Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

It took a little bit of getting into, but once the narrative gets going you're hooked - and I definitely did not see that twist at the end coming! This book forces you to reconsider who you might think of as a 'main character' and is an interesting foil to current debates about AI and creativity.

4.5 stars

Death of the Author is a masterfully layered novel that weaves together themes of identity, creativity, and the personal toll of success. It follows Zelu, a disabled Nigerian American woman who unexpectedly rises to literary fame.
Zelu’s struggles with family expectations, disability, and navigating newfound fame feel authentic and deeply relatable.
The novel shines brightest in its innovative structure incorporating chapters from Zelu's own sci-fi book, "Rusted Robots," which adds an interesting layer to her story and really highlights the themes of creation and humanity’s connection to technology.
The medium pace of the narrative ensures that every emotional beat is given the space to resonate, while still maintaining a sense of momentum that keeps the pages turning. However, the layered narratives, multiple POVs, and numerous themes, while compelling, sometimes threaten to overshadow each other.
Despite this, Death of the Author is a remarkable work that lingers with the reader long after the final page. It’s a story that challenges its audience to think deeply about the power of storytelling and the burdens of those who tell them.
Highly recommended for fans of literary fiction and speculative narratives alike will find much to love here.

Nnedi Okorafor's Death of the Author is a bold and clever exploration of identity, creativity, and the intersection of humanity and technology. It's not what I normally read - I have read very few sci fi books, but I liked this one a lot.


The novel weaves together two stories: Zelu, a Nigerian American woman, and a sci-fi tale about robots, ghosts, and AI in a post-collapse Nigeria.

Zelu is paralyzed after a childhood accident, she has been underestimated and constrained by those around her, dismissed as impulsive and incapable. Her family criticizes her every move and her siblings treat her almost like a child. She's fired from her job as a creative writing professor, and starts writing a novel—a move that transforms her into an overnight sensation when her robot story is published and turned into a film. Now incredibly wealthy and famous, Zelu also gains the ability to walk again, thanks to robotic legs—another sign of the evolving relationship between humans and technology.

The second story —Zelu’s novel—introduces us to Ijele and Ankara, a robot and an AI entity, trying to survive and helped by the last human on Earth. These chapters are vividly written and immersive, so much so that I found myself wishing this story could stand alone as its own book, at least for the first two thirds of the book.

The final part feels slightly overpacked. The pacing accelerates, and some plot elements stretch believability, seeming disconnected from the rest of the novel, a bit too far-fetched even for the genre. There's a clever twist at the end that explains it all but I still found these chapters dragged a bit.

Okorafor’s writing shines throughout though and I loved the themes, I am glad I picked up something different.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

We are introduced to Zelu, a writer, and daughter of Nigerian immigrants living in the US, who also happens to be paraplegic. She is let go from her teaching job and ends up writing a successful sci-fi novel. As time goes on, and her situation evolves, we begin to see parallels between her own life and the story she has written.

We follow Zelu, but then we also get snippets of interviews that her friends and family are giving to a journalist, and amongst this are excerpts from her sci-fi book. I felt like this method of telling the story worked perfectly, and the ending just blew me way.

Zelu was such an interesting character. She felt fleshed out in a way that I don't always experience when reading books and the relationships she has with her family members felt very real. It was also fascinating to read about the experiences of these Igbo and Yoruba people living in the US, and learning more about their customs.

Nnedi Okorafor's writing is exceptional and I am very glad I read this. An easy five stars!

“I have come to understand that author, art, and audience all adore one another. They create a tissue, a web, a network. No death is required for this form of life”

Nnedi Okorafor's Death of the Author follows the life of Zelu, a paraplegic Nigerian American who wants to be an author. When she loses her job as an adjunct professor, her life takes a turn for the worse, or so it seems. Overwhelmed by hopelessness and desperation, she wrote a story she would never have written in any other situation. “Rusted Robots” is set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity no longer exists, and AI (NoBodies or Ghosts) and humes(humanoid robots) are at war with each other. The book garners such immense attention and admiration that she ultimately secures a seven-figure deal and a movie adaptation. On the surface what seems like a simple story about a person’s rise to fame and their life afterward is, in reality, a narrative that delves into much more than that.

