Customer Reviews

Kirinyaga

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mike Resnick has an incredible understanding of tribal african thinking. I am a South African and I was absolutely positive that this had been written by a fellow White (South) African. If you read these stories you will understand the tribal thinking of the African culture which still holds sway over most of the older generation and some of the younger ones. Wonderful writing. Anthea Tarica Johannesburg South African.

It's a good--maybe even great--story cycle, but good lord, do yourself a favour and assiduously avoid reading the horribly arrogant and obnoxious afterward, in which Resnick basically lists all the awards the stories have won, along with fairly unpleasant commentary--this story WOULD have won the hugo, except that it was disqualified on a technicality. This one, too, would have won, except that another story of mine did instead. And the only thing capable of defeating a Resnick story is another Resnick story! God, I made the mistake of looking through this drivel before finishing the stories, and it really colored my whole perception of them. Oh well.

A highly educated man tries to, in effect, stop time for the Kikuyu tribe, on their own planetoid, where he can isolate them from the outside world (so-called "western" influences) and propagate their ancient customs.

This is a remarkable book, written with so much wisdom and insight. The dialogue and prose is sharp and controlled. Resnick presents both sides of the arguments with such clarity and humanity, it's sometimes heartbreaking. Koriba's well-intentioned but ultimately misguided crusade against change is challenged again and again, not necessarily by the "outside", but by the "inside" - the minds and hearts of his villagers. It's fascinating to see how he resolves these challenges to his authority and his hopes for the Kikuyu ... and sometimes downright scary.

The book also shows us the erroneous assumption of multiculturalism - that everything in every culture is worth saving and perpetuating. The modern myths of the Kikuyu - and indeed of many peoples on this planet - that "the West" is to blame for their condition and/or corruption (and everything "Western" should therefore be anathema) is not spared. It's tempting to carry on here about the general public's overwhelming ignorance of Africa's booming slave trade, because it's all in the same vein.

The stories show that for all our differences in time and space, people are the same everywhere - and that is the "problem" that cannot be controlled by isolation.

The reality is that every culture is always changing. The Kikuyu ways Koriba is trying to preserve are only a snapshot of a tribe that is both naturally degenerating (see "Eternity in Their Hearts", by Don Richardson) and gravitating towards "Western" ways - which, by the way, were largely exported from the Mediterranean, that is, from Israel! (See "How the Irish Saved Civilization", "The Gifts of the Jews", "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" by Thomas Cahill.) No culture is meant to live in statis, nor can it be done. Peoples and people are meant to grow, to mature. Multiculturalism can serve us by preserving, recording, or interpreting that which is worth saving; but it's self-evident (I hope) that it should stop at re-instituting human sacrifices, or some of the more subtle horrors we read of in this book. And that fact alone should make us question some of the sillier aspects of this trend.

The view that everyone is of equal worth, that freedom, accountability, and responsibility are important clues about what it means to be human. The dangers inherent in free will, and the element of curiosity sometimes recalls the Garden of Eden, but this is no Paradise. The problems of humanity, it is shown, lie squarely within.

The Kindle version of the book contains frequent errors which appear to be the result of the OCR software that was used to produce the Kindle file. Bursts of inappropriate characters (such as "rvY}" at the end of some italicized phrases) are common, as are incorrect words elsewhere in the text. This happens often enough to be distracting and to interrupt the flow of the story. The conversion software seemed to find the italicized word "mundumugu" difficult, and it tacked on various inappropriate characters, first noticed midway into chapter 2, "For I Have Touched the Sky."

This is the only Kindle book with which I've encountered this kind of problem, yet I'm hesitating to order any further Mike Resnick books in Kindle format, because it is probable that they too were produced by the same flawed conversion process.

For the time being, I'll purchase traditional books when looking for another Mike Resnick story.

I rate the story itself as average.

