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sumayyah_t's review
4.0
Loved it. The only thing is, the whole time I was reading, that old blues song was running through my head. "I got my mojo workin'", is it?
vasha's review
4.0
Mostly serious, sometimes horrific; quite an interesting assortment. I really loved Gerard Houarner's story "She'd Make a Dead Man Crawl", and I wonder why I've not seen much mention of it from other people.
evavroslin's review
5.0
Hands down one of THE best anthologies I've ever read with some of the most creative, inventive, and original speculative fiction stories I've read.
mochagirl's review
4.0
The introduction of Mojo: Conjure Stories warns the reader to beware, to adorn their protective beads, to pocket their jujubags and sets the stage for the mystical anthology contained therein. The novel, edited by Nalo Hopkinson, is comprised of nineteen short stories from noteworthy authors such as Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, and Barbara Hambly. All tales are colorful, creative, and rooted in "mojo" - a tricky, powerful, and dangerous magic with a West African flavor.
This is a diverse collection in that it traverses time to provide stories from the slave ships, the antebellum South, the Jim Crow era, the 1960's and even present day. Some stories are rooted in folklore, e.g. Andy Duncan's "Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull", while others address moral and societal issues such as incest, revenge, love, lust, and greed. One of my favorites is Barbara Hambly's "The Horsemen and The Morning Star" in which plantation slaves garner strength and call upon their ancestor's gods to ride their weary backs to fight the master's resurrection of the devil to save one of their own. Jarla Tangh's "The Skinned" references the recent Rowandan tragedy and delivers a powerful message against the backdrop of the modern American inner city. Another noteworthy mention is Jenise Aminoff's "Fate" in which a mother with the gift of sight tries desperately to alter her son's destiny and pays a high price in the end.
This reviewer found some stories a bit more challenging to follow than others, but believes there is enough variety in subject matter and writing style to satisfy even the most critical reader. This book covered multiple dimensions of conjuring: from using black magic to control spirits, outwitting the tricksters, initiating curses, belief in shape-shifting to the making and manipulation of zombies. It was an engaging and interesting read about a mystical and magical heritage. One can surely gain hours of reading pleasure with this book.
This is a diverse collection in that it traverses time to provide stories from the slave ships, the antebellum South, the Jim Crow era, the 1960's and even present day. Some stories are rooted in folklore, e.g. Andy Duncan's "Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull", while others address moral and societal issues such as incest, revenge, love, lust, and greed. One of my favorites is Barbara Hambly's "The Horsemen and The Morning Star" in which plantation slaves garner strength and call upon their ancestor's gods to ride their weary backs to fight the master's resurrection of the devil to save one of their own. Jarla Tangh's "The Skinned" references the recent Rowandan tragedy and delivers a powerful message against the backdrop of the modern American inner city. Another noteworthy mention is Jenise Aminoff's "Fate" in which a mother with the gift of sight tries desperately to alter her son's destiny and pays a high price in the end.
This reviewer found some stories a bit more challenging to follow than others, but believes there is enough variety in subject matter and writing style to satisfy even the most critical reader. This book covered multiple dimensions of conjuring: from using black magic to control spirits, outwitting the tricksters, initiating curses, belief in shape-shifting to the making and manipulation of zombies. It was an engaging and interesting read about a mystical and magical heritage. One can surely gain hours of reading pleasure with this book.
brucefarrar's review
4.0
Don’t ever cross a conjurer! That’s the clear warning of the nineteen short stories collected by Hopkinson in this anthology. Some of the tales, such as Marcia Douglas’s “Notes from a Writer's book of cures and spells,” are horrific, some like Andy Duncan’s “Daddy Mention and the Monday skull,” are filled with sly humor, and some evoke a powerful emotional response, most notably, “Trial Day,” by Tananarive Due. Several tell the tale from the point of the helpless victim, and several show slaves outwitting their masters with the aid of the supernatural. All rely on the power of west and central African spirits to produce results, but with the exceptions of “The Skinned” by Jarla Tangh and “Asuquo, or The winds of Hartmattan,” by Nnedi Okorafor, these spirits have made the infamous middle passage across the Atlantic with their enslaved believers, and have been transformed into the powers of Voodoo.
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