The Voices of Martyrs by Maurice Broaddus

The Voices of Martyrs

by Maurice Broaddus

We are a collection of voices, the assembled history of the many voices that have spoken into our lives and shaped us. Voices of the past, voices of the present, and voices of the future. There is an African proverb, "Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi," which translates as "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." This is why we continue to remember the tales of struggle and tales of perseverance, even as we look to tales of hope. What a people choose to remember about its past, the stories they pass down, informs who they are and sets the boundaries of their identity. We remember the pain of our past to mourn, to heal, and to learn. Only in that way can we ensure the same mistakes are not repeated. The voices make up our stories. The stories make up who we are. A collected voice.

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

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This was not was I was expecting. 

The first story was good, following an kickbutt woman warrior with tribe politics and dark rituals and experimental monsters. My copy has formatting issues where sentences have no spaces and sometimes the narrative as hard to follow, but interesting. Kept my attention. 

The next two stories were white men telling tales about torturing and killing slaves. Lots of slurs involved and violence. 

Then I skimmed over the a slave tale - this time from the slave’s POV, then a boxer, then a prisoner. None of which looped back into the genre I thought it was - sci-fi & fantasy. That’s how NetGalley has it listed. That’s where I got my copy. Disappointing. Maybe it'd be different if my expectations were accurate. It’s really too bad given all the praise. I really can’t stomach to go further. Guess it’s just not for me.

I'll leave the star rating blank. I can't hold formatting problems and Netgalley's erroneous classification against the books.

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  • 22 December, 2017: Reviewed