Hugos 2020: LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2019 (contents: 2018-19)
Borrowed from my wife 
Read May 2020

LaGuardia: A Very Modern Story of Immigration

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Writer: Nnedi Okorafor

Artist: Tana Ford
Colorist: James Devlin
Letterer: Sal Cipriano

I moderately enjoyed this, which places it in the upper tier of Okorafor books I've read. It's an obvious riff on Trump-era immigration politics, where it's aliens who have trouble immigrating into a xenophobic United States. I think a good sfnal take on a contemporary issue will make you think about it in a new way; this, however, didn't really make me realize anything that I didn't already know. It's fun, but ultimately shallow. I felt it suffered because the character work seemed very rush-- key emotional truths about the characters are just kind of tossed off, and as a result, the ending doesn't land with the punch that it wants to. I had sort of a mixed reaction to Tana Ford's art, which I realized when I read the backmatter might be down to the inking (which she does herself) and/or the coloring (by James Devlin). I found her pencils more expressive and organic.

Review: Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Trade paperback, 208 pages
Published 2018
Borrowed from my wife
Read November 2018

Binti: The Night Masquerade
by Nnedi Okorafor

The first two Binti books didn't do a ton for me, but there seemed little reason not to read the third given it's only 200 pages and my wife already owned it. I actually think this was my least favorite Binti book yet, with the most muddled emotional throughline, an overly meandering plot, and too much happenstance. If you described these books to me, I would anticipate loving them, but for whatever reason, they just failed to grab me. Learning to appreciate diversity both in the world and in the self at space school seems like a great premise, but the books never adequately sell their protagonist. I do think it was a mistake to not have a book about Binti actually at space school; her return to school here rings hollow because we've never actually seen her there! There should have been a story between Binti and Home, and then Home and The Night Masquerade should have been a single, more focused book.

Hugos 2018: Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Trade paperback, 164 pages
Published 2017
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2018

Binti: Home
by Nnedi Okorafor

The sequel to Binti is really the first half of a larger story. The first half of Home itself is about Binti's return to her home after a year at space university, her friend who is also a warrior alien jellyfish in tow. It's kind of your normal thing in a story of this sort: she's changed both physically and emotionally, so has her family, and resentment simmers on every side. Then in the second half, she participates in a coming-of-age ritual of her people, and soon discovers she's even more special than the first book made her seem. Then things end on a cliffhanger, so I guess I'll need to pick up Binti: The Night Masquerade.

It's all right. Like with the first volume, it some times feels contrived. The family stuff is well done, if a bit clichéd. Clichés are often true, of course, but I rarely felt things rose to that level. To be honest, I wish we'd had a book of her actually at space university before we got a book of her coming back home. The second half has a lot of exposition about Binti's hidden heritage; I reserve judgment on this until I see how it plays out in Night Masquerade, but that leaves me without much to say about this volume in itself.

Hugos 2018 [Prelude]: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Trade paperback, 90 pages
Published 2015
Borrowed from my wife
Read May 2018

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor is one of my wife's favorite writers, so I was glad that the Hugo Awards finally gave me the impetus to sit down with the Binti series (book two of three is a finalist for Best Novella this year). The first book is pretty simple: Binti leaves her people to go to space university. But on her way there, her ship is attacked by evil aliens, and only she is left alive. I liked the premise of the story, and the milieu is well-constructed-- the Himba and Khoush are two distinct human ethnic groups with their own distinct culture and politics, not all subsumed together as "humans" in the future. I love stories of people going to multiplanetary space universities, and Binti ending up on her own among hostile aliens is a great set-up.

But I did find the way the story wound down a bit lacking. Binti does some brave things, which I like, but also two highly convenient things save her, which I liked less. A great premise, but only an okay story. Further adventures in this world could have great promise, though. I've already started the sequel, Home, so I'll see what I think of them soon enough.