From The Lost Diary Of TreeFrog7 by Nnedi Okorafor

“From The Lost Diary Of TreeFrog7″ is a 2009 science fiction short story by Nnedi Okorafor. It is about a team of jungle explorers who are searching for an ancient computerized plant.

The Scary Jungle

I have read several stories about people exploring the deep dark jungles, both the ones here on Earth and on different planets. Here is another one to add to the list of great exploring stories. While reading it I was constantly reminded of the excellent Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, as well as the priest’s tale from Dan Simmons amazing Hyperion. I guess there is just something both fascinating and disconcerting about telling tales of the wild, unknown jungle. I don’t mind though, I love these stories!

Non-spoiler Summary in a Nutshell

TreeFrog7 and her teammate / husband are exploring the Greeny Jungle and uploading entries to the Field Guide. It is very important work, but the jungle is hot and steamy and full of biting bugs and dangerous animals. They are looking for the legendary mature CPU plant, which has only been seen by one other person. The problem is that person died upon finding it! Oh yeah, to make matters worse the explorers are being followed each night by a big clumsy beast, and TreeFrog7 is pregnant. Hmm, I’m sure this will not be an easy nor safe trek.

My Two Cents…

• I loved the very cool multi-media presentation of the story! Be sure to hover over the links to read more field guide notes about the animals, or click on the speaker icons to listen to TreeFrog7′s audio entries. Very fun!
• I was totally fascinated by all the strange and exciting animals and plants the explorers found in the Greeny Jungle. I tell ya, that would be my kind of adventure!
• The CPU plant was awesome – one of the coolest ideas I have seen in a while!

Interesting Tidbits About This Story:

• Page Count: 13
• Word Count: 5,498
• Special thanks to Jason Sanford for recommending this story and letting everyone know that he nominated it for the 2009 Nebula Award.
• Did you know that Nnedi Okorafor holds a PhD in English? Yep. You can learn more about this fascinating author by checking out her web site.
• If you liked this story be sure to check out some of the author’s highly praised novels at Amazon.com.

Where You Can Find “From The Lost Diary Of TreeFrog7″:

• This short story first appeared in the May 2009 (#32) issue of Clarkesworld Magazine, where you can still read it online for free.

Craving More Stories?

If you liked “From The Lost Diary Of TreeFrog7″ then you might also enjoy these 2 jungle stories:

• From Babel’s Fallen Glory We Fled by Michael Swanwick
• Happy Ending by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds

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