Cover Image: New Suns

New Suns

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Member Reviews

Though New Suns is simply presented as an anthology of short fiction by people of colour, without any over arching theme, a great many of the stories in the collection focus on what it means to be the other—or become the other. But of course they do. This comes as no surprise, though some readers may be slightly disappointed when many of the stories don’t quite push at this enough, holding back just that little bit that stops from deeper exploration of their narrative.

For some, it is that the short story format isn’t quite long enough to explore what they’re thinking (and so some of the stories come across as excerpts, which isn’t necessarily a negative aspect). For some it’s just a matter of undeveloped skill at addressing heavier, more complicated themes in equally complicated settings. Regardless, New Suns is an earnest compilation of voices from many ethnicities and backgrounds, making it a nice little package for those looking to read the narratives of writers exploring their experiences as people of colour, and as marginalised people .

The idea of being the other, or experiencing the other, or even othering the other (as it were) may not have been declared an existing theme in New Suns, but is hard to escape, as just as ideas about imperialism can not be escaped. The anthology begins with a quick, fun story by Tobias S. Buckell, “Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex,” in which Earth is a (bit of a cheap and crappy) tourist destination for beings from all over the universe, who travel there looking to consume human culture. One such being dies in a tourist jaunt in a New York City taxi, and the cab driver in whose car this being falls from must contend with what this means for the species. It’s one New York minute that may change the thinking and future of an entire alien race.

On a more introspective and deeply emotional note, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister” is a lovely, sad, frightening piece of writing, about a young woman’s ghosts; ‘some ghosts are woven into walls and others are woven into skin with an unbreakable, invisible thread.’ Moreno-Garcia’s writing is (as always) poetic and evocative and a joy to read, as she explores a young woman’s darkest demons and memories of her baby brother, and ‘a love that keeps secrets’ of the other within her skin.

“Harvest” by Rebecca Roanhorse is another genuinely moving, melancholic and lonely story about the the longterm impact of Europe’s colonisation of Native Americans, with the protagonist herself a Native woman, falling for a ‘deer woman…wild and without reason’. But this deer woman does have reason to ask for what she does, and her lover can not refuse. Is it love that makes her act this way? Or is that her lover has no soul, that her eyes are ‘mirrors’, showing the protagonist only what her own heart desires?

Equally well written is Indrapramit Das’ “The Shadow We Cast Through Time,” a complex, lushly told story of a colonised planet that has lost all contact with ‘Farhome’ and it’s population that must now survive independently, learning to deal with their own planetary ‘demons’, and how these creatures may not be so different from them after all. Das’ language is beautiful, and the world building intriguing; the short story format just barely enough to contain what he wants to achieve here.

Vastly different but much needed in this anthology is the surge of dark humour in Steve Barnes’ “Come Home to Atropos,” which is presented as the script of an infomercial for a Caribbean island known to be a tourist destination for those desiring assisted suicide. The island of Atropos, we slowly realise, is poverty struck and desperate for this tourism from the west. This is revealed quite slyly in the narrative, as the infomercial attempts to convince potential tourists that Atropos really is similar to the heaven they’re hoping to get to. ‘Do not be alarmed’, says the narrator, ‘by the lack of water and power…our people are resourceful, and although your leaders felt it would be best for us to rely upon our own resources, our people feel only welcoming toward you’. The politics of global economy and those who control it come into play, too, with passing mention of ‘closed factories due to American embargoes and power outages’. It’s terrible to laugh at some of the things Barnes writes, and perhaps only someone from a colonised background would find some of what he writes amusing. For example, a note in the infomercial script to the art department that reads, ‘we need a variety of images of the beautiful people of Atropos, and the hospitality they provide. Certainly we can find some who don’t look hungry? And no amputees, please’. It’s caustic satire, of course, but with great pitch.

Some of the stories that fall just that little bit shorter still maintain interest. Hiromi Goto’s “One Easy Trick,” an odd little story about a woman’s belly fat falling off and running away, is just that—odd. It could’ve been more of something, but it wasn’t. “Dumb House,” by Andrea Hairston, about a couple of sales people trying to convince a woman who makes tech to upgrade her house to a ‘smart’ model also feels like it could be something more, yet it isn’t.

