Of the three books in the Binti series, I definitely liked this one the best, but like the other two books, I struggled to really follow the plot and find meaning in the story. Admittedly, this is not my typical read, and I am pushing myself to read outside my normal space opera (aliens and spaceships) books. And this series did have aliens and spaceships (sentient spaceships even!) but most of the story takes place on Earth, in a future desert landscape that may or may not be on the African continent (I assume it is, though there is a very short section late in the book that suggests there was once a lot of water and now it is gone, so it could be elsewhere).
The mystical and magical elements of the series push the work far into the fantasy realm for me. There are magical objects, magical projections of energy, and the main character, Binti, uses mathematics (and projections of mathematics) as a source of her grounding power. There is intrigue, warring nations (one Earth-based, one alien) and Binti has placed herself right in the middle. She learned in the last book her genealogy which involves an advanced alien civilization, and there are a lot of threads that get tied together in this book.
These books were very popular and award-winning, so I feel like I should like them more than I do. I should at least try to understand what it is that makes them tick. Certainly I felt very connected to Binti as a person, and her struggles to come of age in this magical and technological world. And that is the one thing that I know needs to happen–character connection. It is something I have struggled with in my own writing, and as I read other books I have been trying to learn craft from them. In the end, this book felt too distanced from where I like to sit for me to really grasp it.
I have read writing advice which is to read, read often, and read widely. I need to keep doing that. I have had some personal and family struggles during the past few months that are not going away anytime soon, and my reading and my writing have taken a hit. For the new year, I am pledging to spend more time on my writing, my craft, and my reading. I hope to read more outside my chosen genre and hope that I will be able to learn from it. I used to be a voracious reader, but I am reading now to try to understand craft (as well as for enjoyment) which is slower. I have too many pulls on my time I guess. It is ok to read for fun, and I will be focusing on that in the new year.