Wow, I was expecting so much more from this. It’s nominated for a bunch of awards, and won the Nebula, and I’ve heard Okorafor is a great writer, but this was not a good example of any of those things for me. I don’t know, maybe it’s a combination of her style, the format she chose to write the story in, and the story itself, but the result for me was rushed, simplistic and unsatisfying. And even more so because this story, executed differently, is […]
We’re Nigerians. Just Nigerians. And one Ghanaian.
Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon was my pick for the Cannonball Read Sci Fi Book Club selection. The description of Lagoon grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I listened to the Audible version narrated by Adjoa Andoh and Ben Onwukwe. I highly recommend it. I did like Doomsday Book more than most of you, so take that into consideration. From Amazon: It’s up to a famous rapper, a biologist, and a rogue soldier to handle humanity’s first contact with an alien ambassador—and prevent mass extinction—in this novel […]
I Believe in the Power of Creation (which is female)
To be something abnormal meant you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you …and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them. Who Fears Death is the story of a young woman who, in the face of formidable obstacles, must change the world. Onyesonwu, whose name means “who fears death,” possesses mystical powers. While this makes her unusual in her town, it is not what sets her apart from others, at least not at first. The novel […]
Enchanting/Frustrating African Fantasy
I have a lot of thoughts about this book because I found it both enchanting and frustrating. Let’s start with the plot: We’re somewhere in Africa. The Nuru, a lighter skinned people, and the Okeke, a darker skinned people, are enemies. The Nuru are on course to exterminate the Okeke, following (what they think is) the guidance written in The Great Book. One Okeke woman is raped by a really terrible Nuru during a raping/pillaging raid. She escapes, giving birth in the desert to a baby girl whom she […]
A searing vision of post-apocalypse Africa in sci-fi
I’m currently planning a contemporary global literature course (for a variety of reasons), and I’ve been trying to extend my specialty in contemporary fiction to texts and foci outside my little niche. So when my friend M raved about Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death on Goodreads, I was intrigued. Okorafor herself had read an article from The Washington Post about rape as ethnic cleansing in the Sudan and was inspired to write about the child of one such violent conception. A young Okeke woman is […]
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