Noor

by Nnedi Okorafor

Hardcover, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Publication

DAW (2021), 224 pages

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and humanity in a near-future Nigeria. Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt . . . natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong." But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong. Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the "reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist" and the "saga of the wicked woman and mad man" unfold. This fast-paced, relentless journey of tribe, destiny, body, and the wonderland of technology revels in the fact that the future sometimes isn't so predictable. Expect the unaccepted.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Verkruissen

AO is a biomechanical woman who has more machine parts than human parts left of her body. Where she sees these improvements as an enhancement to herself, others see her as less than human and despise her for them.
AO's enhancements are from a company called Ultimate Corp. They sell everything from

clothing to crops and it has become integrated into every aspect of most every humans life. They control the media, the energy that is harvested from the African winds, as well as employing the majority of Nigeria's citizens in some way or form. (Think Amazon on steroids).
When the hatred against AO becomes violent, she finds herself on the run with a herdsman she comes across named DNA. Together they come to realize that Ultimate Corp may be about to start a war and AO's enhancements have given her abilities beyond her wildest dreams.
Everything I've ever read from Nnedi Okorofor is absolutely brilliant. I love the way she blends the African culture into the science fiction of her stories. I will always highly recommend her books.

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LibraryThing member JJbooklvr

Set in the near future we explore what it means to be human in an ever increasing technological world. It also looks at the dangers of the unchecked global power of corporations and the divide between the haves and have nots. Adding in two great main characters makes this a must read.

LibraryThing member andreas.wpv

An interesting and easy read about an cyborg outcast meeting a traditionalist herder - but different.
Characters have some depth, but they still felt two dimensional, and the whole story - entertaining and well written as it is - felt a little flat, especially with coming to such a quick end.

A bit

like the binti books, good, very interesting ideas and settings, but lacking some depth, realism and complexity.

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LibraryThing member LibrarianRyan

Noor are giant red eyes in the sky on top of towering structures. They are the energy producers for the people of the world. This story take place in a futuristic Nigeria. AO is our main character who is half human, half not. Her legs, one harm and part of her head are all robotic due to birth

defects and an accident at age 13. She is a wanderer who is just living her life, but one day at the market, she ends up on the run, with a herder named DNA. They are trying to escape the all-seeing and all-knowing eye, but that is pretty hard. As the story of AO and DNA unfolds there are ethical questions on biotechnology, body autonomy, and even government oversite. This book is part 1984, part I Robot and all Okorafor. It is a fabulous read or listen, that you will want to revisit many times.

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LibraryThing member DarthDeverell

Nnedi Okorafor’s Noor takes place in the not-too-distant future in Nigeria, where a mechanic named AO finds herself working with a herdsman named DNA to survive and reveal the actions of a multinational corporation that promises to improve lives while secretly manipulating people and governments.

Ultimate Corp, like others before, convinced the people of rural Nigeria that “[they] had nothing and [their] lands were useless. If it cannot make money, then it is worthless. That is not… culture, that is capitalism” (pg. 61). The company bought up people’s lands to create solar plants and wind farms, which drastically altered northern Nigeria’s climate, creating a permanent storm known as the Red Eye. Though the company exploits the people, it removes their choice for alternatives: “Ads were everywhere, roads and massive swaths of land were owned by the corporation, a lot of the smartest university students had their tuition paid by them and Ultimate Corp products even showed up in local markets often cheaper than what locals could sell” (pg. 109). Even then, “people don’t care, as long as they are comfortable and life is made easy” (pg. 184).

In Noor, Okorafor taps into the ever-growing control that private companies wield over people’s lives. Through AO she writes, “hat is choice when you have little choice?” (pg. 194). Her description of Ultimate Corp captures the way that mega-corporations have become the new colonizers, exploiting nations in Africa and Asia for the benefit of wealthier Western countries. She also engages with transhumanism through AO, who lives with cybernetic limbs, organs, and a brain implant to help with neural interfacing between her organic and machine parts. Just as philosophers, physicians, and religious scholars debate the nature of the human body now, Okorafor shows how others feel the need to comment on AO’s prosthetics. Never mind that AO needed many of them to survive due to birth defects and later injuries, she still lives in a society that narrowly defines what it means to be human. AO’s experiences in Noor reveal some side-effects of the blending of human and machine that reshapes how AO understands her own humanity and the world. In this, AO joins some of Okorafor’s other characters like Binti and Sunny Nwazue, whose experiences drastically reshaped the meaning of humanity for themselves and others. Those who enjoy Okorafor’s work will find this an excellent read while it also serves as a good introduction to her writing for newcomers.