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New Suns is an anthology containing short stories written by authors of colour.
There are seventeen stories and each offers something different.
However, for me, I found seventeen to be a few too many. Especially as there were only a handful that I actually enjoyed - I struggled to get into most of the stories either because of the writing or I couldn't connect with the plot or characters. I did end up skipping to the end of a few or skim-reading them.
I think I would have preferred it if the stories had a specific theme e.g. space travel/stories, or if there had been different themed parts/sections of the anthology. As it was, it felt a bit like a hodgepodge of different stories - which I suppose wouldn't have bothered me as much if I'd enjoyed more of them.

Overall, I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

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I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Some reviewers seemed to have taken issue with the lack of coherence in this collection of sff short stories. To me, that is actually a strength, as there is no reason to expect writers of colour to "stick" to certain ideas or issues any more than authors categorized another way, per gender, nationality, or some other grouping of belonging. There are plenty of stories in here about colonial power, about marginalization, and other issues that you could connect to the perils of growing up a person of colour in a white-majority country. But if anything, I was hoping for a bit more international variety in terms of the authors' origins, but ultimately this is a good a collection as any if you're looking for a fix of Anglo-American style sff short stories.

Like many other readers, I particularly loved Tobias Buckell's contribution to the collection, although I also really enjoyed The Virtue of of Unfaithful Translations by Minsoo Kang. And I will follow the careers of authors I didn't previously know - like Darcie Little Badger and Jaymee Goh - with great interest from here on!

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A brilliant anthology of speculative fictional short stories. They were all written so daringly with high imagination that left me in wonder.

Although I need not enjoy some stories or was left clueless, I absolutely enjoyed all the concepts presented. They all had thought provoking ideas, challenging my imagination. The different genres ranging from Fantasy, Sci-Fi to Horror were a perfect mix. Well, that's speculative fiction for you. The horror did scare me though a little with all the dark vibes and gruesome deaths. Some of the stories were also odd which reminded me a lot of Studio Ghibli.

I definitely found this book to be very interesting. But the only thing I did not enjoy was being clueless. I couldn't figure out if there was a hidden meaning or if it was actually meant to be odd that way. As a reader who loves stories with moral values and meaning, I was not completely satisfied with this book. However, I think it was still brilliant. Much praise for the authors who dared to be different, putting their wild imaginations down on paper.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Rebellion Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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[2.5/5]

I really wish I could give this book a better rating, but anthologies are tricky this way: more often than not, they are a mixed-bag of stories I love, and others not so much. However, I was absolutely thrilled when I saw that it was entirely composed of PoC Writers, a few I already knew and many others I was yet to discover! I am glad for those discoveries, even though they did not all speak to me.

Shout-out to my favorite stories:

Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex - Tobias S. Buckwell
Earth is the perfect tourist-trap for aliens, and did you hear? You can die very stupidly there.

Come Home to Atropos – Steven Barnes
Euthanasia turned into a business, the whole story is dripping with cynicism and euphemism, it's (awfully) hilarious and not that far-fetched *side-eye retirement brochures*

unkind mercy – Alex Jennings
Something exists in an angle that does not exist. What if they decide to erase someone? What if they decide to erase everyone?
I reads like a Doctor Who episode and I love it!

Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Short and sweet urban fantasy story about being a monster in an ocean of (seemingly) humans. I love how it works on its own, but could also be the beginning of something much bigger.

Special Mention:

The Robots of Eden by Anil Menon and Harvest by Rebecca Roanhorse, I loved the premises of both stories, but felt like they needed more fleshing out, or could have been part of bigger stories. They're great, but something was missing!

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I was really excited about this book! I mean, an anthology of short stories by poc authors? What could be better, right? That's exactly what the fantasy genre needs right now.

And yet. It was a massive disappointment.

The thing is, there are a few really good stories here, sure! But they are overshadowed by a number of poorly written ones, straight-up bad ones. Turns out it's not enough to get an author who isn't white - they need to be a good author, too.