The story impressively conveys and expresses what it means to be heard when the world dictates your voice and silence since it deems you incapable. As a paraplegic woman, Zelu strives to be independent and not allow anyone or anything to dictate her life. But it is not easy with a family that loves you yet cannot understand or support you. Fame is not for the weak, and the initial happiness soon turns into disdain and annoyance. No privacy, constant hate, and never-ending expectations only make her more determined to live her life on her terms.

The story unfolds through various forms of narration, beginning with an interview with Zelu’s elder sister, Chinyere, then shifting focus to Zelu and later to Ankara, the protagonist of Rusted Robots. The transitions are flawless and such a pleasure to read that it always leaves you wanting more. I adored this book and loved all the characters.

You know a book is well-written when the character's actions evoke frustration, anger, and hatred, while also making you feel respect and empathy for them. Zelu was one such character for me. Out of all the books I’ve read so far, I have never felt a character as real as her. I loved her, but she is not my favorite character. Msizi was an exceptional partner and left me amazed at the way he loved Zelu even when she took the most inconsiderate decisions and refused to lean on or be vulnerable. Her family was deplorable, and I hated both their actions and attitudes toward Zelu. Their love for her was entirely based on their comfort and mood. They were absent when she needed them the most, and this was the most heartbreaking and infuriating part. Even when faced with all these challenges and people, Zelu's growth was exceptional and admirable. I won’t elaborate on this, because this is something you should read and feel for yourself, but trust me, this book won't disappoint you in terms of the characters and story.

This story is a story within a story, so beautifully connected that it leaves you gasping when you finally realize how. Overall, I loved this book but the only part I liked a little less was the conclusion of “Rusted Robots”. I feel like it could’ve been better. But apart from this, this book is a must-read. To be honest, I don’t think I will ever stop recommending it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this compelling story.

For a lot of the time I was reading this book I felt like it was definitely a five star review, but then the last 30% or so really dragged for me and it slipped to a four.
There was a lot I really loved - Zelu is interesting and awful and engaging and fierce, and she made me feel all sorts of feels. I loved the first half of the book, the mad family dynamics, and watching her navigate her fame and fortune.
Learning more about Nigerian families was fascinating.
I loved the robots, and the snippets you get of Zelu's book (well...!) as you read Zelu's own story.
I liked her relationship with her partner, and the way he supports her.

What I felt worked less well were the interviews sprinkled throughout the book with family members & friends - it made me feel like something awful had happened to Zelu, and so I felt had to be ready at any moment for her to die. And afterwards, although they gave another insight into Zelu's character, I wasn't sure that they had needed to be there.

In the end, I think maybe there was just too much - a tighter edit would have given everything more impact. As it was, reading the ending, I was thinking 'wait....WHAT?' feeling cross with myself that I hadn't spotted it coming!

I have found it interesting seeing other reviews complaining it is too much literary fiction, not enough sci fi, or too much robots and not enough literary fiction! I just enjoyed it for what it was - I read widely anyway, and enjoy both genres. I think it is sci-fi, but accessible to other readers in a way that some sci-fi really isn't. It is family drama, but also more than that too. It feels like a book that will stay with me, and I'm really glad I read it.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for a DRC of "Death of the Author" by Nnedi Okorafor.
A literary leaning SF work with three intertwined narratives. We have Zelu, a disabled author with a strong personality, the novel she wrote, "Rusted Robots" and interviews with her family members.
First I need to mention that I am not fond of AI and robots, but the writing carried me trough this narrative that was my lest favorite, but impressive none the least.
I have to admit that Zelu and her family were so compelling to me. I could not look away from them. The mark of an excellent novel is how much I care about the characters. I can say that I almost felt like a family member, one that watches from a corner the dynamics of Zelu's relationships with her loved ones, her struggles as an author. Everything felt so real, so full of emotion and intensity.
"Death of the Author" is a book that I will keep reflecting on as work of art that refuses to fit in a box, that goes against the grain, that is both creative and challenging, literary and SF and as something that while I could not fully love because my dislike of robots and AI, I will always admire.

