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The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction
Collection of short stories by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction is an anthology of African speculative fiction edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.[1][2][3]
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Background
Ekpeki was inspired to publish the book after the positive reception of his earlier African speculative fiction anthology, Dominion, to "create more spaces for the works of speculative fiction writers of African descent to be appreciated".[4]
All the stories in the anthology are reprints of stories first published elsewhere.[5]
Contents
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Themes
Parenthood, family, and relationships to the past are themes across many stories in the anthology.[7] Both straight and queer points of view are explored.[7]
Stories in the anthology include the genres of Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, high fantasy, hard science fiction, horror, slipstream, climate fiction, cyberpunk, and weird fiction.[1][7]
Reception
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Perspective
Fiona Moore in a British Science Fiction Association review describes the anthology as "a good general representation of the state of SFF in Africa and the diaspora".[7] Moore is somewhat critical of the large number of American contributors compared to those of other nationalities, although admitting that such a distribution is understandable given the nature of the publishing industry, and that African American writers are still underrepresented overall in literature.[7]
Writing for the British Fantasy Society, Sarah Deeming highly recommends the anthology. Deeming praises the high quality of the stories, noting that many "had a musical quality, almost like poetry rather than prose, and each one deserved reprinting".[8] She particularly highlights three stories: "Things Boys Do" by Pemi Aguda; "Scar Tissue" by Tobias S. Buckell, which Deeming describes as "beautifully written and well-thought-out"; and the "fresh and seductive" story "Love Hangover" by Sheree Renée Thomas.[8]
T.G. Shenoy also highlights "Things Boys Do" and "Scar Tissue", as well as praising stories by WC Dunlap, Russell Nichols, Chinelo Onwualu, and Marian Denise Moore in a review for Locus. Shenoy labels the anthology as a whole a "must-read". He suggests that the anthology may have been improved by including a discussion of African speculative fiction and the creative choices that went into putting together the book, or including Ekpeki's novella Ife-Iyoku, The Tale of Imadeyunuagbon. However, Shenoy notes that their lack of inclusion does not in itself diminish the anthology.[5]
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Awards and nominations
The anthology was nominated for the 2022 Locus Award for Best Anthology.[9] It won the 2022 World Fantasy Award—Anthology.[10] Maria Spada's cover art for the book was longlisted for the 2022 BSFA Award for Best Artwork.[11]
References
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