 How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin.
Jemisin's short stories are immersive worlds that feel like novels. At least two of the stories are what she calls "proof of concept" stories: "Stone Hunger" takes place in the world that would become her Broken Earth trilogy, and "The City Born Great" does the same for her Great Cities books. And in Jemisin's worlds, Black people are never relegated to minor-character status. A favorite for me was "The Effluent Engine," an alternate history where 19th century Haiti uses dirigibles to become a military power. Some of Jemisin's novels, including the Broken Earth trilogy, are extremely grim. I was pleasantly surprised that so many of the short stories were optimistic - not in a fluffy way, more like "let's roll up our sleeves and get to work." For instance, "Red Dirt Witch" has an adolescent girl in the segregated South of the 1950s, whose dreams give her a taste of how the world is changing. Her mother finds it harder to believe in her daughter's premonitions than in the cruel Fey trying to strike a bargain with her family. And then there's "Valedictorian," where the losers of a civil war are required to surrender children to the winners: the 10% who scored lowest in school each year, plus the one who scored best. I was expecting a Hunger Games scenario, but the reason turns out to be very different. The standout is "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," a literary response to Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." Jemisin's utopia seems heartbreakingly achievable. As with LeGuin's story, there's a catch. Trigger warnings for violence, dismemberment, racism, slavery, euthanasia, and rape. Popsugar Reading Challenge: Afrofuturism. Around the Year Challenge: Related to "Tomorrow." (There's a story called "Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows.")
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