Walidah Imarisha

When I walked into a local bookstore and saw an anthology of short stories inspired by and dedicated to Octavia Butler, I had to buy and read it immediately. And it did not disappoint! I love seeing the diverse and unique worlds the authors bring to life in each of the short stories. My only problem with this book is that I want most of the short stories to be full-length novels. The authors set up such interesting worlds and start the characters on amazing journeys that I want to see where show more the story takes them! Some of the stories don't need to be grown into full novels, but, I mean, I for sure wouldn't turn it down!!

I also loved the essays at the end. The one about Star Wars brings up some very good points that we should all probably be thinking about. And the essay about Change in Butler's works put something I'd been noticing and thinking about in coherent and easy to understand terms. It was also fantastic to read about Butler from someone who knew her when she was alive. RIP Octavia, but wherever you are, I hope you know your legacy lives on. show less

The premise of this collection is that anytime you're doing social justice work, you're writing speculative fiction -- a premise I adore, as a person who became captivated by, and formed by, both social justice and science fiction at the same very young age. The writers of these stories are mostly not fiction writers but activists, shaping their activist vision into speculative fiction for the first time. I've never read anything like it.

The writers are virtually all of color, as are the show more editors. The tone of the stories is unlike any sci-fi I've read (though it is clearly informed by Octavia Butler, as the name would imply). All the endings are open-ended, beginnings more than endings and questions more than answers.

It's uneven, even more so than short story collections usually are. It's about ideas more than great writing. But if you are a reader of science fiction and you spend a lot of time thinking about justice, I strongly recommend you pick this up. show less

As the subtitle makes clear, this is an anthology with an agenda, and it's an agenda that will inflame certain parties in recent kerfuffles in the science fiction community.

That said, this is an enjoyable collection. The stories are varied in setting, viewpoint, and kind. There's an incipient uprising against both a hoard of zombies and the politically repressive response to the zombie hoard. There's a gentle story of a woman attempting to reconnect with both her dead grandfather and her show more very much alive daughter, in an alternate history where the Civil War started in 1859, and the slaves won. A woman has to decide how she's going to react to a government that's finally responding to global warming, in a way that may be both too much, and not enough. One choice will cut her off from her mother and the place she grew up; another will cut her off from her partner and her life now. Is there a third choice, and can she do it? A young man who is the token black superhero opts out of the nonsense--until he finds out how he matters to young people, and a away to make a contribution that matters to him.

The authors include names all sf readers will recognize, like Tananarive Due and Terry Bisson, and people who've never written sf, or even fiction, before. Possibly for that reason, there are a number of stories that I read and thought, that's a set-up for a story I'd like to read the rest of...

Having said that, while there are a number of "beginning, middle, no actual end" pieces, there's nothing here I didn't enjoy. There's nothing here that has that special sense you get when mainstream writers go slumming and assume that "science fiction means it doesn't have to make sense." All the writers here respect their readers and their material. The editors didn't excuse lesser work because they wanted a particular name or a particular theme included. Despite being an anthology with an agenda, there's no pounding the reader over the head, except to the extent that happens with any themed anthology when you read straight through rather than dipping in.

I'll carry away from it a particular fondness for "The Token Superhero," by David Walker, and "The River," by Andrienne Maree Brown.

I've been saying "read" throughout this review; that's a very loose usage. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator's voice is excellent, strong, clear, and expressive.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. show less

Science fiction is my favorite fiction genre. Mix in some visionary fiction and have it be written by someone who sees the world through an anticapitalist lens, and you have the recipe for Octavia’s Brood; a collection of short stories written by an array of “organizers and activists.” adrienne maree brown—who I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time—said, in the outro: “Science fiction is the perfect ‘exploring ground,’ as it gives us the opportunity to play with different show more outcomes and strategies before we have to deal with the real-world costs.” The world is fucked and reading visionary sci-fi helps me imagine some ways that could go.

I don’t think the writing in this book is the best, most captivating (though some is), and I like short stories even less when they’re sci-fi (that shit needs time to build a world for us), but it was definitely worth the read. I’ve read a lot of books that have referenced it and have been wanting to read it since it came out in 2015.

My favorite stories were: The Token Superhero by David F Walker, Black Angel by Walidah Imarisha, The Long Memory by Morrigan Phillips, and Kafka’s Last Laugh by Vagabond. There were only one or two that I really didn’t like. Check it out. It may still be on sale at AK Press or, if you live local, borrow it from me. show less