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cvacz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
timinbc's review against another edition
1.0
Really, I should know by now that if the blurbs and reviews say "magic realism" I should just put it down and back away. It's me. Magic realism is cool for many people, but as a dedicated SF/F reader I just hate it. Because it's (word for taurine excrement). It's a licence to just have ANYthing happen, and the reader's just supposed to go "ah, magic realism, cool!"
You got a road that eats bones, and may cause accidents to make bones available? You have to explain what it is and how it works.
You got a shape-changing telepathic alien? Ah, I'll let you have that. But it can disassemble attackers remotely into a steaming pile of meat, then reassemble that into a living tree? That's a steaming pile alright, even if you try to explain that the alien worked at the elemental level. Sure. Without touching.
That isn't magic realism, it's just plain magic. Merlin stuff. Nor is this one of those books that has magic in a defined system, which I can accept. No octarine, no ties to blood, no rules, apparently no drain on the magician. No, it's just plain "anything goes to make the plot work". And I will not accept Clarke's "indistinguishable from magic" as an explanation.
If this alien encounters any hassle, surely it is capable of hopping to a parallel universe that is just the same except that it is welcomed. The magic system would allow it.
But that's all about magic realism, not this book in particular. And it has enough problems, at least in the 60% that I read before flinging it across the room.
We have a cast that's right out of Carl Hiaassen/Elmore James: ridiculous corrupt preacher, huge music star, pidgin-speaking cretins who want to cash in, hookers, bad cops, LGBT demonstrators, brutish husband, ... It's as if Okorafor wants to tackle everything that's wrong with Lagos and humanity in one book, despite having tackled similar themes several times before. I'm all for tackling social themes in SF/F, but this just seems so earnest, so preachy, and so determined to get it done that it needs an impossibly powerful outside force to make it happen.
Is this a variation on the Intergalactic Peace Force theme? Not for me. Most such stories don't feature an alien that can do literally ANYthing. It's more like Q from ST:TNG, another idea that just got silly right away quick.
Then there are the unexplained-when-I-quit sonic booms. One breaks all the glass in windows and cars for a mile around. In a 2009 Mythbusters episode, the lads repeatedly had jets fly supersonically past a test building. They had to get the boom-producing jet within 200 feet to break one window. So if we are breaking windows 5280 feet away, why are the humans all mildly "oh, what was that?" (except for a couple of bloody noses). What happened to the people who were a whole bunch closer than a mile away?
I gave Who Fears Death 4 stars, Phoenix 3, Kabu Kabu 2, and this one gets 1.
There won't be another.
Just not my style.
You got a road that eats bones, and may cause accidents to make bones available? You have to explain what it is and how it works.
You got a shape-changing telepathic alien? Ah, I'll let you have that. But it can disassemble attackers remotely into a steaming pile of meat, then reassemble that into a living tree? That's a steaming pile alright, even if you try to explain that the alien worked at the elemental level. Sure. Without touching.
That isn't magic realism, it's just plain magic. Merlin stuff. Nor is this one of those books that has magic in a defined system, which I can accept. No octarine, no ties to blood, no rules, apparently no drain on the magician. No, it's just plain "anything goes to make the plot work". And I will not accept Clarke's "indistinguishable from magic" as an explanation.
If this alien encounters any hassle, surely it is capable of hopping to a parallel universe that is just the same except that it is welcomed. The magic system would allow it.
But that's all about magic realism, not this book in particular. And it has enough problems, at least in the 60% that I read before flinging it across the room.
We have a cast that's right out of Carl Hiaassen/Elmore James: ridiculous corrupt preacher, huge music star, pidgin-speaking cretins who want to cash in, hookers, bad cops, LGBT demonstrators, brutish husband, ... It's as if Okorafor wants to tackle everything that's wrong with Lagos and humanity in one book, despite having tackled similar themes several times before. I'm all for tackling social themes in SF/F, but this just seems so earnest, so preachy, and so determined to get it done that it needs an impossibly powerful outside force to make it happen.
Is this a variation on the Intergalactic Peace Force theme? Not for me. Most such stories don't feature an alien that can do literally ANYthing. It's more like Q from ST:TNG, another idea that just got silly right away quick.
Then there are the unexplained-when-I-quit sonic booms. One breaks all the glass in windows and cars for a mile around. In a 2009 Mythbusters episode, the lads repeatedly had jets fly supersonically past a test building. They had to get the boom-producing jet within 200 feet to break one window. So if we are breaking windows 5280 feet away, why are the humans all mildly "oh, what was that?" (except for a couple of bloody noses). What happened to the people who were a whole bunch closer than a mile away?
