Just Out of Jupiter's Reach - Nnedi Okorafor - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Nnedi Okorafor

SERIES: The Far Reaches, #5

GENRE: Science Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: June 27, 2023

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting character-oriented short story with a decent blend of science fiction, human flaws, and Afrofuturism sparkle. The ending was a bit disappointing, but overall, it was still better than I had anticipated. (It helped to have low expectations.)

Plot Preview:

Tornado Onwubiko, a young Nigerian girl, is one of only seven people from earth who have been genetically matched for an inter-stellar journey supposed to last ten years. Halfway into the travel, Tornado will be meeting the other six travellers for the very first time, at a location just outside of Jupiter’s gravitational reach. After five years of being isolated in their custom spaceships, how will the seven travellers react to human company, especially when their rendezvous is supposed to last only for a week?

The story comes to us from Tornado’s first-person perspective.

This is the fifth standalone story in 'The Far Reaches’ series, described on Amazon as “a collection of science-fiction stories that stretch the imagination and open the heart.”

The first two stories in this collection were great for me and the next two were absolute duds. So I was a bit apprehensive about how this one would go. Thankfully, it was a pleasant enough experience, though it could have gone even better.

The story reads more like a drama, just with an unusual locational setting on the outskirts of Jupiter and some innovative spacecraft. It contains enough of sci-fi to make it feel like sci-fi and yet not so much as would boggle sci-fi newbies. As Tornado is a layperson who gets to travel in space because of her genetics than her geeky brains, she knows just the bare minimum of the science behind the customised spacecraft. Hence the content never seems too techy, though it is quite complex a concept. Of course, if you want more technical sci-fi content, you might be disappointed.

The sentient spacecraft, the seven ‘Miri’, are the highlight of this tale. Most of their functioning is kept off the page (for the above-mentioned reason), but whatever little we know about them is more than intriguing.

The plot focusses on the emotions and the people as much as on the tech, which also has emotions of its own. So overall, it feels more like a relatable human story than like an obscure sci-fi narrative. As this is a character-focussed piece, we get to know the various characters as well as possible within a 45-page narrative. The writing comes in Tornado’s first-person perspective, so her insights on the other travellers are our only clues to their behaviour. But each of them has a distinct personality, and not necessarily a goody-goody one, which makes their interactions interesting.

As is typical with African SFF authors, there is a strong focus on the local culture. The blend between the place and the futuristic scenario is impeccable. Afrofuturism holds one of the best aesthetics for me in sci-fi writing because of its intricate traditional + post-modern medley.

The main reason my rating dropped a lot was the final quarter, or rather two particular plot points in that section. One of these, I never enjoy as a trope. I don’t want to go into spoilers, so I’ll just say I wish the story had not gone in that direction. The other one was such a huge red flag that I didn’t understand why Tornado’s opinion about said person didn’t change after that incident. It was a trust-shattering event that passed by with barely any reaction. Would she have felt the same had it been her pet cat instead of the other (magnificent) pet?

There are a couple of things left unanswered, but not so much as to make you feel like the ending left you hanging. Then again, the plot points that aren’t tackled are significant ones, so if you want all I’s dotted and all T’s crossed, this story isn’t for you.

This author is highly acclaimed for her Afro sci-fi writing. While I do want to read her Binti trilogy and the Akata Witch series, I have experience her works only in her short fiction. Her story in the Black Stars series, ‘Black Pages’, was an absolute dud for me, while her short story collection, 'Kabu Kabu', went much better. Having read this story, I now have a better sense of her writing style and know that she will deliver on the SFF angle even when she doesn’t deliver on the plot development.

Recommended, but not as a must-read. It is a creative story that needs a bit more refining to be memorable. It would have been fabulous as a novel because there’s much to explore with the Miri concept.

This standalone story is a part of the 'The Far Reaches’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.