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{{Short description|2000 novel by Nalo Hopkinson}} |
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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The novel moves between a first-person narrator and a third-person narrator who tell the story of Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen. She lives on planet Toussaint with her father Mayor Antonio and mother Ione. The Midnight Robber is young Tan-Tan’s favorite Carnival character, and she practices Robber Queen speeches and antics for hours at a time. Toussaint is a planet peopled by the descendants of Caribbean immigrants from Earth. Its society is technologically very advanced, with Granny Nanny, the ultimate A.I. guiding and directing the fate of humanity as a whole (or at least the citizens of Toussaint). Similarly, each person has "nanomites" injected into them at birth, which allow them to hear the voice of all the A.I. as needed. After killing Ione’s lover, Antonio escapes with Tan-Tan to an alternate world called New Half-Way Tree, a prison planet for exiles. |
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{{Cleanup rewrite|there are significant grammatical problems and inconsistencies in the summary of the plot|2=section|date=May 2020}} |
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The novel is set in the far future, where interplanetary and alternate-dimension travel is possible. In addition, an [[Internet]]-like information system, known as "Granny Nanny", dominates daily life, with each person being injected with nanomites that allow mental access to Granny Nanny at birth. This access takes the form of an [[eshu]], a mental voice within the head that provides information upon request and operates as a sort of sixth sense. The use of Granny Nanny is so widespread that the word has somewhat of a religious overtone (characters will often swear to Granny Nanny, for example). The story is eventually revealed to be narrated by Granny Nanny, speaking to Tan-Tan’s child as he is being born. |
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Life on New Half-Way Tree is much harder, a primitive and dangerous world inhabited primarily by Toussaint's exiled criminal class and the douen, an alien race reminiscent of creatures from Caribbean folklore. Here Tan-Tan is beaten and raped by her father Antonio. On her 16th birthday, she kills her father in self-defense. Aided by a douen, Tan-Tan flees from the human settlement to a douen tree-village. Soon, she realizes she is pregnant with her father's child. Hiding among the trees, Tan-Tan learns the secrets of the douen and gradually transforms into another figure out of Caribbean folklore, the Midnight Robber, who dresses in black, spouts poetry, steals from the rich, and gives to the poor. |
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The book’s protagonist is Tan-Tan Habib, a seven-year-old girl living in Cockpit County on the Carib-colonized planet of Toussaint (named for [[Toussaint Louverture]]), with her father Antonio and mother Ione. The story begins on [[Junkanoo|Jonkanoo]] during [[Carnival]] season, of which the highlight for Tan-Tan is the Robber Kings: performers who dress up as the mythical figure of the Robber King and tell exaggerated, boastful tales of their adventures. Antonio (an adulterer himself) discovers that Ione has been having an affair. After driving out the lover and separating from Ione and Tan-Tan (who becomes distraught over the incident, blaming herself for Antonio’s abandonment), he then challenges his wife’s lover to a duel for her honor during [[J'Ouvert|Jour Ouvert]]. During the duel Antonio ends up killing the lover with a poisoned machete blade, causing him to have to escape Toussaint; he takes Tan-Tan with him. |
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Tan-Tan is kept on the run by Antonio's jealous widow, Janisette, seeking vengeance for her husband's death. When she discovers the secret douen village, the douens exile Tan-Tan and the young douen woman Abitefa. Tan-Tan seeks a new home, travelling between villages with her douen companion, continuing to act as the Robber Queen when the need arises. She is forced to flee upon seeing Janisette already looking for her, having followed the rumors of “Tan-Tan the Robber Queen.” |
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The two take a shift portal to New Half-Way Tree, an alternate universe version of Toussaint that serves as a place of exile for convicts. They are met by Chichibud, a [[douen]] (one of several alien species on New Half-Way Tree), who takes them to the nearest human settlement, Junjuh Village, run harshly by One-Eye the sheriff and his deputy Claude through a system of punishment (being locked in a tin box for several hours at a time) and death (hanging). |
