Tade Thompson discusses his debut novel, “Rosewater,” which places Nigeria as the epicenter of an alien invasion.

I’m going to lie now and tell you all the reasons why I wrote this book. Rose waterFor example, interrogating the normal situation of alien invasion in the global North, the loss of colonial tropes of alien invasion, and what the black African perspective on these things is in the first place.

These are only partially true and, to be honest, are post-hoc accounts of the journey my subconscious led me on.

In fact, I wrote Rose water After reading about a pair of conjoined twins who shared a brain and seemed to be able to read each other’s thoughts, I thought this would be a great idea for telepathy, and so a book about telepaths was born. In figuring out the biology of such things, the who and why questions arose. How would such a person negotiate their social environment? What would a romantic relationship be like if one could read the other’s mind? What ethics would apply? Personally, I found knowing the inner thoughts of those around me to be an isolating ability and very frightening. Hence, my unheroic protagonist, Kahlo, was born. Hence, his love interest, Aminat, was born.

In other words, I followed my intellectual curiosity, a curiosity that had not been served by a childhood spent reading about CIA psychic experiments and MKULTRA/MKDELTA. Andromeda Strain A then-unknown Argentinian graphic novel by Michael Crichton El Eternauta By Hector Herman Osterheld and Francisco Solano Lopez; and in the tent meetings.

Let’s pause here for a moment. Imagine a large field, perhaps with grass growing there, but likely with bare red soil from constant trampling. Now imagine a huge tent that can hold hundreds of people. Go inside. There are very few seats, and everyone who can stand must stand. At the front is a preacher, usually (but not always) armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of Bible verses and eyes heated by the Holy Spirit. When I was a child in Nigeria, this happened often. The most striking sight was outside: wheelchairs, walking sticks, stretchers, piles of crumbled plaster, all discarded because people who had just been healed were no longer needed.

This image inspired the alien biodome. Rose waterand a similar dome El EternautaI couldn’t read Spanish when I came across this book (and I still can’t), but there was a dome in the middle of a town that had apparently suffered an alien invasion. Perhaps this cemented the alien-dome connection in my childhood mind. Osterheld, like many others with left-wing ideas, was wiped out by the Argentine military junta.

Inspiration aside, Rose water It subverts expectations of an invasion story, illustrating the price humanity will pay for its survival, while at the same time being a story about people, not about technology or fantastical settings.

The premise? Nigeria becomes the epicenter of an alien invasion. The main character, Kahlo, gets powers from the aliens, but people like him are dying. Why? How do we stop this? The answer has profound implications for humanity.

This is the story of the Trojan Horse, and the horse is universal health care and unlimited electricity. It’s also the story of an alien invasion as a slow-growing, unrecognized pandemic. Because I’m a doctor, I can’t help but think in plague mode.

I was reminded of H.G. Wells’s Imperial Symbolism, but I didn’t expect aliens to come in ships or use tripods. Space travel is expensive. What could an extraterrestrial being find worth traveling for?

And who are the aliens? What do they represent? These questions were addressed in later revisions and in the next two volumes. Rosewater Rebellion and Rosewater Redemption. Rose water It became more about neocolonialism. What happened to us? Who pre-thinks what we think? What if we had an Orwellian thought police?

I like to write science fiction that’s readable even to non-fans. I try to avoid neologisms and science that can’t be extrapolated to modern times. I don’t like fiction that requires a glossary.

Whatever my reason for writing, I had to set the story in a believable world, and I was interested in worlds that involved societies’ responses to localized, infinite resources like health or electricity. How would that change the way we think about society?

The book has won and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Winning this award was a kind of homecoming for me, because as a child, The Mysterious World of Arthur C. Clarke This book was one of the things that got me interested in science fiction, and the trilogy was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Series, which made me kind of happy because it meant that someone other than my mother was touched by these stories.

We hope you enjoy your visit to Rosewater. We hope it challenges what you think of science fiction. We hope it entertains and terrifies you.

Rose waterpublished by Orbit Books, is out now. It is the latest selection for the New Scientist Book Club. To read it with our members, sign up here.