Much Anticipated Lagos Sci-fi Novel By Nnedi Okorafor Set For Release on March 13, 2014

On July 2nd, Nnedi Okorafor posted a rather dark message on her blog, Nnedi’s Wahala Zone. She said:

In the last three months, I’ve gone through some serious dark events that I will remember forever. Whenever I thought it was done, the universe took me over another cresting wave and I had to hang on for dear life. Then another. Then another. Those close to me know what I’m talking about. Those not so close to me will have no idea.

I hope whatever situation she was referring to has changed for the better and that she is in happy anticipation of the March 13, 2014 release of her novel titled Lagoon by Hodder and Stoughton. The cover isn’t out yet.

This may be the first novel-length science-fiction story ever set in Lagos. Isn’t it cool that Nnedi Okorafor just might be Nigeria’s response to South Africa’s Lauren Beukes?

This is all so exciting.

Here’s is the gist of the novel: 

A star falls from the sky. A woman rises from the sea.
The world will never be the same.

Three strangers, each isolated by his or her own problems: Adaora, the marine biologist. Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa. Agu, the troubled soldier. Wandering Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria’s legendary mega-city, they’re more alone than they’ve ever been before.

But when something like a meteorite plunges into the ocean and a tidal wave overcomes them, these three people will find themselves bound together in ways never imagined. Together with Ayodele, a visitor from beyond the stars, they must race through Lagos and against time itself in order to save the city, the world… and themselves.

‘There was no time to flee. No time to turn. No time to shriek. And there was no pain. It was like being thrown into the stars.’