Lagoon
Nnedi Okorafor
Saga Press
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When the aliens arrived, they landed not in London or New York City or Tokyo, but in the oil-stained waters outside Lagos, Nigeria... with effects that will either remake or destroy the city and its people. Three strangers - the marine biologist Adaora, the soldier Agu, and the Ghanian rapper Anthony - found themeselves on the beach when the ship landed and the waves came. They were taken beneath the changed waters, and returned with the shapeshifting ambassador Ayodele. Their actions will determine the fate of Lagos, and possibly that of Earth itself.
REVIEW: A first contact story with a strong African flavor, Lagoon weaves elements of old folk tales and magical traditions with alien strangeness and the modern contradictions of the city of Lagos. Superstition, corruption, and mistrust clash with hope, courage, and strength as the initial landing and ongoing transformative effects of the aliens touch numerous lives (human and otherwise) throughout the city. At times, the nominal leads get lost in the shuffle, and some of the tangents don't quite seem to go anywhere, veering into surreal territory and often ending in tragedy. It didn't help that the glut of "A" names scanned similarly, so it took a bit to reorient myself to the main cast after prolonged cutaways to side stories. The whole makes for a nicely different cultural take on first contact and facing the terrors and possibilities of the future while coping with the traumas and hang-ups of the past. Still, for some reason I kept finding myself setting the story aside and not picking it up again for days or even weeks at a time; between that and a vague sense that the story wasn't quite finished by the end, it lost a star in the ratings, though it still ranks Good.
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