Who Fears Death

It's difficult to describe this novel, which has elements of fantasy, supernatural, and speculative fiction. It's set in Africa, in an apparently futuristic time after a disaster has occurred which has caused technology to fall by the wayside as magic and sorcery flourish. There is growing conflict

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as the Nuru people attempt to exterminate the Okeke based on writings in their holy book, "The Great Book." Into this canvas steps Onyesonwu, the heroine, whose name means "Who Fears Death." Onye is the product of a Nuru soldier's rape of her Okeke mother. As a young child, Onye discovers her own magical powers and is drawn into a fascinating world of sorcery, prophecies and a frightening end game to the genocide spearheaded by her biological father. Onye learns that she has a powerful role to play in determining the fate of this world.

I loved this novel and found that everything around me seemed to disappear as I read it. The author is a master at world-building and created so sharp and vivid a picture of this magical world that it felt very real. The characters, too, were clearly brought to life and easy to care about. The storyline went at a good pace, with some suspenseful moments and some tearful ones. While set in a fictional world, the story in many ways mirrors present-day Africa, particularly the genocide in the Sudan. I think this novel would appeal to a varied audience, from those who love African fiction to those who enjoy supernatural/ fantasy tales.

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Who fears death is an (apparently) post-apocalyptic African fantasy novel. I say apparently, because I wouldn't have known if the blurb hadn't said it was post-apocalyptic. Only at the very end did I see some evidence that there had been something like an apocalypse, and even then I wasn't sure if

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it really was one. It's quite sad really, because the book had enough aspects that could be, well, should be associated with an apocalypse. It had rape, female genital mutilation and genocide. Unfortunately, those aspects have been every-day life relatively recently in places in Africa, without an apocalypse.

Well, this makes it sound like this must have been a depressing book to read. Fortunately it wasn't. I really enjoyed the African setting and the lack of white characters (although I'm still not quite sure what color the Nuru are). I also liked that the main character is female, that she makes friends, some of which are female too, and some of which stay with her and remain loyal to her to an astonishing degree. Onyesonwu does meet with a great deal of misogyny, but she is strong enough of will that she doesn't let it stop her, and she even changes a few people's minds. Still, I wasn't too fond of the autocratic attitude of some of her teachers, even when they knew she was some kind of savior to their people. Overall, I did like the book, but it also left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. Especially towards the end, I had the feeling that Onyesonwu should have grown more. Yes, she grows in power, but I would have liked to see her direct her power more, I would have liked to see that she hadn't only learned HOW to use her power, but also WHEN and in what way. Right after she has her greatest increase in power, she rushes off to a silly contest that turns out to be dangerous in the extreme and causes a lot of trouble. She seems to be driven by impulse. If it had been a version of intuition, I would have been ok with it, but her actions seem more childlike than subconsciously informed. I have no objection to her being emotional; the assertion of her male teachers that emotions are dangerous is ridiculous. If she would have used her emotions as a strength, I would have loved it. Instead she comes across as immature, and her boyfriend needs to pull her out of trouble too often.

Still, during the first three quarters or so, I was really engaged and was continuously looking forward to continuing my reading. After that, I started to feel a little annoyed. Fortunately the story climaxed soon after, and the annoyance got drowned in all the excitement. If it hadn't been for my lingering dissatisfaction, I probably would have gone for 4 stars. As it is, I can't give it more than 3.

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Who Fears Death is a fine enough book, but it failed to meet the expectations all the rave reviews set. Parts of the book are undeniably original, but more of it isn't.

Onyesonwu - literally Who Fears Death - is a child of rape, and shunned by her community. But as she gets older, magical powers

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start to manifest, and they will set her on a journey through post-apocalyptic Africa to confront her father.

I feel in some ways my disappoint with this book was a result of wrongly-set expectations. Reviewers had written about Okorafor's incredibly prose. I thought it was functional, nothing more, and I thought her background in YA literature was readily apparent.