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This is an amazing anthology of stories by POC. I’m also was weary of short story collections but I loved this ones. It spans a variety of genres from horror to fantasy to sci-fi, each story was well written and there wasn’t one that I didn’t like. Some of my favourites were The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations, The Freedom of the Shifting Sea and Harvest.

I gave this 4 out of 5 stars.

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New Suns is a collection, drawn together and edited by the legendary author and editor Nisi Shawl, of stories by authors of colour. It opens with an epigraph from Octavia E. Butler:

"There's nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns."

This collection is a journey into different worlds under different suns—worlds drawing from, to some degree or other, the histories of peoples other than the western WASPish hegemony.

The short stories here are as varied as their authors, from 'Burn The Ships', Alberto Yáñez’ eviscerating account of a people’s overcoming their Holocaust by means of forbidden magics, to Minsoo Kang’s 'The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations', a pseudo-historical account of a pair of translators that prevent a bloody war between their nations. A woman loses her belly fat in the woods in Hiromi Goto’s ‘One Easy Trick’, and in Rebecca Roanhorse’s ‘Harvest’ a Native woman in New York City falls for a deer woman who convinces her to commit murders.

The thread in this collection is diversity. You step from one story to the next and you never know where you’re going to end up next. It’s a scintillating experience of an anthology.

That said, there are themes that crop up more than once. The weight of history lies on some of these stories, and their characters navigate their minefields in their own ways. Closest to our own timeline, Steven Barnes’ ‘Come Home to Atropos’ is a story that takes the form of advertising copy for a Caribbean island called Atropos, targeting euthanasia tourism at white people—it’s a deeply uncomfortable story because of the language it uses, and it’s meant to be.

’The Fine Print’ by Chinelo Onwualu features a man rebelling against the powerful djinn and its corporation that rules his unnamed African country through consumerist wish-fulfilment. The djinn is a successor to and in many ways a symbol of the colonialist state that the people were subject to. It’s a critique of 21st century corporate enslavement as well as the white supremacy that the djinn replaced.

In Tobias Bucknell’s opening story, 'The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex', we’re thrown into a New York City full of flying cabs and alien tourists, but the inequality remains the same. Our cab-driver protagonist Tavi lives out near Queens in a falling-down apartment building kept running by its inhabitants, while only the ultra-rich and the galactic tourists can afford to stay and play in Manhattan.

One of my favourite stories in the book continues the theme. Karin Lowachee’s ‘Blood and Bells’ collapses the distinction between city gangs and distinct nations, so that in her city of Emidit the streets are divided into national territories and ruled by shifting allegiances. There’s still a ruling class here with the police in their pocket, and the divisions between the nations make life in Emidit into a matter of staying within your own boundaries.

Something that many of the stories in the collection share is the hope they invest in the future. That hope takes different forms.

Kathleen Alcalá’s story ‘Dear Dancer’ depicts a post-climate-apocalypse north America where inequality and scarcity still shape the world, but the communities that live on society’s fringe are free to make their own family and live peacefully, practically, and love and support one another. Andrea Hairston explores a similar world in her story 'Dumb House'.

An interstellar future features in Indrapramit Das’ ’The Shadow We Cast Through Time’, in which another kind of quiet societal collapse occurs: a planet’s colony loses touch with the wider galactic society. The community finds themselves left alone with the creatures—the demons—that inhabit their planet. The oppositional relationship to the demons that the name implies is part of the twist—the demons represent a new way of life, a nature beyond human—post-human even—and the possibility of radical change.

There's no single theme you can pin on this collection. Instead, ideas surface and resurface, worlds spin by in a dizzying, fascinating parade. I can't possibly do justice to every story in this collection. If you want to read a rich and satisfying offering of speculative fiction from authors of colour gathered and edited by an absolute legend of SFF, then please look no further than New Suns.

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[My review will be available on my blog at the link provided on 19 May. It has already been cross-posted to Goodreads and LibraryThing.]


