Binti: The Complete Trilogy

Binti: The Complete Trilogy is a bind up containing all three novellas (Binti, Home and The Night Masquerade) in Nnedi Okorafor's award winning Binti trilogy plus an extra short story called Sacred Fire. I'll review each of the stories separately but I've really enjoyed the whole series so it's definitely one I'm happy to recommend!Binti:Binti is a member of the Himba tribe, a group of people who live in a dessert region of their planet and who have a strong connection to each other and their home. She is the first member of the tribe to be offered a place at the galaxy famous Oomza University, somewhere only the very best of the best are invited to study. It goes against all traditions for Binti to leave her homeland and it's something her family would never allow so she has to sneak off in the middle of the night to catch the spaceship on time. When the ship comes under attack by a jellyfish like alien species Binti is the only one on board who has a chance to communicate with the Meduse and try to broker peace before they arrive at the university.I thought this story was a great introduction to the series although I really would have loved for it to be longer! I loved Binit's character, she's smart and resourceful but also nervous as she leaves her homeland for the first time and you could feel her bewilderment as she first arrived in a big city which was completely alien to her. The story shows all to well how much prejudice humans can feel towards people who are a little bit different to themselves but I liked the way Binti handled that and was glad to see her start to make friends with the other students on board the ship.Where it fell down a little for me was after the Meduse came on board and slaughtered nearly everyone on board including Binti's new friends. I was really curious about the Meduse's anatomy & could easily picture them almost floating around the ship but it was a little hard to believe she was able to talk them out of their plans to destroy the university so quickly. I think I just needed a little bit more time to see Binti and Okwu go from enemies to allies, that would have made the turnaround feel a bit more believable and realistic.I am really curious to see where the story goes from here though and I've got very high hopes for the series as a whole.Sacred Fire:This short story is set several weeks after Binti and Okwu arrive at the Oomza University. Binti is struggling to come to terms with everything that happened on the journey and is quite obviously, and very understandably, suffering from PTSD and flashbacks. She had dreamed of attending the university but nothing is quite what she expected. She's treated as an outsider even by the other humans because they consider the Himba people to be lesser than themselves, people don't understand her culture and they also blame her for surviving the massacre on the ship when many of their friends and family members were killed.It's not all bad though, Binti is enjoying her studies and she's even starting to make a couple of friends so there is hope for her future. This was an enjoyable short and definitely left me looking forward to continuing the series.Home:Binti and Okwu have been studying at the Oomza University for a year now and it's time for Binti to return home and face her family before continuing her studies. She is considered a hero by some for preventing the meduse from attacking the university but others consider her a traitor for supposedly aligning with them against the humans. Her family haven't forgiven her for leaving them and travelling so far from home either so it's set to be a difficult reunion.I have to admit I was surprised and a little disappointed when I realised that most of this story wouldn't be set at the university because I was so interested in all the different alien creatures that attend. But then we get to travel back to Binti's homeland and find out all about her family's tribal traditions and I was so swept up in the story that I didn't have time to be upset.This isn't an easy journey for Binti, her family are resentful that she left and to be honest I kind of hated most of her siblings for the way they treated her when she returned but I loved Binti for standing up for what she wanted and being brave enough to choose her own path in life. It was hard for her to come home and realise how much she has changed while the people she left behind carried on in the same familiar paths, she no longer feels like she fits in with her family which was heartbreaking, especially since she doesn't feel much like she fits in at university either.She does find out a lot about her father's side of the family though which I absolutely loved, they are a nomad tribe who were much more open to change and much happier to welcome Binti into their circle. She had to face some difficult truths about the fact that while people are prejudiced against her and the Himba tribe, the Himba, herself included, also have their own prejudices against the nomadic dessert tribes even though they are blood relations. I felt like Binti really grew a lot emotionally in this instalment and I'm excited to see where her journey takes her next.The Night Masquerade:As much as I've enjoyed this series overall I have to admit that The Night Masquerade wasn't my favourite instalment and I was left feeling a little disappointed about the way things ended.The previous instalment ended when Binti realised that Okwu and her family were under attack and this one kicks off with her desperate journey across the desert with the help of her guide Mwinyi. Binti is unable to contact anyone she left behind but she knows something awful has happened and that the Khoush have broken the treaty so it's a race against time for her to get home in time to help the people she cares about.It's hard to go into too much detail but what Binti uncovers is a shocking betrayal that should have left her devastated. I think one of the problems I had with this story was how quickly she seemed to brush everything off and start trying to rebuild the peace between the Khoush and the Meduse. I get that she was trying to prevent her village being destroyed in an all out war between the other two groups but considering everything the Khoush had done at that point I would have expected her to be a little less invested in the peace process. I guess she's a better woman than I am though!Really my main issue with this novella was how unresolved so many things were, we get some answers but a lot of things are left open ended and this really didn't feel like the end of a series. If there was another book to come I wouldn't have been so disappointed by that but as the end of a trilogy it felt unsatisfying. Especially the way the author played with our emotions only to magically fix things moments later. I think after loving the first two stories so much I had high expectations for a grand finale and it just wasn't as epic as I hoped.

