and Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy.

Book 1 of the Wormwood Trilogy, Winner of the Nommo Award for Best Novel

dani (they/them)

Gregor Gross

Drue Thomas

Ryan Mateyk

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 this futuristic thriller set in the middle of the 21st century, a Nigerian psychic goes up against aliens, criminals, and bizarre phenomena while coping with an increasingly weird world. Kaaro, once a thief capable of finding anything or anyone, now works for the ultra-secret Section 45 as a telepathic interrogator and investigator. When his fellow psychics start dying off, his attempts to discover the cause lead him to the alien-created biodome in the center of the city of Rosewater. As Kaaroas past, including his previous experiences with the biodome, unspools in this nonlinear adventure, he learns the disturbing secret of the aliens who have settled on Earth."--Provided by publisher.

Lindy

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.

Dakota B.

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.

Celeste Richardson

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.

Stephanie Cox

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.

Eleanor Luhar

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.

LexieeReads

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. 

Sunyi Dean

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.

"One of the most imaginative alien invasion scenarios I have come across..."--Aliette de Bodard, Nebula and BSFA award-winning author of THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS"This thrilling, ambitious novel offers a deftly woven and incisive blend of science fiction, psychology, action, and mystery. Highly recommended."--Kate Elliott, author of BLACK WOLVES and COLD MAGICBetween meeting a boy who bursts into flames, alien floaters that want to devour him, and a butterfly woman who he has sex with when he enters the xenosphere, Kaaro's life is far from the simple one he wants. But he left simple behind a long time ago when he was caught stealing and nearly killed by an angry mob. Now he works for a government agency called Section 45, and they want him to find a women known as Bicycle Girl. And that's just the beginning.An alien entity lives beneath the ground, forming a biodome around which the city of Rosewater thrives. The cities of Rosewater are enamored by the dome, hoping for a chance to meet the beings within or possibly be invited to come in themselves. But Kaaro isn't so enamored. He was in the biodome at one point and decided to leave it behind. When something begins killing off other sensitives like himself, Kaaro defies Section 45 to search for an answer, facing his past and comes to a realization about a horrifying future.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

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.

Lea de Sousa

4/5 ⭐ 

I didn't expect to love this as much as I did. Full review to follow once my brain cooperates.

Elodia

** 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.

Ben Nathan

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)

Bryan Alexander

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.

Tyler Jefford

Pretty interesting sci-fi book, a bit different than others, which is kind of refreshing.

Drue Thomas &
Rosewater by Tade Thompson

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