3 Favs from ‘How long ‘Til Black Future Month’ by N.K. Jemisin

Full disclosure, this will actually be my second time reading How Long ‘Til Black Future Month’. I read it once back in February of 2019 and then again, now, in 2023 when my book club suggested we give it a shot.

I’ve been writing more short fiction lately, and was excited to see what I might be able to learn from an author who’s won three back-to-back Hugo awards, and continues to get nomination after nomination.

Truth be told, I didn’t learn much. Jemisin makes everything look so effortless and easy that it was nearly impossible for me to study, and the stories are so intriguing and rich that all I wanted to do was just read.

So I let myself just do that . . . and it was wonderful.

I would love to talk about each story in this book, but with 22 stories I’ll limit myself to just 3 favorites.

All Time Fav: The Narcomancer

I think my favorite piece is definitely The Narcomancer. Of all the pieces, it feels the most like an epic fantasy, even more than Stone Hunger which Jemisin acknowledges as her testing ground for what eventually became The Broken Earth trilogy.

Of course these kind of fantasy stories are my favorite, and with its faux ancient African setting, and names like Cet, and Mehepi, it was not hard to imagine that the world of these Narcomancers might be something like our Ancient Egypt or Ancient Nubia (which appears to be her intent, from her website: “a secondary world which consciously evokes Ancient Egypt and Nubia”).

We all know that’s my jam.

But even discounting the setting, The Narcomancer stood out to me for the way it displays the failure of simplistic moral codes or ethics (perhaps comparable to religious dogma IRL) to encompass and guide people through the complexity of life. I’m sure I’ll be thinking through it all for quite some time yet.

It seems that perhaps this was another trial ground, as The Narcomancer seems to be set in the same world as the Dreamblood duology. Perhaps there are more answers there . . .

2nd Fav: L’Alchimista

My second favorite was probably L’Alchimista. I thought that because I’ve never watched The Great British Bake Off or lost a weekend to binging Kitchen Nightmares, that I was immune to the power of food as entertainment. Apparently if it’s FANTASY/MAGICAL FOOD then I’m no better than a kid in a (fantasy/magical) candy shop.

In all seriousness, in L’Alchimista, it feels like Jemisin lets her imagination have some fun (as opposed dreaming up soul crushing dystopias). It was both refreshing and delicious. I’m not sure if we get to see Franca (the MC) again in any other stories, but I hope we do!

3rd Fav: The Red Dirt Witch

I was having trouble picking a third favorite, but having more trouble trying to find somewhere in this post to talk about The Red Dirt Witch. So here we are.

This story just pulls on the heart strings. I do not want to spoil what happens but I think I was crying during this one. Sad tears? Happy tears? I think every kind of tears. I’m not really sure.

Honorable Mentions:

All of the stories in this anthology are good so it was really hard to pick favorites. These were perhaps not the stories that resonated with me the most, but were still interesting to me, for various other reasons:

• Stone Hunger – As mentioned earlier, this story was a precursor to The Fifth Season and the rest of the Broken Earth trilogy. A good story on its own, but more interesting after because of its relationship to other titles.
• The City Born Great – Again, and awesome story in its own right, but also cool know that it eventually grew into The City We Became
• The Ones Who Stay and Fight – A pastiche/response to The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
• Walking Awake – Sort of a clap back at Heinlein, although having read The Puppet Masters, I think she could have been harsher somehow.
• On the Banks of the River Lex – Really interesting in its own right, but a little more resonant with me right now because it also personifies ‘Death’ which I’ve been talking a lot about recently
• The Trojan Girl – Written back in 2011, reading it now seemed eerily prescient because of all the talk happening about AIGC. Specifically the story mentions an AI-type being having trouble forming their hands and I was convinced Jemisin had a time machine.

Give This One a Read?

In short? Yes!! I’ve now read it twice, and like any great book, I’m pulling more from it each time I do. And like any great book, I still have so much more to learn from it.

That’s all I have for this week. What are your thoughts? Have any of you read this one? What was your favorite story? Did you not like any? Leave your answers in the comments. Looking forward to chatting about this one!!

Get to Know the Fantasy Reader #BookTag

So this week, instead of new fiction, I’ve decided to try out this whole book tag thing. I ‘ve never done one before so hopefully it’s fun for you all. Feel free to try it out yourselves and tag me so I can read your answers!

Apparently there are some rules. Here they are . . .

Rules:

• Make sure you give credit to the original creators of this tag – this tag was originally created by Bree Hill
• If you want to, pingback to the post you first saw this tag – I first saw this at Paperback Tomes, and then read some more of it at Lost In Neverland.
• Have fun!

What is your Fantasy origin story? (The first Fantasy you read)

Wow. First question and I’m already unsure how to answer. This will go well . . .

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading Fantasy of some kind. I was only two years old when Dinotopia came out so I’m not sure how much reading I was doing at that point, but it was likely one of the first things I read. Probably the first book I read and was consciously aware of it “being fantasy” was the The Hobbit, and then Lord of the Rings. Of course I ate up all the Harry Potter books when they came out (except maybe the first two? I remember being slightly late to the game on HP)

If you could be the hero/heroine in a fantasy novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?

I’d want to be in a Terry Pratchett novel. I feel like my life already has enough ridiculous hijinks happening in it anyway, so why not just lean in and let crazy take the wheel. Make it weird.