Critics had spoken about the originality of the setting. I can't help by 'originality', they actually meant 'African', as I personally felt the setting was a pretty standard post-apocalyptic setting - smattering of magic aside - and the world-building was a bit inconsistent. Okorafor does very well with the main village, but other parts of the world felt a bit threadbare, and I never really felt it drew together as a whole. There were also some basic credibility issues with inconsistent application of technology.

Onyesonwu's characterisation is good; the rest of the small cast vary somewhat. Her love interest is well done, but other travelling companions are more stereotypes than people, and they don't get much to do in a very, very simple narrative.

This narrative also betrays the YA background of the author - it's very basic, a simple travelling quest, really. Worse, there's a few issues structurally, as two thirds of the book takes place before the heroine leaves her village, and the end is terribly rushed and a bit incoherent.

I know this sounds like a litany of complaints, but really Who Fears Death is fine. It's an average coming-of-age fantasy. My problem is that I was expecting something extraordinary, and it's really not. Especially compared to what people like Paul Park are doing in the field.

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Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death is really an almost impossible book to categorize. At its core, it is a traditional fantasy hero's journey: there is the apprentice sorcerer in the main character, Onyesonwu, who comes from humble beginnings, hears of a prophecy that there is a savior who can help

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save her people, and decides to go on a journey to discover her past and to help save her people from the evil sorcerer who lives in his stronghold; the journey is arduous but Onyesonwu doesn't go alone, as her friends join her in her quest. From here, however, the story begins to take on elements of magical realism and alternate history, as it is unclear if the Sudan that the story takes place in is a future of our Sudan, or one from an alternate history. Okorafor steeps her story in elements of what is happening there today, so there is some level of realism to the story.

Onyesonwu's story is one of both tragedy and hope, told from her point of view while she is in jail for the "crimes" that she has committed during the rebellion. We follow her story from her violent conception to her time spent in jail, and it's not an always easy story to read, but one that flows almost organically through to its inevitable ending.

There were some elements of the story that I felt were a little incongruous. For instance, this story takes place in an undisclosed future complete with computers and hand held devices with built in maps that can track your location in the desert, yet to these people, there is no knowledge of anything that lies beyond the desert that they live in, as if there has never been any contact with the outside world. This just seemed a little odd to me. I'm probably just overthinking this, though, and really it doesn't detract from the story at all. The key here, I think, is that there is probably a lot lost on readers, like myself, who are unfamiliar with African legend and lore. Nnedi Okorafor, while born in America, comes from Nigerian descent and has spent much time in Nigeria over her life, so her story is steeped in African myth. I'm sure for those readers who are more versed in African legend, many of the names and environments used in the book would have more meaning. What is also important here is that while I am ignorant of the meaning behind many of the names and legends that Nnedi uses in her story, it absolutely did not feel like I was lost at any point during my time reading the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed Who Fears Death and look forward to reading more by Nnedi Okorafor. Recommended.

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This was a pretty difficult review to write. I still feel like there is a lot I haven't unpacked from this story. I may come back and revise it. Also, there are plenty of unmarked spoilers.

Onyesonwu is the mixed-race daughter of a rape with hair and skin the color of sand, despised by both her

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mother's and father's people, who discovers that she possesses great magical powers: shapeshifting, resurrection of the dead, and the ability to transport herself into an alternate reality.

This story is set in a post-apocalyptic Sudan, so far in the future that the people have forgotten their history and only know what is written in the Great Book, a religious text all children have to study. Only a few vestiges of modern civilization remain--some computers and handheld electronic devices, as well as water capture stations that enable people to live in the desert. (At one point, Onyesonwu and her companions take shelter from a storm in a cave where they discover a mound of dead computers and other electronics, which frightens them for unspecified reasons, hinting at an ingrained fear of the trappings of our modern civilization.)