Beautiful story, unfolding over four acts. Binti starts her journey witnessing a tragedy, which will always haunt her and which at the same time also physically changed her. She loses friends and finds new unexpected ones, and when she finally goes back home, with the hope of embracing her family again and possibly bringing peace among old enemies, she's not as welcome as she had hoped. But she finds out about another part of her family and she is again physically changed as well as intellectually and emotionally touched in discovering truths she'd never known of. Her world, her identity are once again hugely expanded. She's learned to accept changes and growth less reluctantly by now. And then her world see to end, crushed and burned in the fire of hate and prejudice. It's a heartbreaking part of the story. Tragedies upon tragedies. But there's hope and new life growing from the roots of ancient trees, deep down on her ancestors' land and far away up in deep space. The unthinkable happens, yet another new self rises from the ruins, soon ready for new fantastic adventures, and the story ends on a hopeful, serene note. I loved this trilogy so much, I loved reading about Binti, I was crushed at her sufferings and incredibly delighted to see her story take a final happier turn. All the characters around her are so alive and amazing too, unforgettable and as fascinating as the events they take part in or that evolve around them.

A beautiful and emotional story. Okorafor creates incredible imagery, and introduces the reader to a vast and intriguing galaxy of people, with rich and complex histories. Well worth the read. Finished the first book in 3 hours and the second and third in one afternoon.

Magical world to fall into...while reading the book I saw it, felt it, as if I was in a movie..brilliant, lyrical, moving, love❤❤❤❤

A must read in science fiction!!

Three books and a short story in one volume:_Binti__Binti: Sacred Fire__Binti: Home__Binti: The Night Masquerade_Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka s a young girl - about 18? - of the Himba people, on the edge of the Namibian desert. The Himba are looked-down-on by the more powerful neighboring Khoush people; the Himba in turn look down on the "Desert People." Because of her skill at the mathematical techniques called "treeing" and "harmonizing", Binti has been invited to join the prestigious Galactic Oomza University.This is an interesting future world, where the only humans ever mentioned are those from the Namibian area of Africa. The Khoush have recently reached a truce, of sorts, with the Meduse, a violent and honor-bound alien race. Many Khoush travel to the stars; Binti is the first Himba to do so, and she is violating a dozen tribal norms by doing so.The ship to Oomza is attacked by Meduse, and Binti, the only survivor (apparently due to her possession of an ancient artifact), finds herself drawn to "harmonize" a peace between the Meduse and the University. But to make her plausible, to them, as their representative, the Meduse sting her, causing her hair to be replaced by _okuowo_, tentacles that are inherent to the Meduse physiology. This is the first in a series of events which lead Binti to question her nature, her identity, and whether she really belongs anywhere in the Universe.And that's about half of book 1. The story convolutes, contracts in on itself and spins outward, and Okorafor takes the trouble to invite her readers to genuinely ask the hard questions that many SF writers seem to think they have answered, usually in some smug aphorism. The Binti books offer no smug easy answers, only harder strictures on what an answer might look like.It's all too frequently done to posit writer X as the successor to writer Z. I think that a good case can be made that Okorafor is, at least, _a_ successor to Ursula K. Le Guin, a writer more interested in questions than answers, in human implications than kewl gadgets, and in personal than universal significances,

This was a very well written trilogy. I greatly enjoyed going on this journey with Binti. I read a lot of sci-fi but these novellas felt like a completely different perspective on the genre. Binti and her story were unique and very intriguing. I loved Binti's character development as she tries to navigate peace between two waring people and peace within herself as she is changed physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally by everything she goes through. I would highly recommend these books!

