Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
She goes by the name of Binti and is the first Himba person to ever be given a spot at Oomza University, the best university in the galaxy. Accepting the invitation would require her to leave her family behind and go among aliens that do not follow her traditions or share her values.
Binti is willing to pay the price of knowledge, but her path won’t be simple. The Meduse, an alien race that has grown to be the stuff of nightmares, have been at war with the Earth she desires to enter for a very long time. The Meduse have been wronged by Oomza University, and Binti’s excellent navigation skills will put her in their lethal crosshairs.
Binti will require both the gifts of her people and the wisdom preserved within the University itself if she is to endure the legacy of a war that she did not start. However, she must first make it there alive.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
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A spacecraft headed for Oomza University is attacked by the Meduse, an alien race that views humans as one of its adversaries and has fought them for a very long time. Binti is one of the dozens or maybe hundreds of students travelling to Oomza Uni on this ship. Only Binti and the ship’s pilot are still alive out of the entire group. Everyone else is instantly and mercilessly killed.
Binti eventually succeeds in convincing the Meduse to abandon their assault on Oomza University and ends up speaking on behalf of the aliens before the university’s governing board. Together, they reach a resolution that sees the Meduse return the stinger to its proper owner, bringing things to a calm conclusion and sowing the seeds of friendship between two former foes. Binti is the ideal audience substitute since she is an outsider on Earth, travelling to, and attending Oomza University. The Meduse is never depicted as one-dimensional bad guys, which I enjoyed because they are sufficiently exotic, horrifying, and interesting to be the antagonists of this story.
I’m eager to read more about the culture of the Meduse because Ms Okorafor gives them just as much depth as the human characters. This is such an excellent narrative because of Binti’s thoughtful, sympathetic, and accurate handling of the Meduse circumstance. It’s energizing to read a novel where violence isn’t the solution.
The world-building is impressive. The artifact that Binti brought back from Earth is of interest to me. I pondered if the artifact was human or alien in origin because this is a civilisation from the far future. Are there more of these on Earth? I believe it to be a remnant of the conflict with Meduse. Oomza University appears to be a diversified organization that is bursting with story possibilities.
