Who Fears Death in The Alternative Worlds

Aug 31, 2010 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: race, post-apocalyptic, pocmaincharacters, fantasy

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 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 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 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:(view spoiler)[ 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. (hide spoiler)]

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. ...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fairy-tale-myth-fable, sf, africa, fantasy

I somehow missed the fact that this book was meant to be post-apocalyptic (not a spoiler - apparently everyone knew it but me) until near the end, and therefore read it as a tale set in an alternate magical Africa. It had all of the touchstones of a fantasy quest, right down to the villain's all-seeing eye, albeit in a decidedly different setting. I had to recalibrate partway through, but I was so caught up that I didn't mind.

This is an excellent story, blending quest, myth, magic, cautionary t ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 Kara Babcock rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2017-read, post-apocalyptic, fantasy, from-library

Who Fears Death reminds me a lot of Dhalgren , another seminal work of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. Nnedi Okorafor explores the intersections of tradition, sex, and sexuality; of history and intertextuality. The narrative, while slightly more straightforward than Dhalgren, still challenges and requests a certain level of involvement. Although I didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted to (and probably won’t watch its adaptation), I think I understand why it has captured the imaginations Who Fears Death reminds me a lot of Dhalgren , another seminal work of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. Nnedi Okorafor explores the intersections of tradition, sex, and sexuality; of history and intertextuality. The narrative, while slightly more straightforward than Dhalgren, still challenges and requests a certain level of involvement. Although I didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted to (and probably won’t watch its adaptation), I think I understand why it has captured the imaginations of so many people, and I think I’d enjoy seeing it become a classic.

Onyesonwu, the eponymous narrator, is an Ewu, a child of rape and violence. Suspect as a result of this heritage, she nevertheless becomes the student of her village’s sorcerer, who helps her unlock the powers she will need to take on her Nuru father—also a powerful sorcerer—and quash the Nuru’s final invasion of the East and extermination of the Okeke people. But along the way, Onyesonwu must contend with everything from conflict amongst her friends to her own uncertainty about her role in a vague, intentionally distorted prophecy.

Okorafor links sexuality to her protagonist quite early in the book, with Onyesonwu describing how she undergoes genital mutilation at eleven to make herself “fit in” with the other girls of her village. From there, Onyesonwu feels a bond with the three other girls who undergo the rite at the same time. The connection between sexual pleasure, sexual desire, and the clitoris (or lack thereof) comes up throughout the rest of the book. And this was a little uncomfortable for me. Normally I’m not that sex-repulsed when it comes to reading, but there was something about the constant emphasis on it that made me less than enthusiastic about continuing the book. I don’t think this would be a problem for most readers, but it was definitely a deterrent for me.

Okorafor also challenges a lot of structural misogyny and racism in her world, and that I am much more down for. Onyesonwu is constantly fighting back against stereotypes and expectations imposed upon her as an Ewu woman. Her companions often endure similar treatment. And, of course, the larger story here is about racial and genocidal hatred and actions destroying entire cultures. Who Fears Death is ambitious to the extreme.

This is where I started to run into problems. For reaching so far, Okorafor actually seems to be doing very little with the plot. We start with a kind of bildungsroman set in Onyesonwu’s village and morphing into a quest structure that then meanders semi-aimlessly for about a hundred pages. The actual climactic confrontation between Onyesonwu and her father burns brightly but briefly, and her subsequent death sequence foreshadowed so much near the beginning of the book similarly elapses quickly and disjointedly. For all of the build-up, the book doesn’t deliver much on its promise of a story, preferring instead to take little side quests into minor characters’ lives and concerns.

The thing is, I really like the overall conflict that Okorafor has set up—the one between the Nuru and the Okeke—and the way Onyesonwu has to confront the dangers inherent in how we let things like religious texts (the Great Book) influence our lives and upbringing. There is just so much smart stuff in this book; it’s a very thought-provoking novel—yet even with the short, sometimes one- or two-page chapters, I found myself just … wanting it to be done. That’s never good.

The nice thing about science fiction and fantasy is that you don’t have to like a book much even as you acknowledge its status as a potential classic. I wanted to like Who Fears Death more, because I’d heard so much good about it, but I didn’t. I think, for the right readers, this is going to be a worthwhile and mindblowing experience. For me, though, it was ultimately thin on story, which left it hard for me to want to spend enough time meditating on its substance.

...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Lori rated it liked it

I read a lot of speculative fiction, and I can say I've never read anything like this before. Well, first the obvious - this takes place in Africa, but even more the sorcery is more akin to religious/spiritual powers outside Judeo-CHristian belief systems. So that was very cool. I found the writing a bit choppy, and I was somewhat detached. I very much look forward to more from Nnedi Okorafor, she provides food for thought, that's for sure. The ending was a great twist, too. ...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Sandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, fantasy, 2010, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic-dystopian, 2018

Who Fears Death is a really tough book to classify. It has magic, so it's fantasy. However, it also has computers, a technological apocalypse, possible aliens, and some nifty, futuristic materials; so it's science fiction. When I heard the author interviewed on "The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy" podcast, I came away with the impression that it was more science fiction than fantasy, but it's more fantasy than science fiction. In many ways, it reminds me of one of my favorite books, Octavia Butler's ...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Ryandake rated it liked it

as polemics go, this one is pretty well disguised. but the ending was just, ugh, on more than one level.

the writer said that the story began with her reading about rape as a weapon used in sudan. and just how do you write about such a loathsome subject? i give the author huge kudos for the attempt to hold the reader's attention to something most of us would rather just stuff under the nearest large rock.

but she doesn't really pull it off. in the end, it's a polemic. and an anti-rape polemic is k ...more

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Apr 10, 2016 Sharman Russell rated it it was amazing

I am planning on traveling to Malawi this fall and so am focusing on fiction and nonfiction that takes place in Africa. This novel was a whirlwind. I read it every night for a week and fell into that stormy and wonderful weather just before sleep. And I am sure my dreams benefited.

