Reviews

This book gets 5 stars for ambition and intent. I gave it 3 because, while some of the fiction writing and stories are very good (most of those seem to occur during the last half to third of the book)there were many that just weren't that good even though I really wanted to like them all. That said, I am glad I read this book and look forward to more books like it from the editors.

Spoiler Note: If you have not read all of Octavia Butler's books, you may want to skip the last essay in the book or skip over the parts that reference the books you have not read yet like me. It contains a lot of spoilers.

rowanmoth's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging

5.0

hollyn_middle's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful

anna_munroe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

seeceeread's review against another edition

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They had solid bodies of rage and trauma that never had a chance to be whisper-shouted out. Just got passed on. • Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Children Who Fly

Zombie killers who aspire to liberate Black and Brown folks from forced labor camps into middle America, where the undead roam. An orphaned adolescent who slowly learns to catalyze raw ache into ascendance. A man with a diagnosis who discovers his mental illness is actually a portal into parallel spheres. Most of the stories take the speculative premise, "What if things continue as they are?" Dire circumstances and wild creativity emerge.

I liked this revisit of my #YearOfOctavia ... but to be honest, not one of these scratched her genius. Perhaps the authors needed a trip to the library, an extended hermitage, and a different length, à la Butler.

If you're interested, enjoy! But stop reading at the end of Mumia Abu-Jamal's 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. The final essay, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵, by Tananarive Due, is harmful and thoughtless; her discussion of 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱 is reckless and horrid.)

dawnserra's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

fadelee's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I was hoping because the authors came from a social justice lens they might be able to address our collective need for envisioning positive futures rather than falling into the usual dystopian despair. Its very hard to have a creative imagining of what hopeful outcome we are wanting when we organize. I definitely didn’t getting what I was hoping for but I did enjoy at least half of the stories in the collection. In some cases, the world building was so good but the plot sort of lacking- I could really see some of these stories turned into full novels. (I’m aware some are excerpts.)

My favorite was probably Kafka’s Last Laugh. Also liked Fire on the Mountain, Homing Instinct, Hollow, Black Angel, The Long Memory, and Runway Blackout to name a few.

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