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hellsfire's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this and I'm glad I backed it. It was great to read stories from my fellow People of Color. I love anthologies though and I'm glad that the only theme was that it was sci-fi written by PoC. Because of that, the stories varied greatly in what they were about.
Unfortunately, the book started to sag after the first few stories, for me anyway. And I thought one or two went on way too long. I thought it picked up again in the essay portion. I've never been a fan of essays but this might have been the first time those essays resonated with me. I wonder why?
I would love to read other of Lightspeed's special issues. I guess the "downside" is that these issues are way too big. Maybe if I had read this as an ebook, it wouldn't have seemed as daunting and I would have finished it faster? Still great though.
Unfortunately, the book started to sag after the first few stories, for me anyway. And I thought one or two went on way too long. I thought it picked up again in the essay portion. I've never been a fan of essays but this might have been the first time those essays resonated with me. I wonder why?
I would love to read other of Lightspeed's special issues. I guess the "downside" is that these issues are way too big. Maybe if I had read this as an ebook, it wouldn't have seemed as daunting and I would have finished it faster? Still great though.
dude_watchin_with_the_brontes's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to all of the free podcasts at Lightspeed's website. This was so good that I'm buying the issue to read the rest.
kaitalytic's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
reasie's review
5.0
This is a tight, delicious, dense package of delights. And it's big. I thought "special magazine issue" and the price wasn't bad. I got this BIG FAT ANTHOLOGY WITH COLOR ART GALLERY... and I thought "DANG THAT WAS A DEAL!"
And the content is exquisite. I stopped after the first four stories and thought, "Wait, doesn't every anthology have at least one dud story?" Well, there was one that didn't quite work for me, but it was just one in a cornucopia of the best dang stuff. Gabriela Santiago's "As Long As It Takes To Make the World" is a poem of a story, rich in language and more evocative than Walden Pond. You'll sip it slowly and savor it. I also greatly enjoyed Sofia Samatar's "The Red Thread" and Lisa Allen-Agostini's "Depot 256" with their immersive worlds. The first story in the collection, "A Good Home" by Karin Lowachee tugged all my heartstrings hard.
AND THEN THERE WERE FLASH STORIES!
Oh flash, so tasty, so quick. Rich little appetizers. I couldn't read two in a sitting, I'd be overloaded.
Great before bed or after work on the porch swing. "A Handful of Dal" by Naru Dames Sundar - a flash piece telling the story of an intergenerational colony ship through passed-down recipes. It was so perfect I cried for never having come up with something like this!
AND THEN THERE WERE REPRINTS.
Nisi Shawl collected a Star-Studded little section of The Best. I can't pick one because all five stories were THE BEST. I read Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" at the Cleveland Heights City Pool and the tale of bioengineering and pandemic - the frightening illness that turns not into an apocolypse but a new way of being and a treatment, wow! It will forever bear a trace of the 1920s coffee brick of the pool house.
John Chu's "Double Time" came for me hard on the heels of watching "Yuri on Ice" so I was all "EE I KNOW THESE SKATING TERMS." And as a child of the 80s, too, figure skating was BIG. I just... wow... what a great application of a crazy technology! and the resolution!
Vandana Singh's "Delhi" was a great companion to Gabriela Santiago's piece, another look at a place as a character, and such delicious details!
... see now I'm talking about all of them.
AND THEN THERE's A NOVEL EXCERPT
And then there's author interviews! I especially loved Gabriela's which included a URL to buy tea from her mother's farm. (Handy!)
AND THEN THERE WERE ESSAYS!
I'm a huge fan of autobiography and so the personal essays were particularly enjoyable for me. I loved hearing where science fiction entered these author's lives. I caught myself talking back to the book. "Yes! It was a paperback for me, in a spinner rack, at the school library." S. B. Divya talks about it in her essay "The Biggest Tent of All" how science fiction starts out as a solitary activity, and then you find fandom, and then we had the internet, and fandom is GLOBAL...
So yes. Buy this book. If you are at all into Science Fiction, you owe it to yourself. I am a big fan of short fiction anthologies and this is the best I've read in years!
