In Remote Control by Nedi Okorafar, Sankofa, the one who sleeps at deaths door, the remote control, arrives at a remote town in Ghana. The people are terrified of this 14 year old girl who only looks 10 and can make herself glow deadly green. They feed her. They clothe her. They wish her gone and hope is not then she is here to kill.

Sankofa walks through town after town, followed by her fox Movenpick, who is unaffected by her ability to snuff out life within a heartbeat. The story is one of wandering. Sankofa has somewhat accepted a life of loneliness, of no technology, and of sleeping under the stars as she searches for the seed, the original source of her power and her curse. All along she is predominantly feared and loathed and misunderstood, but she finds good people along the way.

The way the American family is written juxtaposed against the African town and people at the start is really interesting and brilliantly done. It helps a simple Sydneysider like me who knows admittedly little about the history and culture and people of Africa, quickly acclimatise myself with the setting and the people.

in Remote Control, Okorafar shows you this amazingly detailed world so well through the eyes of a child. Whether Sankofa is six or 14, the POV feels real and well realised. And it grows. I feel many authors who try to write children really struggle to land the POV and and the protagonist’s understanding of the world properly and consistently. Little errors slip in revealing the adult behind the words. Okorafar does not suffer this problem. The point of view delivery of the story is utterly seamless.

The ending is like a warm, loving, grimdark slap in the face. It comes out of nowhere and it works brilliantly and everything leads to it and I loved it. It’s a brilliant twist where all the learning, the lack of control over her life and her power, all comes full circle in just a few brilliant paragraphs that had my jaw flopping on the floor. I can’t wait till somebody else I know reads this because I need to have a discussion about that ending.

Remote Control is another excellent novella release from Tor.com, and my introduction to this brilliant author. It’s full of heart, heartbreaking, revealing, and has one of the most enjoyable and brutal last page twists I’ve read in a long time.

I enjoyed this novella and would be happy to see more of Sankofa’s story continue. The premise is intriguing and the near futuristic setting with robot cities and tech was cool! Though the heart of the story is definitely the main character as she comes to burden her abilities, grief, and searching for a place to truly belong. My only issue was the ending was a bit too abrupt for me, so hopefully there will be some continuation of the story in the future.

Since reading Binti, I have been intrigued by Nnedi Okorafor's writing. Her novellas are well-crafted stories that manage to tell a good story about interesting characters in a short format and always leave me wanting more about these people. The concept of this one was amazing and was worked out so well.

Sankofa is the adopted daughter of Death, but she was born Fatima. Anywhere she goes, her legend of Death follows along with her foxy companion. She is in search of the box gifted to her, but sold away.
Set in future Ghana, this novella is an excellent example of the worlds Nnedi Okorafor builds and the genre Afrofuturism. Sankofa's journey was perilous and lonely, but there are also moments where she is able to harness her power and inner strength. This definitely reads as a parable/fable as the ending is ambiguous yet hopeful. I hope Okorafor does more with this character and her story because it was a wonderful concept!

The best Okorafor yet -- and that's saying something, when you consider her ouevre so far. Everything just clicked here for me: the voice, the pace, the plot, the characters. I thought I was done with "death's adopted daughter" riffs after Terry Pratchett, but this breathes new life into the trope.

This was awesome! How does Nnedi Okorafor do it? She's so talented at writing novellas. Remote Control felt fleshed out, emotional and gripping. It's such an interesting story, I hope she writes more. I want to know what happens at the end and what is going on with LifeGen.

Okorafor writes futuristic stories so realistically. They are still fantastical in ways but still at their core human. Remote Control's society and culture isn't that different from ours just with new technology.

Sankofa­­ was an interesting character to fully. I really felt for all the problems she was facing. She's very admirable in the way she just keeps on moving forward.

Would highly recommend.

The storytelling in this book is a great beginning. I enjoyed the story and cared about the main character and her struggles. When I reached the end, I was surprised. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Afrofuturism science fiction about a radioactive girl

I received a copy of this eBook courtesy of the publisher. I have read a previous book by this author, and I was really excited to read more of her work. The cover design is exceptional. It is so evocative and really captures the heart of this book.

“Remote Control” by Nnedi Okorafor is a science fiction novella about a teenage girl known as Sankofa. Wandering from town to town in a Ghana in the not-too-distant future, the people she visits scramble to meet her every whim from excellent food to new clothes to her favourite: room temperature Fanta. In exchange, Sankofa doesn’t kill them with her mysterious green glow. As the book progresses, more about Sankofa and how she came to possess her unusual abilities is revealed.

This is a fantastic book with an excellent sense of place. I absolutely love how Okorafor writes science fiction, blending African culture with technology to explore interesting ideas about humanity. Sankofa is a great character whose innocence is gradually replaced with ruthlessness in her quest for survival. I loved her fox sidekick Movenpick. Okorafor leaves plenty of room for interpretation and explores themes of technology, religion, corruption, superstition and violence. The writing itself is just exquisite. Like in her book “Binti”, Okorafor’s descriptions are so tactile: she transports you beneath Sankofa’s shea tree and into her shoes as she journeys across the Ghanaian landscape.

