Tag: BIPoC

Book Review: Telecommuting

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Telecommuting by L. Marie Wood

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Working from home has its perks, being able to attend meetings in your pajamas chief among them. But when the house you occupy all day is empty – when the only voice you hear after work comes through television speakers, it can get a little old.

Unless you like it that way.

And Chris did like it that way

… until the whispering started.

Telecommuting is a modern psychological horror story set in what could be your town, your street, your house. The lyrical slow burn is subtle; the terror in this tale sneaks up on you before you know it.

 

MY REVIEW

Home safe home. That is where comfort and family is, where you lay down your burdens, unless your potential family leaves you the moment you move into the house AND you telecommute to work.

Now your work environment invades – the bad coworkers, the off-hour requirements, the being “on the job” in what should be your safe place. And no one to break you out of that mode, no time – like a commute – to change your mindset.

Telecommuting fails at creating safe boundaries between work and not-work.

It’s in your house, your home, your safe place. With no way to turn.it.off.

Great slow-burn modern psychological horror.

Book Review: How Long ’til Black Future Month?

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How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

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Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story “The City Born Great,” a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis’s soul.

 

MY REVIEW

How Long ’till Black Future Month is a collection of short stories from the amazing N.K. Jemisin. Overall the collection provides insight into Ms. Jemisin’s growth as a writer and provides a wide variety of fantasy and science fiction short stories exploring a variety of topics. Solid writing, but the author is a solid creator. (Bonus points for all the food representation – great inspiration for snacks at my book club meeting.)

Sometimes collections are given in date order, sometimes collections are groups by genre. This collection is grouped by theme – horror, standing against the dark, etc. Sometimes the ending of the previous short story flows into the next; for example – “would it bother with anything so mundane…” flows into “the name of the first entree made me groan” (followed by something very much not mundane). The flow of the stories make it an easy read, but the part of me that likes to study an author growth would prefer things in date order. Still, overall, I think the presentation choice for the collection is perfect.

*** Individual Reviews of stories

The Ones Who Stay and Fight (no date given) – Science Fiction. This is a world-building thought experiment, not a story with character driving the plot. While it doesn’t work as a short story, it does work as a bridge between the non-fiction Introduction and the rest of the collection. (Again, not a short story and therefore the “worse” of the fiction part of the collection.)

The City Born Great (2016) – Urban Fantasy Sci-Fi. I have read “The City We Became” duology. This short story is the novel series original test of concept.

Red Dirt Witch (2016) – Historical Fantasy mixing equal parting submission and rebellion. Acknowledging gravity and encouraging the risk of flying with the same breath.

L’Alchimista (2005) – Fantasy. A man drops off a bag of ingredients for master chef locked in the equivalent of a greasy spoon. Can she still make her magic? (I adore stories with food.)

The Effluent Engine (2011) – Steampunk Spy Romance. The best romance of the collection. As well as a great spy thriller within a steampunk world.

Cloud Dragon Skies (2005) – Science Fiction. This is the first short story Jemisin sold. Those-that-learn pay the price of those that don’t.

The Trojan Girl (2011) – Cyber Punk. What will push AIs from being mere self-aware programs to actual sentience? Is it group survival? Is it the ability to cross into the real world? Or is it something else entirely?

Valedictorian (2014) – Post-Apocalypse YA. Are you willing to be true to yourself if it means isolation from others?

The Storyteller’s Replacement (no date given) – Fantasy (Horror Elements). Some days you eat the dragon … some days the dragon smiles at you.

The Brides of Heaven (2007) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). How far is too far, how far is crazy, when there is no hope for the future?

The Evaluators (2016) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). Reaching space means space reaches back.

Walking Awake (2014) – Science Fiction. – Some monsters respect bodies, and some are conspicuous users. How much can a human tolerate?

The Elevator Dancer (no date given) – Dystopian. I can see why this one wasn’t previously published, but it has a place in this collection.

Cuisine des Memories (no date given) – Literary Science Fiction. Adored this story for the food. The book club members each discussed what meals we would order.

Stone Hunger (2014) – Fantasy. One of the longer stories in the book. Good characters and amazing worldbuilding in this exploration of a possible novel idea.

On the Banks of the River Lex (2010) – Apocalypse Fantasy. Dreams and concepts survive the fall of man, the question is who will adopt them after we are all gone?

The Narcomancer (2008) – Fantasy. This short story explores the ideas which develops into “The Killing Moon” and “The Shadowed Sun” duology.

Henosis (2017) – Science Fiction Horror. Meh, an interesting experiment in writing out of time-sequence. As Jemisin says in the beginning, short stories gives you opportunities to explore different writing tools.

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows (2004) – Science Fiction. A quantum disaster has separated humanity into individual pocket universes. Can a species based on community survive the isolation?

The You Train (2007) – Urban Fantasy. Another experiment of writing tools – this time we see just one side of a conversation – text, phone call, messaging – over a period of time. I think the experiments work – definitely a train to ride.

Non-Zero Probabilities (2009) – Urban Fantasy. This one wins best title in the collection. I looked forward to it the entire time I was reading the collection and the story didn’t disappoint. But considering the author, a complete dud is a zero probability. I love statistical stories, so I adored this.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters (2015) – Urban Fantasy. New Orleans and Hurricanes deserve a trigger warning. What happens when a storm isn’t the only monster which blows in?

Book Review: A is for Archivist by Al-Mohamed

Erin Penn 2 Comments

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The Labyrinth’s Archivist by Day Al-Mohamed

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Walking the Labyrinth and visiting hundreds of other worlds; seeing so many new and wonderful things – that is the provenance of the travelers and traders, the adventurers and heroes. Azulea has never left her home city, let alone the world. Her city, is at the nexus of many worlds with its very own “Hall of Gates” and her family are the Archivists. They are the mapmakers and the tellers of tales. They capture information on all of the byways, passages and secrets of the Labyrinth.