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Tan-Tan arrives in a new town, looking for clothes to hide her pregnancy. She reconnects with her friend Melonhead, whom she was planning to partner with before she killed her father. Preparations for Carnival are underway, and Tan-Tan joins as a successful Robber Queen masque. |
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Tan-Tan eventually adjusts to life in New Half-Way Tree, growing familiar with the other locals of the town such as Michael and Gladys the local blacksmiths, and Janisette, her father’s new wife. She even befriends the local boy Melonhead, and together the two plan to move to Sweet Pone together, a better settlement on New Half-Way Tree. As Tan-Tan grows older, her father slowly slides into alcoholism and depression until he takes to beating and raping Tan-Tan on a regular basis. |
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Janisette arrives in town, now driving a tank, and confronts Tan-Tan. Tan-Tan confesses everything in a Robber Queen speech, cowing Janisette and winning the adoration of the entire village. Melonhead wants her to stay, but Tan-Tan leaves to have her baby in the forest. It is revealed that a Toussaint A.I. makes contact to Tan-Tan’s baby, named Tubman. |
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On her sixteenth birthday, Tan-Tan kills him in self-defense and, pregnant with his child, flees into the forbidding bush that surrounds their small settlement with the help of Chichibud, who takes her to live among the Douen in his village tree. The Douen, concerned about letting a human into their home tree and learning their secrets, reluctantly allow her to live with them. |
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Tan-Tan struggles and fails to adopt to the Douen lifestyle, although she does end up likewise befriending Abitefa, Chichibud’s daughter. She eventually hears of and visits a human village, looking for a doctor to abort her baby. While there, she defends a man being abused by his mother, assuming the persona of the Robber Queen as she does so. Over time, she returns to the village night after night in the persona of the Robber Queen, seeking to right wrongs and make up for the guilt she feels over killing her father. |
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She is finally found by Janisette who, with a car and rifle built by Michael and Gladys, has been looking for her and seeking vengeance for Antonio’s death. In the process of running away, she inadvertently leads Janisette and the other two to the Douen tree, forcing them to destroy it and move on to other trees. Tan-Tan and Abetifa are left behind to fend for themselves. |
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The two take to wandering through the bush, looking for a town for Tan-Tan to live in, as she is still being hunted by Janisette. Tan-Tan visits the villages they pass in the night under the guise of the Robber Queen, seeking to do good for others. As the two travel on, she hears stories being told about her exploits, both real and imagined. |
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After some traveling, she arrives in Sweet Pone. She runs into Melonhead, who is now the local tailor, and the two strike up their friendship once again. Tan-Tan becomes torn between her desire to stay with Melonhead and her fears of Janisette, all the while still feeling guilt over her father’s death and disgust at her still-unborn child. She ultimately stays for Sweet Pone’s carnival, dressing up in the Robber Queen costume Melonhead makes for her, until Janisette arrives in a tank, demanding Tan-Tan’s return to Junjuh village and her revenge. Tan-Tan finally confronts her face to face, accusing her of knowing that Antonio was raping her all those years and admitting to both herself and to Janisette that she killed Antonio out of self-defense. Janisette, ashamed, leaves while Tan-Tan, relieved from her guilt and sensing the oncoming delivery, returns to the bush. There, accompanied by Melonhead and Abitefa, she gives birth, accepting her son as her own and naming him [[Harriet Tubman|Tubman]]. |
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== Cultural references == |
== Cultural references == |
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The planet on which Tan-Tan (Trinidad Carnival Character) is born is called Toussaint, after the [[Haiti]]an revolutionary hero [[Toussaint Louverture|Toussaint L'Ouverture]]. The municipality where Tan-Tan's father is mayor is called [[Cockpit Country|Cockpit County]], after a region in [[Jamaica]]. There is a statue of [[Mami Wata]] in the middle of the town. A local group of pedicab runners calls itself the [[Sou-sou|Sou-Sou]] Collective, a reference to a West-African-specific form of credit union or collaborative. A nearby quarry is named [[Shak-shak|Shak-Shak]] Bay. The company that landed the settlers on Toussaint is called the Marryshow Corporation, after [[T.A. Marryshow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/grenada/centre/tam.htm|title=Marryshow|website=www.open.uwi.edu|access-date=2016-07-25}}</ref> The book also references [[Junkanoo|Jonkanoo]] Week celebrations. |
