Feb 202015
 

Cover for Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor. A teal sea teaming with sea creatures - sharks, manta rays, giant squid, an anglerfish - and at the center the silhouette of a woman, floating.Congratulations to Nnedi Okorafor on Lagoon being nominated for the 2014 British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel!

When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself… from itself. Lagoon expertly juggles multiple points of view and crisscrossing narratives with prose that is at once propulsive and poetic, combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself.

At its heart a story about humanity at the crossroads between the past, present, and future, Lagoon touches on political and philosophical issues in the rich tradition of the very best science fiction, and ultimately asks us to consider the things that bind us together – and the things that make us human.