Gifted with a perfect memory, Azulea can recall every story she ever heard from the walkers between worlds. She remembers every trick to opening stubborn gates, and the dangers and delights of hundreds of worlds. But Azulea will never be a part of her family’s legacy. She cannot make the fabled maps of the Archivists because she is blind.

The Archivist’s “Residence” is a waystation among worlds. It is safe, comfortable and with all food and amenities provided. In exchange, of course, for stories of their adventures and information about the Labyrinth, which will then be transcribed for posterity and added to the Great Archive. But now, someone has come to the Residence and is killing off Archivists using strange and unusual poisons from unique worlds whose histories are lost in the darkest, dustiest corners of the Great Archive.

As Archivists die, one by one, Azulea is in a race to find out who the killer is and why they are killing the Archivists, before they decide she is too big a threat to leave alive.

 

MY REVIEW

The MC is queer, BIPoC, and blind. The last bit has the most impact on her ability to investigate her grandmother’s murder. The author is “write what you know” – with her day job being fighting for the rights of the differently abled. She does an incredible job painting a world where the MC can only see light and shadows.

As a novella, all the goodness is here – worldbuilding, family drama (doesn’t help when your family is also your co-workers), second-chance love (FF), murder mystery – but in a short easy read leaving you wanting more. While this is a stand-alone, Ms. Al-Mohamed has several other books to snap up.

Azuela wants to be an Archivist, but her vision issues create a barrier on a job expected to be done without accommodation. The only person who believed in her goal, who not only supported her but pushed her, was her grandmother. When her grandmother falls on some stairs, everyone else is sure it was an accident of old age, only Azuela sees it as murder. Can she bring clarity before someone else dies?

Other Cool Blogs: Sistah SciFi

Erin Penn Leave a comment

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In 2023 I got called out on TikTok … well, not directly, but Directly – you know how that works right? The reaction of “why didn’t you just @me?”

Well, @serareadthat commented on how black content creators on BookTok constantly made videos and did reviews for white authors and books, but white content creators didn’t do the same for BIPoC authors. Why should the BIPoC community invest in the white community if they are not returning the favor?

Here on my blog, I have worked hard at making sure I have equal representation of women and men. My annual spreadsheet is broken up in alternating reviews and blogs between the genders. I even pay attention to the queer community and endeavor to include diverse characters in my stories. But on TikTok, at that point I got called on the carpet, I hadn’t been making an effort.

Fortunately my efforts of equality on Erin Penn’s Second Base carried the gender work to my BookQuotes. But … big BUT … I still complete Fell Down on BIPoC. I also, during my TBR Project, got a good intense look at my actual reading. It wasn’t pretty how much I leaned on a system that I knew was broken but didn’t try to avoid the embedded bigotry. I needed to do better.

First, and immediately, I created a system for creating my BookQuotes where BIPoC consideration is a step. No matter what 25% of the BookQuotes  for TikTok will be BIPoC. Took nearly two months, but I managed to turn the percentages around. To do so used up every indigenous, Hispanic, Immigrant, and black book I had read in recent memory. So next, I had to set up a system to READ books by BIPoC so I could keep up the BookQuotes in an appropriate ratio in the future. I had to Read with Intent. (I created a whole series of why Reading with Intent is important and you can find it on my YouTube channel – @erinpenn7745.)

Sistah Sci-Fi has helped a lot. Rather than curate through Amazon’s crazy mess, I can focus on solid science fiction by black woman science fiction authors. Completely online, this store has been perfect to get me connected to the books I would want to read.

Let me tell you, there are books in here you want to add to your Christmas List too: https://sistahscifi.com/

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Writing Exercise: Rep-Pre-Sent!

Erin Penn

Image by Luiz Gustavo from Unsplash

(Aqui não existe barreiras . Projeto social Amar e vida Surf transforma vidas)

The photo is from Loving the Surfing Life Project (?? – not sure about the direct translation from Spanish), There Are No Barriers Here.

Representation matters. Latino and physically challenged. Immigrant or homeless. Black and people of color. Gender fluid or gray-haired. All types need to exist in stories. Not just for people to see themselves as the hero, but also to see that other people can be the hero as well.

And to be aware that as their identity changes, they can still be a hero.

Will reading Ms. Pollifax as a teen affect me now that I am reaching retirement age? We shall see. The Chosen One is not a trope restricted to people coming-of-age. Everyone ages, even the Chosen One.

I should note, with age comes injury. Between ages 5 to 15, only about 5% of all people are disabled. At 75 and older, nearly half are disabled (46.1%). (https://www.statista.com/statistics/793952/disability-in-the-us-by-age/).

So while a reader might not change skin color, they could change social standing, age, religion, or become challenged physically or mentally. They could be forced to flee their home and become a refugee. Their cognitive abilities might become compromised, like a friend of mind whose ability to make decisions went from “high power” to limited – she can still make decisions, but the energy they take destroy her after a few each day. Reading about characters who are living in different circumstances can help a reader survive these seismic shifts of identity.

WRITING EXERCISE: Today write a Representation Matters scene or flash – between 100 to 500 words. Age, race, gender identity, sexuality, disabled, religion. (Somehow, the person you are writing about should not “look” like you, now or in your past.)

My attempt: Join the Crew (5/5/2024). Writing a science fiction where the planet was settled by Spanish speakers created a set of challenges for me, barely remembering the void that was my high school language, but I have two niblings who look like the characters in this story. They should be able to see themselves when they read fiction.