Binti

By Nnedi Okorafor,

Book cover of Binti

Book description

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 giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars…

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Why read it?

4 authors picked Binti as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Okorafor does in ninety-six pages what it takes most SciFi/Fantasy writers hundreds of pages to do.

I was immediately drawn into this world – the main character, Binti, the magic system, the society is all so creative and engaging. Conflict drives us forward from the start – and it doesn’t let up the entire time.

I was assigned this story through a bookclub, and I’m so grateful. It was refreshing to read Fantasy that wasn’t European- or American-based. (I did go on to read the entire trilogy, and I would recommend the entirety of 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…

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.

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Book cover of Who Gave Sleep and Who Has Taken It Away?

Who Gave Sleep and Who Has Taken It Away? by Carole McDonnell,

In the Malku universe, fae, merfolk, and humans live together in varying degrees of harmony. Over the millenia, through the use of fae magic, these humanoid groups have inter-married thus creating the faekind (humans with fae ancestry) and webbies (humans with merfolk ancestry.) The story takes place in the land…

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.   

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Book cover of Who Gave Sleep and Who Has Taken It Away?

Who Gave Sleep and Who Has Taken It Away? by Carole McDonnell,

In the Malku universe, fae, merfolk, and humans live together in varying degrees of harmony. Over the millenia, through the use of fae magic, these humanoid groups have inter-married thus creating the faekind (humans with fae ancestry) and webbies (humans with merfolk ancestry.) The story takes place in the land…

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