The Book of Phoenix
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor is a 2015 Science & Technology book written by TED speaker Nnedi Okorafor, paired here with the talk they gave.
The pairing
- Paired talk: "Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa" (2017), 1.2M views on TED.com
- Timing: Published 2 years before the talk.
- In the catalogue: The 2nd of 4 books by Nnedi Okorafor on Books Worth Reading (2011–2019), by publication year.
- Edition: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, 2015 · 240 pages
The paired TED talk
Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa (2017), the TED talk by Nnedi Okorafor.
From the publisher
Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York's Tower 7. She is an 'accelerated woman'--only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix's abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7. Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7's refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape. But Phoenix's escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity's future