★★★★ (of 5)

• Full Title: Binti : Home
• Author: Nnedi Okorafor
• Year: 2017
• Pages: 162
• Genre: Science Fiction, africanfuturist
• Publisher: Tor
• ISBN 978-0-7653-9311-1 (trade paperback)
• Wikipedia page
• Author’s Wikipedia page

 

Summary

The sequel to her Nebula- and Hugo-winning novella Binti, Okorafor’s Binti: Home is nearly twice as long and again features title character, Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka, now 17 years old. The first of her tribal group to venture into space, Binti now returns home for the first time, facing her family, friends, and the secretive Desert People who have much to teach her. Still suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from the events of the first book, Binti continues to grow and learn — becoming the woman she is meant to be.

 

Commentary On Style

Like the first, this book is told in first person, which I typically enjoy the most. It wasn’t quite as linear as the first one, with several breaks to go backward in fill in some gaps. It wasn’t always clear to me when or where things were happening, or what exactly was happening, but I think this was intentional — to give the reader the same sense of confusion that Binti feels. Most of the action, however, was clear and easy to follow.

 

Characters

In addition to the two main characters from the first story (Binti and Okwu), this one develops a few more, including some of Binti’s immediate family and a couple of the Desert People that Binti eventually meets. None of the characters felt two-dimensional; all seemed like real people in real situations. As before, Okorafor excels in precise and tangible character descriptions, using just a handful of words to give the reader important information about people.

 

Originality

Again I give the story points for originality. Neither the character set nor the location, nor the plot line was like anything I’ve read before. People of color aren’t used as props or tokens, but dominate the character set — and their origins are central to the story. Again, references are made to bioengineered technology, including the starship from the first book, which is now pregnant.

 

Points Off For...

As with the first book, I was unable to give a full five stars for two things: very little description of the wider universe and a handful of times when events simply went unexplained. Here, we learn a little more about the universe, but not much. And when it comes to unexplained things, I quickly tire of trying to figure out which ones will be explained later in the story and which ones will remain unexplained.

(If ratings included decimals, I would rate Binti: Home slightly better than Binti.)

 

Conclusion

This one took a little longer, but was still a quick read; it doesn’t ask much of the reader other than imagination. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a different twist on the genre.

 

Addendum, 2019.10.09

The author, Okorafor, tweeted in March 2019 that she does not want the term “afrofuturism” applied to her work. Until seeing that tweet, I had assumed (incorrectly) that she was the one who had coined the term — I’ve seen it in reviews of her books and even on their dust jackets. Now that I know that assumption was incorrect, I will use the term she suggested in the tweet, which is “africanfuturist”. I don’t know what the difference is, but am perfectly happy to use the genre terms specified by authors. I have edited my “genre” bullet point above. Here is a screenshot of her tweet:

 

 

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