Tag: Representation Matters

The new year begins with a flurry of writing projects, and a stack of books just waiting to be devoured. I can’t wait to get stuck into my Xmas haul:

Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series has been on the list for a while now, as I steadily devour everything this author has written from her ever-expanding wonderfully inventive collection. Which brings me to my ‘For the Love of Books’ book recommendations, both titles by this brilliant author.

Broken Places and Outer Spaces, By Nnedi Okorafor

Broken Places & Outer Spaces is an extraordinary, powerful and intimate biographical read. From star athlete with lifelong scoliosis, to a paralyzed patient following what should have been routine surgery, Nnedi Okorafor shares a journey she was forced to navigate. It was a battle that would ignite her passion for storytelling and the transformative power of imagination. It is a journey that, combined with her strong ties with Africa, in turn brought her back to science, allowing her to forge a connection with science fiction where previously she had felt disconnected.

‘In much of science fiction, when something breaks, something greater often emerges from the cracks. This is a philosophy that positions our toughest experiences, not as barriers, but as doorways, and may be the key to us becoming our truest selves.’

‘Inventive’ and ‘illuminating’ spring to mind when describing this author’s work. There is vivid colour and tone in her work that touches the senses, and a truth to the content and style that is steadfast, determined, and perhaps deeply driven to connect with the deepest parts of self. After reading this book, I have a greater appreciation of where that colour comes from. It is an account touching on illness and disability, with experiences I could relate to on a personal level, which in turn was incredibly illuminating and inspiring. In true form of where reality meets science fiction, this is Nnedi’s potentially true story of transforming into a cyborg.

Noor, By Nnedi Okorafor

Anwuli Okwudili, by definition to many Nigerians, is trouble. In her home of Abuja she is a demon, a witch, an abomination. To replace an organ or two with cybernetic, 3D-printed, non-human parts was fine, but go too far and you will be seen as more machine than human, the lowest of the low, cultureless offspring of the elite. In truth her cybernetics made her a damn good mechanic, but fixing cars, phones, problems… making people happy, still wasn’t enough to be understood. Disabled at birth, further disabled in a following car accident, she had been building on herself for years. The neural implants cost her her fiancé who claimed enough was enough, but AO saw no reason why she shouldn’t make her own decisions, that would mean she could move through the world on her own terms. And she did, in her hometown Abuja, until events took a turn and she was forced to flee into the desert.

‘There are times when you either save yourself or you don’t.’

Interesting characters come and go, including Baba Sola, a white man in the desert, not there to colonize, appropriate, seize and destroy, but rather to travel, learn, laugh, share and observe. And her main companion, a herdsman from nowhere, called DNA. Baba Sola leaves them with a message: they’re coming, and when they come, know your worth. And they did come, and AO knew her worth, and her capability at taking on the Ultimate Corporation.

I adored the unlikely heroine, a real survivor, feisty and determined in her independence and self-worth. It is an inventive story set in Nigeria, with mysterious haboobs and Ultimate Corp warehouses – a place you’ll never understand unless you enter one, and when you do, prepare for a ride. And the city of legend, the Hour Glass, where people go to be found, to disappear or to just be. It is there where AO discovers her true powers, that will make her question whether she was an experiment, an accident, a glitch or a mutation. Whatever she was, now the whole world knows it. Game on. A brilliantly inventive read.

What are you reading?