Rivets and Trees

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nnedi Okorafor is known as a YA author, but this is her first adult novel. And it’s very adult, with some difficult scenes of rape and violence.

This is not my typical fare, but I’m glad to have read it. It’s a mixed bag genre-wise, being a fantasy set in post-apocalyptic Africa. There’s a bit of science fiction here, but it’s not well developed and not important to the plot, which is driven by the magical education of Onyesonwu, a “chosen one” character picked to stop genocide.

Of particular interest to me were the feminist and African cultural elements. I have no idea how the magic ties into African myth and tradition, but I’m guessing that it does. It was certainly rich and, in the end, rewarding.




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Though I’ve read a lot this year, mostly for the Good Story and SFFaudio podcasts, I find that a lot of books that I want to read still sit on the sidelines, unread or unfinished. I also have a bad habit of dropping books and audiobooks for other books and audiobooks, because – SQUIRREL!

What was I saying? Oh yeah, books. Focus.

I’d like to try something different.

What I came up with will require a little discipline, but it will help me (1) get through books that I want to have read, (2) restore balance to my reading, which for years has been too exclusively SFF, and (3) be flexible enough for me to know that I can get to a book in good time if I’m excited to read it.

I went through my various to-reads and discovered that the books I’ve listed fall generally into these categories:

I added one more to catch books that don’t fit into any of those:

If I select books from my to-read lists that fit each of these categories, I’ll end up with a list of six books. The idea is to stick to that short list until I’ve read all of them. If a new shiny book comes to my attention, it can’t take the place of any of those six, but can be added to one of my to-read lists where it could be selected as one of the next group of six.

I’ve done this. The first group I’m going to read:

Additional thoughts…

• I am not a believer in forcing myself to finish a book I dislike. If I dislike one of these books, I’ll drop it, and note why I did so. “Dislike” is different from “difficult” or “challenging”. I’ll strive not to drop a book just because it’s slow going.
• I’m involved with podcasts, which means I do have to allow for books that come up there to trump these. I’ve got one book a month for the Good Story podcast, and won’t do more than one novel per month at SFFaudio. After reading those podcast books, it’s back to the list for me.
• If this list gets wearisome and I need something to break it up, I’ll turn to short stories. I have a large collection of those waiting to be read, too.

I hope I’ve reached a good balance here.
 

Click on the picture for a larger version. I got the picture at BBC News.

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, 20th Anniversary Edition
By Timothy Zahn; Read by Marc Thompson
13 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2011

Listening to Star Wars: Heir to the Empire on unabridged audio was nostalgic for me. I read the novel in print when it came out almost 20 years ago. I liked it then, and I enjoyed this audiobook, too.

There have been many Star Wars audiobooks. Until a few years ago, the available titles were abridged, anywhere from 3 hours to 9 hours in length. One of the qualities of those short audiobooks that I liked is that they successfully incorporated the Star Wars sounds, and I LOVE the Star Wars soundscape. I expected this unabridged reading to leave those sounds behind, but I’m very happy to report that they are here. This audiobook opens with the John Williams opening score, and there are plenty of light sabers, droids, wookies, and blasters throughout. Awesome.

Listen to an excerpt: |HERE|

It’s a few years after the Battle of Endor (from Return of the Jedi), and the New Republic now has to deal with the fact that they’ve won. Many of the characters we know from the original film trilogy are here: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and her husband Han, Chewbacca, R2D2, C3PO, Lando Calrissian, etc. Making things difficult for our heroes is Grand Admiral Thrawn and an unstable Dark Jedi named Joruus C’Boath.

I was impressed with Marc Thompson’s skilled narration. He was able to evoke these well-known characters with his voice, from outright impression to a cadence change or other verbal tic. I always knew which character was speaking.

This novel came out well before the film versions of Episodes 1, 2, and 3, so there are blessedly no midi-chlorians here. If you like the original Star Wars films and have considered reading one of the novels, this audiobook is an excellent place to start. I enjoyed revisiting Lucas’ universe, and it’s an entertaining story.

See more audiobook reviews at SFFaudio!