Reviews for Midnight Robber

The average rating for Midnight Robber based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-10 00:00:00 Michael J. Willman A rich and vibrant mixture of science fiction and West African/Caribbean folklore, Midnight Robber tells the story of a young girl Tan-Tan growing up on the world Toussaint, populated mostly by the descendants of Haitian colonists. Tan-Tan has a pretty good life at first. Her father Antonio is the mayor of the Cockpit County. Like most people in her colony, her needs are taken care of by Granny Nanny, the uber-computer that controls and takes care her citizens through her Anansi Web, anticipating all needs, monitoring all activity and keeping the peace (mostly). Tan-Tan's favorite game is playing the Robber King (Queen), a noble bandit from folklore. Soon, however, Tan-Tan's life is upended when her father is arrested for a horrible crime and he and Tan-Tan are exiled to New Half-Way Tree, an alternate dimension version of Toussaint with no servants, no nanotechnology, no comfort and no law. There, Tan-Tan must discover her own strengths to fight for survival ' especially from her own father, who is revealed to be a drunken sexual predator. With the help of the indigenous inhabitants, the douen, Tan-Tan slowly evolves from a scared young girl into her own incarnation of the fabled Robber Queen. The novel is exceptionally well-crafted. The world-building is fabulous and also a lovely antidote to science fiction where all future worlds seem to be white and European. It isn't an easy read, partly because the web of perspectives and narrative styles surrounding Tan-Tan's story take some patience. Also the entire novel is told in a dialect that the characters call Anglopatwa or Creole. I got used to the language quickly enough, but be warned going into the novel that Hopkinson requires the reader to hear her story on its own terms. This is both the novel's biggest challenge and one of its greatest strengths. I was reminded of books like Clockwork Orange of City of Bohane, (or James Joyce, for that matter) where the language is an integral part of the story.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-10-02 00:00:00 Harold Simpson [rape, pedophilia, incestuous rape. (hide spoiler)]