This is a quick and impactful book that will leave you breathless, and I cannot wait to read more of Okorafor’s work. There is nobody writing science fiction like this.

Remote Control is a novella by the incomparable Nnedi Okorafor that is filled with reflections on life and what we take for granted. This story follows a young girl who comes into contact with an otherworldly seed that gives her the ability to emit large blasts of power that kill everyone who comes in contact with them. Her discovery of this ability occurs in a moment of danger for her and results in the loss of everyone she knows. Thus starts her journey of attempting to track down the seed to get some semblance of her life back but she finds herself changing with this power as well as many other things along the way.

I enjoyed the story and rooted for Sankofa but was left wanting more from the ending. Hopefully we'll see more from her in future stories.

Fatima is a young girl who lives on her family’s shea tree farm and is touched by a seed that causes her to accidently kill her family, village, and forget her name. She takes the name Sankofa and goes on a journey to locate the seed that gave her this power since it was taken from her family soon after she discovered it. As she learns control and slowly makes her way through the countryside she is called Death’s adopted daughter because of the death she can bring. This is more of a journey of discovery for Sankofa to learn more about herself and this power in her and how it affects those around her. The ending is such that there can easily be more to this story if desired.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

REMOTE CONTROL - NNEDI OKORAFOR

Sankofa as a girl is imbued with a power to end life with touch and so every village fears her arrival, fearful of what she means and what she could do. Sankofa, herself, struggles with the origins of her abilities and is on a quest to find some answers. On this quest, she learns about how easily the fear of others leads people away from compassion. Time and time again Sankofa encounters this fear of how different she is.

Okorafor is a master of characterization and quickly creates a world and character that have depth and feel detailed. Overall, I really enjoyed the story. It's ultimately about Sankofa and how she comes to terms with her power and life and less about how she interfaces with those in power.

However, only having Sankofa's limited view, an extremely open ended end of story leaves gaps in information that ultimately made it unsatisfying for me. Its possible that I didn't understand the end, wasn't meant to understand it, or it's a cliff-hanger for a further installment. Perhaps the end is something to be debated based on what the reader knows about Sankofa, but it felt abrupt to me and left me feeling like a short story format might have been better. Regardless, I found it to be frustrating as many questions posed are never answered.

So let's see if there will be another novella. Hopefully, there is one because I want to know what happens!

Thank you to @tordotcompub for an advanced e-arc via @netgalley !

The presumed conceit of Remote Control was that Fatima was the adopted daughter of death, which is a pretty kick ass idea. That's not quite the story Okorafor is telling here, which caused a small amount of adjustment because while Fatima (later known as Sankofa) becomes a walking avatar of death - it's just not as formal as the novella's description might lead readers to believe.

Sankofa wields great accidental powers, but being Death is isolating. She is a creature to be feared and as much of Remote Control is sad as it is adventurous (though this is a bit of a road novella). Remote Control reads as a folk tale - not in the sense that the narrative doesn't feel quite real, but more in that it feels larger than life and unmoored from a particular time - it's set in a future with a robotic city, but Remote Control could almost be anywhen.

Remote Control is a good science fiction novella. Although categorized as science fiction, it arguably has some fantastical elements. I like this novella more than Binti. Binti was good, but I never finished the sequel. Maybe I'll get back to it at some point...But Remote Control more my type of story. Science fiction/fantasy here on Earth, strange tech, mega-corps that are probably evil. And a few fantastical elements.

The word is rich. No other way to describe it. There is a strange dichotomy between a casual, normal futuristic Africa, and the tech that seems to invade and colonize it. After reading the book I want more. I’m happy to learn that Okorafor has two additional, previously written books in the Remote Control world.
I love the story of the main character, Fatima/Sankofa. I’m rooting for her all the way.

In a way, Remote Control is like a superhero origin story.

I hope there’s a sequel.

I think the blurbs about the book are a bit wrong to call her Death’s adopted daughter. Sankofa may be like the angel of death, but I think the blurbs are misleading about the story. It got me to pick it up, yes, but somehow I wish it were more true to the story. Based on the blurb, I thought Sankofa would be running from an evil deity, trying to find herself outside of what Death has decided she is, but it just isn’t like that. I thought that the story might be about some cosmic battle, between death and Sankofa, but it really isn’t. I took the blurb literally instead of metaphorically.

This is a story about redemption, about overcoming, about finding oneself, after one has changed so profoundly that there is no going back. This story is about the pursuit of what belongs to you, what you are entitled to. And if I say anything else regarding what the novella is about, I’ll just spoil it for you.

I hope you enjoy Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor. I did.

