Reviews

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

egajowski's review against another edition

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didn’t expect the incestual rape

rocketbride's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved this book. The language (English patois) was challenging for the first page, and then it became my favourite thing about reading it.

taylor_hohulin's review against another edition

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3.0

This rating has more to do with my expectation than with the quality of the book. It is a very well done book, but I was expecting a high-tech, worldbuilding-heavy sci fi story, but really it's a coming-of-age story set in a high-tech sci-fi world. Truly a unique book, and very well done, just not what I've been looking for lately.

_rusalka's review against another edition

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4.0

Sick of all those sci fi books where the entire universe seems to be painted with an Anglo-Western brush in an American accent? Then this is the book for you.

Midnight Robber is set in a world where it's not the Americans or the Euros or the Asians who have colonised. This is a world evolved from and is so obviously Caribbean. It is the story of a girl called Tan-Tan who lives in this technologically advanced world, but then her father commits a crime that results in him being sent to a parallel world. Tan-Tan sneaks off with him, not knowing that means never coming back. It's the story of Tan-Tan in this other other world, dealing with not only a more primitive version of her world, but also the creatures and other species in it that come right out of her Anansi stories.

This book is fantastic. It takes a well known theme of colonised, technologically advanced, new worlds and throws it on it's head. It's world building is phenomenal in my mind. I bought it all. A world where people don't have to do hard labour anymore and look down on those who do. Implants in your head feeding you information. Sending criminals away to a different version of your world so you don't have to deal with them. The culture of the douen. The tie ins to all the Anansi mythology and stories (some of which my Trinidadian friend had just told us about at dinner the other day). Loved it.

Not only that, it's written in a form of Creole. I assume it's pretty anglicised so those of us outside of the Caribbean cultures (and no doubt Creole changes from island to island) can understand it. But it adds a whole new element to immersing you into that world. It's clever. Each part of the book starts with a folklore story as well, so you feel you are sitting around a fire being told a story by a wise woman.

Because of this language however, I would say that it took me a lot longer that normal to read the first third of the book. You can't skim this one. You have to think through the sentences. You have to flip the words round and make them fit. You have to think back to what "doux-doux" or "pickney" meant. This gets easier though, as you get used to the grammar being not quite how we use it, the rhythm of the language, and words that get used again and again fall into your own vocab (like the above). It gets faster as the story gets faster. You get whisked along with it.

But for me, the climax failed. I couldn't relate to Tan-Tan anymore. She became someone I couldn't understand or empathise with. She was so incredibly selfish. All the other characters I loved though and felt so strongly for them, but not Tan-Tan. Then the ending for me was disappointing. One because I thought it was a lame end for Tan-Tan's story. But mainly it forgot about all those other characters I fell in love with in the book. I once again thought I was on to a 5 star read and the last 70 or so pages failed me.

It was sad, but I am so glad I read it. I am going to read more of [a:Nalo Hopkinson|27528|Nalo Hopkinson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1361387199p2/27528.jpg]'s stuff as others who have said the same as me have recommended other reads of hers. I wanted a different sci-fi with an immersive world, and that's what I got. I wanted to start reading more books that had won awards like the Hugo, and I can see why it was shortlisted (it lost to a Harry Potter and was against a Song of Ice and Fire book. Tough competition). And it threw me into a culture I didn't know much about. And when it comes down to it, that's why I'm doing this challenge.

For more reviews, visit: http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/

willdpage's review against another edition

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5.0

Nalo Hopkinson is one of the O.G.s of Black and Caribbean speculative fiction. This takes place on a world that at some point in the distant past was colonized by folks from various parts of the Carribean we're familiar with (she has roots in Jamiaca, Guyana, and Trinidad). Two important parts of the setup--most everyone on this world is connected to a pretty much omniscient artificial intelligence called Granny Nanny and folks who commit crimes deemed bad enough are banished for life to an alternate dimension that exists kind of on top of their world, if that makes sense. Really effectively told from the point of view of a girl who comes of age as the story goes on. Very strong world building--as a reader, I felt like I was somewhere else entirely.

mariellep's review against another edition

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3.0

This book was an interesting read on a futuristic world. I particularly liked the parts of the novel based on folklore on otherworldly beings. However, I really hated the humans that centered this story and they made this a difficult read.

laserdiscreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

emeraldcitybookworm's review against another edition

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5.0

Midnight Robber is a wonderful blend of afrofuturism, Caribbean folklore, and dark scifi/fantasy.

I'm not sure what I expected going in, but this ended up being darker and more emotional than I expected. I loved the worldbuilding and characters, and the power to be found in speaking your trauma. I'd say Midnight Robber delivered everything I could ask for in a Caribbean inspired scifi novel. So far, my journeys into Nalo Hopkinson's work have been fascinating, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of it.

Song that came to mind reading this:

hairiel42's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a tricky book for me. On one hand, I've never read a Caribbean- futurist book before. It was interesting seeing the cultures folklore and language translated to a science fiction setting. The Anansi story framing device used throughout the book was largely compelling (but I found the reasoning why it was framed that way to be a little too out of the blue), though I struggled to tell what events were really happening to and impacting Tan-Tan. I enjoyed learning about Douen culture too, but wanted more development or progress made within their storyline.

That gets to my central issue with the book...It felt like there were a lot of story elements that weren't fully developed or delved into. Things would come up, and then disappear a few pages later (the baby calf, everything with the Douens and Tefa's exile, the space-Luddites on Toussaint). The detours the story kept taking took away from the most important storyline, of Tan-Tan recovering from sexual trauma. The overall pacing was off.

Going into the book, I didn't realize the whole thing was about sexual assault and incest so the vivid scenes describing it shocked me. It was difficult for me to get through at times. Her healing never felt sufficiently resolved, the speech at the last Carnival was a cool way to share her story but we barely saw her emotional growth towards accepting the child or realizing what happened to her wasn't her fault.

I don't think this is a book for me, but I'm happy to have tried a new genre and different sort of story