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Nigerians in Space

(Nigerians in Space #1)

Deji Bryce Olukotun

3.45 · Rating details · 378 ratings · 74 reviews

1993. Houston. Dr. Wale Olufunmi, lunar rock geologist, has a life most Nigerian immigrants would kill for, but then most Nigerians aren’t Wale—-a great scientific mind in exile with galactic ambitions. Then comes an outlandish order: steal a piece of the moon. With both personal and national glory at stake, Wale manages to pull off the near impossible, setting out on a jo ...more

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Paperback, 300 pages

Published February 1st 2014 by The Unnamed Press (first published February 15th 2013)

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Jan 30, 2017 Althea Ann rated it it was amazing

I asked the library if they had this book after reading Olukotun's 'We Are The Olfanauts' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and they decided to buy it just for me! So, you should go request it from the NYPL so it doesn't turn out to just have been for me!

The novel is even better than the (unrelated) short story. It's in that interstitial literary arena where it's almost-but-not-quite science fiction, but is definitely fiction that will be appreciated by science fiction fans.

Dr. Wale Ol ...more

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Apr 09, 2014 Monica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aoc, worldwide, pub_2010s, obscure, kindle_fiction, aoc-male

I loved it. A different kind of book for me. It was a suspense/thriller. I found this on goodreads giveaways. I didn't win, but I found myself intrigued and had to read it. It did not disappoint. The book was well written, action packed, odd (in a good way) and unpredictable. Most of the action does not take place in the US so it was an introduction to a world stage (though primarily in South Africa). The plot was *no spoilers* a Nigerian official was wooing Nigerian scientists back to Nigeria f ...more

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Jun 09, 2014 Dan rated it really liked it

For the first chapter I wasn't sure if this was fiction or a very entertainingly written history, a la The Devil in the White City. Turns out it's fiction, but my confusion stemmed from the fact that Olukotum's prose is incredibly authoritative. He thoroughly delivered me into the world of his novel without sacrificing tension or pacing.

The story revolves around an ill-fated attempt by a silver-tongued politico to reverse the brain drain in Nigeria and kickstart a "brain gain" by repatriating s ...more

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Jan 21, 2015 Stacia rated it really liked it

Shelves: africa, 2015

Scientists are lured back home in a ‘brain gain’ plan to start up Nigerian space program. But, things go awry. Is it legit, a scam, or something more sinister?

Well-told, interweaving stories that not only explore various issues including nationality, exile, political machinations, dreams vs. reality, aspirations, generational impact of actions, scams, criminal activity, national pride, etc..., but also move between 1993 and the present.

There are repeated references to the power & history of Yoru ...more

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Dec 22, 2019 Elle (ellexamines) marked it as zzzzz-did-not-finish

A very interesting sci-fi thriller. I think this simply switches between point of view more than I wanted.

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Feb 13, 2018 Ardis rated it did not like it

Shelves: sci-fi, sff-book-club-books, worst

I’ve recently read the 2014 book Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, and I’ve come out the other side baffled and unsettled. I don’t understand why this book has received the praise it’s gotten. While the core premise around which Olukotun builds his narrative may be promising, that premise is hardly explored and is almost entirely obscured by unrelatable and unlikable characters and bad writing.

I don’t think there’s a lot of value in delving more deeply into the “bad writing” claim. I th I’ve recently read the 2014 book Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, and I’ve come out the other side baffled and unsettled. I don’t understand why this book has received the praise it’s gotten. While the core premise around which Olukotun builds his narrative may be promising, that premise is hardly explored and is almost entirely obscured by unrelatable and unlikable characters and bad writing.

I don’t think there’s a lot of value in delving more deeply into the “bad writing” claim. I think it’s poorly written, and I encourage potential readers to seek out an excerpt (for a spoiler-free excerpt, readers may look to the chapter on the character named Thursday, around page 53). From there, they’ll easily see whether the writing style will turn them off or not.

