Remote Control

Starred review from October 26, 2020
A young girl known as “the adopted daughter of death” comes of age in the electrifying latest from Okorafor (Akata Witch). As a child, Sankofa discovers a mysterious, glowing green seed, which, before her father sells it to the government, gives her the power to take away life. Sankofa is initially unable to control this dangerous ability and accidentally kills her entire hometown, including her parents and brother. This tragedy sends her on a quest to understand her powers and recover the mystical seed from the government. Sankofa’s reputation precedes her as she moves through towns and villages of a near-future, technologically advanced Ghana. Protected by her supernatural powers, Sankofa is able to evade the dangers faced by young women traveling alone, allowing her to claim a level of agency and freedom that is usually limited to men. Following a common trend in Okorafor’s work, this imaginative, thought-provoking story uses elements of the fantastic to investigate the complexities of gender and community outside of a European, colonial imagination. Readers will be blown away. Agent: Donald Maas, Maass Literary.

November 1, 2020
Okorafor's latest (after the YA fantasy Ikenga, 2020) blends plant-based science fiction with a fairy tale-like narrative. Sankofa, a girl who has forgotten her name, finds a mysterious seed that gives her deadly powers. Far from making her a superhero, her talents cause fear and awe to follow in her wake. What happens when magic is more of a curse than a blessing? Will the search for answers provide closure, or make her life even more dangerous? Sankofa is an engaging character and despite her strange circumstances, she is practical and driven forward by a strong sense of right and wrong. Tense moments of conflict are followed by gentler vignettes where she gets to know the people and the world around her. Sankofa's path through Ghana covers both the mundane and the futuristic, and Okorafor examines what happens when normal people meet someone or something they do not understand. Great for speculative fiction devotees that are seeking a non-Eurocentric setting and an unusual but engrossing protagonist. This bildungsroman is perfect for fans of Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber (2000) or Naomi Novik's Uprooted (2015).

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Starred review from November 1, 2020

Sankofa is on a journey, but where that leads not even she knows. When she was young and known as Fatima, she found happiness in her family and their shea nut tree farm. At five, she was gifted a special box and seed, much like one she had seen come from the sky a year before; at age six her father sold her box and seed to a mysterious corporation; at seven she met Death and lost everything else. Now Sankofa, deemed "Death's adopted daughter," searches for that which was taken from her, back when she knew who she was and where she belonged. She is in turn shunned and revered by the people she encounters, finding friendship with a strange fox she meets at the beginning of her journey. Okorafor (Binti) builds a stunning landscape of futuristic technology and African culture, with prose that will grab readers from the first sentence. Sankofa is at once innocent and experienced, facing a world forever changed for and by her. VERDICT This compelling novella is Afrofuturism sf at its best.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2021
A young Ghanaian girl is forever changed when a delicate artifact falls from the sky and finds its way to her family's shea tree farm. The story begins with Sankofa, a young traveler who's feared by many--she is said to be the adopted daughter of death. Sankofa's touch will kill, and she can wipe out an entire town with a single glance, but she was not always this way. Until the day the meteors fell and she gained this power to take life, she was Fatima, an ordinary and ever curious girl. After she loses everything, including her own name, she begins the journey to understand herself and the powers beyond her control. Aside from her furry companion, a fox named Movenpick, Sankofa must travel alone to reclaim the artifact given to her by the stars. Rich with West African culture and history, including the magical healing powers of shea butter, this book reads more like a folktale than science fiction, though it does include questions about the advancement of surveillance technology, the ever growing presence of American pharmaceutical giants, and the ways they might be connected. With this new novel, Okorafor's career continues in the same vein as her previous Nebula- and Hugo Award-winning Binti novella trilogy; she has a rare ability to open the reader's mind to various futures while creating complex characters and communities. Though Sankofa's story is short, it's gripping, and readers will likely find themselves rooting for her to find peace. A captivating world, a tragic tale, and a dangerous future. This story must go on.

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