Rating: 4 Stars
This novella, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, is in the vain of Octavia Butler. It is a quick read and the action pulls the story along rather swiftly. The prose was really good. The basis of the plot was not new but that was OK because the execution was good.
The only thing I longed for was a little bit more character development. I felt there was so much to Binti we did not understand. For example, why she felt she must leave her family and all she has known for an unknown future at Uni. I hope the next books will fill in the gaps for me.
This is one for fans of YA Sci-Fi . In addition, if you are a fan of Butler then you most likely enjoy this story. However, this is not a heavy on the Science book. Therefore, hardcore fans of the genre may not find this one to their liking.
Book Blurb:
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 among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.
Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.
If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself – but first she has to make it there, alive.