Death of the Author

I’ve always wanted to read two books at the exact same time. Who hasn’t? Nnedi Okorafor made that dream a reality with Death of the Author. It’s not just two stories in one, but a book within a book. And both of them are fantastic.

We have a book about Zelu, a disabled Nigerian-American author with a troubled life and loads of trauma who makes it big with Rusted Robots, a sci-fi book about robots. And then we have the sci-fi book about robots, which stars Ankara (who named herself after African Ankara fabric), a humanoid robot in future Nigeria who loves stories and hopes to save them from the AI that wishes to destroy them. There are a lot of parallels between each story and it was so fun to bounce back and forth between the two.

Zelu’s story was at the forefront though, and it covers 5+ years of her life as she writes Rusted Robots and deals with the aftermath of its publication. From dealing with the fame to lack of family support and navigating new relationships, Zelu really goes through it and I loved being there every step of the way, especially since she’s such a deep and interesting character. She’s brutally honest in a lot of ways, but I found myself wishing she’d use that honesty more often with her very large Nigerian family. They’re half Igbo, half Yoruba, which sometimes resulted in some conflicting traditions and customs. Zelu and her siblings are American too, so it was interesting to see how that influenced the way their Nigerian family treated them. There was so much Nigerian culture woven into Death of the Author, and I loved the glimpse into a world I’m not typically privy to.

Ankara’s story was also great. It was shorter, but it packed a punch all the same. The future she lives in is fascinating. I loved the evolution of her relationship with Ijele and the way the war affected her decisions.

This is one of my favorite sci-fi books in recent history. I’m completely in love with it and with Nnedi Okorafor’s writing. Before I even finished this one, I grabbed another of her books from the library. I’m so happy she’s written a bunch of stuff so I can read it all this year!