Who Fears Death

English language

Published March 16, 2014

ISBN:
978-0-7564-0728-5
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5 stars (2 reviews)

Who Fears Death is a science fantasy novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, published in 2010 by DAW, an imprint of Penguin Books. It was awarded the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity." Okorafor wrote a prequel, the novel The Book of Phoenix, published by DAW in 2015.

4 editions

Au sud du Sahara, après l'apocalypse

5 stars

Un style écrit brut et direct, d’où les émotions fusent, abordant des sujets extrêmement durs. Des figures féminines qui conservent leur capacité d’agir envers et contre tous, en dépit des violences et du poids d’une société patriarcale étouffante. Un univers mythologique dense, investissant et explorant les imaginaires du sud du Sahara. Une lecture éprouvante, qui m'a happé et dont le souvenir va m'accompagner durablement.

reviewed Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death, #1)

Review of 'Who Fears Death' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

In a post-apocalyptic future in sub-Saharan Africa, the Nuru are waging war against the Okeke. The Nurus believe in using rape as a weapon. They know that raped Okeke women will be shunned by their families and that any children born will be Ewu. Ewu children are identifiable by their skin color. It is believed that children conceived in violence will be violent themselves so Ewu are kept outside civilized society.

After a powerful Nuru sorcerer rapes an Okeke woman, she flees to the desert where she gives birth to a girl who she names Onyesonwu. It means Who Fears Death. Onyesonwu grows to be a powerful sorcerer herself but will her society reject the possibility of a savior who is twice an outcast – both Ewu and a woman?

I first heard about this book on a Book Riot list of fantasy books that weren’t set in a pseudo-European …