What to read this weekend: An immersive new work of Africanfuturism

I hadn’t previously read anything by Nnedi Okorafor when I picked up Death of the Author, but after only a few pages in, I found myself making a mental note to add everything else she’s ever written to my To Read pile. Okorafor coined the term “Africanfuturism,” describing a subcategory of science fiction that’s “more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view” than the more “America-centric” Afrofuturism.

Death of the Author is kind of like two books in one, following Nigerian American main character Zelu’s meteoric rise to fame as the author of an unexpected hit novel, Rusted Robots, and bringing us into said novel, set in a humanless future society inhabited by robots and AI.

Zelu, a disabled mid-30s writer with a large extended family, is going through a rough patch when the book starts, and has to fight to be taken seriously by the people around her when she becomes successful overnight. She faces constant pushback as she tries new things, like self-driving cars and an exoskeleton mobility aid. The family dynamics and the world she lives in — on the cusp of major change driven by technological advancements — felt very real, and I became much more invested in their drama than what was playing out in Rusted Robots. But it’s all in there for a reason, and the two narratives weave together well to create an immersive and thought-provoking story.