Binti: The Complete Trilogy

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25 Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far)

Nnedi Okorafor's Africanfuturistic Binti trilogy is a story from the space-travel-dreamer's dreams with a protagonist whose courageous heart and emotional depth grounds her galactic adventures. Binti navigates interplanetary and interspecies conflict when she leaves home to attend the galaxy's most prestigious university and, after her spaceship falls under attack, must survive and create peace between worlds. Spellbinding! Recommended By Alexis B., Powells.com

Binti runs away from her beloved desert home and family on Earth to go to the most prestigious university in the galaxy. She starts her journey as an outlier, as the first-ever Himba to be accepted. Mid-way, her ship is attacked and she witnesses a horrific massacre — and has to come up with a way to survive and broker peace between two warring groups before the ship lands. The experience colors Binti’s life, world, and sense of self in innumerable ways throughout the collected novellas. There’s so much to love about Binti, but I’m struck most by how Nnedi Okorafor maintains a clear voice for our heroine while she is changed by and changes everyone she comes across and while she works through the ongoing trauma of the ship massacre and discovers secrets about her home and family. An unforgettable coming-of-age story, a realistic and fantastical look at intergalactic space treaties, and a bombastic slice of life that may make you regret letting your mathematical education lapse. It’s perfect. Recommended By Michelle C., Powells.com

Includes a brand-new Binti story!

Collected for the first time in a trade paperback omnibus edition, the Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning Binti trilogy, the story of one extraordinary girl's journey from her home to distant Oomza University.

In her Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella, Nnedi Okorafor introduced us to Binti, a young Himba girl with the chance of a lifetime: to attend the prestigious Oomza University. Despite her family's concerns, Binti's talent for mathematics and her aptitude with astrolabes make her a prime candidate to undertake this interstellar journey.

But everything changes when the jellyfish-like Medusae attack Binti's spaceship, leaving her the only survivor. Now, Binti must fend for herself, alone on a ship full of the beings who murdered her crew, with five days until she reaches her destination.

There is more to the history of the Medusae — and their war with the Khoush — than first meets the eye. If Binti is to survive this voyage and save the inhabitants of the unsuspecting planet that houses Oomza Uni, it will take all of her knowledge and talents to broker the peace.

But even if Binti achieves this remarkable feat, it's not the end of her story. For this lone Himba woman, now bonded with a Medusa and forever changed by this bond, still must find a way to survive and thrive at Oomza University amid swirling interspecies biases. And eventually, she must return home to test the strength of the fragile peace she worked so hard to win.

Collected now for the first time in omnibus form — and introducing a new Binti story — follow Binti's journey in this groundbreaking sci-fi trilogy.

"It's a beautiful, heady, a bit scary, and ultimately fulfilling piece of fiction that made me cry in its last paragraph because of its hopeful, uplifting ending." Kirkus Reviews

"Equal parts thriller, adventure, and quest, this work also serves as a timely parable about the power of educating girls." Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Binti's powerful feelings of displacement, loss, grief, and joy make this entertaining narrative vivid, funny, and memorable." Publishers Weekly

Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Igbo (Nigerian) immigrant parents. She holds a PhD in English and was a professor of creative writing at Chicago State University. She has been the winner of many awards for her short stories and young adult books, and won a World Fantasy Award for Who Fears Death. Nnedi's books are inspired by her Nigerian heritage and her many trips to Africa.