Kabu Kabu - Nnedi Okorafor - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Nnedi Okorafor
GENRE: Short Story Collection
PUBLICATION DATE: September 29, 2013
RATING: 3.5 stars.

A collection of 21 stories from fantasy, horror, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. The stories include some tales from Okorafor’s previously-published short work and a new novella co-written with New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster. There is a brief and interesting foreword by Whoopi Goldberg, and an author’s note at the end, explaining the origin and thought process behind each of the stories.

All the tales are imaginative and bizarre and weird and mind-blowing (in different ways.) Yup, the attributes are as eclectic and quirky as the stories themselves. Many of the stories were 4 or 5 star reads for me. A few could have reached the same level were it not for their endings which brought down their impact. But if you have rate the book on the sheer creativity of the human mind, it would get a full rating. The imagery will also blow your mind. Such lush descriptions!

Some of my favourites from this collection were Kabu Kabu, Spider the Artist, The Ghastly Bird and The Carpet. I also enjoyed The Magical Negro, The House of Deformities, The Winds of Harmattan, Long Juju Man, Icon, The Popular Mechanic, The Baboon War, Asunder and The Palm-Tree Bandit.

Minor complaint: Some stories use some local African words (I’m not sure what language they are from) for which there's no translation or context provided. A glossary would certainly have helped because in many of these cases, the pun or joke isn’t clear simple because of the lacuna in understanding the word.

If you want to get a quick glimpse of Okorafor’s writing style before trying out a full-length work, this anthology would be perfect to begin with.

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