joey_erg's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

As per most Sci Fi anthologies, this one sports a few clunkers and some avant garde material plain above my reading level. However, this collection provides a great intro into two Sci Fi heavy hitters (Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler) as well as a few absolutely killer stories ("The Space Traders", "The Pretended", "The Comet"). Well worth the time in terms of quality fiction and viewing a genre outside of its typical white male perspective.

book_benagachi's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

derhindemith's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This was, as advertised, an anthology of speculative fiction written by black authors. As such, the quality ranged, and my interest in the stories ranged as well. Here are my thoughts.
Sister Lilith--Nope. DNF
The Comet--ugh, could have been great, but it was written in 1920.
Chicago 1927-I want to read so much more of this. I've already added the novel set in this world.
Black No More-Pretty nice satire; I probably wouldn't read it unless it was assigned, but it really should be assigned.
Separation Anxiety-I don't like a story published in 2000 set in 2095 that feels less like speculative fiction in 2023 than Black Mirror did in 2020. Which is to say, I like the writing a lot, I'm just not really into dystopian. My dislike for dystopia will return.
Tasting Songs-DNF
Can You Wear My Eyes-At least it was short. It felt like the kind of thing a straight guy writes to be empathetic to a woman's experience.
Like Daughter-DNF-SA
Greedy Choke Puppy-I loved this so hard and this is the kind of fantasy I want to read.
Rhythm Travel-Just a setting, but no actual story or development. 90's afrofuturism
Buddy Bolden-I love the concept and hate the execution.
Aye, and Gomorrah —it’s well-written, and thought provoking, but it has me feeling uncomfortable and I don’t know why. I think it's the fetishization of a people that's just trying to exist.
Ganger —nope. DNF
The Becoming-God I hated what this ended up as. Ooh, yay, literal objectification of women's bodies. That's just what I wanted to read.
The Goophered Grapevine-A nice story. Again in the fantasy setting that isn't so anglo.
The Evening and the Morning and the Night-Not the first time I've read this and still a great read
Twice, at once, Separated--Wow. Not only was it exquisitely written, but I finished it just as the last movement of Hindemith's four variations for piano and orchestra finished: an appropriately grandiose ending for an expertly grandiose story. I really enjoyed it and would read more.
Gimmile's Songs-DNF. Love the "men writing women" moment.
At the Huts of Ajala--Super good. I love this birthing story.
The Woman in the Wall-Nope. Men writing women.
Ark of Bones-Nice. Different for me, but a nice story and I loved making the narrator not the main character
Butta's Backyard Barbecue-I wish there were a story instead of just beautiful, but disjointed imagery. Again, 90's afrofuturism
Future Christmas-The writing was okay and the setting was okay, but it reads like early 80's straight-guy fiction; this time in a christmas myth setting.
At life's limits-I want so much more of this. It was a great self-contained story. I found myself so engrossed in the story, I completely forgot to think about the writing (which was also good). The quality of the writing reminded me of The shipping news, or beloved, in how textured the writing was.
The African Origins of UFO's-DNF
The Astral Visitor Delta Blues-Dumb. Unfinished. Poor development. Yes, the main character undergoes a change from beginning to end, but it was weak and boring and meaningless and I hated it.
The Space Traders-A dystopian future. Well thought out satire. Felt more like a piece for a discussion for a college course--which made sense when I found out about the author.
The Pretended-It was well-written. And it got its point across. But it was still dystopian.
Hussy Strutt-I loved the active use to a myth to help people in their current life situation. Still don't like dystopian.
Racism and Science Fiction-this was an interesting memoir with some important thoughts.
Why Blacks Should Read (and Write) Science Fiction-DNF-First of all, I hate 'blacks' as a noun. Second of all, I didn't finish his fiction. Thirdly, (and the reason I stopped reading) he goes from recommending white authors who don't use negative stereotypes in one sentence, to two authors who write alternative histories where the south won the US civil war and slavery still exists in the very next paragraph.
Black to the Future-My father really liked his novels in the 90's, but this was boring to me and I didn't care (but that's a problem I have with essays in general)
Yet Do I Wonder-This felt more like a 90's slam performance piece than an essay
The Monophobic Response-Yes, this was an essay, but it didn't feel like non-fiction. It felt like the introduction to a novel on a completely different subject.