I do think there’s value in looking at what I mean when I say characters are unlikable (since it is my main complaint), and also in acknowledging what I do think is laudable about this book.

When it comes to unlikable characters, Olukotun has done something incredible. I did not encounter a single character I found relatable in any way, or indeed encounter any characters written in such a way that the audience was even supposed to like them. They are uniformly without personality, not just in a dry sense but in their almost frantic lack of relatable motivation or worldview. This alone might be chalked up to where I stand on the topic of “show don’t tell”, but a lack of personality is not where this character issue ends.

This book is astonishingly anti-woman. Wale’s wife, for instance, remains nothing more than an essentially mute and sullen harpy, a foil for Wale’s drama to play against. Another character, when encountering the girlfriend of his partner-in-crime, says

“Fadanaz’s breasts pushed out when she was angry, and their presence made it hard for him to register her words.”

And the whole book reads like this. I can’t take a book with lines like this seriously, and I genuinely don’t think anyone should.

However, if I can’t talk you out of reading this book, I’d like to suggest a way to look past its significant problems. Read Nigerians in Space with an eye to the future: to the hope and potential living within Olukotun’s promising premise, and to how prophetic this book has already turned out to be.

In a Slate article, Olukotun describes an understandably (yet almost unimaginably) surreal experience. In a trip to Nigeria, years after writing Nigerians in Space, Olukotun visited Nigeria and the African University of Science and Technology and met Dr. Olufemi Agboola, the director of engineering and space systems at the National Space Research and Development Agency. He says

“There was something absolutely terrifying about meeting in real life a person whom I thought I made up. .. Before me sat an individual with agency and flaws and nuance. I was nearly silenced by the absurdity of our encounter. Since the program was founded in 2003, Agboola’s agency has launched five satellites into space.”

Dr. Agboola, it turns out, really is remarkably like Wale from his book – only real.

If you read Nigerians in Space, remember this part. It’s easy to see that both Olukotun’s book and the reality of scientific advances in Nigeria came from the same kernel of ambition that inspired Olukotun’s writing way back when. You might marvel at how beautiful it is that a man could be inspired to write this story, whose hopeful scifi future turns out not to be future at all – but Nigeria’s real present-day, full of the accomplishments and the ambition that Okulotun (and scientists like Dr. Agboola) dared to dream. ...more

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Jun 22, 2018 Phil Jensen rated it liked it

What is this book about?

It's easy to say what it's not about. It's not about a group of Nigerians on a spaceship. It's not even exactly about a Nigerian space program. It's about something else... but what?

The book concerns two generations of people, most of them emigrant Nigerians. Apparently, this is a thing. If, like me, you are not already aware of the Nigerian Brain Drain, then this might be a tricky book to comprehend. Apparently, the best and brightest in Nigeria have often had to go abro ...more

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Apr 05, 2014 Blue rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, science-fiction, giveaways-won, mystery, thriller, espionage

Nigerians in Space may very well be the best fiction book I will have read in 2014. I find myself reading more non-fiction these days, afraid of the frequent disappointment with new fiction, but I am glad that I won Nigerians in Space in the Goodreads First Reads (thanks!) giveaway.

I could describe the book in terms of the plot (the events set off by a Nigerian official promising a scientific leap in the home country to successful Nigerian scientists who live abroad), story (the emotional strugg ...more

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May 26, 2014 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: africa

A funny, strange yet fascinating first novel (by an author whose family I know, I must admit.) The characters - from South Africa, Nigeria, USA - are very well drawn, some very amusing, some frightening. The story line begins with the premise that (contrary to our view of Nigerians being involved in scams - the infamous 419s) there are well-educated Nigerians, even or especially scientists. Dr Wale Olufunmi, who begins the novel as a respected geologist working at a university in Texas, ends the ...more

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Feb 18, 2015 Alex rated it really liked it

This was a fun book to read immediately after coming back from a trip to Cape Town; I think I had a lot more context and understood the characters-- especially Thursday--on a level that I would not have even 2 months ago. I think the fact that the author later "met his protagonist" adds a level of authenticity, and I found the book compelling even if the last third was a bit far-fetched and, if I'm being blunt, sloppy.

