Eerie, tense little thriller that blends the past with the future as we start with an impossible murder scene in Chicago (a saltwater drowning death twenty stories up), shit to a woman and her weird new companion who's on a mission, and how it all comes together. The chapters are short and doable in small doses, which I appreciate. Would make a neat miniseries or movie, honestly, and a good popcorn read.

This story is fascinating, starting with a seemingly impossible murder and morphing into a science fiction resolution.
I gave it the following SCORE:
Setting: Present day, Chicago, Bristol, England, Providence, R.I. and Edinburgh, Scotland
Characters: Chicago Detective Ethan Krol, Hollie, a wayward girl in Bristol, England, more-than-human female Abidemi with extraordinary technical skills and heart, and a more-than-human male antagonist
Overview: Any book that opens with a murder involving salt water in a Chicago high-rise with a dead barracuda nearby must hold your attention. While Krol attempts to solve that mystery, Hollie forms an unlikely partnership with Abidemi in her quest to determine what happened centuries before.
Recommendation: I rate this book 4 stars
Extras: The cover is excellent, and the meaning of the book title is hinted but not revealed until near the end, keeping the reader wondering. There is just enough blend of mystery and high tech without going overboard in sci-fi details and allowing imaginations to soar. The satisfying resolution is thankfully not as moralizing as it could be.
Thanx to NetGalley and DAW for the opportunity to provide this candid review.

This suspenseful sci-fi mystery opens with a seemingly impossible crime: two victims have been found drowned in seawater in a Chicago high-rise, hundreds of miles from the ocean. Detective Ethan Krol is assigned the case, which only gets stranger the more he looks into the details. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Abidemi Eniola arrives in Bristol, England, determined to return a family heirloom. As their paths verge together, the consequences could be deadly.

This was an extremely excellent sci fi concept, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch (or anyone who enjoyed Rivers Solomon's The Deep). The chapters were fairly short and jumped back and forth between the two perspectives, keeping the reader invested in both storylines. Information/background about what was really going on was eked out at a slow but steady pace, allowing the reader to start to piece together what was going on. Very well paced and well written. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A weird book that just kept getting weirder, and was ultimately super satisfying! It starts off with a drowning on dry land, and alternates between the detective trying to solve that case and a very interesting foreign woman who seems to know something about this case. How they intersect and interact is surprising and exciting. A really good read.

This book left me exhausted by the pace of the action. It's a sort of locked room sci-fi police procedural novel. From the first page it had me intrigued , but the tenth page it had me completely hooked. Deals with some big topics and is all the better for it.

From the very first page, this book draws you into its world with engaging prose, well-developed characters, and a compelling narrative. The author's storytelling is confident and immersive, weaving together themes that resonate long after the final chapter.

Been trying to get back into Sci-Fi and this was the perfect book. Hooked me from the beginning, with the right amount of intrigue and the pacing was great. I loved the fusion of Yoruba-Nigerian culture into the Sci-fi elements.

The story kept me engaged all the way through, and the character development was good too. I do wish the themes of race and injustice had been explored more deeply, but I also appreciate that the book leaves space for readers to reflect and form their own interpretations. I can see a lot of interesting discussions coming out of it once more people read it.

Even though the book answered most of my questions, I still found myself wanting to understand the backstory of Abidemi and more of where she came from. Would read it as some kind of series, there's so much there that I would love to know.

generally pretty good, with the weakest point being the character of Ethan. the other characters were fine, but Ethan was mediocrely written. 4 stars. tysm for thea rc.

A must read for all my peeps ! Chapter 1 starts off with a bang, a family is murdered but the evidence isn't making sense. The whole apartment is coated with sea water and the stench of fish. We have two bodies that are located in the apartment but their death confuses everyone as well. The father and son both drowned in sea water but there is no ocean located within driving distance in this Chicago apartment.

As you continue through the novel things get weirder but slowly start to click together. Our main protagonist, Abi is from Nigeria and can build and use technology that isn't from our world. We follow her and several other characters as they try to figure out the connections between these multiple murders and why.

