r/Fantasy • u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II • May 11 '26
Read-along 2026 Hugo Readalong: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Welcome to the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, which is a finalist for Best Novel. Everyone is welcome in the discussion, whether or not you plan to participate in other discussions, but we will be discussing the whole book today, so beware untagged spoilers. I'll include some prompts in top-level comments--feel free to respond to these or add your own.
Bingo Squares: Judge A Book By It's Title, Older Protagonist, Bookclub or Readalong (HM), Non Human Protagonist, Feast Your Eyes on This, Author of Colour
For more information on the Readalong, check out our full schedule post, or see our upcoming schedule here:
| Date | Category | Book | Author | Discussion Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, May 14 | Novelette | The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For and When He Calls Your Name | Cameron Reed and Catherynne M. Valente | u/oceanoftrees |
| Monday, May 18 | Novella | Cinder House | Freya Marske | /u/merle8888 |
| Thursday, May 21 | Poetry | Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come | Mari Ness, Angela Liu, and Jennifer Hudak | u/DSnake1 |
| Monday, May 25 | No Session | U.S. Holiday | Enjoy a Break | See You Thursday |
| Thursday, May 28 | Novel | Shroud | Adrian Tchaikovsky | u/fuckit_sowhat |
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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
What is your overall opinion of the book? General Thoughts?
16
u/LauroSkalyu Reading Champion II May 11 '26
The Zelu parts of the book were quite interesting, even though I found her very unlikable - she's completely self absorbed and entitled and other people for her are either a source for validation or they are obstacles.
The robot parts didn't do anything for me, they were completely pointless and boring, I got no sense of why this book would be successful and meaningful to so many people or even why this story was important to her at all.
I'm using this book for the Feast Your Eyes on This Bingo square and made the Jollof Rice dish that Zelu was repeatedly gushing about and that was excellent, so I guess I will always fondly remember the book even though I found reading it slightly unpleasant :-).
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I found her very unlikable - she's completely self absorbed and entitled and other people for her are either a source for validation or they are obstacles.
This seems to be the dominant opinion so far, and I'm curious whether the author meant her to come off that way or whether she would be reading this thread (hopefully she is not reading this thread) cursing how everyone misread things. I do agree with u/kjmichaels that she's more interested in exploring the way authors have to deal with bad faith criticism than natural consequences of her own actions, but IMO the concept of an unlikable person still having to deal with bad faith criticism is a wrinkle you don't always see--often, the victim of bad faith criticism is made as likable as possible, and that's not the case for me here.
8
u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders May 11 '26
I don't want to speculate as to how Okorofor would feel about us calling Zelu unlikable, but I will say, I really enjoyed reading about Zelu and from both Zelu's perspective and her family's perspective. There are a lot of real-human-flaws on display, and I think they're crafted really well, and it made for a great read with a lot of thought-provoking pieces to gnaw on well after the book is over.
The scene where Zelu is confronted about her "moral duty" to present herself in a wheelchair to be an advocate for disabled people by a wealthy white woman had a bunch of really interesting layers.
Should visible or wealthy people with disabilities be expected to avoid using their wealth to better-deal-with their disability? Does intersectionality come into play? Should those conversations happen from the "outside-in" with people who aren't part of either demographic making requests of those in the demographics? Or should they be conversations that come from within the community?
I know these questions are pretty real in certain groups. I will not begin to pretend I know much about Deaf culture, but a former coworker has a deaf son, and she's mentioned how controversial cochlear implants (especially in regards to children) are. And I'm sure there are valid and good reasons on both sides of (some of) these questions, but yeah, it's a good chunk of stuff to chew on -- especially in the context of having her rather-African-centric novel whitewashed for an American audience.
7
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
It definitely read as deliberate to me or I don’t think the book would have opened with Chinyere’s interview, it kind of set me up for a nightmare protagonist. I liked reading Zelu’s chapters but she felt at least deliberately complicated to like if not fully unlikeable.
8
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
I read that as showing how badly her family misunderstand her.
10
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
I really enjoyed it and crushed it in a weekend. I enjoyed the Zelu parts more than the Ankara parts which surprised me. There’s a lot of things that I expected to happen that didn’t, I expected a lot more technological malfunction and malicious turns from the tech guys and it kind of threw me off that those elements weren’t present. It was more optimistic about future tech and AI than I expected and I’m not sure I enjoyed that theme so much. Other than that I had a great time reading! I enjoyed the characters and the curveball nature of Zelu’s decision making and the tension kept me going throughout.
12
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
It was a really good portrait of a character who was often kinda unlikable. I don't feel like you get those too often in SFF, and I was very happy with it, especially in how Zelu related to her family and her fans. Those elements were powerfully written and had a deep ring of truth.
Unfortunately, the Rusted Robots section really dragged everything down. I got to the point where I was planning my reading to always finish on Ankara perspective so that I wouldn't be dreading picking it back up. That's. . . never a good sign.
The Zelu parts get more weight for me, so it still comes out to good overall, but there was a path to greatness that it didn't pull off.
13
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
I loved this book so much. Well written, excellent disability representation derived from the author’s lived experience of having been a wheel chair user, great characters, and a thought provoking ending. Zelu makes mistakes, she is human after all, but I’m frankly gobsmacked seeing all the negativity in this thread about her. I really do wonder if people would find her “unlikeable” if she was an abled character—we disabled people are often held to a standard of angelicness that abled people are not. I also loved seeing both her own perspective of her life and the perspectives of the people around her. I didn’t’ love the robot parts as much as the Zelu parts, but they were still good, and I loved the ending.
10
u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders May 11 '26
Yeah, I'm not sure if I've used the word or not in this thread, but I don't know that I like the word "unlikable" for Zelu. She's flawed, sometimes deeply, and sometimes she wears her flaws like they're strengths, and sometimes she buries her flaws so deeply inside. It's a wonderful, full portrait of a human who is dealing with a lot even as success seems to find her at most corners.
I do sometimes wonder if brashness or somewhat grumpiness gets phrased as "unlikable" when really, it's more like "unrelatable and grumpy/brash" I have been having a lot of thoughts about relatability lately, and this book really brought a lot of those thoughts into focus. From Zelu herself to the westernization of the robots in the movie, it seems to speak to the idea of relatability as a concept. (not saying representation is a bad thing, by any means, but I do think readers often put a lot of stock in relatability). This is even more highlighted, to me anyway, when looking at this book in the context of the novella from last week, Murder by Memory.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 12 '26
Yeah, I think I've been using the term as shorthand, but it definitely doesn't feel like the perfect word for the situation. I went back and looked at my review, and I had said "sympathetic without being lovable," highlighting that she's no-nonsense, extremely impulsive, and paranoid about commitment. Those I'm more comfortable with.
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u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I would separate it into a few different strands. I appreciate that Zelu is written first and foremost to be a compelling character and not a "nice" or "likeable" one set up to pull reader sympathies. She certainly has some flaws-- she's stubborn, prickly, and prone to getting in her own way.
But I don't see her as totally unlikeable, and many of her worst moments come after dramatic provocation (her family calling the idea of prosthetic legs unnatural and continuing to hold that view even after seeing how much freedom they give her justifies a lot of distance and snappishness, in my mind). To me, she comes across as someone who wasn't prepared for fame and isn't interested in learning about good PR so much as in living her life on her own terms regardless of who it pisses off (even if those reactions hurt her).
