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Binti - pacing
Hi all, I thought I'd see what other people thought about the pacing of the Binti trilogy. For me, this was another signal of YA intentions (despite the author's protestations 
) - the pace seems kind of breakneck all the way through with little time to pause and enjoy the world. We seemed to whistle from crisis to crisis without pause. I think I'd have enjoyed times when we could kind of explore the world and its many cultures without feeling we were dodging bullets all the time. Any other reactions?
Comments
Genre novel for sure = plot and tropes override all other aspects. I see this more as an indication that the author is influenced by, and hopeful of, the demands of visual rather than textual media = movies, tv vs. books. So a market commodity rather than a work.
I agree, it's rapid and breathless all the way through. The only time for a bit of pause and reflection is when Binti dies at the end and people start to consider the changes that happened because of her.
I think the stories could have done with a bit more space and reflection, a bit more of everyday life. After all, we only really got to see Himba culture through the eyes of someone rebelling against it.
That's a good point, though some short story writers seem to manage to give a sense of world within a short span of words. GK Chesterton, for one, and even our friend Christopher Priest, though he seems to have wanted to describe a cluster of closely related worlds rather than a single one! Or Asimov with the original Foundation books.
If it is really four short stories, isn't it odd that they seem to all be about one particular person, and are marketed as such? I think it's a serial, not short stories.
The pace is fast, yes. The pace of a typical D&D game.