11corvus11's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

What a fantastic anthology. I've read many short story collections and I believe this is my favorite one. I really enjoy when scifi and speculative fiction tackle radical issues in purposeful ways and many stories in this book do that. Octavia Butler's "The evening, the morning, and the night" was my favorite story. Followed by Ganger (Ball Lightning) by Nalo Hopkinson and the Space Traders by Derrick Bell.

The few nonfiction essays at the end were a nice surprise as well. I really enjoyed Samuel R Delaney's essay. I've only read one of his books and it made me want to read more.

This is a timeless collection. The issues many stories and essays tackle remain relevant today as well as being predictive- as good scifi is. Really enjoyed this.

barry_x's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 This is an anthology of speculative fiction by black authors, published in 2000. There are over 30 pieces of writing in here, which are mostly short stories, but there are a couple of novel excerpts and essays to round off the anthology. The quality and editing of the selection is largely excellent. In anthologies like this one can often find the content to be a little hit and miss but here pretty much every story is thought provoking or engaging, with only a few that had less of an impact.

The anthology describes itself as, 'a century of speculative fiction from the African Diaspora' but the book is quite heavily weighted towards the years 1995-2000, which I guess in some ways has shown how long it has taken for black writers to get their voices heard (and published). I also reflected that having read this in early 2024 that there is basically another quarter of a century passed by and that black and other people of colour are far more visible in the speculative fiction world. In turn, speculative fiction, especially fantasy worlds not modelled on European medievalism is far richer.

The weighting towards 'turn of the century' pieces reflects some of the challenges writers have had in breaking through. Samuel Delany's essay about racism in science fiction in here is excellent, describing how racism acts not just by act or word, but also how it is systemic. What he does note, is that for decades he and Octavia Butler were continually paired up as 'the voices of black science fiction', and though they both get along, their writing hasn't influenced each others. It is almost as if for decades if one wanted representation they wheeled out these two giants as a pair.

Nisi Shawl (who has work in this book), in their 'A Crash Course in Black Science Fiction' makes the point that there is a huge gap from the 1930's to the 1960's and that is evident in this book too. The argument is made that much science fiction was written for magazines and authors may have used pen names. For many published works we simply do not know the race of the author.

As a historical study, there are three pieces which are especially interesting. 'The Goophered Grapevine' by Charles W. Chesnutt is the oldest piece in the book from 1887 which I have reviewed separately here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... It's a parable about greed, but I think in the context of the writing it is also a story of hope, of change, and how in the imagination of the writer, how slavery was dead and a new future beckoned.

'The Comet' by W.E.B. Du Bois (also reviewed separately here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) is from 1920 is quite a simplistic story which just pleads for people to see each other for who they are, and not the colour of their skin.

One of the most challenging stories, certainly from a modern perspective is the excerpt from the novel, 'Black No More' by George S. Schuyler from 1993. It's quite uncomfortable to read, in that a scientist finds a way to turn black people white, hence ending racial prejudice because anyone with money can turn themselves white. The excerpt shows the 'now white' characters enjoying the privileges of white society once they have transitioned. What was challenging for me, is thinking that, 'why would someone gleefully disown their heritage to be white'. It sounds really ugly, but at the same time these characters were experiencing prejudice I will never know about or understand. The novel is clearly satire though, and I did read more about the book and some of the implications I imagined come to fruition. It does ask the question, 'what are you racists going to do when you can't work out who to be racist too'?

Off the more modern pieces, I'll list some of my favourites but won't discuss everything, but everything I mention here is definitely worth seeking out.

Jewelle Gomez's 'Chicago 1927' features a story with a lesbian black vampire called Gilda. I got the impression reading the story that she has featured elsewhere and she is from a book called 'The Gilda Stories'. If I say she is essentially an activist for creating a better world and she uses her vampirism to do so then you get the idea. I loved it because it subverted so many of the vampire tropes.

