Noor

An enjoyable short novel (short novel - there's a novel delight in itself) about cyborgs, ecological disaster, and one of the most pervasive and long standing tropes in science fiction: the mysterious, evil, all-powerful corporation which covertly runs everything, all served to us in a Afrocentric, afro-futurist setting. The plot: AO was born with severe defects mitigated with cybernetic enhancements, even more enhanced after a later car crash, but she suffers extreme prejudice for being a cyborg, which culminates in her killing attackers and setting her on the run to the Red Eye, a desert vortex fatal to anyone not equipped with a force field (here, trendily referred to as an anti-aejej). I was delighted with this story out of my mind, some aspects, the plot and the tropes, channels your typical pulp stories you might pull out of 30s/40s American magazines, but on the other hand, it could also only be written now, in science fiction's current milieu. Another story in conversation with our past, good, bad, and reforming (redemptive?) in its gaze. And of course, the evil corporation sells everything and delivers through drones, ah, right wink wink nod nod. But, don't we just love this stuff. I do. This review was too fancy, this was one good fun story.

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).

3.5 stars

This was my first time reading an Africanfuturist plot line and it was very intriguing. This short story spans a wide range of topics including race, class, ableism, AI/technology advancements, government control, monopolies, and climate change. I found AO particularly interesting because of the discussion surrounding her choice to change/augment her body and how that was viewed in society.

Délé Ogundiran did a great job with the narration, and look forward to hearing more from her.

Even though I felt a bit lost at times with the storytelling in NOOR this was a great intro to the genre. I'm very interested in reading more from Nnedi Okorafor since I've heard wonderful things about her other books.

***Thank you to RB Media for providing me with a copy of the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.