Aliens have arrived in the waters of Lagos and sent their
ambassador to contact a few special, gifted humans to carry their message of
peace and inhabitation to the national government. They have remarkable
abilities, but also goodwill – which they share with the inhabitants of the
planet
Whether they are human or not. And some of those
inhabitants have no reason to love humanity
But no matter how peaceful the message, it still shakes
the people of Lagos. People react to this amazing revelation – and chaos soon
follows as disparate groups clash, people react in fear and anger and others
seek to understand the implications. And other still seek what they can get as
order begins to crumble…
Where to begin with this book? It’s almost impossible
because while there is one person I would say is the protagonist, Adaora, we
also have a huge number of other characters, some of which are almost as
prominent whose eyes we also see through. We get the few days of the alien
arrival through dozens of different viewpoints – some of them not even human.
Each of which has a new take, a new opinion and a new reaction to the amazing
things around them
The different viewpoints bring a lot of fascinating takes
to the reactions to the aliens – as we see different people interpret the major
events differently, see it through their own lenses and react with curiosity or
fear or greed or hope or awe. Each reaction within is shaped differently and
even people coming from a similar viewpoint – for example, religious people –
react differently despite their apparent surface agreement. People from the
same family can be divided by fear, greed or hope.
I’m particularly amused by the man who ends up inviting a much hated alien to dinner and hosting him because no matter his opinions are he has good manners.
I think the reactions are so very real – which means this
book full of aliens and wonders has a powerful sense of reality to it. Do we
think people would be rational when faced with the presence of aliens? Do we
think people would be irrational in the same way? Too often we tend to see
stories that divide the population into the fearful/haters and the
compassionate/realists. But it’s shows humanity in all its messy glory – people
terrified of the aliens and thinking they’re a threat. People curious and
desperate. People are looking for an advantage, some way to cash in. Some
people are in utter denial and determined to continue their lives. Some people
are terrified and think it’s the wrath of god. Some people think it’s a sign of
god – and all of them meet together in one giant mess.
And, of course, there are people willing to capitalise on the chaos as well as people trying to bring some reason back to the whole mess. In between that we have chaos creating more chaos because panicking people just don’t make sense – not even close. I particularly liked both government officials not being entirely corrupt and useless (as is common in panic situations so the protagonists can save the day) and normal people stepping forward and being incredible heroes – even if they aren’t the protagonist.
This all works to explain the chaos. I mean, you could
read a book and hear “aliens arrive and people started rioting” and scoff at
how little sense it makes. Why would people riot? Why would people break
things? What would that achieve? How could that happen?! But when you’re in
their heads, in the heads of several people reacting with fear and panic and
anger and greed, you can see it. All of the dramatic events of the book make
sense because we’re not just seeing them all through Adaora‘s eyes as she tries
to navigate them. We’re seeing them through the instigators, through other
victims’, through bystanders and witnesses and people plotting all kinds of
different results. The split viewpoint adds context and clarity and, again,
realness to a plot that may have been shaky without it.
Adding to the realness is Nnedi Okorafor’s well known skill
for conveying time and place – and the way she has really pressed Lagos into
this book. Whatever else this book is about, it is a book about Lagos, a book
that is permeated with Lagos, a book where Lagos – its people, its food, its
culture, its traditions, its geography, everything – screams out from every
page. This couples with some very powerful characters who are really well
written. They’re all so very believable – they’re flawed, certainly – in many
cases their flaws define them. Because we see the city, the setting and the
aliens themselves through so many eyes – so many very real, very well
characterised eyes – we get
Many of them are also used to expertly point out
prejudices in society – particularly sexism and classism are skewered in
painful detail as well as exploitation and corruption – by organised religion,
by government officials, by the army – by just about anyone who has the power,
perceived power or authority to make it stick and the willingness to push it
for an advantage. It’s an unflinching look at the reality so many face with
extra nuances – such as those whose wealth and position insulates them from so
much (and contrasts extremely with the conditions so many other characters live
with) but even how those advantages are not guaranteed shields and anyone,
especially marginalised people, can be vulnerable.
We have people from every class of society and from
several different religions, each of whom shows several opinions and takes on
their situation. They’re not all good. They’re not all evil (though some of
them desperately are), but they are all humans, with multiple examples to show
the different ways they live, the different views they hold and the different
pressures they face. We also have a number of female characters – some are
intelligent, forceful, capable, determined – but still face misogyny (Adaora),
others are poor, not too bright and easily manipulated (Philomena). Perhaps the
more intelligent and capable women do tend to be of a higher education and
class which has some implications – but equally those who are poorer are also
presented as facing a lot more pressures and being far far more vulnerable to
exploitation.
Just about every character in this book was POC, I think
there were only a few small roles that weren’t; with all the excellent
portrayal you’d expect from one of Nnedi Okorafor’s books.
This book does contain some LGBT people… but it’s not
great (to say the least). They’re not presented as evil, but they appear very
briefly, are kind of forced into the story rather convolutedly, for some
bizarre reason assume that aliens will totally connect with them and decide to
walk openly into a crowd where they are promptly beaten and shot. Then they are
never seen again – they existed to appear, say maybe 3 lines, be described in
an extremely stereotypical fashion and then be victimised and vanish again.
Unlike a gazillion other characters in this book, they don’t even get their own
voice, instead having to be described
and spoken of by a cis, straight cross dresser, which seems as close as
we’re able to get (and even he ends up dying tragically).
Is there an issue with the sheer number of viewpoints?
While I can’t say any one of them are bad, them all together felt unnecessary. They
were all well written, but for the sake of pacing and bloat one or two could
probably have been jettisoned.
There’s also some aspects that felt undeveloped. We had a
number of excellent creatures of folklore and deities raising up and becoming
involved in the plot. They were well written, interesting and I’d love to read
more about them – except collectively they were a tiny blip in the entire book.
I’m not sure why they were there and am not entirely sure what they were
supposed to have added to the story. It’s not that I disliked them – in fact I’d
love to read an entire book centred around these beings and characters – but they
felt out of place and squeezed on to the story, a crude addition that just
seemed to be there without purpose or explanation. Awesome characters, awesome
scenes – but is this the book for them? Especially since the viewpoints
mentioned above already expand the book beyond what is, perhaps, necessary.
In the end, this is a fascinating book. Beautifully well written,
with a full cast of incredible characters and a setting that is excellently
conveyed. It’s original, ducking so many of the standard alien invasion tropes,
and focusing on people’s reactions far more than the actual extra-terrestrial
visitors at all. It’s truly worth a read – but I think it could also use an
edit, a little cutting down, a little trimming of the excess to make it flow
faster, cut out the redundancy and remove the completely unrelated that make
this book slower than it needs to be.
