Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Publisher: Daw 2010
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Rating: 4 1/2 pints of blood
I am a BIG fan of this cover. Not so much the typeface for the title, which reminds me of the cut-out letters of a ransom note, but the image and the colours. The ghostly wings, the woman stepping lightly into the unknown, the wide, empty desert and the veritable heat that comes off the image. Here's a book that would have suffered from a typical, traditional Fantasy cover - the kind that I'm usually complaining about, let's be honest.
And look, did you also notice: NO WHITE-WASHING?! That's something we shouldn't even need to point out, but that's what matters have come to with publishers it seems. I shouldn't feel the need to thank the publisher for not white-washing: they simply shouldn't do it, and we shouldn't be in the position of acknowledging the skin-colour of the person on the cover, as if it's some "Wow look at that: a foreigner!" special deal. But white is still the norm.
Who Fears Death is set quite far in the future, but since the people of the story are ignorant of their history it's never clear just where they are in time, relative to us, or what exactly happened. It is set in Africa, in what was once Sudan and is now a giant desert. In the East are the dark skinned, flat-nosed Okeke who have been taught that their enslavement by the sand-coloured Nuru of the West is their punishment for offending the great Goddess Ani. There are Nuru who believe the Okeke should be completely exterminated, and no one to stop them from following through on this. Nuru raid their villages, enslave some and rape and kill others. Children born of this systemic raping are called Ewu and are outcast by both sides.
Onyesonwu is Ewu. Her mother, cast out by her husband after she is raped, gave her this name that means "Who fears death?" and raised her alone, in the desert, for years. Finally they settle in a village called Jwhir, where little Onyesonwu befriends the blacksmith who soon enough marries her mother, and together the three of them form Onyesonwu's first family.
As she grows older, strange things happen to her. It begins, she remembers, when she turns into a sparrow and gets stuck in a tree. She isn't the only Ewu in Jwahir, though - there is also Mwita, a few years older than her and with a different story to tell. He is training to be a sorcerer, or so he hopes - when Onyesonwu tries to do the same, she is rejected by village sorcerer, Aro. But with her real father, a powerful and cruel Nuru sorcerer, threatening her life, she will do anything to learn about her gift, to defend herself ... and free the Okeke people.
Two of my favourite genres are Fantasy and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, so when I come across a book that marries them together, I can't wait to get my hands on it. Post-Apocalyptic Fiction usually pairs up with Science Fiction, if it pairs up with anything, so aside from being relatively unusual, it's also got plenty of room for originality.
There's quite a lot going on here, and it's a tricky story to summarise, but it doesn't read complicated. It can be divided into two sections: Onyesonwu's early life, growing up in Jwahir; and the Quest: travelling across the desert with several companions to commit a bit of patricide. But the first half bleeds necessarily into the second, with no jolt. One is a natural result of the other; it only remains to be seen how it is played out.
Onyesonwu narrates, chronicling her life with a bit of back-and-fro-ing, but always there is a consciousness of a life lived, and ended. Her personality isn't necessarily present in her voice as she tells her story, but it comes across strongly in her actions and motivations and dialogue within the story, which she recounts with a great deal of honesty. As Aro points out to her when she's older, she has high energy and is short-tempered, easily angered. This comes across strongly from the start, and her inability, when young, to hold a reasonable, even logical conversation without flaring up, shouting, or being defensive makes her a bit hard to bare at times. Thankfully, as she grows and learns she also matures and gains control over herself, and by the end she had become a heroine I did not want to see the end of. She became a living legend, the start of a myth, and having seen her trials beforehand makes her that much more beloved.
There is a clear link between the racial genocide occurring in Who Fears Death and the genocides that are still going on in parts of Africa - and elsewhere - today. Not just that, but the obviously fabricated (or, in nicer words, written by the Nuru) Great Book that draws the race line in the proverbial (or, in this case, literal) sand reflects the colonial presence in Africa: case in point being the genocide in Rwanda essentially caused by the Europeans arbitrarily deciding one African race was superior to another, simply based on looks, with arguments rooted in the Bible. (Like any text, you can make the Bible support you no matter what you say). Who Fears Death doesn't dwell on the whys and wherefors but on the consequences, and the deeds of bloodshed enacted by both sides, and ultimately on the wrongness of it all.
It touches on other issues, like female circumcision and its effect on women, but they didn't stand out as much for me. What the novel does manage to do successfully is deal with a lot without overwhelming the reader, or making you feel lectured or having to struggle through an authorial agenda. The many issues form the world, the background for this tale about age-old tropes: love and hate, territory and tradition, race and family.
Probably the character I loved the most was Mwita, even though he was in Onyesonwu's shadow - his patient, passionate, loving nature came through regardless, a rock supporting Onyesonwu's flightiness and tempestuous spirit. But her other companions proved deeply likeable too: Binta, Luyu and even Diti were characters I wished had a stronger presence even than they did.
Where I struggled a bit with the novel was in Okorafor's narrative style - which becomes indistinguishable with Onyesonwu's voice, so strong is it. I don't know though. Something holds me back from the full extent of my enthusiasm, and it's something to do with the prose. While the typos and punctuation errors were distracting, my problem is hardly that. There was more here for me to enjoy than not: the setting, the situation, the characters. I haven't read a Fantasy novel set in Africa or an African-like world before (desert settings, yes, but generally with white or vaguely Middle Eastern characters - and very few of those); I relished the new setting, and the blend of mystical and traditional forms of magic.
I have left this review for nearly a week, and it is suffering for it, but such is life (i.e.: work). Suffice it to say that I did very much enjoy this book, for its fresh blend of traditional Fantasy and original Post-Apocalyptic setting. I haven't read anything else by Okorafor but I look forward to her next foray into adult Fantasy - or whatever else she decides to write.
