mixed feelings here

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

Another book because of the Hugo Ballot. I started reading the third book in this sequence and found myself hopelessly lost (which is going to count against it in my rankings, if it comes down to two stories that I liked and one didn't need me to read the others, yeah that's going to count).  On the other hand it did encourage me to read this - such are the swings and roundabouts of this ballot.  I didn't even get it home.  I made the error of starting to read it.

 

Binti has been offered a chance to go to a University, the finest institution in the Galaxy, only none of her insular tribe have gone to this.  She will have to travel with strangers who do not respect her customs and ways.  She has a strange item she found that is her touchstone and that touchstone is the only thing that stood between her and the Meduse massacre of almost all the people on the shuttle taking her to the University.  They have been robbed of an artifact by a member of the staff of the University and want to exact revenge.  Binti finds herself poised between the warring factions.

 

I studied Mathematics in University at honours level (to second year) and remember almost seeing formulae in my head at the time so some of this resonated quite well but being landed in an alien SFnal world without any context felt somewhat jarring, I would have liked a glossary for some of the words or even a "some terms are from xyz language have fun with the google" - there's almost space in this world for a scholarly look at the events of the stories and how the words used came to mean what they do.  I also loved the idea of a specific plat having family meaning.  I could almost see someone use yarn to reproduce it as a brooch, ornament or something tied into their hair to keep the link going, there seemed to be a "ah well, nothing I can do" attitude that seemed to jar somewhat with earlier events.

 

Yes it's worth reading, yes I have some issues with what's going on, yes I want to read more.

 

 

Borrowed from Meath County Libraries for my Hugo Shortlist read.