This is a difficult one for me to rate. On the one hand, I love the premise and the Afro-futurism sci-fi elements. But on the other hand, the writing doesn't seem to do the story justice. The elements I found disappointing such as; the abrupt ending, the exposition dumps, the protagonist's misogyny, these aren't actually bad things in themselves, it was how they were written. I actually think that instead of being written as an accessible, fast paced, broad appeal book, the story would have benefitted from a more detailed, denser world building, along the lines of previous epics like Dune. This would give time and space to all the various character the story follows and perhaps make it easier to jump between time periods. I'm going to read the rest of the series to see how it develops as I really do think all the elements for an amazing story are there!