Lagoon
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Year: 2014
Rating: 7 of 10
At first I found the use of dialect and Nigerian slang difficult until I discovered the helpful glossary in the back of the book. I recommend familiarizing yourself with the glossary before diving into the book. The aliens in this book are a neat variation on the shapeshifter and I enjoyed the ambiguity of whether or not they are visiting as friends or foes, as any alien contact would have many communication barriers. Okorafor has a breezy casual style to her writing that makes it quite readable if you can get past the Pidgin English passages. Towards the end of the book some of the characters start to have super powers that pushed the book into the fantasy realm and I found that the further it got from science fiction the less I was enjoying the story. However it was interesting how the book revolved heavily around Nigerian social issues and it makes a strong case for stories taking place outside of the western world. Science fiction is a wonderful avenue for exploring societal problems and issues and certainly these vary from place to place. I find that fiction is the emotional history of the people, so I was pleased to be reading the unique perspective of this book.
Purchase: Buy!