The planet on which Tan-Tan (Trinidad Carnival Character) is born is called Toussaint, after the [[Haiti]]an revolutionary hero [[Toussaint Louverture|Toussaint L'Ouverture]]. The municipality where Tan-Tan's father is mayor is called [[Cockpit Country|Cockpit County]], after a region in [[Jamaica]]. There is a statue of [[Mami Wata]] in the middle of the town. A local group of pedicab runners calls itself the [[Sou-sou|Sou-Sou]] Collective, a reference to a West-African-specific form of credit union or collaborative. A nearby quarry is named [[Shak-shak|Shak-Shak]] Bay. The company that landed the settlers on Toussaint is called the Marryshow Corporation, after [[T.A. Marryshow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/grenada/centre/tam.htm|title=Marryshow|website=www.open.uwi.edu|access-date=2016-07-25}}</ref> The book also references [[Junkanoo|Jonkanoo]] Week celebrations. |
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The planet Toussaint is regulated by the A.I intelligence called the Grande Nanotech Sentient Interface, which the locals nickname Granny Nanny, a reference to [[Nanny of the Maroons]], a leader in the early 18th century guerrilla wars now known as the [[First Maroon War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Booker |first=M. Keith |title=The Science Fiction Handbook |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated |year=2009 |isbn=9781405162050 |pages=299-305 |language=English}}</ref> |
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The planet to which the main characters are exiled is called New Half-Way Tree, a reference to the [[Half Way Tree]] neighbourhood of [[Kingston, Jamaica]]. Settlements include Sweet Pone, named after a [[sweet potato]] dessert, and Chigger Bite. One of the native creatures has been named the "manicou rat" by settlers, which is a Caribbean term for an [[opossum]]. |
The planet to which the main characters are exiled is called New Half-Way Tree, a reference to the [[Half Way Tree]] neighbourhood of [[Kingston, Jamaica]]. Settlements include Sweet Pone, named after a [[sweet potato]] dessert, and Chigger Bite. One of the native creatures has been named the "manicou rat" by settlers, which is a Caribbean term for an [[opossum]]. |
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Latest revision as of 13:15, 15 May 2023
 First edition | |
| Author | Nalo Hopkinson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Leo and Diane Dillon |
| Language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | Warner Aspect |
Publication date | 2000 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 336 |
| ISBN | 0-446-67560-1 |
| OCLC | 42397150 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PR9199.3.H5927 M53 2000 |
| Preceded by | Brown Girl in the Ring |
Midnight Robber is a science fiction bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel) by Jamaican-Canadian writer Nalo Hopkinson. Warner Aspect published the novel in 2000.
Plot
[edit]The novel moves between a first-person narrator and a third-person narrator who tell the story of Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen. She lives on planet Toussaint with her father Mayor Antonio and mother Ione. The Midnight Robber is young Tan-Tan’s favorite Carnival character, and she practices Robber Queen speeches and antics for hours at a time. Toussaint is a planet peopled by the descendants of Caribbean immigrants from Earth. Its society is technologically very advanced, with Granny Nanny, the ultimate A.I. guiding and directing the fate of humanity as a whole (or at least the citizens of Toussaint). Similarly, each person has "nanomites" injected into them at birth, which allow them to hear the voice of all the A.I. as needed. After killing Ione’s lover, Antonio escapes with Tan-Tan to an alternate world called New Half-Way Tree, a prison planet for exiles.
Life on New Half-Way Tree is much harder, a primitive and dangerous world inhabited primarily by Toussaint's exiled criminal class and the douen, an alien race reminiscent of creatures from Caribbean folklore. Here Tan-Tan is beaten and raped by her father Antonio. On her 16th birthday, she kills her father in self-defense. Aided by a douen, Tan-Tan flees from the human settlement to a douen tree-village. Soon, she realizes she is pregnant with her father's child. Hiding among the trees, Tan-Tan learns the secrets of the douen and gradually transforms into another figure out of Caribbean folklore, the Midnight Robber, who dresses in black, spouts poetry, steals from the rich, and gives to the poor.