THE FINAL ACT <3 Literal chef's kiss to the ending of this novel. I was unable to put it down as I was at the edge of my seat. A true thriller / sci - fi novel that hits the mark for my taste.

This is a really odd book that I had trouble getting into as I usually don't enjoy fantasy. But once I got the gist of it, I was hooked and couldn't read fast enough! Ethan is investigating three dead bodies that have drowned in salt water in their apartment. There's no fish tank in sight and there are "claw-like" marks on the ceiling so he's totally flummoxed and not sure where to start. Then we meet Abi who is attempting to sell diamonds to a pawnbroker, It's a wild ride that kept me on my toes so prepare to let your imagination run wild!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Sci-fi thrillers are right up my alley, but this was just okay.

As much as I loved the focus on racism and history, it wasn't enough to carry the story. The novel would be entertaining as a movie or graphic novel, but as a novel, it wasn't really all that exciting until the last 20-25% when the climax and reveal came into play.

The MCs, both Abi and Ethan, felt like they were kept at a distance from the reader. There wasn't enough character development to get to really know them. Ethan read like a typical old school detective who's rough around the edges (and racist). Abi was more interesting, but only because she was a human with cyborg-like augments who was out of place and time.

The police procedural part was cool and I really liked the creepy sci-fi-esque murders that Ethan and Gutierrez were investigating. I especially liked the Chicago and East Coast settings.

But other than that, I wish we'd really get to know the MCs since they were carrying the story. We only know that Ethan has racist attitudes towards his daughter's fiance and doesn't want to go to their wedding. Abi was some kind of futuristic person who might or might not be the bad guy. And that was about it. They didn't feel fully fleshed out. They were just there as vessels to tell a story.

Overall, this was an okay read, but it was nothing to write home about.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for this arc.

I started this today and sadly stopped after a few chapters. I was hoping it was going to go the supernatural route but it's sci Fi and I just personally couldn't get into the book.

Thank you DAW for providing the copy of Esperance by Adam Oyebanji. I loved the puzzling mystery and the ensuing investigation. I had no idea what was going on with Abi, but she was intriguing and I loved all of the tech she used. I got bogged down in the middle because we didn’t learn anything. It was just more of the same MOs and high-tech. I loved it when things began to get clearer, but it might have been too late for me to be completely engaged with the book. I loved Oyebanji’s Greg Abimbola books, but I don’t think Sci-Fi/Fantasy was for me. If you love the Sci-Fi genre and appreciate a great writing style you will love this book! 3 stars

First of all, thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this arc.

I didn't finish the book, I stopped after the first or second chapter.
There was a description of a woman with nice legs sitting down, and the narrator was hoping that the vase stood on the table between them wasn't there. Then I was like yeah no I don't feel like reading this anymore. Before this moment there were also some :// bits but this was like the final drop for me.
I see the other reviews are generally positive so maybe I judged too soon!

What a ride!
If you’re looking for a unique, partly-sci-fi take on the detective genre, you’re in for a treat.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for giving me the opportunity to read Esperance. This isn’t a genre I normally read, but I’m glad that I took the opportunity to check it out.

5+1
Novels take so much work, so I try to give five positives when reviewing, but nothing is perfect, so I’ll also give one criticism.

Five positives:

1. Like any good murder mystery, the story kicks off with a murder. I was enthralled from the beginning, and trying to figure out the motive behind the murder(s) was one of the highlights for me. And I liked how as the characters honed in on the murderer, everyone had to change their tactics.

2. At the beginning, there was just a bit of supernatural horror, but that quickly revealed itself as sci-fi tech. The technology that Oyebanji displayed was often unique, sometimes gross, and very exciting. This was a big surprise for me.

3. The story kicks off in Chicago, USA, but it then shifts to multiple locales in the UK. There is also a huge African and Nigerian element here. I loved the international nature of the story. We got to see different locales, different dialects and culture, and watching how they intermingled and clashed was fun.

