Nnedi Okorafor

An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death's adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor “She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own.” The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa—a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks—alone, except for her fox companion—searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers. But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

Remote Control

An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death's adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor “She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own.” The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa—a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks—alone, except for her fox companion—searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers. But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sarah Sammis

In the background of Sankofa's story is a tale of foreign corporate greed and an over-reliance on technology. There is one town in particular that has fully welcomed the American company and their technology. While their immediate safety and health seems to have improved one wonders about lost personal freedoms.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2021/comm...

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Denaiir

I loved the world, Sankofa and her fox. It was quite sad at times but I thoroughly enjoyed it; the audio version was perfect

Joy Bush

Short weird sci-fi but I really liked it,many themes to explore.

momo-reads

Loved this story, did not love the ending which felt rushed and not quite right.

Abdullah

This was great. This is my first book by Okorafor and I'm really impressed. I loved the writing and I loved the narrator, Adjoa Andoh, who did fantastic work on the audiobook. The book really brings up so many interesting and tiny things about the world in such a short time through a lens of a young protagonist, Sankofa, who was such a good character to follow. Seeing someone young with a huge deathly power is always and how they navigate everything was just really interesting to see. One thing I have to say is that I usually like open endings that make you think but with this one, I was a bit underwhelmed with how it ended. Otherwise, this was really solid and I highly recommend checking it out!

Ryan LaFerney

In Remote Control, Okorafor has created another fascinating story using a mishmash of genres. Remote Control follows a young girl dubbed Sankofa who has embarked on a quest to find out how she became the Adopted Daughter of Death, and how she lost her parents, a transformation that's still a mystery to her. (The earliest events of Remote Control take place on a shea tree farm in Wulugu — a small village in northern Ghana. A strange green “seed” falls from the sky just by our protagonist's house and burrows under the tree she loves to sit in. Through unexplained means, the seed conveys fatal power to the young girl. The power has the side effect of making her luminous like a TV remote control in the dark, giving her one of her nicknames and the book its title). For the illumined Sankofa, a seed in a box may hold a key to the secret, but its mechanism is unclear. This quest drives Sankofa's actions, but it never coheres into a conventional plot. 

Remote Control is episodic and organic. It's a cumulative narrative, a slow burn that is fused with emotional urgency, and vast worldbuilding. It's a sad work, one about the pain of becoming, the pain of growing up and a somewhat broken homecoming. There’s no escape for either Sankofa or the reader from her claustrophobic power but Sankofa learns to live with it and learns to belong, in her own strange way. And she is not interested at bending at the wills of techno-corporations or farmers. She wishes to live her life, in her own way. 

As she says: "I am Sankofa, I belong wherever I want to belong."

It's important to note that Remote Control takes place in a near-future, science-fictional Africa. I think the book is very much about how an individual responds to the clashing of the past with the future, and how one is to forage an identity, in a world so quick to erasure. It is interesting that Sankofa kills others - literally destroying in a way their physical identity or erasing their physical identity from the earthly plane- while she is trying to forge her own personal identity.

Ari Rose

The audiobook was narrated wonderfully. At some point (and I can't remember where) I got a bit zoned out because the plot seemed to waver or something. But I really did enjoy this story, I was very intrigued by the world and just wanted to follow Sankofa wherever she went. I'll have to check out more from the author!

elif sinem

Just by the sheer gorgeousness of the world I'm giving this a 4 but I'll be very honest I feel like Sankofa got progressively more uninteresting until even the realization of her mistake(s) felt really hollow. The ending was good but I wish it had been more foreshadowed upon. There's this point in the novella where Sankofa rejects the plot and the plot comes back begging for her - I'm certain there had to have been the way to combine the character arc with the plot with the world, right? Because that's where I just felt like the novella lost itself. What you can't say about this novella though is that it should be a novel. It was the perfect length and quite dense also.

Shelby Doherty

4.5 Stars

Likes:
-I felt that the character development of Sankofa is great. Her dialogue/mannerisms seem appropriate for a child of her age (something that I find is not always the case when children are the main characters of books). While she is seen as "evil" by the broader community, it is much more complex than that as ultimately Sankofa truly seems to be a sweet girl who is looking for community and acceptance.
- I love her resilience! Such a young girl surviving and going after her goals with no support whatsoever. So brave.
- Really enjoyed the different pacing used throughout the book. In precarious situations, you can really feel the pacing pick up and can feel the tension that is being created.
- A really quick read that really does a good job of creating tension, developing characters, and overall telling an interesting story.
- Enjoyed the scene where the Robocop is so confused by Sankofa that it can't even communicate its thoughts.
- I really enjoy one of the early scenes where Sankofa goes to the big house to get some clothes/food. Everyone is scared of her and why she is visiting them and invite her in and appease her reluctantly. She treats everyone with respect and seems to want to form a connection with the children. I found this very endearing.