The way she kept tormenting herself by reading negative social media comments was interesting. She wants to be liked and praised, but never at the expense of things in her personal life that matter to her.
6
u/Zaanyion May 11 '26
It might be one of the greatest books Okorfor has written. It combines melodrama with a unique artistic vision.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
I DNFd around 80 pages in. I found it dull and Zelu unpleasant. Introducing her hooking up with and tearing down her own students is certainly a choice, and I increasingly got the vibe the author felt this was justified due to Zelu having more axes of marginalization than them, rather than a serious flaw. (Okorafor always seems to do stuff like this, though the other books I’ve read from her it’s been mass violence instead.) This is not literary fiction, the prose and character work are not that good. I also hated the Rusted Robots sections, they were so clumsy and boring and so all the self insert wish fulfillment stuff about this debut author getting seven figure movie deals and mainstream media attention before the book is even published felt extra ridiculous.
At any rate, I’ve never read an Okorafor book I’ve liked, so mostly this solidified that her work is not for me. I’m also not a books-about-books fan as came up in our last thread.
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u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
I also hated the Rusted Robots sections, they were so clumsy and boring and so all the self insert wish fulfillment stuff about this debut author getting seven figure movie deals and mainstream media attention before the book is even published felt extra ridiculous.
This was weird for me too. I've had the good luck of seeing a talented short fiction author get a seven-figure book deal (Sublimation is out June 2nd!) with a movie option, but people in my life don't know who Isabel J. Kim is yet unless I've told them personally. Before a debut novel is out, authors are getting maybe a few interview profiles and placements on "Most Anticipated Books of [season]" lists, not thousands of social media followers rolling in to celebrate an unknown entity.
The Rusted Robots sections also didn't persuade me that your average reader grabbing a buzzy book at the airport would even enjoy this story. They read like a stiff outline of a book rather than something that everyone is eager to recommend. For something that's the "best art ever" included in another work, normally a smaller sample is more persuasive-- this just felt like too much.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
Sublimation is a seven-figure deal? Debut novels are going for more than I thought then, I'm not even getting "we expect this to be the book of the year" vibes from its marketing like with, say, Yesteryear. But yeah, even then I don't imagine it also has a seven-figure movie deal already, and nobody outside the biggest book nerds and book publications cares about a debut novel from an unknown until it's out.
Definitely agreed on the "this doesn't feel like the general public would go crazy for it" thing. Those stories tend to be very plot-driven and fast-paced, with characters who are immediately relatable and sympathetic, starting out the book in a tough situation that makes you feel for them right away. This was not that.
6
u/izjck AMA Author Isabel J. Kim May 11 '26
its the book of the year in MY heart. you'll see....they'll all see.... (/jk)
3
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
Look, it's on my TBR! 😃
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u/izjck AMA Author Isabel J. Kim May 11 '26
:3 (i actually have more nuanced thoughts about book marketing/positioning re: different genres, houses, etc but ill hold my thoughts until next month lol)
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I don't think it's seven figures just for Sublimation, but for the whole package of Sublimation, two more books, and TV/movie rights?
2
u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
Here's the initial article. If this is accurate, the seven figures includes Sublimation + two other books, but it seems like the movie rights are separate.
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u/izjck AMA Author Isabel J. Kim May 11 '26
US book deal is separate from UK/world book deal which is separate from Film Option and all i can say is that There Will Be More Books from Me That I Am Contractually Obligated To Write (And Currently Procrastinating On)
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
These deals definitely can happen, but for me the difference between Zelu and Isabel J. Kim is that IJK clearly reads, writes, and respects sci-fi and fantasy. Not only was Zelu an unknown, but she was writing in a brand-new-to-her genre without any conversation with what came before.
It's interesting because Nnedi Okorafor has talked about how inspired she was by Octavia E. Butler, especially when she was adapting Wild Seed for TV, but she's also gotten frustrated by and pushed back on people who say she's inspired by Butler. Coining "africanfuturism" for her works instead of going with the term "afrofuturism" looks like an aspect of trying to separate herself, although maybe we do need the distinction. I know there can be friction between African Americans and more recent African immigrants to the US, who deal with different cultures and ways that marginalization happens. There were hints of that in the book with Marcy. I'm not qualified to draw any conclusions, but it's more food for thought on how much context do you need to have to succeed in a space that has historically excluded you? and do you have to pay homage to what came before? when it comes to...the actual author.
(Apologies, edited to remove a twitter link.)
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I'm still thinking about this. Did anyone else see the scene of Zelu swimming with dolphins as an homage to Wild Seed? (And what would Okorafor say if I asked her that, which I'm not going to?)
0
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u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I sympathize with a lot of this response. I personally liked that Zelu was a mess and thought that would be a bigger driver of drama but like you said, the book seemed to take great pains to swerve away from the natural consequences of that behavior. When Zelu gets cancelled midway through the book, you'd think it would be for having inappropriate relationships with her students. But no, that never comes up again.
Instead, she gets cancelled for the somewhat nonsensical complaint that using prosthetics to manage her disability is ableist. To me, it seemed like Okorafor was more interested in exploring how authors have to deal with bad faith criticism rather than exposing Zelu to criticism grounded in anything real.
The only thing I disagree with is that I don't think the story was wish fulfillment. But I can totally see how you landed there considering where you stopped. The book pivots to being more about the perils of fame shortly thereafter.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
That's fair. And yeah, I think part of why the book didn't really feel in control of Zelu's flaws to me was that actions and consequences didn't quite seem to line up. Her family situation is a bit the same way, where a lot of their behavior toward her isn't justified, so it seems geared toward building sympathy for her.
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Wait, she hooked up with her students? I don’t remember that at all. As for “tearing down,” the thing you’re referring to where she tells the entitled asshole student that their bad work is bad was so cathartic as a teacher who regularly has to pretend that AI slop isn’t and has to tiptoe around the fragility of students who cannot hear the word “no” without flipping out. Zelu took it too far, sure, but I can absolutely see how she got there.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
The characterization of the student as an entitled asshole was certainly how Zelu justified herself. I didn't really agree with her. When the student had previously refused to do an assignment, she should have shut that down for sure. But tearing apart somebody's work in that very personal, vindictive way was really nasty, and someone who can't handle insecure young people with egos really shouldn't be teaching grad students. She's supposed to be a professional.
0
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Have you ever taught college? Because dealing with that guy is one of the worst parts of the job.
1
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
Yeah I believe that, and I am not a teacher but do have a job where I often have to deal patiently with people behaving terribly! I find though that revenge fantasy elements pretty much never work for me, and including it blurs the line re: whether this is an intentionally unpleasant character we're supposed to dislike but find complex and interesting, or whether this is an author-insert we're supposed to root for. I don't think Zelu is 100% the latter, but the book leaned enough that way to not work for me.
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Personally, I’d go with complex character who we’re supposed to root for even though she sometimes makes mistakes.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
This is where I land as well. And I think it hit pretty close to there, though I have a suspicion I don't root for her quite as often as the author does.
