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Elle's Reviews > Noor
Noor
by
by
As a fan of Nnedi Okorafor, I was very excited to get a chance to read her latest work of science-fiction, Noor. We meet AO, who goes by the initials of her given name as well as the moniker she’s adopted for herself, Artifical Organism, as she’s shopping in a Nigerian market. After a bloody run-in turns her into a target then a fugitive, AO flees her home for the desert in hopes of avoiding capture. There she meets a lone herdsman and his two cows, before deciding to embark into the Red Eye together.
Though the first half didn’t have as clear of a direction as the second, I think I still liked it better. The abrupt violence of AO’s and DNA’s altercations with suspicious and aggressive people was such a stark introduction, especially considering they were supposedly in spaces they believed to be safe for themselves to exist. Somewhere in the middle of the book I wasn’t exactly sure where the story was going at all, but eventually I found my footing and overall enjoyed the journey.
As much as Noor is a criticism of overreaching government, it’s even more so a denunciation of corporate, capitalist interests. By far the most invasive and powerful forces in the world of Noor are the mega-corporations that seem to have control of every aspect of the lives of citizens around the world. They’re able to not just act with impunity, but write the narrative of their own actions, erasing any dissenting opinions from existence. And as our own society continues to celebrate the private accomplishments of the supremely wealthy, things like launching a rocket into ‘space� which we have done as a country collectively decades ago, it’s hard not to see the parallels Okorafor outlines here.
There’s a portion of the book that is a kind of story-in-a-story, where the origin of a lot of the technological advancements in this society are explained. Not to give too much of that away, but it features a girl decades and decades before the events of the novel, and the lines between our world and theirs intersect at multiple points. I would have preferred this tangent story to tie in more to the events of the book, or at least to have gotten more time with its major players, though it might have distracted from the rest of the text. Still, it’s one of my favorite parts of the book so I’m a little greedy for more of it.
I think inside of the commentary on privacy, environmentalism and corporate power structures, there’s also a compelling story about two people trying to survive in a world that seeks to destroy them. I’m also interested to see how people with prosthetic limbs feel about AO’s body alterations and disabilities. The ending felt a little rushed and abrupt, but I’m assuming the author didn’t see a need to drag out the resolution for the sake of it. Noor is a short piece of speculative science-fiction that packs a punch and should not be missed.
**For more book talk & reviews, !
Though the first half didn’t have as clear of a direction as the second, I think I still liked it better. The abrupt violence of AO’s and DNA’s altercations with suspicious and aggressive people was such a stark introduction, especially considering they were supposedly in spaces they believed to be safe for themselves to exist. Somewhere in the middle of the book I wasn’t exactly sure where the story was going at all, but eventually I found my footing and overall enjoyed the journey.
As much as Noor is a criticism of overreaching government, it’s even more so a denunciation of corporate, capitalist interests. By far the most invasive and powerful forces in the world of Noor are the mega-corporations that seem to have control of every aspect of the lives of citizens around the world. They’re able to not just act with impunity, but write the narrative of their own actions, erasing any dissenting opinions from existence. And as our own society continues to celebrate the private accomplishments of the supremely wealthy, things like launching a rocket into ‘space� which we have done as a country collectively decades ago, it’s hard not to see the parallels Okorafor outlines here.
There’s a portion of the book that is a kind of story-in-a-story, where the origin of a lot of the technological advancements in this society are explained. Not to give too much of that away, but it features a girl decades and decades before the events of the novel, and the lines between our world and theirs intersect at multiple points. I would have preferred this tangent story to tie in more to the events of the book, or at least to have gotten more time with its major players, though it might have distracted from the rest of the text. Still, it’s one of my favorite parts of the book so I’m a little greedy for more of it.
I think inside of the commentary on privacy, environmentalism and corporate power structures, there’s also a compelling story about two people trying to survive in a world that seeks to destroy them. I’m also interested to see how people with prosthetic limbs feel about AO’s body alterations and disabilities. The ending felt a little rushed and abrupt, but I’m assuming the author didn’t see a need to drag out the resolution for the sake of it. Noor is a short piece of speculative science-fiction that packs a punch and should not be missed.
**For more book talk & reviews, !
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