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Book Review: Temper by Nicky Drayden

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Nicky Drayden’s second novel, Temper, is a skillfully crafted twist of virtue, vice, and tense sibling relationships.  I devoured it in a single day, scrolling through the pages on my Kindle as fast as I could read them.  Drayden’s engrossing world pulled me in and left me reeling from a vivid world filled with fascinating characters and a complex and engaging universe.  There are twists and turns in Drayden’s intricate plots, but there are no dead-ends in this maze.

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Childhood Review: The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

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My mother tells me all the time that if you don’t trouble trouble, then trouble won’t trouble you. When I originally decided to start reviewing books from my childhood, I don’t think I was quite aware of how white my reading was. I mean, I did in an ephemeral sense, in the sense that publishing has long been dominated by white voices, but it wasn’t an immediate thing.

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Book Review: The Apex Book of World SF, Volume Five

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“Imagination,” says Cristina Jurado, editor of this fifth edition of The Apex Book of World SF, “recognizes any language while walking on the paths of all nations.” In no genre is this more evident than in science fiction, and in no anthology series is it so vividly realized as in this ongoing project, originally developed by Lavie Tidhar, showcasing short fiction from authors around the world.

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Book Review: In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard

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I’ve been a fan of Aliette de Bodard since 2012, when I read her award-winning short story “Immersion” and the much-nominated novella “On a Red Station, Drifting,” Since those fascinating science fiction stories, she’s gone on to write books and stories ranging from what’s been called Aztec noir to the Dominion of the Fallen series, plus more science fiction/space opera. Her new novella, “In the Vanishers’ Palace,” is officially released today. At first glance it seems a less complex story than many of her other works, with fewer characters and far less intrigue, but it’s very much worth reading and offers a lot to think about, and I love it.

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Short Fiction Review: Black Speculative Fiction Month!

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Since it’s Black Speculative Fiction Month, it seems only appropriate that this month I spotlight some awesome new work by Black writers. First up, we have “Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone” by Eden Royce, which appears in Strange Horizons‘ recent Southeastern USA special issue. It’s a séance story about family and food with a couple delightful twists. I also enjoyed “The Unusual Customer” by Innocent Chizaram Ilo, which appears in Fireside Magazine Issue 58 (August). It’s another story about family and food, except this one has more to do with women fighting off magical bad guys rather than summoning spirits. For a powerful, genuinely disturbing story about toxic masculinity informing a patriarchy, check out “Maria’s Children” by Tobi Ogundiran, which appears in The Dark Issue 40 (September). Lastly, I recommend “Running” by Itoro Udofia, which came out in August from The Book Smugglers. It’s an insightful, immersive meditation on the experience of being first-generation Nigerian-American.

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Bedtime Stories: Sing to the Moon

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Bedtime Stories highlights Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. For one little Ugandan boy, no wish is too big. First he dreams of reaching the stars and then of riding a supernova straight to Mars! But on a rain day at his grandfather’s house, he is brought down to earth with a bump. Do adventures only happen in galaxies far away or can he find magic a little closer to home? Sing to the Moon is the second book written by Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl and illustrated by Sandra van Doorn that I have reviewed for this column and I instantly fell in love again with the sublime partnership between Isdahl’s gentle rhymes and van Doorn’s dreamlike illustrations.

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