I think if anything reading this just makes me increasingly excited about fic ...more

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Jan 18, 2021 Sarah B rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, black-authors-black-history-month

I'm having a hard time writing my review of this book. I'm not sure what to think about it. At first because of the title I thought it would be science fiction but clearly it's not. Then while reading I thought it was more of a mystery but I don't think it's a mystery either...I guess it's just plain fiction. I did find it very interesting while reading and I flew through the pages. But I still feel very muddled about what the book is, how to classify it. I guess each person who reads it has to I'm having a hard time writing my review of this book. I'm not sure what to think about it. At first because of the title I thought it would be science fiction but clearly it's not. Then while reading I thought it was more of a mystery but I don't think it's a mystery either...I guess it's just plain fiction. I did find it very interesting while reading and I flew through the pages. But I still feel very muddled about what the book is, how to classify it. I guess each person who reads it has to decide for themselves. A lot of the story is about life in South Africa, especially the power outages.

The story follows several different characters who get involved in a scheme to make Nigeria a better country through science. It's called Brain Gain. One of the scientist is Wale who works at NASA and is an expert on moon rocks. His dream is to go to space and become an astronaut. Brain Gain lures him and other scientists away from their current successful lives to go back to Nigeria, the country of their birth. But then things rapidly start falling apart. Some people die and others are left foundering on their own. Confusion and fear reigns. Where will they live? How will they survive?

The mystery itself is not really driving the plot. It seems to me it takes a backseat to the characters trying to just survive. Most of the story actually takes place in South Africa but many other countries are in here too including France, the USA, Switzerland. Anyway there is none of the typical snooping one has in a mystery and there really isn't any sense of suspense although people certainly die. And even though it didn't have those elements I certainly flew through the pages. I read the entire book in less than 12 hours. So yes the story is very engaging even though it's hard for me to classify it.

The ending does leave me feeling a bit confused. The revelation of what was actually going on (the murderer if you will) just was not satisfying. It was confusing and not what I had expected or even experienced in another book. That's one reason I'm rating this the way I am. I do think it reflects life in another country and how things are over there. I guess I'm just not familiar with life in other places.

Another one of the main characters is Thursday. I really liked him. He seemed more honest, even simple in a few ways, but I think why I liked him so much was because he loved caring for his abalones so much. His passion and love for them really touched me. And I think that is why I read the book so quickly. I must say I really was unsure what an abolone was so I had to go look it up on Google. If it weren't for Thursday I wouldn't have liked the book as much. Perhaps the author should try writing a story about sea life as I think that's where he shines. Anyway I could very easily imagine Thursday just simply keeping the abalones as pets and never wanting to give them up!

Another character I should mention is the girl Melissa. Towards the end I ended up not liking her at all really. She was too...rude and bossy.

I do love the cover of this book! It's very beautiful. And it's the cover that attracted me to it. ...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, review-books, ebook

When I said yes to a review copy of NIGERIANS IN SPACE, I will admit that it was partly the title. The opening line of the blurb didn't hurt either. Starting to read it, from about chapter 2 I was totally bamboozled, and firmly hooked. (Although I was mildly disappointed that the piece of the moon stolen was pilfered from a laboratory ... for a while I hoped....)

With a story that quickly moves from the early 90's to the present, this is a very smooth, slightly mad debut novel which bodes particu When I said yes to a review copy of NIGERIANS IN SPACE, I will admit that it was partly the title. The opening line of the blurb didn't hurt either. Starting to read it, from about chapter 2 I was totally bamboozled, and firmly hooked. (Although I was mildly disappointed that the piece of the moon stolen was pilfered from a laboratory ... for a while I hoped....)

