The Book of Phoenix (Who Fears Death, #0) in Beyond Reality

Oct 16, 2015 Althea Ann rated it it was ok

The beginning of this appeared, in slightly different form, in Clarkesworld (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/okora...), causing me some confusion as I begin to read it...
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I loved 'Who Fears Death.' I very, very much liked the short story that forms the beginning of this book. I did not like this book. I was sorely disappointed by it.

I've been trying to think of how to articulate exactly why. I think that part of it is that the main character is a woman with an 'adult' intelligence, but who i ...more

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May 14, 2016 LadyDisdain rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

*Note: this post contains major spoilers.

The Book of Phoenix follows the story of Phoenix – an accelerated “specimen”, created from the experiments of the secretive Tower Seven. Though she has the body of a forty year old woman she has only been alive for three years. She has never questioned the reasons for her existence, nor the intentions of her carers in Tower Seven.

When her friend and lover disappears under mysterious circumstances Phoenix begins to question her surroundings and doubt the o *Note: this post contains major spoilers.

The Book of Phoenix follows the story of Phoenix – an accelerated “specimen”, created from the experiments of the secretive Tower Seven. Though she has the body of a forty year old woman she has only been alive for three years. She has never questioned the reasons for her existence, nor the intentions of her carers in Tower Seven.

When her friend and lover disappears under mysterious circumstances Phoenix begins to question her surroundings and doubt the only world that she has ever known. For the first time in her life she feels the sting of betrayal. For the first time she feels anger. Her anger burns within her, quite literally. Her skin starts to overheat, and as her emotions become too much for Phoenix to handle, she catches fire, like the mythical bird she is named after.

Much of the book’s progression involves Phoenix running from her creators, all the while learning more about how and why she was created. She comes into contact with various people who help her on her journey. The book touches on many issues – exploitation, racism, scientific ethics, but through it all injustice is the main player. Phoenix constantly mulls over the terrible going on in her world. She sees the suffering of those closest to her, and she feels the pain of it deeply. Perhaps because her introduction to the cruel aspect of life is so sudden, she is acutely sensitive to the pain inflicted on her and her loved ones. She is a deeply emotional being.

Being named and created for the bird that burns itself for new life seems to seal her fate. At the apex of each significant struggle, Phoenix burns. She rages, overheats, and wipes out anything and anyone that happen to be close to her. As a reader, I couldn’t help being attuned to Phoenix’s pain and anger at the many injustices she experiences. In fact, being inside her head reminded me of when I was younger. I also raged at the world’s injustices. I wondered how there could be so much suffering, and that a lot of it went unnoticed, uncared for. There are times, even now, when I do feel like the world needs to be wiped out in order to rid it of the bad within it. But I know, of course, that this means erasing the good that is in the world, too.

You can see where I’m going with this. In the end, Phoenix’s burning is absolute. It is complete in its destruction. She bathes the world in her flames, a fiery baptism that allows it to be born anew, apparently rid of the evils that Phoenix had witnessed. I could understand her rage, I could understand her pain. But I couldn’t understand her decision in the end. It felt hollow. As if she was giving up, as if she was refusing to see that, despite the horrible things happening to her, there had been good moments, too. There had been kindness, and love, and there could have been hope.

I know this novel is meant to be a prequel to Who Fears Death, so it may very well be the case that Phoenix’s story had to end this way. For me, however, the ending left something to be desired. Phoenix’s story was beautiful, yes, and tragic, also yes. But I didn’t expect that it would be hollow.

(P.S. Also, what was up with that commentary on women being overly emotional? I know it’s framed within the perspective of the character who reads Phoenix’s book but considering everything that had come before, it seemed considerably out of place. It seemed to render the entirety of Phoenix’s journey redundant, and invalidate her final decision.) ...more

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Nov 17, 2015 christine. rated it liked it

Shelves: ebooks, read-in-2016

Hrm.

Probably a 2.5, in actuality?

I do love the futuristic society that Nnedi has created here, one that you could almost see branching organically from our current path. One filled with genetic experimentation, racial prejudices, and the devaluation of human life. Her main character here, Phoenix, is full of rage, full of anger and hate, and the narrative allows her to act on these violent impulses, time and time again.

The main reason why I failed to connect with this narrative in an emotional ...more

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Mar 07, 2019 Kerry rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019, library, sf, 8-out-of-10

Fascinating and compelling.

I'm pretty sure there's a link to Akata Witch in there, but I'm afraid I don't remember the details to be certain. So this is not only the world of Who Fears Death, but also of Akata Witch and Akata Warrior as well. ...more

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