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Akata Witch

The Akata Witch series, Book 1

Penguin
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Angels and Demons, Diversity, Ghosts and Spirits, Girl Power, Hidden Wonders, Magic Workers, Schools
****

Description

As an albino born to Nigerian parents, twelve-year-old Sunny has always been an oddity: too white to be black, and too black to be white. She can't even go out in the sun without her sensitive skin burning. But after the family moves from America, where she was born, to Nigeria, she discovers she's even more different than she thought, when a new group of friends inform her that she's a "Leopard person," of magical spirit. She's initiated into a hidden community of mages, where her status as a free agent - born to nonmagical "Lamb" parents - and ignorance about the Leopard world make her even more of an outsider than her albinism ever did. Struggling to catch up with her peers and complete assignments from her new teacher, all while keeping her emerging powers hidden from her family, is hard enough. Then she learns that she and her new friends are supposed to challenge a ritual serial killer who has been mutilating local children - a killer seeking to summon a great evil and bring about the end of the world, and who may have a very personal tie to Sunny.

Review

Some descriptions hail Akata Witch as the "Nigerian Harry Potter." There are definite similarities, particularly in the hidden magical world, but anyone expecting the whimsical overtones of Rowling's magic and (more or less) structured safety of Hogwarts is in for some some surprises here. Drawing on African magical traditions, comparisons to Rowling's European-flavored tale can't help feeling inadequate. The Leopard people deal with dangerous materials and entities on a daily basis; one healing powder causes cancer if held too long, and even minor spells risk serious consequences if they fail. Nor are students protected from those consequences the way they often are in middle-grade settings; Sunny and her friends are often sent on tasks that have the potential to maim or kill if they don't think on their feet. The Leopard rationale is that the world is dangerous, magic even moreso, with no quarter offered on account of ignorance and no one person - not even a "chosen" hero - being too important to fail or die; better to learn as early as possible, and lessons learned through hard knocks are more likely to stick. Accordingly, the magical community is less a charming, sheltered world where Sunny finds acceptance (as Harry did) than a constant series of tests that may build her into something great or leave her irreparably broken. There are occasional hints of humor and lightness, but always with the shadows lurking in the corners.
As for the characters, they all have darker sides, and their friendship can be rocky. Sunny is no perfect heroine, struggling and occasionally failing to balance her complicated world and growth from ignorant initiate to true Leopard student. Studious boy Orlu is perhaps the closest she has to a true friend among her covenmates - including troublemaker Sasha and mischievous Chichi - but even he can be impatient with her as her ignorance of Leopard culture constantly shows through. Peripheral characters tend to be stern, but not without reason and not entirely lacking heart; they just know they can't protect the children from life or magic. Punishments aren't just verbal, either; breaking Leopard laws can lead to caning or worse, necessarily strict rules that will very likely shock anyone expecting Hogwarts-style leniency. (This, of course, is nothing compared to the mutilations of the child killer Sunny and her friends are destined to confront. The squeamish are advised to find another book.) The kids also curse a fair bit - again, understandable given their circumstances - and deal with prejudice, sexism, racism, and other unpleasant topics that many children's books like to pretend don't exist, or if they do are easily dealt with.
The story itself moves fairly quickly, though I admit that it took me a while to find my footing as a reader, especially being used to more Eurocentric hidden magical worlds. During Sunny's initiation period, it can get a bit frustrating as characters tend to withhold information. The climax feels a trifle rushed; Sunny still hasn't really gotten the hang of the Leopard world and many of her powers before she and her friends are expected to fulfill their destiny. On the whole, though, it's an enjoyable tale,  definitely something a little different from the norm, and if I felt uncertain about a few of the characters even by the end, I didn't dislike them enough to stop reading.

 

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Binti

The Binti trilogy, Book 1

Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Diversity, Girl Power, Schools, Space Stories, Spiritual Themes
****+

Description

On a future Earth, sixteen-year-old Binti defies her family and her Himba tribe's traditions when she leaves home for Oomza University, on another planet. Her mathematical gifts and abilities as a harmonizer have earned her a rare scholarship from the interplanetary school, a chance to become much more than Earth or her family's astrolabe business can offer, and she knows she cannot turn her back on this opportunity even with what it will cost her. But the journey to Oomza is interrupted by the Meduse, jellyfishlike aliens known for wanton slaughter - and Binti alone may stand between them and the annihilation of the university.

