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A review by mimig312
A Phoenix First Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell
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.