paperback, 368 pages
English language
Published July 7, 2020 by DAW.
It's been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places. And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders. But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace. After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?
Ah, I see. These 3 novellas are one Binti story. This one is like the second act, things get tense and start to change.
I've enjoyed learning along with her about the magic/tech she discovers.
I think this is actually closer to a 3.5 for me, but let's bump it up to 4 for the refreshing perspective and imagination in the worldbuilding. I'd read the first story a while back, but just picked up the collected trilogy and read the remainder, so this review is for the series as a whole.
I had some problems with the initial novella because it's presented as science fiction but has so many elements seeminly of pure fantasy that didn't seem well explained at all - such as why on earth would the Meduse - whose technology seems to far surpass humanity's, and who can literally change the genetic structure of Binti with apparently no effort at all - why do they magically seem to be healed by the mixture of clay and perfumed oil that Binti's people cover their bodies with. On reading further into the trilogy it …
I think this is actually closer to a 3.5 for me, but let's bump it up to 4 for the refreshing perspective and imagination in the worldbuilding. I'd read the first story a while back, but just picked up the collected trilogy and read the remainder, so this review is for the series as a whole.
I had some problems with the initial novella because it's presented as science fiction but has so many elements seeminly of pure fantasy that didn't seem well explained at all - such as why on earth would the Meduse - whose technology seems to far surpass humanity's, and who can literally change the genetic structure of Binti with apparently no effort at all - why do they magically seem to be healed by the mixture of clay and perfumed oil that Binti's people cover their bodies with. On reading further into the trilogy it becomes clearer that this really isn't a science fiction series, but instead a series about the personal growth of the main character, told through a blend of science fiction and fantasy. It's the grey area of "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic", and maybe some of it can be justified as advanced technology, and other parts cannot, but from the reader's perspective it's hard to say for sure. Suffice it to say there are elements that appear to be pure magic, and some very deus ex machina solutions, but that's not the point of the series. The key focus of this series is the growth of Binti a a character and how she fits into and changes the worlds she's part of, and the trilogy does a decent job of bringing this home.
I like the characters, particularly the alien ones; I like the alien worlds; the wildly diverse environment of the university reminds me a bit of the Chanur books by C.J. Cherryh where wildly different alien species somehow manage to get along and interact even when they can't even always share the same atmosphere. It's an optimistic view of a highly diverse future that I'd love to dream is possible one day even though I highly doubt it ever could be. I like visiting this vision of the future and will pick up any future Binti novels that come out. I'd particularly like to see more of the university and other non-human worlds.
Very excellent. Had to read the first short story for school and ended up reading the whole trilogy to see what happens. I'm glad I did! Highly recommended for sci-fi fans. There were times where I thought Bindi was acting too childish compared to how her character acts throughout the rest of the stories. But other than that, everything was amazing.
I loved the idea of this and I loved the range of characters and places and the mode of wandering as narrative. The mix of histories and ideas of home are powerful (and poly!). But there are strong emotions that never got wrestled with—there’s trauma and anger and feelings of exclusion and belonging, but they all just stay there instead of being thought through.
The world building is incredible (those sentient ships! the ubiquitous astrolabes!). The species range is awesome. The centering on African cultures is well chosen. The adolescent heroine is alternately whiny and wowed on her way to growth, which felt appropriate for a YA heroine. Despite a gut punch of front-loaded action, this story takes it’s time to build. A very satisfying set of novellas.
The glimpses of Himba culture were interesting. The imagined alien cultures of the Meduse and the golden people were OK, but not very deep. The Meduse are honor-bound people who kill stuff. Not too much else.
Given it is a collected trilogy, but there was a lot of repetition in this book--the plot was very uneven. There's an ancient feud, a peace is brokered for literally ten minutes, and fighting breaks out again. Rinse and repeat.
For a character-driven book, there was also a LOT of the main character, Binti, coming to the same realization over and over again. Not in new ways, or in ways that told us how the realization had an effect on her life. Almost word-for-word the same realization.
Well, I thought I'd finish out this novella series. Again, I think that the format is not for me. This story may be interesting in its entirety, but I can't really comment too much on what is effectively just the middle part all that objectively.
There's some coming of age stuff, making choices you deem as right, but disappoint those around you. There's some ancient mysticism that turns out to be tech (which is generally a theme I like), there's tradition and interstellar war. On the surface this should be totally enjoyable and relevant to my interests. I need more of the context though I think. Let's see what I feel after finishing the next installment.
