One of the golden voices of audiobooks lends her talents to the audio edition of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti. Robin Miles—who has acted both on and off Broadway, and in television series including Law & Order—is a veteran, award-winning narrator/director of audio programs, who got her start thanks to an accidental audition with Talking Books in the 1990s. She won her first Earphones Award for her work on Cane River, which highlighted the versatility of Miles’ voice and her ability to “rely on accents and inflection” to “distinctly reflect personalities, family origins, and social status.”
This ability to characterize based on accent and inflection plays an integral part in the narration of Binti. In this science fiction novella, Binti is a brilliant young woman who is the first of the Himba community to be offered a place at the galaxy’s finest institution of higher learning. Within the first tracks of the program, listeners are introduced to a rich new culture through accent and articulation that was fine-tuned through the collaboration of the author and narrator. Listeners should be warned that once one starts listening to the program, one will be hard-pressed to press “pause” until it’s reached the thrilling conclusion!
Listen to Robin Miles reading an excerpt of Binti below.
Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti is available September 22nd in paperback, ebook, and audio formats from Tor.com! From the catalog copy:
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.
Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.
If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself—but first she has to make it there, alive.
You can find the audio edition at Audible or pre-order the ebook edition at the links below!
