Binti: The Night Masquerade
The Binti trilogy, Book 3
Nnedi Okorafor
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
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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