From Powells.com
Powell's anniversary list: 1971-2021
Staff Pick
N.K. Jemisin's unforgettable collection of short stories inspired by the Afrofuturistic musical visions of Janelle Monáe, How Long 'Til Black Future Month? imagines Black people in speculative and futuristic sci-fi worlds with gripping detail and voices resounding with fierce hope. Jemisin, a self-proclaimed sci-fi nerd, said about the collection, "How terrifying it's been to realize no one thinks my people have a future. And how gratifying to finally accept myself and begin spinning the futures I want to see." And what futures she spins! Recommended By Alexis B., Powells.com
N. K. Jemisin is a powerhouse author — the first to win three consecutive Hugo Awards, to pick just one accolade. In How Long ’Til Black Future Month, Jemisin’s writing shines while she spins tales as varied as a steampunk New Orleans heist, a suspenseful mystery told only in the first-contact report remnants of a space crew, and a restaurant that can recreate any meal in remembered history. This collection offers a master class in science fiction, as every story pulls you into fascinating, fully realized worlds and leaves you wanting to make our world a better place. Recommended By Michelle C., Powells.com
One reviewer wrote that N. K. Jemisin can do anything. I agree! Some of these stories are worked out more fully in her novels, and some of them are simply intriguing in themselves, pulling in the reader, exploring worlds and ideas, filled with the most human of characters. Reading Jemisin, whether short stories or novels, is a joy. Recommended By Doug C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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.
"Marvelous and wide-ranging." Los Angeles Times
"Gorgeous" NPR Books
"Breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold." Entertainment Weekly
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.
Review
"Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Jemisin's phenomenal success has been something like an earthquake ripping through the traditional order of fantasy itself." New York/Vulture
Review
"The most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation...Jemisin seems able to do just about everything." New York Times
About the Author
N. K. Jemisin is the first author in the genre's history to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards, all for her Broken Earth trilogy. Her work has also won the Nebula, Locus, and Goodreads Choice Awards. She is currently a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and she has been an instructor for the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops. In her spare time she is a gamer and gardener, and she is also single-handedly responsible for saving the world from King Ozzymandias, her dangerously intelligent ginger cat, and his phenomenally destructive sidekick Magpie.