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Rating: 4 1/2 pints of blood
I am a BIG fan of this cover. Not so much the typeface for the title, which reminds me of the cut-out letters of a ransom note, but the image and the colours. The ghostly wings, the woman stepping lightly into the unknown, the wide, empty desert and the veritable heat that comes off the image. Here's a book that would have suffered from a typical, traditional Fantasy cover - the kind that I'm usually complaining about, let's be honest.
And look, did you also notice: NO WHITE-WASHING?! That's something we shouldn't even need to point out, but that's what matters have come to with publishers it seems. I shouldn't feel the need to thank the publisher for not white-washing: they simply shouldn't do it, and we shouldn't be in the position of acknowledging the skin-colour of the person on the cover, as if it's some "Wow look at that: a foreigner!" special deal. But white is still the norm.
Who Fears Death is set quite far in the future, but since the people of the story are ignorant of their history it's never clear just where they are in time, relative to us, or what exactly happened. It is set in Africa, in what was once Sudan and is now a giant desert. In the East are the dark skinned, flat-nosed Okeke who have been taught that their enslavement by the sand-coloured Nuru of the West is their punishment for offending the great Goddess Ani. There are Nuru who believe the Okeke should be completely exterminated, and no one to stop them from following through on this. Nuru raid their villages, enslave some and rape and kill others. Children born of this systemic raping are called Ewu and are outcast by both sides.
Onyesonwu is Ewu. Her mother, cast out by her husband after she is raped, gave her this name that means "Who fears death?" and raised her alone, in the desert, for years. Finally they settle in a village called Jwhir, where little Onyesonwu befriends the blacksmith who soon enough marries her mother, and together the three of them form Onyesonwu's first family.
As she grows older, strange things happen to her. It begins, she remembers, when she turns into a sparrow and gets stuck in a tree. She isn't the only Ewu in Jwahir, though - there is also Mwita, a few years older than her and with a different story to tell. He is training to be a sorcerer, or so he hopes - when Onyesonwu tries to do the same, she is rejected by village sorcerer, Aro. But with her real father, a powerful and cruel Nuru sorcerer, threatening her life, she will do anything to learn about her gift, to defend herself ... and free the Okeke people.
Two of my favourite genres are Fantasy and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, so when I come across a book that marries them together, I can't wait to get my hands on it. Post-Apocalyptic Fiction usually pairs up with Science Fiction, if it pairs up with anything, so aside from being relatively unusual, it's also got plenty of room for originality.
There's quite a lot going on here, and it's a tricky story to summarise, but it doesn't read complicated. It can be divided into two sections: Onyesonwu's early life, growing up in Jwahir; and the Quest: travelling across the desert with several companions to commit a bit of patricide. But the first half bleeds necessarily into the second, with no jolt. One is a natural result of the other; it only remains to be seen how it is played out.
Onyesonwu narrates, chronicling her life with a bit of back-and-fro-ing, but always there is a consciousness of a life lived, and ended. Her personality isn't necessarily present in her voice as she tells her story, but it comes across strongly in her actions and motivations and dialogue within the story, which she recounts with a great deal of honesty. As Aro points out to her when she's older, she has high energy and is short-tempered, easily angered. This comes across strongly from the start, and her inability, when young, to hold a reasonable, even logical conversation without flaring up, shouting, or being defensive makes her a bit hard to bare at times. Thankfully, as she grows and learns she also matures and gains control over herself, and by the end she had become a heroine I did not want to see the end of. She became a living legend, the start of a myth, and having seen her trials beforehand makes her that much more beloved.
There is a clear link between the racial genocide occurring in Who Fears Death and the genocides that are still going on in parts of Africa - and elsewhere - today. Not just that, but the obviously fabricated (or, in nicer words, written by the Nuru) Great Book that draws the race line in the proverbial (or, in this case, literal) sand reflects the colonial presence in Africa: case in point being the genocide in Rwanda essentially caused by the Europeans arbitrarily deciding one African race was superior to another, simply based on looks, with arguments rooted in the Bible. (Like any text, you can make the Bible support you no matter what you say). Who Fears Death doesn't dwell on the whys and wherefors but on the consequences, and the deeds of bloodshed enacted by both sides, and ultimately on the wrongness of it all.
It touches on other issues, like female circumcision and its effect on women, but they didn't stand out as much for me. What the novel does manage to do successfully is deal with a lot without overwhelming the reader, or making you feel lectured or having to struggle through an authorial agenda. The many issues form the world, the background for this tale about age-old tropes: love and hate, territory and tradition, race and family.
Probably the character I loved the most was Mwita, even though he was in Onyesonwu's shadow - his patient, passionate, loving nature came through regardless, a rock supporting Onyesonwu's flightiness and tempestuous spirit. But her other companions proved deeply likeable too: Binta, Luyu and even Diti were characters I wished had a stronger presence even than they did.
Where I struggled a bit with the novel was in Okorafor's narrative style - which becomes indistinguishable with Onyesonwu's voice, so strong is it. I don't know though. Something holds me back from the full extent of my enthusiasm, and it's something to do with the prose. While the typos and punctuation errors were distracting, my problem is hardly that. There was more here for me to enjoy than not: the setting, the situation, the characters. I haven't read a Fantasy novel set in Africa or an African-like world before (desert settings, yes, but generally with white or vaguely Middle Eastern characters - and very few of those); I relished the new setting, and the blend of mystical and traditional forms of magic.
I have left this review for nearly a week, and it is suffering for it, but such is life (i.e.: work). Suffice it to say that I did very much enjoy this book, for its fresh blend of traditional Fantasy and original Post-Apocalyptic setting. I haven't read anything else by Okorafor but I look forward to her next foray into adult Fantasy - or whatever else she decides to write.