Escaping Exodus
by Nicky Drayden
Synopsis
Seske is heir-in-waiting for Matris, head of her people, who are emerging from slumber after their society has moved from inside one space beast to another. As her people begin making the beast into their own place to live, as they have done for generations, Seske must prove to the current Matris she is worthy to be leader of their people. But when she discovers the beast is pregnant and the Matris has ordered it killed, or it will devour the beast's resources meant for her people, Seske is unsure of the direction her people are going.
Characteristics that fit into African American
- This was an interesting "genre" to choose as the guideline was simply that it be written by an African American or Black person. Nicky Drayden fits that bill, so off we go. Beyond African American as a genre, this fits nicely in the speculative fiction genre, with it being science fiction. Another aspect is the characters are all of African or African-esque descent with certain aspects of their culture derived from African or African-inspired cultures.
Characteristics about this Book
- Pacing: The pacing doesn't actually start as slowly as sci-fi usually does, but drops us right into the action, expecting us to keep up without overexplaining everything.
- Characterization: With the plot revolving around the society's rigid caste system, it depends on whose point of view we're currently reading (the narrative switches between Seske and her best friend, Adalla, a beastworker) as to who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. And the characters nicely evolve over the course of the book.
- Storyline: The plot revolves around Seske and her status as heir, which is complicated by the mere existence of her sister, Sisterkin, who was not supposed to have survived birth (the rule is only one child per family and whoever is born first gets to live). Seske is always getting into trouble and does not fit the ideal of what an heir should be, while Sisterkin seems perfect.
- Tone/Mood: The tone starts off optimistic as they are emerging into a new beast, but it gradually becomes more pessimistic as the rigidity of the caste system rears its ugly head and the status of their new beast isn't quite what they thought it was.
- Style/Language: The language is descriptive, but not flowery. There is a lot of new terminology, taken directly from their history, but not explained outright. We get a good sense of the different castes and how they approach life and what is expected of them through the differing styles of language they each use.
- Setting/Frame: The setting is some time in the distant future; we only realize they are colonists from Earth far into the book. It seems each group of people on Earth created their own spaceship to escape the ravages of overpopulation and now each one is isolated. Seska's people are of dark skin and a matriarchy, while another are of light skin and a patriarchy.
Read-a-likes
- "War Girls" by Tochi Onyebuchi
- "Akata Witch" by Nnedi Okorafor
- "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James
- "Gideon the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir
- "Children of Blood and Bone" by Tomi Adeyemi
Personal Note
I enjoyed this novel. One of the good things about it was the style of narration. We are dropped right into the action of a people coming out of slumber into a situation they've generally seen before, but we haven't. But we aren't given the normal type of explanations to bring us up to speed; we see everything through their eyes as they'd experience it and have to figure out what's going on by what they naturally comment on. This made the book harder to read to keep up with all the new words and situations that weren't explained, but worth it because it felt more natural. No "voiceover" here to bring us up to speed. And I appreciate it. It's often so easy for an author to do so.
This seems like a really fascinating read even though I normally do not reach for science fiction type books. Was there a glossary or anything at the end of the book to define the new terminology? I like when authors create new terms for their worlds and I definitely appreciate when they also include a glossary somewhere lol. Great annotation, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteThere was not a glossary, which in my mind made it even better, because it forced the author to explain within-world everything we needed to know, making the writing better. It also doesn't feel sci-fi for most of the book and all the technology is organically based, so there's not that feeling of being overwhelmed by technobabble.
When I first read your synopsis I felt that it really reads as a science fiction. Does it bring in a lot of the African American culture?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to judge, Jennifer, as I'm not steeped in African American culture. It seems to hint at what could be African culture, but in-world the exodus from Earth happened so long ago, it's hard to tell what may be created by the author and what may be authentic or authentic-but-altered-because-of-time.
