Do you like stories within other stories?

I think this is such a fascinating concept and it cannot be easy to make both equally compelling. But in “Death of the author” Nnedi Okorafor does this incredibly well.

Zelu is our main character and she is a disabled Nigerian American professor who has been going through a lot of hardships. She was fired from her job and her latest novel was rejected. On top of that she deals with family pressures and feelings of inadequacy.

After being fired she decides to write a book very unlike everything she wrote before, a Sci-Fi drama called “Rusted Robots “, and it becomes a major success. In her book she explores what it means to be human through the medium of robots and AI in an alternate world where humanity is extinct.

When Zelu started writing “Rusted Robots” I was enthralled, it was so good!😭I thought Sci-Fi wasn’t really my thing, but after reading this book I decided to look into it more. The fact that it was quite a literary book only added to the overall value of the story. I definitely must read more books by Nnedi Okorafor. 💕

Zelu’s life starts to change as a result of this success and we see the impact success can have on someone and those around them. This brings opportunities into her life she never thought possible, but also increases some of the strains in her relationships.

I though the writing was overall exceptional, however , towards the middle of the book I lost a bit of focus in the story and there were many POVs, but I am glad I persevered because it is indeed a beautiful book. It just took some dedication on my part to keep with the story.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and author for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Death of the Author is a genre bending mix of sci-fi and literary fiction, with one side coming out more strongly at the end (the twist will show you which one).

It alternates between two narratives: one is Zelu, a paraplegic Nigerian American author struggling with her next book, until she writes something completely out of character - a dystopian science fiction about AI after the fall of humankind called Rusted Robots that makes her rich and famous overnight, and the other is Ankara, an emotionally advanced Hume robot from Zelu’s novel who is trying to prevent the destruction of earth from invaders, all whilst battling civil war with other AI beings and making friends with an interesting array of characters.

You get chapters from Rusted Robots - a novel within a novel - but you predominantly get Zelu’s life with her chaotic family (as one of five siblings and a large extended family in Nigeria). The novel travels between Chicago, Nigeria and even space - all propelled by the choices Zelu makes.

Zelu is a messy character, but she is always unapologetically herself. A large element of the book is Zelu’s disability and how she is moving ever closer to solutions that over step into the world of her novel.

I really enjoyed the different perspectives - all of the characters were well drawn, and the twist is a good one, making you reevaluate your initial interpretation of the novel. I also enjoyed the Nigeria centric aspect of the novel, even in Rusted Robots which is focused on Lagos as the epicentre of both the wars and the resistance.

Thematically Death of the Author is about identity, family, art, friendship, storytelling, creation and humanity. Big topics and it covers a lot of ground!

It came out in the UK this week, and I got to finish it whilst travelling in West Africa which was a bonus! Huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

“Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafoe is an intriguing blend of literary fiction and speculative fiction or scifi, based on your take on how the latter genres differ. The story is focused on Zelu, a disabled and recently unemployed woman who found sudden fame when the book she had written during her lowest times made it big. When her novel catapulted her into an unprecedented status on social media, Zelu had to navigate the consequences of life as a bestselling author, a daughter who never seems to be good enough, and a disabled POC who is always expected to represent a subset of her identity in one way or another. Interspersed between Zelu’s interpersonal drama are chapters from her scifi novel, Rusted Robots, which also plays a role in the narrative in unexpected ways.

The litfic portion of the book reminded me a lot of Yellowface in how it examined the publishing & movie industries and how the two form a symbiotic (& sometimes parasitic) relationship with social media platforms and fandom. There is also plenty of family drama with Zelu being an almost antagonistic protagonist with some of her decisions; as a reader, I can empathize with Zelu’s frustrations, but I can also see the flipside of her abrasive personality (her decisions sometimes had me echoing her mother oohh). This is testament to Okorafor’s excellent character work, since Zelu and the side characters felt so familiar and true to life.

The scifi portion of the book felt a little less developed, though intentionally so when you consider the turn the story took towards the end. I won’t spoil it for you, but the twist catapulted this read into a 4-star rating for me. This book also managed to surprise me with how many issues it could pack into a story, though it does make the novel feel a little bit scattered. I feel like you’d appreciate this most if you’re a fan of literary fiction first & a scifi fan second, because at heart, this is really a book about storytelling and its importance in humankind’s existence.

Death of the Author is quite a unique sci-fi novel with a side of lit-fic and I really enjoyed reading it!

