This short fiction was highly enjoyable and very fast-paced. It wove real culture and science fiction together perfectly. The main character is easy to root for because she's such an outsider and so deeply devoted to her love of learning. I got this book on June 15, 2022, and I am so glad I took an hour to finally read it. This is my honest and unbiased review.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves to learn, enjoys science fiction, and wants a great read with a Himba main character from Namibia (Namib) in Southern Africa. In the book, her people have many brilliant advancements and a strong connection to the earth. There is a passage about her hair that feels so deeply meaningful to me and is an excellent summary of her values:

{Heru touches her hair} "You have exactly twenty-one," he said. "And they're braided in tessellating triangles. Is it some sort of code?"

I wanted to tell him that there was a code, that the pattern spoke my family's bloodline, culture, and history. That my father had designed the code and my mother and aunties had shown me how to braid it into my hair.

It's that beautiful? I would give this book five stars on that passage alone. This is what a good diverse book should do, show how even something as easily overlooked as hair can hold such a deep meaning and reveal a great deal about someone. Binti describes herself as having dark skin and extra-bushy hair because her father's side has the blood of the Desert People.

The best science fiction description in this book, to me, was the ship. "Third Fish was a Miri 12, a type of ship closely related to a shrimp." Space travel inside a living creature that had been genetically enhanced for travel. The ship, being a living beast, makes sounds and quakes because it has functional bowels. A living ship is a beautiful concept. I do not read a lot of scifi, but this really caught my attention.

This opens with immediate action. Then, just as the story seems to settle for a moment, there's an unexpected twist full of heart-pounding action. Eventually, Binti has to make a choice. I do wish it had been a more well-informed decision, that she knew what she'd actually sacrifice, that the Meduse were more forthcoming. They believe humans only understand violence.

A mirror to society, to a real-life issue, is presented in a discussion as to whether a museum or university should keep a prestigious and high-valued piece or return it to the people to whom it belongs.

This feels like it could be realistic fiction in the future. Math lovers will especially enjoy parts of this story. As all goals are met, there is a happily-ever-after (or happy for now). There is a chilling scene with violence. It's action-packed, fast-paced, and has many plot twists. The story felt mostly unpredictable. It was very fun, entertaining, and informative to me.

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some_random_person_hi's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

The writing style reads quite inexperienced and there were few emotional beats. It's a very simple story that would've done better with a longer length for non-rushed out character development as well as just a non-rushed out plot in general. Despite how quickly things moved, it managed to still feel boring

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choicepotatoes_oldo20230731's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

STAR RATING

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★★★☆☆
enjoyable enough

NUMERICAL RATING

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3.25
this book has so much potential; i wanted to enjoy it so much more than i actually did

REVIEW

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I never thought I would wind up reading Binti more than once, but I recently discovered Robin Miles and was curious to know if I'd enjoy her fiction narration just as much as I enjoyed her narration of Caste.

As it turned out:

Miles' narration of Binti confirmed her as one of my favorite audio book narrators
It may have something to do with the above bullet point, but Binti is arguably better as an audio book than an ebook

Although Binti was, for the most part, enjoyable, there were a couple of things I found off-putting:

Between Binti's arrival on The Third Fish and the arrival of the Meduse on the ship, Okorafor attempts a sort of "making friends, developing a crush, etc" montage.

We don't learn much about Binti, the ship, or the university during the montage. I also didn't form any real or lasting emotional connection to her shipmates (although, I will admit, I was absolutely prepared to).

Because of this, the murder of everyone on the ship was anti-climactic. Had it been set up differently, it could have been a highly emotional moment that pulled me further into the story and caused me to feel great conflict about Okwu throughout the remainder of the book. Instead, I was left feeling underwhelmed and--quite frankly--more betrayed than if I'd formed deep connections with those side characters only to have them cruelly ripped away from me.

The second off-putting thing, I only really realized after finishing the second book in the series:

Binti doesn't feel like a whole story that stands on its own. It's more complete than the second book, but in retrospect, it feels like a very detailed backstory whose primary purpose is to strengthen the third and final book in the series.

It's true that both the first and second book go a long way towards making the third as strong as it is, but I'm wondering whether both books couldn't somehow have been integrated into the third, as opposed to being two very fleshed-out fragments of backstory in a three-part novella.

All that said, I appreciate this book more the second time through, and especially while reading the third book in the series for the second time. I'm no longer convinced this won't be a book I'll return to, and I'm more convinced to try reading some of Okorafor's other books a second time.

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natalie_gumm's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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