Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor collects the three Binti novellas and a brand new short story. The first novella won Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novella, the second novella was a finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards for best novella, and the third novella also garnered a favorable reception, receiving nominations for best novella for the Hugo, British Fantasy, and Nommo Awards. So, as you can imagine, my expectations for this series were high.  

Our heroine Binti is a member of an isolated African tribe called the Himba on the planet Earth. She is accepted into a university off-planet and despite her family not wanting her to go, Binti sneaks off and boards a ship towards Oomza Uni. On that ship, she is one of two survivors of an attack by the Meduse, a jellyfish-like species that was at war with another human tribe called the Khoush. It turns out that Binti can communicate with the Meduse and she brokers peace and then adventures or misadventures ensue.

I though though the first novella was simply perfect. Okorafor is able to create an interesting world efficiently and Binti's character is established within a matter of paragraphs. Writing in such an economical manner while also writing in a lyrical way is so admirable. I felt like that first novella was propulsive and I just wanted to read more and more.

But in the second novella Binti returns home to her family and I'm going to admit that I just don't find Earth as interesting as I find the rest of the universe. I'm not particularly interested in the political machinations of the Meduse and Khoush war. I'm not super interested in the way Binti is treated poorly by her family and friends because she chose something different. The real-world parallels were so on the nose as to be uninteresting. 

The third novella is somewhat more interesting, as we learn more about another tribe on Earth, but I honestly just wanted Binti to get back to Oozma Uni and by the time that happened, the book was almost over.  

I don't know. I think the first novella is definitely worth the hype. After that, I don't know how much I'd recommend this.  

5/5 stars for that first novella

4/5 stars overall

Lines of note:
No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something isn't surprising doesn't mean it's easy to deal with. (page 9).

There are so many things you just can't really prepare for, even if you know it's going to happen.

The three days passed, as time always does when you are alive, whether happy or tortured. (page 126)

Time does keep going, whether you want it to or not.

The type of harmonizer one was depended on one's teacher's worldview...(page 230)

I like that this book really stresses the importance of teachers.  

Thing I looked up:

Euler's identity (page 123): I guess this is an example of mathematical beauty because it shows connections between key numbers, e, i, and pi.