When I started, I hadn’t read anything by Nnedi Okorafor Death of the authorbut after just a few pages I decided to put everything else she had written on my to-read pile. Okorafor coined the term “Africanfuturism,” describing a subcategory of science fiction that is “more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology, and perspective” than the more “America-centric” Afrofuturism.
Death of the author is like two books in one and follows Nigerian-American protagonist Zelu’s meteoric rise to fame as the author of an unexpected hit novel. Rusted robotsand takes us into the novel, which is set in a humanless future society inhabited by robots and AI.
Zelu, a disabled writer in her mid-30s with a large extended family, is in a difficult phase at the beginning of the book and has to fight to be taken seriously by the people around her as she becomes an overnight success. She faces constant resistance when she tries new things, like self-driving cars and an exoskeleton mobility aid. The family dynamics and the world they live in – on the cusp of major changes driven by technological advances – felt very real, and I found myself much more interested in their drama than what was unfolding Rusted robots. But there is a reason for it all and the two narratives work well together to create a compelling and thought-provoking story.
