SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Black Sci-Fi Short Stories, Foreward by Temi Oh, Intro by Sandra M Grayson, and Edited by Tia Ross: https://t.co/iW0DoH7pce
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) June 1, 2021
Short Review: 8 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): A collection of modern and historical science fiction/fantasy written by Black Authors features some truly tremendous stories of early 20th century or late 19th century provenance, although the modern stories don't quite match up in quality or length.
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) June 2, 2021
2/3
Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 15, 2021 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Black Sci-Fi Short Stories is an upcoming anthology being put out by Flame Tree Publishing, oddly in their Gothic Fantasy collection. The anthology features a foreward by Temi Oh (Do You Dream of Terra Two) and an introduction by Dr. Sandra M Grayson, a professor whose research has involved researching the history of Science Fiction from Black Authors and Perspectives. It also features a collection of stories from modern authors - some I recognize pretty easily - and several stories from historical authors who dabbled in speculative fiction in the early 20th century and beforehand.
It's an interesting collection, but...also kind of odd, in that the older stories tend to be novella length whereas the newer stories are clear short stories in length, making it harder for them to stand out. This is especially the case because the newer stories don't really share any coherent themes - whereas the older stories - all well in the public domain and available for free online - are significantly more interesting in showcasing the perspective of black people through scifi and alternate history stories centered around their perspectives as people oppressed and just freed or still in slavery in America. It makes it hard to recommend because technically I could just recommend the older stories on their own...and yet having the collected together is pretty interesting in itself.
More after the Jump:
This anthology contains the following stories:
An Empty, Hollow Interview by James Beamon
The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois
Élan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
The Orb by Tara Campbell
Blake, or The Huts of America by Martin R. Delany
The Floating City of Pengimbang by Michelle F. Goddard
The New Colossuses by Harambee K. Grey-Sun
Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs
Seven Thieves by Emmalia Harrington
Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self by Pauline Hopkins
Space Traitors by Walidah Imarisha
The Line of Demarcation by Patty Nicole Johnson
Light Ahead for the Negro by Edward Johnson
e-race by Russell Nichols
Giant Steps by Russell Nichols
Almost Too Good to Be True by Temi Oh
You May Run On by Megan Pindling
Suffering Inside, But Still I Soar by Sylvie Soul
The Pox Party by Lyle Stiles
The Regression Test by Wole Talabi
"The Comet", "Blake or the Huts of America" (Part One*), "Imperium in Imperio," "Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self," and "Light Ahead from the Negro, are the classic stories, all longer than the short stories that make up the rest of the collection (Blake is literally half a novel, Imperium and Of One Blood are novella/short-novel in length, and Light Ahead is novella length).
And these stories are well worth their length, as they all deal heavily with themes of oppression and slavery and the world for Black people during and post-slavery.
Blake, Martin Delany's short novel* was written from 1859-1862 and features an alternate history of a slave, whose wife is sold by his master due to her defiance, organizing a slave rebellion all throughout the South, and coming across the various ways Slaves were treated in the various States of the South. It's a depressing but powerful and long tale, which may remind modern readers of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad in how it shows through the different states how Black people were put down in various and different ways, making rising up particularly difficult.
*The book contains only Part 1 of Blake, with Part 2 omitted without explanation, although I'd guess that's because the ending chapters of Part 2 is lost to us today.*
Imperium is perhaps the other stand-out, featuring two black kids in the Reconstruction era South, both brilliant and educated but one privileged due to the circumstances of his birth and one suffering without such privilege, as they come together to build a parallel government for Black Americans, to shape a future in a country where Whites are trying to assert their full supremacy, and its themes will be particularly relevant and fascinating today (although Modern readers might sympathize with the secondary protagonist's views).
Light Ahead is a utopian novel in which a man finds himself 100 years in the future (in 2006) where a new United States has been formed where Blacks are seemingly no longer oppressed and government is now very very different and socialist in nature.
Of One Blood is a fantastical story featuring a doctor of mysticism, a lost African people, betrayal and a secret world where it was from historical African people that the world's wonders all were derived.
The Comet features a New York devastated by a Comet, with seemingly only a black man and a white woman as survivors, and the woman discovering temporarily that the black man is just as human as she.
These five stories all touch on similar themes and are tremendously strong, not to mention are so much longer than the rest as to wind up dominating the collection, which makes it hard to really feel significant impact from the shorter stories. It doesn't help that the newer stories don't really share a common theme, unlike the older ones - so you have several dealing heavily with race, class and oppression or even slavery, especially as they might play out nowadays and in the future....and then you have some dealing with the tragedy of a alien-rock driven superheroine, AIs and personalities and what the differences are, or dreams of giants and myths vs facts.
The result is a really weird anthology, probably worth your time just for collecting the stories of old, even if you can find all those other stories for free elsewhere. I honestly don't know what else to say on this one, it's just hard to evaluate further.
"The Comet", "Blake or the Huts of America" (Part One*), "Imperium in Imperio," "Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self," and "Light Ahead from the Negro, are the classic stories, all longer than the short stories that make up the rest of the collection (Blake is literally half a novel, Imperium and Of One Blood are novella/short-novel in length, and Light Ahead is novella length).
And these stories are well worth their length, as they all deal heavily with themes of oppression and slavery and the world for Black people during and post-slavery.
Blake, Martin Delany's short novel* was written from 1859-1862 and features an alternate history of a slave, whose wife is sold by his master due to her defiance, organizing a slave rebellion all throughout the South, and coming across the various ways Slaves were treated in the various States of the South. It's a depressing but powerful and long tale, which may remind modern readers of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad in how it shows through the different states how Black people were put down in various and different ways, making rising up particularly difficult.
*The book contains only Part 1 of Blake, with Part 2 omitted without explanation, although I'd guess that's because the ending chapters of Part 2 is lost to us today.*
Imperium is perhaps the other stand-out, featuring two black kids in the Reconstruction era South, both brilliant and educated but one privileged due to the circumstances of his birth and one suffering without such privilege, as they come together to build a parallel government for Black Americans, to shape a future in a country where Whites are trying to assert their full supremacy, and its themes will be particularly relevant and fascinating today (although Modern readers might sympathize with the secondary protagonist's views).
Light Ahead is a utopian novel in which a man finds himself 100 years in the future (in 2006) where a new United States has been formed where Blacks are seemingly no longer oppressed and government is now very very different and socialist in nature.
Of One Blood is a fantastical story featuring a doctor of mysticism, a lost African people, betrayal and a secret world where it was from historical African people that the world's wonders all were derived.
The Comet features a New York devastated by a Comet, with seemingly only a black man and a white woman as survivors, and the woman discovering temporarily that the black man is just as human as she.
These five stories all touch on similar themes and are tremendously strong, not to mention are so much longer than the rest as to wind up dominating the collection, which makes it hard to really feel significant impact from the shorter stories. It doesn't help that the newer stories don't really share a common theme, unlike the older ones - so you have several dealing heavily with race, class and oppression or even slavery, especially as they might play out nowadays and in the future....and then you have some dealing with the tragedy of a alien-rock driven superheroine, AIs and personalities and what the differences are, or dreams of giants and myths vs facts.
The result is a really weird anthology, probably worth your time just for collecting the stories of old, even if you can find all those other stories for free elsewhere. I honestly don't know what else to say on this one, it's just hard to evaluate further.
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