Death of the Author
by Nnedi Okorafor
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted February 8, 2025
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I'll try to make this brief, so as not to spoil, but also I am sure I cannot do this great book justice. The title probably does refer to the 1967 essay by Roland Barthes, in which he said once a book is read it is out of the hands of the author, subject to interpretation by the readers, regardless of the writer's intent. The main character here is Zelu Onyenezi-Onyedele. She is first generation Nigerian-American. Her father is Igbo, her mother a Yoruban princess, an odd pairing to say the least. Zelu, her parents, and all her siblings live in Chicago. She is a writer, and an adjunct professor of creative writing. Frustrated over her novel not finding a publisher, her attitude leads to harsh assessments of her students, with their complaints leading to her dismissal from that position. The news of her firing reaches her in Trinidad and Tabago, where she is attending her sister Amarachi's wedding. It is also where she meets Mzizi from South Africa, whose cousin is the groom. She keeps the employment news to herself for a while, until she is forced to move back to her parents' house, but before leaving Tabago she had already started writing her next novel.
"Rusted Robots" was her first foray into the SF genre, which she rarely if ever read herself. Her agent loves it, there is a bidding war among publishers, leading to a seven figure advance. "Rusted Robots" is an immediate best seller, quickly optioned for film. It is not clear if she was ever approached, or if she declined to be involved with the adaptation, but as usual, the movie turned out not to be her book. Instead of being set in Nigeria, it was moved to the US. Instead of Ankara and Ijele, the main characters were renamed Yankee and Dot. Even those who claimed to have loved the book also loved the movie, and the clamor for a book sequel began. The story just wasn't coming to Zelu, and she worried her novel might have been a one-time thing, never to be duplicated. As a child, Zelu wanted to be an astronaut, but that dream vanished when she was crippled in a fall from a tree when she was twelve. She had also loved to read and create her own stories, so that became her new dream as a paraplegic. After the success of her book, she is invited to participate in trials for a new type of exoskeleton, which eventually enables her to walk.
Nnedi shares a few things with Zelu; she is a writer, and Naijamerican, and has a disability, but from a different cause. I am sure her relationship with her family is different. There were multiple times throughout Zelu's story that I got very angry with her parents and her siblings, with Mzizi sharing some of that anger too. They kept objecting to everything she wanted to do, which they justfied by saying they only wanted to protect her. But Zelu was thirty-four, capable of taking care of herself, of making her own decisions. When the success of her "exos" made the news, many began thinking of her as Queen of the Robots, but the exos were all external. No implants, nothing cybernetic, they merely replaced the muscles her legs had lost. There are only vague references to current social and political situations. One difference that pleased me was when Zelu met the richest man in the world, diametrically opposite from the man who fits that description now. Jack Preston funneled a lot of his wealth into beneficial programs, from combatting climate change, to providing food and medical care to impoversihed areas, along with developing viable commercial spaceflight. Their friendship, and his encouragement, eventually led to Zelu becoming an astronaut.
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What is included from "Rusted Robots" is probably a novella at most, sections of it interspersed between chapters of Zelu's story. Ankara is a Hume, a humanoid robot with an AI consciousness, as opposed to exclusively AI entities referred to as NoBodies, and at other times Ghosts. Whereas Death of the Author starts in the very near future, "Rusted Robots" is post-apocalyptic, post-human, with one exception. Considering Ankara can connect with other Humes, she knows what they know, so all are sure humanity has died out. But there is animostiy between Humes and NoBodies, with the latter releasing a code with the intent of wiping Humes out of existence. Ankara survives somehow, and upon regaining conscsiousness realizes she has been under the care of a human. Ngozi is apparently the only human left alive, but she is old. Ankara had previously become a scholar, reading and recording into her memory many books, learning from humanity. She learns more from Ngozi, but at first is upset that Ngozi had incorporated a 'ghost' into her system, and Ijeli is displeased as well. Ngozi explained it was necessary to repair Ankara, but that she would attempt to separate the two consciousnesses. She is successful in that, but later Ijele returns to Ankara, multiple times. No matter how much they both deny it, they have become friends. They need to become allies as well, since the war between Humes and NoBodies excalates, while at the same time both are threatened by rogue satellites which had been exploring the solar system, but are intent on returning and destroying Earth.
I have read that Nnedi says this is both science fiction, but also not. That is perhaps misdirection. It is science fiction, with quite a bit of Zelu's story possibly fictional. Death of the Author was unique, having been written by Ankara creating her own story rather than just repeating the human stories she had collected. Ngozi was the great-granddaughter of Zelu, Ngozi being her middle name, and her full name was Zelunjo, which means "avoid evil, do good." Ankara does say Zelu was an astronaut, but other details of her story may have been her own creation, which means "Rusted Robots" was actually written by Ankara as part of Zelu's story in Death of the Author. Following the suggestion from Barthes, the reader can decide for themselves which truth they want to accept. In either case, you should read this book. I know it is early in the year, but I am sure it will be on many Best of 2025 lists. It is already on mine.
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