Name: Rosewater
ISBN: 9780356511368

Tade Thompson

Winner of the inaugural Nommo Award for Best Novel Africa's first award for speculative fiction John W. Campbell Award finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel 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 rumoured 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 realisation about a horrifying future.

Rosewater

Janice Hopper

Here's another welcome entry into the Aliens Arrive, But Not In The West sub-category.

There's been a mysterious extrusion of... something in Nigeria. There were a couple of previous crashes of something from outside Earth, including one in London. That one was apparently beaten back. But now something has surfaced (re-surfaced?) in Nigeria. A "bio-dome" has grown up. Its interior is pretty much inaccessible to humans, although it does open up once a year. At the opening, people queue up to be present, because miraculous healings happen then.

Kaaro is a sensitive, deeply connected to the xenosphere, an alien spore network pushed out by the biosphere that allows him to discover facts about other people. Kaaro's not an especially admirable character. He's basically just a guy who has a special ability that the Nigerian government wants to use. 

The book is pretty interesting. I do like the fact that its set in Nigeria. The location gives us a different take on a slow alien invasion than we usually see in the west.

I eye-read most of the book, because I wanted to hurry along and see what was going to happen. I also have the audio version. Now that I know how the story goes, I'd like to listen to it all and see what new things I see. I do think the book would reward a second reading. And I'm not normally a re-reader except for a few truly favored books.

There story does jump back and forth in time (i.e., back ten years, present day, 5 years ago, 10 years ago), but it's not that hard to keep it all straight if you pay a little attention.

I plan to read the sequel too.