Nnedi Okorafor is an important figure in science fiction. She is working to create not just science fiction by an African writer, but an African science fiction. That’s a huge, complex, messy, inaccurate, and unfair statement, and has far more to it than I can unpack in a Reading Well post, but it’s very much part of Okorafor’s context. (For what it’s worth, I don’t know how she sees or positions herself.)
The Book of Phoenix (2015) tells the story of Phoenix and her struggles against the forces that created her. She is a SpeciMan, created to be a weapon through various forms of genetic engineering by a military-industrial complex that controls North America. With the help of some allies, Phoenix escapes her confinement: the rest of the book details her flight and her escalating resistance against her creators.
There is a framing device, set even further in the future, so we are really doubly -displaced: first, to that very far-flung and desolate future and then to the Phoenix’s time. It’s an entertaining and creative read, and the relationships between the main characters–two of whom are love interests for Phoenix, one of whom is not–ring true and deep.
Throughout, Okorafor muses on the contrast between what she presents as a pan-African perspective and an American one, and while some of those details may be heavy-handed, most are intelligent and creative, and Phoenix herself is a compelling figure, full of fury and passion and insight.
The Book of Phoenix is not a classic, but it is part of an important project; if that interests you, the book will as well.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
The Book of Phoenix is a short book, and I think Okorafor is very smart about how deeply she dives into world-building throughout it. There is enough for the world to feel real, but little is explained that is not immediately relevant to the plot or the characters. That brevity and focus is a model I could do well to emulate.