Noor

This is one of those "U" books, where if I had to graph my interest over time it would look like a sort of upside-down bell curve. I liked the intro and inciting incident, thought most of the middle sagged, then got pulled back in again just before the climax. I am glad that I powered through because I did find the ending memorable and exciting in a "oh shit, is this actually gonna happen?" kinda way, but it did almost lose me at the halfway point.

I don't read nearly as much sci-fi as I did in my twenties, but this setting simultaneously felt like it was firmly within the genre and unlike anything I'd read before. I've heard the term "Afrofuturism" before, but this was my first experience with it and seeing a decidedly non-Eurocentric take on the future was so distinct and fleshed out that I kinda wish that there had been more infodumping and less plot. Not something I often find myself saying. Hell, just the opening descriptions of the protagonist's apartment (before everything goes to shit and she needs to skip town) sounded cool and cozy as hell, and I wish the reader got to spend more time there.

The cast was small and manageable and I didn't outright dislike any characters, although I found some stretches of dialogue to be strange in a "people don't talk like this in real life" kind of way. Not so much one character starts monologuing but more in the sense that someone will suddenly shout in an emotional outburst that isn't acknowledged by anyone else, and then a few lines later it's as if nothing happened. Seemed odd to me. Also there's a very pivotal reveal/event that happens at the halfway point that's extremely relevant to the ending, but is not at all explained. The anti-colonialism/anti-capitalism message had its heart in the right place, but was a little heavy-handed (the ambiguous antagonist role was filled by the imaginatively named "Ultimate Corp").

This is probably rude, but I would be really interested to see what a different writer would be able to accomplish with this setting because the worldbuilding was top-notch, whereas the story was just serviceable. But if you're looking for a science fiction book that feels like a refreshing take on the genre, give this one a try.