SciFi/Fantasy Novella review: The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Quick Overview:  The Black God's Drums is an alternate history steampunk novella set immediately after/during the Civil War.*  It's a story of a 13-year old Black girl in New Orleans, possessed by an African goddess, working with a Haitian Lesbian Airship Captain/Smuggler to prevent a dangerous magical technology from getting into the hands of extremist Confederate Forces.  In my experience, mash-ups of all of these concepts into a single story often wind up disappointing, but The Black God's Drums is not one of those examples: it fulfills its potential in spades to form one of my favorite novellas of the year.

*Given how this alternate history changed the course of the Civil War amongst other Historical events, it's hard to say whether the setting is after or during when our Civil War took place.


Quick Plot Summary:  Creeper is a 13-year old black girl living on the streets of New Orleans, thieving to survive in a City considered neutral ground by Northerners, Confederates, Haitian Privateers, you name it.  But Creeper isn't just a normal girl - she is followed by Oya, the African Goddess of Storms. And when she gets both a vision of a skull eclipsing the moon and overhears a bunch of Confederates planning to acquire The Black God's Drums - a powerful magical weapon - , she teams up with a Haitian Airship Captain/Smuggler, in order to prevent the exchange for the sake of all of New Orleans...and beyond.

Thoughts:  The Black God's Drums isn't a very long novella, only 112 pages long.  And yet it packs an awful lot into its story, with more than one twist and turn as it goes from beginning to end.  The world is well developed and the magic and science involved feels real, and the two main characters: Creeper and Captain Ann-Marie are developed really well (Creeper being our narrator, a bit more so obviously), and make a great and sometimes hilarious duo (an exchange of dialogue in the last few pages after the conflict is over cracked me up).  And the African Goddesses, despite always being seen through another's eyes, almost form their own full characters as well.  The end result is a plot that is excellent and characters who are fun in a very different - albeit not necessarily better - world to our own.  I would love to see a sequel, though it would have a hard time living up to this novella, which is probably my second favorite novella of this year.