Onyesonwu's mother's people, black Africans called the Okeke, have been murdered, subjugated, and enslaved by Arabic Africans called the Nuru, with the blessing of the Great Book. White people seem completely unknown to either race--perhaps mostly killed off in whatever apocalypse happened?--and Onyesonwu only meets one white character, a sorcerer-mentor whose skin color completely mystifies her. Another race of nomadic red people live in the desert in the center of a gigantic sandstorm; they practice magic routinely and seem to have no modern counterparts.

Onyesonwu's mother was brutally raped and impregnated by a Nuru soldier. Onyesonwu discovers later that her biological father is a sorcerer who will lead a genocide of the Okeke. She undergoes female genital circumcision at the age of 11, believing that this will make her family more accepted in her village. This causes her to involuntarily transport into an alternate plane, where she attracts her father's attention. Onyesonwu undergoes training in the magic arts so that she can protect herself from him, and eventually learns that she is prophesied to defeat the genocide.

Onyesonwu is an angry young woman. She is angry at the enslavement of the Okeke based solely on their race, and angry at the Okeke for subjugating themselves to slavery. She is angry at the treatment she and her lover Mwita receive because they are mixed-race outcasts, or Ewu. She is angry at the treatment of women by everyone--rape, prostitution, enforced celibacy of unmarried women via the FGC rite, the refusal of the village sorcerer Aro to take her on as a student at first just because she is female.

Onyesonwu's story is a subversion of the Christ story. She is prophesied to free her people from enslavement, and she knows that she will have to sacrifice herself as a result. She embarks on her own hero's journey to confront her father, taking her lover and best friends with her as traveling companions. She enacts several miracles along the way, but these are miracles of vengeance and wrath, not healing and teaching. She blinds an entire village. In another village, she makes all the men disappear and impregnates all the women. She is stoned to death as she has foreseen, but once her body is dug up and reburied, she is able to avoid her execution and escapes from the desert land to a distant paradise.

Because of her anger, Onyesonwu is not an easy savior to admire or like. Not only does she lose her temper frequently and unleash her great powers on everyone around her, but she also is impatient and snappish with her friends and often elects to run away instead of confront conflict. While she comes to regret some of her decisions, such as undergoing the circumcision rite, she doesn't show remorse for many of her deeds. Her anger is part of her, and justified. Probably she would be unable to accomplish what she does without it.

But Onyesonwu's anger--women's anger--often makes us uncomfortable, and we are unused to seeing it as the focus of literature. That, and many other things, can make this a difficult book to read. Onyesonwu turns her critical eye on everyone around her. No one is an innocent in this world--except perhaps the mysterious red tribe, where Onyesonwu experiences a period of learning, growth, and relative tranquility. This book is steeped in magic, unfamiliar cultural references, and an ambiguous history. Sometimes we have to read between the lines; other times, we have to let events flow without questioning the logic too closely. Opening ourselves up to this story may be difficult, but the experience is powerful and rewarding.

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Nnedi Okorafor, in her acknowledgements quotes the term "weaponized rape" which describes a central theme of this book set in a future time in Africa where war, genocide, deforestation and ecological disaster have lead to the near destruction of a people and a good part of the continent. The title

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Who Fears Death refers to the name of the central character,Onyesonwu, a girl born as the product of a violent rape of her Okeke mother by a brutal band of Nuru men and women. The children of such rapes, called Ewu, and their mothers, are rejected by the Okeke, which is one intent of the rape, because they grow up to be uncontrollably violent. Trying to soften the story with the use of magic and fantasy, Okorafor explores sex in three ways: it's use as a tool of violence, a source of delight and amusement, and the basis of the strongest bond of life giving love. This is a difficult, harsh book and one well worth reading.