New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl is, like it says on the cover, an anthology of original speculative fiction by people of colour. Aside from that commonality, there is quite a diverse group of stories contained within. On the one hand, this means there should be a story for every type of speculative fiction reader, but perhaps that not every story will work for every reader.

Anthology of contemporary stories by emerging and seasoned writers of many races

There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns,” proclaimed Octavia E Butler.

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color showcases emerging and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made strange. Between this book’s covers burn tales of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their indefinable overlappings. These are authors aware of our many possible pasts and futures, authors freed of stereotypes and clichés, ready to dazzle you with their daring genius.

Unexpected brilliance shines forth from every page.

I found this anthology to be quite the mixed bag. There were some cute stories, some dark stories, some stories dealing with very interesting ideas, some that I didn't feel I "got" but that I'm sure will be meaningful for other readers. As such, I'm finding it hard to have an opinion on the anthology as a whole. As usual, I recorded my thoughts on each story as I read it — and you can find these below — but an overall impression is difficult. I also ended up reading New Suns over a long period of time, which doesn't help.

A few of the stories which stand out for me are:
"The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations" by Minsoo Kang, which was based on a delightful premise. It wasn't the easiest read, but absolutely worth putting the effort in for.
"The Freedom of the Shifting Sea" by Jaymee Goh was a meatier read than some of the others and featured a memorable cross-species romance.
"One Easy Trick" by Hiromi Goto was cute and entertaining.
The above is not an exhaustive list, so I do encourage you to read the mini-reviews below if you haven't already.

Overall, New Suns is an anthology filled with diverse perspectives and written by diverse authors. If you are looking to branch out a bit in your short story reading and try some new authors, this would be a good place to start.

~

The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex, Tobias Buckell — What if a lot of different aliens all decided that Earth was a perfect tourist destination? Find out how mere humans live on the edges of a society that mainly relies on tourist income to Manhattan. Interesting parallels as well as interesting aliens.

Deer Dancer, Kathleen Alcalá — A story about a collective living arrangement in some sort of post-apocalyptic future (climate change I think). It was mostly slice-of-life, interesting but lost me a bit towards the end.

The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations, Minsoo Kang — I originally started reading this story on the second of two long-haul flights and it transpired that I was far too tired to take the story in. When I restarted it later, better rested, I realised I had had no idea what it was about from the first attempt. It doesn’t help that it’s written in a very dry style, in the manner of a non-fictional historical essay, and that the story itself emerges gradually. Once established, it was a very interesting and amusing read, if not exactly an exciting one.

Come Home to Atropos, Steven Barnes — Told in the form of a horrifyingly unsubtle infomercial, this story is about assisted dying and euthanasia tourism. The overtones of historic and modern slavery seemed a bit gauche for an infomercial but certainly added to the plausibility of the story overall. (Also, the story was more a a take on racism than an interrogation of the concept of assisted dying.)

The Fine Print, Chinelo Onwualu — The premise of the story was a bit unpleasant (from a feminist point of view) and I didn’t feel the story itself really made up for that, despite acknowledging it. The writing was fine but I didn’t really enjoy the plot.

unkind of mercy, Alex Jennings — A slightly creepy story. It reminded me of the episode of Doctor Who with the ghost angels that was part of the Tenth Doctor’s last season finale. With a very different ending, of course.

Burn the Ships, Alberto Yáñez — A story of conquerors from the east colonising an empire in southern America. There is oppression and slaughter and vengeful magic. I think the setting is an alternate world rather than a precisely real historic setting. It was a longer story and featured culture that I have not come across too frequently in stories.

The Freedom of the Shifting Sea, Jaymee Goh — One of my favourite stories in the collection. A multigenerational epic featuring a mermaid/mermillipede (any description from me isn’t going to do her justice, I suggest just reading the story). I liked the twist on the traditional mermaid idea and the way the story spanned many years, in bursts.

Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire, E. Lily Yu — As the title says, variations on the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. It adds to the obvious take and was written in a very readable voice.

