a book

[psocoptera]

I am in the middle of three other books but I suddenly realized this one was due tomorrow. Luckily it turned out to be a fast read! After The Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun, technically a sequel to Nigerians In Space which I have not read but reviews claimed this one stood alone just fine and I would agree. This got on to my to-read list from someone's best-of-2017s and my vague ongoing interest in Afrofuturism and/or African-centered SFF. (I mean, it's definitely an interest, I just say "vague" because I don't want to claim that I actually know what I'm talking about.) I enjoyed this - an enormous solar flare has taken down the western world, leaving Nigeria's developing space agency as the only hope to rescue a stranded astronaut, but they face a variety of problems ranging from trouble obtaining materials, to threats from Boko Haram, to the reawakening of ancient powers. (The whole thing of face-value inclusion of magical elements in Afrofuturist sci-fi is really interesting to me... Okorafor calls her stuff "mystical" rather than magical, I dunno whether that's terminology that's also preferred by other writers in the genre (thinking here of Shawl in Everfair in addition to Okorafor and Olukotun) but maybe I should go with that in general on the off chance. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on the way it feels, how do I put this, consistent and somewhat subgenre-specific? Like, a little bit Mieville-ish "throw everything in there", but not so gonzo; a little bit less systematized(?) than what you get in a lot of urban fantasy or supernatural thrillers where the undergirding fantasy premise (Elves Are Real or whatever) feels like more of a driver for the novel. These worlds feel big, and may have local mystical stuff that is happening to go on and intersecting other stuff, but isn't necessarily any more important than any other part of the picture...) Anyways, I'll recommend this if you liked Lagoon, or maybe The Martian.