Picture of author.

Mat Johnson

Author of Pym

22+ Works 1,832 Members 91 Reviews 5 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17167730

Series

Works by Mat Johnson

Associated Works

Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing (2002) — Contributor — 125 copies
The Darker Mask : Heroes from the Shadows [Anthology] (2008) — Contributor — 57 copies
Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness (2012) — Contributor — 57 copies
Best African American Fiction (2009) (2009) — Contributor — 47 copies
Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents (2019) — Contributor — 18 copies

Tagged

African American (44) African Americans (10) American literature (16) Antarctica (20) comic (11) comics (61) Comics & Graphic Novels (11) crime (13) ebook (22) Edgar Allan Poe (10) fantasy (16) fiction (168) goodreads (9) graphic (11) graphic novel (118) graphic novels (43) Hellblazer (10) historical fiction (25) history (12) horror (10) humor (17) Kindle (13) lynching (16) Mat Johnson (9) mystery (26) New Orleans (10) novel (20) owned (11) passing (11) Philadelphia (10) race (44) racism (39) read (29) satire (20) science fiction (21) slavery (9) to-read (225) unread (10) USA (17) Vertigo (22)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Story of a very pale black man, who can pass as white, investigating lynchings of black people in the South. It's readable enough, but didn't quite work for me. I felt like, as it stood, it wouldn't have been greenlit in any other medium (perhaps radio play), and just could have used a bit more polish on the script. As it was, I found it a bit annoying.
 
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thisisstephenbetts | 24 other reviews | Nov 25, 2023 |
In the film business, Mat Johnson’s Invisible Things would be called a story with a “high concept.” The first expedition to Jupiter discovers a city on Europa protected by a force field. The city, called New Roanoke, is inhabited by the victims of alien abduction and their descendants. They worship their unseen alien abductors and have developed strong cultural taboos around them. When a rescue ship finally arrives, it finds that not all of the original crew want to go home and that even the word home is taboo in New Roanoke. New Roanoke is not Tralfamadore, but Invisible Things is a satire that owes a lot to the satire of Kurt Vonnegut, Samuel Delany, and Philip K. Dick. Societies on Europa and Earth are deeply divided and exhibit a pathological unwillingness to face facts. Sound familiar? Johnson writes well and creates characters who think about the world and their place in it.… (more)
 
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Tom-e | 4 other reviews | Jul 19, 2023 |
Enticing mystery with well-paced tension. And great B&W line work.
 
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grahzny | 24 other reviews | Jul 17, 2023 |
An interesting idea, but I found it difficult to engage with the characters who all seem to be angry about being mixed ethnicity. On the positive side, the characters are unusual but overall the story lacked the chemistry and depth I had hoped for. With so many racially based stories, this one is weak. Not much else to say about it.
 
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Jonathan5 | 17 other reviews | Feb 20, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
22
Also by
7
Members
1,832
Popularity
#14,049
Rating
3.8
Reviews
91
ISBNs
44
Languages
3
Favorited
5

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