The Rosewater Redemption

Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.

The Wormwood Trilogy is really hard to pin down. Mixing African Futurism, new weird and even some vaguely cyberpunk aesthetics it is something distinctively its own which I have not come across. The titular Rosewater is a city somewhere in modern day Nigeria, centered around an alien entity called Wormwood. This, the third and final novel in the trilogy, does a great attempt to round up the events (especially the fall out from the climactic insurrection in the second book).

Now an independent state, we see a change in understanding of the implications of living with the alien presence. Whilst the alien was mostly benign in the earlier novels, as its purpose is understood more so is its threat. But how do you counter something that can read your thoughts, that pervades everything in the area and is slowly replacing humanity with its own?

It is interesting what this has echoes of, some of it is very uncomfortable to think about (and that plays well with the eventual solution reached which is definitely uncomfortable). Playing on themes of xenophobia but taken at a more whole species level is intriguing and unpleasant at the same time
- the echoes of the great replacement theory are very tricky to parse, but they are there. Twisting it on its head and having it given from an African perspective and applying at a species level plays with the mind a lot (and let me be absolutely clear that I am not a proponent of this theory in its current usage - I think it is despicable and dangerous).

This is also a decidedly African feeling story. Yes there are brief forays into London and the US, but the story is very much centered on Africa, Nigeria in particular. The cultural flavours from that do effectively work their way into the story in a very satisfying way.

Ultimately the ending is satisfying, rounding out the story in a pleasing way whilst leaving enough unanswered questions to be intriguing. Tade has built such an impressive world and story arc. He asks uncomfortable questions and goes in weird and unusual directions. Unlike anything I have read before and very clever trilogy.