Review: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Title: Home (Binti #2)
Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Genre: Sci-Fi
Release Date: January 2017
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Home is the second book in the Binti series, which started off with the first book of the same name following a young woman as she traveled from Earth to an alien university called Oomza Uni in hopes of expanding her world view and applying her skills as what is known as a harmonizer to the galactic community. Binti left behind her traditional community, the Himba, on Earth, and hopes to find a place for herself in space. During her journey, her ship is attacked by the Meduse, a jellyfish-like alien race known for being violent and tapping in to a hive mind. I won't go too in depth into the plot of the first book, but basically Binti proves herself and it's clear that she belongs at Oomza Uni where she can share her skills with the academic community, and that she represents new collaboration and cooperation between cultures that in the past have been enemies.

In Home, Binti is still dealing with the trauma of her experiences in the first book. I love the way that Okorafor examines trauma, as Binti is a character who is growing and evolving, rather than a ready-made do-no-wrong heroine. She is trying to reconcile her friendship with Okwu, one of the Meduse who had previously brought violence into her world (Okwu is awesome, btw), and her anxiety attacks that she experiences due to the attack on her ship. In an attempt to heal, Binti tries to go home again and immerse herself in the culture of her people, by going on a pilgrimage with other young women from her community. Her family still hasn't forgiven her for abandoning the traditions of her home, however, and resents her for trying new things by attending Oomza Uni instead of taking over the family business. On Earth, Binti is faced with confronting the parts about herself that are imperfect or maybe not the type of person that she wants to be.

Both books in this series are considered novellas, as they are fairly short in length, but Okorafor packs so much world building, character development, and emotional conflict into these slim volumes that the short length works in favor of the storytelling. In Home, we meet a Binti who is a bit broken and unsure, and I found it refreshing to read about a heroine who isn't perfect and already good at everything. Instead, Home charts Binti's inner journey to find her identity and better understand both where she comes from and where she is going. I highly recommend this series if you enjoy science fiction that features well-developed characters, a unique world, and excellent pacing. The final novella is slated to be released this fall, and I can't wait!

Review: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Title: A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Author: Becky Chambers

Genre: Sci-Fi
Release Date: July 2014

Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars

 

Although space opera is one of my favorite subgenres, I admit that sometimes fiction written in that vein can be hit or miss. Sometimes the world building is off, or there isn’t enough believable characterization, or the story draws too much upon genre tropes. A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, however, is like a breath of fresh air and a must-read for space opera fans who are interested in character development, well-drawn world-building, and drama and adventure that falls squarely on the warm and fuzzy side. Following a connecting web of characters, this novel takes place in a future where humans have become a spacefaring species and cooperate with a diverse array of alien races. The focus of the tale is the crew of the Wayfarer, a civilian tunneling ship that digs tunnels through space-time to allow for galactic travel. Headed by Captain Ashby, the crew consists of endearing techies Kizzy and Jenks, pilot Sissix who belongs to a free-loving reptilian-esque alien race, a personable AI named Lovey, a multi-limbed alien named Dr. Chef who patches up the crew and prepares their meals, a mysterious, spiritual navigator, and a pink human that nobody really cares for. We meet the crew just as Rosemary Harper, their newest addition as clerk, is joining their adventures.

The standouts of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet are definitely the ways that the characters interact, and the means that Chambers conveys information about the world. The crew is diverse and each member has their own unique backstory contributing to how they ended up on the Wayfarer and why they view the world the way that they do. Rosemary, as the newest member, is our means to get to know them, learn more about the alien races and their cultures, and learn more about the world in general. Instead of an info dump, Chambers reveals history about different alien races through conversations, logs, and revealing interactions. This provides an immersive reading experience that allows the reader to fully commit to this world and accept its fantastic elements.

Characters in Chambers’ Sci-Fi are also non-traditional and the development of the human race is believable. Humans appearing Caucasian is a maligned novelty, as most humans have become multiracial. Although each alien species has their own cultural standards, there is an overall acceptance of a spectrum of sexual orientation, gender identification, and cross-species interaction. Certain species are bisexual and uninhibited about mating; other species belong to both male and female genders across their lifetimes; some species are matriarchal while also militaristic; and humans have their own hierarchy of class and issues with upgrading their race to perfection. One crew member is a little person who some in this world of perfectly tailored humans would view as being lesser due to his size, and he chooses to augment his body in other ways through tattoos or wearable tech. Still, he never wants to completely change the way that he was born despite how society may view him. There are some interesting philosophical discussions raised throughout the book, like issues of cloning and monogamy, without taking away from the light, feel-good tone of the story.