Dislikes:
-Did not get the "remote control" reference for a very long time
- I found the ending to be confusing
- Didn't really enjoy the reference to the COVID-19 pandemic but overall it did not take up too much time/room.

Flavia Louise

Natalie Sypeck 


I really enjoyed the concept of this story and the audiobook experience, but I felt like so many important parts of the story were just left out. I think I don't do well with short stories or stories that are considered open ended. I like a full story, otherwise everything just feels incomplete. 
In this story we follow a girl who is known as Deaths adopted daughter, they speak of how she ends peoples pain when they are terminally ill, but we never see this happen. Our main character is only a young child, by the end of the book she is only 14. I want to know what it was like for a child to go through this, what did she feel the first time she gave someone this peace? Did she cry? Did she feel proud? We also get glimpses of an enemy, but nothing ever comes of it, though I suppose you could say the ending gives us something, it still leaves a lot unsaid. 

I really enjoyed our character, I thought the author did a good job of portraying a young child, but at the same time making her mature enough that you could see she had to grow up before she was ready. I liked the commentary on the danger of over dependence on technology. 

At the end of the day, my only problem with the book was its length and that it skipped over some scenes that I think would have benefited the story or at least gave us a deeper connection with the MC. 

TW: Death, injury, death of an animal, quick mention of attempted sexual assault

Jennifer

Oh wow, I quite enjoyed this speculative novella! It's an exciting and transcending Afrocanfuturism piece. I was becoming exhausted of reading books outside of Sci-Fi / Fantasy, so reading Remote Control was a satisfying ride.

Set in futuristic Africa , Nnedi Okorafor artfully interwoven Sci-Fi and folktales in this novella. Spanning less than 200 pages, Remote Control is nothing short of compelling. There's a morally ambiguous female character, excellent cultural representation, and also a haunting yet believable futuristic setting. Within its brevity, Okorafor also managed to explore & raise questions about technology, politics, and morality - a very thought-provoking body of work which left me with plenty of afterthoughts. Last but not least, there are also a few humourous sections which kept me immersed in the story.

This is a highly immersive and clever novella - it's haunting, devastating, and also fascinating. Highly recommended to anyone who's looking for a speculative & diverse read with elements of folktales. I'm really satisfied to be introduced to Nnedi Okorafor through Remote Control and I would be interested in checking out her other works!

N.B. This novella contains the following triggers: insects, death, accidents, and weapons

mary

trigger warnings: 
chapter 3 — car accidents (graphic), death
chapter 4 — gore, descriptive imagery of dead bodies, death 
chapter 5 — assault, death, covid mention
chapter 7 — murder 
chapter 8 — murder, assault, death, car accidents (not graphic)

rtc.

Rina

I liked this a lot more than Nnedi Okorafor's Binti series. I loved the setting and the futuristic atmosphere added onto it. The writing made it feel like a sci-fi, but also a folktale or a fable of sorts. 

I found Sankofa to be a likeable character, resourceful, calm and collected. I sympathized with her, and genuinely wanted things to end up well for her. The side characters were good too. The ending was very ambiguous, something I don't usually mind; I love endings that would make me think. However, I did want even just a little insight or explanation for why Sankofar was the way she was, why her, and what would happen or what it would mean if there were more "remote controls" like her. But I guess that is a question each reader would have a different answer to and is probably one of the reasons for the ambiguous ending.

Tanja Hoffmann

Amanda J 

I liked it. 

While short, the story was fully encapsulated, it left you wanting more but the story itself fit. Just the type of novella I enjoy. I thought Fatima/Sankofa was such an empathetic character. In a short page amount, Okorafor had me feeling everything for her. The writing is nice, very lyrical which lends it to a fairy-tale/scifi atmosphere which I greatly enjoyed. 

The thing that knocked it down a star was the (what seemed like anyways) shoe-horning in of lifegen and tech, specifically biotech problems. I think this is an interesting topic. But I wish it was threaded in more from the beginning or left out entirely. It's a small quibble, for an overall good story!

Julia

Jales

i'm sankofa too. always!! this was so beautiful and gentle.

Heather Harrington

Really cool concept, I just wish I would've read this physically because I couldn't fully get into the audiobook.

Tori

The premise of this story excited me so much I’ve been waiting to read this for a while! I loved Sankofa’s characterisation and her development through the story, I felt so much love and empathy for her and found myself really invested in her journey. The writing was so good and I found the plot to be so interesting! although I was disappointed by such an open ending and not getting any answers, I had more appreciation for the overall story so I’m not too fussed about it but would love to read more of Sankofa’s story

Ben Nathan

Interesting and well written but I wasn't engrossed. I thought it was a good take overall, but felt like I wanted more from it some ways. Overall, a read for those that love her writing but not sure if it's for everyone.

Remote Control

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