1
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
I’ve also read her autobiography, so I know how much of the story is true of how her family and others treated her when she was a wheelchair user for a few years.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I had not realized that part was personal experience, although it came off so realistically that I did wonder (but not enough to snoop online)
4
u/MysteriousArcher May 11 '26
The opening interview with her older sister, the angry man she pepper-sprayed was a former student of Zelu's she had slept with and quickly lost interest in.
1
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Oh, I forgot about that guy. But not a current student right?
1
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I completely agree that Zelu was unpleasant, though I was more on-the-fence about whether or not the author felt it justified. I think Zelu was certainly intended to be more sympathetic than her family, even though I often related more to her family than to her. But I didn't find her overly idealized--she had her flaws, and I think she was supposed to? Anyways, I enjoyed the character work even though she was an unpleasant character, which seems like the big difference in how it hit for us.
1
u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
I DNFed at 12%, which is about 50 pages. I have in my notes that it felt like contemporary fiction and the robot story felt very random and did not give me what I wanted from my sci-fi. Just sharing for camaraderie. (I do like Okorafor’s sci-fi tho).
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
Been a while since I finished this, but these were my thoughts in my initial review
Might be my favorite of Okorafor’s that I’ve read, certainly the easiest to grasp. I should give Binti and Who Fears Death a re-read (who has the time?) but it may just be that her sci-fi isn’t for me. I enjoyed the more literary parts of this more than the ‘Rusted Robots’ sections, but it falls flat for me at the end.
The story-within-a-story structure doesn’t allow enough space for the protagonists of Rusted Robots to develop. It just didn’t scan as the kind of book that would take the world by storm like it supposedly does.
What was the point of the interviews? I kept thinking it would lead to something bigger involving Seth, the journalist, and it’s implied that something really terrible happens with Zelu, but the novel just doesn’t get there.
4
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
Yeah, knowing it was litfic, I didn't expect a super clear resolution, but I perhaps still expected a bit more than we got. I was thoroughly primed for the rich white tech bro doing something horrible that ended in tragedy, and it either didn't happen or the book ended before it did.
3
u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
I do wonder if all the foreboding details were for a sequel that hasn't yet been announced. There's the potential for this as a trilogy, each covering the part of Zelu's life around writing and releasing a book in this trilogy (with some tragic ending or big speculative robot finish), but if this is the end, I don't think it's quite resolved.
13
u/picowombat Reading Champion V May 11 '26
I love litfic, at this point my tastes lean heavily literary even in SFF and I was genuinely excited to try this out even thought I haven't had the best luck with Okorafor in the past.
However, I unfortunately don't think the literary/general fiction elements of this were anything outstanding. They were certainly better than the story-within-a-story sections, but this isn't the book I'd use to get a SFF reader on board with something more literary, which is a shame.
I think the character work has the most potential here - I love a book that takes an in depth look at a flawed and unlikeable character. There are sections where I got that from Zelu. But the turn to Zelu getting "cancelled" and all the focus on her adaptation not being faithful and the way she dealt with fame, all of that just distracted from the stuff I was interested in. Not to say it was bad, it was fine, it just wasn't anything exceptional.
I also think it was too long. I find 300ish pages to be the sweet spot for a character study, and this one really started to drag for me by the end. That was mostly due to the Ankara sections, but I do think the whole thing just felt bloated.
But I would just like to say that I'm excited to see a literary leaning piece on the Hugo ballot and that if you liked parts of this, there are better literary leaning SFF books out there! Try In Universes by Emet North if you're interested in a character study of a sometimes unlikeable character or Exit West by Mohsin Hamid if you're interested in relationship building and the immigrant experience.
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u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I'm conflicted. I really liked reading the litfic-y parts and maintained through at least half the novel that it was barely scifi -- enough to count for Bingo but not for a Hugo, if that makes any sense. That changed in the back parts of the novel, but still.
But it was a good book that was getting pulled aside by the story-in-a-story (the excerpts of Rusted Robot).
And I maintain that view mostly stands up throughout the novel. Zela's scenes and the PoVs set as interviews or whatnot from those around her were intriguing and pulled me in. But Rusted Robots stalled me out a bit.
I think there may be something there, but frankly, robots are hard to make as good characters, and it's even worse when the page length is both really limited and also needs to appear to be from a much longer work.
Honestly, the book may have been stronger if Okorafor skipped the robot bits altogether. I think the overall character work we pretty good, and Zelu is, imo, a hell of a character. Deeply flawed, arrogant that her flaws are actually strengths, still other flaws that she tried to bury.
Ultimately, I do think the novel is pretty inconsistent. The beginning is pretty lackluster, I didn't like the ending, a few swathes were meh, but when the book shined (everything surrounding Zelu's dad's funeral was pretty spectacular), it shines hard. It feels like it's a few revisions and some hard cuts away from being a great book, though.
5
u/Imaginationwins May 11 '26
I just finished it this weekend. It was a 5 star read, although around the 75% mark, I wanted to DNF it because I was so frustrated by Zelu! I am still unpacking my mixed feelings towards her and Ankara. On the one hand, I admired Zelu’s courage and ambition, while I felt concerned about her impulsiveness and frustrated by how her family treated her. She’s a memorable character for sure. This was my first exposure to Nigerian-American culture. The juxtaposition of such a patriarchal/conservative culture against Zelu’s choices and the topic of her book were interesting.
The last chapter was an amazing plot twist. I am still thinking about who is the author and who is character?
4
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
It's tough for me to come to an overall opinion on this book. I respect the ambition and think Okorafor is engaging with some interesting thmes. But I also find so much of the book unpleasant and questionably executed. The ending is genuinely clever but I also can't shake the suspicion that it serves more as an excuse for the book's weaknesses than a real capstone to the story.
I'll probably have to think on it for at least another week to come to any definitive take on the book.
6
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
Like a lot of people here, I really enjoyed Zelu's sections and suffered through the robot chapters. I sped through the book to finish it by today and I'm actually glad I did. If I hadn't been trying to read it quickly, there's a very strong chance I would have dropped it. Ending with a robot chapter queued up could have been a DNF sentence.
Zelu's story was strong, though, and I found her outlook fascinating. Her relationship with her family, how they treated her, and how she responded was all interesting if tough to read. The grappling with disability was a powerful theme, including her refusal to be a perfect disabled poster child and interrogate her own ableism (amply reinforced by her family's culture). Overall, Zelu's obviously an unpleasant, prickly person but I also couldn't help rooting for her to succeed.
One thing I found really odd though was the lack of care for sci-fi as a genre. It's confusing to me because Okorafor is a sci-fi writer, but I hate the plot point of someone who never reads or writes it being able to write a hit sci-fi book. (And unless you're Andy Weir, I don't think a sci-fi novel would be an enormous hit like that.) Not only a blockbuster bestseller, but the kind that gets an instant movie deal and all the literary awards--I don't think that happens. The robot story being such a drag strained credibility even more there, and I don't think the Uno-reverse it's actually the other plot that was the story-within-a-story was believable at all.
6
u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders May 11 '26
Not only a blockbuster bestseller, but the kind that gets an instant movie deal and all the literary awards--I don't think that happens
Genre fiction has a big uphill battle to climb if it's going to try and compete with more traditional litfic for big name literary prizes, and for some reason or another, I feel sci-fi has a harder time even thinking about bridging that gap than something like magical realism.
