afro-futurism – Cannonball Read 17

Fantasy shouldn’t make you feel your early middle age

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

September 16, 2023 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Bingo 20: Africa Children of Blood and Bone fits kind of into the Afro-futurism arena, and it’s also based on West African folklore/mythology and takes place is an African-esque setting. I was intrigued by the worldbuilding and some of the characters were interesting, but the plot and two of the three main characters were stupid teenagers making cringe-worthy teen angsty kinds of decisions. I know this is YA, but it’s kind of making me feel my age (barely 40+) a little. Zelie and her brother […]

Finishing the Black Stars series

These Alien Skies by C. T. Rwizi

We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle

2043...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) by Nisi Shawl

July 25, 2022 by teresaelectro 1 Comment

Getting back on my reviews with Cannonball Read 14 Bingo! I liked all three of the remaining stories from the Black Stars anthology. I highly recommend you check them out on audiobook. Bingo Square: Star “These Alien Skies” was my favorite story from this round. Two human space explorers are sent through a wormhole on a mission to find habitable worlds. Before we can really get to know Msizi and Tariro, an accidental explosion (or was it) sends their ship crash landing on a planet […]

Familiar and New Sci Fi

Binti: the Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

April 24, 2021 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I have a bit of a confession to make: I assigned my students a novella that I hadn’t read the conclusion of. This isn’t quite as bad as it sounds. Binti is a trilogy, and I’d read the first installment, assigned it, started the full trilogy, put it down, forgot about it, then picked it back up with about 2 weeks left in the semester. Here follows a review of the full trilogy. Reasons I picked this for an intro to lit/composition 2 type class: […]

Angry Space Jellyfish

Binti by nnedi Okorafor

April 6, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I hated the first thing I got from a list of must-read sci-fi/fantasy series; I was not optimistic about the second. Thankfully, this one turned out well. The only problem? Binti is actually a novella, and way too short. I somehow ended up with a copy of the first novella, not the series of three bound together. The premise reminds me in some ways of Black Panther. Binti is a Shuri-like math prodigy from an isolated culture who sticks largely to old ways of living […]

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