There are some really good stories in here, but this is not a book of short stories, as the title suggests. Four of the older tales are novel, or at least novella length, and as a result take up well over half of the book. The remainder are actual short stories, and nicely varied, although some I would have categorised as fantasy, or under the more broad definition of speculative fiction.
I do enjoy anthologies that showcase stories from different eras, but the long, older stories in this just don't fit. I'm not denying their importance in Black speculative fiction, but they're too long. They're also harder to read than the contemporary pieces, and at least some take a long time to get to any sci-fi or speculative content.
Overall, fans of sci-fi and/or speculative fiction will find satisfying content within this book. There are some wonderfully original pieces. But, I feel a little cheated. It's just a tiny taste of what's out there. An anthology with this number of pages should have so many more short stories. Those stories are out there. To use four pieces way too long to be considered 'short' has denied a lot of stories a place in what should be an important doorway into Black sci-fi short fiction.

I always find it hard to rate and review short story collections, they are nearly always a bit hit and miss for me. Thankfully there was a good number of hits in this collection. My absolute favourites were (in order of when they appeared in the book):


The Comet

Elan Vital

The Orb

The Floating City of Pengimbang (I'd love a full length novel of this)

The New Colossuses

The Line of Demarcation

e-race

Suffering Inside, But Still I Soar


I found the more modern stories easier to get into since I've never been good at reading older/classic fiction and they were much longer than some of the others. They are however an important inclusion, the collection wouldn't be the same without them. The introduction is also a must read, it traces the history of Black science fiction and the importance of getting it more of the mainstream attention that it deserves.


Overall I really enjoyed this collection and I highly recommend it to all sci-fi fans.

This collection of short, sci-fi stories is a wonderful reminder (that shouldn't be needed in this day and age) of what we miss out on when we choose to ignore, undervalue, and/or dismiss part of humanity. I loved every single story and the talent of the authors in this collection cannot be denied. "Black Sci-Fi Short Stories" is a great celebration of the genre that shouldn't be missed by any serious fan.

My thanks to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

This was a super interesting collection. I loved all the modern short stories. The classic short stories were longer, and more difficult to read, but I really enjoyed looking at the sci-fi of the past.

Black Sci-Fi Short Stories is an upcoming anthology being put out by Flame Tree Publishing, oddly in their Gothic Fantasy collection. The anthology features a foreward by Temi Oh (Do You Dream of Terra Two) and an introduction by Dr. Sandra M Grayson, a professor whose research has involved researching the history of Science Fiction from Black Authors and Perspectives. It also features a collection of stories from modern authors - some I recognize pretty easily - and several stories from historical authors who dabbled in speculative fiction in the early 20th century and beforehand.

It's an interesting collection, but...also kind of odd, in that the older stories tend to be novella length whereas the newer stories are clear short stories in length, making it harder for them to stand out. This is especially the case because the newer stories don't really share any coherent themes - whereas the older stories - all well in the public domain and available for free online - are significantly more interesting in showcasing the perspective of black people through scifi and alternate history stories centered around their perspectives as people oppressed and just freed or still in slavery in America. It makes it hard to recommend because technically I could just recommend the older stories on their own...and yet having the collected together is pretty interesting in itself.

More after the Jump:

This anthology contains the following stories:
An Empty, Hollow Interview by James Beamon
The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois
Élan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
The Orb by Tara Campbell
Blake, or The Huts of America by Martin R. Delany
The Floating City of Pengimbang by Michelle F. Goddard
The New Colossuses by Harambee K. Grey-Sun
Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs
Seven Thieves by Emmalia Harrington
Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self by Pauline Hopkins
Space Traitors by Walidah Imarisha
The Line of Demarcation by Patty Nicole Johnson
Light Ahead for the Negro by Edward Johnson
e-race by Russell Nichols
Giant Steps by Russell Nichols
Almost Too Good to Be True by Temi Oh
You May Run On by Megan Pindling
Suffering Inside, But Still I Soar by Sylvie Soul
The Pox Party by Lyle Stiles
The Regression Test by Wole Talabi

"The Comet", "Blake or the Huts of America" (Part One*), "Imperium in Imperio," "Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self," and "Light Ahead from the Negro, are the classic stories, all longer than the short stories that make up the rest of the collection (Blake is literally half a novel, Imperium and Of One Blood are novella/short-novel in length, and Light Ahead is novella length).

And these stories are well worth their length, as they all deal heavily with themes of oppression and slavery and the world for Black people during and post-slavery.
Blake, Martin Delany's short novel* was written from 1859-1862 and features an alternate history of a slave, whose wife is sold by his master due to her defiance, organizing a slave rebellion all throughout the South, and coming across the various ways Slaves were treated in the various States of the South. It's a depressing but powerful and long tale, which may remind modern readers of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad in how it shows through the different states how Black people were put down in various and different ways, making rising up particularly difficult.

