Binti
Book description
Winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novella! Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Binti as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Binti combines some of my favorite flavors of science fiction into one bittersweet treat: brutal interspecies politics, cultural misunderstandings, and the struggle for coexistence in a galactic community.
The tragic encounter between students on their way to attend a prestigious university on another world and a violent alien species starts this story off with heart-pounding, heart-rending stakes. It goes on to interrogate war and peace between species and the act of true communication and tolerance.
Those who are interested in stories with a raw but hopeful outlook on what it would mean for multiple civilizations in the Milky Way to…
From Ness' list on sci-fi about space missions gone terribly wrong.
An incredible young adult novel about a young woman who breaks her rigid family traditions to leave her planet in pursuit of an education. When octopus-like aliens invade the ship and kill everyone aboard, saving her school, and the entire planet falls to her. A riveting and fast-paced tale about an outsider who finds herself in the middle of a crisis. Probably one of the most original stories I have read in a long time. This novella won the Hugo Award and the Nebula award.
From Carolyn's list on science fiction and comics for young adults.
A young tribal woman defies her homebound culture to become a mathematician and attend an off-world university. On the way, their craft is attacked by a very alien enemy. Binti alone survives and it is up to her to save herself and possibly also her planet’s people by initiating the difficult first communication between the species. This compelling 96-page book by an Afro-Centric woman led to two sequels and eventually a prize-winning career. No surprise, as it is as full as a much longer novel.
From Felice's list on sci-fi you missed because they were novellas.
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