And maybe to just really up the weird, we could have a multiverse trope, or a time travel trope like Ground Hog’s Day. Maybe both?

What is a fantasy series you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read?

The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. Technically, I read The City of Brass, last year, and just finished The Kingdom of Copper (the sequel), and loved it just as much. Started The Empire of Gold yesterday and it’s shaping up to be good as well. This series has been such a breath of fresh air for me. I hope to be seeing a lot more from Chakraborty in the future (put Daevabad in space! Ok I’ll be calm down now).

What is your favorite fantasy subgenre?

Without a doubt Epic Fantasy. One does not read as much Brando Sando as I do and answer some other subgenre. I would just be lying to myself and everyone around me. I can get behind High Fantasy (honestly this is shades of gray), Sword & Sorcery or even Grimdark, but I’m a real sucker for those EPIC STAKES. Drop me in a secondary world (aka someplace that’s not earth but can be similar), and turn everything up to eleven! Give me your weird mythical creatures (weirder the better), and your less-than-holy gods; give me your warring kingdoms (and political intrigue), your fake history, and made up customs. Dazzle me with your magic . . .

Wow. I think I need to calm down again.

What subgenre have you not read much from?

Steampunk. Really any of the punks, but I think steampunk is the one I’ve been let down the most by. Not sure why, but in my mind, I just want every Steampunk novel I read to be like watching Wild Wild West for the first time, and then when (literally) none of them are, I get disappointed. This is completely my fault as I probably just need to spend some time searching around, and figure out which book is considered the quintessential Steampunk book . . . and then READ THAT BOOK before being judgy, but so far it hasn’t happened. If you have a recommendation, please leave it in the comments.

In a slightly more positive tone, I discovered something called Bronzepunk exists. I would like to search out and find more of that. The fun example that got me hooked is Achilles vs Mecha-Hector, by Jesse-Beeson Tate. Go and read it. It’s a wild ride (I mean how could it not be?). Sadly I’m still waiting for a sequel. Please write more of this!

Who is one of your auto-buy fantasy authors

As mentioned earlier (and many many other times on this blog), Brandon Sanderson is definitely this for me. I’ve read like 30 of his books at this point and I’d probably read 30 more. I think Martha Wells is also achieving this status for me, though I’ve only read her Murderbot Diaries stuff. Hopefully I can visit some of her earlier stuff sometime soon.

So much! So little time!

How do you typically find Fantasy recommendations?(Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram. . .)

Recently? I get a lot of recommendations from my writing group. Like more than anyone can possibly read (which is wonderful). I am also signed up for about a billion newsletters from publishers. I try to keep up with industry awards, so if a book is doing well there, I’ll be more likely to read it. Goodreads also. Then sometimes insta.

What is an upcoming Fantasy release you’re excited for?

This is another tough question as I’m still trying so hard to catch up with last year’s releases that I haven’t payed much attention for what’s on the docket for this year (just look at that TBR).

BUT . . . I recently finished Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic (soo good) and while she seems to have plenty of titles I could go back and read (looking at you Gods of Jade and Shadow) I like reading new things too, so Certain Dark Things will probably be my next one. I’m sure there are some genre arguments to be made here, but I’m gonna consider it Fantasy and say that is the one I’m anticipating most at the moment.

What is one misconception about Fantasy you would like to lay to rest?

This is a tough question also, because I think the genre suffers from many misconceptions, but perhaps the most important to me, is that ‘Fantasy’ is just stories about white farm boys slaying dragons. This is just not the case anymore (though it may have been once). In a lot of ways, Fantasy has become something of a platform in which you can tell any story that you want. Want to read a mystery? Well what if it took place in post-Civil War Philadelphia from the point of view of a married couple working as conductors on the Underground Railroad. Well then check out Nicole Glover’s The Conductors.

How about a romance? Perhaps you should read Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand inspired by the Mughal Empire.

Or maybe you WANT to read about dragons. Well there’s still plenty of fresh takes there (look at Johnathan Strahan’s Book of Dragons)

Anyway, there’s something for everyone here in ‘Fantasy land’ so come on down.

**Call back to earlier when I said I didn’t read enough Steampunk . . . Apparently there are STEAMPUNK DRAGONS! I guess I’ll be reading The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swannick soon . . . this has been a fun digression.

If someone had never read a Fantasy before and asked you to recommend the first 3 books come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?

I’ve seen Harry Potter on a lot of these kinds of posts and I would have to agree, it’s probably the best place to start (as mentioned before, it was one of the places I started). Depending on how old you are, you might be looking for something a little more ‘adult’ (although HP seems very mature by the end of the series), I would recommend Brando Sando’s Mistborn next. I’ve had pretty high success with that one. I’d probably go with The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin next. It’s truly fantastic, and I feel pivotal in a lot of ways for where the genre is (or could be). It’s not a popcorn read though so . . . fair warning.

Who is the most recent Fantasy reading content creator you came across that you’d like to shoutout?

I’ve been enjoying reading my friend Mary’s blog, The Inciting Event Blog. Recently, I feel like I’ve learned a lot from her post on maps called How to Build a World Part Two: THE MAP. She also has a super cute dog.

Welp that’s it.

I think that concludes my first foray into book tags. If you’d like to see more of this kind of thing, let me know in the comments. I’ve got a bunch of these lined up that I could do so you’ll probably being seeing more of them in the future. Anywho, thanks for reading this far. I’ll see you next time!