Pentapod reviewed Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Review of 'Remote Control' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I really have trouble rating Okorafor's books, because she writes beautifully and her Africanfuturist settings are very interesting and evocative; but I am often left feeling as if the story itself in incomplete and missing something. In this case this novella is more like fable or folklore than the science fiction it's billed as; young girl acquires mysterious powers and becomes known as the adopted daughter of death, wandering the area of Ghana where the whole country comes to recognize her and give her food and clothing when needed. But you never learn anything more about why or how she got the powers, there's a mysterious fox that is never explained, there's a possibly Evil Corporation involved but who they are and what they want is never really clear, and even the end of the novel doesn't really answer more questions than it raises, although it does imply that the …
I really have trouble rating Okorafor's books, because she writes beautifully and her Africanfuturist settings are very interesting and evocative; but I am often left feeling as if the story itself in incomplete and missing something. In this case this novella is more like fable or folklore than the science fiction it's billed as; young girl acquires mysterious powers and becomes known as the adopted daughter of death, wandering the area of Ghana where the whole country comes to recognize her and give her food and clothing when needed. But you never learn anything more about why or how she got the powers, there's a mysterious fox that is never explained, there's a possibly Evil Corporation involved but who they are and what they want is never really clear, and even the end of the novel doesn't really answer more questions than it raises, although it does imply that the heroine has found a positive way to use her powers.
There are lots of interesting elements to the story. How a young girl handles the sudden acquisition of this power and various tragedies that follow. How such a power would affect a person. How differently the residents of this future-Ghana react to someone acquiring an extremely powerful ability is very different than how I imagine a North American citizens would react or how a North American writer would have written it. Rather than becoming a Marvel-style superhero or a dangerous freak that various government agencies would want to capture and study, our heroine becomes a cultural folk tale. But is Okorafor saying this is because it's in the future rather than the present, or because it's in Africa rather than America, or something else? I'm not sure.
As usual, I am left with more questions than answers, and I don't like finishing a book feeling so unsatisfied - perhaps that's on me and not on the author, but for me a book isn't a 5-star read unless I reach the end feeling satisfied, or enlightened, or affected in a way more than just filled with a bucket full of questions and no answers.
