Hi ForeverBookers,
Last night I read the first volume of BINTI by Nnedi Okarafor. I surprisingly REALLY enjoyed it! It’s a short novella but certainly packed a punch!
We follow our FMC, Binti who is wanting to become a student at the famous Oomza University to study maths and become a “master harmonizer.” This is someone who wants to understand how the universe is put together. She has to travel far to the planet of Oomza University, yes, a whole planet is dedicated to being a university, to do this. On her voyage she is joined by various young people, including her crush, Heru. He doesn’t have any page time, apart from being murdered by the Koush people. These people invade her ship, “The Third Fish” and kill everyone but her and the driver. What happens from there? I’ll let you read for yourself but it’s very good and rather interesting. I enjoyed it anyway.
I read Binti for a few readathons. They were:
Reading Rivalry - An Afrofuturism read - this is exactly what BINTI is, a novella written by a black person set in the future, detailing what black life might be like.
Always Fully Booked Reading Challenge 2026 - Read a book by a BIPOC author - Nnedi Okorafor is black.Nigeriian American author.
Always Fully Booked Genre Reading Challenge - Sci-fi - Most of Binti is set in space!
Always Fully Booked Read Through The Ages Challenge - The Future - Binti doesn’t specify a year in which it takes place but it’s obviously sometime in the future where space travel often happens.
Spoilers Below
“Now I could never go back. The Meduse. The Meduse are not what we humans think. They are truth. They are clarity. They are decisive. There are sharp lines and edges. Hey understand honor and dishonor. I had to earn their honor and the only way I was going to do that was by dying a second time.”
The Meduse are the evil people or creatures in the plot of Binti. They have claws, which one of them plunges into Binti just after this quote above. She blacks out after this. Then when she wakes up she’s trapped in her room for the rest of her journey to Oomza University.
One of the Meduse is called Okwu. They are very opinionated and never sexed, I didn’t know if they were male or female. I guessed female but I was never sure.
Overall, then I really enjoyed Reading Binti. This surprised me as I didn’t think that Afrofuturism was for me. It literally was out of this world but in a good way. I’m looking forward to reading the other two volumes at some point.
I’m reading “The Princess Diaries, Takes Two” next, so stand by for my review of that coming soon…
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