There was a point, yes, when the vivid, unflinching account of a clictorectomy almost made me put the book down. But that female disempowerment was redeemed many times over in the story. And I rarely, really, put a bo ...more

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Apr 05, 2017 Suz rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, book-club, kindle, non-men-sff-authors, post-apocalyptic, feminist

I am not sure I can adequately review this book. It's not an amazing book for me, but it makes me think, which gets me to think more highly of it as a whole than the writing.

It's a magical realism/folk-fantasy, set in post-apocalyptic sub-saharan Africa. It touches sexism, racism, ignorance, rumor, rape, violence, power imbalance, and any host of issues you, yourself might see or wish to see. I think she did a great job with the material she was working with, especially as she wrote this as a re ...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Taueret added it

Shelves: abandoned, speculative-fiction, dystopia, book-club

I'm about 3/4 of the way through this well written and engaging story. I'm having mixed feelings about it- mostly because while this book is "sold" as spec-fiction, I think it is going to turn out to be pure fantasy, albeit set in a future dystopic post-apocalyptic Africa.

One thought I have had is that it is very interesting and no doubt intentional that future post-apocalyptic Africa differs little from today's Africa in all but technologic tell-tales. Politically, environmentally- it sounds ju ...more

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May 26, 2011 Maree rated it liked it

This story, though written by an American, definitely seems to have its roots more in Africa, not only in the setting, but in the style of storytelling itself. And that may be why I didn't relate to it as well, which may have lessened my enjoyment of the story.

Onyesonwu is a Ewu, one who is neither a black Okeke or a white Nuru, but a child born of rape. After her father rapes her mother, knowing that the Okeke believe life is precious and that she will not kill herself for the sake of her child ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Daniel Roy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, fantasy, world-africa

By all accounts I should have liked this book. I really tried to. It's near-future SF/Magic Realism set in Africa, and it's a feminist work at heart. But in the end, I resigned myself to abandoning it midway, saddened that the book failed to deliver with such spectacular potential.

The opening chapters are brutal and relentless, and despite the darkness, they promise a great deal of thought and enlightenment later on. The protagonist, Onyesonwu, is a child of rape, her mothing having been savaged By all accounts I should have liked this book. I really tried to. It's near-future SF/Magic Realism set in Africa, and it's a feminist work at heart. But in the end, I resigned myself to abandoning it midway, saddened that the book failed to deliver with such spectacular potential.

The opening chapters are brutal and relentless, and despite the darkness, they promise a great deal of thought and enlightenment later on. The protagonist, Onyesonwu, is a child of rape, her mothing having been savaged by warriors of a rival tribe. This part, though jarring, was incredibly effective, addressing the difficult issue of wartime rape without sugar-coating it nor reveling in it. Within the first fifty pages, Ms. Okorafor has not only dealt with rape, but also with child abuse and female genital mutilation. I braced myself for a tough, dark, and ultimately fulfilling novel set on the African continent.

What happens was a major letdown; it turns out that all of this was basically setting flavor for a coming of age story. You see, Onyesonwu has magical powers from being a child of rape. She meets a sorcerer, who initially refuses to teach her, until she convinces him to do it. When she's done, she sets out on a magical adventure through the desert with a posse, because she's the Chosen One who is supposed to bring peace to the warring tribes of post-apocalyptic Africa.

Wanna know how bad it is? Turns out her father, the rapist, wasn't some random soldier consumed by wartime insanity. No; he is a dark sorcerer, the most powerful of them all, and he will destroy Onyesonwu's people if she doesn't stop him first.

All this, ultimately, cheapens the heavy themes that Ms. Okorafor has chosen to tackle. Onyesonwu's mother's rape, brutal and vivid, becomes a dissonant note in a fairly standard and tired heroic quest. It's like it's there for shock value and verisimilitude, more than to talk about this very real and vile element of war in an illuminating context. If the story of Onyesonwu was removed from its post-apocalyptic African setting, there wouldn't remain much to applaud.

Likewise, I'm not sold on how Ms. Okorafor has elected to portray Africa. I'm not convinced that the themes she chose to explore for Africa (wartime rape, genocide, female genital mutilation, racism) are so much realistic, as they are representative of a distorted Western view of Africa. It's Africa stripped of its culture, its elements of humanity and grace, leaving only the most shocking aspects that make it into the news.

Surely there is a time and place to tackle such dark, important issues. I'm just not sure that a distorted, fantastic Africa filled with evil raping sorcerers and mythical clitoris ablations is the place for it. Perhaps it would have been fine if the bulk of the story had been as unique as its setting; but as it stands, the flatness of the story's structure makes the themes explored hollow and unsatisfying.

Still, two stars for a fantasy novel set elsewhere than a tired Western world, with a strong female protagonist. ...more

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