Lagoon cover art

Lagoon

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

Three strangers, each isolated by his or her own problems: Adaora, the marine biologist. Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa. Agu, the troubled soldier. Wandering Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria's legendary mega-city, they're more alone than they've ever been before. But when something like a meteorite plunges into the ocean and a tidal wave overcomes them, these three people will find themselves bound together in ways they could never imagine.

Together with Ayodele, a visitor from beyond the stars, they must race through Lagos and against time itself in order to save the city, the world...and themselves.

'There was no time to flee. No time to turn. No time to shriek. And there was no pain. It was like being thrown into the stars.'

2015, The Kitschies Red Tentacle, Short-listed

©2014 Nnedi Okorafor (P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton Action & Adventure Fantasy Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Science Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Africa Fiction Military
All stars
Most relevant
The story started off well, seemed very engaging and mysterious but what should've have been a great afro-scifi got lost amongst the multiple narrators. Perhaps i lost focus somewhere in this recording because of that, so it might be better to read this story than to listen to it.

Decent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it. Fantastic job by the narrators who were just outstanding! My first foray into Afrofuturism and it was a treat!

Sublime

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was first attracted to Lagoon on Audible by the dramatic cover art which incorporates a myriad of sea creatures into the title word. The book is expertly narrated by Adjoa Andoh and Ben Onwukwe who between them portray many Lagos residents, a smattering of aliens, and also several magical beings from Nigerian folklore. From her initial chapter, spoken as a swordfish who is vandalising an oil pipeline, Okorafor doesn't let up for a minute. The science fiction storyline of alien invasion is fairly standard, but her inventiveness and understanding of human nature makes Lagoon a cut above the norm. I could easily visualise each location from their detailed descriptions and would love for it to be possible to visit that beautiful underwater world! There are some fabulously memorable characters populating this frightened yet vibrant Lagos. Father Oke is great and so true! I sympathised with poor overlooked Philo and even Adaora's husband Chris is stuck in an all too understandable predicament. Plus I don't think I've ever felt sorry for a tarantula before! I did initially have trouble keeping up with the pidgin english, but could generally work out enough to get the gist without having to replay the sentences. The environmentalism and the message of change are nicely done without being preachy and I liked the unusual ending. Nice touch.

Inventive and magical science fiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was one of the obligatory books that I needed to read for my study. I didn't look forward to it, but I'm a sucker sci-fi and it didn't take long for the story to grow on me. I loved how the chaos was narrated, it almost felt like a movie.

I found it diffecult to read the sentences that were written in Pidgin English and got stuck on them for longer than I'd like to admit, which is why I caved and decided to get an audiobook to tell me the story while I was simultaneously reading along, and OMG it made it so much better! Best choice I've made in a while!

If you're even slightly curious, just get!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall I really enjoyed it, there were a few characters that I felt didn't make sense in the grand scheme of the story. As much as I enjoyed it, I can't help feeling that the traditional folklore was expanded enough to understand what role it played with the aliens integrating themselves into Lagos.
Got a feeling this story has only just begun.

It Was Entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews