Second paragraph of third chapter:
As I stood in the crumbling parking lot, the hot concrete warming the metal of my feet, I was sure of it: the Earth had great things ahead of it, even still.
I haven’t always go on with Okorafor’s writing, but I really enjoyed this: disabled Nigerian-American writer Zelu goes through tough times but also writes a science fiction novel which becomes a runaway success, despite her helicoptering family. There’s lots here about clashes of cultures, clashes of values, shifting the narrative arc from our world (in the very near future) to Zelu’s world; and love and sex and death. I felt that it all hung together very neatly. I suspect that I’m still voting for The Incandescent, but this will be high up my list. You can get Death of the Author here.
2026 Hugos: Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Presentation, Short Form | Professional Artist | Poem | Astounding Award
Best Novel: The Incandescent | Shroud | The Raven Scholar | The Everlasting | Death of the Author | A Drop of Corruption, and my votes
Best Graphic Story or Comic: The Invisible Parade | three more finalists | A Wizard of Earthsea, and my votes
Best Related Work: Colourfields | The Cuddled Little Vice | Inventing the Renaissance | Positive Obsession, and my votes
Lodestar: Holy Terrors | Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe | Among Ghosts | They Bloom at Night | Oathbound | Sunrise on the Reaping, and my votes
Where to get them | Goodreads/Librarything/StoryGraph stats
