Who Fears Death

One of my favorites of Okorafor's book I've read. This one does a great job in creating a slightly dream-like narrative mood, a floating disconnection. It feels a bit like The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season / The Obelisk Gate / The Stone Sky in mood somehow, even though it's a totally different setting and characters.

The book is basically a Hero's Journey only told sort of in reverse. We know the end of the story nearly from the beginning. Half the early book is with the hero already home, safe and with her people, and only then does she go on a journey and slowly lose her personal connections. Her discoveries about herself are irregular and often uncomfortable. It's all just a bit tilted from the usual Western fantasy structure and I lik eit.

Also love the African setting. Inspired in part by Sudan, but then also with a lot of West African elements (and presumably Nigerian in particular). I've enjoyed reading about Africanfuturism, a term referring to a writing movement that's different from Afrofuturism. This book is considered a prime example of Africanfuturism (or Africanjujuism) and it's definitely a strong cultural background to root a story in. I also like how there are these brief sci-fi hints, like that laptops were common in the long long ago and still exist but aren't really a big deal now.