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Young outcast female meets outcast boy, learns she has magical powers, and goes off on quest to kill the baddy and save lots of people. Have you heard this plot before? There is more sex and violence in this than would be good in a YA fiction but I still felt like I was reading YA fiction. Is it

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unsophistication of the plot? characters? I think the author did some really interesting things with African cultures, especially bringing in female circumcision. The class systems and mythologies of the Okeke and Nuru were interesting too, but for some reason I feel like this had enough going for it back ground wise that it really didn't need magic. But in the end I just didn't care about the characters or the plot and didn't finish the book.

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I loved many things about this book, fantastic post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, fascinating characters, and a captivating storyline, full of complexity. The writing is clean, giving Onyesonwu a clear voice as she narrates her life story.

Onyesonwu is a wonderfully interesting character, full of both

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anger and compassion, able to strike out and provide healing, desiring revenge and yet not wanting to engage in the violence she sees around her. Likewise, her companions and teachers (there are many) are complicated too, with a variety of motivations and assumptions based on traditions or superstitions.

The story includes descriptions of rape, genocide, female circumcision, stoning, child soldiers, and other real-world violence that is horrifying (and sometimes hard to read), and yet handled with honesty, precision, and care. In the face of all this horror, the story could have easily turned into a downer, but hope, love, and friendship are weaved into the story as well. The story is powerful, deeply resonant, and one to think about long after having put it down. An amazing work of art.

I will definitely be reading more by Nnedi Okorafor.

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Onyesonwu is the outcast child of a mother who cannot speak above a whisper. Her skin and hair clearly mark her as Ewu, a child of both Nuru and Okeke, a combination despised by Nuru and Okeke alike. Her gender makes the only sorcerer in the village unwilling to teach her. And her shapeshifting and

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nigh-uncontrollable magic make her neighbors fear and hate her. After her father dies and her magical powers manifest themselves at his funeral, she flees into the desert to avoid mob violence and to seek her nemesis: the man who raped her mother, sired her, and has been trying to kill her ever since. She is accompanied on her quest by four friends, her true love, and a herd of free-spirited camels.

This is an ambitious but frustrating work. Ambitious because it tackles head-on issues of rape, child abuse, child soldiers, female genital cutting, adolescent sexuality, genocide...Okorafor never flinches. But frustrating because the main character is pretty unlikable, the plot is your classic bildungsroman, and the pacing is terrible. Onye has a wide, bewildering array of magic powers that she seems to forget about just when the plot requires her to. After three hundred pages of exhaustively described meals and screamed dialog, she solves genocide in the last, like, two pages? And then there are something like three epilogues? It's not great.

Spoilers from here on out: Onyesonwu is not a particularly moral person. She forces entire towns (children included) to relive her mother's rape. She strikes another town (again, children included) blind. She explodes an entire, occupied building. She kills every fertile man, and forces every fertile woman to be pregnant (with what, I'm not sure). When her best friends come to her for help, she turns into a vulture and flies away, rages at them, or dismisses them. Once in a while, she'll actually have a conversation with one of her supposed bffs, but mostly she's either screaming at them or deriding them in her head. I'm not sure how much we're supposed to agree with Onyesonwu. She does terrible, awful things to unnamed villagers, but then lauds herself for not killing her bio-father (the architect of all the attempted genocide of the Okeke). And all the elderly sorcerers are like, "wow, well done, you're so awesome." What?

And I have no clue what actually happens at the end. Onye rewrites the Great Book, which will apparently stop Nuru/Okeke violence somehow, then gets captured and executed (as was prophesied). The person she was narrating this to even digs up her corpse and re-buries her in the desert. But then two epilogues later it turns out she turned into a Kponyungo, killed her guards, was never executed, and in fact flew away to the Great Greeny Jungle? And then the epilogue says all the Nuru waiting to execute Onye are still waiting for her so they can execute her? Even though they already did? Argh, it makes my head hurt. To me, it doesn't seem clever, it seems sloppy. If she never died, then where did her corpse come from?

Plus, I don't get how her re-write of the Great Book changed anything. So she killed all the fertile men, made all the fertile pregnant, and gave all women magical powers. Great. What on earth is that supposed to do? How would that possibly stop the war between Nuru and Okeke? The book spends so much time talking about who each of her friends is sleeping with that the end of genocidal hatred comes in about three sentences. It's just jammed into the end, as though the author suddenly realized she needed to wrap it up.

I'm disappointed, because I expected to really like this book. As it is, it's so flawed (in my eyes) that I'm giving it 3 stars only out of respect for the breadth and depth of issues and world-building Okorafor attempts here, and not for any engaging writing or story.

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Review contains spoilers.

Overall, I enjoyed Who Fears Death, and was fascinated to read a modern fantasy novel not rooted in Judeo-Christian mythology. However, I struggled with some of the lack of consequences and resolutions throughout the novel. Especially in one off subplots (ex: when they hide

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in the cave during the thunderstorm), unsettling and horrifying things are introduced but no explanation is ever offered. These minor incidents don't seem to impact the characters going forward. Only landmark events throughout the plot seem to have a lasting effect on Onye.

I also struggled a lot with the way that some of the social issues were dealt with. The female genital mutilation was so horrific for the characters initially, but had a relatively easy fix and didn't go on to impact the characters after they'd been healed. Characters who were sexist or racist were generally sexist or racist at the end of the book, or they were cured by magic. There wasn't much nuanced middle ground there.

Despite some of these problems, I was invested in the story and cared about what happened to Onye. I would recommend this as an interesting read, even if things don't get tied up as neatly as they could have been. However, much of the content of this book is not for the faint of heart, and I would probably not recommend this to children under 15.

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This read like a YA novel in a--not sci-fi, not fantasy, not post-apocalyptic, though people have called it all those things--but a really vividly imagined alter-Sahel, and so at the same time I extended patience to the gossipy teeny rendering of the social dynamics of the little band on their way

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across the desert and the characters (absolutely characters, not people, collections of traits, as much as in Dickens, and the art suffers for it as little as in Dickens) and lost myself in the world in a way that would have been harder if it had worn prognostication or great inventiveness on its sleeve. It had the pacing and power of myth (alongside the gossipy teeny rendering!), and images I'll remember, and I'd watch the hell out of the movie.

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I have listened to the book as an unabridged audiobook version narrated by Anne Flosnik

I was simply spellbound by the book from start to the end. Upfront I would like to say that this is not a book for the faint-hearted, as it contains so much violence and therefore makes it very hard to read at

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times. Okorafor depicts violence without flinching, and because most of the events echo what is still happening in a lot of countries around the world, this hits hard. We are confronted with topics such as genocide, rape, and female circumcission - showing us how brutal and stupid the practice is. Although, I have to say she doesn't glorify the violence she depicts, she more less tells it in a matter-of-fact way. She does, however, glorify everything which is beautiful in this story such as love, kindness and some of the magic.

In Okorafor's post-apocalyptic Sudan we find fragments of how the world used to be, but what makes this story different is that we don't have all this descriptions of technology long gone. Which usually plays an important part in a lot of post-apocalyptic stories. What I enjoyed was that it was more about the characters and the plot. Here, we find two predominant ethnic factions: the light skinned Nuru and the dark skinned Okeke. The Nuru feel that they are superiour and commit genocide against the Okeke, which includes both murder and rape. The Nuru enjoy to rape the Okeke women in a deliberate and violent manner, in order to impregnate them to show them how powerless they are as a race. This mixed offspring are called Ewu and treated as outcast on both sides, they are despised and shunned. The word Ewu means born of pain and violence, therefore the people believe that those children will themselves become violent.