Please see the link for the full review.

I’ve reviewed Death of the Author for book recommendation and selling site LoveReafing .co.uk. I have chosen it as a LoveReading Star book and Liz Pick of the month..

closer to a 1.5.

this is a difficult book to review, in part because i always want to find good things in books i don't DNF, in part because i was so stunned by the direction this chose to take over and over again that i'm at the end of it left kind of speechless (in a bad way).

some good things:
- conceptually and if we ignore the execution entirely it's quite strong
- refreshing in its worldbuilding at times
- familial conflicts that are interesting and actual conflicts, neither easily resolved nor wrapped up in a neat bow
- compelling dynamics between the protagonist and her entourage, and an interesting (again, conceptually) point of view for the two stories
- the ending(s), in spirit, could have been very moving/i can see the vision and appreciate it
- the cultural aspects of both stories are engaging and well-done

unfortunately, i think every bit of the execution was failed. i could never quite get into it because i would get baffled at things that sounded, with absolutely no disrespect intended, quite childish. even if certain aspects are a matter of taste (the prose, for example, i really disliked but i recognize is a personal preference), the actual content of some of this book is absurd. it's sometimes just little details (a fan blog has a million subscribers? her facebook live has /five million/ views? everyone in this is somehow a millionaire? fictional jeff bezos sends her a hug emoji and don't worry he cares about climate change? the president of the united states memes about her life?), and sometimes it is an irritating, constant feeling that i'm being vaguely insulted/condescended to. the protagonist goes on and on about her disdain/contempt for scifi (and literally everything around her) which is like... okay what are we doing here then. there are always reminders that people are treating her unfairly "even though she's rich and famous" (sucks to be poor i know). i have no interest in trying to decipher what the perspective of nnedi okorafor actually is on this (lol), but from a reader who LOVES flawed characters' perspective, you have to have some balance in your narrative journey otherwise it just makes the entire book "zelu came into the room and everyone was like oh pretty girl let's hate on her". sorry that i don't care about all the real estate she's going to buy. or that she walked (several times) to her first class seat. good for her, but for a book that wants to be meta, far-reaching, and inventive/original, it is bafflingly narrow-minded and unambitious.

some things aren't the book's fault: i don't think this should be marketed as scifi at all, but others have said this. it's setting both scifi fans and the book up for failure, which feels unfair. ultimately i think this wasn't for me, and as much as i wanted to give it ago (i read all of it!), i think it has some unredeemable particularities to it that have left me disgruntled and frustrated. also completely unrelated but why do the robots have gender? one of the many hamfisted things in this. everything is so on the nose and inexplicable at the same time. a bizarre experience.

thank you to netgalley and Gollancz for the ARC!

I find myself having really conflicting feelings about The Death of the Author.
I spent a lot of the book waiting for a science fiction or thriller element to begin - and I would argue that this reads as a much more literary piece. The description in the blurb of this as metafiction certainly seems accurate. Any science fiction elements which sneak in are here as artistic devices only, and are not the focus. There are also moments of high tension, but this is not the emphasis - there's a lot of reflection on Zelu's part.
I found the reactions of the characters sometimes difficult to parse - the family's reaction to what are basically robotic mobility aids seemed out of proportion. However, this was emblematic of the family dynamic on a larger scale - and I found the interrogation of this dynamic and the family's interactions with each other to be really interesting.
Unlike other reviewers, I really appreciated the ending - I felt it flipped the book until that point on its head, and gave me a new found appreciation for what I had just read. Without it (if the book had ended on the penultimate chapter, for instance) I feel I would have been disappointed.
All in all, this was a thought-provoking but sometimes frustrating read. That frustration, however, comes from the characters being well-crafted. As with all of Okorafor's work that I've read previously, I was propelled through this - it was engaging throughout. I'm sure reactions to it will be divisive!
3.5 stars rounded up to. 4.