I downloaded a sample on my Kindle and was immediately impressed by Binti's unique (to me) point of view. It was refreshing. So, I purchased the trilogy looking forward to experiencing a new world/universe through her eyes. I'm sorry to say that the POV wasn't enough to carry the narrative through its underwhelming development.If you enjoy character driven stories, this series may appeal to you as it feels very much centered around Binti's emotions. I would have appreciated more attention to the plot, personally, as a major set up from chapter one paid off quite unsatisfyingly at the end, and we kept circling back to the same internal issues, beating the same drum again, and again... and again. Furthermore, as it was written in first person, I felt like I was often being told about Binti's personal growth through her own self-awareness, rather than just observing it through her maturing choices.In the end, I wanted to see a bit more of the epic universe that must have been scribbled on the author's world building journals, and a bit less of the protagonist's repetitive internal trauma.

Mild spoilers ahead.... This book collects together three science fiction novellas, plus a new short story, all centered on the character of Binti, a Himba girl who leaves Earth to study at a renowned university. The first novella won the Nebula and Hugo awards, and the third novella is currently a Hugo Award nominee. Binti is sixteen years old at the start, and these stories have a correspondingly youthful energy, a bright palette, despite containing moments of brutally upsetting violence. I like Binti: how she combines both a love of her home and a desire for more, her courage, how she befriends those very different from her. I like the multiplicity of cultures shown in the book, both those of science-fictional aliens and those of humans that were new to me (the Himba) or invented (the Enyi Zinariya). I note that, while I was entertained by the first two novellas, it was the third one that held my interest best, that made me eager to return and finish the story. I also note that I anticipated several of the plot developments, but this is an observation not a complaint, I was glad that the story took the turns it did. Recommended.

Intuitive knowledge, ancestral wisdom, universal connection represented through mathematics, the diverse nature of self hood, the nature of autony, the nature of tribe, and the painful journey of living, growing, and becoming more, every day.The fact that the journey is painful and filled with tragedy does not diminish you, it enriches you, for if you somehow survive that suffering, you are that much the wiser, that much the stronger, that much *more* than you were before. Thanks to Nnedi Okarafor for reflecting back to me my intuitions about the nature of the universe, self, the power of who we are and all that makes us that way, and infinite nature of life, growth, and connection. It is a great comfort to me to know that I am not alone in these thoughts and feelings, to hear another woman feel the beat of ancestral rhythms in her blood that tell her of things long forgotten, to see another woman grasp tightly to that wisdom and find a way to do what I so long to do myself, to give thaf forgotten wisdom new life in stories that can be heard by this new world, which is reborn every day.

I was recommended this book by my college professor. Anyone who has ever felt different and alone should read this remarkable piece of literature. I have already bought this book for my 14 yr old daughter and am going to tell everyone about this book.

I'm feeling ripped off buy these short novellas. When read together the story is still incomplete. I like the character Binti, but I won't continue with this series.

A quick, fun read that kept me engaged. The original novella, Binti, is a bit rushed. And because the critical event there happened so quickly, its psychological effects on the narrator in later books can feel overdone. But on the whole this is a very strong book with an interesting combination of sci-fi and tribal mysticism. You won't regret reading it.

The Binti books are really worth reading. Nnedi Okorafor is an original writer who understands how to spin a story in a way that drums a new kind of universe into your pulse. This is a highly recommended work of culturally aware science fiction.

Great beginning loses power as it progresses.

Love the growth shown by Binti, who comes of age on her own terms, battling tradition, tribe and family. Her coming of age is unlike any I have read before and held my interest throughout.