Tor has acquired the backlist of award-winning novelist, playwright, and scholar Andrea Hairston. Her first book, Mindscape, came out in 2006, won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award and was short-listed for the Philip K. Dick Award and what was then known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award (now the Otherwise Award); Tor’s new edition, updated by Hairston and with a powerful new Acknowledgements essay, was published on Aug. 5. This great book of early Afrofuturism is as fresh as ever, and some elements hit even harder now, in today’s world, than back then. Mindscape is a book that truly deserves this reissuing, so more people can experience its dynamic characters and its vision of cooperation amid great struggles.
Mindscape is about a future where an alien-imposed Barrier that kills most people who touch it has divided the Earth into zones that have been at war for about 100 years. A fragile treaty is under threat. In the first chapter, the treaty’s architect is assassinated. Various people are left to try to heal the world, including Elleni, a sort of mutant griot who can open passages through the Barrier; Lawanda, a diplomat despised as an ethnic throwback; the Major, her lover, playing a dangerous game with both sides; Ray, an actor and Elleni’s lover; and Aaron, a filmmaker/producer who has erased his own traumatic past and self. All of them feel uncertain and imperfect, yet as Ray says, “I choose the danger; I choose my best self; I choose you. Maybe we’re not enough, but hey, we showed up.”
The characters definitely not all working together at first, and some are actually at cross purposes. Some people are just trying to get ahead in this difficult world, and some think that only their faction deserves their support; however, Elleni and Lawanda want peace and unity, even for the disenfranchised Extras whose lives are disposable drama fodder for the entertainment/gangs faction. Can the disparate elements learn to truly communicate and work together for a greater good?
The characters are really compelling, and Hairston’s worldbuilding here is fascinating. Mindscape is a bit of a challenging read, however; with frequent point-of-view shifts among the main characters, and everyone feeling angsty and wondering about everyone else’s motivations. Also, although most of the dialogue is in English, other languages used include German and Igbo (although the characters usually repeat their translations in English); and some of the enigmatic revived Ghost Dancers (the Native American faction) don’t speak at all but use sign language and leave feathers as messages. The plot includes double-dealing and outright betrayals, trust given to the wrong people, trust withheld from good people, violence, disappearances, plague, romance, and healing. Numerous characters have undergone genetic modification, and some have been modified by the Barrier. There is a LOT going on here, but readers who can handle the complexity will be richly rewarded by experiencing this immersive world and its ultimately hopeful themes of flawed people choosing to be their best selves and doing the best they can to help others.
I read an ebook, but Shaun Duke said during our interview with Andrea Hairston (streamed live Aug. 8, and will be released soon on YouTube and as a podcast) that the audiobook is great, with narrator Jasmin Walker doing a fantastic job, especially with the vivid character of Lawanda. (Her dialogue is voiced in reclaimed Black English as she and the major exchange texts; really, those sections are epistolary, so there’s another bonus if you enjoy epistolary fiction like I do.)
Mindscape‘s Acknowledgements explain how much pushback Hairston got from workshoppers and reviewers when she was writing and initially publishing Mindscape, due to including dialogue in their own speech from Africans, Native Americans, and “throwback” ethnic Black Americans of the future. A lot of people back then said that “dying” languages should be encouraged to go ahead and vanish, since English could express everything that needed to be said. This was obviously wrong, as that would incur the loss of culture and poetry, along with just how language can encapsulate and foster different ways of thinking. It shouldn’t need to be said, but obviously in these troubled times, the message is more needed than ever: Diversity makes us all stronger.
(Also related to diversity, there’s a revelation that one of the characters has changed gender, although the word “trans” is not used; the former self is named and occasionally says things to the current character’s mind. Both romances are heterosexual, however; I don’t remember any homosexual relationships.)
This isn’t just a Message book, though. It’s got a lot of humor, action, sexytimes, and heart. It’s not a relic from two decades ago, but truly pertinent to the present day. I strongly recommend Mindscape.
Content warnings: Assassination, war, plague, treating humans as disposable Extras; non-graphic sex scenes; some cursing.
Disclaimers: I received a free ebook from the publisher for review. I’ve been a fan of Hairston since Redwood and Wildfire; check out my review of Archangels of Funk!