I signed up for a sci-fi book, blurbed by GRR Martin, not a self-insert fanfic about a young MFA author who suddenly writes the best book ever and gets her manuscript sold in 1 week for billions of dollars.

After 100 pages, we still don't have any scifi elements, or fantasy, or really anything that isn't lit fic. Yeah there are excerpts from the character-author's manuscript and that's about robots, but that's not enough for me to care. Especially when the book-inside-the-book is a carbon copy of Becky Chambers, without the good prose, whimsy and nice feelings (i like BC to be clear).

Doubly infuriating is that the character-author keeps saying how weird it is that she wrote a scifi book, how she doesn't read any scifi and how she doesn't like the genre in the first place... Maybe you shouldn't shit on the genre you're writing? It's written plainly, and not challenged, so as a reader it makes me thing the real-author maybe agrees with it, and i really don't like being called weird and dumb for my reading choices.
And you can't have your character-author say how groundbreaking and amazing her book is, and have it be validated by her agent, when it's the most cliché run-of-the-mill scifi book of all time!

The prose of the book isn't particularly good. It's not purple, but it didn't make me care or impress me either. It's mostly bland, the descriptions are boring (very disappointing when there was such potential with the Nigerian locations and culture), the dialogues are mostly boring, and the characters lack depth.

If you like lit fic and don't mind robots, you might enjoy it, but as an sff reader i felt cheated and DNFed.

'How amazing! I have come to understand that author, art, and audience all adore one another. They create a tissue, a web, a network. No death is required for this form of life.'

A magnificent, totally left field ending turns this book on its head and into something truly special. Having said that, it could have been at least 150 pages shorter, and all the stronger for tighter editing of the Nigerian bulk, which is unfortunately too Nollywood to bear the import and weight of the meta narrative.

And despite what Okorafor says at the end, Zelu is clearly an amalgam of herself, while the title gives a solid middle finger to stodgy white theorists like Roland Barthes.

A notoriously prickly antagonist on her social media, I found it ironic how fuzzy-wuzzy Zelu is to her 'beloved' readers.

My main problem with Okorafor, and it is certainly not addressed by her latest, the least Afrofuturist of her novels to date, is no one knows what Africanfuturism is if you haven't read her 2019 blog.

Berating open-minded readers for conflating the two, when she herself is so disengaged from the discourse, plus many modern young readers are not versed in SF theory, is alienating to her fan base and growth as a meaningful contributor to the evolution of said discourse.

Rather be like Ijele and spread the love. And pollen.

And remind people Afrofuturism was defined by cis white male Mark Dery in 1994, rather than lambasting readers for their ignorance. Even 'Rusted Robots' can learn.

A lot of readers, I fear, are going to be frustrated by the sheer messiness of so much of the writing before that G-Spot happy ending.

2,5 stars

To be honest, I had a bit of a problem with the book.
The beginning is very calm - we follow Zelu, an author who has become famous overnight. Until then, the book reads like a big family drama with lots of stumbling and the author herself in a really dark place in her life.
Even with the new book's growing reputation, she's still treated badly because she's in a wheelchair and Nigerian. It's how people are (cries).

Her family is really awful. The closer the relationship is supposed to get, the less support or simple acceptance she gets. I hated her siblings in particular.
I liked Zelu as a protagonist at the beginning. She was portrayed in a multi-faceted way and I was really looking forward to the turning point in the story when she finally makes it and is rewarded for her efforts.

As soon as Zelu publishes her book, we always get short passages from it between the chapters. I was very excited about the story. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect at all because we only got a few passages of the story at a time. After that, the story continued with family drama. I thought that was very sad because it was supposed to be about sci-fi?
What bothered me the most was that the protagonist repeatedly emphasized how weird and wild it was that she had written a sci-fi novel, because she never reads anything like that. How groundbreaking that is and well, as a sci-fi fan I felt very uncomfortable and had problems with it. I was on the verge of DNF the book several times.