It has somewhat of a double plot, with the main one focusing on debut-author Zelu, her sudden rise to fame and her life thereafter, and the second one featuring parts of the MC's sci-fi novel. While the sci.fi part was intriguing, I found it less compelling than Zelu's life itself. Paraplegic due to an accident she had at 12 years of age, Zelu has to deal with her overbearing family, the difficulties of navigating society with such a disability and the way her Nigerian community sees disabled people. Suddenly put in the spotlight when her debut novel becomes an incredible success, her life becomes filled with a whirlwind of novelties, including some that somehow seem to reflect the futurism of her own book.

Zelu isn't a particularly amiable character - she's not the FMC that welcomes the world with open arms and lets others tell her what she should do or be without a fight. She has dreams, she has things she want, and she makes sure to go for them when the opportunity arises - even if it might hurt those around her. She grew on me throughout the book and had me really invested in her adventures!

The sections of the the book dedicated to Zelu's novel, Rusted Robots, read slower and I found myself reading even faster to get back to Zelu's life. I don't know that the ending given to that part of the plot satisfied me, because it felt a bit over-simplistic for such a complex storyline. It had some interesting sides to it, though.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this to readers who enjoy a blend of genres and dual plot-lines! Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

“What better time to listen to a story when the world is about to end?”

Death of the Author is one of these books I didn’t know if I loved or hated while I was reading them. Why? Because the book questions so much, on so many levels, that it makes the brain go everywhere, especially in uncomfortable places. That’s what makes it incredible in the end.
There is so much in this book about ecology, representation in books, cancelling culture, disability, stories’ power, not finding your roots, … and so much more. That said, as you could suspect by the title, the most central theme –or the one that made its nest most prominently in me– is about creation, but, mostly, what happens to the content, and to the creator, once the art (the book, here) in the hands of its public. I loved that most of the story occurs after the MC has released her book, and to read what whirls in her head –and all the feelings it triggers– while she, in some way, grieves her book/creation when her story “slips out of her hands to also belong to her reader. It was a truly powerful reading, and how Zelu acts in reaction to all that was a delight to witness.
I loved how “Rusty Robots”, her Sci-Fi story, mixed with the contemporary timeline, as much as I adored the twist that only made the story more breathtaking. In the end, that makes us question if we couldn’t be the ones living the dystopia (I have my very own opinion about that). Like the ivy in her room, everything clings, mixes, weaves in a fascinating blend that produces a book that will linger for a long time in my mind. Surely one I’ll want to reread in the future.

Thank you to the author and Gollancz for the eARC via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Nnedi Okorafor is an automatic buy for me; I love her writing. This book is so imaginative, literally a book within a book. Following headstrong wheelchair-bound literary professor-turned-sci-fi author Zelu. She is navigating her newfound stardom and begins to discover who she is and the strength she has within herself. Zelu is such a real character, with her snarkiness, hesitations to things for fear of how she will be viewed, hurt from the lack of support, and the shunning of those she thought cared for her. Her anger cooks beneath the surface because of her situation, which grows with every letdown.

This book had the feeling of a time travel or varied timeline story because we switch between Zelu and her world and the world within the fictional sci-fi story written by Zelu.

In my opinion, it is not a true sci-fi novel, so be prepared for that. It is more literary fiction, but this is not a deal-breaker for me. I loved this book. I will purchase this book to add to my collection of Nnedi Okorafor novels on my shelves.

Thank you, Netgalley, Orion Publishing Group | Gollancz, and Nnedi Okorafor, for the ARC of this imaginative book.

Death of the Author is partially a literary fiction novel, partially a science fiction novel and totally brilliant.

Author Zelu is a disabled woman who has just lost her job and had her most recent novel rejected. She has to move back home to live with her parents and impulsively decides to write an Afrofuturist sci-fi novel about a human shaped android, navigating the world after the extinction of humans. The two stories about Zelu and her robot are intertwined and the reader learns about humanity, stories and the end of the world.

A recommended read for lovers of literary fiction and/or sci-fi.

How much of a story is the author? In many ways all of it but at the same time crime authors don’t really plan to kill people or horror authors all mess with powers they should know better to touch. But knowing JRR Tolkien fought in WW1 will give you some insight into some scenes and themes in Lord of the Rings. For readers we get impressions of authors through their wok, a connection we feel that may be quite unlike the real person. In Nnedi Okorafor’s fascinating novel Death of the Author we explore these links in a mix of reality and science fictional ideas to create something quite surprising and for me an engrossing tale of family, choices and a desire to live your own life.