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LibraryThing member hblanchard

An enjoyable short novel (short novel - there's a novel delight in itself) about cyborgs, ecological disaster, and one of the most pervasive and long standing tropes in science fiction: the mysterious, evil, all-powerful corporation which covertly runs everyone, all served to us in a Afrocentric,

afro-futurist setting. The plot: AO was born with severe defects mitigated with cybernetic enhancements, even more enhanced after a later car crash, but she suffers extreme prejudice for being a cyborg, which culminates in her killing attackers and setting her on the run to the Red Eye, a desert vortex fatal to anyone not equipped with a force field (here, trendily referred to as an anti-aejej). I was delighted with this story out of my mind, some aspects, the plot and the tropes, channels your typical pulp stories you might pull out of 30s/40s American magazines, but on the other hand, it could also only be written now, in science fiction's current milieu. Another story in conversation with our past, good, bad, and reforming (redemptive?) in its gaze. And of course, the evil corporation sells everything and delivers through drones, ah, right wink wink nod nod. But, don't we just love this stuff. I do. This review was too fancy, this was one good fun story.

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LibraryThing member jennybeast

Things I really appreciate about Nnedi Okorafor:

1: Her fascinating world-building -- this time, a near-future Africa where the harvest of Solar and Wind power has created a blend of prosperity and dystopia. Love that the brilliance of a lot of this tech is created by a young woman working out of a

cave, and that she takes power back when she shares that knowledge.

2: She never pretends, even for a moment, that those in power will be kind. Might makes right -- in control of government and resources, in bias and prejudice, in Industries' use of the environment, in social media stories. Her stories often include almost casual violence, and a shocking acceptance of humanity's insatiable greed for social capital, entertainment, and physical comfort.

I say shocking, because to me, it is. It's also an extremely pragmatic and realistic view of the world. Her characters always struggle against the dominant culture, and this story is no exception. AO and DNA, fleeing to survive, and fighting for context. Both of them loving the desert in very different ways, both of them finding acceptance and struggling to change the world. Lots of twists and turns, with some excellent surprises along the way.

Advanced Readers' Copy provided by Edelweiss.

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LibraryThing member ShellyS

In a future Nigeria, Okorafor explores the lasting effects of colonialism and capitalism, with climate change and identity thrown into the mix. AO is a cybernetically enhanced woman who chose her implants and artificial limbs to overcome the limits of her physical disabilities, yet those

enhancements make her different, as others question her humanity. Still, she manages to live a quiet life as a mechanic, until a trip to the market turns everything upside down. On the run, she meets a nomadic herdsman who goes by his initials: DNA. He, too, is on the run and the two head north where DNA's people live, and where the enormous windstorm known as the Red Eye can mean certain death.

For a short novel, Okorafor packs a lot into it. Drones are everywhere, Ultimate Corp, supplier of energy, has made itself indispensable, and everything is streamed with or without context, building on our present reality. As important as the physical journey is, so is the one AO takes as she discovers hidden truths and comes to understand just what she's capable of doing. I don't want to say more and ruin the joy of taking this journey with AO.

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LibraryThing member davisfamily

I really enjoyed the technology and the message that consumerism is bad and letting giant companies control everything, really bad. The mystery as to why AO was the way she was, a real big letdown. Why DNA was the way he was, a bigger letdown. I think I just wanted more of the world and how it

worked, not a mystery that had a convenient ending.

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LibraryThing member caedocyon

The pacing is weird - for such a short book with such a lot of action, I'm not sure why it was such a slow and disjointed read.

The book tries (and mostly succeeds) to hold the Even Better Than Natural tech and development solutions in tension with back-to-the-land tradition. If it comes down

anywhere it's on the side of tradition, which I feel kind of :S about. (view spoiler)

*Most* of the sci fi elaboration was very interesting and thoughtful, but unfortunately some of it was very dumb. [Example: "What fascinated me most was that, because the anti-عجج prevented rain and wind, people lived right out in the open, not a house in sight." Great start, go on! "And there was so much open space, privacy wasn't an issue." What!! So even supposing that everyone is so enlightened that they have no desire to fuck in private (not addressed), Okorafor does not seem to be saying this is a utopia, there is definitely capitalism happening, and do you really expect there to be no theft or assault? People just feel comfortable being at one big slumber party with the entire city? Maybe we're supposed to imagine it's like a big park, with trees and stuff, but the need to artificially install sunlight anywhere you want plants to grow and the lack of mention of any landscaping makes that a harder sell.

I really did enjoy a lot of the sci fi, but the superpowers were extremely silly and broke my suspension of disbelief. (hide spoiler)]

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LibraryThing member fred_mouse

Fascinating near(ish) future SF. So many fascinating world building details fit into such a small book! I loved the two main characters, how their lives reflected and informed the story -- as well as giving the opportunity to show multiple ways of being in the same environment.

Very much a story of

surveillance capitalism, of companies having far too much control of the lives of people.

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