I usually like “cool shit with old tropes” - life post humans here - but there was no real connection between the book in the book and as I said, I couldn't really follow the robot life.

Then as I struggled through to 2/3, the pacing got a bit wonky too. Space things were thrown in and it all felt a bit rushed.
So: family drama - struggles as a Nigerian - coming of age story - everything. Maybe lit-fic. But totally not SciFi for some random robots. Really sad.

3.75★ Rounded Up

Inspired by the title of this novel, I’m writing this review before looking up anything about the author, and I haven’t read any of her other works yet. Maybe it’ll help answer the question: is the author dead?

'Death of the Author' has been marketed as a Sci-Fi, but it quickly becomes apparent that it falls more within the literary fiction/meta fiction genre. The novel follows three (ish) narratives: Zelu, a Nigerian-American paraplegic who writes a hit sci-fi novel after losing her job at a university; the story of her novel, Rusted Robots; and a series of interviews with people close to Zelu after her rise to fame.

Personally, this was a wonderful surprise. As a former English student, being introduced to the protagonist as a university lecturer (I will admit as a British student, I don't fully understand the politics of her role as an adjunct professor???) who wants to hit her students over the head with a (hardcover) copy of 'Infinite Jest' made me laugh and placed the novel squarely within that literary/meta fiction genre at the outset. It also laid the groundwork for Okorafor's discussion of academia, publishing and the wider theme of storytelling. However it did lead me to expect more of a deconstruction of this the genre rather than a work sitting easily within it.

Zelu’s narrative was the standout for me. She is a fantastic character - a difficult woman that I couldn't help but empathise with. She can be an arsehole, but a wonderfully complex character, who is so well developed. By the end of the novel I felt like I understood all her decisions, even when they don't exactly paint her in a positive light. I did feel frustrated at times that her family didn't seem to even want to understand her until the very end of the novel, as they felt a little bit caricaturish at times, but ultimately it made sense for her characterisation.

Speaking of Zelu's family, I loved Okorafor's depiction of life in a Nigerian-American family and particularly their travels to Nigeria. I felt a real sense of their identity and it also made me really hungry for jollof.

The Rusted Robots sections were also brilliant. Without knowing much about Okorafor, I could tell she’s an excellent sci-fi writer—the world-building was rich, and the story itself was gripping. I wouldn’t be surprised if some readers wanted more of this narrative, especially since the book is marketed as sci-fi, but I liked how it left me wanting more. It cleverly mirrors Zelu’s discussions about entitled fans and ties the two narratives together beautifully.

This third narrative was the weakest one for me. This is a series of short interviews with Zelu's family and ultimately I just felt like they added nothing to the novel. They gave the impression that something awful was going to befall Zelu, and although she had her share of struggle, it was never truly realised. Additionally, they didn't really tell us anything new about Zelu, her family members, or how they felt about each other.

Where the book faltered for me was in its heavy-handedness. The novel is literally named after the Roland Barthes essay and one of those aforementioned students smugly references it early on in the novel, so maybe I shouldn't have expected a subtle novel. However, the signposting of literary elements started to annoy me, particularly when they were then further explained to the reader. For example, there is a repeated discussion of the 'ultimate boon', and Zelu further explains that this is from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and that it is the goal of the quest. This explanation features early on in Zelu's narrative and then the trope reappears at the end of the 'Rusted Robots' narrative. Whilst this was a nice full circle moment, it felt like Okorafor didn’t quite trust her readers to connect the dots.

Nowhere was this more apparent to me than the ending. I'm a believer in showing, not telling and despite some obvious signposting, Okorafor had steered away from overly explaining the title. The twist that Zelu’s narrative is the real novel within a novel was brilliant and well executed, but the final chapter is essentially a lecture from the author about why they titled the novel 'Death of the Author'. Okorafor needs to trust her writing and her readers more. She is a skilful writer and had already explored these themes in a way that was clear and compelling—readers didn’t need it spelled out.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of sci-fi, literary fiction, or metafiction, especially those who love literary-leaning sci-fi. But it fell short of being great for me because I wish Okorafor trusted her readers a bit more.