I gave Who Fears Death 4 stars, Phoenix 3, Kabu Kabu 2, and this one gets 1.
There won't be another.
Just not my style.
beesbumblebooks's review against another edition
3.0
This book is really hard to describe and I like part of how it's so difficult to grasp: Lagoon has a lot a lot of narratives of persons who only appear for a few or even only one chapter. I think they represent all the different characters who build living breathing Lagos. That's why even animals play a part, get a chapter. Some of this I really loved, like the chapter "The Bone Collector" about the spider. It's really beautiful to gwt into the heads of the littlest beings. Also as a western white person who doesn't know shit bc of white proviledge ignorance it was really cool to learn about nigerian myths, politics, languages, and culture through the perspectives of all the characters. I will still research some parts I never heard of.
On the downside, the narrative seemed really messy to me. Some narratives where just to loose ended or ending to fastly, so that I forgot about those characters immedietly and never really cared for them. Even the protagonists seemed kind of hollow and written too frantically to empathize with them on a deep level. They had to share space with too many others I felt, and lacked depth where the writing left an potetial and a will for something deep that didn't come across though. I think the aliens were kept as a vague idea on purpose like science fiction often doesn't describe too much. But the result left me confused about what even their intention and plot was. I think they had a metaphoric role of the heing soul of Lagos or something, the change for the better. But for something that can be explained in one sentence they jist took too much hollow space that didn't explain anything amd therefore didn't make me feel anything. Even Ayodele was an ambivalent character that I didn't get at all and didn't relate to. And the inhaling of her essence at the end was framed as a sacrifice and a gift from her but just struck me as creepy and unconsensual. Like...not the real change they wanted if they jist drugged the people.
It really took me a long time to read that book because the loose plot made it hard to hold on. But the unusual pictures and ideas about aliens woven into myths were still quite intruiging. I wishe there was a refined version of this book that took more time fornit's characters.
On the downside, the narrative seemed really messy to me. Some narratives where just to loose ended or ending to fastly, so that I forgot about those characters immedietly and never really cared for them. Even the protagonists seemed kind of hollow and written too frantically to empathize with them on a deep level. They had to share space with too many others I felt, and lacked depth where the writing left an potetial and a will for something deep that didn't come across though. I think the aliens were kept as a vague idea on purpose like science fiction often doesn't describe too much.
It really took me a long time to read that book because the loose plot made it hard to hold on. But the unusual pictures and ideas about aliens woven into myths were still quite intruiging. I wishe there was a refined version of this book that took more time fornit's characters.
barning's review against another edition
4.0
Ich möchte inhaltlich nicht so viel sagen, nur dass man sich als Europäer darauf einstellen muss vieles nachzuschlagen. Es gibt zwar ein Glossar mit Erklärungen, aber etwas Wissen über die Mythologie wird vorausgesetzt. Daher öffnete dieses Buch mir ein paar kulturelle Türen, worüber ich froh bin.
Die Autorin springt relativ häufig in kurzen Kapiteln zwischen verschiedenen Figuren hin und her. Dadurch entsteht keine große Bindung zu den Figuren, allerdings wird einem somit Lagos näher gebracht.
Ansonsten: Spannende Sci-fi Story, mit etwas mehr Fokus auf Fiction und einer Stadt als Protagonistin.
Die Autorin springt relativ häufig in kurzen Kapiteln zwischen verschiedenen Figuren hin und her. Dadurch entsteht keine große Bindung zu den Figuren, allerdings wird einem somit Lagos näher gebracht.
Ansonsten: Spannende Sci-fi Story, mit etwas mehr Fokus auf Fiction und einer Stadt als Protagonistin.
kivt's review against another edition
3.0
This was actually pretty disappointing! I love Okorafor's work and I was really looking forward to her response to District 9. The story is unfortunately super jumbled and disjointed. There are a lot of really intriguing ideas and thrilling/chilling/hilarious moments, but they are too few and short to keep the whole book together.
lumma_eck's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
paytonwileyp's review against another edition
4.0
The writing inspired me, amazing story even when it was difficult to understand
elderberry99's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
mxpringle's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I really wanted to love this book, and I had really high expectations, but it just fell a little flat for me. I felt like the first third of the book really gripped me, but after a certain point it just felt like the same sequence of events were being taking place, just with different audiences each time. However, I do really appreciate the political and social commentary that this book added that made it much more complex than simply an alien invasion story in Lagos.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape
mostlymady's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5