*The book contains only Part 1 of Blake, with Part 2 omitted without explanation, although I'd guess that's because the ending chapters of Part 2 is lost to us today.*

Imperium is perhaps the other stand-out, featuring two black kids in the Reconstruction era South, both brilliant and educated but one privileged due to the circumstances of his birth and one suffering without such privilege, as they come together to build a parallel government for Black Americans, to shape a future in a country where Whites are trying to assert their full supremacy, and its themes will be particularly relevant and fascinating today (although Modern readers might sympathize with the secondary protagonist's views).

Light Ahead is a utopian novel in which a man finds himself 100 years in the future (in 2006) where a new United States has been formed where Blacks are seemingly no longer oppressed and government is now very very different and socialist in nature.

Of One Blood is a fantastical story featuring a doctor of mysticism, a lost African people, betrayal and a secret world where it was from historical African people that the world's wonders all were derived.

The Comet features a New York devastated by a Comet, with seemingly only a black man and a white woman as survivors, and the woman discovering temporarily that the black man is just as human as she.

These five stories all touch on similar themes and are tremendously strong, not to mention are so much longer than the rest as to wind up dominating the collection, which makes it hard to really feel significant impact from the shorter stories. It doesn't help that the newer stories don't really share a common theme, unlike the older ones - so you have several dealing heavily with race, class and oppression or even slavery, especially as they might play out nowadays and in the future....and then you have some dealing with the tragedy of a alien-rock driven superheroine, AIs and personalities and what the differences are, or dreams of giants and myths vs facts.

The result is a really weird anthology, probably worth your time just for collecting the stories of old, even if you can find all those other stories for free elsewhere. I honestly don't know what else to say on this one, it's just hard to evaluate further.

Wow.

As someone who grew up loving The Twilight Zone, I adored this collection of short stories.

With a wide range of writing styles and messages from pieces across various decades and writers, 'Black Sci Fi Short Stories' explores superpowers, cults worshipping a mysterious orb, the apocalypse, reanimating the dead, aliens coming to rescue the victims of white supremacy, and so, SO much more.

The stories vary in length, with one short story finishing up in 3 pages while another takes up 20, but the themes it has you sit with hit hard every time.

This collection of all Black authors leaves a mix of race-centered messages alongside stories that don't mention race at all and just happen to be stories written by a Black creative.

There were numerous times I finished a story and closed the book to stare at my wall before going back to re-read it all again.

DID NOT FINISH, therefore I cannot give an adequate review. The reason I didn't finish it is because I did not find it engaging.

Bringing a collection like this into the canon is a way in which readers of Black science fiction can draw threads of similarity between style and voice of writers past and present. It is a way to interrogate form and see what ideas and how they relayed have evolved or remained the same. What is mirrored and what is foremagined.

These trace the times in which the authors lived and how they drew inspiration from within their own time but also looked forward and imagined what the world could become and what we could become beyond the world and systems we exist within.

As with any anthology there are stories that captured the attention, left an imprint and engaged the reader with the creativity and breadth of ideas that were conceptualized and related. All these stories contained some influence of identity and place of the writers and was evident in the prose and dialogue between characters.

A deep and thoughtful collection of stories, covering a wide range of speculative fiction. I agree with a previous reviewer that Dr. Sandra Grayson's insightful Introduction is saved for an Afterword, to avoid spoilers & to reflect on what you've just read. I enjoyed the mix of classic and new stories, and found new writers to explore beyond this anthology, alongside old favourites.

Black Sci-Fi Short Stories is a wonderful if not slightly horrifying collection of speculative fiction short stories. I absolutely loved the mix of classic stories mixed with the more contemporary and really enjoyed that the book sets the historical context of many of the stories. As someone who isn't generally into short-stories and is trying to be more into sci-fi, I found this book was the perfect mix to keep me engaged and wanting so much more.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Publishing for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Black Sci-fi short stories was a great mix of short stories that a lot of people may not have been exposed to.

I liked almost all of them and they were a good read. However I will say that anyone who doesn't want to be exposed to slurs or offensive language, this book has them. It's a part of the life of the authors.

Read the foreword and the introduction. They help give some context to the stories for anyone who may feel a little lost stepping in.

I will say that it's long but it's an anthology so of course it is. You can skip to whichever story you want and I will say that they are all solid. I think a lot of people need to read these stories.

If you're a fan of sci-fi and Black writers, or just good writers, this is an amazing anthology.