DeleteI find determining if a book falls under African American sub genre difficult. In the New World Encyclopedia they define it in broad terms as "African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent". It goes one with further explanation that the writings are broad, "Nonetheless, African American literature has generally focused on themes of particular interest to Black people in the United States, such as the role of African Americans within the larger American society and what it means to be an American". And that "African American Literature explores the very issues of freedom and equality which were long denied to Black people in the United States, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, and a sense of home, among others". I guess as I try to determine what falls under African American literature and what is simply a book written by an African America. For example Oprah Winfrey wrote a book call Food, Health, and Happiness : 115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life. I haven't read it but assume it has little to do with African American culture, slavery, etc. So I wouldn't think it should be categorized as African American Literature. I think that is what Shelby and I were both touching on is what criteria did you feel this book met be to African American, not out of judgement but truely out of curiosity as we try to navigate these sub-genres.
DeleteWhen I was choosing my book, I, too, found it difficult to determine just what is meant by African American, if it's not also street/urban lit. I asked Erin and she agreed that it was difficult to determine, but that the main point is that a book should be written by an African American author and not be urban/street lit. This gives us the problem that African American is not really a genre, then, but literature based on someone's skin color, which seems rather problematic. Imagine if we had "Anglo American literature." What would that entail? Only that it's written by a white person? In that case, just as with African American literature, it's not really a genre and opens up the annotation or readings to whatever you want it to be. As Nicky Drayden is African American, this qualifies under that dubious requirement. Would others categorize this as African American? It depends on what they think that means, and that's the problem with saying African American literature is a genre. In a reading I came across (possibly in another of our blogs), an African American author said she didn't want her works listed under African American, street, or urban lit as that limits what others think of her work. I agree. Let the work stand on its own as sci-fi (African-tinged, perhaps) or fantasy (Mayan-tinged, perhaps) and not focus on the skin color of the author. This ties-in to our prompt response about sequestering certain types of material; if we group all African American authors together, regardless of genre, into one place, are we really doing a service to our readers?
DeleteI agree! I think limiting a book to a genre based on color or ethnicity is silly and limiting as is shelving that way. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI've struggled with keeping diverse books on the syllabus and how to word it. I certainly don't know any libraries that have an African American section (the exception being of course - urban fiction is pulled out in some IPL branches and other libraries), but most libraries do displays during Black history month. LGBTQ and African American books aren't their own genre but I always want diverse books represented in this class because they are so often overlooked. So we cover them at the end after we've covered all the official genres in the book. You're both certainly right - there isn't really any real criteria for this week so it can be a bit of a struggle. Thank you both for being troopers and offering good feedback and I will re-evaluate whether to include in next year's class :)
DeleteErin I think having these discussions about diverse books is necessary and it really forces us to all stop and consider both sides of them. Not discussing them certainly doesn't make them or issues around them go away.
DeleteI had a hard time choosing a book for my African American Literature annotation because the "rules" for what made the genre were pretty scarce, as you mentioned just having to have an African American author. I did find a website that said they also usually include African American culture. Did you feel like this was a major part of the book or was this more science fiction and the world the author built?
ReplyDeleteShelby, that's along the lines of what Jennifer asked. There are references to things that may be African culture, but I'm not really sure. One of the great things about the book was that the color of their skin didn't matter, since they were all of the same ancestry. There were a few references to how some makeup or ornament looked against "her dark skin" or something similar, but mainly it didn't matter. Since we don't find out they're from earth until late in the book, the connections to Africa are slim and feel more like they are "inspired by" rather than actual.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds gorgeous, and reminds me of the Ursula K LeGuin book I read for the Sci-Fi annotation. The Left Hand of Darkness also lacked a sort of narrator that brought you up to speed, and it made it hard for me to get into, but once I was in...I was in!
ReplyDeleteFantastic annotation that inspired lots of great feedback in the comments, I definitely appreciated the personal note at the end. This isn't a book or author I'm familiar with but it sounds very intriguing! Full points!
ReplyDelete