Blood and Bells, Karin Lowachee — This story was a slog to get into and I ended up setting it aside for quite a while. When I came back to it and read further it was more interesting (to see the actual plot develop). Gang warfare and a father trying to protect his kid in the middle of a murder investigation.

Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister, Silvia Moreno-Garcia — An enticing story about a witch living in a city and attempting to lead a normal life. I enjoyed the time and writing style especially.

The Shadow We Cast Through Time, Indrapramit Das — A dark and fantastical take of a far future but lowish-tech colony on some alien planet. The story evoked a compelling mood, but I found it a bit too slow to draw me in effectively, for all that it was interesting during sufficiently long bursts of reading.

The Robots of Eden, Anil Menon — A dystopian/utopian future in which most affluent people have implants that regulate their emotions and protect them from life’s emotional struggles. I was quite intrigued by the story of a banker dealing exceptionally well with divorce and even befriending his ex wife’s new husband, with the dark realities of the world lurking beneath the surface.

Dumb House, Andrea Hairston — A bit of a slice of life story set in a dystopian rural US. A woman living in a “dumb house” fends off salesmen trying to upgrade her to a smart house. The character development was interesting but I felt that a bit more of the worldbuilding details could have been included; some aspects were clear, some foggy.

One Easy Trick, Hiromi Goto — A cute story about a woman, her belly fat, and a forest. I quite enjoyed it and found it a bit unexpected, in a good way.

Harvest, Rebecca Roanhorse — A kind of creepy story. I found aspects of the ending a little too ambiguous but, nevertheless, it was well written.

Kelsey and the Burdened Breath, Darcie Little Badger — A bit of a mystery but mostly a ghost story. I enjoyed the mythology of it and wouldn’t have minded a longer/meatier story.


3.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2019, Rebellion Publishing
Series: No
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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I'm a massive spec fic fan (both reading and writing it), but I find some of the popular stuff gets samey: either in a cod-medieval, Game of Thrones, doorstop series way; or in a only-this-straight-white-spaceman-can-save-the-world way. So I'm glad this book exists.

I didn't love all the stories – not because they're bad, they're just not my personal taste. Quite a few of them left me unsatisfied, asking more questions than were answered. Not necessarily a problem if you want a thought-provoking read, but don't expect neat narratives.

My favourite, not surprisingly, was Jaymee Goh's 'The Freedom of the Shifting Sea', about a murderous lesbian worm-woman. She's not technically a mermaid (as she's a worm-human mix rather than a fish-human mix), but she gave me the queer killer mermaid that I didn't even know I wanted. The final three stories were also great: Hiromi Goto on a woman pursued through the woods by her own belly fat, Rebecca Roanhorse on murderous deer women (what's my sudden desire for killer queers? I'm worrying myself), and Darcie Little Badger on a new sort of ghost.

I'm giving this three stars because many of the stories weren't my cup of tea – but the ones that worked for me, I really liked.

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I really enjoyed getting stuck into this book, and found myself frequently surprised by just how much I loved the Characters in the stories.

This was the first time I read an anthology of short stories, and I must admit I was a bit nervous. Short stories can often feel rushed or unfinished, but I found that I enjoyed reading about each person, and I loved the very different approaches and considerations of each Author.

There were obviously some I loved more than others, some that appealed to me that bit more, as I figure will be true of any who read the book. Each story is down to that readers individual tastes, so there will always be some that shine brighter to different people. But what I found very surprising, was that although I liked some more than others, I enjoyed every story for a different reason.

Some it was for the theme behind the story, sometimes I loved a Character, and sometimes it was the flow of the story, but every single one held my interest easily, and has prompted me to go an try to find other works from the author.

I think that the best way to read something like this, is to take each story on it’s individual merits, as opposed to reading the book as a whole. It seems unfair to the Authors to expect all the stories to flow in the same way, as each Author is as different in style and approach as the reader themselves.

The different worlds, futures, places and situations were wonderful, each was gorgeously described. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I was transporter to so many different places, and each was the perfect length to read on a break.

If you enjoy Fantasy and Sci Fi then you really should pick these up, short snappy stories that are each unique, some very memorable Characters and surprising turns! This book has a little bit of everything.

