Eugen Bacon

Wow, Eugene Bacon can write. And she does so with a one-of-a-kind style that I think would be instantly recognizable among a collection of different authors' works. While I think some of the stories in this particular collection were beyond me, I thoroughly enjoyed the language of each of them and the atmosphere they conjured up (and especially the way Eugene Bacon doesn't ever spell anything out for you—it's up to you to take away your own interpretation).

In Danged Black Thing are show more seventeen short stories, each set in different time periods and sometimes even different genres. Sometimes the protagonist is borrowed from Greek myth, sometimes from actual history, and sometimes from the future. The stories seem to be linked only by the gorgeous prose, which can be dense and opaque, almost hard to understand. Reading this collection worked best for me in small amounts; it became fairly exhausting and difficult trying to "binge" them, so to say. It's definitely not your average "winding-down" reading. There's a lot of thought involved.

Some standouts were "The Water Runner," "When the Water Stops," "Still She Visits," and "De Turtle O Hades," purely subjective, because a few of the references went over my head (for example, the first story has something to do with Lovecraft—I know it does, but that's all I can recognize) and because it's difficult for me to judge the craft of a style so unique that it bends the meaning and usage of words. It makes for an interesting, almost viscous experience, but one that's hard to judge.

I found the characters in these stories fascinating as well, because they were all so flawed (and sometimes outright horrible). Within these works, we have complex ideas like a man embracing the monster inside, a woman unable to confront her infatuation with white Englishmen (and her contempt for her own people), and an immigrant visited by the ghost of her sister and haunted by the abuse that only she escaped.

I can honestly say I've never encountered a writer quite like this one, and although I don't think I would pick up a novel-length work from her, I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of her short stories. A huge thank you to NetGalley and Apex Book Company for letting me read a copy of this book! show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In the dystopian world of Mafinga, Jasmin must contend with a dictator’s sorcerer to cleanse the socialist state of its deadly pollution.

Mafinga's malevolent king dislikes books and, together with his sorcerer Atari, has collapsed the environment to almost uninhabitable. The sun has killed all the able men, including Jasmin’s husband Godi. But Jasmin has Godi’s secret story machine that tells of a better world, far different from the wastelands of show more Mafinga. Jasmin’s crime for possessing the machine and its forbidden literature filled with subversive text is punishable by death. Fate grants a cruel reprieve in the service of a childless queen who claims Jasmin’s children as her own. Jasmin is powerless—until she discovers secrets behind the king and his sorcerer.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Lyrical prose...maybe sometimes too lyrical for its own good...telling a tale of monopoly, abuse of power, an apartheid of haves and have-nots, that not coincidentally resembles the modern technological world metastasizing across the agrarian peasantry of Africa and keeping its fruits entirely apart from those who feed them.

The worldbuilding is *stellar*, the narrative drive does not let up, and the plot speaks to my Social Justice Warrior soul. So what happened to that fifth star, you wonder. The story is told in eight parts, each of many chapters, and in almost as many viewpoints. I get that this is a choice made to facilitate the slightly seasick sense of the story’s walled-off world, where nothing is shared, nothing is given away, and the walls that enclose you form strict limits that are transgressed at the greatest possible risk to life and limb. When we learn that technology emanates from actual aliens, it comes less as a surprise than as a peek over a wall...not, for this reader, the best way to induce full investment. The upside of the structure for me was that I was always in a state of readiness for the next shift, the next magical revelation, and the horrors that always lurk where magic and technology collide. But I was always riding along, moving forward, keeping up...never getting to know anyone well enough to feel deeply with them in their tragedies, not even Jasmin.

In a time where the tsunami of Information is drowning the wisdom and the guidance humans need by replacing stories with infotainment, this book’s lushness of both imagination and prose, its demand for you to pay attention to where you are, who is speaking to you, and what they want you to know, is very evocative. It summons darkness, it rings the feeding bell for the monsters implicit...even inherent...in totalitarian systems. Learn what those who least want you to resist least want you to know if you plan to live instead of exist.

Resistance is not, in fact, futile.

Costly. Dreadfully painful. But never futile. Villains can, and must be, fought at every level and with every atom of one’s being. The price is awful, but the price of submission is even worse. show less

Jasmin is the mother of two small children living in Mafinga, a country where all the men have been killed by the sun and the King has decreed a socialist state where everybody is equal (though some more than others) and everybody must contribute to the whole by working in their assigned places. But Jasmin has a secret, a story machine, and if the authorities catch her with it, she might be killed; and in the meantime, the Queen has such a longing for children…. I hesitate to call this show more story a science fiction tale (although aliens and alien technology are involved), a fantasy (although there are many magical elements), perhaps even horror (there’s a lot of torture included); no, it’s really an invented folk tale, something that seems as old as the oldest story you’ve ever heard and at the same time is sparkling new. I raced through the book, wanting to know what happened next; but now I will need to return to it in order to read it slowly, giving myself time to savour Ms. Bacon’s absolutely poetic writing, her dazzling imagery and her way of creating characters who live and breathe and suffer without ever feeling invented; brilliant. Highly recommended. (This book will be released in March of 2022; I received an ARC from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review.) show less

One doesn't need to go to another planet to be forced into a hostile, alien environment. Neither do they need monsters to fear. The world has plenty of those already.

Eugen Bacon's Danged Black Thing is a collection of stories about the trauma of colonialism, the pain of family, and the triumphant struggle to keep going. The seventeen stories range from full-on sci-fi dystopian futures to a family drama in which the most speculative element is the memory of a lost mother. Each follows show more characters either in a central/western African nation deeply affected by the twin wounds of capitalism and colonialism, or living in diaspora. Bacon's flowing, visceral language is at times ambiguous, with lines like, "Rain was a hungry widow," that hit hard. Her characters, mostly women and children, are put into deeply difficult places, but even the bleak moments are punctuated by a a drive to survive, and more importantly to make the situation a little better for the next generation.

The first story, "Simbiyu and the Nameless", might be my favorite - a dash of cosmic horror following around a young person trying to make a new life in Australia, perhaps to help, but always for a price. And the title story, a darkly-comedic satire of technology gone wrong, was a welcome surprise. This collection has already gotten plenty of praise, and I am glad to see it re-released for the US market. Nothing in here is easy, but it's all welcome...

I was provided an ARC by Apex Books in exchange for a review, and am very glad of it! show less