Update:
So, having researched Okorafor, it has only reinforced my opinions on this novel. I wasn’t surprised to learn she’s an acclaimed sci-fi writer—it shines through in Rusted Robots. I was also fascinated to learn she began writing after being paralysed during spinal surgery, which makes the parallels with Zelu even more striking.

So, is the author dead? Should we ask Okorafor? Zelu? Ankara? Does it even matter?

So,.. I don't know how to start. I was expecting so much from this book, since the premise was very interesting.
I liked the way the author is writing, but the pacing was off. Somehow, it was difficult to keep reading and I really struggled.

Death of the Author is a unique take on the genre, featuring the story of Zelu as told in the future from her family members. From the get go, there is a lot going on to help explain and give context to Zelu- she is a paraplegic black woman, whom discovers she's lost her job and any hope of her novel getting published while at a wedding. I greatly enjoyed the West African stories and heritage that Nnedi Okorafor has sprinkled in right from the get go- particularly as I myself are Jamaican! It was refreshing to read about new perspectives, and black characters embracing their culture in a story instead of the protagonist typically rejecting it in favour of the plot.

However this book lost me very early on. This is the first book ive read from Okorafor, and her style of writing does not agree with me- I found myself reading the same sentence multiple times to understand who was saying it, what they were saying, and who they were talking to. Sometimes i felt the sentences ere moving too fast (the entire wedding ceremony at the start for example) and other times far too slow and things i dont think needed to be repeated, which led me to loose my idea of the time of day, or season etc. I wasn't able to relate to Zelu in any way, as she thinks that absolutely everyone is against her- even people she hasn't met, which is an interesting concept i was hoping would be explored, but it just resulted in Zelu locking herself away and not trying to listen to others. I was hoping to be able to explore more of Zelu, but constantly jumping between family members we don't know about confused me more than anything, and I was struggling to understand *why* our narrators were changing.

I consider myself to be an avid reader of sci-fi and was looking forward to this, however i wouldn't call this a sci-fi book as. much as perhaps a 'literary fiction' as there's little connection between sci-fi elements and the plot itself. I realised quickly that this would not be a 'traditional' science-fiction novel, and more of a meta-thought process (hence the book title). The sci-fi elements happen in the novel our character is writing (a book within a book) and while i appreciate the idea of Okorafor wanting to talking about AI in our world, and robots taking over, and what it means for humans and what we can do and how that shapes us, i simply found myself liking Zelu's book more than I liked Okorafors!

Perhaps my expectations were completely off the radar after reading the blurb and descriptions and the marketing, but this book was simply not what I was expecting, and perhaps that's why I found it harder to read. This is a pick for two book subscriptions under *science fiction* box pick. so i am completely unsure why this is not a sci-fi book.

Maybe this will be one for me to revisit upon release. 2/5 because i can understand that this is a well written book, however i think it is for a specific type of audience that I am not in and I think marketing had a lot to do with how i engaged with this book. Perhaps a different genre by Okorafor will be better suited for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins/William Marrow for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review. This review has been edited to reflect my experience with the marketing vs product.

3.75 rounded up to 4 stars

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor was an absolute rollercoaster. Zelu has hit a new low in her life - she's lost her job, her manuscript has been rejected once again, and she's surrounded by her happy (and judgmental) family at her sister's wedding - when inspiration strikes and she begins writing a scifi novel unlike anything she's ever written. Death of the Author interweaves Zelu's life, interviews with her family and friends, and snippets of her novel, exploring life, loss, fame, disability, technology, and the power of storytelling.