Kirinyaga is a collection of short stories tied together in the form of a novel. A planetoid called Kirinyaga is set up as a utopia, so the Kikuyu people can live as their ancestors did before the Europeans inculcated their ideas into Kenyan culture. The driving force behind this is a man named Koriba who acts as their witch doctor/wise man. The villagers live in enough fear of him that they take his word as gospel even if in their hearts they disagree. Koriba is disingenuous however, as in his hut he has a computer which he uses to communicate with a Maintenance ship. Maintenance can change the position of the planetoid to give them the illusion of seasons or as in one story, Koriba orders Kirinyaga moved to cause a drought as punishment to the people for disobeying Kikuyu law. In the end the only person's utopia being created is Koriba's. He stifles thought and creativity, stubbornly and arrogantly forcing everyone to live by the old laws. New ideas are discouraged because that's not the traditional way and he seems surprised when people become bored and frustrated. The most emotionally compelling story is the one of a hyper intelligent young girl who when Koriba tells her he will not teach her to read because it is against Kikuyu law, she teaches herself . Then she creates her own language. He continues to stifle her and force her to live in only the ancient ways of the Kikuyu until she would rather not live at all.

Their is not a lot of style to the writing, but plenty of substance. Each story will give you a lot to think about and in that respect it is an amazing collection of work.

Overall I liked this book. I found it entertaining and though-provoking. The author notes explicitly where you should be stopping to think so you don't have to work too hard. The underlying philosophy of the book comes from Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael", and those readers who are familiar with Quinn's work will get more out of it than those who aren't.

Now for some observations/criticisms:

First of all, the book fails to stop at the end. The epilogue contributes nothing at all to the story, although it does satisfy our curiosity about the fate of the narrator. I'll spoil it for you now: he never learns. Skip the epilogue; it's a waste.

Second, very little of the credit for this book can go to Resnick. As I mentioned, the philosophical underpinnings of this book are those of Daniel Quinn, and the basic premise of the narrative was issued as a challenge to the author by Orson Scott Card. Resnick's role here was not that of architect, but merely assembler of other's thoughts. The parables that the narrator/protagonist tells are very clever, and Resnick deserves credit if they are his own. However, I would be surprised if they were not traditional African fables.

My third issue is about the author's afterword, not the book itself, but it cannot be ignored. In it Resnick proclaims this book 'the most honored science-fiction book in history'. To back this up he gives an individual account of each chapter (they were originally published separately over serveral years) and the various awards. In the telling he counts 'Hugo Award winner' and 'Hugo Award nominee' as two different awards. ?? Same goes for 'Nebula nominee' and 'Nebula preliminary ballot'. Please. All this bragging simply points my attention to one fact: the book as a whole has not won any awards.

How, then can he justify his claim? It's a dubious bit of doubletalk that would be the envy of the scummiest politician. "The most honored science-fiction book in history" translates into English as, "A collection of many stories published at such a time and in such a way so as to be elligible for more award nominations than any single sci-fi book in history, and then republished as one work".

I guess his phrase just has more of a ring to it.

Kirinyaga is one of the best books I have read of any genre (I read just about anything). It made me think about many things:

1. humans and where humanity is headed

2. what gender roles mean and how changing them changes a society profoundly

3. the past is a place that holds many charms and many restrictions

4. the consequences of our choices, and the effects that those choices have on those under us-- who amongst us is wise enough to make the decisions?

5. utopia, Resnick explored this topic in ways that I could never have predicted, and in very human ways without over-exaggeration (unlike the treatment in Candide, etc.)

I was alternately fascinated, interested, angered, amused.... At one point I was so upset that I put the book down for about two weeks because of the emtions that it aroused in me-- I can't say that about many books that I have read. I finally picked it up again and was completely satisfied by the ending. The fact that it was written as a series of separate stories was effective as well. I have used this in class (adult ESL) and it was successful.

In the future, the savannas of Africa have been transformed into farmland, arid cities are no longer dry, many animals are extinct, mountains are devoid of any natural wilderness, and people in search of Paradise can move to unique terraformed planetoids.

