Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor is a sequel novella to Binti, which I reviewed here and which went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella. The sequel follows on from the original story, showing us the next chapter of Binti's life, and focussing on a very different set of experiences. This review will contain some spoilers for the first novella.

The thrilling sequel to the Nebula-nominated Binti.

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 left her family to pursue her dream.

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 human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?

The first Binti novella followed Binti on her eventful and ultimately traumatic journey from her home on Earth to the prestigious Oomza University. Binti: Home opens on Oomza University and follows Binti as she makes the decision to go home for a visit. Rather than focussing on the journey this time, the story focusses on what happens after Binti gets home.

The novella deals a lot with change and belonging. Binti was changed by her time at Oomza, from learning new things and living in a different environment with a diverse assortment of people. She was also changed, both emotionally and physically, by the events en route to Oomza. How does she then go about fitting in back home? In a culture where no one leaves (usually) the very act of going away and coming back is subversive in itself, but the added changes of the journey are revolutionary. The scenes with Binti's family were the most upsetting, I thought, and although some of their reactions are understandable I, as the reader sympathising with Binti, couldn't help but be outraged at how unfair they were.

If you enjoyed Binti, I definitely recommend reading Binti: Home. It's the next part of Binti's story and, as the ending strongly implied, it's not the last part either. I hope there will be a third story because Binti: Home ended on more of a cliffhanger than I was expecting. I turned the page expecting more story and was met with "About the Author"! I need to know what happens next! Argh! If you haven't read Binti, I recommend picking that up first, since Home builds a lot on what came before. If you're a fan of thoughtful science fiction, I highly recommend this series of novellas.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2017, Tor.com
Series: Yes, Binti book 2 or 2 so far
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Home picks up a year after the events of the previous novella. Binti and Okwu are attending to their studies at Oomza Uni, where they are both having difficulties adjusting to their new lives. Okwu, warlike and at odds with its instructor, is always a hair trigger away from a violent outburst. Binti, while more successful in her relationships with her professor, is hindered by bursts of blazing rage or moments of pure panic after her experiences with the Meduse on her journey to Oomza Uni. The rages make her feel unclean, because it is not the Himba way, and it’s not the way of a master harmonizer to cause discord. In distress, she decides she needs to return home, face her family, and go on a pilgrimage with other Himba women to cleanse herself. Her journey to find peace is not easy and does not go as planned.

I completely empathized with Binti and her panic attacks. Her time on the ship after the Meduse attacked it and slaughtered almost everyone onboard haunts her, and even little things bring the memories flooding over her. I still don’t know that I would have been able to forgive Okwu – the Meduse are part of a hive mind, and it most definitely had a part in the murders of her friends on the ship. Instead, they are best friends, and Okorafor does a good job emphasizing the differences between the two species. Okwu is unquestionably alien, and Binti is challenged on the trip back to Earth to not allow her past trauma on the ship to change her friendship with it.

It’s when Binti returns home to her extended family that things get dicey for her. She has done everything against the Himba way of thinking, and her family, while happy to have her home, harbors grudges against her. By leaving in secret, she has caused hardships for her father, and her siblings just don’t understand her motivation and can’t forgive her. It’s obvious that Binti doesn’t belong in her little village any more; her experiences have changed her, and not always for the best. When the desert people come unexpectedly to collect her and instruct her in the use of her edan, she is forced to confront the same prejudices that are often directed at her for following her Himba customs. Like in the first story, she is forced to see that not everything is black and white, and that just because something is different, or alien, doesn’t mean it is to be scorned or seen as primitive.

I am bummed beyond words that this ended on a cliffhanger. I made a slight rating deduction because of that. The last story was a complete adventure, and I was so enthralled by the characters that I wanted more. This is NOT a complete adventure; it’s an adventure that is cut short before it begins. I would have preferred a longer wait and a longer book that had an ending, but your mileage will probably vary.

Grade: 3.75 stars ( a small deduction for ending on a cliffhanger)

The first book was magical and I did not think that Okorafor would be able to surpass herself. I was wrong. This book was even better and I need the third book immediately!

Gah!

Cliffhangers.

I loathe cliffhangers, I’ve stopped buying authors who do it a lot because it just drives me crazy. This is a personality thing with me, I like a finished story arc, no matter how long the story is, short story, novella, 700 page super-novel, I need an ending. I mean, I even wait until a season of shows is finished and available on netflix so I can binge the whole season at my will.

Me? Impatient? YES.

Binti home ends on a cliffhanger.

It would’ve been a perfect book without that leaving-me-wanting-ending.The worldbuilding is as wonderful as the first novella, absolutely phenomenal. Ms. Okorafor’s storytelling is as beautifully and intricately written as the first installment. We get some more detail in this continuation.

The voice reaches out and grabs you, and makes you need to keep reading.

I’d have loved the book for those reasons alone, as well as the continuance of the coming-of-age story we started in Binti. I really enjoy when we get more in a series of coming of age stories. I love the discovery of that wonderful time in a person’s life, where they’re figuring themselves out. But I also really want more story after that.