'Tasting Songs' by Leone Ross is such a beautiful story about love, passion, infidelity and change, and loving ourselves for who we are. It's rather sad too, but it touches so many emotional notes. It stayed with me for such a long time after and I was left with a lot of conflicting emotions. There are definitely lots of ways to read this story and I suspect perspectives will vary but it was a definite highlight.

'Can You Wear My Eyes' by Kalamu ya Salaam is a short story exploring misogyny and sexism. In quite a lot of these stories and essays when I was thinking about them I was reflecting on my own white privilege and how race impacts me and not others. This was a difficult reflection for me on being a man and how I may see the world and how it is different for women. I 'know', but do I 'really know'...

Tananarive Due is another new author for me and if I do anything over the next week or so I should explore what else she has written because her story, 'Like Daughter' absolutely wrung my heart out. It was so sad I wanted to reach out into those pages and hold the characters and wipe away their pain and trauma. Again, it's beautiful, but emotional and harrowing.

Nalo Hopkinson's 'Greedy Choke Puppy' is a fun exploration of folkloric monsters, with a twist that I really should have seen coming but didn't.

Octavia Butler has a story in here called, 'The Evening and the Morning and the Night' which is very good. If you like deadly illnesses that cause people to mutilate themselves and murder, and what the implications are for society and families it's worth a read. It's not like 'zombie fiction', and I guess it's more a reflection on how we have learnt to live with illnesses and pandemics.

As soon as I read 'Gimmile's Songs' by Charles R. Saunders I was sure the story was from a bigger world and the main character was from somewhere else or a series. She seemed well crafted and set in the world instantly. The story is one of many which takes Africa as the basis for the fantasy world rather than Europe. There was an element of the story that felt quite unpleasant from a consent point of view but it was only a minor detraction to a good story. I since read that this story and other short stories were 'fixed up' into a novel based on the world called Imaro. Saunder's essay alongside Delany's are the two hard hitters here too. Saunders in 'Why Blacks Should Read (and write) Science Fiction' examines the racist tropes used by and alienation of Africa by white authors. What's shameful is that it is one thing to reflect upon long dead people with their 'standards of the time' but even in the 90's mainstream authors were othering Africa as a deep, dark, alien continent and not a continent of rich and diverse cultures and stories.

My favourite story was 'The Space Traders' by Derrick Bell which posits a simple question. Aliens land and tell America that they can have a clean environment, cheap energy and more gold than they could ever need with one condition, that they can take all the black Americans with them into space. When I was reading this I was practically pleading for the story to take the black Americans to some kind of sanctuary, but even that was harrowing to contemplate as a 'best outcome'. What Bell asks is, 'are you prepared to give up a whole tranche of your population' so the rest can be better off. It's an inhumane question. It's a racist question.

And yet, in a generation of culture wars it is one being played out every day. I imagine a significant proportion of the UK would vote 'yes' to sending Muslims into space, or trans people, or black people, or any oppressed group. I imagine the US is no different. The story is so powerful - it views the black population as a scapegoat for all societies ills, they are in a lose-lose situation. The story is framed as much in protecting white people's conscience as much as the moral implications. It depicts black - and by extension working class people as valuable only in so much as they generate profit.

The book predicts with scary accuracy the demagoguery of Trump and (in the UK) the notion of 'enemies of the state' and how legal apparatus is perverted and used to justify any kind of evil. It is scarily prophetic and in many respects represents today as reality (okay we have no aliens) but it seems society is more racist now than in the 90's.

A great anthology, lots of new authors and thought provoking and entertaining throughout 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

marimarifer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

honeymonster's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Some of these stories are unforgettable, some I just couldn't get through. You'll have this. The essays were all quite good.

quantumponies's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

megapolisomancy's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Worth the price of admission for introducing me to Henry Dumas alone. I would say the same for Ama Patterson and Darryl Smith, but they appear not to have published much else. Hopkinson, Shawl, Butler, and Delany were as good as always - I would say Saunders was the only real low point.

themuffinjoke's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

RTC.