Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt ... natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong." But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, …
Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt ... natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong." But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the "reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist" and the "saga of the wicked woman and mad man" unfold. This fast-paced, relentless journey of tribe, destiny, body, and the wonderland of technology revels in the fact that the future sometimes isn't so predictable. Expect the unaccepted
Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt ... natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong." But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: a woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the "reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist" and the "saga of the wicked woman and mad man" unfold. This fast-paced, relentless journey of tribe, destiny, body, and the wonderland of technology revels in the fact that the future sometimes isn't so predictable. Expect the unaccepted
Personal Trauma, dystopia, but also optimism and warmth.
4 stars
At points this book reminded me strongly of certain influential works of speculative fiction, most notably Murderbot (corporate surveillance dystopia, cyborgs are people too) and Neuromancer (cyberspace, hacking as a kind of magical system). On the other hand, Okorafor writes confidently from the point of view of young Nigerian woman in the near future.
For me the warmth comes from the details of daily life in (roughly contemporary) Nigeria. On the other hand I don't have much of a reference point other than other books by the same author.
The book is, and is-not "hard" science fiction. It relies (mainly) on technology for setting and plot devices, but doesn't spend a lot of time on the technical details, and in one or two places might be jarring for the nerdier reader.
Content warnings: occasional violence, some body trauma. The moderate amount of sexual content is thankfully unrelated to the violence.
This has an interesting premise of what it means to be human despite artificial parts. It also takes on corporate greed and how it effects traditional African culture.
What I found to be surprising and confusing was the corporation's direct influence on the main character's life from childhood.
Overall an okay read with some interesting themes, but too much going on.
Lots of themes here appeal to me with deserts, tech giants, and misfits in a Nigerian future I'm not equipped to imagine. There were bits here and there I couldn't swallow, but overall I'm thankful for the journey.
I really liked AO and DNA, I was rooting for them from the beginning and loved watching them come together. I also really liked this world. It felt real, like the inevitable trajectory of our current lives. It was harrowing in that sense.
I don’t usually care for YA. A few pages into it I had to go to Goodreads and double-check the categories... okay, confirmed, solidly tagged as “Adult Fiction”... but it’s not. It’s distinctly YA utopian magical fantasy. Still, as YA utopian magical fantasy goes, it was pretty darn good: strong characters, great tensions between them, original setting, creative story arc and side plots. This was my second try after abandoning it some months ago, and I’m glad to have picked it up again. It was worthwhile, I just had to be in a more forgiving mood, acknowledging and forgiving the everpresent dei ex machina and convenient handwaving. (After all, "Then a miracle occurs" worked for Sidney Harris).
This African future is harsh. The sympathetic characters are thin on the ground, Corporate forces are sinister and everywhere.
While I sympathized with A.O.'s struggle, I found this novel to be too heavy handed. There is to much telling and too little showing. Both A.O. and the Corp are too powerful.
I preferred Nnedi Okorafor's [b:Remote Control|34215764|Remote Control|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587580886l/34215764.SY75.jpg|55266235].
Once the protagonist (a cybernetic enhanced human) gets moved out of her comfort, she's getting pushed around for the rest of the novel. It's action sci-fi.