With a story that quickly moves from the early 90's to the present, this is a very smooth, slightly mad debut novel which bodes particularly well for future outings.

It could be that part of the story that really works is the idea that there would be a government official orchestrating a brain gain back to Nigeria. A call to arms for Nigerian scientists the world over. Return, use your knowledge and help the land of your birth become the rising technological power of Africa. There's just the minor inconvenience of a little pinched material as your "entrance fee" for want of a better description.

It's hard not to get well into this whole story without the words "Nigerian Scam" rolling in front of your eyes. And it is a very delicious idea, that the ultimate Nigerian Scam might actually be perpetrated by Bello, the Nigerian government official on some of the great Nigerian brains of our time. Especially as the ultimate plan seems to fall to pieces very quickly and the main character - lunar rock geologist Olufunmi, finds himself stranded, with family and a rapidly disappearing brain gain dream.

But the story is not just about Olufunmi. There's also amiable Thursday, who goes from abalone breeder to poacher, and Melissa another victim of Bello. All three storylines do eventually converge in a resolution steeped in African sensibility.

The action moves around a lot in this book, although once it hits South Africa it settles and whilst there is a strong sense of place, it's also the strong cultural setting and feel that really make this an interesting read. Slightly mad definitely, but good mad. In fact it was fascinating all round. Even if the first few chapters might have you wondering what on earth..

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie... ...more

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Jul 29, 2013 Carolynn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was not sure what to expect from this book, but I ended up really loving it. It had the pace and content of a crime thriller, but was unlike any other I've read. It's set in Africa, both Nigeria, but also more South Africa and the subjects, characters and scenes are completely unique. I found myself almost missing my subway stop on the way to work because I could not put it down. I can't wait until they make it into a movie... ...more

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Nov 07, 2013 Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've been describing this book as a "spy" novel, but it's really just fantastic fun and perfectly weird read that I highly recommend. ...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Mack rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nigerians in Space is Olukotun's first novel and I hope he has another in the works because this one grabbed my interest from start to finish. The title sounds as if it might be science fiction but it is a crime thriller—with maybe a touch of mysticism—set primarily in Cape Town, South Africa. The story moves between 1993/94 and the present.

In 1993, a glib Nigerian government official named Bello makes an offer to Nigerian scientists working around the world. Come back to Nigeria, invest your kn ...more

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Jan 24, 2018 Gerhard rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, sf-fantasy, 2018

Despite the title, there is not much about ‘Nigerians’ nor ‘Space’ here, apart from a rather rushed coda in Abuja. This starts out as some kind of a Dan Brown thriller, focused mainly on abalone smuggling in Cape Town, with an aside about moon-rock theft in Houston in the US … and then it mysteriously devolves into some kind of a magic realist novel based on a rather unique treatment of race (cue the moonlight). What is it about Nigeria and magic realism / Lovecraftian fantasy? (Nnedi Okorafor a ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Sasha Wolf rated it liked it · review of another edition

Poignant but confusing

I found the four main characters interesting and the writing evocative, but the constant changes in perspective from character to character and from past to present left me struggling to follow the plot. I didn't feel this novel fulfilled the promise of exploring the idea of home, which left me feeling disappointed overall. ...more

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Jul 02, 2018 Shona rated it liked it

Maybe I read it too fast (the second half, anyway); maybe it's the magical realism towards the end, but I found it just a little confusing, there. Will have to think about it. ...more

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Jan 30, 2017 John Defrog rated it liked it

Debut novel from Deji Bryce Olukotun that isn’t quite what it seems at first glance. I found this in the science-fiction section of the bookstore, and the blurb suggests that it’s a fictional story about Nigeria attempting to kick off a space-flight program. In reality, it’s more of an international thriller with a few scientific elements. The narrative hops back and forth between 1993 and present day, following lunar geologist Wale Olufunmi, who steals a moon sample from NASA as a sign of commi ...more

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Mar 07, 2014 Claire rated it really liked it

I received Nigerians in Space as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

Bouncing back and forth between the early 1990s and the present day, Nigerians in Space centers on Wale, a lunar geologist, as he steals a piece of moon rock from his employer (NASA) and returns to his homeland as part of a mysterious "Brain Gain" movement designed to attract Nigerian expatriate talent back to the home country. We also follow the fates of Wale's son as a young adult, ambivalent abalone poacher Thursday, and Melissa, a ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Queensly rated it it was ok

This story had so much potential and I honestly got very excited about it from reading its first few pages. However, as a Nigerian, I discovered that there was a lack of research about some details in this book.