Zelu is having a very difficult day attending her sister’s wedding. Her very judging relatives are saying that as she is paraplegic and as a woman in a wheelchair, that she will struggle to find someone, her agent says her literary novel on submission has again been rejected and she has just been fired as an adjunct professor for taking down a selfish student whose work she does not rate at all. The tailspin she is in though means Zelu surprisingly finally feels a novel come to life in her. A science fiction epic called Rusted Robots. It becomes a worldwide bestseller and soon a giant movie deal is calling but for Zelu this also finally could offer her some freedoms, but it may not mean she gets the understanding and acceptance she is always craving.

This is a complex novel to describe. For me it is very much a story exploring choices and being true to who you are and what you want. We have Zelu’s timeline as a common thread watching her star rise and fall in publishing, and this is constantly matched up with excerpts from Rusted Robots which tells us the story of a post-human world of robots in the wreckage of humanity fighting a war against AIs and also now finding out a danger is heading to earth as well. A scholar robot named Ankara who forms a bond with an AI known as Ijele that both sides in the war would destroy both if they found out about it. The question the book poses is how much does a story and its author really tell you about the author.

Zelu for me is the standout character. An american woman with Nigerian parents of Igbo and Yoruba parentage. A clash of royalty and working-class ideals and she is one of four siblings who love to argue, and some would say compete against each other. They all have high flying jobs and are moving into marriage while Zelu to them appears to be a disappointment and crucially that she is disabled also seems to ply a factor. There are things she is felt she cannot o and her parents has as one character says built a house around her which in her mind-thirties she has not left. At the same time Zelu is very much her own person, she enjoys casual relationships, weed and not hiding her thoughts and opinions but she’s not where she wants to be, and that frustration leads to her epic sacking and the creation of a huge hit science fiction novel which she admits was not something she was expecting to do. Zelu as we find out is very much a character focused on what she wants to do in the moment even when there may be consequences and judgements she then must deal with as she doesn’t always consider (or care about) the fallout. The intriguing question is where does this come from? And as we see in Rusted Robots that may also be something she too explores as a consequence of the book.

Okorafor explores family pressure, ableism and culture from many angles in this story. How Zelu gets judged by many for being disabled and in an unusual science-fictional scene when she is offered to have an incredible new set of artificial leg enhancements that give her the power to walk. Her family are more horrified at Zelu becoming seen as a freak and getting hurt. She finds media accuses her of ablism. Zelu though is just considering tat she wants to be able to walk for the first time since she was 12. Zelu can be seen as incentive and unlikeable, but I loved the way we have to learn to accept her own her own terms. Later in the novel for very personal reasons she takes a trip that gets her into huge danger which she is warned against, but she still does it and there are more consequences and its about owning the aftermath of that which is Zelu’s personal breakthough. It is marked that her one strongest relationship is with a man named Msizi who rarely judges her and knows she needs to do what she wants, and he rarely asks for her to do things in return. It’s a wonderfully adult and complex relationship that works for both of them and offers her some respite from the wider world and family. It hints that Zelu is very much a character who lives in the moment - she hasn’t wanted to be an SF writer she just needed to write one just then, its not then her career path in itself but a stepping stone to other choices and decisions which can be both perplexing and yet eventually we see they take her to what she needs most of all – clarity of thought and tying back to her earliest ambition.

There are plenty of other things to enjoy. While the megahit Rusted Robots is probably the most unlikely and speediest turnaround of a book and movie deal it allows Okorafar to explore changing tastes, media reaction, social media pressure and the peril of movie adaptations but this is more with a wry smile than an in depth investigation of publishing but reminds us once a book it out there the author can become public property, a commercial deal and in many ways irrelevant to marketing. I would have loved though a little more explanation of why this book appears as several characters say to have caught the zeitgeist and connected so much with people.

The Rusted Robots sections are for me where we get to explore Zelu from a very different perspective. Its not simple allegory Zelu is not like any of the characters in the story nor do we recognise family members but at the same time this is a story reflecting some Nigerian culture, attitudes to becoming some less than or more than human and the power of stories to pull people along. There is a neat little revelation in Zelu’s section that her dad loved Human Heads songs, and a reference gets reflected one way in her story and another in the Robots showing us how influences echo in stories. We can see Zelu’s life in the Robot’s story too but its more with a side glance and a lot of interpretation and layering going on. Creativity works both ways and perhaps this story opens up Zelu’s future choices in particular regards her legs and desire to live outside of her family home. The finale really plays with these two tales and could be seen as too cute to explain some handwavium or as I did a reminder that even these two stories are part of a book, and an author is too weaving words, themes and images at us the reader to now process in a different way.

