Death of the Author (Standard Edition)
by Nnedi OkoraforSetting: Chicago, Nigeria
Genres: Science Fiction
Published on January 14, 2025
Pages: 448
Format: eBook Source: Library
In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative--a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you've read before.
The future of storytelling is here.
Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister's lavish Caribbean wedding, she's unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It's a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.
When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey--one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu's novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.
A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
This book was not what I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to be more sci-fi and that the story that Zelu was writing was causing the future to be rewritten to was going to be more literal. That would have been more interesting.
This is the story of an absolutely toxic family. Zelu was paralyzed in an accident when she was twelve. Her family has been angry with her ever since. They seem to feel like not only did she get injured on purpose for the attention but that every decision she makes to pursue her own independence is done just to embarrass her family. They have tried to keep her isolated in the family home. When she is taken to Nigeria to visit extended family she is always publicly shamed for her disability. Everyone is just horrible to her.
As an adult she writes a science fiction book that is an instant best seller. There are excerpts of this book interspersed in the novel. I hated every moment of the the sci-fi book. I love sci-fi and I’ve liked Nnedi Okorafor’s other books so it’s pretty shocking that this book within a book was so tedious.
She uses the story of the success of the book to explore issues surrounding publishing and fame. She says in the afterward that she wanted to make sure that Zelu isn’t seen as a stand in for her. But she is known for being very dismissive of readers on social media like Zelu is. Readers will hard pressed not to read her into the character. I did like her take on readers Americanizing her very African story in movies and fan art.
There are many themes of growing beyond your limitations no matter who is trying to hold you back. Zelu starts using very advanced mobility devices – that of course her family hates. She explores the idea of traveling in space as a civilian astronaut as her fame grows.
I liked Zelu’s story. I feel like Western readers will see this as overcoming her family. I wonder how people from a more family-oriented culture would see it. Would they think she is selfish too?
I would read this as a family drama about an author and don’t go into it expecting great science fiction, which is a shame.
