#1 Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

 

Fatima is a young girl who lives on her family’s shea tree farm and is touched by a seed that causes her to accidently kill her family, village, and forget her name.  She takes the name Sankofa and goes on a journey to locate the seed that gave her this power since it was taken from her family soon after she discovered it. As she learns control and slowly makes her way through the countryside she is called Death’s adopted daughter because of the death she can bring. This is more of a journey of discovery for Sankofa to learn more about herself and this power in her and how it affects those around her.  The ending is such that there can easily be more to this story if desired.

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

#2 When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

 This novella is set in the same universe but stands alone and can be read without having read The Empress of Salt and Fortune. A cleric has taken a routine trip in the mountains and is trapped in a barn by three tigers. Chih only safety is under the legs of the mammoth they rode on with the mammoth rider. A bargain very much like Scheherazade’s of telling a tale in order to pass the time and hopefully escape becoming dinner for the three tiger ladies. The tale is told two ways first by Chih and then by the lead tiger lady correcting all the wrong ways the tale of scholar and her tiger lover has been told to the cleric.  Chin dutifully writes down the corrections in order for the truth of the story to come out even if they do not make it out of the claws of the tiger ladies.  

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley