Table of Contents
Preamble
I first read Nnedi Okorafor’s work back in 2022 as part of the reading challenge I did that year. The book I read back then was Noor, a afrofuturist sci-fi novel. Around that time I also put Remote Control on my to-be-read pile, so it has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for at least three years.
I was reminded of this novella when I heard about the Okorafor novel that came out this year, Death of the Author. I am planning on reading that whenever I get my hands on it. While I wait for that library hold to come in I decided that I might as well read this novella. My ongoing effort to use the Toronto public library system means this was read as a physical copy borrowed from the library.
Let’s get into it.
The Book
Like with Noor, Remote Control is also set in a afrofuturistic sci-fi world, this time it is Ghana instead of Nigeria. The story is told from the perspective of Fatima aka Sankofa, a young girl who is given the power of death though an alien artifact. The story and the various ancillary characters refer to her as the “adopted daughter of the Angel of Death”.
At 160 pages, this is a novella and it doesn’t waste any time telling its story – this is a fast paced story. That said, I still found it impressive just how effective the world-building and character development is in this story. We got mentions of various Ghanaian foods, there are robots and delivery drones, and there are fully automated motor vehicles. Just those three things paint this world as a afrofuturistic sci-fi world.
As far as character development, Fatima got a fair bit of character development, there aren’t really any other characters worth talking about in this book. I also really liked the animal companion that follows Fatima around, in general I love when characters have animal companions.
Thematically, the primary theme I saw explored in the book was loneliness. Fatima as a character moves around the world with a power that while useful to her makes everyone around her understandably very afraid and therefore she is incredibly lonely. I found this compelling though this is a case where I would have loved a longer novel exploring Fatima and her interactions with this very interesting world.
Conclusions
Remote Control was a short and sweet read, I finished it in one sitting while I was at the Queer Computer Club. Nnedi Okorafor continues to be a author I enjoy reading and reading this made me look forward to reading Death of the Author even more. Perhaps while I am at it I should also read the Binti series of novellas she wrote.
If you are someone who enjoys sci-fi, you should go read Nnedi Okorafor’s work if you haven’t already. Noor would be recommendation as a starting point.
That’s all from this time around. See y’all in the next one.
P.S – This sounds silly but I don’t understand why Fatima is referred to as a “remote control”. Is it because she glows green? It genuinely feels like I am missing something obvious but I cannot figure out what.
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