Fourth of five books from the Feminist SF The Blog list of obscure speculative fiction works that shouldn’t be so obscure.
I thought the book was tough to get in to. A somewhat interesting world called Toussaint where nano-technology underlies everything. But the story of Tan-Tan as a child kind of dragged. And while the Caribbean dialect used both for the characters and narration made things interesting, it slowed down my reading. Perhaps that’s for the best, making me consider what I read rather than gloss over. I felt like my reading didn’t get in to a groove early because I had to constantly stop and decipher the language. That’s more me than it is the book though.
But it didn’t take overlong to pick up. Once I got to the part where (minor spoiler), Tan-Tan’s father Antonio, mayor of some part (or maybe all) of Toussaint kills the man cuckolding his wife, then things got interesting. I question why he decides to jail break and head for New Half Way Tree, the other dimensional parallel world exile colony. If that’s where he’s going to end up anyway, why not let himself be convicted and go there with the supplies the exiles get? Maybe, in addition to being a real bastard (charming, but a complete asswipe), he’s not really that smart. Perhaps.
On New Half Way Tree, I love the combination of first-contact and post-apocalyptic rebuilding society tropes.
Tan-Tan is a great character. Hopkinson mixed parts strength and parts vulnerability and it hangs together quite well. There were a lot of other characters I really liked that only appeared for a short while. I wish they had been worked in to the story more. Quamina, Aislinn, Benta, and Melonhead. Chichibud was pretty good too, though a little too much the alien teacher S.F. archetype.
The confrontation ending the book I thought wasn’t so strong. It just didn’t feel correct that an argument results in one combatant having an epiphany in the middle and giving up. We humans don’t like to do that.
But, despite nits here and there, this was a really strong entertaining story. Not to mention, this is not a white mans world. No that it really has an overt feminist theme. It’s just different, and presented normally. A black girl as heroine. Women in prominent and natural seeming roles. The book passes the Bechdel test as well. But the real draw, the great story.
Title: Midnight Robber
Author: Nalo Hopkinson
Cover creator: Don Puckey (design) / Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon (artists)
Imprint / publisher: Aspect / Warner Books
Format: Paperback
Length: 329 p.
Publication date: March 2000
ISBN-10: 0-446-67560-1
LC classification: PR9199.3.H5927 M53 2000