I got some more with this, and now I need even more and hope that there will be another novella (or dare I hope for a novel?) in the Binti series.

The Binti sequel is thrilling, suspenseful, and Okorafor's attention to detail and description are utterly captivating. Every library needs to own the the Binti series if they care about a robust science fiction collection, and further, collections by women of color who create art that expresses their view of the modern world.

Home is the second novella in the Binti series from Nnedi Okorafor, following on from Binti.

The first novella was almost a coming-of-age story, featuring Binti leaving her home against the wishes of her family, with the journey to Oozma Uni changing her in ways that no one could expect.

In this second instalment, Binti returns home, and has to face the consequences of her own choices, as well as begin to deal with the many ways in which her life has changed.

I absolutely adored Binti, and wondered if it was possible for Okorafor to follow up such a strong story. The short answer is yes. The long answer is: oh hell yes, please go and read both novellas right now.

The science fictional aspects of Binti's world deepen in this novella, and the reader learns more about her people and her family (and the secrets that they hold). There are some answers to questions that Binti has, but there are many, many more new questions. The world is complex and fascinating, and so is every character in it. Binti herself remains an incredibly strong, multi-faceted protagonist, and it is very easy to empathise with her. And on top of that, Okorafor's writing is absolutely stellar. I do hope that we see much, much more of this world.

I didn't love Binti when I read it in 2015, in spite of having loved everything else I'd read by Nnedi Okorafor up to that point. It was on the short side for a novella, and I'd recently read Okorafor's absolutely superb Lagoon, which set the bar high for Binti. There were things I loved about it, but I was definitely in the minority of readers who didn't consider it one of the top novellas of the year, so I wasn't sure how I would like Binti: Home. This book is about twice as long as its predecessor and addresses many of the things I considered shortcomings in Binti, though it does end on a particularly unsatisfying near-cliffhanger made even worse by the lack of release date for the planned third book that will complete the series.

The story in Home picks up with Binti and Okwu a year into their studies at Oomza University, and Binti is still struggling to deal with the trauma of her experiences in the first book as well as more generally with the transition to University life. I would have liked to read more about this, but instead the book moves on fairly quickly to Binti's decision to return home, Okwu in tow, to visit her family and participate in a pilgrimage. There's something to be said for jumping straight into things, but Binti spent the whole first book getting to university, and it's somewhat disappointing to see her leaving again so quickly.

That said, part of the reason I struggled to connect with Binti in the first book was because I didn't think there was a strong enough sense of who she was before she left Earth. In Home, however, we get a much fuller picture of what Binti's life was like before she decided to go to Oomza. I loved getting to meet her family and friends, and Okorafor does a lovely job of examining how Binti has changed and how the loss of her has affected her community. There is a lot of wonderful exploration of the dynamics of this sort of close-knit family and community and the drama and upheaval caused Binti's leaving and returning and likely leaving again. After leaving and undergoing so much drastic change and growth away from the other Himba, Binti has to face consequences that she didn't expect.

I don't think I realized quite how young Binti was in the first book, which made some things a little weird in this one. I guess because Oomza is a university I perceived Binti as more U.S. college-aged, which seemed backed up by the character's seeming maturity and independence. In Home, it's more clear that she's still a teenager, and what I (in my thirties) would consider a young one. Back within the context of her family and community, Binti feels younger and much less sure of herself, which I found both interesting and frustrating. As happy as I was to see more of Binti with her family on Earth, in some ways her character in Home feels like a significant regression. It's relatable, sure, to see her revert to some childish behaviors and dynamics with her parents and siblings, but it's not always altogether enjoyable.

Still, Binti: Home is a significant improvement upon its predecessor. A lot more happens in this volume of Binti's story, and Binti herself feels much more fully developed in general, even if she does feel very young at times. Okorafor's themes about identity, home, and family are evergreen ones, and examining them through the story of a Himba girl transplanted across the galaxy and back again bring a freshly fascinating perspective to classic coming of age questions. My only real complaint about Binti: Home is the aforementioned cliffhanger ending. When I finished the last page, I was devastated to realize that was the end and that we don't know yet when the rest of the story will be out. It needs to be soon.

A fantastic squeal to Binti, I'll enjoy having this one on my Sci-Fi shelf.

This would probably have got a higher rating from me if I'd reread the first novella. As it was, I couldn't tell what was supposed to be new to me and what was just part of me remembering the first book poorly. Things just kept happening, and I couldn't make any guess about the next event -- and then it suddenly ended. I forgot the basics. So if you were wondering about reading this as a standalone, I would say: don't.

I really want to find the Okorafor novel/la that will work for me. Binti hasn't been it, with either instalment. I do enjoy the worldbuilding, the mix of cultures, and the feeling of warmth I get from the story, from Binti's courage... but I found the movement through the story a little too bewildering. I probably won't read any more books about Binti; I just don't seem to "get" it.

