Stories and Book Talk

Tag: science-fiction

  • Binti the Series Guarantees Adventure this May

    Binti the Series Guarantees Adventure this May

    Let’s fall into adventure. Binti is an amazing series that I got into this May. Read it in one sitting, falling into Binti’s world.

    Binti

    by Nnedi Okorafor

    Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

    Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

    If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself ― but first, she has to make it there, alive.

    Binti : Home

    by Nnedi Okorafor

    It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places.

    And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

    But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

    After generations of conflict can humans and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?

    Binti: The Night Masquerade

    Binti has returned to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with the Meduse.

    Far from her village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment have already claimed the lives of many close to her.

    Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene–though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives–and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all.

  • Yargo

    Yargo

    Yargo

    by Jacqueline Susann

    A beautiful earth woman is kidnapped by Yargo, the incredibly attractive ruler of a distant world, and begins a romantic adventure to exotic planets.

    A tale ensues:

    I read this book when I was in grade school so many years ago. It was on the home library shelf and the story is not very difficult to read, so I loved it then and still reread it when I remember it. This year the reread was triggered by a total eclipse event. The visual of the moon covering the sun lets you know there are planet-sized mysteries beyond our skies. Anyway, I caught a glimpse of the event and happened to clean out the bookshelves, and voila! Yargo came to mind.

    Yargo is quite fascinating as Jacqueline Susann wrote it in the 1950s as a romance novel with a sci-fi twist. The main character Janet Cooper goes camping in the sand dunes of Avalon, searching for the meaning of life as she knows it. She’s out in the evening, staring at the stars, and reminiscing about teenage dreams. When lo and behold one of those stars suddenly hangs lower than normal. Janet Cooper is promptly kidnapped off the planet by aliens.

    The first time I read it I went out to check whether the stars could do this (I was thirteen, excuse my excited imagination). You can also imagine my disappointment when none of this happened. The stars did not hang low for me, at all. Damn you, Janet Cooper. The idea felt possible at the time.

    Still, I loved the adventure of this story.

    It turns out the aliens made a mistake by capturing a human from planet Earth. We’re imperfect, but the aliens are lightyears ahead of our planet and consider themselves evolved to perfection. Now, the aliens who botched the job had to figure out where to take Janet Cooper. The planet that finally agrees to take her in is called Yargo. Yargo is considered a utopian world full of perfect beings. Incidentally, Janet who had been wondering where to find the ideal man, (as earlier mentioned ‘reminiscing her teenage dreams in the dunes‘), meets him on this planet.

    Reading it now, I don’t think it is truly a romance story but a metamorphosis story for Janet. I loved how imaginative Yargo is and it is a great sci-fi read, especially for someone not looking to dig too deep into a sci-fi world. Instead, it takes on a philosophical outlook on utopias and the beauty of imperfections.