I've been putting off reading this solely because it's a novella. They need to be written in a very specific way, otherwise they end up being not enough. I think that's ultimately what happens with Binti. The story is great, the ideas put forward are unique & interesting, and the writing is nuanced & engaging.
But then what? There are a number of really cool things to explore here, but instead you get precisely one line about them.
- Living ship, designed to have breathing bladders - The concept of harmonisation - The specifics of Himba culture
Are just a few pieces you'd want to know more about, but can't due to this format. Perhaps these things will be explored in the following two novellas - but there in lies my point. Why is this three novellas and not three parts to an actual story? If it's not self contained …
I've been putting off reading this solely because it's a novella. They need to be written in a very specific way, otherwise they end up being not enough. I think that's ultimately what happens with Binti. The story is great, the ideas put forward are unique & interesting, and the writing is nuanced & engaging.
But then what? There are a number of really cool things to explore here, but instead you get precisely one line about them.
- Living ship, designed to have breathing bladders - The concept of harmonisation - The specifics of Himba culture
Are just a few pieces you'd want to know more about, but can't due to this format. Perhaps these things will be explored in the following two novellas - but there in lies my point. Why is this three novellas and not three parts to an actual story? If it's not self contained it's not a novella.
A small novella, told from a unique perspective - a woman from a very African plains sounding place, runs off to go to the university and then becomes an intermediary in an interstellar war. Well told and I loved the voice. Can't wait to try the next one.
Solid new perspective on basic themes of other and violence and gender roles through the space-coming-of-age lens, but maybe story suffers some in held-back simplicity for being a novella serial.
This was a fascinating short read. It can be finished in an hour or two and you can even find a free preview of it at Tor. I'm always a fan of world building but frequently forget that while other species and distant planets are fine, there are plenty of exciting peoples here on Earth too. Binti is indisputably human and a hero with intriguing talents and an exotic culture that makes her that much cooler. I'm curious to learn more about her story and wonder what the other two books in the series are about.
A delightful quick read that I dreaded a little bit because: hype. Turns out it is well worth the hype.
After a somewhat slow start in which had to understand the books terminology and get a grasp on the cultural aspects of Binti‘s home, it took off at high speed. I found especially the world-building to be wonderfully visual. Together with a protagonist I want to know more about and exotic technologies that have yet to be fully explored I can‘t wait to get to the sequels.
This story starts as YA continues with some very graphic murder and then degenerates into a childish conflict resolution scenario befitting early grammar school levels of cognition.
I decided not to read any of this trilogy until they were all released. I think that was a good decision. I bought the first two novellas and preordered the third right after Christmas. In the years since Binti came out I had heard a lot about it but somehow did not entirely understand what it was about. I knew that she was a girl from Africa who was going to university on another planet. I thought this was going to be the story of her schooling. It isn't.Binti takes place almost entirely on the ship on her way to the university. Binti comes from a insular culture. Family and tradition are of the highest importance. At the same time they are very technologically advanced and make advanced devices for everyone. Binti is most comfortable working with mathematical formulas. They help her focus and relax. She can manipulate electrical …
I decided not to read any of this trilogy until they were all released. I think that was a good decision. I bought the first two novellas and preordered the third right after Christmas. In the years since Binti came out I had heard a lot about it but somehow did not entirely understand what it was about. I knew that she was a girl from Africa who was going to university on another planet. I thought this was going to be the story of her schooling. It isn't.Binti takes place almost entirely on the ship on her way to the university. Binti comes from a insular culture. Family and tradition are of the highest importance. At the same time they are very technologically advanced and make advanced devices for everyone. Binti is most comfortable working with mathematical formulas. They help her focus and relax. She can manipulate electrical current through formulas. Sheis a harmonizer who can bring disparate things together. She's supposed to take over the family business. Instead she runs in the middle of the night to go off planet. This is an ultimate betrayal of her family and culture.Every time I read a Nnedi Okorafor book what stays with me is the imagination in the fine details more than the plot. It starts with Binti's faulty hover technology that she uses to move her suitcases. It extends to the interstellar ships that are actually live animals that look like shrimp. They like to travel and are fine with taking passengers along.This whole series is an exploration of what it means to be uniquely "you". Does Binti lose her identity when she leaves her family or is she changing into an expanded version of herself? Is it right or wrong to change in that way? The women of Binti's tribe wear a mixture of clay and oils on their skin to protect it from the desert. It marks her as an outsider from other cultures on Earth but it saves her when the ship is attacked. She is the only survivor and has to learn to use her gift for harmonizing to help stop a war.The events of the first novella were very traumatic for Binti. She is still learning how to handle her nightmares in addition to the changes in her body after some Meduse DNA was placed in her. Is she still Himba with the addition of alien DNA? Will her family ever be able to accept her if she goes home? She decides that she has to go back to Earth to see. Her goal is to take part in a pilgrimage that will earn her place as an adult woman of the Himba. Okwa, her Meduse friend, decides to go with her. He will be the first Meduse to ever come to Earth peacefully.Friends and family members turn their back on her. Then she is prevented from going on the pilgrimage by the arrival of members of a desert people who the Himba have always looked down on. They take her into the desert to explain their history to her. Her father is one of the them but he turned his back on them to become Himba. Again we get into questions of identity. Binti was raised to stay in her own community. Her world keeps expanding against her will.While she is in the desert, her family and Okwa are attacked. Now she has to try to make her way back to see if anyone survived.This was my favorite of the series. Binti is pushing through the boundaries that have been set for a woman of her age and tribe. As she grows, there is a ripple effect in her community.I'm glad I read these almost back to back. This story picks up immediately where the last one left off. Binti is getting back to her village that has been attacked while she was gone. She tries to rally the survivors but meets opposition from people who believe that their nature requires them to stay neutral and out of harm's way while other more powerful groups fight. Binti wants to use the power of her culture to bring peace. She is ignored because after all she is just a girl and a very poor example of a Himba, in the elders' eyes. Binti is becoming a bit more used to her expanded world view though. She can see how to bring people together even though it is going to cost her everything to do this alone.These books do a very good job of combining traditional Himba culture, other West African beliefs such as the importance of Masquerades, advanced technology, and alien civilizations without making it feel like one is automatically better than any of the others. Binti learns to incorporate all these aspects of herself into her idea of who she is even if she really doesn't want to.
"I have always liked myself, Dr. Tuka." I looked up at her. "I like who I am. I love my family. I wasn't running away from home. I don't want to change, to grow! Nothing ... everything ... I don't want all this ... this weirdness! It's too heavy! I just want tobe."
I would recommend this series for anyone who enjoys science fiction that is very personal instead of a vast epic. It is for anyone who ever felt like they didn't fix exactly in the space that they were born to occupy even if they really want to fit there perfectly.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
Binti is a really engaging, well-written book, with storytelling and worldbuilding that's solid and rich and smooth as clay, fittingly. It's a book about change and tradition, about cycles of violence and cycles of trust, and given that it's so short, I think everyone should give it a read.
The only thing that didn't sit entirely easy with me was the ease with which the protagonist seemed to overcome the story's inciting trauma. Cycles of violence and mistrust are incredibly corrosive and difficult to break in the real world, and that complex difficulty didn't really feel present or impactful here. But in the end, that just makes the story feel a bit too optimistic, which isn't the worst thing in the world.
