Tochi Onyebuchi

Much like the first book, I loved the lore, but it felt like constant pacing issues. I struggled to get into the book at first, and then by the end the plan and the solution changed three or four times in the span of about two or three chapters and it simply felt rushed. I think the book could have benefited from having parts of the story told from perspectives that weren't Taj as well, as I often felt like I was missing a lot of information- which, so was Taj, but then when he was informed or figured it out, it was over with in a very short timeframe which made even important aspects feel very much downplayed and made it feel as if certain aspects were being pulled from thin air (even if I know they weren't). All in all, by no means an awful book - but needed to be fleshed out more, with enough uniqueness to the lore to fill far more than just 300-odd pages.… (mais)

Since this novel has been published, I've picked it up and put it down several times. Picked it up because of a recognition that Onyebuchi is an important writer. Put it down because I'm currently having enough issues with processing the evils of today, let alone the evils of the future. Having said that the positives of this book are the grace of Onyebuchi's prose, and how he is essentially writing the the African-American experience of oppression into the record of traditional American speculative fiction. The downside is that, yeah, you really have to be in the right mood to tackle this novel, as while I can understand the mosaic-like approach that was adopted, your concentration really has to be engaged without having a specific protagonist to carry you through to the ending.… (mais)

I was incredibly impressed and moved by this book. It's sparse details around the speculative elements (psychic powers and future tech) only assist in grounding it in our very real world.

By placing these characters alongside some of the most striking race-based tragedies of our modern era, and chillingly, accurately, painting the kind of world that people like these characters live through day to day, it ensures that we see these tragedies within the frame of what they are; shockpoints of injustice made public alongside a million similar injustices that happen every day.

It feels remarkably new to read sci-fi that faces where we are now, rather than either ignoring it or just creating an overall dystopia that lacks the granularity and banality of the dystopia we're living in, as regards to justice.

So much of the book helps someone like me (coming from a fairly privileged background) really understand why folks who face these injustices often seem to perpetuate the cycles of violence and pain... and that is simply that there is no other path open to them... it's not that they don't know it's a cycle or a trap. They know that exactly. In fact, this adds to the anger and frustration that simmers everywhere. This book really shows the 'system' in 'systemic racism.' A system that doesn't have an evil villain perpetuating it, just a series of people abusing their privilege, operating out of fear and hate.

The end of the book begins to sketch what kind of world beyond the one presented might look like, and my only critique is that I wish we could have spent more time exploring what that could mean. Perhaps a sequel, Mr. Onyebuchi?… (mais)

Told in first, second, and third person points of view through fictional newspaper articles and diary entries and narratives, this dystopic novel is set in the 2050s. In what appears to be a parallel of white flight following the 1960s race riots, people with the means and privilege are departing Earth for the first American suburban space colony after a viral plague provokes a great political divide. Those left behind in the radiation-poisoned, resource-depleted American wasteland salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure, scratching out a living as their homes and neighborhoods are being dismantled to send to the colonies. Mr. Onyebuchi’s novel is a tapestry woven from the strands of structural inequality, racism, classism, poverty, and privilege; by no means a pretty book, but certainly a thought-provoking one.… (mais)