Dark Matter Reading the Bones by Sheree Thomas

Dark Matter Reading the Bones Reviews

• 
  Jarrah

  There is so much to appreciate about this mind expanding second Dark Matter anthology of short speculative fiction by Black writers Sheree Thomas has pulled together a collection of diverse pieces that is consistently strong and features some real highlights such as Nnedi Okorafor's hilarious and biting satire The Magical Negro; the poetic mythological story Desire by Kiini Ibura Salaam; the horror laden Old Flesh Song by Ibi Zoboi; and the unexpected beautiful short story Jesus Christ in Texas by WEB Du Bois The collection includes both reprints of existing material and several brand new stories though a few of these felt like they could've used a tiny bit editingpolishing The hefty collection closes out with some interesting essays such as a tribute to the groundbreaking writer Virginia Hamilton The stories in this book don't hold anything back many portray slavery addiction incarceration and other forms of violence with a purpose of helping the reader understand the horrors of racial injustice and to invite them to fight for racial and social justice in our world today Reading Dark Matter is a powerful revelatory experience for readers who without realizing it had been reading mostly speculative fiction by white authors writing about white characters
• 
  Izetta Autumn

  Dark Matter Reading the Bones edited by Sheree R Thomas is the second anthology in this series which gathers speculative fiction from the African Diaspora The anthology includes 24 short stories and a series of essays about the role of speculative fiction in imagining or reimagining the African diasporic experience Overall it is a very enjoyable anthology combining fantasy science fiction and horror Some of speculative fiction's most interesting writers are represented including Nalo Hopkinson The Glass Bottle Trick and Tananarive Due Aftermoon There are also notable surprises a piece by famed Black intellectual WEB DuBois entitled Jesus Christ in Texas My one complaint is that the stories in the anthology are uneven some of the fiction is imaginative and well constructed like Hopkinson's The Glass Bottle Trick and Cherene Sherrard's The uality of Sand which re imagines the slave trade and those who saved enslaved people as pirates of an entirely different sort than most of us are used to hearing about Nnedi Okorafor Mbachu submits a scathingly funny piece entitled The Magical Negro which challenges the conventions of mythical and speculative fiction While Keven Brockenbrough's noire contribution captures a tale that is so well realized that it is cinematicly evocative while posing a series of poignant ethical dilemmas The Binary by John Cooley is a fantastic piece combining Japanese folk lore with a multi ethnic cast in a wonderful and suspenseful tale While this was one of my favorite pieces in the anthology it was also the one that I found most disappointing it was so nearly perfect but needed some additional polishing and structure As a life long fan of sci fi fantasy and horror I appreciated the creations that each other lovingly created and shared Even than their works I appreciated editor Sheree R Thomas' committment to positioning the works of the authors she gathered For instance I now have an understanding of the larger umbrella under which the sci fi horror and fantasy that I have so enjoyed fits speculative fiction Not only is this a descriptive term but it also seems far accurate and respectful of the genre
• 
  Nannah

  Dark Matter is the first and only series collecting sci fifantasy short stories by black authors Like Booklist says on the cover it’s a great “who’s who of African American writers” There were a little over 25 pieces pretty massive for a short work collection so it really is an excellent guide or even introduction to black writerscontent warningsI started taking notes for individual stories a uarter through so I don't have warnings for the first bit sorry Jesus Christ in Texas racist slurs lynching The Binary fatphobia BLACKout the Roma slur Corona the n slurShort story collections are usually a gamble with some stories incredible while others fall short This one is no different although some of these works soared Very high Whispers in the Dark and others were just Not something I enjoyed The Binary And although short story collections usually just contain you know short stories this one has transcripts of discussions on what makes science fiction as a genre work biographies and even works as short as a page and a half All are eually as important I love that the books teach you about the black authors that came before as well as the ones alive and publishing todayThough there may have been pieces here I disliked than those I liked the ones I liked I liked Very Much and it makes up for the rest I’m a bit sad this is a library book and one the library reuested from another library because I’d like to read some of these stories again A lot of them are incredibly layered and deep written to make you think a long time after the first readAnyway I’ll definitely be reading the other books in this collection And taking note of which authors strike a chord with me as I go on
• 
  Alex MacFarlane

  Really good uality anthology Highlights include Kiini Ibura Salaam's beautifully voiced Desire Ibi Aanu Zoboi's creepy Old Flesh Song Tyehimba Jess' rather funny Voodoo Vincent and the Astrostoriograms Nalo Hopkinson's folk tale retelling The Glass Bottle Trick but there are plenty to enjoy with a refreshingly wide array of approaches to speculative fiction
• 
  Titilayo

  a great cross section of speculative african diaspora fiction the retelling of igbo landing was fierce the idea that vampires zombies telepathy supernatural abilities and religion transverse blackness as smoothly as leaves flowing down stream in spring time is refreshing
• 
  Maleka

  check these stories scary realistic good the whipping boy is crazy i want to read these again
• 
  Brian

