/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

I've been comparing this book to a trip to the Holocaust Museum and watching American History X: I'm really glad I read it, but I never, ever want to do so again. The themes this covered are self-evidently really important ones; nothing else I've ever read or experienced made me think quite so much about rape as a weapon of war.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. Nuru society was pretty terrible, no question, but Onye did some pretty terrible stuff herself towards the end.

One thing that I was never really sold on was her and Mwita. I actually appreciated the fact that for all of Onyes strength as, and pride in being, a woman, that didn't change the fact that Mwita was still moderately sexist. I dunno. I never quite bought into it.

In the end, this is an excellent book - but it's not an easy one.

Well, I guess I can finally say it. The ending made no sense whatsoever. Throughout the book, her powers are incredibly inconsistent. There were times when she can blind a whole village or somehow kill all the men and impregnate all the women. So, how does she get captured and stoned to death? You'd think that she'd be able to turn into a bird and fly away or something. Can someone explain it to me?

Agreed about the ending. The resolution in particular makes no sense to me. She finds some book, rewrites a part of it, then everything is fixed and she actually survives? What? Then she flies over the Americas which were untouched by the apocalypse, I guess? It came completely out of nowhere and really gave absolutely no closure.

"Can someone explain it to me?"

I don't think so. I went through reviews for this authors other works, and it seems like she just can't end a novel.

The book was fantastic until about the 60% point where to me it began to fell apart. The Magic became inconsistent, the interesting world and story fell second to inner group tensions. The ending when we finally see the horrors of what was happening out west felt underwhelming to me. I also felt the ending was inconsistent with the rest of the novel. I began this novel and I fell in love with it. By the end that love was dwindled away. I'm happy I read it though, it was a good book to experience. I'm gonna read Biniti soon and I hope its a good read as well.

I agree with Mike. The book book was memorable for the themes it explored and the thoughts it provoked.

That being said, I don't think the book would stand on it's own without exploring such controversial themes. The plot seemed a little unfocused, with the characters wandering around the desert until they suddenly completed their mission. Also, I never really felt for the characters. None of the deaths really had an emotional impact on me, and Luyu's in particular seemed jarringly sudden.

Like others, I am a little unclear as to what happened at the end. My understanding is that Onye died and we essentially had a brief POV from her spirit at the end. Is this how others interpreted it?

The magic was inconsistent, but that didn't particularly bother me. It seemed to exist more to add flavor than solve major plot points. While the ending was a little unexpected, it had clearly been set up throughout the book.

One of the most interesting and conflicting parts of the story was the relationship between men and women. Sexism is glaringly obvious, and is seen most clearly through the misinterpretation of the prophecy and Mwita's treatment of Onye. It seemed that one of the themes of the story was that women were just as capable as men, and Onye seemed to be the standard bearer for that. However, she would alternate between fury at being denied training because she was a woman, and then casually accepting Mwita's sexism towards her. At the end, when women developed supernatural abilities, there seems to be an imminent paradigm shift between men and women. But is that really "conquering" sexism?

So I am in the group of people who really didn't like the end. Perhaps it was a metaphor for how sometimes bringing change isn't a clean and easy process and sometimes both sides can grow blood. Then how all the women in the town became pregnant bothered me. They were awful women and I feel that what happened to the Nuru where a metaphor for what they were doing: the women were "raped" (because intercourse or not a forced pregnancy would feel violating to me) and the men were killed as they have been doing to the Okeke. But when they took her and killed her I felt less sympathetic because in the end I felt she shared more qualities with her father.

I still thought it was a good book. I enjoy most of it and I want to read more of her work. I'm still trying to figure out if I dislike the ending because I think it's bad or do I dislike the ending because it ended so hopeless. It felt like the moral of the story was just that people are pretty much just awful in the end.

Richard wrote: "The book was fantastic until about the 60% point where to me it began to fell apart. The Magic became inconsistent, the interesting world and story fell second to inner group tensions. The ending w..."

I really liked Binti, hope you enjoy it!

I agree with others that this book was really intriguing and explored important themes, but I could never connect with any of the characters enough to love it. The plot begins as a kind of traditional "child making up for the sins of the father/defeating the parent" setup, but this straightforward structure kind of falls apart by the end.

As for worldbuilding, the inconsistency of the magic didn't bother me, as it feels more like "mythical" magic and not a strictly-defined system. I really wanted to know more about what apocalyptic event had occurred in the past, and I enjoyed that there was still some working technology thrown in with all the mysticism.

I read the ending as Onye's spirit departing and traveling to the green land, while her body was killed by her captors. It's fitting to the feminist themes that her most powerful act was one of creation, but the way she accomplished it (through the death of the men and impregnation of the women) was dark and leaves me conflicted.

All in all, an interesting book!

I agree with most of you, that it was a tough book to get through. It really took a lot to get me through it. The way i interpreted the ending was a different though. I read it as her death happened in the "changed world" or the world that the book created when she changed it and in the "first world" she used her power to escape.

A good but tough book.