Overall, I cannot recommend this book enough! If you played and loved Mass Effect, or if you wish there were more seasons of Firefly, this is the book for you. The second book set in this world, A Closed and Common Orbit, is a stand-alone sequel and was just released in October. You better believe I’m reading that next!

A Carrie Fisher Reading List

I'm not someone who usually comments on or memorializes the death of a celebrity. Although this has been a year in which we've lost some of the greatest artists, creators, and just all around amazing human beings of all time, the news on Tuesday about Carrie Fisher (edit: and, subsequently, her mother) struck me the hardest. I've never been a mega-Star Wars fan, although I've seen all the movies and have always loved what Star Wars has done for Science Fiction as a whole. Still, although I don't know all of the most obscure Star Wars facts, Carrie Fisher has always stood out as an icon to me. As Princess Leia, she got to be a strong, funny, witty princess who was beautiful but also tough and didn't take anybody's shit. Off screen, Fisher always struck me as having a similar grit, being a child of Hollywood who faced her own share of obstacles, including addiction and mental health issues. I always respected how she spoke out about having bipolar disorder, and wasn't afraid to write about her struggles with mental health and self-medication in both memoir, fiction, and in her own one-woman show. I had been eagerly awaiting her newest book, The Princess Diarist, which was released in November.  So today I thought I would offer a reading list for fans of Ms. Fisher and for her best-known, iconic role, Princess Leia, to spend some time with her work and with works that owe quite a bit to her contribution to the world of Sci-Fi.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

For a short but impactful read of Carrie's life, Wishful Drinking follows her from being born to celebrities Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, then stepdaughter to Elizabeth Taylor, through her own marriages and divorces and, of course, being cast at age 19 to play a princess in Star Wars. Fisher doesn't shy away from discussing her drinking, drug addiction, and mental health disorders while still maintaining her humor an wit.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Fisher's latest work of non-fiction focuses on her time spent filming the first Star Wars film, and the book takes its' title from the journals that Fisher kept while working on the film as a teenager. I have yet to read this one and the reviews are mixed, but I love behind-the-scenes memoirs where larger than life actors and directors are exposed as regular people. If you are planning to re-watch the original trilogy as I am, it would be a good time to pick up this book for some context of filming A New Hope.

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

Taking place five years after the events in Return of the Jedi, this tie-in novel to the original trilogy is a good place to start when it comes to the intricate world of Star Wars novelizations, especially because familiar characters make appearances in addition to the new characters that Zahn penned. A fantastic, action-packed start to the Thrawn Trilogy.

Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach

Fortune's Pawn kicks off an awesome sci-fi space opera series that follows Devi Morris, an ambitious, highly skilled mercenary who is looking to advance a few ranks by serving on one of the toughest ships in her corner of space, the Glorious Fool. Joined by a crew of aliens and a mysterious, hot bartender, Devi soon finds her one-way-ticket to her dream job is more dangerous than she thought. There's battles, there's mysterious shadow organizations, and there's a creepy child; all the while, Devi gets to be the hero and do most of the rescuing.

Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

In Grimspace, our leading lady is Sirantha Jax, who has the highly desired ability to jump ships through grimspace. Jax survives a crash landing and is discovered by a group of rouge fighters who hope to take advantage of her rare talent. Meanwhile, Jax is strong and snarky, reminiscent of leading women in urban fantasy books, so it's a nice change in the sci-fi genre, plus there's romance.

The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey

Book 3 in Anne McCaffrey's Brainships series, The Ship Who Searched, which takes place in a world where physically disabled people can go on adventures by becoming cyborgs, often in the form of an entire ship. In this book, 7-year-old Tia straps on her ship to discover the cause of her paralyzing disease. Not a sweeping epic like most sci-fi, but a good character-driven (even though the character is kind of a ship) intimate Sci-Fi tale.

A few other space-centric books I've been reading to make some sense of the end of 2016 have also included Terms of Enlistment and Starshine. Have you been reading any old Sci-Fi favorites that serve as comfort reading in times of loss or distress? What kinds of books do you read when you need to do some self-care? Comment below any suggestions!