Death of the Author is three things in one: a barely-in-the-future sci fi with the Zelu arc, an epistolary with the interviews and a sci fi with Ankara and Ijele's story.

The book does raise a lot of interesting topics such as disability and ableism, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, family, tradition, disapora and cultural identity, transhumanism, and eschatology. Among others - there is a lot going on here!

I feel like the human characters have a lot of room for interpretation. Most of them come across as slightly unhinged and mostly not likeable, but considering that Zelu is the most unlikeable of all, and we experience most of the characters through the lens of their interactions with her, maybe they're all just sick of her nonsense? But then again maybe Zelu is the way she is because of her unhinged family. Maybe the family are the way they are because of their history? I have to mention Wind too, she felt like a breath of fresh air in amongst all of the hotheadedness and I yearned for more of her when everyone was being unreasonable.

The interview sections seem to be implying that something huge involving Zelu is coming by the end of the book, but it's never really made clear what, which feels like a wasted opportunity. The interviews do give some context and back story but I thought it would have been really nice if all three threads built up to one conclusion.

Also the mum says "when you talk to Secret" but then in next chapter Secret dies so if the interviews are happening after the event, he would already have been dead by then? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding but it stuck out as a confusing point to me.

The Ankara arc was by far my favourite, I could probably just read "Rusted Robots" on its own. I loved the different groups and how they evolved, and the overall concept of a post-humanity Earth. The ending though, I just don't see how it could have panned out like that, given the issues I've already talked about. If anything I think that final hail mary would have the opposite effect on me, but perhaps this book is suffering from being released during another nadir in recent history and I'm feeling more misanthropic than usual. I could really have done with a more sympathetic lead character and I think the ending would have been more believable with one.

I do feel like although this is being marketed as an adult book, it reads quite YA to me. Zelu is in her thirties but comes across much younger to me. Certain sections read very much "too good to be true" - for example the

instant multi-million book and movie deals

, or the

gun range where she got a bullseye on her very first time ever shooting a gun and never missed the centre circle

. Obviously, after reading the ending you could put that down to

Ankara's lack of experience

, but on first read I think it needlessly risks putting people off carrying on. 

Overall, it's really hard to put a rating on this book. There were aspects I loved but I think for me it sets out to do a lot and doesn't quite make it. Perhaps I'm just not the target market, which is fine, but the marketing and hype strongly led me to believe that I was, which is an issue. I can see why people love it, and maybe I'll give it another try when the world is not currently on fire, but here and now this type of work just isn't for me. That said there is some great writing here and a lot to think about.

Many thanks to Gollancz and Netgalley for the eARC. I was not required to leave a review nor influenced as to its contents.