Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of December 2018: N.K. Jemisin has been sweeping science fiction and fantasy awards for years with her Broken Earth novels. Now Jemisin gathers almost two dozen short stories she crafted during her writing career, and, golly, you can see "award winner" on every page. I usually avoid reading short story collections, because inevitably the first two stories are excellent and the third through the eighth stories are mediocre, sucking away the propulsion to keep reading. But each one of Jemisin's tales is gloriously bright and complex, thrusting you forward to read the next, and the one after that…and then suddenly it's the next morning and you haven't gotten a wink of sleep. The collection's title reflects Jemisin's realization that the science fiction she read frequently excluded characters of color, making it seem like people like her had no place in writers' dreams of the future. Jemisin's stories reshape that vision through the lens of alternate history, dragons, fairies, near-future drama, and far-future events that spotlight the age-old blight of discrimination and upend readers' assumptions about who can be heroic. Through her imagination and fierceness, Jemisin declares that Black Future Month can be now. --Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review Review
"The most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation... Jemisin seems able to do just about everything."―New York Times
"Jemisin's phenomenal success has been something like an earthquake ripping through the traditional order of fantasy itself."―New York/Vulture
"The most critically acclaimed author in contemporary science fiction and fantasy."―GQ
"Jemisin's stories are discerning, thought-provoking, and beautifully crafted, showcasing a master at work."―Pen America
"Marvelous and wide-ranging."―Los Angeles Times
"One line from [Jemisin's introduction] has tattooed itself on my mind, a sort of manifesto for her ongoing work and all the fiction I love: 'Now I am bolder, and angrier, and more joyful.' I felt, after reading these stories, that I was too."―NPR Books
"N. K. Jemisin is a powerhouse of speculative fiction. So, obviously, you need to read this new short story collection."―Bustle
"Read her books-they're probably better than whatever else you were going to read next."―Literary Hub
"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold."―Entertainment Weekly
"Nora Jemisin is a writer of uncanny gifts who is to a moral certainty one of the five best we have right now."―Sci-Fi
"Powerful and mind-expanding...Jemisin pushes boundaries, experiments with format and theme, and challenges expectations."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[E]loquently develops a series of passionately felt themes... one of speculative fiction's most thoughtful and exciting writers."―Kirkus (starred review)
"Each of the [stories] is masterfully written and beautifully imagined, making the book difficult to put down...Anyone who appreciates Jemisin's work, speculative fiction, or simply the art of the short story shouldn't miss this collection."―BookPage
"Whether she's exploring alien life forms or political machinations, self-sacrifice or monsters in New Orleans, Jemisin's characters are boldly drawn, complex, and so engaging. This is a great gift for any long-time fan and a solid introduction to her work for the curious, and I highly recommend you grab yourself the gorgeous hardcover version."―Book Riot/Swords & Spaceships
"Jemisin... is a writer of uncanny gifts who is to a moral certainty one of the five best we have right now. ... How inadequate these brief synopses are to convey the sheet beauty to be found in these stories."―Sci-Fi
"There are so many things in How Long 'Til Black Future Month-from firebirds to Megacops, from truffles to hurricanes, from utopias (maybe) to civil rights marches-that it's impossible to describe. Except to say that every single story here is riveting, provocative, and remarkable. An extraordinary story collection from an extraordinary writer!"―Connie Willis, Hugo and Nebula Award winner
"Energizing in the way the best science fiction aims to be, forcing readers to look back on the 'real' world with new and eager eyes."―Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"Established fans of Jemisin's work and general fantasy and sf readers alike should check out this collection of diverse and exciting new speculative fiction."―Booklist
"These stories are wonderful. In worlds both invariably cruel and brilliantly imagined, heroism thrives in the margins."―Nicky Drayden, author of The Prey of Gods
Jemisin's body of work already spans an extraordinary and "astonishing terrain. Science fiction and fantasy have always been the genres of my heart, and Jemisin is an absolute master. Like Ursula K. Le Guin, she is a visionary who shows us our world by remaking it in stories."―Kelly Link
"A brilliant example of how we in the present are making the future with our actions and how the future may exist in our past... What is also evident in this short story collection is that Ms. Jemisin can write anything. Her prose, sometimes pulsing, encourages you to read at different tempos as if she is conducting an orchestra. Slow moving tension and suspense make you fearful, but then entices you into reading the next sentence. Lush descriptive passages conjure cinematic vistas."―Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The true breadth of [Jemisin's] talent ... comes through to grand effect in her first collection of short fiction... Jemisin is an essential voice in modern-day SFF."―B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
About the Author
N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author who won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. She previously won the Locus Award for her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and her short fiction and novels have been nominated multiple times for Hugo, World Fantasy, Nebula, and RT Reviewers' Choice awards, and shortlisted for the Crawford and the James Tiptree, Jr. awards. She is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for the New York Times, and you can find her online at nkjemisin.com.
Everyone—even the poor, even the lazy, even the undesirable—can matter. Do you see how just the idea of this provokes utter rage in some? That is the infection defending itself … because if enough of us believe a thing is possible, then it becomes so.Highlighted by 545 Kindle readers
