Amazing Book, bad narration

I love the story, very well written. The British narrator effecting a bad accent was very off putting. The accent made it impossible for me to be drawn into the story. I hope another version is made with a more appropriate narrator.

43 people found this helpful

A journey.

This book is a journey, and it is at times an intentionally uncomfortable one. Set in a (far?) future subsaharan Africa, racially-based genocides continue between the Nuru and the Okeke. An "Ewu" girl (the result of the rape of an Okeke by a Nuru man) is given the name Onyesonwu -- "Who Fears Death". This book has magic -- in particular: shape-shifting, and traveling to The Wilderness, the space where spirits go after life -- and sand, and violence -- though this is not a book "about" magic, or sand -- and scenes which are both unsettling and gripping. The narration from Anne Flosnik here is quite primal; we feel the pain and, as often, anger of Onyesonwu and her companions and adversaries.

Okorafor's world is one where some technology remains -- portable computers with maps, water collection devices -- but this is not at all a book about technology. It is about people, and in particular the roles of women (and men) in a highly tribal culture. There are ruins -- old, paved roads -- but this is not a book about the past. It is also not a book about the future. It is a book which is quite present, and is highly recommended to readers with an interest in something beyond the beaten path, whether coming from an interest in fantasy or more mainstream fiction, and the willingness to travel on unfamiliar and rocky ground.

43 people found this helpful

Terrible Fake Accent

If you could sum up Who Fears Death in three words, what would they be?

Epic Female Fantasy

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really love the main character because she's so complex and has an eerie realness to her perceptions.

What didn’t you like about Anne Flosnik’s performance?

This is a book about a woman of color in Africa and it makes sense for the narrator to be female and have an African accent, but this narration is on par with blackface minstrelsy. She uses a way over the top accent that is distracting and also slows down her reading really significantly so that the book trudges along as she struggles over every contrived syllable.

Any additional comments?

Please re-record this.

47 people found this helpful

Don't miss this one!

If you could sum up Who Fears Death in three words, what would they be?

Powerful, absorbing, refreshing

What was one of the most memorable moments of Who Fears Death?

When Onyesonwu, Luyu, and Mwita take shelter in the "haunted" cave

Have you listened to any of Anne Flosnik’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I have listened to Anne Flosnik's narration of Robin Hobb's Rail Wilds trilogy. To be honest, I found her narration of those novels quite irritating, and thought she did a much better job with Who Fears Death. But, see my additional comments, below.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

So many—Onyesonwu's friendship with the blacksmith, who became her stepfather; Aro's decision to teach Onye; the reconciliation between Onye and her friends Luyu, Diti, and Binta (you'll know which one I mean); Mwita's declaration of ifunanya; etc. etc.!

Any additional comments?

Anne Flosnik did a good job with the "African" accent she adopted for this novel. However, I disagree with the producer's decision to ask it of her. There's no reason Onyesonwu needs to sound like (a white person's idea of) what an African sounds like when they are just learning to speak English. I could understand it better if there were non-African or native English-speaking characters in the novel, from whom Onyesonwu needed to be distinguished; but that is not the case. All the accent does is perpetuate the idea that fantasy/sci-fi novels dealing with non-Western cultures/settings are foreign and strange. Put another way: If you were to read this novel, you would "hear" Onyesonwu in your head speaking with your own voice/accent. I can't help thinking Okorafor would prefer that kind of reader-character identification to the "othering" effect created by Flosnik's artificially imposed "black African" accent.

38 people found this helpful

What am I listening to?

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The premise this book has sounds amazing, and that's what really sold me. However, I haven't gotten more than 30 minutes in because the narration is absolutely awful. Anne Flosnik's breathy, "generic African" accent is such a turn off, and it's a huge distraction from the story, which sounds interesting.

Would you be willing to try another book from Nnedi Okorafor? Why or why not?