Review

I've heard nothing but good things about this trilogy and this author, so I figured I should give it a try. Happily, it lives up to the hype, with a strong, intriguing heroine in a far-future world where advanced science borders on being indistinguishable from magic (if I may paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke.) Binti's tribal origins and mathematical gifts mark her as unique even among humans, yet they ultimately empower her, giving her an original perspective that becomes key to the plot. The novella reads fast - I cleared it in under two hours, not counting interruptions - and wraps up enough to feel mostly complete on its own. I expect I'll grab the next book sooner rather than later.

 

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Binti: Home

The Binti trilogy, Book 2

Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA, Diversity, Girl Power, Schools, Space Stories, Spiritual Themes
****+

Description

A year ago, Binti knew who she was: a human girl, daughter of Earth's isolated Himba tribe of Africa, master harmonizer capable of transforming mathematical equations into energy, future student at the interplanetary Oomza University. Now, with DNA from the Meduse in her blood, hair transformed to luminous tentacles like those on the jellyfishlike aliens, she finds not just her body but her mind unfamiliar, plagued by fits of anger. Worse, these fits are damaging her efforts to research her edam, the piece of alien technology she discovered as a girl in the desert outside her village. She needs to return home, to go on pilgrimage with other Himba girls, reconnecting with the holy Seven and rediscovering her roots, before she becomes something she no longer recognizes and destroys everything she sacrificed so much to gain. When her only friend, the Meduse Okwu, travels with her, homecoming may not only open old wounds with Binti's family, but restart a centuries-old war.

Review

Like the first installment in this African-themed trilogy, Binti: Home reads quickly. Unlike the first, it does not stand alone. Binti thought she had made peace with her decision to defy Himba traditions and pursue an offworld education, finding a balance between her old ways and new, but she was wrong. In addition to post-traumatic stress from the slaughter wrought by the Meduse invasion on her outbound journey, she must process how she has changed with Meduse alterations - at the time, the only way to save her own life and possibly prevent further massacre at the university - and the pain she caused her loved ones by rejecting her traditional role in family and community. Meanwhile, the mysteries of her edam, an alien device of as-yet-unknown purpose which seems strangely responsive to her harmonizing skills, continue to taunt her; her inability to crack the puzzle it presents only heightens her frustrations, making it that much harder for her to deal with the problems accumulating at her doorstep. It doesn't help that her companion Okwu - who, in many ways, is too alien to contribute much to Binti's story, despite nominally being her friend - nearly triggers a shooting war just by setting foot (or tentacle) on Earth; the Khoush, dominant race on the planet now, have a long-standing mutual aggression with the Meduse, and the fact that Okwu technically comes in peace means little to those with itchy trigger fingers and long memories of past Meduse slaughters. There are no simple answers, no one moment that fixes everything; Binti must come to grips with her own personal, cultural, and species flaws and prejudices if she's to have any hope of resolution, a journey that blends metaphysics with mathematics and centuries-old tribal culture with far-future tech. The tale takes some time to get moving, sometimes feeling disconnected (especially as I'm coming at the tale as an American; there's an odd flow and rhythm to Okorafor's style that takes some parsing), but ultimately comes together... just before a cliffhanger which was so sudden it came close to shaving a half-star off the rating. Fortunately, I have Book 3 standing by.

 

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Binti: The Night Masquerade

The Binti trilogy, Book 3

Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA, Diversity, Girl Power, Schools, Space Stories, Spiritual Themes
****+

Description

In a year, the Himba girl Binti has changed in ways she could scarcely believe: leaving her insular home to attend the interstellar Oomza University, surviving a massacre in space, acquiring alien Meduse DNA giving her jellyfish-like tentacles instead of hair. Now she has changed again, through the tribe of her father, whom she used to consider savage Desert People. In truth, the Enyi Zinariya have harbored their own alien secret since long before the outside world ever met a true offworlder, and now that secret has been woken in Binti's blood. If she was considered outcast and unclean by her Himba kin before, she's barely even human to them now. Worse, the Khoush and Meduse seem determined to restart their long-running war, a conflict that may already have killed her family while she was out in the desert. As a master harmonizer, Binti only wants to bring peace, but first she must find peace with the changes already shaking her life to the roots.

Review

Like the previous installment, Binti: The Night Masquerade moves deep into metaphysical territory, with themes of growth and change and even the inevitability of war, conflict, and death. Binti still thinks of herself as the girl who defied her tribal traditions to pursue an offworld education, but whether she likes it or not she's become much more, and while she sees herself as a point on which world destinies may turn, ultimately her story is more about her having to make peace with herself, as she becomes both more than she was and less fully human. The purpose of her mysterious edam is finally revealed, as well - and, without spoilers, I'll just say I found it a bit anticlimactic, though I believe that was part of the point: her journey was about so much more than the artifact that inspired it. Okwu becomes more of an active character, and others step forward (or turn their backs) as the tale unfolds amid violence, upheaval, and more changes for Binti and those around her. Okorafor gives imaginative shape to some very complex themes, bringing ancient cultural traditions into a distant future that still needs them (even as some of those traditions continue to hinder progress and growth.) The story came close to losing a half-star for an ending that felt a little vague and drawn out. Overall, though, the trilogy is a unique, refreshingly different science fiction tale that will most likely stand the test of time well.

