Scan barcode
nataliesbooknook's review
I have read this one once already, and wanted to reread some of it again.
tessadehart's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a beautiful collection of stories!! Each story has some sort of sci-fi or fantasy element to it, creating endless possibilities. Some are based on mythology, some history, and some are just creations of their author! As with any anthology, there were a couple stories that I didn’t connect to as much, but I would honestly give any of these stories another read and there were several that I think I will was to turn to again and again.
This anthology’s focus is to center black girls in stories with fantastical stories, and I couldn’t have imagined anything better! There is so much variety, I think anyone could find a story in here that resonates with them!
I highly recommend!! Especially if you love or are interested in exploring fantasy or sci-fi!
This anthology’s focus is to center black girls in stories with fantastical stories, and I couldn’t have imagined anything better! There is so much variety, I think anyone could find a story in here that resonates with them!
I highly recommend!! Especially if you love or are interested in exploring fantasy or sci-fi!
mimig312's review
4.0
A Phoenix First Must Burn is a diverse anthology of sixteen tales spanning fantasy to science fiction. The contributors are a super talented group of black women who have published a wide range of novels, novellas and poetry across many genres. A good amount of the stories are more YA focused, several stories have LGBTQ themes and others take inspiration from real historical events. A handful are so light fantasy that you can tag them as literary fiction instead. Regardless, I really liked the bulk of the stories and felt that they were executed well in the short story format.
I don't normally gravitate towards short stories as I often come away unsatisfied with too little story or sometimes feel that the ending is abrupt. The majority of the stories ended at a good stopping point and provided just enough detail to immersive you briefly in another world. Patrice Caldwell also did a good job on arranging the sequence of the stories. There was a good flow between sci-fi to light fantasy, to magical realism and back again.
I'd recommend this anthology to any reader that is looking to read sci-fi and fantasy by black women authors and use this book as an introduction to their calibre of work.
I don't normally gravitate towards short stories as I often come away unsatisfied with too little story or sometimes feel that the ending is abrupt. The majority of the stories ended at a good stopping point and provided just enough detail to immersive you briefly in another world. Patrice Caldwell also did a good job on arranging the sequence of the stories. There was a good flow between sci-fi to light fantasy, to magical realism and back again.
I'd recommend this anthology to any reader that is looking to read sci-fi and fantasy by black women authors and use this book as an introduction to their calibre of work.
annie_lawrence's review
Short stories are always a hit or miss for eme, usually always a miss which I'm sad about because the book sounds fantastic! Definitely was fault on my end, not the writing.
littlepepperguy's review against another edition
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
I'm not huge on short stories. I prefer to really nestle into a story and have many different levels. I obviously knew my preferences before reading this book of short stories so I won't ding the collection for that. I loved the premise of the collection. Black woman deserve to be leads of stories so much more and black woman write black woman the best. I liked more stories than most, especially the stories with soft magic systems and had a more traditionally fantasy feel. I am still tippy toeing into modern/urban fantasies, so I don't usually love the high school aged girl with a cellphone discovers she has magic vibe. I much prefer the maenad vibe of sun girls who eat men's souls alive and fly to the sun as a game. Mega slay, ultra cunty.
weedleeedle's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A Phoenix First Must Burn has themes that range from folklore-ish to sci-fi to slice of life. There's romance, there's plot twists, there's magic and technology and super powers and more. The stories that stand out as being exceptional really stand out. They're stories that are rich and powerful and moving.
My most common criticism of a good half or so of these stories is that they all felt too short for me. I really feel like they could have benefited from just a little bit more. A couple of the stories suffer from an abundance of fantasy or sci-fi jargon, which is fine for a longer work where readers will have repeated exposure to the words, but for short works like this it just kind of made it hard to follow. Even some of the stories that don't have that jargon still sometimes lost me: sometimes the drama/conflict escalated way too quickly and was resolved even quicker. It's hard to make a short story not feel rushed, but it definitely felt like a few of these stories just happened way too quickly. I think the worst example of this is Melie. It feels like it's supposed to be humorous and jovial and not take itself too seriously, but the feeling that comes across is that of a total lack of interest or passion. I didn't feel like I had any reason to care about any of it.
There's a lot of really cool experimental stuff too. All The Time In The World is written in second person. It's also beautifully short and sweet. The Curse of Love alternates between third and first person but centers around one character the entire time. It's also a fantastic concept for a story: A few of these stories center around the theme of love being dangerous. The execution of that idea in The Curse of Love is phenomenal. Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death And, Subsequently, Her Best Life is probably my favorite of all the stories here. I think of all the stories, this is the one that's going to haunt me and always live on in the back of my mind.
Overall, I think a solid 13 out of the 16 stories are absolutely worth anyone's time, and I don't think the three, maybe four, that I found lacking are a deal-breaker at all, so I would 100% recommend A Phoenix First Must Burn.
My most common criticism of a good half or so of these stories is that they all felt too short for me. I really feel like they could have benefited from just a little bit more. A couple of the stories suffer from an abundance of fantasy or sci-fi jargon, which is fine for a longer work where readers will have repeated exposure to the words, but for short works like this it just kind of made it hard to follow. Even some of the stories that don't have that jargon still sometimes lost me: sometimes the drama/conflict escalated way too quickly and was resolved even quicker. It's hard to make a short story not feel rushed, but it definitely felt like a few of these stories just happened way too quickly. I think the worst example of this is Melie. It feels like it's supposed to be humorous and jovial and not take itself too seriously, but the feeling that comes across is that of a total lack of interest or passion. I didn't feel like I had any reason to care about any of it.
There's a lot of really cool experimental stuff too. All The Time In The World is written in second person. It's also beautifully short and sweet. The Curse of Love alternates between third and first person but centers around one character the entire time. It's also a fantastic concept for a story: A few of these stories center around the theme of love being dangerous. The execution of that idea in The Curse of Love is phenomenal. Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death And, Subsequently, Her Best Life is probably my favorite of all the stories here. I think of all the stories, this is the one that's going to haunt me and always live on in the back of my mind.
Overall, I think a solid 13 out of the 16 stories are absolutely worth anyone's time, and I don't think the three, maybe four, that I found lacking are a deal-breaker at all, so I would 100% recommend A Phoenix First Must Burn.
oli_par's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.25
nicolelin23's review
adventurous
medium-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? It's complicated
3.75
amypt46's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up. I wish they had used two narrators for the audiobooks and alternated them between stories because these were very short short stories and sometimes it was hard to tell when one story started and another began if I wasn’t completely zoned in. This book is anthology of powerful, impactful and amazing POC authors and reading them all in one place was surreal at times. As with any short story collection, there were some I liked, some I loved that I wish had becomes more and some that were just not for me.
amayaethomas's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0