Rosewater

By: Tade Thompson

Narrated by: Bayo Gbadamosi

Rosewater is the start of an award-winning trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging voices.

*Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner

*Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel, winner

*John W. Campbell Award, runner-up

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Tade Thompson's innovative, genre-bending, Afrofuturist series, the Wormwood Trilogy, is perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer, N. K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie.

Praise for Rosewater:

"Smart. Gripping. Fabulous!"—Ann Leckie, award winning-author of Ancillary Justice

"Mesmerising. There are echoes of Neuromancer and Arrival in here, but this astonishing debut is beholden to no one."—M. R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl with All the Gifts

"A magnificent tour de force, skillfully written and full of original and disturbing ideas."—Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time

The Wormwood Trilogy

Rosewater

Rosewater Insurrection

Rosewater Redemption

©2017 Tade Thompson (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Nothing short of brilliant.... A captivating, cerebral work of science fiction that may very well signal a new definitive voice in the genre."—Kirkus

"Thompson's genius in displacing his tale of successive xenobiological attacks from the West onto the developing world is matched by his breathtakingly smart prose.... Deeply engrossing."—The Seattle Review of Books

"One of the most thoughtful and inventive alien contact tales of recent decades."—Locus

Alien infiltration

Rosewater by Tade Thompson concerns an alien invasion that is not really an invasion. The story take place in 2066, although the alien presence dates much earlier. The city of Rosewater emerges around the presence due to an ability to cure disease, while also reanimating corpses and introducing strange malformations. Another result of the alien presence is a fungal-like entity that pervades the environment and allows certain individuals, known as sensitives, to exhibit telepathic powers. The main character is a sensitive, employed by a bank, but also allied with an intelligence unit of the Nigerian government. While much of the story is backstory of earlier times, the thrust of the tale is that sensitives are dying and no one knows why.

While the story relates a plausible theory for the fungal spore generated xenosphere along with other hard sci-fi elements, there is a mystical quality to xenosphere itself. The aliens represent a diverse set of viewpoints which is welcome. Both the US and UK seem to have gone dark as a result of earlier involvement with the aliens which offers a darker side of their presence. The bulk of the tale however, focuses on the opaqueness of national intelligence communities and the utter confusion they seem to convey. There is clearly an alien agenda that only becomes apparent near the end.

The narration is well done with good character distinction as well as accents that do not impede understanding. Pacing is on the slow side.

Great book about alien invasion.

This is an interesting story about alien invasion. Nice change from the guns blazing sci-fi that I usually listen to. Very well written and I enjoyed the narration. Jumps around a bit between some timelines but comes together at the end

Great Scfii story

I have taking a liking to this author and style of writing. I was immersed in the story and the main character can be well liked but also disliked. The alien invasion concept by taking over humans is not new but I love the way the author approaches it. Humanity cannot tell if they alien are friend or for. I can't wait to read other books by this author. Hopefully there is a sequel.

Great narrator OK story

I thought a scifi story set in Africa would be great. It's definitely different from much scifi I've read before. Unfortunately, the story jumped around a lot and was too disjointed, and took a while to get interesting. The main charachter isn't likable and I found myself being frustrated with his actions. The narrator was great though. He did lots of different voices for characters and had different accents.

Interesting concepts but simply plods along

The concepts introduced by the book are indeed intriqueing. However, the story just seems to plod along and mires in all the varied and changing relationships. I had to push myself to finish it.

Wonderful Performance

I generally don’t write reviews; however, Mr. Gbadamosi’s performance was so exceptional that I am compelled to put fingers to keyboard.

The story, while interesting and quite unusual, was not my cup of tea. I probably would not have stuck through the entire book if it was not for the truly excellent narration. Some books have awful narration, most books have adequate narration, and then every once in a while you get someone truly outstanding who performs to a level worthy of an award. This is what you have here.

I will probably not listen to the other two books in the series, but I will be looking for other books narrated by Mr. Gbadamosi.

Ingenious and hilarious

The main character is funny as hell. The writing is sharp. The narrator is versatile, doing Nigerian English, Yoruba, American English etc. Tade Thompson seems to be an heir to Octavia Butler and her POV/sensibilities. There is an emphasis on the mechanics of first contact, the biology, the strangeness of the melding of biomes. The story is a bit complicated, jumping back and forth, so you have to pay attention. Looking forward to the next one.

Why the five stars

Slow, plodding, and no real reason to like the protagonist. 5 hours in, 8 to go and it has not given any plot where I can feel included in solving the puzzle. Yes stuff has happened but yikes a million words in between those moments. Just plods along. Time is short and there are many other good books to invest time in out there.

Unusual and captivating

Strange, gripping story. Fantasy-sci. Beautifully read. This narrator is one of the best. I will listen to the next ones!

I just could not get into it

I am really torn over my reaction to this book. On the minus side I found my mind wandering constantly away from the story. I almost quit, something I rarely do with books. On the plus side it is an intriguing story with a central mysterious presence of an alien dome that kept me with it. I don't normally read Sci-Fi, but the world Thompson creates is interesting with many creative ideas, but the whole just failed to capture my interest. I think it is better read than listened to. There are intersecting story lines from past to present that are hard to keep track of in audio format. I would have gone back many times in a book to figure out what was happening. It also is set in Nigeria so the names are unfamiliar. I have always been interested in names and how they are spelled as both a teacher with many international students and as a genealogy hobbyist so not seeing the names on the page made remembering who is who a challenge at times. At first I was not even sure of the gender of the main character. His name sounds like Carol/Karol but luckily the synopsis let me know it is Kaaro.

A character list and a word list would have helped to keep separate the authors unique creations like a floater a reanimate or a sensitive. I got them all straight eventually.

The reader was excellent. Once I got used to it, I loved listening to his accent.