 

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Ikenga


Viking Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Diversity, Folklore, Ghosts, Heroes, Magic Workers, Thieves
****+

Description

The day Nnamdi's father died was the day everything started going wrong, in his life and in the town of Kalaria. Corruption and crime run rampant through much of the Nigerian countryside, but with his father as chief of police, things were finally turning around, at least in Kalaria... which, of course, must have been why he had been killed. To add to the insult, the criminals make a show of coming to the funeral. The Chief of Chiefs, notorious local crime lord, even hands Nnamdi's mother an envelope of cash, as clear an admission of guilt as anything the boy has seen! He vows, then and there, to see the horrible man and his wicked associates pay for their crimes and avenge his father.
One year later, his vow remains unfulfilled, and crime in Kalaria is as bad as it ever was before his father became chief. The new chief is no stranger to bribery, the Chief of Chiefs and his colorful crew of criminals still walk the streets freely, and Nnamdi's mother has been reduced to selling tapioca in the market - his mother, widow of the most honorable man ever to wear a uniform in all of Kalaria... perhaps all the country, or beyond! But the boy must face the bitter truth that, if grown-ups are stymied by the troubles plaguing his town, then a twelve-year-old boy isn't going to fare much better. It's not like he can become a hero like in the comic books he loves.
Then, one night, the ghost of his father appears, bearing a strange gift: an ikenga, a magical talisman. With it, Nnamdi can transform into a giant man with skin like night and the strength of mountains. Here, at last, is the power he's longed for, and a way to see justice done... but, if he's learned nothing else from his comic books, he should've learned that no power comes without great cost - and a power that he can't control may well make him worse than the criminals he wants to fight.

Review

Ikenga is considered popular author Okorafor's middle grade debut (though I'd put her book Akata Witch at the upper end of middle grade, bleeding into young adult), a superhero story set in modern Nigeria and strongly flavored with local settings and traditions. Nnamdi wants to be a dutiful son and the man of the now-fatherless household, but he is still just a boy, with a boy's understanding of the world. Being gifted the ikenga does not make him magically wiser or more mature, and he stumbles more than once as he learns to control his new powers and the rage-fueled strength that comes with it. He finds support in a friend (whom he nearly loses with his anger), and the answers he uncovers are not at all what he expected. Once in a while Nnamdi could be a bit dense, and it got a little irritating how women had such greatly reduced agency and roles, but overall it's a decent superhero origin story.

 

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Lagoon


Saga Press
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Altered DNA, Diversity, Folklore, Girl Power, Psionics, Shapeshifters, Spiritual Themes, Urban Tales, Water Monsters, Weirdness
****+

Description

When the aliens arrived, they landed not in London or New York City or Tokyo, but in the oil-stained waters outside Lagos, Nigeria... with effects that will either remake or destroy the city and its people. Three strangers - the marine biologist Adaora, the soldier Agu, and the Ghanian rapper Anthony - found themeselves on the beach when the ship landed and the waves came. They were taken beneath the changed waters, and returned with the shapeshifting ambassador Ayodele. Their actions will determine the fate of Lagos, and possibly that of Earth itself.

Review

A first contact story with a strong African flavor, Lagoon weaves elements of old folk tales and magical traditions with alien strangeness and the modern contradictions of the city of Lagos. Superstition, corruption, and mistrust clash with hope, courage, and strength as the initial landing and ongoing transformative effects of the aliens touch numerous lives (human and otherwise) throughout the city. At times, the nominal leads get lost in the shuffle, and some of the tangents don't quite seem to go anywhere, veering into surreal territory and often ending in tragedy. It didn't help that the glut of "A" names scanned similarly, so it took a bit to reorient myself to the main cast after prolonged cutaways to side stories. The whole makes for a nicely different cultural take on first contact and facing the terrors and possibilities of the future while coping with the traumas and hang-ups of the past. Still, for some reason I kept finding myself setting the story aside and not picking it up again for days or even weeks at a time; between that and a vague sense that the story wasn't quite finished by the end, it lost a star in the ratings, though it still ranks Good.

 

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