4/5 stars

3.5/5 stars

Remote Control is an adult science fiction novella about a young girl who develops powers from an encounter with an alien seed at the base of her favorite tree. Forced to flee her hometown, we follow Sankofa’s heartbreaking (and enraging) journey as she searches for this lost seed while navigating a world that rejects her for her touch of death. Despite using her power for good, the treatment she receives from people is a glaring reminder of humanity’s cruel response to its fear of the unknown, and I couldn’t help but feel for the MC.

While I enjoyed following Sankofa’s journey, I had questions at the end. What will happen to Sankofa and what will she do now? What about the other implications of the meteor shower? While I prefer answers to these questions, I think I’m okay with the open-ended conclusion. Hoping for a sequel.

Thank you to Tordotcom Publishing for providing complimentary eARCs to participants of the B2Weird Book Club’s InstaTour for Remote Control.

Remote Control is a Africanfuturist novella where aliens exist, how technology is influenced by culture and the role corporations have in rural Africa. The story revolves around a strong female protagonist Fatima who is given this "great power" and takes on the name Sankofa "the adopted daughter of death".

Upon gaining her power, Sankofa goes off on this journey to find answers on why she has these powers. Her powers grants her the ability to emit aurora that kills any living thing and disable any machine by touch. As she travels her only companion is a fox named Movenpick, and she is soon recognized by many towns people who fear her. However, she only uses her powers to bring peace to the terminally ill and to defend herself from those who might prey on a girl traveling alone.

As her journey nears the one thing that can give her answers, she soon realizes that the one thing that gave her this power is the thing that also alienated her from everything she loves.

Thank you Tordotcom and Netgalley for providing an E-arc in exchange for my honest review

I love a book that pulls me right in and keeps me engaged all the way through (especially when I'm reading a digital copy! Is that just me or does anyone else have attention difficulties when reading off a screen?), and this book did just that. From the opening scene of Sankofa walking through a town and seeing the villagers reactions the plot charged forward. As this is a pretty short read, I ended up finishing it in a single sitting.

'Remote Control' refers to the ability to kill all things tech with a single touch. It's less an ability than a way of being, she can't turn off this feature, but in a world that is dependent on things like vehicles and cell phones, it makes her something of an outcast. Sankofa is both feared and honored by the superstitions that grow around her being death-touched.

Sankofa is an interesting character, not exactly likable at first, but not unlikeable either. She genuinely caught my interest, made me wonder about her actions and motivations, and then in a long flashback that takes up roughly the middle third of the book, she shows us how she came to be who she is. There are definitely darker themes and death, but I never felt like I was reading anything especially heavy. Certain parts were just very sad, but Sankofa is only 7 at the time, and her childlike way of understanding, growing and moving forward help keep the reader moving along too.

This is a quick SciFi read with some interesting philosophical questions, a compelling plot and an intriguing main character. I would definitely recommend!

This books is set in Ghana and follows the story of a girl named Fatima who one day forgets her name. After that day she would be known through Ghana as Sankofa, a name that ties her to her family and her past. I won't say anymore because I don't want to spoil. Lol.

I highly recommend this book. It was a short read with a very impactful story. It was definitely a page turner because I kept wanting to know what happens to the main character. The very last sentence of this book made me go "so there is gonna be a sequel, right?" Lol. It definitely gives you the feeling of the spinning top at the end of the movie Inception. That feeling of "so what happens next" which shows a testament to how great of a story it was and how sucked into the world of the book I was.

3.5 stars rounded up

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Well, Nnedi did it again! This was a fascinating novella by the Queen of Africanfuturism.

Remote Control takes place in a futuristic Ghana, with jelly-tellies and Robocops and drones every which way. Our protagonist is Sankofa, a thirteen year old girl on a mission to reclaim what was stolen from her. Oh, and she can kill you without even touching you.

I loved the setting, and Nnedi does a wonderful job (as always) of embedding technological advancements with African (and specifically, Ghanaian) culture. No matter how far it is in the future, there will always be a scornful cousin visiting from America whose every movement drips disdain. I also took great pleasure in small details like Sankofa loving goat and plantains, because those are two of my favourite things! And did I mention I'm a sucker for an animal companion? Movenpick has my whole heart.

There were some great twists, riveting flashbacks, and nuanced exploration of fear and anger and loss. Where it fell for me is that there are several threads in the story that never get resolved. I have to hope that there's a sequel coming, because 5 days later, I still find it infuriating.

Well-written and engaging, this is certainly a novella that leaves you with more questions than answers. Go read it, then tell me what you think!

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Thank you again to Tordotcom Publishing and NetGalley for sending me and other members of the B2Weird Bookclub free e-ARCs for our Remote Control tour.

An unusual and engrossing futuristic story about an African girl who accidentally gains lethal powers and wanders Africa as the feared "adopted daughter of death." Imaginative and beautiful writing.

Heres my review on LARB
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-death-of-the-future-on-nnedi-okorafors-remote-control/