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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
1 review
laurareads87's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Having very much enjoyed 2021’s collection, I was pleased to find that The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022) is equally wide ranging, thought-provoking, and timely as its predecessor — in fact, I might have enjoyed this one even more. Inevitably, with an anthology, some stories stood out for me personally more than others, but there is no filler here and I have no doubt that each reader will find stories that stay with them and new-to-them authors to seek out further works from (I know I have). Some of my favourites included:
—P. Djèlí Clark’s “If the Martians Have Magic” - sci-fi with magic, from one of my absolute favourite fantasy authors.
—Tobi Ugundiran’s “Deep in the Gardener’s Barrow” - eerie, witchy, mysterious.
—Wole Talabi’s “An Arc of Electric Skin - revolution with science fictional aspects.
—Ugochi Agoawike’s “When She Speaks” - poetic, queer, magical.
—Nnamdi Anyadu’s “The Coward of Umustead” - a quiet child who isn’t who isn’t quite who he appears.
—Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s “Destiny Delayed” - an excellent story I already got to enjoy in the collection <i>Between Dystopias</i> (which I recommend!) and was happy to give a re-read.
This installment of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction includes a section of poems at the end. I don’t feel like I have the critical vocabulary to review poetry well, but I found many of the poems to be impactful and I am glad that the decision was made to include them. I really hope that this wonderful series of anthologies continues!
Content warnings: gun violence, murder, death, sexual assault, rape, slavery, racism, slurs, trauma, genocide, gore, body horror, injury detail
Thank you to NetGalley, Arc Manor, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, and the editors for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.
—P. Djèlí Clark’s “If the Martians Have Magic” - sci-fi with magic, from one of my absolute favourite fantasy authors.
—Tobi Ugundiran’s “Deep in the Gardener’s Barrow” - eerie, witchy, mysterious.
—Wole Talabi’s “An Arc of Electric Skin - revolution with science fictional aspects.
—Ugochi Agoawike’s “When She Speaks” - poetic, queer, magical.
—Nnamdi Anyadu’s “The Coward of Umustead” - a quiet child who isn’t who isn’t quite who he appears.
—Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s “Destiny Delayed” - an excellent story I already got to enjoy in the collection <i>Between Dystopias</i> (which I recommend!) and was happy to give a re-read.
This installment of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction includes a section of poems at the end. I don’t feel like I have the critical vocabulary to review poetry well, but I found many of the poems to be impactful and I am glad that the decision was made to include them. I really hope that this wonderful series of anthologies continues!
Content warnings: gun violence, murder, death, sexual assault, rape, slavery, racism, slurs, trauma, genocide, gore, body horror, injury detail
Thank you to NetGalley, Arc Manor, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, and the editors for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Gore, and Body horror
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