SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Binti: Home (Binti #2) by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti was one of the standout pieces of short fiction two years ago and a pretty well deserving Nebula/Hugo Winner for Best Novella (even if its best Hugo win was influenced by backlash to the actions of the Rabid Puppies).  If you have a chance, and you haven't already, I still strongly recommend you read it - even the stuff I've liked least from Okorafor is certainly thought provoking, or at least different (I suppose this might be less true if you read a lot of African inspired SF/F, but I suspect that's not true of most of the readers of this blog).  But Binti was not only different, it was a terrific story.

Gonna admit I didn't reread Binti before starting Binti: Home, its sequel, and the second story in an anticipated trilogy (the finale comes out next year), so it took me a bit to re-remember what happened in the original.  That said, it didn't take too long to get caught up.  Binti:Home is nearly twice as long as the original story, and comes closer to being a short novel.  It also doesn't quite work as well as the original alas - the story is still solid, but a bit less memorable, and definitely feels like the 2nd story in a trilogy.





To summarize the plot quickly:  Binti:Home features Binti returning to her home with her Meduse friend Okwu, as she attempts to figure out why she is occasionally overcome with strange feelings of anger.  But the journey will teach Binti things about who she is that she could never expect and the Khoush majority, not to mention her own people, may not be as understanding about the existence of her Meduse friend on Earth....

Whereas Binti felt like a fresh story from Okorafor, and one which was surprising to me in the directions it took, Binti:Home very much felt like some of her other work (Who Fears Death in particular) and perhaps other authors' works as a story of self-discovery.  Perhaps it's because of this that it didn't grab me quite as much as the original did.  Binti is a wonderful unique character in a pretty different setting, but the type of journey she goes through here is hardly new or that surprising.  The Novella still carries a strong voice and strong themes as Binti learns of her heritage and the thoughtlessness that leads to hatred and oppression, and is well worth reading, mind you.

The other issue Binti:Home has is that it's the second in a trilogy of stories and well, it clearly shows.  This novella does not even attempt to resolve a major plot point, putting it aside for Binti's journey of discovery, and that plot point becomes the cliffhanger ending.  It's an unsatisfying ending alas, which hurts the rest of the story.  I look forward heavily to the final story (which will essentially be a short novel rather than a novella) because this is a really interesting world, but I wonder if this novella wouldn't have been better off being the first part of a novel that was combined with the third story.