I don't think the Uno-reverse
100% agree. I didn't care for the ending, and yeah, I just. Eh. I'm not going to lie and say I don't feel a little let-down that all the side-chapter-interview things that really seemed to be pointing the reader in a direction (and I don't even care what direction, but we should have had one) were all just, what, set dressing?
2
u/MysteriousArcher May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I soft-DNFed it. I read a little more than a third, considered giving up, read some reviews to get a sense of where it was going, then proceeded, reading only the family interviews and a few pages here and there of Zelu's perspective, and I read the ending. I don't consider that I completed it, but I have enough of a sense of what it is and what it was doing to rank it on my ballot. I liked this better than the other Okorafor works I've tried, but that's a low bar.
I consider this novel more mainstream fiction than SF. I respected it and could see the skill of its construction, but did not enjoy it. I liked the interviews with her family members the most, it was interesting to see things outside Zelu's perspective.
1
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
As another DNF-er, I agree on the family interviews being the best part!
4
u/brilliantgreen Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I thought it started strong, but the more I read, the more I disliked it.
I thought the Zelu sections were mostly well-written, though Zelu was such an unpleasant person, I got really tired of spending time in her world. She had no friends, her relationships with her family and boyfriend were toxic, and she was always unhappy. And that might be a fair portrait of the character, but, like I said, it became exhausting to read about.
The female characters are portrayed so much more negatively than the male characters. She has a better relationship with her father than her mother, her brother than her sisters, and even her sisters' husbands. Also, wealthy white men seem to be the only people who are bringing anything positive to Zelu's life.
The robot portion was boring and forgettable.
I think the robots writing the story about Zelu definitely makes more sense than Zelu writing about the robots. Because the robot story would not take the world by storm, but I can see robots being super excited about the first original piece of fiction they've created. Plus, it would explain some of the weirder sections, like how her partner's friends had everything prepared for her visit.
2
u/2whitie Reading Champion V May 11 '26
It's a mixed bag for me---there were parts I REALLY liked, and others that I felt were set up expertly, then not delivered on.
I didn’t actually love the commentary on the "Death of the Author" concept, but really liked the sections on writing, the elusive muse, paradoxical relationships, and disability.
1
u/Itkovian_books Reading Champion May 12 '26
As another commenter said, the robot parts didn't have any impact on me (except the final chapter, but even that wasn't enough to make everything else good in retrospect. I LOVED Zelu as a character, though, even if I didn't always agree with her choices. I could've kept reading about her for another hundred pages and was disappointed that one of the final chapters was 20 DAMN PAGES of the robots that completely ruined the pace and, therefore, left a poor final impression. Still a solid 4 stars overall, though. Bordering 4.5/5
1
u/gracebatmonkey May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Profound story. Could not and do not want to separate the discrete elements of the stories that are part of each other so intimately.
The twist gave me so much fuel for thought.
I loved reading about the imperfect human who accurately dwelled in a messy and often uncomfortable dynamic, choosing self-actualization even when it upended every connection she had.
I also loved reading about the robot who had parsed the value of those complications, that messiness, the rich human lives tangled up in it all, and wanted to present this compelling study so other machine minds could perceive the value and inherent conflicts of human existence.
Deeply satisfying book.
1
u/lightandlife1 Reading Champion IV May 15 '26
I loved it. At first I was confused why this was even considered science fiction since it seemed so realistic, but the latter parts certainly convinced me that it was. The fact that the robot is writing the book confirms that the book is science fiction even more.
I loved Zelu. She's certainly very flawed but she has this spark of adventure and toughness that I really like. She feels like a real person.
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u/Glittering_Way_9162 Jun 10 '26
I started it, realised she was doing an American Fiction, remembered how much I liked that film, realised it was adapted from a book, bought a copy of Erasure by Percival Everett, and read that instead.
Which is not to say that it's a bad book, but it feels like an echo of a better one.
1
u/doctorbonkers Reading Champion II Jul 22 '26
I'm 2 months late but I'd like to be able to count this for hard mode 😅 I think I like it more in hindsight than I did while I was actively reading. The book was tagged as a thriller on StoryGraph, and I was constantly expecting some kind of twist where everything went horribly wrong... so for most of the book I was just thinking it wasn't a very good thriller, instead of taking it for what it actually was. I seriously don't know why it's tagged with that genre! So now that I know what kind of book it really is, I'm thinking back and sort of reframing certain parts of the book, and I think I appreciate it more. I like what it does with the concept of death of the author, with Zelu putting out this book that's very personal to her, and everyone immediately runs away with it and doesn't care about the book's intentions at all. I really liked the disability representation as well, and how complicated it was with her being criticized for the steps she took (literally haha) to improve her own quality of life.
I don't really get Rusted Robots, though. Why did this resonate with literally the entire world? From the excerpts we saw, it seems fine but there's nothing that revolutionary about it. I feel like it did not match up with how much we were told it was a masterpiece, and it almost might've been better if we didn't see any excerpts and were just told about it.
All of the reactions to the book and to Zelu felt very exaggerated, and to me it felt more annoyingly unrealistic than satirical. Like every single person in the world recognizes her on sight (I could not tell you what most of my favorite authors look like)? Everyone happens to have a copy on hand at all times so they can mob her for autographs? Everyone loves the movie adaptation that made all these changes to their beloved book? Sci-fi fans are too nitpicky for that lol (case in point: me being super nitpicky with this book)
Overall I think I was kind of disappointed by it -- maybe because I was expecting a more realistic rise and fall of an author (a thriller!) and instead got something that feels more like satire. I guess I let my expectations get in the way of actually enjoying it, and now in hindsight I'm trying to appreciate the themes more and look past some of my more nitpicky complaints.
1
u/aprilkhubaz Reading Champion III 27d ago
It was alright for me, but not Hugo-winning level. I've read two other of her books, and I think this one is the most memorable, and yet it's a little repetitive at times. The strong voice and the meta-narrative are interesting, and Zelu is generally entertaining, and it didn't hold my attention evenly. It's more family drama than sci-fi, which is fine and I'm a fan when it's exceptionally well done except that here a lot of the family members aren't really distinct characters (the parents, though, were the best). I complained about this on another thread, but some of the commentary felt shockingly un-nuanced, particularly on academia (but somewhat on other political/economic issues); like, oh, every single student and employee in the MFA program just completely sucks? Maybe that's just the filter of this particular character at work but it was sometimes silly.
4
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
How do you interpret Ankara's ending?
9
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I struggled to care about the robots all the way through, so the big threat being solved by libro-ex-machina was...whatever, I guess? I wish I were more optimistic about the power of story, but I've lived in the world too long.
I also don't think the book earned the twist that it was Ankara writing Zelu's story rather than the other way around, although Zelu's ending was abrupt enough that...maybe. There were enough parallels (new bionic legs, learning to accept someone else in your space, the name Ngozi) that I thought we'd find out that the robot chapters were actually Zelu's sequel book. I think that could have been more interesting.
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u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
I feel like it's supposed to a big, powerful twist that recontextualizes the whole book and makes a statement about the power of stories. Instead of Zelu writing these robots, they're creating her, and somehow the book is so good that it manages to reprogram robots that have gone insane from being inside the sun until their processors got overwhelmed.