And the content is exquisite. I stopped after the first four stories and thought, "Wait, doesn't every anthology have at least one dud story?" Well, there was one that didn't quite work for me, but it was just one in a cornucopia of the best dang stuff. Gabriela Santiago's "As Long As It Takes To Make the World" is a poem of a story, rich in language and more evocative than Walden Pond. You'll sip it slowly and savor it. I also greatly enjoyed Sofia Samatar's "The Red Thread" and Lisa Allen-Agostini's "Depot 256" with their immersive worlds. The first story in the collection, "A Good Home" by Karin Lowachee tugged all my heartstrings hard.
AND THEN THERE WERE FLASH STORIES!
Oh flash, so tasty, so quick. Rich little appetizers. I couldn't read two in a sitting, I'd be overloaded.
Great before bed or after work on the porch swing. "A Handful of Dal" by Naru Dames Sundar - a flash piece telling the story of an intergenerational colony ship through passed-down recipes. It was so perfect I cried for never having come up with something like this!
AND THEN THERE WERE REPRINTS.
Nisi Shawl collected a Star-Studded little section of The Best. I can't pick one because all five stories were THE BEST. I read Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" at the Cleveland Heights City Pool and the tale of bioengineering and pandemic - the frightening illness that turns not into an apocolypse but a new way of being and a treatment, wow! It will forever bear a trace of the 1920s coffee brick of the pool house.
John Chu's "Double Time" came for me hard on the heels of watching "Yuri on Ice" so I was all "EE I KNOW THESE SKATING TERMS." And as a child of the 80s, too, figure skating was BIG. I just... wow... what a great application of a crazy technology! and the resolution!
Vandana Singh's "Delhi" was a great companion to Gabriela Santiago's piece, another look at a place as a character, and such delicious details!
... see now I'm talking about all of them.
AND THEN THERE's A NOVEL EXCERPT
And then there's author interviews! I especially loved Gabriela's which included a URL to buy tea from her mother's farm. (Handy!)
AND THEN THERE WERE ESSAYS!
I'm a huge fan of autobiography and so the personal essays were particularly enjoyable for me. I loved hearing where science fiction entered these author's lives. I caught myself talking back to the book. "Yes! It was a paperback for me, in a spinner rack, at the school library." S. B. Divya talks about it in her essay "The Biggest Tent of All" how science fiction starts out as a solitary activity, and then you find fandom, and then we had the internet, and fandom is GLOBAL...
So yes. Buy this book. If you are at all into Science Fiction, you owe it to yourself. I am a big fan of short fiction anthologies and this is the best I've read in years!
melaninny's review against another edition
5.0
I really loved this anthology. I tend to have trouble with groups of short stories--there will always be something that leaves a bad taste, or just isn't very good. Not so with People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction. Though I definitely had preferences among the stories, there were no duds, here. I often have trouble with Science Fiction because it's so bleak, as if needing to paint a dire portrait of humanity. In this compilation, there's a lot of hope.
I did live ratings as I read the stories, so I'll include that below to consolidate it. (Just a note, I rate by my own personal preferences and biases, and also compare them to each other. There are really no stinkers in this book, so if it seems lower than the others, I just didn't like it as much as some of the other stories.) I didn't rate the essays or personal essays, but they were all wonderful short pieces. Congrats to the editors of this volume.
---
Short Stories
A Good Home by Karen Lowachee -- **** -- A bit predictable but with a lot of heart, about a war-trodden veteran who takes in a war-trodden veteran android. It follows their relationship as it progresses and was just a refreshingly consistent story without too much doom and gloom.
Depot 256 by Lisa Allen-Agostini -- *** -- Created a unique and charactered glimpse into the world. The story itself was very open-ended, which is often not my favorite, but the voice was very well done.
Salto Moral by Nick T. Chan -- ***** -- Intensely suspenseful and satisfying the whole way through. I loved this story and cared quite a bit about the two characters. Want to look for more by this author.
Digital Medicine by Brian K Hudson -- **** -- Very sweet, interesting story with great characters. Was only barely science fiction, but it was a satisfyingly emotional story.
