Every year I try to read the sci-fi books that get nominated for the Hugo awards, and this year this has been the first in my list. I was very excited, as this one has been finalist for several awards, but I have only finish it through sheer will and stubbornness.
It starts ok, but towards the middle the story feel aimless, I despised all the characters and they didn't make any sense to me, the love story feels empty and the story-within-a-story was terrible. But apart from this rant, I have an honest question. The main characters of the story are Americans of Nigerian origen, and I feel that maybe I couldn't understand them because I know nothing about Nigerian culture.
When Zelu gets the chance to use the exos and be able to walk again, almost her entire family is horrified. Not only the American family, but some of the African relatives are also against the idea. I cannot imagine how you can be against a device that may help a paraplegic walk again. I see no argument. And I don't see them in the book either, their relatives insist on how it is a terrible idea, but they never say why. It took me out of the book, I couldn't understand those people at all, they seemed mad to me. Is this related to any part of Nigerian culture that I don't know about?
by Forward-Tip-1437
1 Comment
The family reaction made sense to me because it wasn’t really about the walking – it was about Zelu potentially losing herself in the process. The exos change you fundamentally, and her family saw how people who used them became different people entirely
Nigerian culture does value community input on big life decisions more than typical American individualism, but the real issue was fear of losing Zelu to something that might give her mobility but take away her essence