Book Review - ROSEWATER by Tade Thompson

(Title: Rosewater / Author: Tade Thompson / Publisher: Orbit / Publication Date: September 18, 2018)


For those who aren't frequent visitors to my blog, my reading tastes are split pretty much evenly between Fantasy and Science-Fiction.  I enjoy both genres equally and try to keep a nice 50/50 balance on my TBR whenever possible.  Lately I have been on a steady diet of Fantasy and because of this I began searching for a really good SF book that I could sink my teeth into.  Enter Tade Thompson's ROSEWATER, the highly-acclaimed first book in his Wormwood series.  I was fortunate enough to obtain review copies of both ROSEWATER and its sequel Rosewater Insurrection through Tade Thompson and also the very nice people at Orbit.  I was definitely excited at the prospect of jumping into this series having heard so much about it, the vast majority of which was extremely positive.  With much enthusiasm did I dive into ROSEWATER and here is what I found.

It is the year 2066, and in the African country of Nigeria there stands a makeshift town called Rosewater.  The town didn't exist before an alien biodome just appeared out of nowhere near the city of Lagos over a decade earlier.  The doughnut-shaped town was built by the pilgrims and locals who visit the biodome each year with the hopes of being healed when the dome opens for a brief period of time.  Over the years, Rosewater has only grown and is not exactly what you would call a sanitary town, as human waste and the smell of the sick and infirm pervade daily life among the residents.  A small price to pay though for the chance of ridding yourself of cancer, heart disease, or various other life-threatening maladies.  

Nobody knows why the biodome appeared and what its ultimate purpose is, but there are people who have been affected by it in extraordinary ways.  One of these people is Kaaro, former petty thief turned government operative by the secret agency named Section 45.  Kaaro has been gifted with telekinetic and telepathic powers that allow him to intrude on and read the thoughts of others.  He and others like him (given the moniker "sensitives") have been contracted out by Section 45 to extract information from prisoners by process of lengthy interrogations.  Kaaro doesn't necessarily relish his role, but it keeps him fairly well paid and also out of jail for the crimes he committed as a youth.  

Kaaro's daily life is filled with the monotonous interrogations he must perform, a side-job utilizing his powers to keep mental hackers from stealing personal information from the local bank, and dodging awful creatures called reanimates.  What are reanimates you ask?  It seems that the alien presence that emerges from the biodome every year to heal the sick doesn't particularly discriminate and sometimes even raises the dead from the surrounding graveyards.  The monstrosities that emerge as a result of this are brain-dead killing machines that run amok within the Nigerian populace wreaking havoc.  Oh and then there is the shadowy revolutionary known as Bicycle Girl who Kaaro has only seen in public fleetingly, but that his employer wants to question in connection with the alien biodome and what may be living inside it.  For there are rumors that Wormwood, an extra-terrestrial being, crash-landed and formed the biodome for its own mysterious purposes and that the Bicycle Girl may hold the answers that could unlock those secrets.   When Kaaro is sent by S45 to find Bicycle Girl, he eventually gets thrust into the center of a secret history that puts him face to face with the sobering reality of who is friend and who is the real enemy at the heart of ROSEWATER.

Upon immediately finishing ROSEWATER I simply couldn't think, speak, or have a coherent thought for the longest time.  I was seriously flabbergasted at what I had just experienced.  There are not many books that I feel mentally exhausted after reading, but this book is an experience like no other.  It is also a book that makes you work a little for your reward.  The story is not happy-go-lucky and there are no info dumps being spoon fed to you at every turn.  Part of the wonderful appeal of this book is how much you have to really pay attention to every detail as eventually those details will all be essential to understanding the overall resolution.  The story is also told through alternating timelines, which normally I do not enjoy, but in this case served beautifully to tell Kaaro's entire story from his youth to his current role with S45.  Those alternating timelines shed valuable clues as to not only his history leading up to now, but also the history of the mysterious town of ROSEWATER and the alien Wormwood living within.  I don't know how to put into words and still do justice to this incredible SF story.  

There are so many things that I liked about it and the unique setting of Nigeria was also quite refreshing as a reader who is used to the usual tropey settings and worlds.  The superstitious nature of the Nigerian populace and how they saw the alien biodome as almost a God-made structure was such an interesting element and one that made you understand why they wouldn't question this otherworldly thing that other countries would have immediately seen as a threat and destroyed.  But the thing that I found most-impressive about ROSEWATER was how even though this is a tremendous SF book with plenty of futuristic technology and imaginative aspects to it, at the core of the novel it is a story very rooted in its humanity and realism.  

Kaaro has the same  everyday challenges and insecurities that many of us have.  He likes going to clubs, he likes an occasional drink every now and then, he even gets set up on a blind date.  All of these things are very relatable and are a significant part of the story that helps to distinguish ROSEWATER above just your everyday SF story.  I found myself fascinated by both the alien mystery and also Kaaro's life story that led him to be one of S45's most effective sensitives.  So this book worked for me on many different levels.  

Be warned though, you will be tested by much of the narrative as the things that these characters are put through are not pleasant, and yes there is a good bit of salty language as well.  But if you want to read a SF book that is smart, challenging, imaginative, and just plain compelling to read, then ROSEWATER needs to be at the top of your list.  You'll have a difficult time finding a more original SF book with this much depth and wonder.  I commented in one of my Goodreads progress updates that there are books, and then there are works of art.  ROSEWATER is a work of art.  Luckily for me, I now get to read book 2 with this story still fresh in my mind.

(My Rating: 9/10)