#BlogTour-‘New Suns’-Edited by Nisi Shawl

Welcome to my turn on the blogtour for ‘New Suns’ by Nisi Shawl ,available 18/03/2019 in paperback,courtesy of Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers.

About the book…

A brand new 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 cliched expectations, ready to dazzle you with their daring genius
Unexploited brilliance shines forth from every page.
Includes stories by Kathleen Alcala, Minsoo Kang, Anil Menon, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Alex Jennings, Alberto Yanez, Steven Barnes, Jaymee Goh, Karin Lowachee, E. Lily Yu, Andrea Hairston, Tobias Buckell, Hiromi Goto, Rebecca Roanhorse, Indrapramit Das, Chinelo Onwualu and Darcie Little Badger.

Following on from the spectacular ‘Outcast Hours’ anthology, I literally bit Tracy’s hand off when she said she was organising a blogtour for ‘New Suns’.

It heralds not only a new day in speculative fiction, it heralds a new dawn of own voices, inclusivity and sheer, brilliant talent.

Introduced by LeVar Burton, whose love for speculative fiction extends beyond his recognisable cult role as Geordie LaForge in Star Trek-The Next Generation.

There is so much joy to be found in this book, bite sized pieces of fiction are very tricky to pull off-creating a world and making it real with just a few pages is a skill and all of these writers pull it off with aplomb. I would find it hard to pick a favourite story, but possibly ‘Give me your black wings, oh sister’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was slightly more difficult to forget than the others-however, I would have to say this is a lovingly curated collection of extremely high quality tales. This one just lingered with me.

With the exception of Steven Barnes, I am ashamed to say that I was unfamiliar with most of the authors included here, but that , to me, is the entire point of anthologies such as these, to bring out of the shadows those who have not had the exposure that mainstream-i.e. no P.O.C authors-have had. It is a great opportunity to find new writers and explore these galaxies together. I absolutely loved this book and am hopeful for a ‘New Suns-Volume 2’ .

As Nisi Shawl says, this is not the first anthology of its kind, however, we need more of these , more platforms which are inclusive and I intend to track down the works of each other which are so lovingly detailed at the end of ‘New Suns’.

So, come take a trip to far away places that could be just around the corner, but in a completely different universe. Explore the horrors inside your own mind and set foot beyond the boundaries of the safe and predictable-meet Djinns and taxi drivers, Dreamers ,warriors, Truthtellers and pirates. It’s a beautiful place to watch the sun rise.

Links-http://www.rebellionpublishing.com/

https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter

@NisiShawl

@Tr4cyF3nton

@RebellionPub