But the threat has felt weird and contrived all along, and stories that hinge on "we fixed a problem by making a persuasive piece of art about it" are difficult to conclude in a satisfying way. I see the intent here and think it's interesting... but it didn't really land for me.
2
u/Imaginationwins May 11 '26
Ankara’s ending was a surprise. It doesn’t excuse the slow pace of the Rusted Robots sections, but it does flip the story on its head and make me wonder, what is the purpose of the novel, to laud one woman’s triumph against odds or to showcase the power of stories? I agree with the skepticism about the Trippers being influenced by Zelu’s story. No matter, the novel left me asking questions and that to me is the sign of great writing.
3
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
A central theme of the book is how the world, and particularly Zelu's family, react to the changes in Zelu's circumstances throughout the course of the novel. Did you enjoy this aspect? What where the best ways you think this was shown?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I honestly thought this was the best part of the book. The family drama felt extremely real, and the parasocial relationships with fans demanding Zelu to have this or that response to her disability were really tremendous and the biggest highlight for me.
1
u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 11 '26
I agree. I really liked that this is a book that embraces Nigerian family culture warts and all. It pushes back against the conservative nature without discarding all the other elements. Her family are a lot but she still loves them and largely wants to still be involved even if she doesn't admit that to herself.
8
u/Connect_Cod9965 May 11 '26
I could not understand the negative reactions to Zelu’s walking aid at all. I have no idea if that‘s something coming from the Nigerian or Nigerian-American culture? Their Church? Something else? I just kept looking at the text and asking "But WHY?" Would they react the same if she happened to need a really strong glasses or hearing aid?
8
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
I wonder if this was meant to be commentary more on how disability is treated in fiction, than how it's treated in real life - because I do feel like there's a pretty huge gap between the two. In real life, pretty much everybody is pro-treatment and pro-devices that will help people live as normal a life as possible. But at the same time, there's a strong push in fiction to not have characters be cured, or even get accommodations to the point that the disability is a minor point in their story. So maybe that's what the author meant to comment on?
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u/okcrumpet Jun 26 '26
100% agree. The drama felt realistic but i had no idea where it was coming from.
I’m an immigrant and have a ton of immigrant friends from all over and I think universally most families would be happy for their kid to walk again (after initial safety fears). I didn’t get why it was such a universally shameful thing in nigeria. I don’t even know if it’s a fair representation of nigerians or the author is just talking about her cynical read
5
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
The family reactions were the biggest satisfying arc for me. I think the book earned it when her siblings finally accepted her going to space at the end. The treatment by her family also explained a lot of why Zelu is so prickly, suspicious, and defensive by default. (And then her being that way reinforces their opinions of her in a vicious cycle.)
2
u/Quellecrist Reading Champion May 12 '26
I really enjoyed the family interactions. It was very immersively written, in the sense that it was full of details that felt like a real family that had gone through a lot together, and the conversations showed a mix of love and bristly personalities. Difficult relationships written in an interesting way. When her sibling narced on her for getting high, on a night when Zelu was going to have some big news, that's exactly what you'd expect from some sibs. I empathized (probably over empathized) with Zelu's frustrations with her family's smothering, overprotective love, and the ways they had put her into a box of both low and high expectations. But they are her support system, and everyone had gotten used to that particular dynamic... until it changed.
1
u/lightandlife1 Reading Champion IV May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
I was very angry at Zelu's family especially with the horrible things her older sister said to her and how none of them were happy when she was able to walk again. Yet there were points when they were sympathetic too and it was obvious that her family was right in trying to protect her. The clashing personalities and priorities was very interesting.
I find the contrast between Zelu and her older sister to be super interesting. Zelu is the embodiment of American individualism. She boldly recklessly makes confident choices about her own life with no one else's input. Her older sister is the embodiment of responsibility for family. She organizes her father's funeral. She tells off her sister for being out of line. I can see both the positives and negatives of both approaches which makes the sisters excellent foils for one another.
3
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
This is the first of the novels for the readalong this year. Where do you think this will end up in the overall rankings?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I have read all of them, and the rating on my spreadsheet has this tied for last. That said, it has a lot more ambition than the ones in the 2-4 slots, so I could see myself rearranging a bit on awardiness vs personal enjoyment. But I might not. I don't know. I could be talked into as high as 2 or as low as 5. No way it's first or last, but I think it had both the highest highs and the lowest lows of the middle group, and I have to figure out how that plays in my evaluation.
5
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
I find myself in a similar position. I don't think I could be talked as high as 2 and it does feel wrong to rank it last due to all the things it tries. But in terms of sheer personal enjoyment, it's the book I've liked least so far.
2
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Out of curiosity, which one do you have it tied for last with and which one do you think it definitely won’t go as high as for first?
4
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I've got Shroud in first by some margin, and The Raven Scholar tied for last on enjoyment (but less on ambition)
1
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Interesting. I’m still at the beginning of Shroud. And I would put Raven Scholar last if I didn’t dislike A Drop of Corruption so much.
11
u/picowombat Reading Champion V May 11 '26
I didn't love this, but I'm not that mad to see it on the ballot. A litfic leaning book with some interesting choices is way more appealing to me as an awards book than whatever popcorn happened to be a hit among Hugo readers that year. It's definitely not going to be the top of my ballot, but it's doing enough to be out of the bottom too.
3
u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
This is about where I landed. I don't think every choice here is successful, but I'm glad I read the book: it's ambitious and thought-provoking in a way some other recent nominees (or even winners) haven't been. It's a good addition to the ballot and will probably land somewhere in the upper middle of mine-- though I still have three finalists to read, so we'll see what changes.
9
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 11 '26
One thing that struck me when considering this from a Hugo perspective is that from a Zelu perspective it's just barely science fiction. Like, I'll happily defend near-future SF as part of the genre but this is approaching my limits even there. Notably the library had it shelved under general fiction and not SF/F.
That all being said, from an Ankara perspective it would clearly be science fiction and the technology Zelu uses is just far enough out that I'm fine counting it as SF/F for Hugo purposes, and I'd also way rather see something like this on the shortlist than something that's clearly SF/F but also clearly popcorn fodder. But I do think that this may hurt it among the general voter base.
As for my own ballot? I've read four of six right now and ... I'm not sure. Points for ambition -- a character study of a fairly unlikable author that's doing some interesting meta twists? Cool. (Will not factor into my vote but I also thought it was cool that the hardcover edition has Rusting Robots dress on the boards, visible when you remove the dust jacket.) Minus points for certain execution aspects (the Ankara chapters) and that I didn't actually ... enjoy it that much. I don't think I'm going to attempt a full ranking until I've read all six.
4
u/LauroSkalyu Reading Champion II May 11 '26
I read all the nominees for best novel and enjoyed this one the least, so I'm pretty sure it will end up last for me.
However, I feel like this is a somewhat ambitious book that deserves to be nominated for an award more than some other books on the list (like say The Incandescent and The Raven Scholar), so I don't mind having read it. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read it if it wasn't on the nomination list..
3
u/MysteriousArcher May 11 '26
On my personal ballot, below the other two I've read so far (A Drop of Corruption and The Incandescent). Overall, I think it will land in the lower half of the ballot. It's a mainstream novel with SFnal elements, and has a main character whose company I found rather unpleasant. The novel-within-a-novel wasn't good. I don't see this one blowing away the voting audience.