I'd love to try this title again, but if there's not a better performance, I'll have to see about getting a physical copy to read with my actual eyes.
And sure, I'd be up for some more Nnedi Okorafor work.

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Flosnik’s performances?

No. Nope. Not a bit. None.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Who Fears Death?

Everything read by Anne Flosnik.

Any additional comments?

Protip for audiobook producers: if you want an authentic African voice, get an authentic African person to narrate.

57 people found this helpful

Intelligent fantasy in an African setting

This novel was a bit different, but mostly different in a good way. Having read dozens of fantasy books set in quasi-European worlds, I appreciated finding one set in Africa. The cultural attitudes reminded me a lot of the Sudanese in Dave Egger's wonderful book, What is the What, so I felt immediately drawn into Okorafor's world. That world, to be sure, is a pretty grim one, full of prejudice, superstition, ethnic violence, misogyny, and other problems that plague modern Africa. The "post-apocalypse" setting is a little unclear -- all we really know is that it's sometime in the future, various bits of technology are still around, and that some sort of now-mythical past event brought about a new (or maybe not?) magical order to the world.

The heroine resembles a typical fantasy heroine in generalities. She's an outcast for reasons of birth, has latent magical abilities that gradually come to the fore, and is stubborn and persistent in the face of tradition. But, more than the archetype, she has a believably human and conflicted voice. The other characters and cultures felt suitably complex, too, and different enough from my own experience that I became absorbed in the world. Be warned, some the themes are pretty mature, from scenes of violence and rape to some frank sexuality, so this isn't a novel for readers looking for lightweight escapism. Even the friendships between characters are infected by social attitudes -- the protagonist has to battle her own lover’s idea that it’s somehow not right for female sorcerers to be more powerful than male ones.

I did have my frustrations. The storytelling could have used better editing in places, and in later parts of the book, magic begins to be relied on too heavily as a plot device, at the expense of organic character development. The setting never entirely made sense to me, either. The levels of technology and magic are a bit inconsistent, and the minimal establishment of background history made the import of different events unclear. And I’d take a point off for the stilted use of “prophecy”.

Still, I’m not sure that these issues detracted too much from my overall appreciation. Onyesonwu’s story feels like a humanization of a myth -- the raw, unfiltered version prior to its formation into legend. Even a world in which magic is real might still be like our own in that heroes are flawed, “evil” is something that resides in all people and can’t just be blamed on a select villain, and powers don’t always make sense, even to those wielding them. Worth reading if you’re looking for a serious-minded fantasy novel set in an interesting world.

15 people found this helpful

Well written, well read...but...

There are many voice talents who are POC in general, and of African blood in particular. Why did this have to be performed by a white woman? I take nothing away from Ms Flosnik's talents and performance, however for a tale that is 100% African (Sudanese, to be correct), I think another voice would have lent true authenticity.

The story itself, much like everything else I've read from Ms Okorafor, was a pleasure.

27 people found this helpful

Wrong Narrator for this work.

I love the premise- I actually love everything this author writes- Oh have such an invigorating and interesting intellect!!!
However I hated the narration and will be buying the book...
I wish whoever performed The Book of Phoenix would've narrated this one... I think it was Robin Miles who is also awesome

18 people found this helpful

My favorite book of 2010!

I’ve been trying to figure out why I loved this novel so much, and one word keeps on popping up: hero. This book has a hero — I mean a real hero. I mean a “move over Clint Eastwood” em-effin HERO. Onyesonwu is fierce and intelligent. Never backs down. I could go on and on, but you know, spoilers.

12 people found this helpful

Tragedy or Prequel?

This was an interesting novel, somewhat dysphoric and should come with a trigger warning for anyone who experienced sexual assault and/or ethnic violence. I wish the main character would have explored her abilities more. The writing is lush and the story was a tragedy, in a way, but maybe not. Not sure I would read the sequel. I prefer more uplifting speculative fiction or fantasy.

2 people found this helpful