...when I tell you that Rosewater is a science fiction mystery that is simultaneously about an alien invasion and a man trying to avoid being murdered, I do so knowing that each of those elements may conjure familiar generic conventions. If you add them up, you’ll have a relatively good sense of what reading Thompson’s first novel in the Wormwood Trilogy is like. But at a certain point in the book, you may find yourself dramatically reassessing those assumptions while spinning backward and cringing with horror-tinged delight. I urge you to throw your hands up and enjoy the ride.

Tade Thompson’s debut novel, published in the US in 2016, is brilliant science fiction, at the cutting edge of contemporary genre ... Thompson expertly juggles all his disparate elements – alien encounter, cyberpunk-biopunk-Afropunk thriller, zombie-shocker, an off-kilter love story and an atmospheric portrait of a futuristic Nigeria. The book is sharply plotted and well written, with Kaaro’s narration achieving a sort of louche, disengaged charm ... [a] stellar debut.

...a fast, tense, pacy, interesting book ... It reminds me a little of Elizabeth Bear’s Jenny Casey trilogy, and a little, too, of Ian McDonald. It’s not really into soft edges ... Thompson is a talented writer with a gift for voice and characterisation ... Rosewater’s narrative hops back and forth across the decades—the 2040s, the 2050s, and 2066. Gradually, it builds up a picture of Kaaro and his world ... Thompson is a talented writer with a gift for voice and characterisation. Our protagonist, Kaaro, is Rosewater’s narrator, and his first-person account is full of personality. Thompson makes him a concrete individual with a definite presence ... pretty damn good.

A map is cleverly encoded in the opening paragraph of Rosewater, Tade Thompson’s near future novel of mind-readers and aliens ... There is enough action in the plot to encourage reading at a quick clip, to find out what happens next or what new creation is waiting in the next chapter. The narration encourages a quick pace as well ... it's unsurprisingly uncomfortable to spend time within Kaaro's perspective. Neither hero nor villain, he often makes wrong or imperfect decisions, hurting others and himself as much through inaction as action. For this reader at least, that discomfort became a distraction on my first read of the novel ... My second read of the novel was much more fruitful ... A second read also revealed layers of image and resonance, like the map I mentioned encoded in the opening paragraph. The elements of that paragraph—Kaaro's borrowed anxiety, the city streets he observes, and a skylight above him—are little gifts to discover when you already know what happens next.

Far from being a traditional invasion tale of resisting temperamental alien overlords who simply want our water or our real estate, Rosewater ends as a novel of transformation and metamorphosis, and it is, as several folks helpfully told me last year, one of the most thoughtful and inventive alien contact tales of recent decades.

In 2012, an extraterrestrial life form lands in London, escaping underground after releasing alien flora and fauna into Earth’s biosphere. Ever since, humans called 'sensitives' have been able to tap into the xenosphere, an invisible network of floating alien microorganisms, to use psychic powers. In the Nigerian city of Rosewater in 2066, the resurfaced alien opens its biodome each year and heals everyone within its range, with mixed results: physical and mental illnesses are cured, but corpses are also reanimated. Kaaro is a thief-turned-unwilling-operative of Section 45, the government agency that uses him for his power to read minds and find people. Nonlinear flashbacks reveal Kaaro’s personal history as well as that of Rosewater, the city that grew up around the alien dome. Meanwhile, present-day Kaaro deals with a new romantic relationship and several run-ins with criminals as he tries to discover what is responsible for killing off other sensitives. In addition to providing a gritty and intricately plotted science fiction mystery, Thompson’s opening of the Wormwood Trilogy considers what it means to be human.

I have been loving my fantasy and science fiction books recently that have been based on or inspired by certain places I am less familiar with ... This fits nicely in the same vein for being exciting, elegant, complex, deep and original. It ticks a lot of boxes that I look for in a fiction age which is overflowing with carbon copies of what has come previously ... One of my favourite aspects was how Thompson discusses the history we are familiar with that is up to date, (I think I noticed a Donald Trump diss in here somewhere !) and also imagined events that have taken place between 2018 and 2066 ... Thompson is obviously a brilliant and very smart author and this is the best science fiction book I've read in a few years. Bravo, sir.

Thompson’s style of storytelling can be daunting: the book tracks multiple threads over multiple timeframes, revealing Kaaro’s past alongside his present. At the outset, it reads as a deeply esoteric and complex bit of science fiction, but quickly comes down to earth as the story of Kaaro comes into focus. Thompson is adept at juggling all of it, and each plotline is engaging on its own, laden with carefully placed cliffhangers that propel the story forward. Still, this is one to read closely and with consideration. It is, on one level, an engaging future noir about a flawed protagonist falling into the role of reluctant hero while coming to grips with an alien mystery, and that alone would make for a solid read. But Thompson’s ambitions are greater, and alongside the complex puzzles and multiple mysteries, he has a great deal to say about the ways in which individuals, whatever their nations of origin, respond to oppressive governments.

In this futuristic thriller set in the middle of the 21st century, a Nigerian psychic goes up against aliens, criminals, and bizarre phenomena while coping with an increasingly weird world ... Thompson cleverly lays out a compellingly strange yet accessible setting, with an underlying mystery to drive the fast-paced narrative. The story bounces over multiple decades, laying out Kaaro’s sordid past and assorted sins, but it never loses sight of the big picture, in which the machinations of aliens and psychics are just the backdrop for a character-driven, morally gray tale of hope and potential redemption.

It’s 2066, and in Nigeria, the town of Rosewater has grown up around a strange dome that heals whomever stands beneath it. Kaaro, a government security officer who was a criminal before becoming a soldier, is a 'sensitive,' a rare breed of human endowed with psychic powers. Just as Kaaro meets a woman who could possibly make him happy, sensitives like him begin to get sick and die. As Kaaro digs deeper and deeper into the source of the sensitives’ illness, his troubled past and riveting present come together to paint the picture of a horrifying future. Thompson’s debut novel brims with inventive and seamless worldbuilding, eloquent prose, a strong cast of powerful black characters, and cutting social commentary on the current geopolitical shift toward authoritarianism and post-colonial trauma ... A captivating, cerebral work of science fiction that may very well signal a new definitive voice in the genre.