  Science fiction comes in a number of flavors There’s “hard” SF which speculates from a basis in the physical sciences There’s “soft” SF which works from a basis in the so called human sciences especially anthropology The market driven art is further subdivided into horror fantasy and sword and sorcery Firing shots across the bow of these main genres though are those writers who create what might be called to borrow a term from today’s music scene “mash ups” Joanna Russ for instance is perhaps best known for her feminist SF novel The Female Man which throws gender into a mix of hard and soft science Then there’s Samuel R Delany whose New Wave classic Dhalgren pointed the way toward a science fiction that was truly literary and not merely boilerplate genre fiction Into this mix we can add what may be the oldest form of speculative fiction the retelling of myths and legendsNow take a gander at a collection of “speculative fiction from the African Diaspora” called Dark Matter Reading the Bones This unusual collection focuses on the experiences of Africans and their descendants in the Americas—and the experiences are chilling as you would expect Slavery racism poverty and homelessness magic myth and religion and killer jazz feature in this anthology of twenty four stories and three essays Most of the stories are by less published authors and most of those seemingly from the editor’s adopted New York City but there are some major lights here too WEB Dubois the above mentioned Delany the fiery Wanda Colman and Walter Mosley among themAlthough some of the writing in Reading the Bones is fairly mediocre in execution none of it is so in content Cherene Sherrard’s story for instance “The uality of Sand” is exciting and original It centers on a group of Haitian revolutionaries who having captured a slave transport ship act as “pirates freeing the prisoners of other slave ships The story takes a magical turn when we learn that one of the protagonists is a jinni Sherrard renders this magical twist as a moment of spiritual realism producing a satisfying and tasty ending Several of the stories are of the “stick it to the white man” variety notably Nnedi Okorafor Mbachu’s “The Magical Negro” This very funny short short starts out on a trajectory of comic book heroism but uickly it’s only a couple pages long resists that narrative line running instead so to speak and in order not to give this little gem totally away in an “Ain’t Gonna Work on Maggie’s Farm No More” directionPerhaps most startling in this fine collection of truly alternative spec lit is WEB Dubois’s story “Jesus Christ in Texas” “It was in Waco” the story begins—but “story” is probably the wrong descriptor since what Dubois spins here is really a parable Jesus does turn up in Waco but he’s not the skinny white guy we normally see pinned to a stick Instead Dubois manages in just a few words to paint a historically plausible Jesus as a Semitic man with a “coat that looked like a Jewish gabardine” in contrast to the cowboy’s ankle length duster and skin of “olive even yellow” This high yellow Jesus never claims to be the son of God which idea doesn’t come up until the historically late Gospel of John anyway but is rather in the business of witnessing and reminding folks it’s not a good idea to steal or murder or rape It’s the black man who gets this message of course and again as with “The Magical Negro” the ending provides the satisfying crunch of misguided authority getting its comeuppance while simultaneously offering a salvational vision Dubois’ story remains startling and relevant in still racist twenty first century America and is even so when one notices that it was written in 1920The anthology concludes with three nonfiction pieces a writers’ roundtable featuring Delany Octavia Butler Jewelle Gomez Tananarive Due and the filmmaker William Hudson; an appreciation of African American writer Virginia Hamilton; and an appreciation of Andre Norton one of the most prolific science fiction writers ever—and an African American woman a fact few SF fans realize and that was never revealed in all those old Ace doubles The author of this last piece Carol Cooper pretty well sums up the contribution to Reading the Bones when she writes “that the world was a strange often cruel and dangerous place We need science fiction to get out of this sort of world” Amen to that
• 
  Mary Soon Lee

  This 2004 anthology collects 24 speculative fiction stories by Black authors together with three non fiction pieces I loved the breadth of Sheree R Thomas's selections encompassing many flavors of fantasy horror and science fiction and extending back to include stories from as early as 1920 though most are much recent The three non fiction selections are all of interest one being a transcription of 1997 panel featuring six prominent SFF authors of color and the other two discussing the works of Virginia Hamiltion and Andre NortonI particularly liked Sheree R Thomas's choice to bookend the fiction with two very different stories that nonetheless speak to each other The opening story ihsan bracy's ibo landing retells a folktale about transported slaves walking onto the sea to escape slavery The final story Kalamu ya Salaam's Trance is a time travel science fiction tale that briefly but effectively calls back to that opening story when a character says I'm talking about how some of us walked into the sea and most of us stayed on the shoreIn between are a wealth of stories that tackle slavery racism gods drugs werewolves and a great deal As is almost inevitable in an anthology of some two dozen stories not every one appealed to me There were also a few stories that I found effective yet too bleak to describe as enjoyable such as Pam Noles's powerful Whipping Boy in which a 19 year old becomes a supernatural scapegoatAmong my favorites were two of the older selections Jesus Christ in Texas by W E B Du Bois published in 1920 all the striking for the uiet restraint of its storytelling and Walter Mosley's 1967 story Whispers in the Dark made moving by the characters' compassion for each other I also particularly liked Corona by Samuel R Delany a vividly imagined story where two very different people a White male ex convict and a telepathic Black nine year old girl briefly meet and each try to help the otherMy favorite of all was Nisi Shawl's Maggies which skilfully paints a future where modified humans Maggies help in terraforming a complex very well told story centered on its characters but encompassing a powerful inditement of racism that managed all this while being a pleasure to readAbout my reviews I try to review every book I read including those that I don't end up enjoying The reviews are not scholarly but just indicate my reaction as a reader reading being my addiction I am miserly with 5 star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it though often the 2 star books are very popular with other readers andor are by authors whose other work I've loved
• 
  Samantha (AK)