4. There aren’t many major characters in this story, but the ones that Oyebanji focused on were great. I thought Oyebanji did a good job introducing us to the story through Ethan, the middle-aged detective. Even though he was racist (among other flaws), he had endearing qualities as well. I was so invested with him that I found the POV shift to Abidemi to be a bit jarring. However, Abi quickly grew to be the highlight of the book, and she completely stole the show. I loved almost everything about Abi’s character. She was quirky, powerful, but far from omnipotent. She failed a lot throughout the story, but she always found a way to keep on fighting. I also loved how she played against Hollie, a young Brit that served as a foil. Seeing their relationship deepen was another highlight for me.

5. Another fun surprise was how many visceral action scenes there were. I felt that the stakes always felt real, and there were real consequences to both victories and losses.

One negative:
1. I’m not sure that the character work truly lived up to its full potential. There is a lot of great characterization, but I didn’t think the emotional arcs of the characters fully landed. This is partly due to the plot accelerating the story in act three, but I still think we needed a bit deeper character work in the final act.

I had some issues with this book, but it was overall a great experience. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone interested in detective stories especially with sci-fi elements.

I loved "Braking Day," and I was equally enthusiastic about this book's the premise, but I ended up hating the execution. I tried really hard to get in the mood for the kind of mashup this book turned out to be (Afrofuturism with strong thriller vibes), but I found it extremely didactic and moralistic. I didn't feel it was so much science fiction as a book that employs science fictional motifs to build a central mystery which is neither resolved on the basis of these elements exclusively (some weird pseudo-historical revelations turn out to offer the solution), nor articulated solely with this mystery in mind (its point seems to be social commentary on racism and intergenerational trauma. rather than social vision or tech-savvy portrayals of the future). I soon found myself not caring about the characters - they were mostly superficial and stereotypical stand-ins for the moral of the story to develop, for th author to make a point. Perhaps the delayed revelation of their backstories is at fault; perhaps the promise in the synopsis that the book is a techno-thriller akin to Crouch and Stephenson had me convinced that the crucial factor would be plot and characterization, not intricacy and complexity for their own sake. In brief, something was missing: grit, mood, atmosphere? It felt too much like an empty structure, beautifully decorated but not attractive enough to live in.

Starts as a police procedural, which is fine by me - I love them: Chicago cops turn up to investigate a death, the cause of death is very weird, and how it was managed is baffling. Cops hear about a similar murder a long way across the country...

Meanwhile, someone has just arrived in England - we don't know where from - and talks like someone from a bad 1930s film. She meets a grifter, they fall into some trouble together, and of course their paths eventually cross the paths of the American cops. And I can't tell you why or how without going into some of the key revelations, the discovery which was a massive part of why I enjoyed this novel so much.

I spent a lot of this novel not really sure who the traveller was, where they were from, and what their purpose would turn out to be. Sometimes this sort of suspense is really annoying, but not here: although their overall intention was mysterious, Oyebanji still managed to create a character who was fascinating and appealing enough that I wanted to keep hanging out with them. He also does some very clever things with the American cops, I think, although as a white Australian I'm really not in a position to fully comment on that.

The book is fantastic. There's wonderful characters, excellent interactions between them, and an intriguing and compelling mystery. It covers racism, mammoth questions like what justice really is or looks like - and is a standalone story. Highly recommended.

Esperance hooked me from page one and didn’t let go. I mean, how could it? It opens with an impossible murder - a father and son drown in seawater inside their 20th-floor Chicago apartment (with no water tank around, floors dry, and nail scratches on the ceiling). A dead barracuda is just lying there next to them. For me, that’s the kind of opening that demands attention, and trust me, Oyebanji knows exactly how to keep it.

All of this somehow ties to a woman in Bristol who dresses and speaks like she walked out of the 1930s Nigeria, has and builds tech that shouldn’t exist, and is on a very specific historical scavenger hunt. Yeah, I’m in.

The pacing is perfect - the short chapters told from two points of view (Detective Ethan Krol and Abi) fly by quickly thanks to the right mix of action, mystery, and those oh-crap moments where everything shifts. The sci-fi elements are there, but Oyebanji doesn’t over-explain them, which somehow makes them even cooler. I found the twists top-tier, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, just when I thought I had things figured out, nope. With that said, it’s possible some readers won’t be crazy about police procedural elements, but since I love them, I had no issues here.