This book is challenging for me to review - it was utterly captivating, and I would read the entirety of Rusted Robots (Zelu's novel), but I'm struggling to say I enjoyed it for reasons that I can't quite articulate. Zelu was a challenging character to follow, she is impulsive, combative, defensive, and yet she makes perfect sense given the way her family treats her and her disability. I always appreciate books that delve into the impact of storytelling, it was fascinating to learn more about the dynamics of Nigerian-American families and other perspectives outside of my own.

Thank you Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for an eARC!

Thank you to the Orion Publishing Group, Nnedi Okorafor, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of Death of the Author in exchange for my honest review.

I found this refreshing fusion of literary and science fiction both intellectually stimulating and emotionally charged. Okorafor creatively explores the blurred boundaries between creation, identity, and autonomy, crafting a story that felt both timeless and innovative.

At the heart of the novel is Zelu, a Nigerian-American woman who has been fired from her university teaching job and had her latest novel rejected. She also happens to be paraplegic so also has to navigate that all while contending with a high-achieving family. Zelu takes a risk and writes a book unlike anything she’s ever written before. A sci-fi novel which results in some very unexpected outcomes. I found Zelu frustrating at times but I admired how audacious she was in how she navigated life.

While Zelu’s actions often push the boundaries her vulnerability and motivations ensured I stayed in her corner. Especially with those maddening siblings!

Adding depth to the story, Okorafor presents you with philosophical questions, such as the ownership of stories and the ethics of creation. At the same time, its speculative elements give the story a futuristic edge, weaving in technology and existential dilemmas in ways that feel fresh and thought-provoking.
While the blend of genres is fascinating, it does occasionally lead to pacing issues. The slower, introspective sections feel more in line with literary fiction, while the sci-fi components introduce bursts of energy that sometimes feel underdeveloped. I felt this in particular about the ending which I found a little rushed.

Despite this, I loved this novel its imaginative plot and the nuanced look at creativity and the power of storytelling.

Death of the Author effectively weaves three narrative threads together to tell its intertwined story. There's the primary Zelu narrative, which is tightly focussed on her perspective and events as they happen in a conceivably real-world setting, charting her rise from the lowest she's ever been through the meteoric rise her novel brings her, and all the consequences this entails. There's then a secondary thread within the same world, which involves retrospective interview responses from Zelu's family and loved ones, which foreshadow and vaguely reference big events in her future. Finally, there's the first-person narrative of Ankara - a robotic Hume in a post-apocalyptic Nigeria and the lead of Zelu’s incredibly successful novel, dealing with both violence between Hume and AIs known as NoBodies and the imparted knowledge of an impending threat to Earth as a whole

While there are very interesting parallels between Zelu and Ankara’s stories, particularly around traumatic events and agency, there also ends up being a very interesting juxtaposition between the conflicts in each narrative. Ostensibly, the greater stakes should be in Ankara's story - despite the conflict between NoBodies and Humes, she is forced into proximity with the NoBody Ijele, and the relationship that develops between the two despite the dangers and consequences is fascinating to watch unfold. However, ultimately Ankara's narrative feels significantly less emotionally fraught and consequential than Zelu's story.

Zelu deals with significantly more 'real' issues, in terms of discrimination, self-worth and motivation, and interpersonal relationships; beyond this, there are the less universal experiences of her disability and how she chooses to interface with technology to give her more agency with regards to mobility, which forms a key source of conflict between her and her family. There's distinctly more emotional volatility in this perspective, with Zelu herself predominantly showing strong, instantaneous reactions - while many of these the reader is likely to agree or empathise with, there are equally some cases where it feels you’re not meant to understand; this in turn plays in to the level of vitriol and incendiary backlash from her family she faces over things that the reader (and Zelu) more strongly doesn't understand or empathise with. The centralisation of this level of conflict in interpersonal relationships means that Zelu's story doesn't inherently prioritise what is 'narratively satisfying' - in terms of, as a reader, you expect her to be supported, for her to be vindicated, or for it to be intended as a toxic environment to escape from, or at a more base level for Zelu herself to be perfectly sensible and likable - but it's largely because it defies that expectation that her story ends up feeling so much more real, and packs far more emotional weight than a more 'satisfying' resolution might; in real life people and interpersonal relationships are messy, they don’t obey nice easy narrative logic, and so these frustrating interactions and the real unpredictability of response really contribute to the vitality of the world and characters. Furthering this, Okorafor is as always masterful at bringing in real-world cultural aspects that anchor the story in a deep and tangible way.