The Red Thread by Sofia Samatar -- **** -- A satisfying glimpse into an interesting world, unique and written as one-sided messages. Unique, quirky, subtle.
Wilson's Singularity by Terence Taylor -- *** -- A well-told but not super unique story about an AI that goes to far to keep humans safe. Interesting characters that drive the plot forward.
Fifty Shades of Grays by Steven Barnes -- **` -- A kinda funny, kinda predictable story about aliens who are sex tourists but who end up taking over the world. Decently told.
Omoshango by Dayo Nywari -- ***` -- An interesting, thought-provoking story that tackles the issue of race head-on. It was the first story that made me feel uncomfortable as a white person reading it, but I think stories that force a person out of their comfort zone like that are inherently valuable and I appreciate the lesson.
Firebird by Isha Karki -- ***** -- I loved this story, left me wanting even more.
As Long as It Takes to Make the World by Gabriela Santiago -- ***** -- Easily the most beautifully written story so far, practically a written painting.
On to Flash Fiction!
An Offertory to Our Drowned Gods by Teresa Naval -- **** -- A beautifully brief glimpse.
Other Metamorphoses by Fabio Fernandes -- *** -- Somehow wanting.
Breathe Deep, Breathe Free by Jennifer Marie Brissett -- ***** -- Love, want more.
Morning Cravings by Nin Harris -- *** -- A little too much fancy terminology to adjust to with flash fiction, but sweet and well told.
The Peacemaker by T. S. Bazelli -- **** -- Interesting and sympathetic.
Binaries by S. B. Divya -- **** -- Unique concept (takes place over exponential years), good execution.
Chocolate Milkshake Number 314 by Caroline M. Yoachim -- ****` -- A sweet and sad story that felt complete.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Jy Yang -- **** -- Ambiguous and haunting.
A Handful of Dahl by Naru Dames Sundar -- *** -- Refreshing in concept, excerpts from a family recipe book. Sweet and simple.
Hiranyagarbha by Kevin Jared Hosein -- **` -- Okay but not my favorite of the flash fiction by a long shot.
This wraps up the Flash Fiction section, which was overall very decent, with hints of frustration.
Reprint Fiction
The Evening and the Morning and the Night by Octavia E. Butler -- **** -- A strange story with a chilling and ambiguous message. Definitely gave me a desire to look up more from this author.
Double Time by John Chu -- ****` -- I wish more Science Fiction were like this, with the SF element being a driving element but not the point of the story. I loved it.
Delhi by Vandana Singh -- *** -- Beautiful writing, but confusing and hard to follow, somehow.
1965 by Edmée Pardo -- *** -- Short but intriguing family anecdote. Enjoyed it despite a dry style.
Empire Star by Samuel R. Delaney -- **` -- There is probably a jewel (haha) of a great story in here, but I couldn't get through it. I gave it about 10 pages, sometimes skimming, and had to give up. It's interesting, but I couldn't get past the dialectical writing and countless unknown nouns. No tea no shade, just not for me. May try to revisit another time.
---
Again, thank you to Lightspeed and the editors for creating such a beautiful collection. Keep doing good work.
I did live ratings as I read the stories, so I'll include that below to consolidate it. (Just a note, I rate by my own personal preferences and biases, and also compare them to each other. There are really no stinkers in this book, so if it seems lower than the others, I just didn't like it as much as some of the other stories.) I didn't rate the essays or personal essays, but they were all wonderful short pieces. Congrats to the editors of this volume.
---
Short Stories
A Good Home by Karen Lowachee -- **** -- A bit predictable but with a lot of heart, about a war-trodden veteran who takes in a war-trodden veteran android. It follows their relationship as it progresses and was just a refreshingly consistent story without too much doom and gloom.
Depot 256 by Lisa Allen-Agostini -- *** -- Created a unique and charactered glimpse into the world. The story itself was very open-ended, which is often not my favorite, but the voice was very well done.