I also loved the dynamic between Hollie and Abi. Hollie is basically most of us. Abidemi, on the other hand, is an enigma - charismatic, dangerous, and inhumanly brilliant. Their relationship had the odd but interesting energy, and I loved how their interactions went from trust and suspicion and back.

Even the antagonist had motivations that actually made sense. There’s logic to their actions, even if their methods are, let’s say, a lot.

By the time I hit the final act, I was all in. The twists come fast, the revelations hit hard, and the ending is equally satisfying and unsettling. I feel it’ll stick with me. If you’re into Blake Crouch-style thrillers, Neal Stephenson-esque tech mysteries, or just a smart, fast-paced story that refuses to be predictable, Esperance is absolutely worth your time.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

In "Esperance," Adam Oyebanji weaves an intricate tale that blurs the lines between science fiction and social commentary, offering readers a thought-provoking exploration of human resilience, society's darkest impulses, and the enduring hope for a better future.

Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future, "Esperance" takes us to a world on the brink of collapse. The story follows a diverse cast of characters, grappling with their own struggles while navigating the remnants of a society that has been devastated by climate change, political corruption, and technological upheaval. "Esperance" is a tale of survival and resistance, as our protagonists band together to uncover hidden truths and challenge the oppressive systems that have led to their world's downfall.

Oyebanji masterfully tackles themes such as environmental degradation, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the power dynamics inherent in societal structures. The novel delves into the consequences of humanity's relentless pursuit of progress at the expense of the natural world, urging readers to reflect on their own roles in shaping the future. The motif of hope, symbolized by the titular "Esperance" (meaning "hope" in French), runs through the narrative, reminding us that even in the darkest times, there is always a glimmer of light.

One of the standout aspects of "Esperance" is its rich and multifaceted characters. Oyebanji does not shy away from portraying their flaws and vulnerabilities, making them feel remarkably real and relatable. The protagonist, whose journey from disillusionment to empowerment forms the heart of the story, is particularly compelling. Supporting characters, each with their own unique perspectives and backgrounds, add depth and complexity to the narrative, ensuring that readers remain invested in their fates.

Oyebanji's prose is lyrical and evocative, painting vivid pictures of a world in ruins an immersive reading experience, drawing readers into the bleak yet captivating world of "Esperance." The pacing is well-balanced, with moments of tension and introspection seamlessly interwoven, keeping the reader engaged from start to finish.

While "Esperance" excels in its thematic depth and character development, it occasionally falters in its plot execution. Certain plot twists and resolutions may feel predictable to seasoned readers of the genre, and there are moments where the narrative momentum slows. However, these minor drawbacks do not detract significantly from the overall impact of the novel.

"Esperance" by Adam Oyebanji is a compelling and thought-provoking read that offers a powerful critique of contemporary societal issues through the lens of speculative fiction. Its exploration of hope, resilience, and the human spirit makes it a poignant and timely addition to the genre. Readers who enjoy stories that challenge them to think deeply about the world around them will find much to appreciate in this novel. Highly recommended for fans of dystopian fiction and social commentary.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a thriller and I don’t know that I’ve ever read one this engaging. It hits all the usual marks and then some, since in addition to being a well-crafted police procedural/mystery, it’s also a well-crafted sci-fi novel. The social commentary is also spot on, though I’ll be curious to see if there are any changes in the final draft, particularly with how often race is mentioned in the first section. It seems to be intentional as a way of characterizing the white cop’s relationship to the idea of race, but it felt unnecessary, especially since it wasn’t consistent throughout the book.

Once the perspectives shifted, though, and especially as we got to know all the characters better, the book really hit its stride and became unputdownable. The final act was as thrilling as you could hope for it to be and kept me eagerly page-turning until the last. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing how others enjoy it once it is released.

Many thanks to Adam Oyebanji and DAW Publishing for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my review.