Binti: Home
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4.6 • 148 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
The thrilling sequel to the Hugo and Nebula-winning Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, and a finalist for the 2018 Hugo and Nommo Awards
It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places.
And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.
But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.
After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?
The Binti Series
Book 1: Binti
Book 2: Binti: Home
Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade
Praise for Nnedi Okorafor:
"Binti is a supreme read about a sexy, edgy Afropolitan in space! It's a wondrous combination of extra-terrestrial adventure and age-old African diplomacy. Unforgettable!" - Wanuri Kahiu, award winning Kenyan film director of Pumzi and From a Whisper
"A perfect dove-tailing of tribal and futuristic, of sentient space ships and ancient cultural traditions, Binti was a beautiful story to read.” – Little Red Reviewer
“Binti is a wonderful and memorable coming of age story which, to paraphrase Lord of the Rings, shows that one girl can change the course of the galaxy.” – Geek Syndicate
“Binti packs a punch because it is such a rich, complex tale of identity, both personal and cultural… and like all of Nnedi Okorafor’s works, this one is also highly, highly recommended.” – Kirkus Reviews
"There's more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor's work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics." -Ursula Le Guin
"Okorafor's impressive inventiveness never flags." - Gary K. Wolfe on Lagoon
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Okorafor picks up her interplanetary adventure story a year after the traumatic events of the Hugo-winning novella Binti. The titular heroine, Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib, is the lone human survivor of a massacre. The jellyfish-like Meduse attacked the living space vessel Third Fish while Binti and her fellow young adults were en route from Earth to the university on the planet Oomza. She now carries Meduse genetic material, which has changed her hair into tentacles, and her best friend at uni is the Meduse Okwu. When she feels a strong call to return to Earth, Okwu accompanies her as an ambassador of the Meduse. Binti hopes to engage in the traditional pilgrimage of the Himba, who live on the edge of the Namib Desert, to cleanse her outbreaks of anger. After traveling home in Third Fish, she finds the situation on Earth is complicated and her pilgrimage may not be possible. Strange happenings press her to choose her path into the future. Within a small space, Okorafor efficiently depicts several distinct cultures and portrays a strong and unusual heroine. A cliff-hanger ending promises more excitement to come.
Customer Reviews
The Journey is....?
“What will you be?” she asked. “Maybe it is not up to you.”
Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib has spent a year at Oomza Uni. As Master Harmonizer, she is supposed to be able to balance situations. However, her trauma from the previous year is interfering in her studies. It’s time to go home to Earth to complete her pilgrimage, to return to herself, to return to her people. The question is, will they accept her?
She returns with Okwu, her friend, the one who saved her when she almost died the year before. Okwu is the first of its kind in generations to come to earth where it’s kind are seen as collective enemy. But it and Binti go to Binti’s home, the Root, where she will leave on her pilgrimage. The question is, will she complete it as she expects to, and what will she learn?
When I read Binti a few years ago, I simply fell in love with the writing as well as Okorafor’s story. When in searching for something else I ran into the second (and third) in the story I could hardly wait to read them. And I wasn’t disappointed even though it is obviously a ...to be continued...
Highly recommended 5/5
[disclaimer: this is a library book]
Still a fairytale narrative w/SF framing
The events of the prior book have left a mark, which is dealt with... well, it's still a story that is drawing on fairytale meta-tropes. The treatment of that trauma feels unsatisfyingly shallow in places if expectations are set by SF. But if it's a fairytale of sorts, then there's enough to move the story.
And it is a coming of age, transformational fairytale. SF & ultratech trappings to the magic, but it's a story that probably won't work for some readers till one recognizes that the SF tropes aren't more than skin deep.
That said, it's not the sort of fairy tale where everything is going to be glossy & happy. If the wolf eats grandma, there won't be any woodsman to pop them back out safely. It's an older set of tropes and expectations. Don't expect Disney. (...maybe Pixar. >_> Hi, Pixar; make me cry more, why don'tcha.)
Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. At least I already own the 3rd book!