Nov 8

Nov 8 Noor

Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Publisher: Daw Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and humanity in a near-future Nigeria.

Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt...natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was wrong. But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong.

Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist and the saga of the wicked woman and mad man unfold. This fast-paced, relentless journey of tribe, destiny, body, and the wonderland of technology revels in the fact that the future sometimes isn't so predictable. Expect the unaccepted.

TL;DR Review

Noor is a quick but exciting, hard sci-fi novel that offers some really great commentary on ableism, privacy, and environmentalism. Not my favorite Okorafor, but a good one!

For you if: You are looking for more disability rep in sci-fi.

Full Review

Thank you, DAW Books, for the electronic advanced copy of this book. I am a huge fan of Nnedi Okorafor — her novel Who Fears Death is a true standout — so I am always excited to read her new work. While this one wasn’t my favorite of hers, I definitely liked it, and I think it does some really great stuff.

The story is set in a future Africa, where a giant, ongoing storm (like the red eye on Jupiter) feeds the planet’s energy sources, making it the most commercially coveted area in the world. It’s about a girl named AO, which she likes to say stands for Artificial Organism. Born disabled, AO has chosen to embrace technological augmentations seen as unnatural by the rest of society in order to live a fuller life. A cataclysmic event in the beginning of the book sends her on the run from the Corporation and toward the heart of the storm.

This book is short and reads fast at 224 pages, but it manages to offer a ton of commentary on privacy, environmentalism, and ableism. I love Okorafor’s storytelling style, which is unapologetically rooted in Nigerian traditions, even if it leads some Westernized readers to say this or that thing (pacing, dialogue, etc) “just felt off.” This one is no exception. I think it’s more than worth the couple of hours it will take you to read.