  Counting this as ‘read’ even though there were 7 short stories and 3 essays I didn’t get to before it was due back to the libraryLike most anthologies it’s a mixed bag There were a few that I really liked a few that I appreciated but didn’t feel strongly about and one that I ‘noped’ right away from Overall though it’s worth a read Lots of excellent stories hereFull story list with initial thought blurbs below the cutWarning This is a really long text postview spoilerFictionibo landing 1998 by ihsan bracy5 Stars Ibo Also Igbo Ebo or Ebos Landing was the site of a mass suicide in 1803 by Ibo captives who refused to submit to slavery in the United States Here the story is retoldThe uality of Sand 2004 by Cherene Sherrard4 Stars Historical fantasy set in the Caribbean Escaped slaves turned pirates and also djinniYahimba's Choice 2004 by Charles R Saunders4 Stars FGM and associated superstitions and realities; social norms and how to change themThe Glass Bottle Trick 2000 by Nalo Hopkinson35 Stars Eerie and horror flavored than most of my reading I like it in spite of myself I think Mad props to Hopkinson for surprising me I actually didn’t see that twist coming It wasn’t out of the blue or anything I just didn’t see it Maybe I should have; I have read Brown Girl in the Ring after allDesire 2004 by Kiini Ibura Salaam4 Stars So this one was cough decidedly not for minor ears but still absolutely brilliant Part folktale part sensuality part married life I laughed I blushed and I laughed again The ending is perfectRecovery from a Fall 2004 by David Findlay1 Star I ‘noped’ right out of this one Thank you sir but this is not for me Drugs and really crazy sex that I’m pretty sure is a metaphor for something else but don’t want to look at any closerAnansi Meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington 2000 by Douglas Kearney4 Stars Short enough that it’s hard to talk about it without giving everything away Funny and mildly depressing all at onceThe Magical Negro 2004 by Nnedi Okorafor Mbachu5 Stars As much as her longer fiction has been a tough sell for me I’ve really enjoyed Okorafor’s short stories This one takes the “magical negro” narrative and eviscerates it in glorious fashionJesus Christ in Texas 1920 by WEB Du Bois4 Stars Written in 1920 and still relevant on both a social and religious levelWill the Circle Be Unbroken? 1974 by Henry Dumas3 Stars Spec fic RE appropriation of emerging Black culture by white musicians but didn’t care for the writing style'Cause Harlem Needs Heroes 2004 by Kevin Brockenbrough3 Stars Again good commentary but wasn’t blown away by the executionWhipping Boy 2004 by Pam Noles2 Stars Reader Discretion Implied Cannibalism I get where this was going but dude Not for meOld Flesh Song 2004 by Ibi Aanu Zoboi2 Stars Reader Discretion Cannibalism Child Death See previousWhispers in the Dark 2001 by Walter Mosley3 Stars This was actually really cool but also pretty weird Phonetically spelled dialect takes some getting used toAftermoon 2004 by Tananarive Due4 Stars Short but sweet werewolf tale with socially relevant undercurrentsVoodoo Vincent and the Astrostoriograms 2004 by Tyehimba Jess4 Stars Funny Vincent is given a gift by “Leg Baby” Papa Legba only to spurn him later You can probably guess where this is going For all the humor and yes the way it’s written is amusing it has keen insightThe Binary 2004 by John CooleyBLACKout 2004 by Jill RobinsonSweet Dreams 2004 by Charles JohnsonBuying Primo Time 1988 by Wanda ColemanCorona 1967 by Samuel R DelanyMaggies 2004 by Nisi ShawlExcerpt from Mindscape 2004 by Andrea Hairston5 Stars I read Mindscape in it’s entirety a couple years ago It’s a trip Not for everyone though This excerpt has the prologue and a bit of the first chapter Usually I don’t care for excerpts but this one worksTrance 2004 by Kalamu ya SalaamNon Fiction EssaysThe Second Law of Thermodynamics Transcription of a Panel at the 1997 Black Speculative Fiction Writers Conference Held at Clark Atlanta University 2004 by Jewelle GomezHer Pen Could Fly Remembering Virginia Hamilton 2004 by Nnedi Okorafor MbachuCelebrating the Alien The Politics of Race and Species in the Juveniles of Andre Norton 2004 by Carol Cooper hide spoiler
• 
  Jessica Maginity

  Wild ride; glad I got on Favorites Whipping Boy by Pam NolesOld Flesh Song by Ibi Aanu ZoboiW I L D E S TRecovery from a Fall David Findlay