Every Month is a Good Month to Read Black Speculative Fiction

Here are some of the books that I read in February in honor of Black History Month and some of the ones I bought and am still looking forward to reading as summer approaches (I’m always biting off more than I can chew, at least in a single month). This list is the collection of books I’ve purchased recently and plan on reading soon and is not organized by any particular rhyme or reason. 

Black authors have a long history with science fiction, stretching back to 1859 with Martin R. Delany’s Black, or the Huts of America. I also recommend Charles Chesnutt’s collection of tales titled The Conjure Woman from 1899 for pre-20th century picks (they’re incredible and strange and unsettling). Science fiction and speculative fiction are a place where unrest and violence but also progress and hope for the future can come together and read their impacts onto the world, both dire and hopeful, deeply real and also fantastic. 

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

I re-read this book in February because it was incredible the first time I read it, and it got even richer the second time around. I’m generally very into fungi-adjacent media, and this has the spores, political intrigue, cults, and a compelling narrator named Vern. The book follows Vern as she escapes Cainland, the cult where she was raised, and reckons with the alterations that her upbringing and the violent involvement of the government have had on her body and who she is. When she escapes, Vern is heavily pregnant with twins and has to survive in the woods for fear of repercussions and also because she doesn’t know how to navigate the rest of the world. This is a sharp look at the embodiment of trauma. 

Because I loved Sorrowland so much, I thought I should check out some more of Solomon’s work, and it did not disappoint. 

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

This is Rivers Solomon’s first novel, and a great debut. This is a space-faring story; it takes place several generations into a journey to a so-called “promised land” upon a giant spaceship that carries, one might imagine, the last of humanity. The reason for their journey has been lost to time, intentional or not, but what matters is the oppression that the people on the lower decks face in the present. The ship has extreme segregation and racial slavery wherein the mostly white people on the upper decks have access to leisure, the false-sun, and resources such as electricity and food. On the lower decks, the people who live there perform the majority of the grueling labor required to keep the ship alive and have scant access to electricity, food, or other resources such as medical care. 

The protagonist, Aster, is an outcast amongst the lower decks but provides life-saving medical care. She guides herself and, incidentally, others, towards dissent and the hope of freedom by following in the mysterious footsteps of her long-dead mother. 

This is a distillation of racism, slavery, and prison that plays out the consequences of long-standing prejudice. Solomon’s protagonists are incredibly singular in their desires, fears, and resistance, and I love them so much for that. There are no simple people. 

Rosewater by Tade Thompson 

Nigerian-British author Tade Thompson brings us Rosewater, the first in the Wormwood trilogy. This strange, beautiful piece of afrofuturism follows a community living on the edge of an alien biodome, searching for hope and healing in the mysterious promise of the unknown inhabitants. The biodome has miraculous, terrifying impacts that are incomprehensible to those living near it. The main character, Kaaro, knows entirely too much about the biodome and would prefer to stay far away. However, when people start to turn up dead, he gets drawn in with hopes of protecting himself. 

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Jemisin is a science fiction/fantasy powerhouse, and I’m so excited to read her work! This is the first in one of her many series, The Broken Earth. “This is the way the world ends. Again.” This is a family drama set within the ending world. Essun’s husband murders their son and kidnaps their daughter, and she fights to track them down and get her back as world-ending seismic activity reshapes the world around them and Sanze, the worldwide empire, is collapsing (and no empire goes down gently.) One person’s love guides her through the broken world. 

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

I’ve long enjoyed Colson Whitehead’s writing and generally consider his new books automatic pick-ups, so this tread into his backlist is exciting. He originally wrote more speculative, science fiction work, though his recent work lives more in the realm of realism with The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle. 

This is a post-apocalyptic pandemic world in which people are either infected or uninfected, the living or the living dead. This is a deconstruction of the zombie myth; the story follows Mark Spitz, a member of a civilian team working to “clean up” lower Manhattan of the more benign infected; those who are “malfunctioning” infected that live in the past. Told over three days (I love a tight timeline) things go more and more wrong as Mark Spitz carries out his “mundane” duties and reconciles the fallen world with his traumatic memories of collapse and from before disaster. 

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull

It’s been a long time since I’ve personally read an alien-based narrative. Set in the Virgin Islands, this is a first-contact novel in which an alien ship rests over Water Island. The Ynaa have been there on an undisclosed “research mission” for five years, settling into an odd kind of normalcy, wherein they are generally peaceful but counteract any perceived violence with disproportionate wrath. After the Ynaa are responsible for the death of a young boy, the Islanders and the Ynaa are suspended in untenable tension. Three families find themselves at the center of the inevitable conflict, spiraling out into questions of how far one will go for family, belief, or progress. 

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James 

I’ve been screaming over this cover for so long. It’s obviously the book that we’re here for, but I can’t help but to love the design; it’s so juicy and compelling! This is the first in The Dark Star trilogy. 

This novel is hard to pin down. A beautiful, complex blend of mythology, fantasy, mystery, and drama, Black Leopard, Red Wolf follows a mercenary hired to find a missing child who finds themselves involved with a ragtag groups rife with secrets, including the titular Black Leopard, a shape-shifting man-animal. Labyrinthine in style and rich with cultural references as James pulls from African history and mythology, you’ll want to prepare yourself for how in-depth this novel is. 

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk

This is a previous book-club pick that I’m excited to get around to. A sapphic period piece, an exiled-auspex (which I learned means diviner, seer, etc.!) sold her soul to save her brothers life but is offered one chance to live out a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. She has three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago’s most famous serial killer. I’ve got to read this soon or I’ll perish, because this is going to be sweet, fun, and devastating - I can just feel it.