If you come to Death of the Author expecting pure SF you’ll possibly be disappointed and if you come expecting a gritty literary contemporary novel about publishing then you’ll be perplexed with some places this goes to but I liked a lot how this crosses both worlds and explores how each gets influenced by the other. Science fiction is always for me talking about the time it is written in and the author too reflects their own perspective of their world. We though as readers create our own versions in the reading experience so we may miss subtle clues as we never get to see the whole life story of an author before a book gets written, like icebergs most is under the surface. This story explores where authors and their stories come from and it’s not a straightforward process at all. Death of the Author will be hanging around my mind for some time as I ponder the power of stories in a really interesting way. Highly recommended!

A wonderful piece of original Sci-fi/tech based fiction. Towards the ending of reading this fictional autobiography of an author’s journey to success and possible ruin and a her published robot AI adventure story of a struggle to survive, I found that the story’s perspective totally flipped and I had to re-evaluate what the story was really all about. That surprised me. Good fiction does that. It would have been 4 stars without that for me, unresolved juxtaposition of story teller. Thank you to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

3.75*

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book and loved the idea of a book within a book with sci-fi elements and for the most part I was really satisfied with what I found.

This is definitely sci-fi lite and felt much more literary and family drama focused (which if you've read any other books with Nigerian families will feel very familiar). I thought the writing was fantastic and I loved the slower character focused build up in the first half. We have events happen but they feel natural and well paced and I loved the quasi future elements (the self-driving cars, the exoskeleton) mixed in with the 'Rusted Robots' book excerpts.

It really was building up to be a high 4* read for me but I felt that the story took an abrupt turn with the introduction of the space launch prospect and it just didn't feel as grounded in reality as the rest of the book had been to that point. The pace then ramped up so that the careful story telling of the first half turned about face as we raced to the end which felt a little too abrupt for me.

Don't go into this expecting a true science fiction novel and you will be more likely to enjoy it. Thankfully I'd seen some reviews highlighting that so went into it with the right level of expectation and I really did like it, I just ended up not loving it overall as much as I hoped to.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group | Gollancz for this digital review copy of "Death of the Author" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This was an interesting book that seemed less science fiction and more family drama. I liked Zelu as the main character but never felt I was fully engaged with how this book was written - probably because I would rather this had more of the robot chapters.

I have been hearing about this one everywhere! I did enjoy it but I really wish it had more sci fi aspects in it. I really enjoyed the robot chapters and did not enjoy Zelu’s chapters quite as much. The overall concepts were unique and interesting though. The ending felt a bit rushed. Overall a good read!

Wow what a read. Margaret Atwoods the blind assassin is one of my favourite books of all time and this story encapsulates that same vibe a story within a story nothing is quite what it seems.

The mix of sci-fi interwoven with the Nigerian folklore and heritage is stunning. I leant so much about Nigerian life and navigating life in American. The characters are complex and story is so compelling I found I could not put it down.

Zelu is flawed but understandable and her slow loss of connection with reality is beautifully told from her own POvV and those around her.

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR is a fantastic entry into the Okorafor universe! Hedging the line between magical realism and literary fiction and outright sci-fi, this book makes you feel all the feelings. Zelu is such a fearsome, intriguing protagonist and in particular, I resonated with her feelings of isolation and restriction amongst her family members and her struggle to keep from internalising their feelings as hers. The excerpts of Rusted Robots made me feel like I got the benefit of two books in one, and I think it shows the author's skill in terms of crafting two similar but also very different stories and juxtaposing them in a way that does both justice. Amazing read!

While well written and able to keep my attention, there was something about this I can't quite put my finger on.

It felt a bit self insert-y at times, and I wasn't particularly attached to any characters, not even Zelu.

I sympathize with how Zelu felt that her family and friends kept putting her in a box and limiting her simply because of her disability. The way her family kept isolating her frustrated me to no end.

The fact that people took her story and twisted things around to be more "Americanized" was so gross and it's infuriating that things like this actually happen.

I kind of sensed where this book was going because it was kind of hammered into the reader's brain how much Zelu liked [redacted] and how [redacted] made her feel less disabled.

I did feel that there was a little bit of an ableist undertone if I'm being completely honest and it kind of prevented me from being more invested in the book.

I did really enjoy the story within a story aspect.

Overall, I can admire what Nnedi Okorafor was trying to do with this, but there were a few issues that prevented me from rating this higher.

{Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.}

“Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafor is a an interesting book that combines literary fiction with science fiction.
I received an advance reader copy from Orion Publishing Group via Netgalley. Opinions regarding this review are completely my own.

The main character is Zelu, a paraplegic professor. After being fired from her job she writes a science fiction book. I liked the book-within-a-book idea, but I could not get invested much in both plots.
The chapters about the robots were too short and took me out of the main story that I enjoyed a lot. The writing is good and I would recommend the book if you like literary fiction and not if you mostly want to read sci fi.
Zelu is a strong character with good development, but I understand why not everybody would like her.

