Death of the Algorithm

Over the past decade, Nnedi Okorafor has earned a reputation for challenging and culturally nuanced works of science fiction. Along the way, she’s been shortlisted for five Hugo Awards and won two, earned two Lodestars, and taken home a Nebula trophy. With Death of the Author, she has penned her most ambitious work yet.

Cover of Death of the Author
(Image via Goodreads)

The book explores the enduring power of stories that provide threads of hope across generations. By weaving interlocking narratives and switching back and forth between protagonist, Nigerian American academic author Zelu Onyenezi-Oyedele, and a humanoid robot (a Hume) named Ankara, the reader is offered an evolving, existential meditation about survival. In Okorafor’s vision, even sentient robots will carry these stories forward long after humanity is gone, dancing in the narrative footsteps of the humans who created them.

As the novel opens, Zelu is precariously employed and struggling when she finds success in her first attempt at writing science fiction. “Rusted Robots”, a text that is inspired by personal crises — about robots and bodiless AI — catapults Zelu to the heights of fame (with all the usual trappings, including the degradation of privacy, copyright and moral rights infringement, celebrity attention, and the exacerbation of a long-simmering identity crisis).

The “novel-within-a-novel” structure is often difficult to pull off, especially when the book is framed as a best-seller or a classic of the genre. But Okorafor accomplishes this well, offering a metatextual novel that is compelling and convincing as a bestseller.

Readers will recognize parallels between Zelu’s experiences and the robots in her fictional world. This parallel construction does not hamper the novel in any way. If anything, it keeps readers seeking for more cross-references. After all, patterns help create meaning, which is at the heart of the storytelling (and human) experience.

Within the robot narrative, Okorafor embeds pointed references to current political, social, and personal challenges and these keep the pages quickly turning. Robot factions, for instance, remain consumed by internal conflict even as their planet faces imminent collapse. The blind adherence to a mantra that will cause this collapse, experienced by robots who have literally touched the sun, echoes the arrogance of climate denialists (and worse) in real world countries where wealth is greatest but controlled by a small number of capital holders, whose influence is amplified by vocal factions unwilling to confront the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, this cultural criticism is somewhat undermined by the novel’s inclusion of a benevolent billionaire (“discount Elon Musk”) Jack Preston, who behaves in ways that seem unlike any real-world billionaire.

Throughout the twin narratives, there is tension between Zelu’s sense of self and independence, and the role that her family sees her playing and seems most comfortable with. For readers whose tastes hew to more fantastical narratives, this more mainstream (literary) storyline may not appeal, and others might find some of the characters aggravating in their entitlement and condescension to others.

Nnedi Okorafor holds up her Hugo-winning 
novella Binti. Her new work is a more
complex and metatextual work.
(Image via ArizonaRepublic)

The twin narratives collide in the concluding pages of the novel. This twist — which nobody in our book club expected — was one of the most satisfying elements of the novel, and for most readers recontextualized the preceding chapters. Fundamentally, this drove home the point: it matters who is telling the story; contrary to the title of the book, the authorial voice is important. It matters whether or not a book was written by an algorithm trained on large data sets ... or by a sapient being providing intention, accountability, emotion, and depth.

While the power of story might be a well-used trope, Okorafor explores it with verve and insight. It will be at the top or near the top of most of our Hugo ballots.