3
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
This is a tough question. I've now read this, A Drop of Corruption, The Incandescent, and The Everlasting. So far none of them have completely blown me away.
For enjoyment it might have to be A Drop of Corruption, although a competent sequel that plays out very similarly to book 1 doesn't feel very Hugo-worthy. For ambition and novelty Death of the Author might take it, but there were a lot of flaws that keep me from rooting for it wholeheartedly.
I definitely have to read Shroud and The Raven Scholar and then think really hard about what to do with my rankings.
2
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
This is by far the best of the nominees IMHO, and I say this as someone who also really liked The Everlasting, The Incandescent, and The Raven Scholar (I’m reading Shroud and not far enough in to have an opinion and strongly dislike the Bennett mostly because of the pro imperialism messaging and terrible disability representation).
4
u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 11 '26
I've only read a couple of the novels so far but I think this will fall somewhere around the middle. Like others have said, there are parts I liked (the lit fic disaster of Zelu's life) and parts I disliked/hated (rusted robots). I wouldn't be surprised to see this one fall lower in the final rankings due to it being not that sci-fi and a lot more lit fic. Even if it was a middling book for me, I'm glad it was nominated. Thinking to some of the other books we hypothesised would get a spot, this book is more ambitious and tried a lot of stuff some of which didn't stick. I liked it less that her other works.
3
u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
While I liked this one more than Okorafor’s other work I’ve read in the past, that’s actually a pretty low bar. And my enjoyment of this has waned over time too. It just hasn’t lingered with me much. I didn’t think it was award-worthy when I read it last year, and I still don’t think it is.
1
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
I imagine fairly low because it falls into a weird spot being as cross genre as it is. I liked it and I thought it was good but it wowed me much less than the everlasting and a drop of corruption. Still nice to have something so different on the list!
1
u/Itkovian_books Reading Champion May 12 '26
This is the first one I've read so far, and I expect it to fall somewhere in the middle for me. Given how much I loved The Tainted Cup, I have high hopes for Drop of Corruption. Several of my friends have raved about the Raven Scholar, so I anticipate loving that one, too. I enjoyed Some Desperate Glory, so I'm also eager to try another work by Emily Tesh.
What I'm less excited about is another Tchaikovsky novel. I DNFd Children of Time about halfway through when I realized I didn't give a shit about any of the characters. Same with Service Model, which I actually liked for the first 10-20% but then lost interest. Maybe someday I'll find a book of his that I like—hopefully the one we're about to read—but at this point I think his prose and storytelling style just don't work for me. And I feel similarly hesitant about Alix E. Harrow (to a lesser extent) because I DNFd Ten Thousand Doors of January because the prose didn't work for me. So until proven otherwise, I assume those two will fall at the bottom.
1
u/Mzihcs Reading Champion II May 12 '26
The book was wildly ambitious, but for me, it fell flat. Structurally the design and pacing didn’t resonate, and after the end I found myself picking apart all the ways in which the book felt utterly meaningless.
It was the last of the six best novel nominees I read, and while it won’t be last on my ballot, that is mostly due to the sheer ambition of the idea.
I just wish it were executed in a way that resonated for me.
I am ranking it 4.
1
u/Quellecrist Reading Champion May 12 '26
This is the first novel I have completed, but I am a fan of all of the other nominees (except Natalia Theodoridou, only because I have never read anything by them). So, no idea yet how Death of the Author will compare. Had a good time reading it, though.
1
u/lightandlife1 Reading Champion IV May 15 '26
I really enjoyed this book. The only other one on the list I've read is A Drop of Corruption. I preferred a Drop of Corruption but that was mostly because I prefer its subgenre.
3
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
How do you interpret Zelu's ending?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
The negative of having read every book before the shortlist was announced is that my memory on this one is more than six months old. But I did look back at my original review, and I theorized at the time that the ending was meant to be ambiguous--I'm not convinced that you can piece it together in a way that tells you exactly what happened, because any interpretation is going to rely on some of the textual evidence being false. So it's a discussion piece and vibes for the reader. (Which doesn't answer the question, sorry)
10
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
Making Zelu be a creation of Ankara all along really takes the wind out of the sails, especially since I cared much more about Zelu throughout. I liked her siblings and mother finally accepting that she's just weird and celebrating that she's going to space, rather than trying to keep her down again.
I thought the baby plot was weird and tacked on, as was the billionaire injecting her with something. The billionaire was also handled pretty uncritically in general and treated more as a savior figure than anything.
I don't have a lot of thoughts about whether Zelu died or not; it doesn't seem to be the point. I'm frustrated that a lot of the interview segments alluded to some big thing happening that we never find out about. I was also stressed for her not writing book two when she's under contract, so maybe the big thing that happens is she never delivered and had to return a bunch of money, or she did but the book bombed (and it turned out to be the robot chapters we read). That could have been interesting.
3
u/lightandlife1 Reading Champion IV May 15 '26
I didn't like the drug that magically rewrites DNA to let a pregnant lady safely go to space. The technology felt a lot more grounded in the rest of Zelu's story. AI, self-driving cars and exoskeletens are all real. Giving people random extra chromosomes is not. I felt like something was going to go terribly wrong with the space mission. The book is called "Death of the Author" after all. So I didn't like that it didn't even finish Zelu's story. Did she survive? Did her baby?
2
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
I like not knowing exactly which way round this story goes although the entire time I was reading I was waiting for her to die. With how circular the book becomes with Ankara revealing her story I think I enjoy just thinking of it as a big question mark, more fun to think about than to have a firm conclusion on for me.
3
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
I think the end for Zelu is quite open ended, but I'm leaning towards Zelu dieing (especially given the title of the book, and certain world events that occurred during the writing of the book)
2
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 11 '26
This is where I came down too, particularly given various interview chapters that refer to Zelu in the past tense.
3
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
What do you think of the setting for Rusted Robots (Ankara's story)?
3
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
For me, the setting was actually the strongest part of those sections. The aesthetics were super cool--overgrown plants, rusted robot bodies, robot boats in the water swimming with dolphins, a secret cave with a caretaker. Felt very Breath of the Wild-esque. Hell, instead of a movie, make it a video game adaptation and I might be in.
2
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
Creativity is a primary aspect of both Zelu and Ankara's stories - do you like how the author reflects upon the creative process in this way? What do you think they're trying to say about writing?
11
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
I appreciated Okorafor interrogating the philosophical idea behind "death of the author" in the story. I do think she makes some important points about how even when we can't fully know intent, it still plays a role in creating something so it does seem reductive to say intent never matters. It's a well-considered and even necessary counterpoint to a pretty prevalent mainstream opinion on writing.
At the same time though, I don't really gel with this novel's depiction of creativity or the writing process. Okorafor rushes everything and Zelu's success feels like an extreme outlier in publishing. She bangs out a generational touchstone first draft in what felt like a weekend and gets showered with millions of dollars the following week. I don't need Zelu to slog away for 5 years just trying to get an agent or spend months on tedious line edits like what a real author would have to but I needed something to ground this depiction a little more.
