The Beautiful Side of the Moon

A mixture of sci-fi, psychedelia, high-magic, street-magic, hallucination fever, and as vivid an imagination as I’ve read for a long time. I could compare it to some of the more out-there sci-fi of the sixties, Jeff Noon and a raft of others but it seems to take all those comparisons and shrugs them off to become an original work.

Partially set in a Nigeria of now(ish), this book (along with one or two others) has really made want to know more about Nigerian culture, magic, and society. I feel if I knew more I may have loved this book even more.

I love this book but actually judging it is so difficult as it is so different from my usual reads. The language is at times, lyrical, speculative, down-to-earth, playful, but always on the move and always making you take that next step into the story of Osaretin Osagiemwenagbon.

Approached by a mysterious Brother Moses who promises to teach him the truth about being a magician, Osaretin comes to grip with a reality that is unexpected by all. Battles with flying magicians, healing gardens, moon robots, magicians and beautiful assistants, dimensional folding, space ships, and prestidigitation, this book has it all.

I’m still finding it hard to choose between a four or five-star rating, but whatever I give it in the end if you love weird, fast-paced, punchy, sci-fi you will love this.