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There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.

New Suns is an anthology of short stories, each written by an author of colour. There is a variety of stories, sci-fi, fantasy or a mix of the two, often based in legend or myth. I liked the diversity in the collection, and I was glad to see a couple of authors whose work I've enjoyed before.

My favourites were:

Jaymee Goh: The Freedom of the Shifting Sea
E. Lily Yu: Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire
Karin Lowachee: Blood and Bells
Rebecca Roanhorse: Harvest
Darcie Little Badger: Kelsey and the Burdened Breath

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*I received this ARC for review from Netgalley*

I feel like this book is filled with stories that should have been expanded into there own novels. Because of that, everything felt incomplete. Every story left me wanting more. I did enjoy what I read, I just felt like something was missing.

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I gave the anthology a 4/5 stars or 8/10. Some stories I loved and others I felt were lacking, that's the beauty of anthologies though, you get the best of all worlds so to speak.

The mixture of genres of the stories is vast and include dystopian, horror, science fiction, fantasy and some were definitely not for the faint hearted. Something to suit every readers taste.

I'd never read any other work by any of the Authors before and due to the varied genres, this Anthology was definitely one that I knew I would get on with as many of the genres are ones that I particularly enjoy reading. As they are short stories, this is a book that you can pick up and put down in between other reads, as the stories are the perfect length to allow you to do this. Reading each story one by one, in it's entirety.

If you like reading short story anthologies that will make you gasp and wonder at the twisted minds of the Authors writing them, then grab a copy.

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This is a beautiful collection of stories! A few grabbed my attention more than others yet every story was enjoyable. The following six stories have stayed with me in the days since reading the Nisi Shawl's afterward. (Alpha by author)
1. The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex by Tobias Buckell was a wonderful spin on a future NY Tourism.
2. The Freedom of the Shift Sea by Jaymee Goh of tells of monsters and love, transformation and consistency. It's not your expected mermaid story!
3. One Easy Trick by Hiromi Goto had me laughing in public and getting strangle looks. Even now I'm still giggling over the imagery in my head.
4. Dumb House by Andrea Hairston also had me giggling and thinking about the role of technology. I wish there was more to this story, it was the one that felt too short and not fully told.
5. Harvest by Rebecca Roanhorse was haunting and beautiful. As with other stories in the collection it made me pause and think.
6. Burn the Ships by Alberto Yáñez the dark magic against the colonizers made me stop and pause on the strength of sacrifice in light of oppression and resistance.

While not every story grabbed me, this is a wonderful collection! I have found several new-to-me authors who I hope to find more of!

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While some of the stories in this collection were amazing, many others were a let-down or a jumbled mess. I love the idea of this anthology. I just don't believe that it was executed well.

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I think anthologies are really difficult to critique as which stories you prefer are such a matter for personal taste. Some of the collection's 17 stories were excellent and others were really not my bag. My favourites were, in the order they appeared in the collection:

The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex by Tobias Bucknell

The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations by Minsoo Kang

The Fine Print by Chinelo Onwualu

Burn The Ships by Alberto Yanez

The Freedom Of The Shifting Sea by Jaymee Goh

The Shadow We Cast Through Time by Indrapramit Das

The Robots of Eden by Anil Menon

One Easy Trick by Hiromi Goto

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3/28/2019 New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color
Edited by Nisi Shawl


