A fiery spirit dances from the pages of the Great Book. She brings the
aroma of scorched sand and ozone. She has a story to tell....
The Book of Phoenix is a unique work of magical futurism. A prequel to
the highly acclaimed, World Fantasy Award-winning novel Who Fears
Death, it features the rise of another of Nnedi Okorafor's powerful,
memorable, superhuman women.
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 ebooks, 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.
