Rosewater is an expertly judged cyberpunk-biopunk-Afropunk thriller is set in Nigeria in the aftermath of an alien invasion, according to Adam Roberts in the Graun; and Goodreads seems to like it. Miriam recommended it, or at least pointed me at it; I read it over the past weekend and enjoyed it. But. Ah yes as ever the but.
As a technical bookwriting matter, the flashbacks become a little confusing, because the flashback chronology is a bit textureless, so it is very hard to remember one piece of the past story from another, and keep them in sequence. That isn't desperately important but could have been better managed I think.
I think the book picks up ideas from White Queen - I don't have a review of that, but I do have Divine Endurance - and I'd recommend either of them above this; especially WQ, which is stunning (for example, this review).
The "but" I began with is the flaw so common in sci-fi nowadays, that the eventual revelation can't live up to the build-up. Unlike WQ. Nonetheless the book continues nicely for about 4/5 of its length; if you had the self-discipline to stop at that point, you'd win.
For the positives, well, see the Graun or Goodreads.
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