Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction

by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Sheree Renee Thomas, and Zelda Knight

A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country's ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother's ability to change her appearance - and perhaps the world.

Created in the legacy of the award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising - it's already here.

• ISBN10: 1250833000
• ISBN13: 9781250833006
• Publish Date: 12 December 2022 (first published 15 November 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 528
• Language: English
• URL: http://melia.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781250833006

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction is a very well curated anthology of SF/Fantasy/horror edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, et. al. Due out 15th Nov 2022 from Macmillan on their Tor/Forge imprint, it's 528 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The stories are varied, there were (as always) some which didn't grab me personally, but all were well written and competently plotted. They were mostly in the 4 star range(ish) with a smattering of really standout stories. There are 32 stories in the anthology and all are previously unpublished from mostly new-to-me authors from Africa and the AfroDiaspora.

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. I can only recall a few times where I've read a collection (or anthology) straight through from cover to cover as I did this one. 

The unabridged audiobook format has a run time of 16 hours and 30 minutes. Sound and production quality are high throughout and it's well narrated and relaxing. 

Four stars on average. It's diverting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.