*GASP* Is it a new blog post from me? Really! I had hoped to have more Friday reviews to share for Black History Month, but due to my freelancing taking off far faster than I hoped, my reading time has plummeted. However, I did manage to read BINTI by Nnedi Okorafor. I’ve started BINTI: HOME, as well but didn’t manage to finish it quite in time for this blog post.
Let me tell you though – BINTI was incredible, and the sequel is definitely following that trend thus far!
What to say about this novella other than that it’s utterly spectacular? This is some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen in SF in quite a while, and it’s even more impressive that it’s done in a shorter format than normal. The different races (not all of them bipedal which I definitely enjoyed seeing), the technology (living spaceships related to SHRIMP! BRB giggling ridiculously about that forever), to the mathematical details (I haven’t taken math in highschool and this was definitely a reminder that math can flat out be another language – one I am SEVERELY rusty on but now almost want to dive back into), and the concept of the school itself were also just stunningly portrayed. I feel like I’m gushing over all of the details, but seriously, it blew me away.
And then there was Binti herself: intelligent, driven by her drive for knowledge, and unapologetically herself even in the disapproval of both strangers and her family. The heroine Okorafor wrote for us was completely believable as the person who would bridge the gap between the Meduse and the rest of the galaxy.
Seriously, math, science, and a brilliant black woman save a planet, and I can totally get behind that.
So have any of you read BINTI or one of Nnedi Okorafor’s other works? Have another awesome black author you recommend I dive into? I definitely want to expand my list!