Rosewater

Starred review from October 3, 2016
In this futuristic thriller set in the middle of the 21st century, a Nigerian psychic goes up against aliens, criminals, and bizarre phenomena while coping with an increasingly weird world. Kaaro, once a thief capable of finding anything or anyone, now works for the ultra-secret Section 45 as a telepathic interrogator and investigator. When his fellow psychics start dying off, his attempts to discover the cause lead him to the alien-created biodome in the center of the city of Rosewater. As Kaaro’s past, including his previous experiences with the biodome, unspools in this nonlinear adventure, he learns the disturbing secret of the aliens who have settled on Earth. Thompson (Making Wolf) cleverly lays out a compellingly strange yet accessible setting, with an underlying mystery to drive the fast-paced narrative. The story bounces over multiple decades, laying out Kaaro’s sordid past and assorted sins, but it never loses sight of the big picture, in which the machinations of aliens (whom the reader will find both understandable and frightening) and psychics are just the backdrop for a character-driven, morally gray tale of hope and potential redemption.

August 1, 2018

A mysterious, alien object appears outside of Lagos, Nigeria: a dome that periodically opens to heal those with afflictions and create "sensitives," who have powers of the mind, including telepathy and mind control, along with access to the xenosphere, a shared dream world. A shantytown built around the dome eventually forms into Rosewater. Now in 2066, Kaaro, a sensitive who works as a bank's "mental IT" and for Section 45, a group of governmental agents who use their powers against criminals, lives in Rosewater. A strange illness is killing sensitives, and somewhere in Kaaro's past may be the key to what is happening. The time line alternates between Kaaro's past as a child thief and his current life, with the beautiful landscape of futuristic Nigeria as much a character as the nebulous xenosphere. VERDICT Thompson's (The Murders of Molly Southbourne) intriguing Afrofuturistic tale features an incredible mashup of alien contact and human-centered power, delivering a stark and gritty story that will keep readers engaged.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018
When a detective with psychic powers begins to investigate a mysterious sickness plaguing those like him, he uncovers sinister truths that may very well call into question the survival of the human race.It's 2066, and in Nigeria, the town of Rosewater has grown up around a strange dome that heals whomever stands beneath it. Kaaro, a government security officer who was a criminal before becoming a soldier, is a "sensitive," a rare breed of human endowed with psychic powers. Just as Kaaro meets a woman who could possibly make him happy, sensitives like him begin to get sick and die. As Kaaro digs deeper and deeper into the source of the sensitives' illness, his troubled past and riveting present come together to paint the picture of a horrifying future. Thompson's debut novel brims with inventive and seamless worldbuilding, eloquent prose, a strong cast of powerful black characters, and cutting social commentary on the current geopolitical shift toward authoritarianism and post-colonial trauma. Thompson's rendering of the "xenosphere," a theoretical dimension into which psychic characters can project their consciousnesses, is nothing short of brilliant. Perhaps Thompson's most impressive feat is his use of Kaaro's psychic powers to assert unprovable facts. For instance, when Kaaro senses a suicide bomber in a nearby crowd, he thinks: "I hate suicide bombers. Their heads are always full of mushy rhetoric, faulty logic and grim fucking resolve. Just after they activate the detonator there is some regret, but still." Though the novel feels slightly overlong and the way the chapters rigidly alternate between past and present feels forced at times, it never fails to intrigue and entertain.A captivating, cerebral work of science fiction that may very well signal a new definitive voice in the genre.

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August 1, 2018
In 2012, an extraterrestrial life form lands in London, escaping underground after releasing alien flora and fauna into Earth's biosphere. Ever since, humans called sensitives have been able to tap into the xenosphere, an invisible network of floating alien microorganisms, to use psychic powers. In the Nigerian city of Rosewater in 2066, the resurfaced alien opens its biodome each year and heals everyone within its range, with mixed results: physical and mental illnesses are cured, but corpses are also reanimated. Kaaro is a thief-turned-unwilling-operative of Section 45, the government agency that uses him for his power to read minds and find people. Nonlinear flashbacks reveal Kaaro's personal history as well as that of Rosewater, the city that grew up around the alien dome. Meanwhile, present-day Kaaro deals with a new romantic relationship and several run-ins with criminals as he tries to discover what is responsible for killing off other sensitives. In addition to providing a gritty and intricately plotted science fiction mystery, Thompson's opening of the Wormwood Trilogy considers what it means to be human. For more Afrofuturism titles, see the Core Collection on page 52.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)