Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor

I think I'm going to agree with others and say that this isn't a science fiction book. But it's getting a lot of SF award nominations and it contains a SF novel so I guess that's close enough. The lead character (Zelu) writes a novel that touches a nerve and is acclaimed as one of the best novels ever, but the fact that it is a SF novel, while often repeated, does not seem to be important to the book's success.

All that said, I think this is my favorite book by this author. There's a whole lot going on in here, and while it seems to lose some folks I think it is well managed. The SF novel within a novel (Rusted Robots) manages to be autobiographical about Zelu, which is I think quite an achievement.

The book is very forthrightly and consciously African, and its Africanness is an important element of the story. Maybe I should say it's Nigerian, specifically upper-class Nigerian including the diaspora (Zelu is Nigerian-American). It's a perspective we don't see that much of in English language SF, so it's refreshing. Okorafor's dialog is direct to the point of awkwardness sometimes, and this really comes through in the depiction of the family relationships. But it gets less awkward with every book she writes. Good stuff.

My Goodreads Review

The Black Pages, by Nnedi Okorafor

I'm rating this a 3 but it's a 3.5 I just couldn't quite round up. I really did like the story. The setting seems to confuse some folks, since it mentions Al-Quaeda but is not set in Afghanistan or the Middle East. Al-Quaeda is active in Africa also, and this story is set in the sack of Timbuktu. The protagonist has been off making his way in America, but returns to Mali to see his family and retrieve his sense of place. But he arrives in the middle of a battle between the French and Al-Quaeda, which ends in a lot of destruction, murder and book burning. The book burning releases a genie, who rescues a book of power.

The story lifts up heritage and sense of place in the face of terror. Like a lot of short stories it doesn't really conclude, but that's fine, it's more of a setting.

My Goodreads Review

Remote Control, by Nnedi Okorafor

My feelings toward this book are very complex. Nnedi Okorafor gets better at writing all the time, and the prose in this book is very smooth and evocative. Some of the earlier work was kind of blocky in places, and you still get that feeling here but now it's more like a style. As for the story itself, it is set in the near future and there is technical speculation but the core of the story is fantasy, so it is hard to classify. Sankofa is, in my mind, a tragic character, cursed with incredible power that with its first use costs her everyone she ever loved, and that even by the end she can still only partially control. Even harder is that all this happens to her as a child. She wanders Ghana as a spirit would, being placated and loathed, and occasionally appreciated.

The book kind of stops rather than ends. Feels more like a starting point for a novel than a complete story. I hope Okorafor comes back to Sankofa at some point, I think she has more to say here.

My Goodreads Review

Noor, by Nnedi Okorafor

I've read the Binti series by Okorafor, and I'd say in this one that she is getting better as a writer (particularly in speculation) but the plot may not live up to her skills. AO is a woman with severe disabilities and has chosen heavy assistive body modifications to be able to live a normal life. This puts her into an oppressed category, and drives the story. Her Nigeria is a dystopian place pretty directly extrapolated from today--corporate exploitation and disinformation are her major obstacles. Ultimate Corporation is pretty much Nigerian Amazon.

I'm beginning to see the rationale for how Okorafor names her advanced technologies--an "anti-ajej" is a device for excluding sand from your immediate vicinity in a sandstorm. In traditional SF spaces you'd call it a force field, but that brings to mind a lot of colonial-military SF imagery that she avoids with her terminology.

An interesting take with this book and Who Fears Death (the first of hers I read) is that they both feature protagonists that are deeply unwanted babies. In Who Fears Death it is directly stated that the mother would never consider abortion, but not in Noor. Instead the parents pray for her death in the womb and later publicly denounce her augmentation and her association with Fulani herdsman DNA. It's an argument against abortion but sort of for it at the same time.

The ending is disappointing, either through not enough explanation or understanding. I'd call this one a case of growing pains.

Mother of Invention, by Nnedi Okorafor

Mother of Invention by Nnedi Okorafor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Our protagonist was the mistress of a wealthy man, and is kind of squatting in one of his smart homes, Obi 3. She has a severe allergy to periwinkle pollen, and a "pollen storm" is about to hit. She is also very pregnant. Though the affair is over, as long as she occupies the house he will not evict her. So she does not want to leave. Now what?

Okorafor has a very different take on hard SF that requires some work to appreciate, but it's definitely worth it. Her characters have a unique relationship to technology that is very rooted in African culture, so it's a great learning experience for white folks. This story deserved its Locus award nomination, I enjoyed it.



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Mother of Invention by Nnedi Okorafor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Our protagonist was the mistress of a wealthy man, and is kind of squatting in one of his smart homes, Obi 3. She has a severe allergy to periwinkle pollen, and a "pollen storm" is about to hit. She is also very pregnant. Though the affair is over, as long as she occupies the house he will not evict her. So she does not want to leave. Now what?