(Admittedly, the convenient benevolent white billionaires kind of contradict the realism a little, particularly when there's no real challenge from the narrative of their actions or intentions. I'm not sure if metatextually this is supposed to be read like an inversion of a particular anti-black trope, whereby black characters may only appear, without their own story or rationale, to provide unquestioning aid to white protagonists, which is very interesting to play with in theory. However, it felt particularly weird evoking current day oligarchs in a 'present day' adjacent narrative without grappling with the significant real-world consequences of such individuals, and the role they play in reinforcing the discrimination and obstacles someone like Zelu would face.)

While I enjoyed the vast majority of the novel, the endings left me with slightly more mixed feelings. Overall, I felt like the pacing towards the end became more rushed in both narratives, which meant neither felt particularly climactic and overall seemed more shallow than the rest of the novel preceding it. I love the concept of Ankara’s ending as far as it goes, but I would have loved to see a little more reinforcing it or exploration of it. Equally, I feel I was lead to expect more from the ending of Zelu's story, particularly from the use of the interviews. I did also get very thrown out of the narrative by some not-quite-right real science literally pages from the end, which was frustrating, though that is very much a personal thing rather than something I’d expect to be widely applicable.

Also, as an aside, I read this through NetGalley UK (with sincere thanks to Orion/Gollancz and the author) in Kindle format, which did have issues with formatting and layout particularly in Ankara's chapters – most significantly with paragraphs cutting off, randomly inserting another chunk of text, and then resuming, which made reading these more challenging. Not sure how much this issue contributed, but I did find the Ankara narrative felt notably more disjointed, particularly compared with Zelu’s; ultimately I would have loved to have seen a bit more of this world and its characters come through, particularly in terms of developing a greater depth of feeling and rounding out the parallels between the two narratives. I thoroughly enjoyed both stories, but Zelu's dominates considerably - I'll be interested to gauge the actual ratio of content with a physical copy, but it felt to me closer to an 80/20 split than the more balanced ratio I expected on encountering Ankara as a secondary perspective.

Overall, this was an incredibly fascinating read. It’s not strongly a genre novel, and I would caution against going into it expecting the same level of sci-fi or fantastic elements that many of the author’s other works contain - the author herself has explicitly said Death of the Author is not strictly a “science fiction” novel. Instead, it transcends those expectations into something that is very much about humanity and self-determination. Definitely an excellent choice for literary fiction readers willing to tolerate a little twist of sci-fi, particularly as an introduction to a resoundingly talented author, and for anyone else looking for an emotionally driven narrative with complex characters and relationships that aren’t strictly constrained by logic and likeability.

I'm not sure I was clear enough on what I was reading when I went into this. Sci Fi mixed with Yellowface was a great sell but it wasn't quite as pacey or publishing centered as I was expecting and the Sci Fi elements were interesting in the story-within-story but the techonology in the main story seemed to pop up without a lot of friction or warning. As a result, the story sometimes felt uneven; it ended incredibly well but the set-ups were clunky enough to affect my enjoyment, even though I understood it better when I got to the end. I actually really loved the robot sub-plot and that plot felt incredibly well-paced, if more literary despite the setting. Zelu's family and Zelu were often my stumbling point, I think their relationship was meant to be reflective of their communal culture and Zelu's uniqueness but it didn't come across to me as anything other than frustrating until half-way through, That being said, I felt that this is more of a sum of its parts and I will recommend it to those who like a literary, reflective Sci Fi with difficult characters and interaction with people and personalities with technology as a backdrop. Looking forward to dwelling on it and having conversations with other people who have read it, Okorafor has a lot of really interesting things to say about humanity and robots.