James Devlin

Hugo 2020 Nominations (Best Graphic);

Stars: 3

I tried to go into this one without listening to my preconceived notions from having read Nnedi Okorafor's [b:The Night Masquerade|34386617|The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3)|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1495725402l/34386617._SY75_.jpg|55477512] (which to read required me to the read the two before it at the same time last year, as well) & [b:Black Panther: Long Live the King|36673422|Black Panther Long Live the King|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526771280l/36673422._SY75_.jpg|58459948], which were both in the Hugo Nominations for 2019.

My opinion of Nnedi's writing seems to hold pretty much true at this point. I very much see the point of the immigrant/emigrant "alien" life open-border policy story, told side by side with poc main and tertiary characters, but the story just didn't move me. I wonder if it would have been better in print for me. The art was definitely not a problem.

I definitely feel the strong theme of the world's current focus on police brutality and xenophobia loudly in this book, where we see it excised on aliens (and cross-species/interracial) exchanges in the car checks, the airport lines, the hospital, and the workplace. While there was a lot of very on-point touching of topics, I feel like this story just rushed through them and made them fine shortly after.… (mais)