Salto Moral by Nick T. Chan -- ***** -- Intensely suspenseful and satisfying the whole way through. I loved this story and cared quite a bit about the two characters. Want to look for more by this author.
Digital Medicine by Brian K Hudson -- **** -- Very sweet, interesting story with great characters. Was only barely science fiction, but it was a satisfyingly emotional story.
The Red Thread by Sofia Samatar -- **** -- A satisfying glimpse into an interesting world, unique and written as one-sided messages. Unique, quirky, subtle.
Wilson's Singularity by Terence Taylor -- *** -- A well-told but not super unique story about an AI that goes to far to keep humans safe. Interesting characters that drive the plot forward.
Fifty Shades of Grays by Steven Barnes -- **` -- A kinda funny, kinda predictable story about aliens who are sex tourists but who end up taking over the world. Decently told.
Omoshango by Dayo Nywari -- ***` -- An interesting, thought-provoking story that tackles the issue of race head-on. It was the first story that made me feel uncomfortable as a white person reading it, but I think stories that force a person out of their comfort zone like that are inherently valuable and I appreciate the lesson.
Firebird by Isha Karki -- ***** -- I loved this story, left me wanting even more.
As Long as It Takes to Make the World by Gabriela Santiago -- ***** -- Easily the most beautifully written story so far, practically a written painting.
On to Flash Fiction!
An Offertory to Our Drowned Gods by Teresa Naval -- **** -- A beautifully brief glimpse.
Other Metamorphoses by Fabio Fernandes -- *** -- Somehow wanting.
Breathe Deep, Breathe Free by Jennifer Marie Brissett -- ***** -- Love, want more.
Morning Cravings by Nin Harris -- *** -- A little too much fancy terminology to adjust to with flash fiction, but sweet and well told.
The Peacemaker by T. S. Bazelli -- **** -- Interesting and sympathetic.
Binaries by S. B. Divya -- **** -- Unique concept (takes place over exponential years), good execution.
Chocolate Milkshake Number 314 by Caroline M. Yoachim -- ****` -- A sweet and sad story that felt complete.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Jy Yang -- **** -- Ambiguous and haunting.
A Handful of Dahl by Naru Dames Sundar -- *** -- Refreshing in concept, excerpts from a family recipe book. Sweet and simple.
Hiranyagarbha by Kevin Jared Hosein -- **` -- Okay but not my favorite of the flash fiction by a long shot.
This wraps up the Flash Fiction section, which was overall very decent, with hints of frustration.
Reprint Fiction
The Evening and the Morning and the Night by Octavia E. Butler -- **** -- A strange story with a chilling and ambiguous message. Definitely gave me a desire to look up more from this author.
Double Time by John Chu -- ****` -- I wish more Science Fiction were like this, with the SF element being a driving element but not the point of the story. I loved it.
Delhi by Vandana Singh -- *** -- Beautiful writing, but confusing and hard to follow, somehow.
1965 by Edmée Pardo -- *** -- Short but intriguing family anecdote. Enjoyed it despite a dry style.
Empire Star by Samuel R. Delaney -- **` -- There is probably a jewel (haha) of a great story in here, but I couldn't get through it. I gave it about 10 pages, sometimes skimming, and had to give up. It's interesting, but I couldn't get past the dialectical writing and countless unknown nouns. No tea no shade, just not for me. May try to revisit another time.
---
Again, thank you to Lightspeed and the editors for creating such a beautiful collection. Keep doing good work.
moonlit_shelves's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
invisibleninjacat's review against another edition
4.0
I at least moderately liked most of the stories in this anthology, though some were hit or miss. Weirdly, some of the ones I expected to like I didn't, and vice versa. Some of them seemed to reference mythologies I wasn't familiar with, and those were hard to get into, as a clueless white person. I also didn't expect to enjoy the nonfiction as much as I did. I definitely love that this anthology exists, though.
bmatzke's review against another edition
5.0
A great representation of some of the most interesting work being done in contemporary SF.
elibrooke's review against another edition
5.0
Favorites as I'm reading:
Salto Mortal by Nick T. Chan
Salto Mortal by Nick T. Chan