Onyesonwu who's name means "Who Fears Death" is the result of such rape. The first six years of her life she spends with her mother in the desert as nomads, then her mother takes her to a city to give her the chance of some education. Still a child she develops more and more magical powers, which sets her even further apart from others. She meets Mwita who is also Ewu, and lives with the powerful sorcerer Aru. Mwita's abilities are the healing arts. Aru refuses to take Onyesonwu as his apprentice for several years, because he fears the powers she has. Her abilities, though extraordinary, cause her more grief than anything else. Aru only agrees to apprentice her when he discovers her ability to raise the dead and what impact her powers can have on a larger community. A few years later, she and her friends go on a quest, to confront and destroy Onyesonwu's biological father, who himself is a powerful sorcerer and the mastermind behind the genocide. However, it is important for Onyesonwu to save her mother's people from the impending war, the ongoing slavery and genocide of her people.

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There is a lot to like in this book. I really enjoyed the perspective and the subject matter. Nnedi Okorafor uses a post-apocalpytic Sudan as a setting to reveal some very powerful observations about the way we treat each other.

Highly recommended.

My foray into the fantasy section of the bookstore was due entirely to the arresting cover art of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart. I saw it, opened to about the middle and began reading. I stood there for at least an hour. I couldn’t put it down, and I couldn’t afford it at the time. When

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my shoulders began to ache from my heavy backpack, and I finally noticed the odd looks the salesgirl was giving me, I reluctantly put the book back, determined to come back for it as soon as I got my next pay check. I cam back about a week and a half later, hoping that it would still be there, not knowing what I would do if it wasn’t. It was. I bought it stuffed it into my already overstuffed bag and went home. I read the whole thing in one sitting. It was my First Book in the adult fantasy genre, and I’ve been trying to recapture that thrill ever since.

I read some YA fantasy as a kid, sure. I even managed to find some of the good stuff, like Tanith Lee. But SF/F was not a section I usually bothered with until Carey rocked my little world. I’ve of course read all of her other books and can’t wait to get my hands on her latest, Agents of Hel: Dark Currents, which comes out tomorrow (once again, I’m broke and thus have to wait till my library reservation shows up). I’ve also tried to find more heroines like Phedre, more writers like Carey. There are few out there. It’s no secret that both the Science/Speculative Fiction and Fantasy genres are dominated by male writers and male protagonists. This is not to say that there aren’t excellent female writers in the genre, or that a male writer can’t write a strong female lead (though, off the top of my head I can’t think of any in the latter category). Only one author thus far has come close to Carey and her heroines: N.K. Jemisin. Her excellent Inheritance trilogy quickly became a favorite (I’ve written about them here, here, and here), and I devoured the Dreamblood duology. Like Carey, Jemisin has written both male and female leads. Unlike Carey, Jemisin’s worlds aren’t stand-ins for some version of Europe. Carey is a good enough author to not completely white-wash her alterna-Europe, but it wasn’t until the third trilogy in the Kusheline Legacy series that the lead could be considered a Person of Color. Race has been a larger focus and theme of Jemisin’s novels, but not necessarily a blunt point of them.

It was only after reading Jemisin’s work that I added People of Color to my fantasy novel criteria, whether it be the author or the characters depicted. I wanted novels written by women of any race that had strong female leads of any race, but I didn’t want novels that upheld or depicted the status quo regarding race relations. I wanted novels that subverted them or challenged them. It’s harder than you might think to find such a novel, especially when you don’t know how to search for what you want. I was aware of Octavia Butler of course, but I also kind of wanted an author who wasn’t American or British, an author who wasn’t from a colonial power. That’s why I love sites like Io9.com, or when authors themselves recommend novels.