This book contains an assembly of stories which are futuristic and show a dark vision of a future that could await us. At the same time it still touches topics that are more than present nowadays which makes the scenarios somehiw scarily realistic. I would recommend this for everyone that is too exhausted to read a long book at the moment. It is easy to read some stories, stop in between and pick the book back up a few days later. Although the topics grasp the truth and some very serious questions about the human race. This book is not just entertaining, it holds fundamental issues and their possible future for humanity. A very interesting read!

A wonderful collection of short stories covering a wide range of topics. Everything from slavery to space adventures. I enjoyed being able to jump from one story to another. The length of the book is quite daunting, but the ability to change up the story whenever you feel like it makes this a worthwhile read for all types of readers. There is something here for everyone.

A mostly solid collection of short stories. There's a nice mix, and you're likely to find a new author to follow along the way. Many sci-fi anthology fans are likely to enjoy this one.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

This is a fantastic and important collection of short stories! Not only is each story a quality piece of Science Fiction literature, they also capture unique elements of the Black experience. This was one of the few times a read the Introduction and Forward to a collection and/or book and I am really glad I did. They provided some valuable insights that helped my understanding and enhanced my experience as a whole. I truly cannot choose a favorite from this collection as each story stands out as remarkable and unique in their own way. I would highly recommend you check out this collection for yourself!

An anthology of stories by black writers. The stories’ settings cover quite a timespan—from the days of slavery and oppression to super heroes and the distant future. Likewise, the stories were published over a one hundred year timespan. Most entries are short stories, but three are more like novella length. Across the board, all stories are well-written. Some stories got in and opened up my heart, yet other stories confused me with their symbols and imagery. An introduction combined with an appendix of these writers.provides some welcome and extremely interesting—humorous, impressive, and endearing—biographical information.

The book notes the use of original language in any reprinted stories, and it does not Bowdlerize offensive racial slurs.

Several stories stand out to me for a variety of reasons. Two stories are notable because of their fierce, lyrical yet steadfast, prose, which both happen to feature the relationship of two black females forced into slavery:

You May Run On by Megan Pindling tells the story of a pregnant slave who gave birth to her daughter in a nearby river. In this story, the river represents not only the traditional female psyche, but also a wild yearning for freedom so visceral it can be touched, a character as an ally and a comforter, and as a symbol of movement, it plays a central role in their striving for freedom.

Seven Thieves by Emmalia Harrington, which also depicts conditions of enslavement, is set in a community rife with a highly contagious air-borne disease (like COVID-19 on steroids, like the plague). One woman, the practical one, is weary, run down and achy after giving so much of her time and health to create a beloved antimicrobial cleanser called Seven Thieves (vinegar plus seven herbs). Her companion, the unfailing giver, risks her own freedom while serving as a midwife. Through their actions to support each other and their community, these women epitomize truly remarkable love and charity.

A third story depicting a loving relationship between two black women is “The Line of Demarcation” by Patty Nicole Johnson. One sister is employed as a product picker for a giant warehouse similar to Amazon dot com, where working conditions require speed and “loyalty.” The warehouse worker earns a “reward” that will enable her to work faster and double her salary. She uses her salary to help her sister buy insulin, and that sister helps her in return. Oh.... Just what IS that company reward? Hmm, just replace your arms with cybernetic prosthetics..They have a handy-dandy telescoping feature so you can reach merchandise out of reach that typically requires a ladder. Now doesn’t that sound awesome?Oh we didn’t warn you it would be excruciating? Oopsie. I can see both sisters self-sacrificing for each other, but I’m not fully understanding the cybernetics, unless simply as metaphorically becoming machines, I.e. less than human.

Another story, “Space Traitors” by Walidah Imarisha starts with a note saying it’s a reply to Derrick Bell’s short story “Space Traders.” (c1992) I wasn’t enamored with the rationale of the traitor aliens, who come for justice, not peace. The aliens will salve those who have suffered, and in return the recipients must travel with the aliens for eight years to save other sufferers. Sounds to me like those aliens have some kinda fishy pyramid scheme going on.

I highly recommend an online search for Bell’s story, Derrick Bell was a black law school professor at Harvard, and this story he wrote reflects his insightful scholarship. It is a logical, tightly packed nugget of economics, race, and sociological satire, which apparently incensed prominent white people—such as US Judge Alex (who incidentally began his life as survivor of discrimination himself at a Jewish concentration camp, and who resigned his career in 2017 as a result of multiple sexual abuse accusations during the #MeToo movement. (Wikipedia) Is it ever possible for the abused to avoid becoming the abuser themselves? I think Derrick Bell‘s life serves as a admirable role model.

