I've been meaning to read some N.K. Jemisin for a while now. Why, when she's well known as a novelist, did I start with her book of short stories? Yes. But this backwards approach does have the advantage of heightening my anticipation for the novels; if these really inventive short stories are not her best stuff, the novels must be amazing. She's a great story-teller, really able to control the pace and feel of things, but with a speculative mind that alights on just as many interesting ideas as any of the boys-with-toys hard sci-fi I've read. And of course, as a black woman, her version of future is refreshingly filled with people who don't look anything like me. Now that's what I call visionary!
Like any collection of stories, some are better than others. The hit rate here is pretty high though. There's no real theme holding the whole works together, but I did notice that many stories come back to the idea of the city as a living, breathing entity, with a spirit that watches over its least fortunate denizens. The best speculative fiction always shows us how the everyday world around us is already part fo the future.
P.S. The New Yorker recently ran a profile of her, if you are interested in learning more.
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