Chris Haught's Reviews > Kirinyaga

I was torn on this one. I wanted to like it going in and was actually captivated by the opening story, "One Perfect Morning, with Jackals". That was a great introduction to the new world set up by the Eutopian Council (clever name, that) called Kirinyaga, an attempt to get back to the roots of the Kikuyu tribe of what we barbaric Europeans call "Kenya".

And here's where the being torn comes in. As I read story after story, I realized that I didn't like the narrator, Koriba. At first I'd sympathized with him, but after some of his rulings as mundumugu, I wanted someone to leave him out for the hyenas. Then I decided I didn't much care for the stories as a whole. Each one started with an animal parable told by Koriba to his sheep people, in order to teach them the evils of European influence and the godliness of Koriba himself their deity, Ngai. Then something would happen in the village, someone would attempt to think for themselves explore the forbidden technology or culture of Europe. Or of the Kenyans from Earth, which Koriba referred to as "Black Europeans". Koriba would declare them to be wrong and bully or blackmail tell them parables to show them the error of not doing as he says turning from the path of Ngai.

Anyway, the final chapter/story is "The Land of Nod", and it brings the entire book full circle, creating a satisfying and reasonable ending for the story as a whole. Satisfying beginning, satisfying ending. Hmmm....Lots of books can claim one or the other, but both?

So I thought about it. At first, I planned to give it a 2-star. It seemed to fit the "it's ok but I didn't really love it" definition of a 2-star. Or to be more blunt, "didn't really like it."

But I did. At times. I liked the story "For I Have Touched the Sky" quite a bit. Had I read this by itself, I would have been "wow!" It was heartbreaking and touching, and by the end of it I was (view spoiler)[outraged at what happened to the sweet little girl (hide spoiler)]. While the other stories weren't as effective as this one, they did hit me in a similar way.

I think that had I read the stories as they originally came out, I would have appreciated them more. But all at once, they became rather redundant and tiring. I'll give it a 3-star because when I did like it, I found it to be very effective and touching. It wasn't consistently touching all the way through, though. So 3 is where I'll settle...