Thank you NetGalley for this peek at an ARC.

I received an ARC copy of this book on netgalley.
I really loved this book. I am a big fan of all things Sci-Fi and as I've gotten older I've been more intentional about trying to find more Black Sci-Fi authors. This collection of short stories begins by introducing Black science fiction to the reader and tracing the history of the genre. It discusses how science fiction has been 'hostile' towards Black people and how Black people begin to conceptualize Black Sci-Fi. I enjoyed the reading of this introduction and tracing of history as much as the reading the short stories. The collection includes stories by a variety of authors across time and I truly appreciate being introduced to varied Black Sci-Fi authors in addition to reading their stories. I had no idea that W.E.B. Du Bois had written Sci-Fi. This is an excellent collection and I look forward to adding the physical book to my bookshelf when it is available.

Overall, this collection is a must read for any science fiction lover looking to educate themselves on the history of the genre and diversify their reading.

The science fiction label within the collection is all encompassing and broad, including alternate history stories and stories that have just a *dash* of sci fi. Personally, I didn't mind at all, but it's something to note going in.

The foreword by Temi Oh was EXCELLENT.

"Our job as science-fiction writers is to keep eyes trained on the future. To shout like prophets, to return with solemn cautions or glad tidings. To fill everyone's hearts with hope. It's not always easy to conceive of the future." (Foreword by Temi Oh)

The introduction is highly informative. There are a few longer stories within the collection that are historical and were a bit challenging for me. It's hard to analyze and get through as an individual reader - but would be very interesting in a classroom. I definitely understand why these stories were included and agree that they belong in the collection, but casual readers be warned.

Nonetheless, there are TONS of short stories in this collection that are perfect for the casual reader.

My favorite stories included:
An Empty, Hollow Interview by James Beamon
The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois
Élan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
The Orb by Tara Campbell
The Line of Demarcation by Patty Nicole Johnson
Almost Too Good to Be True by Temi Oh
The Regression Test by Wole Talabi

Thank you to Flame Tree Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A great collection of stories.
Like most of these types of books. You have some short stories that stand out. And ones that really don't. But all in all this was a good collection. And fun to read.
It's nice to get a chance to read some stories by some Authors I've never heard of.

This is a delightful collection of short stories. It starts with a scholarly introduction to the history of Black Sci-Fi. And, for once, Black isn’t just limited to mean “African American”. We get a panoply of authors – both modern and historic.

Some of the historic stories – especially W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Comet – are wonderful. A hundred year old sci-fi that is still as relevant today as it was then

Others, are less so. Some of the stories are framed as “proto-science-fiction” – but they’re really alternate history stories. That’s fine, but they’re probably really only interesting if you’re intimately familiar with the history of the USA. As the publisher mentions, the “historical nature of the classic text” means there is a lot of outdated and potentially offensive language. And, while it does make for an uncomfortable experience, I found it particularly difficult to read some of the Antebellum South slang:

“Come ole man, yeh got mautch? light sum dem shavens dah, quick. Ah cah fine de chile heah on dis bed!” said Mammy Judy, on entering the hut and feeling about in the dark for little Joe. “Ailcey, wat yeh done wid de chile?”

Which, to a 21st Century Englishman, makes for a perplexing read!

Perhaps the most interesting historical sci-fi in the collection is 1904’s “Light Ahead for the Negro” by Edward A. Johnson – the first African-American member of the New York state legislature. The story is a thinly veiled political manifesto for how to bring about a socialist utopia in the USA, as told by a time-traveller to the distant year of 2006. Some of its predictions are amazing, and some are just depressing – often within the same paragraph:

His private secretary came in and seated himself at a phonographic typewriter which took down the words in shorthand, typewrote them on a sheet for preservation in the office, and at the same time sent the letter by telephone to its destination.
But my surprise was awakened by the fact that this private secretary was a Negro; not full black, but mixed blood – in color, between an Indian and a Chinaman. I ascertained from this young man that it was now “quite common” for Southern white men of large affairs to employ Negroes for higher positions in their offices, counting rooms, and stores. (They had a precedent for this in the custom of the Romans, who used their educated Greek slaves in this way.)
He also told me that the matter of social equality was not mentioned. He naturally associated with his own people. He simply wanted to do his work faithfully, and neither expected nor asked to sit by his employer’s fireside. In a word, he showed that to give the Negro an education need not necessarily “turn his head.”

The human mind can conceive of wondrous inventions – but is limited in social revolutions by its native paradigm.

The modern stories were much more my speed. An excellent mix of adventure and excitement. Some of them are in the creepy-Lovecraftian style, others are terrifying glimpses into the future. A great collection to dip in and out of.