After the Flare - by Deji Bryce Olukotun (Paperback)

About the Book

After a solar flare knocks Earth off line, Nigeria has the only operating space program and the future depends on engineer Kwesi Bracket and his team

Book Synopsis

Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and Special Citation Winner
A catastrophic solar flare reshapes our world order as we know it - in an instant, electricity grids are crippled, followed by devastating cyberattacks that paralyze all communication. With America in chaos, former NASA employee Kwesi Bracket works at the only functioning space program in the world, which just happens to be in Nigeria. With Europe, Asia, and the U.S. knocked off-line, and thousands of dead satellites about to plummet to Earth, the planet's only hope rests with the Nigerian Space Program's plan to launch a daring rescue mission to the International Space Station. Bracket and his team are already up against a serious deadline, but life on the ground is just as disastrous after the flare. Nigeria has been flooded with advanced biohacking technologies, and the scramble for space supremacy has attracted dangerous peoples from all over Africa. What's more: the militant Islamic group Boko Haram is slowly encroaching on the spaceport, leaving a trail of destruction, while a group of nomads has discovered an ancient technology more powerful than anything Bracket's ever imagined. With the clock ticking down, Bracket - helped by a brilliant scientist from India and an eccentric lunar geologist - must confront the looming threats to the spaceport in order to launch a harrowing rescue mission into space. In this sequel to Nigerians in Space, Deji Bryce Olukotun poses deep questions about technology, international ambition, identity, and space exploration in the 21st century.

Review Quotes

One of The Guardian's Best Books of the Year
"Deji Bryce Olukotun's After the Flare is pacy Nigerian-set SF in which a supermassive solar flare has knocked out the world's electrical generation, and attempts to restart the space programme are haunted by what may be alien presences. Vividly written and smartly realised, this is only Olukotun's second novel: he is a rising star." --The Guardian A Kirkus Starred Review "The entire novel is spectacularly imagined, well-written, and a pleasure to read. An absorbing novel that explores a compelling, African-centered future world." --Kirkus Reviews "A follow up to Olukotun's Nigerians in Space, After the Flare excels in extrapolating aspects of African culture and tradition into future technology (semi-sentient phones that resemble geckos and specially adapted cowrie shells serving as currency). An eloquently written and ambitious novel." --James Lovegrove, The Financial Times "Olukotun weaves together a broad spectrum of subjects: engineering and archaeology, culture and politics, biohacking and cybernetic animal technology, ancient tribal wisdom and magical stones. With such an original premise, the story is well-paced, with compelling characters and a subtle sense of humor." --Booklist "He keeps the action moving at a rapid, almost non-stop pace, skillfully dropping in bits of slightly futuristic technology...Olukotun shows a flair for both kinetic pacing and credible SF speculation." --Gary K. Wolfe, Locus Magazine "These are stories in which ancient history coexists with urgent contemporary concerns, where technology evolves into unexpected forms, where seemingly minor narrative digressions can pay off on an epic scale. It isn't always easy to see where Olukotun's novels are headed, but that's part of their appeal--and entirely appropriate for works that are, gradually and unexpectedly, leading the reader into the future." --Tobias Carroll, Tor.com Praise for Deji Bryce Olukotun: "An exquisite blend of unpredictable twists and lightning-speed plot."
--The Guardian

"A madcap first novel that unravels like a spy thriller."
--Mark Haskell Smith, Flavorwire

"Deji Olukotun's novel Nigerians in Space is an impressive debut, a literary thriller that also deftly explores themes of the African diaspora."
--David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy

"Fast-paced, well-written and packed with insight and humor. Olukotun is a very talented storyteller. "
--Charles Yu, National Book Award 5-Under-35 winner and author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

"A deft mingling of satirical humor, Noirish twists...and a keen-eyed yet accessible take on cultural displacement in contemporary times. "
--Olufemi Terry, winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing

"You can taste Cape Town, you can hear it in the dialogue, see its beauty in the descriptions. Deji Olukotun has my city's number: especially its nasty underbelly, the dangerous dealing of abalone poachers. "
--Mike Nicol, author of the Revenge Trilogy

"A transnational mystery novel replete with assassins, abalone poaching and an international fashion model who exudes light from her skin."
--Matt McGregor, Warscapes

"A crime thriller that is out of this world."
--Samantha Lim, The Brooklyn Paper

"Nigerians in Space captures the cocksure attitude and dignified clip of the 1950s radio play, with more mischievous and macabre elements that reflect the frustration of anti-colonial and Pan-African politics."
--Megan Eardley, Africa is a Country

"The book is a must read."
--Dianah Ninsiima, Africa Book Club

In a deceptively slim novel, Olukotun (Nigerians in Space, 2014) orchestrates a complex dystopian story about what happens when a massive solar flare damages electrical systems worldwide and leaves Nigeria with the only functioning space program on the planet. When the solar flare envelops the Earth, it also cripples the equipment on the International Space Station, stranding one astronaut with limited supplies and setting the station up to eventually fall out of orbit and crash into Mumbai. A few months later, Kwesi Bracket, an American engineer freshly unemployed from NASA, accepts an invitation to join the rescue effort in Nigeria, one of the few places left untouched by the flare and the only country currently capable of building a functioning spaceship. Bracket directs the construction of a massive simulation pool, balancing his duties as a scientist with the need to appease the whims of the charismatic politician who supports the space program and the volatile traders from whom he acquires supplies. He soon finds himself caught in a web of converging threats: political maneuvering, terrorist attacks by Boko Haram, and mysterious powers wielded by a small group of tribal women. Olukotun manages these complex threads of story with a wily grace, weaving them into a surprising and briskly paced plot while also reveling in an abundance of inventive, vivid detail. In this version of Nigeria, a fascination with tribal identity exists alongside new technological devices that bring together animals and computer technology--geckolike phones, a malicious hacking spider--and a complicated monetary system that combines cowrie shells with block chains. It is a place where industrial development flourishes next to nomadic trading people and where both traditional gender roles and fluid explorations of gender and sexuality exist at the same time. The entire novel is spectacularly imagined, well-written, and a pleasure to read. An absorbing novel that explores a compelling, African-centered future world.

About the Author

Deji Bryce Olukotun is the author of Nigerians in Space. His work has been featured in Vice, Slate, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, The Atlantic, Guernica, The Millions, World Literature Today, ESPN, and elsewhere. After the Flare is the second novel in the Nigerians in Space series.