Okorafor has a very different take on hard SF that requires some work to appreciate, but it's definitely worth it. Her characters have a unique relationship to technology that is very rooted in African culture, so it's a great learning experience for white folks. This story deserved its Locus award nomination, I enjoyed it.



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Binti: The Night Masquerade

The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


By the third entry in this series I think I finally got my head around it, and the other two books became more enjoyable on reflection. Binti's world and story are completely different from other alien/space travel stories, even though they intersect in a lot of places. Living ships and hard-to-understand aliens are standard stuff. But seen through the Himba cultural lens (as told by a writer of Igbo descent) the emphasis changes--things that might seem important to us careful readers elsewhere (lots of dangling plot points--(view spoiler)[Why did the Meduse and Khoush start shooting again after Binti had done "magic" to bring about peace? If magic fails there's supposed to be a reason. It felt like a dangling plot point (hide spoiler)]) might not be so important. Phones are bespoke and intimately tuned to their users (this feels a bit dated, in that it is happening now).

I felt like this series was more disjointed than the other book I read by Okorafor, Who Fears Death. The world in that book was like Binti's, and challenged the reader, but it all made sense. Still, the persistence paid off and I ended up enjoying it.





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Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor

Home by Nnedi Okorafor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Okorafor's Binti series is equal parts fascinating and frustrating for me. Her approach to technology is completely fresh, and I came away understanding it better in this story. What at first seems fantastical is given scientific explanation later. There are stronger hints that the time is post-apocalyptic, or at least that people came to some very different understanding of how they wanted to relate to technology--possibly it was a way to survive? A telling quote: "That was back before people had mobile phones!". So there's a connection between today's phone and the story's "astrolabe". The setting of technology in African culture is fascinating and brings something very different to SF.

But as a story it's really choppy and abbreviated. Binti decides to go home to do her pilgrimage "because it's time" without preamble. It's not like an abbreviated story, more like we're jumping from part to part without a lot of it being told. The writing is kind of YA and not in a real wonderful way. What's frustrating is I do not recall this being so much of an issue in Who Fears Death. That book had its own problems but it was clearly a work for adults and explored large themes. The Binti series wants to go there, but there's just not enough book.



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Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor

It's interesting trying to figure out Nnedi Okorafor's use of technology in her books.  In Who Fears Death technology is not particularly present--mostly older things that don't work anymore, if I recall correctly.  Binti is somewhat different--it is set up as an interstellar story.  Binti is an Earth native, of the Himba tribe.  Himba don't generally leave home, but she is identified as a math genius and offered a full scholarship at Oomza University, the best in all the galaxy.  She winds up involved in a war (though we really only see enough for a feud) between the Medusae and Oomza Uni.

Technology for Okorafor is equal parts engineering and magic.  Binti is a master "harmonizer", one who can sense and create harmony in technologies, and as it turns out, sentient beings.  She is a builder of astrolabes, which seem to be what phones are to us now.  I sort of understand the word choice but it rings odd--why substitute an old Western word for a modern one?  The starship in which they travel is a genetically modified shrimp.  And in an echo back to Who Fears Death, a piece of broken technology (the generic name for such is edan) is part of what gets her through.

The magical core of this story is otjize, the clay mixed with oils that the Himba use for cleanliness and protection.  This substance is Binti's connection to her culture.  And in this story it also has magical healing powers.  This connection brings Okorafor's African roots forward.

The story is OK, but it really needed to be a full length novel, not a novella.  There's a lot going on here and most of it is told too quickly so it comes off pat.  The Medusae invade Binti's ship bound for Oomza Uni and gorily kill everyone aboard except her and the pilot.  And yet, she becomes their ambassador and all works out with little fanfare or uncertainty.  It's not fully baked.

As an explanation of culture it's pretty good.  As a story, not much.  I will give it a weak 3 stars.  Not my favorite so far.

Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor

I have again reached into the ol' wallet and found a used copy of Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor.  I had planned to donate this to the library, but the Amazon vendor sold me a page proof copy.  Not real cool, but that's for the Amazon review later.

For now, I enjoyed the book.  Many ethnic mythologies have been done to death in fantasy (Celtic, early Britain) but Africa has a long way to go.  This one is based in some future/alternate Sudan, where dark Okeke and light Nuru live as slave and master.  But of course there is much more to it.  Sorcery is a major force in people's lives, but sorcerers are very dangerous and no one would envy one.  The protagonist, Onyesonwu, is Ewu, a child of rape and thus shunned (a real practice in Sudan, the afterword says).  Her mother wishes sorcery upon her, and from there she is destined to change all.

The novel isn't furiously gripping, even though the imagery and situations are often pretty ugly.  Mostly one can detach from it.  Okorafor's descriptions of magic and how one invokes it are unique and interesting, though, and the characters are refreshing and lively even in their sadness and desperation.  The feel of the African desert is clear throughout.  If you want a good unique read, this would be one for you.  Hopefully your library has it.