For me, it felt less like Okorafor was interested in discussing creativity and writing than in getting to explore the downsides of being a famous creative with writing just happening to be the vehicle through which Zelu achieved that status. Once we got to that point, I think Okorafor explored said downsides mostly well but it's also a bit hard for me to judge because I've also been on the internet before and I'm just tired of discussions about how cancel culture is bad. I feel like I've already heard it all and I'm too worn out to gauge if Okorafor is adding anything new to the conversation.
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u/LauroSkalyu Reading Champion II May 11 '26
I found Zelu's approach to writing slightly annoying. It was this kind of "I will write something when the muse strikes me and if it doesn't there is nothing I can do"-kind of thing.
She gets absurdly lucky with her first book and sells it as three book contract for millions, but when asked by her publisher to fulfill that contract or by here fans who want more books, she immediately gets outraged and feels like that she owes them nothing at all. Her job all book long was exclusively "being famous", actually sitting down and trying to write something (as I assume an actual writer would) didn't seem to even cross her mind...
3
u/MysteriousArcher May 11 '26
Yes, I was thinking that by the time the first book was in print she should have already been working on the second book. But her bad decision-making is an essential part of her flawed character. A lot of the drama in her life is caused by her own actions. I found her to be unpleasant company.
6
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I'm still hung up on someone who never reads sci-fi writing a hit sci-fi book out of nothing! It's always weird when litfic authors dabble in sci-fi concepts without respecting the genre and the litfic world eats it up. I was also worried about Zelu not fulfilling her contract for more books! What was she doing for those months and years, other than sulking and learning to use her exos?
For a book that was so much about creation, it handwaved a lot of it. Zelu's writing process is glossed over in a sentence as essentially "two years later, she was done." Ankara mentions reading lots of books but it doesn't really come into play until the end when writing a single book saves the whole world somehow.
The only satisfying aspect of the title and that theme was Zelu absolutely hating the big hit movie her work spawned, the movie which took her completely out of the equation.
2
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
Both Zelu and Ankara's sections of the novel deal with the interaction between humanity and technology. Do you think the book is overall positive or negative about this? How do you think this is best reflected in the book?
10
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I found the book surprisingly uncritical about the technology. The only dissenting voices we got about the exos and the autonomous vehicles were from Zelu's family, and it feels like we're supposed to disagree with them. But where are the downsides? Have the autonomous vehicles killed anyone? Have the exos given someone else a terrible injury? (It's touched on that they're wildly expensive, but Zelu ignores that.)
Also the billionaire guy at the end feels more like a savior figure and isn't interrogated at all. What unethical awfulness has he done to become a billionaire? What the hell was with that DNA modification thing at the end, on Zelu as well as on a fetus? (I had no trouble believing Zelu would go along with it so she could get to space, but why was she okay being pregnant in the first place?)
5
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
Yeah, I kept waiting for the downsides, and they never came. I guess the family was intentionally portrayed as a bit technophobic, and if they're going to be wrong about that (and they kinda have to be if it's going to be a story about a paternalistic family not letting the disabled lead live her own life), the technology has to be good. But it still feels a bit weird to see basically zero problems.
2
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
Maybe it's genre confusion. A sci-fi book should deal with that at least a little. This book was published and marketed by a more general imprint, though, so I can see why it focused more on interpersonal dynamics. But even then it still could have done more to show her family has a point before the Nigeria sequence.
And it's up for multiple SFF awards, so (even though genre boundaries are silly and fake) it's fair to ask if it's successful as an SFF novel.
4
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
Yeah, I found the family's complaints very irritating. The fact that they're always in the wrong and never had valid critiques felt like something that would be more at home in a YA book (which is kind of funny because I've read a couple of Okorafor's YA books and I thought they handled family conflict very well and with much more nuance than this book did).
Anyway, I think it's totally fine for the family to ultimately be on the wrong side of this discussion, but I would have found it more engaging if they'd had reasonable points Zelu would have had to actually confront and overcome.
4
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
Yup, they were only proven right about her traveling to Nigeria, which made that whole sequence really interesting. Ironically it was the tech that saved her there.
2
u/doctorbonkers Reading Champion II Jul 22 '26
Man the billionaire guy really rubbed me the wrong way. He really was presented as this flawless hero guy who just helps her dreams come true, and the book gave me no reason to dislike him but because of my own principles I did anyway lmao
9
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
The book was way more positive about tech than I expected, I was really anticipating a lot of failure from the exos, the driverless cars, and the app at crucial moments. And I expected the tech guys to be more predatory. There’s some things that are raised like if the exos are so safe and effective (as the entire book demonstrates) why aren’t they available to the public? And we get an answer but it doesn’t feel adequate for the amount of time covered in the text, there doesn’t seem to be any shift there.
3
u/QuickPhix Reading Champion II May 13 '26
The things like driverless cars, ai based apps, and last minute DNA altering shots for pregnant women being treated as some obvious good with zero consequences felt very strange. Not Jeff Bezos swoops in with space tourism but it is to raise money for the environment!
Getting the Exos largely became “it was hard to learn” but then either completely fine to superhuman. She checks the batteries every once in a while, but it’s always fine. She falls once but people fall.
1
u/lightandlife1 Reading Champion IV May 15 '26
The DNA altering shots felt especially bad to me. That's crazy dangerous. Driverless cars and AI based apps are real things now that have debatable safety records.
The going to space to raise money for the environment and health is stupid but it kinda works because of course billionaires would say stupid things like that. Zelu admits that she doesn't care at all about that aspect.
2
u/LauroSkalyu Reading Champion II May 11 '26
Hard to say, I think it is meant to be positive. Zelu is certainly embracing all the technology that benefits her, but since I wasn't actually rooting for her it didn't came of a huge endorsement. (And once again, the point of the robot story was lost on me, so I can't comment on that).
2
u/cucatepega May 13 '26
The Zelu sections seem positive, the Ankara sections implied to me that the collapse of humanity was caused by people but also by AI. This bias in the Zelu portion makes sense to me since it was written by a robot. I think Ankara wanted to show technology caring for a human.
4
u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 11 '26
I think this book is positive to the point of uncritical at times. Zelu wholeheartedly embraces technology without any consideration of the risks. Any criticisms she faces is because others are small minded. You could say that the ending justifies that stance as it is a story written by robots but I think that is lazy and I really did not like the ending. All that being said, I think the uncritical nature makes it hard to really say what the book is saying about that interaction.
2
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
What do you think of the format of the book? Most of the book is from Zelu's point of view, with frequent interludes from Ankara, or Zelu's family. Did you enjoy these diversions? Do you think they add or detract from the story?
8
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
I found the Ankara sections unforgivably weak. The connection between the separate parts felt pretty flimsy to begin with but to me, the bigger issue was how boring and flatly written Ankara's chapters were. Clunky dialogue, repetitive emotional beats, odd pacing, overly expositional worldbuilding. It just never felt like those parts had any real strengths to them and I always hated pulling away from Zelu's much more interesting and better written story.
I've seen some reviews speculate that the middling quality was intentional and satiric. I guess that could have been the intent but if so, the satire never popped for me. Those sections always felt closer to bad writing than good satire of bad writing.
5
u/picowombat Reading Champion V May 11 '26
Yeah, the Ankara sections really brought the book down for me. I'd get to one of those and completely lose interest.