I really don’t remember how I discovered Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (who is Nigerian-American), but doing so changed many things for me. Who Fears Death is the coming-of-age story of Onyesonwu, an ewu child born to a desert wanderer. To be ewu is to be scorned by everyone, to be feared by everyone, to be hated by everyone. To be ewu is to be a child of rape. Onyesonwu is marked as such by her sand-colored skin and hair and her tiger’s eyes, her biological father’s eyes. Onyesonwu’s mother, like the rest of her people. The Okekke, have dark brown skin and the physical characteristics of indigenous African people. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Africa, though the exact place is not disclosed until the author’s afterword. In Onyesonwu’s world, rape is a weapon wielded by the ruling race, the Nuru, who have yellow-brown skin and straight black hair. Okekke and Nuru religion teach that the Nuru were sent from the sun by the goddess Ani to rule the Okekke people, who in the darkness of the world grew monstrous and destructive. Onyesonwu not only has to confront the everyday racism from nearly everyone she encounters, she also has to confront the everyday sexism of her people. Add to that the fact that she is a sorcerer prophesied to rewrite the Great Book (the religious text that justifies Okekke subjugation and self-hatred), and she’s got a lot to deal with. With the help of her friends, she’ll learn to face anything that comes her way as she journeys toward her past and her future.

Onyesonwu is wholly likable and a sympathetic character, and her world is horrible but inhabitable. That’s probably because her world isn’t that different from the place that inspired it. There is magic, yes, and Okorafor does an excellent job describing it, and using it. Okorafor doesn’t shy away from the harsh reality of Onyesonwu’s world, but neither does she relish in it. Rape is often used as a piece of scenery, something common that happens in the background in high fantasy novels (here’s looking at you, George R.R. Martin). Okorafor does too good a job at bringing the horror of rape and its accompanying shame and rage to her readers. This is no casual rape either; it’s weaponized, meaning that the rape that occurs in this novel is part of a military campaign to further break the spirit of the Okekke people. Magic may be pure fantasy in the novel, but this is not. Fantasy and science/speculative fiction have long been an arena to talk about the current societal ills and injustices, and can in many ways be more powerful than seeing the images or the faces of people victimized on the news. It’s the power of a good storyteller to make you care about her characters, to care about what they care about, and Okorafor is a good storyteller. I haven’t yet read any of her young adult novels, but I just got two of them from the library. I am incredibly excited to have discovered Okorafor, and I would highly recommend Who Fears Death to anyone who is tired of the usual fantasy tropes. But be warned, this book is hard to read at times, as only the best books are.

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The tale of a sorcerer in a world based on Africa (Sudan, to be precise). This is a magical story in many senses. A quest story with a differencel

(Refers to the audiobook.)

"A journey."

This book is a journey, and it is at times an intentionally uncomfortable one. Set in a (far?) future subsaharan Africa, racially-based genocides continue between the Nuru and the Okeke. An "Ewu" girl (the result of the rape of an Okeke by a Nuru man) is given

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the name Onyesonwu -- "Who Fears Death". This book has magic -- in particular: shape-shifting, and traveling to The Wilderness, the space where spirits go after life -- and sand, and violence -- though this is not a book "about" magic, or sand -- and scenes which are both unsettling and gripping. The narration from Anne Flosnik here is quite primal; we feel the pain and, as often, anger of Onyesonwu and her companions and adversaries.

Okorafor's world is one where some technology remains -- portable computers with maps, water collection devices -- but this is not at all a book about technology. It is about people, and in particular the roles of women (and men) in a highly tribal culture. There are ruins -- old, paved roads -- but this is not a book about the past. It is also not a book about the future. It is a book which is quite present, and is highly recommended to readers with an interest in something beyond the beaten path, whether coming from an interest in fantasy or more mainstream fiction, and the willingness to travel on unfamiliar and rocky ground.

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I am so excited about Nnedi Okorafor!

Who Fears Death is one of the best SF books I've read in recent years. I won't spoil, but if you like shapeshifters, speculative future earth, feminist awesomeness, and smart storytelling, read this and tell me what you think.

Caveat Reador: If you are likely to

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be traumatized by graphic depictions of weaponized rape and genocide (even in the service of a critical feminist narrative), best to avoid this book. But in that case, go read her YA books, like Zahrah the Windseeker! So good!