The jumps in time were unnecessary, Melle's skin transformation incredulous, her meeting with Tinuke loosely tied, and Wale's kidnapping action and divorce unresolved.

Furthermore, Melissa's death (or something of that sort), Thursday's behaviour, and the whole ending just felt completely ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Nadja rated it it was ok

As a South African, I was perplexed at why some words (i.e. braii as opposed to braai - there were others but can't just now recall what they are) were spelled incorrectly. Not without meaning, anyway. If it was because the words were "seen" through the eyes of a foreign national? That was not obvious enough, nor did it justify itself. I agree with some of the other reviews that there was a lack of embodied character development and an almost biased portrayal of women (there were no strong or ev ...more

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Nov 26, 2015 Joanne rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-club-read

This books starts out really well but quickly falls down. The constant shifts in time for absolutely no reason infuriated me. It's a real shame as the story had real potential. ...more

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May 27, 2016 Lorraine Lipman rated it it was ok

After a strong start this book was a disappointment . Too many jumps in time, and a rushed and fumbled conclusion. Had it not been a book club read I doubt if I would have finished it.

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Oct 27, 2016 The Coat rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi

Great read, some aspects of plot a little loose but loved the writing and the content

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Jun 13, 2018 Bernie rated it liked it

Interesting read. I was confused by some of it. I wish that I liked it as much, as some of the other reviewers.

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Apr 02, 2018 Mal Warwick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: trade-fiction

Deji Bryce Olukotun writes science fiction stories, and his second book was a dystopian novel. So, perhaps I can be forgiven for thinking that his first book, Nigerians in Space, would be a science fiction novel. Especially since it opens at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Alas, this is no science fiction novel. In fact, it's difficult to categorize it in any way at all.

Nigerians in space?
If anything, Nigerians in Space revolves around the theme of corruption in Nigeria. The central figure, ...more

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Jan 17, 2019 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-laser, 2019-nonswwm-read

I was promised Nigerians in space, and instead, I got three interwoven stories, one of which was about a lunar geologist who really wants to go to space but instead spends most of his time in an observatory trying not to get killed after being scammed - maybe - as part of a "Brain Gain" program to lure Nigeria's best scientists back to the country to revitalize the nation. But no Nigerians in space.

I don't even know what to say about this book besides that I really enjoyed it, besides the fact ...more

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May 27, 2017 Stanley Trice rated it it was amazing

Shelves: speculative

This is about bringing all the smart people who left Nigeria back to their country to launch a rocket to the moon. In 1993, Nurudeen Bello is supposed to be a government official put in charge of Brain Gain, which identifies the scientists to bring back home. But, before the scientists can get to Nigeria, someone starts to kill them.

Wale Olufunmi makes it almost to Nigeria. He is a geologist studying Apollo era moon rocks in Houston, TX. He steals some moon dust that came back from Apollo 11 to ...more

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Oct 29, 2018 Kkraemer rated it really liked it

Wale Olufunmi is just a regular guy: he loves baseball, he loves the moon, he works hard, has friends. One day, though he's offered an amazing possibility: come home -- to Nigeria -- and build his country to greatness. Build a space program. Go to the moon. No such opportunity will ever present itself here in the U.S., and besides, it's time for Nigeria to initiate its Brain Gain and bring its sons and daughters home to lead the world.

He will be provided with travel papers, money, all the suppor ...more

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