I’m late getting to this one, not because I didn’t want to read it, but because I really wanted to take the time and absorb each and every story and every story in this collection is incredible.
Friends, Rebecca Roanhorse has a story in this collection. I mean, that’s all I need to say.
Covering a range of topics, settings, and time periods, there is a short story for everyone in this collection. What do you do when Earth becomes an intergalactic tourist destination? Have you ever considered a Djinn complaint department?
I especially loved the short story The Robots of Eden by Anil Menon. The story opens with a husband reflecting on his wife and her lover, Sollozzo, arriving from Boston so that together, they can inform their young daughter of their divorce. It’s handled so matter of factly and without any anger or resentment that it’s a bit confusing. Why isn’t he upset? He claims that he and Sollozzo both love the same woman. Shouldn’t he be sad? It’s only later that we learn that many in the world are now Enhanced. They are connected to AI through implants that levels off-maybe even takes away-all of their aggressive and negative emotions. After the divorce, the husband and Sollozzo become friends, speaking frequently and enjoying philosophical and literary debates. The divide between the Enhanced and Unenhanced takes a chilling turn when tragedy hits the family and the only upset is Velli, an Unenhanced woman who works for the family. This story was a powerful look at how even the most devastating of emotions are important to the human journey and no matter how badly we want to turn them off, we shouldn’t.
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in trying out short stories-they’re a new love of mine.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.

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New Suns is a collection of 17 speculative fiction stories by authors of colour and whilst they didn’t all hit the spot for me there is definitely a lot to enjoy about this anthology and what didn’t work for me might be gold to another reader. I have been enjoying a break from thrillers and embracing my old reading loves of science fiction/horror and dystopian fiction recently so New Suns came along just at the right time. Any anthology is going to be like a pick & mix and the following were my absolute favourites:

Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex by Tobias S Buckell – this really reminded me of Men In Black with the humour element. Earth has become the home of intergalactic tourism but one small misunderstanding (or an alien off their face on recreational drugs) could result in our annihilation.

The Fire Print by Chinelo Onwualu – A story about desire, paternal love and dodgy dealings with a Djinn!

The Freedom of The Shifting Sea by Jaymee Goh – a nautical tale featuring a sensuous sea worm (not a sentence I ever imagined saying!). This was more of an erotic horror story but I enjoyed the underlying love story. Just skip over the terrifying mandibles; she’s not known as The Bobbit Worm for nothing!

Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire – a new spin (pardon the pun) on The Emperor’s New Clothes which I really enjoyed.

One Easy Trick by Hiromi Goto – easily the weirdest story featuring a woman who loses her belly fat in the woods. Literally loses it, so cute! I wish mine would go for a hike in the woods.

Kelsey and the Burdened Breath by Darcie Little Badger – My absolute favourite; it’s about a kind of ghost sheep dog who rounds up lost/rogue souls. I could read a whole series about the characters in this short story.

These were the stories that struck a chord with me, made me think or made me laugh, I did enjoy others but these are the standouts in my opinion. I will definitely check out the authors and their other works.

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New Suns is an excellent collection of short fiction, collected from a bevy of talented science fiction and fantasy authors. Many of these authors were new to me and I look forward to diving further into their collective works.

The stories feel completely original, creating unexpected twists on old tales and weaving new stories that range from hilarious to thought-provoking. You’ll find a future Earth turned massive tourist attraction for thrill-seeking aliens. You’ll find a jinn turned businessman through the modernization of wish granting. You’ll find a brilliant retelling of an old fable, complete with witty dialog from the author on the state of such a tale. It’s a wonderful collection, organized in a way that continuously surprised me as I read through the stories.

A couple of my favorites…

The Fine Print (by Chinelo Onwualu) is a modern adaptation of a jinn story, shifting the narrative from a legend format to a modern business complete with paper contracts, customer service, and a catalog of available wishes. The narrative shows the wishing system for what it really is, revealing the endless wants of man that often outweigh what they actually need. It’s fascinating to imagine a wish system of checks and balances where you get everything you ever wanted in life, at a cost.

The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex (by Tobias S. Buckell) shows us a future where Earth is overrun by alien tourists looking for a thrilling vacation on a “primitive” world. The cities are nothing but tourist stores, sightseeing, and restaurants catering to the needs of thousands of alien species. We’re introduced to a number of alien races, all of them eager to experience the thrills of human life. The story paints a pretty hilarious picture of the cosmos, namely as a bunch of bored aliens looking for something different from their highly advanced civilizations and daily lives.

Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire (by E. Lily Yu) is a brilliantly witty take on the classic ’emperor with no clothes’ story. The author becomes a part of the story, contemplating the telling of a fable and what makes a good story great. I loved the sense of voice in the narrative.

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