Blog link live from 11th March 2017.

Home was a fantastic followup to a creative and interesting novella. The short story picks up where its predecessor left off. Binti has now been studying mathematics at Oomza Uni for close to a year. However, Binti and Okwu (her Meduse friend) have been having difficulties adapting to their new environment. Okwu is constantly one step away from unleashing untold violence on its weapons instructor and Binti is struggling to come to terms with what she experienced when her spaceship was attacked by the Meduse. She cycles between moments of panic and pure rage. In an effort to cleanse herself of these impure feelings, Binti returns home to face her family and embark on a sacred Himba pilgrimage.

While the theme of the first novella was communication, change and acceptance were the main ideas of Home. Binti struggles to unite who she was with the person she is now. Her journey to Oomza Uni, the mass murder on the spaceship and her interactions with the Meduse have altered how she views herself and the world. She's seen and done things that none of her people have ever experienced. While her family welcome her back, she's still an outsider, they aren't sure if they can really trust her. They don't understand why she left. This and her struggle with PTSD made my heart ache for Binti. I honestly don't know how she could be friends with Okwu after what it and the Meduse did. But this is one of the many reasons why I adore Binti, she's resourceful and strong. She doesn't let the past destroy her future.

One of the things I found very interesting was how Binti was forced to confront her own prejudices. When taken away to be taught about her edan by the desert people, Binti treats them the way her people are treated, with destain and disgust. They are different from her, but that doesn't mean that they are any less, they just believe and do things in a different way. One group of people are not more or less than any other, a message needed now more than ever.

I considered rating this book higher, but the cliffhanger ending rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn't the complete story I was expecting. If anything it felt like once the story started going it was cut off. Yes, it's done the job of getting me really excited for the followup, but I would have been anyway. Besides the ending, all I can say is that Nnedi Okorafor's writing is phenomenal, creative and emotional...I cannot recommend it enough. You really need to go read these two books yourself!

Better than the first one. I've connected with the story. The mixture of tradition and science fiction is very interesting. Waiting for the next one.
Review in english: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/01/bintihome-nnedi-okorafor-english-review.html
Review in spanish: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/01/binti-home-nnedi-okorafor.html

The second in the series, this novella-length piece continues Binti's story. In the first, we meet Binti who is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University – an amazing place of study that has a human population of 5%. To say that leaving her family and her people behind is hard is an understatement, it simply isn’t done and there’s little chance of going back thanks to the shame she’s now brought her family for leaving, and utterly ruining her marriage prospects. This is soon the least of her worries though, as the journey to the uni takes a turn for the worst no one could have expected…

We now see Binti a year on from the first in the series, and she's learnt utterly amazing things during her time at the university. She finds maths soothing (such a foreign concept to me) though this is quickly turned on its head as it does something she's not expecting. From this, she decides she needs to return home to complete her pilgrimage and she'll take her friend, Okwu home with her, as an ambassador for their people thanks to the recent peace treaty - none of Okwu's people have been on Earth since the war (more than one hundred years ago) and from what we see in the first 15 pages... perhaps Okwu's nature isn't exactly the type to take on a first trip home...

As we saw in the first book, Okorafor's words are beyond amazing. In such a short novella we get such a masterpiece of worldbuilding and character study - reversing what we saw in the first of a coming-of-age novel to now the what does it mean to go home, what does home mean, and what does it mean to be family - especially when cultures are involved where family means so much. Both are powerful pieces, and Binti herself is a joy to behold.

Binti has been at Oomza University for a year now, learning more about mathematics. Her Meduse friend Okwu has been learning about weapons, and the two have become quite comfortable at the University.

Binti starts to notice that her concentration has been wavering of late, and she's prone to unusual bouts of anger. She decides that perhaps it's time she visited home, and made her pilgrimage. Okwu wants to go with her.

Okwu would be the first of the Meduse to peacefully visit Earth since the long war with humanity ended.

Binti: Home is the sequel to Hugo and Nebula award winning Binti, and covers Binti's return home, and some long buried secrets about her history. It's just as delightful as the first book, and continues the story in a way that leaves you anticipating the follow up.

Great novella about interesting characters working through clashes between cultures and species, and discovering who they really are. Add to your buy list, and get Binti if you haven't already.

Home by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

This is my third Nnedi Okarafor and I think it's a definite improvement on the previous installment of Binti which read as pretty decent as a coming-of-age novel but was even better as a world-building novel.

This sequel, or perhaps it should be considered an ongoing line of novellas following Binti, has her returning back to the home she had left so unceremoniously in the first novella, a full year later, only to encounter some interesting and sometimes painful realizations.

There's a lot of cool culture going on and even more interesting personal reveals about Binti that goes a long way to answer some of the questions that had annoyed me in the first one.

This is very welcome news, indeed! I like continuing coming-of-age novels when they're done well and I think this fits the bill. :) I especially like how Binti grows in this one. :)

No spoilers! But it's quite cool :)