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Nnedi Okorafor
She writes everything from middle grade to adult speculative fiction.
- Computers that grow from seeds (Zahrah the Windseeker)
- Pipeline fighting swordfish (Lagoon)
- Desert tribes that live in the eye of a sandstorm (Who Fears Death)
- Magical money that drops from the sky when you learn a new skill (Akata Witch)
Those are just few of the wonderfully weird ideas that you find in her books. Those aren’t even main plot points. That’s just extra weirdness thrown in for fun.
Kylie Chan
A young woman accepts a position as nanny to the young daughter of a handsome, wealthy, and mysterious Chinese businessman – only to discover her new employer is really a god and every foul demon in creation is out to destroy him!
There are several trilogies that make up this full story. I quit reviewing them on the blog because you have to read them in order or else they don’t make any sense at all. You can’t even talk about them without sounding a bit touched in the head.
- People are turning into reptiles
- Hong Kong is a portal for people to move back and forth to the Heavens
- People travel around on clouds
- Sometimes a god who is part turtle and part snake (and also human) loses part of himself – literally, he can’t find it
- Sentient stones
I love these books. They are really good. But you just have to trust me on that because I can’t explain them at all.
Sheri S. Tepper
I take any opportunity to throw some love her way. If there was any author than Terry Pratchett that I would love to force people to read, it is her. Anyone who likes Margaret Atwood needs to check out Tepper. She’s an author that you need to do a bit of research on because her books tend to be grouped into loose series. That isn’t always obvious from reading the descriptions.
The Fresco by Sheri S. Tepper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The bizarre events that have been occuring across the United States — unexplained “oddities” tracked by Air Defense, mysterious disappearances, shocking deaths — seem to have no bearing on Benita Alvarez-Shipton’s life. That is, until the soft-spoken thirty-six-year-old bookstore manager is approached by a pair of aliens asking her to transmit their message of peace to the powers in Washington. An abused Albuquerque wife with low self-esteem, Benita has been chosen to act as the sole liaison between the human race and the Pistach, who have offered their human hosts a spectacular opportunity for knowledge and enrichment.But ultimately Benita will be called upon to do much more than deliver messages — and may, in fact, be responsible for saving the Earth. Because the Pistach are not the only space-faring species currently making their presence known on her unsuspecting planet. And the others are not so benevolent.”
This isn’t a normal first contact story. The alien race making first contact is having problems of their own on their home planet. They need to get this Earth thing over quickly so they need to force Earth to be Neighborly. They decide to make humans solve all their problems right now in ingenious ways. I WANT THIS BOOK TO HAPPEN SO MUCH!
I also like the Arbai Trilogy made up of Grass, Raising the Stones, and Sideshow. Those books are nuts and get nuttier as they go on. The thing I love about them is a spoiler but I love the Arbai. I want them to come to Earth too. Basically, I will give full control of Earth to whoever Sheri Tepper invents to fix us.
Maggie Anton
“Rashi, one of the greatest Jewish scholars who ever lived, had no sons, only three daughters. Much has been written about Rashi and his grandsons, the Tosafot, but almost nothing of his daughters. Legend has it that they were learned in a time when women were forbidden to study the sacred texts. Rashi’s Daughters tells the story of these forgotten women.”
On the surface that doesn’t sound too weird but the women in these series are basically practicing witches while their husbands study the Torah. They are casting spells for everything. The even weirder part is that these are based on actual spells found on pottery. This may have actually been happening.
These all sound fantastic! I have been wanting to give Nnedi Okorafor a try, and I’m really intrigued by Tepper since you recommend her to Atwood fans. Great list!
I’m reading Lagoon right now and absolutely love it. And it’s weird as heck! I also loved the world that the author created in Akata Witch. I literally wanted to visit and just look around!
All of Nnedi’s books are so great and all so different.
Maybe I will try and FINALLY read Tepper this month. I have at least 3 books on my TBR by her!
Which books do you have? The Fresco is an easy starting place for her because the Earth part is at least a little familiar before it gets into the scifi.
I think I have a book by Sheri S. Tepper, and I have the first in the Rashi’s Daughters series. You make me want to read it now, as the way you described it makes it sound like another book I love, the Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, except that all the women in that series were mostly single.
~Litha Nelle
There are always points in an Anton book where I wonder why I’m reading about men sitting around and debating fine points of Jewish law but they are strangely addictive.