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An incredible story. Onyesonwu, whose name translates to the book title, is a mixed-race woman and a child of rape. She also has magical powers which awaken as she grows, and as it want to happen, has some business to attend to. Mostly in the form of dealing with her biological father who is

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power-hungry and bent on destruction. Along the way Onye learns more of the past of her people and is able to start reversing some barbaric practices still occurring. And what sounds like a horrible destiny isn't always what it seems.

This book deserved the World Fantasy Award. Do yourself a favor and read it.

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Onyesonwu is the sorceress/saviour of the Okeke people in the Arica of the future. Her father is the great general of the Nuru tribe who enslave the Okeke. Onyesonwu discovers her powers, meets the love of her life and embarks on a great journey to rewrite history.

Ever since finishing it, I've been wondering about the theme of this book, and for me, it came down to religion. This was mostly subtext... but the fact that whether or not the Great Book was re-written was so relevant- albeit not usually a conscious concern- leads me to this conclusion- with

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ramifications for many of our current world's "Great Books".

But- while the ideas woven into this novel are chewy and ones I will be thinking on for a long time- mostly when reading it's a powerful and beautifully written book about a reality that is sometimes lovely, and sometimes extremely harsh.

The societies and magical systems do not have anything in common with the usual fantasy tropes- that drew me in. The cultures were well-thought-out, too, in both their support and their harshness.

The characters- well, they worked really well in the story, but to me they did npt seem fully rounded. Perhaps this was inevitable given the first-person narrative, where our narrator was preoccupied with things other than drawing her companions as fully-formed characters- especially given her youth. However, while some of the tertiary characters felt very alive to me, the secondary ones were less successful.

Nonetheless- this is a fascinating, though sometimes brutal- fantasy novel that is not at all like the usual ones. I highly recommend it for the adventurous fantasy reader.

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This book is different than anything I've ever read . I really got wrapped up in the world of Onyesonwu, our heroine who name literally mean "who fears death." We follow her journey set in a futuristic Africa, where she is in an outsider, a product of rape between the two races. While the author

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deals with issues of genocide and female mutilation, this apocalyptical Africa has also contains shape-shifters and other forms of magic. This book defies classification but kept me interested right to the last page. Okorafor's writing made me care deeply about the characters and their tale. I look forward to reading more of this author's writings.

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Onyesonwu—whose name means “Who fears death?”—was born Ewu; that is, she is a child of mixed racial heritage, born of rape. Her mother’s people, the Okeke, hate and fear Ewu because they believe that all Ewu children, whose features are uniformly paler than their own, are destined for

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violence because of the violence that engendered them. But Onyesonwu is determined to prove her village differently, even going so far as to undergo a brutal traditional Okeke ritual to prove herself Okeke at heart. But when she begins manifesting signs of latent sorcerous ability, she finds herself outcast again. Surrounded by a small group of those loyal to her, Onyesonwu sets out for the home of her greatest enemy—her own father, leader of the rival Nuru tribe—hoping to fulfill a prophecy and change her world for the better.

Set in a post-apocalyptic version of Africa in which what technology is left is in the hands of the dominant, lighter-skinned tribe and the subservient, dark-skinned people are blamed for the destruction of the old world, Who Fears Death is not a light-weight book. At times, it is extremely violent and graphic, especially when dealing with the systematic rape of Okeke women by Nuru men. But Onyesonwu is a winning heroine whose struggle for acceptance and whose fight to change the racist, repressive attitudes of those around her are vital and almost painfully realistic. This is an important book for our times.

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An excellent combination of African folk mythology and science fiction, anchored by great characters and some truly amazing writing.

I found this book depressing and relentlessly bleak. I kept going after a few incidents of intricately-detailed physical and emotional violence, but the protagonist's circumstances only got worse and worse. I did not like any of the characters, and the dialogue felt boring and inauthentic to me.

Due

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to the nature of its content, I could not bring myself to finish this book.

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