Tan-Tan is kept on the run by Antonio's jealous widow, Janisette, seeking vengeance for her husband's death. When she discovers the secret douen village, the douens exile Tan-Tan and the young douen woman Abitefa. Tan-Tan seeks a new home, travelling between villages with her douen companion, continuing to act as the Robber Queen when the need arises. She is forced to flee upon seeing Janisette already looking for her, having followed the rumors of “Tan-Tan the Robber Queen.”
Tan-Tan arrives in a new town, looking for clothes to hide her pregnancy. She reconnects with her friend Melonhead, whom she was planning to partner with before she killed her father. Preparations for Carnival are underway, and Tan-Tan joins as a successful Robber Queen masque.
Janisette arrives in town, now driving a tank, and confronts Tan-Tan. Tan-Tan confesses everything in a Robber Queen speech, cowing Janisette and winning the adoration of the entire village. Melonhead wants her to stay, but Tan-Tan leaves to have her baby in the forest. It is revealed that a Toussaint A.I. makes contact to Tan-Tan’s baby, named Tubman.
Cultural references
[edit]Midnight Robber (named after a Trinidadian traditional Carnival/Mas character) incorporates a number of characters and stories from Caribbean and Yoruba culture, including Anansi, Dry Bone, Papa Bois, Duppy, Obeah, J'Ouvert (from Trinidad Carnival), Tamosi (Kabo Tano), douens, and Eshu.[1]
The planet on which Tan-Tan (Trinidad Carnival Character) is born is called Toussaint, after the Haitian revolutionary hero Toussaint L'Ouverture. The municipality where Tan-Tan's father is mayor is called Cockpit County, after a region in Jamaica. There is a statue of Mami Wata in the middle of the town. A local group of pedicab runners calls itself the Sou-Sou Collective, a reference to a West-African-specific form of credit union or collaborative. A nearby quarry is named Shak-Shak Bay. The company that landed the settlers on Toussaint is called the Marryshow Corporation, after T.A. Marryshow.[2] The book also references Jonkanoo Week celebrations.
The planet Toussaint is regulated by the A.I intelligence called the Grande Nanotech Sentient Interface, which the locals nickname Granny Nanny, a reference to Nanny of the Maroons, a leader in the early 18th century guerrilla wars now known as the First Maroon War.[3]
The planet to which the main characters are exiled is called New Half-Way Tree, a reference to the Half Way Tree neighbourhood of Kingston, Jamaica. Settlements include Sweet Pone, named after a sweet potato dessert, and Chigger Bite. One of the native creatures has been named the "manicou rat" by settlers, which is a Caribbean term for an opossum.
Tan-Tan befriends a douen whose name is "Chichibud", a reference to a mento song by Max Romeo. Chichibud's partner is named Benta. In the end, Tan-Tan names her child Tubman, after Harriet Tubman.
Reception
[edit]Midnight Robber was nominated for a Hugo Award and shortlisted for the Nebula Award, the Tiptree Award, and the Sunburst Award.[4][5]
Gary K. Wolfe praised Midnight Robber, characterizing it as "an inventive amalgam of rural folklore and advanced technology" and commending Hopkinson's distinctive narrative voice, which "reminds us that most of the world does not speak contemporary American middle-class vernacular, . . . raises questions about the highly conventionalized way that SF has always treated language, [and] mak[es] us question the hegemony of American culture in SF worlds."[6]
Locus reviewer Faren Miller praised the novel, saying "Hopkinson take[s] potentially downbeat material and compel[s] the reader's attention with vigorous narrative, vividly eloquent prose, and forms of magic which may actually be SF."[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Carib Legends (Folklore, Myths, and Traditional Indian Stories)". www.native-languages.org. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ "Marryshow". www.open.uwi.edu. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ Booker, M. Keith (2009). The Science Fiction Handbook. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. pp. 299–305. ISBN 9781405162050.
- ^ "Article: Under the Daddy Tree, by Heather Shaw". www.strangehorizons.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ "Midnight Robber - The Nebula Awards". Retrieved 2016-07-25.
- ^ "Locus Looks at Books: Reviews by Gary K. Wolfe", Locus, February 2000, p. 61.
- ^ "Locus Looks at Books: Reviews by Faren Miller", Locus, February 2000, p. 19.
External links
[edit]- Soyka, David (2000). "Midnight Robber: A review". SF Site. Retrieved 9 August 2013.