The planetoid in the story, Kirinyaga (Mountain of Light, the Maasai name for Mount Kenya), is home to a group of ancestral Kikuyu who wished to leave the bustling, high-tech Earth for a back-to-nature lifestyle. Koriba, an educated multilingual man, presides over this simple culture as the mundumugu (witch doctor). Dangerously cunning and self-righteous to a fault, he reads omens, blesses infants, performs marriages, negotiates dowries, places and removes curses, tells stories, operates the computer that controls orbital motions and weather, and generally controls the lives of all in the village. He is a complex man trying to show a simple face, he is a simple man playing a complex role.

As anyone who wishes to leave Kirinyaga only needs to walk to the small spaceport and announce an intention to leave, Koriba rules with enough fear and charisma to keep most of the people under his thumb. The people are prisoners only because they allow it.

While pure science fiction (complete with spaceships and undersea cities and asteroid colonies), these are extremely human stories. Human nature, not always pretty, is laid out here for all to see. Koriba will turn this society into a "proper" Kikuyu society, no matter what the cost. What can one do? He really *does* control the weather.

There are casualties: a young girl who wants more from life than becoming a dutiful Kikuyu wife; a boy who wants to see the world he knows is out there but must choose between his freedom and everything he has known to do so; a civilized Maasai hunter who attempts to take advantage of the trusting and naive villagers; a Kenyan couple who immigrate seeking Shangri-La. Dreams of good people, shattered in the end because of greed, dominance, jealousy. Do they return to modern civilized Earth and live with a wife in a shiny high-rise with perfectly manicured gardens, or do they stay in the mud and grass hut and be tended by their multiple wives? Do they try to change an old and horrifying custom, or do they force mutilation on others? Do they keep people uneducated and illiterate to retain pastoral bliss? What is really lost, or gained? Perhaps technology and civilization aren't that bad, after all.

These are moving tales, set in a beautifully imagined world. Koriba, for all his faults, is a tragic character. We come to understand him and sympathize with him. Will he really be happy if he stays only with his own kind? "I am not a Kenyan," he angrily tells his exasperated son (who stays behind in Nairobi), "I am a Kikuyu." In his modern world, that means he is alone.

Each chapter begins with a short folkloric fable, these little tales of the god Ngai and his animals alone would make a fine book.

Kirinyaga was an almost perfect book. I was tempted to take away one star due to the author's afterword. It has been mentioned by another reviewer here, but the exceedingly pompous and arrogant pat on the back Resnick gives himself will make many people do a double-take. While he has plenty of reason to be proud of this book, his self-deification over the "most honored science fiction book in history" (by accident, even) is a bit much. It was interesting how this afterword actually made Koriba seem a bit humble.

Highly recommended.

(Tear out the author's afterword and read it after you've read all ten chapters.)

Kirinyaga is a collection of short stories that Resnick originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This book puts these stories in the order they were to be read. Resnick introduces the reader to Koriba, the witch doctor. Then Resnick relates the problems Koriba faces and the dilemmas of solving them. Koriba must let the people grow and at the same time protect his Utopia by making sure the old customs are followed. But when is Koriba right and when is he wrong? When should Koriba punish his people and when should he listen to a young girl? Resnick lets the reader decide and shows just how hard it is for one man to make a Utopia. But who's Utopia is it? The book is filled with parables that Koriba uses to enlighten the characters in the book and entertain the readers of the book. Readers will find themselves thinking of the book months after they have finished it. Is bring back the "old ways" the best thing to do?

I have been a Resnick fan for some time so I am somewhat biased. Saying that, I find Kirinyaga to be the finest fiction ever written. Rarely, every three or four years, I find a story so moving I share it with everyone I know, a story that will not leave my mind. I read Kirinyaga to my wife. Some stories like, "For I Have Touched the Sky", brought us too tears. This series of short stories combine into one fine novel. These are lessons everyone should learn. Every story has a message. Read this book and share it with a friend. It is the only thing to do.