Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC Audiobook (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via NetGalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 15, 2022 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.
Africa Risen is an anthology of short science fiction and fantasy stories from writers of African and African Diaspora Descent, with the stories collected by and edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight. This anthology, unlike others (like the Dominion Anthology which was also edited by Ekpeki and Knight), is concentrated entirely on shorter stories - if anything here exceed's the word count for the Hugo Short Story category, it is not by much. But don't mistake that for this being a small anthology, as the book contains Thirty Two (32!) different short stories from African or African Diaspora authors, including both more known authors (Tananarive Due, Tobias S. Buckell, Steven Barnes, etc.) and ones I haven't and others most likely haven't heard of before.
Just to be clear, short stories are not my favorite format of story to read and review - I prefer longer stories that have more room for characters and ideas to develop, even if they don't need to reach novella length. So take my review with a bit of a grain of salt - there are a bunch of stories here which to me feel like incomplete, like they're the start of a longer story, and for me those stories don't really satisfy...but obviously they do for others, given this is far from the first collection I've read with them. But even taking that as a given, Africa Risen does contain a number of stories I liked quite a bit, to go along with a perspective that is not the one most Western readers are familiar with, so it's certainly worth a recommend for those looking for SF/F short fiction.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Rape, Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia. All of these issues are used well in their respectives stories and are never superfluous, but the anthology does NOT contain warnings that a particular story contains certain triggering issues, so if you have issues reading about them, there isn't really a guide of which stories you might want to skip.
When I review smaller anthologies I generally try to do a quick one sentence sum-up of each story. But for one like this, writing up summaries for all 32 stories will take up way too much space, so I'm going to just really do highlights here in this review. As you might imagine, in a collection this varied, my feelings on the stories varied a lot - with some stories really just not doing anything for me, or feeling like they were incomplete parts of a larger whole that I never got a chance to read, but with some other stories really making a lasting impression. As you might imagine given the common threads between the authors, there are a lot of stories here dealing with the ramifications of the slave trade and Western colonial oppression - or dealing with them directly through past and future stories. There are also a few stories based upon current conditions and oppressions of modern day African countries, or of Western countries where the diaspora has wound up in (particularly the United States). Of course, while this results in a lot of serious and sometimes hard to read stories, there are also a few lighter ones mixed in, or ones that use African myth and cultures in really interesting and sometimes fun ways, even if they do still sometimes deal with more serious topics.
Anyhow, let me call out seven stories I thought were highlights.
The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library by Tobi Ogundiran:
One of the ummm, "lighter", stories which follows a man in Lagos who lost a library book and tries at first to pay the library money to resolve the issue and then to run away and ignore the library when the Library won't accept anything but the book back....except the Library isn't a normal one, and the Librarian isn't willing to take "no" for an answer....Truly gripping with an amazing twist I won't spoil.
Hanfo Driver by Ada Nnadi:
An actually lighter story, featuring a man whose father's friend - known for entrepreneurial schemes that always go wrong - gets him to drive a Danfo (a Nigerian Bus)...that hovers, aka a "Hanfo" and maybe to set him up with a cousin's son. Really fun with a very cute ending, a lovely story.
Exiles of Witchery by Ivana Akotowaa Ofori:
A story that namedrops Doctor Who and feels very much like it, where an African girl with paranormal senses and knowledge drives a wormhole traveling device around to help people, and on a journey to help a woman with a schizoaffective disorder get her medicine finds them both instead helping a girl like herself, with special senses on the run from a priest who cried witchcraft. Really well done African twist on this type of story.
The Sugar Mill by Tobias S. Buckell:
A White-passing Carribean man, descendant of slaves, tries to sell the land his ancestors were forced to labor on to make money to a privileged White Couple, as his ancestors haunt him and try to make him change his mind. Predictable but well done.
Where the Mami Wata met a Demon by Moustapha Mbacké Diop:
A story that is exactly what it sounds like, where a son is forced to summon a Mami Wata (an African mermaid) to try and save his mother from a Djinn/Demon, only to find difficulty when the Mami Wata is a young inexperienced girl. Really good.
IRL by Steven Barnes -
A strong story featuring a dystopia where corporations have used VR to take control of governance and power, and a son who thrives in VR has to come together and sacrifice his gains when his dad is targetted.
A Dream of Electric Mothers by Wole Talabi
The story of a woman who rose up in society so that she could consult an ancestral combination of minds and memory - ostensibly for a question of national importance - but really to answer questions about her past and her mother's death. Really wonderful story about the merits of being beholden to the past vs looking towards the future.
Other stories worked decently well for me as well, and while there were a few stories I didn't think really worked, I suspect that different readers of this collection will have a few others that they count on as their favorites, which is a good sign of an anthology. All that makes Africa Risen a definite recommend.
No comments:
Post a Comment