My review: Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor

This novella is up for a 2026 Hugo Award. If you become a voting member, you can download the voters packet and read it yourself.

I first read this book in spring 2025, co-reading with one of my partners. This was the only book on the Hugo Novel finalists list that I had previously read. I saw Nnedi Okorafor at a reading and signing at the Arlington (VA) public library around the time of release. When I first read the book, I really enjoyed it. I am hoping to update this review after rereading the book ahead of voting, but it will be last on my list, since I have already read it.

I remember really liking the book when I first read it, though I had a few serious quibbles. I enjoyed the robots (and the narrative trick of weaving the robot story into the human story) and I felt lots of compassion for the narrator, at first.

I was unmoved by the “good guy billionaire” and the tourism space travel. I read this around the same time that Katy Perry and co went to space on a Bezos rocket, and that didn’t fill me with wonder or joy.

I’m white and amab so I am hesitant to comment on the family dynamics of being a Nigerian daughter, but it felt like I was able to understand the important bits (I have read other works by Okorafor, and other afrofuturism).

I’m physically disabled but not in a way that inhibits my mobility – I can walk all day. Still, lots of this rang true for me.

I’ll update below this line when I reread the book!