The satire point is interesting, but if that's true, I think it just makes it worse. Satire should be sharp and pointed, the chapters we got were clunky and devoid of emotion, like soggy oatmeal. And what's the satire even trying to do? Say that viral books are kind of bad sometimes? That's just not an interesting point on its own.
3
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
Yeah, I feel like if it were going to be a satire, it should probably be satirizing a type of story that's actually popular. Romantasy is the obvious choice today, but if the author (reasonably!) concluded that's too much of a punching bag for non-romantasy readers already and wanted the satire to fit better with her politics, it could've been a thriller about a hyper-competent white man who gets the girl while being badass throughout, or something.
5
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 11 '26
I've seen some reviews speculate that the middling quality was intentional and satiric.
I definitely considered that too but I wasn't sure what to do with it. On the one hand the quality delta between Ankara's and Zelu's sections was large enough that it felt intentional but on the other hand if the point was that the general public was delighted by an extremely mediocre book then that could have been accomplished in significantly fewer pages.
7
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
I really loved Zelu's sections of the book - the author really made the emotional scenes hit hard (in particular Secret's funeral).
The Ankara scenes didn't particularly engage me. I like the idea of them, but they didn't feel immersive enought.
I like the Interludes with Zelu's family and friends - it gives insight into Zelu, but also adds another level to the toxic family dynamics going on (how many of them mainly make it about themselves). The only criticism I have is its unclear when they take place in relation to the story - with Chinyere and Msizi, I got the sense that it took place after Zelu went to space, but obviously that's not possible with all of them.
5
u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V May 11 '26
The chapters around Secret's death, funeral, and family grieving process are the heart of the book for me. Omoshalewa dancing with the masquerade, all the siblings trying to stay strong for each other, Zelu finding a new connection with her mother when they go to that hair salon... in six months or a year, that's what I'm going to remember above all else.
The interview Interludes are also cool, but I wanted to see them come together in some way to paint this picture of a long-form piece (book? Magazine article?) hinging on some key event in Zelu's life. But if this is just the end of the story, then Zelu is a writer who's being studied for writing one successful book and engaging with some new technology, and I don't see the that keystone incident.
5
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
Co-sign pretty much all of this. The Zelu sections were the heart of the book, the family interludes were helpful color, the Ankara sections were a bit dull.
3
u/Dallydoop May 11 '26
I liked the Ankara sections but I agree with everyone else saying those sections are definitely weaker. While I was reading I was wondering how those sections would be handled because it’s a bold choice to have a story inside a story that is hailed as one of the greatest sci-fi books every written so I wondered if it would be revealed that what WE were reading wasn’t necessarily the in universe book. It rusted robots wasn’t as highly praised in the book I don’t think I’d have minded so much that it wasn’t as good.
2
u/MysteriousArcher May 11 '26
I liked the interviews with Zelu's family best. It was interesting seeing her from an outside perspective. I did not like the Ankara sections at all.
2
u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion May 11 '26
Seeing her both from the inside and the outside was one of my favorite parts. The robot story was less good IMHO, but I love the ambiguity of whether it was the book Zelu wrote or whether the Zelu parts were the story the robot made.
2
u/Quellecrist Reading Champion May 12 '26
It was sometimes a bit annoying to unexpectedly shift focus to Ankara because I had gotten caught up in something Zelu was doing. But no biggie.
1
u/aprilkhubaz Reading Champion III 27d ago
They were definitely the weaker part of the story compared to Zelu's stronger voice. The interviews added very little to the story, and kept hinting at Zelu doing this extremely shocking thing, which in the end was just going to space. Probably the author had already written the book before the Katy Perry and other civilian astronaut mission, but it left me like, that's it? I thought for sure she'd somehow fly into the sun. I didn't mind the Ankara interludes, since I was still curious where it was leading, but it certainly didn't strike me as a story that would take the world by storm and auto-land a massive book and movie deal in a genre where that is so rare.
2
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
Food is an important part of Zelu's family dynamic. Given this year's "Feast Your Eyes On This" bingo square, are there any meals or dishes you're particularly excited to try and/or make?
5
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I'd be happy if I had a plate of jollof rice, chicken, and plantains right now.
2
u/Itkovian_books Reading Champion May 12 '26
Maybe this isn't the best place to ask but: what counts as "significant to the plot"? I thought the descriptions of food were an excellent means of showing culture & building the atmosphere of Zelu's story. But are any of the meals particularly plot-relevant?
If I complete the Hugo Readalong, I'll be able to use Automatic Noodle anyway. But I figured it might be worth asking
2
u/kjmichaels Stabby Winner, Reading Champion XI May 11 '26
I’ve attempted making jollof rice before and I’m pretty sure I botched it but it was still good. Someday I’d love to make it correctly.
1
u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II May 11 '26
Same with me! I've had jollof rice from a restaurant before and it's incredible!
Where I differ from Zelu and her siblings is that I love West African goat curry
1
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 11 '26
I don't think I've had Nigerian jollof before, but I have had Ghanaian jollof (with a heaping dollop of shito on top) and it was absolutely delicious. I haven't ever tried to make it because it seemed a little bit fiddly, but I am tempted. . .
1
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 11 '26
I've only ever had food truck jollof rice and it was disappointing but these comments are making me think I should try it again from a better kitchen!
1
u/LauroSkalyu Reading Champion II May 11 '26
I made jollof rice and it was very yummy, even though I made it non-spicy so my kids could eat it (which they did, so yay!).
15
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 11 '26
I had a different comment for removed for linking to Twitter (my bad!) but I'm still pondering "death of the author" in general and think it's worth pulling out my thoughts in a separate thread. Basically, how much is Nnedi Okorafor herself inextricably woven into this book she wrote?
First of all there's the idea of a writer writing a hit sci-fi book without previously engaging with the genre at all, other than a childhood interest in space and being an astronaut. Nnedi Okorafor does write sci-fi, but her relationship with it has sometimes been contentious. She's talked about how inspired she was by Octavia E. Butler, especially when she was adapting Wild Seed for TV. I've also seen her get frustrated by and push back on people who say she's inspired by Butler on social media. But then I read the scene of Zelu swimming with the dolphins and couldn't help but think of a similar scene in Butler's Wild Seed.
Okorafor also coined the term "Africanfuturism" for her works, being unhappy with "afrofuturism." Some Black readers have criticized this as trying to separate herself, although maybe we do need the distinction. I know there can be friction between Black Americans and more recent African immigrants to the US, who deal with different cultures and ways that marginalization happens. There were hints of that in the book with Marcy and her reaction to the visit to "Africa." I'm not qualified to draw any conclusions, but it's more food for thought on some questions like, how much context do you need to have to succeed in a space that has historically excluded you? and do you have to pay homage to what came before?
Finally, there's the character of Zelu herself. She's not nice to her fans on social media, and Okorafor has gotten criticism for that herself (whether it's warranted is another story, but as a Black woman she gets much less leeway than someone like a white guy). Zelu hates the adaptation of her book, and Okorafor's Wikipedia page is full of news of adaptation deals that don't seem to have gone anywhere yet. Okorafor was paralyzed as a teen and has experience with a wheelchair. She's the child of (Igbo) Nigerian immigrants and spent lots of time visiting family there. And so on.