DNF at 37%.
Unfortunately I didn't get on with the writing style and wasn't very interested in the story or story within a story (which was also formatted really badly on my kindle so it was a struggle to read). The themes and commentary were interesting but not enough to push through the book.

"𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐞, 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭."

4.5/5⭐️

𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌:

Death of the author follows the journey of two interrelated story‘s, Zelu‘s personal story, who’s a disabled, Naijamerican women and the story of her novels robotic Main character Ankara.

At 32 years old, Zelu looses her job as an Adjunction professor for creative writing and has to move back in with her parents. Going through a rollercoaster of emotions, while not knowing what do with her life, Zelu starts writing a book. Being a genre she has never written before, she writes a Science fiction Novel.
Never has she expected that this book will completely change her life.

Ankara is a robot with a mission. A mission to safe the earth from extinction. Humans are gone, now there‘s only Humes and NoBodies left and it is in their responsibility to protect and care for the world as once humans did. Although Humes and NoBodies are in a conflict with each other, Ankara, as a Hume, finds herself forming an unexpected friendship with the enemy.

𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘:

I love Zelu‘s story. I love her strong will her strength and courage. I adored her for her bravery and sometimes I even liked her stubbornness. Zelu teaches you, that no matter who your are, what you are, no matter if you have the privilege of being healthy or of you have a disability, you can achieve your goals. Do not let anyone command you or control you, you are your own person. You make your own decisions. I loved following her journey to self acceptance and self love. Zelu is amazing and I think she deserves the world.

I also enjoyed the plot of the science fiction novel that was well integrated into the book. Ankara has a lot of similarities with Zelu. Both of them are going through major changes in their lives, regarding acceptance, self love, morals and friendships.

I don‘t know much about African/Nigerian culture, but I could tell that family is the highest priority. I liked how Zelu's family played a part in this books, not only when it came to her decision making, but the book also inlcudes the different pov‘s in form of interviews. The interviews offered small insights into Zelu‘s life growing up and supported her complex character creation very well.

Zelu, a Nigerian-American with paraplegia from a high-achieving family, has hit rock bottom. Having just lost her job, and received a rejection for her novel, she starts to write something completely out of her ordinary, a sci fi with robots and AI set in a post-human Nigeria. The novel is an instant bestseller, taking the world by storm and catapulting her into unimaginable wealth and fame. All the while she has to navigate her family’s expectations and fears, her own doubts, hypervisibility and sudden, unimaginable opportunities.

Death Of The Author is an ambitious work. It tackles ableism, the immigrant experience for Nigerian Americans both in the US and Nigeria, difficult family relationships, publishing, social media, near future technology as well as far future robots and AI. If that sounds like a lot of subjects, it is, and some are better fleshed out than others.

Right away I want to give props for the writing. This book is very, almost compulsively, readable. And, when subjects are given the space to breathe, they are tackled with nuance and a very deft hand. I liked Zelu, I liked our robots, and I liked the structure of the story. There are three threads, the main plot that follows Zelu, the android/ai storyline and, peppered throughout, statements from different characters in Zelu’s life about what happened. A lot of tension is built up to see where these threads will intersect.

But, as mentioned, this book tries to tackle a lot of issues and I often found myself wishing that there could have been a greater focus on fewer plotlines. I especially found the publishing threads to be underdeveloped, oftentimes the fact that Zelu had written a book felt rather incidental, it could have been almost anything that had given her this level of fame. For a story that was seemingly so invested in storytelling it felt like an odd problem to have. Some of the characterisation seemed to suffer from this as well, family members felt one way until they suddenly didn’t just so the story could move along. Certain elements would be brought into the story, even seemingly important ones, just to be completely ignored.

My main issue, however, is the ending. It’s obviously extremely difficult to talk about it without spoiling the book so I won’t go into too much depth. I mentioned above that there was a tension in seeing how the disparate parts would come together and, in my opinion, they sadly didn’t. More than that, though, I think the ending took away from the more poignant parts of the story. Sadly I found the whole less than the sum of its parts.

DNF at 56%
Sorry, but no.
First of all, this is NOT a science fiction book. It's a family drama in which everyone is awful, and respect and affection are measured by success. And being a successful writer is not a success. Successful people are those who are doctors, layers, or own worldwide corporations. If you aren't one of these, then you don't deserve to even be looked at. Love? What's that?
It's also a book about being black, being Nigerian, and about Nigerian culture, especially its food.
Sorry, but this is not what I had expected.