A review by octavia_cade
The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4.0
This is an exceptionally well-curated collection, the first of its type, collecting together the best short fiction stories of the title. These are all reprints, as Year's Best collections tend to be, and I've read some of them before, but some were new to me.
My favourite was "Desiccant" by Craig Laurance Gidney, which was no surprise as it was also my favourite story in the vampire noire anthology Slay, edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz, which was where I first read it. "Desiccant" is a story of substandard housing, where the red dust that spreads over everything turns out to be more of an infestation than first suspected. It's a very original take on vampires, one overlaid with environmental justice, and I love it. A very close second place goes to a story I hadn't read before: "Giant Steps" by Russell Nichols, in which a woman eschews motherhood and her young daughter in order to be an astronaut. That's a very bare bones description, but I don't wish to spoil anything! Suffice to say, I was riveted.
As in any anthology, there's a very few stories that didn't much appeal to me, but the vast majority collected here were absolutely excellent, and all credit to Ekpeki for editing this volume, which is notable for its enormous range in story genre and theme. I look forward to this year's volume!
My favourite was "Desiccant" by Craig Laurance Gidney, which was no surprise as it was also my favourite story in the vampire noire anthology Slay, edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz, which was where I first read it. "Desiccant" is a story of substandard housing, where the red dust that spreads over everything turns out to be more of an infestation than first suspected. It's a very original take on vampires, one overlaid with environmental justice, and I love it. A very close second place goes to a story I hadn't read before: "Giant Steps" by Russell Nichols, in which a woman eschews motherhood and her young daughter in order to be an astronaut. That's a very bare bones description, but I don't wish to spoil anything! Suffice to say, I was riveted.
As in any anthology, there's a very few stories that didn't much appeal to me, but the vast majority collected here were absolutely excellent, and all credit to Ekpeki for editing this volume, which is notable for its enormous range in story genre and theme. I look forward to this year's volume!