“Ajwan” is a new YA SF novel from Emirati author Noura Noman.
(Currently available in Arabic from Egyptian publisher Nahdet Misr. This review is of an unreleased, draft English translation.)
In the words of the author: “Ajwan is a proper girl's name in some Arab countries. Jown is a cove or small sea, awjan is the plural. It is a suitable name for a girl who comes from a water world and breathes water and air.”
This sprawling, action-packed story is named for a young, female protagonist whose journey spans planets and space stations, humans and aliens, marriage and motherhood, military training and mind powers.
The prose is serviceable, with only the occasional awkward phrasing as evidence of translation. The settings are enjoyably varied, as befits space opera, with much of the main story taking place on Zafir Station, Rohani’s world of Krasutka, and several Special Forces training planets.
“Ajwan” is the first book of a trilogy. I think.
***spoilers below***
Pros: Ajwan is instantly relatable; her initial spirit of adventure, the devastation of her accumulated losses and her hopes for the future. Her sometime-passivity is explained, and her memories of the parental/marital culture clash are engaging. Her ability to sense others’ emotions gives us insight into the secondary characters.
For the Bechdel Test, the book passes quite early on. Major Bolkovu is a woman, Senior Officer of the space station to which the refugees from Ajwan’s home planet have been evacuated. She interviews Ajwan as one of the few surviving Havaiki and eventually adopts her.
Yes, strong women abound and empathy *does* seem a particularly female superpower (or curse), and it is neatly placed in opposition to the controlling, brainwashing powers of the chief antagonist, At-Tarek.
Still, I cringed when Ajwan’s come-uppance for daring to meet with a boy alone was sexual assault and a battering, to which her response was self-blame, and this in “a peaceful nation which banished violence centuries ago”. When she is assaulted a second time by a fellow military recruit, instead of taking pride in her ability to defend herself, she thinks about how she deserves punishment for harming her would-be rapist. I normally enjoy getting different perspectives that aren’t found in Western-authored SF, but I did not enjoy this aspect.
In contrast, I appreciated the examination of the treatment of refugees, something that might prick the consciences of those opposed to the resettlement of asylum-seekers. I also enjoyed the passages outside of Ajwan’s point of view, in settings such as Cho-Chan and Esplendore, depicting events including the armament of a rebel group and political assassinations, which added intrigue and kept tension high.
Cons: I would have liked a better explanation of why the Havaiki, native to the ocean world and presumably originating there (there is some mention of self-alteration and the possibility of originating elsewhere, but this is never made clear) evolved to be so biologically similar to the Okamo that they are able to intermarry and reproduce without artificial intervention.
If they did evolve underwater, why have legs at all? Why have hands and speech? Why eyes that face downward while swimming instead of straight ahead? Why not more like the octopus-people that Ajwan meets on the space station? And why develop the ability to breathe atmospheric oxygen if they have always lived underwater? If they didn’t evolve, if they are humans who have genetically altered themselves, which would explain the interbreeding ability, why stop at aqua-coloured eyes? Why alter yourself to be able to breathe water, but then continue to communicate by talking, which requires air?
I’m also confused about their cities built on the ocean floor. The reader is specifically told that the pressure down there is too great for them to swim. Why not have floating cities on the surface, then? And I wondered where all the industry was located. How do you smelt or operate a chemical laboratory underwater? How do you build furniture, manufacture clothing? If all of these things exist inside an air-tight dome with filtered air, how did they build the domes?
Hopefully, these details will be explained in the next book. But even if they aren’t, even if the science is of the Dr Who/Star Trek variety, the value in this book is the relationships, especially with the prominence given to family.
They ring true.
With its emphasis on feelings, “Ajwan” should be immensely attractive to the YA demographic at which it is aimed, and it is a real pleasure to see genre works like this being produced in Arabic.