#everfair

[torpublishinggroup]

Do you hear that??

It’s the sweet, sweet sound of gifts and the necessity of buying them for all of the humans, animals, and unidentified entities in your life. That’s a lot of pressure, but don’t sweat, because we’ve got your back, and more importantly, we’ve got a ton of increasingly niche book recommendations to get you through the holiday season! Check them out here and let us know which ones you’re grabbing in the comments. 

by Rachel Taylor and a cat

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is for the treasured party member who’s saved your character’s life many times on TTRPG night

We all have That One Amazing Player who has pulled our butts out of the fictional fire on D&D night, and what better way to show your endless appreciation than with the gift of LITERATURE?! High fantasy, secondhand books, and first love–what more could you ask for?

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Masters of Death by Olivie Blake is for the angsty goth who still wishes it was Halloween

So they’re in denial that it’s not Halloween anymore, but guess what?! In the unbroken face of eternity, time has no meaning! Every day is Halloween!

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In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is for the plucky traveler who’s got the whole world to see

There are many ways to see new and exciting worlds, and TJ Klune always provides queer and cozy adventures that you only need to pick up a book to explore. Consider picking up his latest venture for that friend who’s been bit by the travel bug!

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Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle is for the action movie fanatic who owns a cardboard cutout of John Wick

Assassins, dragon magic, and Chinese diaspora urban fantasy set in contemporary San Francisco.

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Book of Night by Holly Black is for the insatiable reader who has way more books to read than hands to hold them

And if you order and submit your receipt before 12/15, you can receive a Book of Night tote bag! Even Charlie Hall needs a safe sling to carry her contraband. Who’s Charlie Hall? A professional thief / bartender who pilfers shadow magic secrets! Read the book!

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T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series is for the Supernatural fan who’s looking to expand their fandom across the pond

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker, but she’s not just carrying messages anymore. You talk to one ghost and suddenly you’re spending late nights in the occult library, solving murders, and following trails of huskified children to their sinister spectral source.

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The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is for the science-enjoyer in your life who’s looking for environmentally-conscious fiction

This sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future from a science fiction visionary is the perfect gift to give your non-fiction loving, environmentally aware bestie who wants to dip their toe into a more fictional space.

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Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson is for fans looking for The Princess Bride vibes but just haven’t quite found them yet

Do you have a Princess Bride superfan in your life? They don’t need another fandom-y Etsy gift this year–they need a book that gives them the same emotional rush they got the first time they laid eyes on the fairytale-inspired glory that is their favorite 1987 classic.

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Everfair by Nisi Shawl is for the history buff in your life who can’t stop thinking about other paths the world might have taken

After being purchased back from the Congo Free State’s colonizer, Everfair becomes a land of fantastic technologies—of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives. What happens when these technological advances are brought to bear against Belgian tyrant Leopold II?

That’s Everfair, and then you can read Kinning (on sale 1/23/24) for the continuation of this expansive alternate history.

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The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab is for people looking to put a different kind of magic into their holidays

Let’s put the magic into the holidays, shall we? V. E. Schwab returns to The Shades of Magic universe with a whole new series, perfect for readers who loved the original and new fans who want to explore magical alternate universes from in front of a cozy fireplace.

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Shelley Parker-Chan’s Radiant Emperor Duology is for the unhinged danmei consumer who’s looking for their next great read

Do you have someone in your life that consumes danmei like candy? Are they tired of waiting for their new favorite series to be translated so they can add it to their shelves? Do we have the series for you. She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World explore a stunning reinvention of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. It’s queer, it’s fantastical, and it’s complete! Snag both books in the duology for them now.

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Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher is for the friend with an ill-advised yet much-beloved Shrek 2 tattoo

“Better out than in” on the inside of the wrist, Thornhedge open in hand.

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Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is for anyone who has never been disappointed by the combo of Mike Flanagan and a Scary House

Home is where the heart is, and really puts you in a vulnerable position when your house HATES you.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is for Megamind

If you’re not Megamind, keep scrolling. Just kidding—this book is also for cat lovers and fans of Despicable Me and The Venture Brothers.

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The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan is for people who loved Season 2 of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

If you have someone in your life that got sucked into the masterpiece that was The Wheel of Time Season 2, don’t worry, you can help them relive the fun with The Great Hunt, the inspiration for the show and the second book in The Wheel of Time series!

[mad-rdr]

February 2024 Reviews

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian (★ ★ ★ ★/5): a basic little YA fantasy that reads well but is surprisingly violent. There’s clearly a lot of heavy shit going on here and I’m looking forward to seeing how the author will write it out

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (★ ★ ★ ★/5): had a bit of a slow start but definitely picked up from there. I love a good little suspense and mystery read

Beta by Jasinda Wilder (★/5): I’ve read some bad smut books but this one takes the cake. Absolutely full of inconsistencies and bad dialogue. Please stick to wattpad

Everfair by Nisi Shawl (★ ★/5): I loved the idea of this book more than the book itself. It was hard to get through and a bit boring

The Gilded Cage by Lynette Noni (★ ★ ★ ★/5): another great addition to this series, much more action and political drama with another insane ending. This series is keeping me on my toes

The Blood Traitor by Lynette Noni (★ ★ ★ ★/5): for the series finale it could’ve been better, the main characters didn’t even talk to each other for 75% of the book. Overall not too bad of a series though, I would read it again

Happy Place by Emily Henry (★ ★ ★/5): man I had expectations for this book and I definitely shouldn’t have. The same problem every 10 pages and honestly who knew what tf was going on ever

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (★ ★ ★ ★/5): a historical fiction piece about lesbians! A bit slow with no real plot but I enjoyed it nonetheless

[yaworldchallenge]

🇨🇩  Democratic Republic of the Congo

Region: Southern Africa

Everfair

Author: Nisi Shawl

381 pages, published 2016

Original language: English

Native author? Author is African-American

Age: Adult

Blurb:

What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? What might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier? Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated. Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

Other reps:

Genres: #steampunk #alternate history #sci-fi #colonialism

My thoughts:

Another not-truly-YA book, but it’s a steampunk rewriting of the Congo’s history, how cool is that?

Or for a native Congo author’s voice, try Sandra Uwiringiyimana’s memoir How Dare the Sun Rise.

Review to come.

Link to buy

[sleepdepravity]

I’ve been reading Everfair by Nisi Shawl, it’s billed as “African steampunk,” though I think in terms of genre it better fits something like an epic. (“Epic” like in “epic fantasy”)

In any case, like…it’s a compelling plot, there’s a lot of shit going on, Leopold’s colonies in Africa, a group of, activists I guess, trying to get leopold to stop and also, uh, found a free nation in Africa, the Christians who want to be part of that to “bring Christianity to heathens,” there’s lesbian and bisexual relationships, women doing spy stuff, three wars or whatever

But it’s just like, this is sort of…I mean I get the feeling that a lot of this book is just steeped in a genre that I am just not into. There are so many characters we bounce around, and so many things just speed by, that it’s so hard for me to really…keep attached to things? Like I am, there’s a lot to this story. The characters aren’t badly written. But like. There are a lot of times I get frustrated with how we’re constantly gliding by so much shit going on. It’s just like, “chapter 10, oh no the king got captured what’s gonna happen to him; chapter 11, well his wife just visited him and I guess they’re going to plan an escape; chapter 12, we’re doing the escape; chapter 13, here’s a military thing we’re doing now that the king is back; chapter 14, war over :)”

And each chapter is a different person’s perspective. I feel like there was a jump of like a fucking year between one chapter and the other, once. And then the war is over, there’s a part 2, and we get even MORE CHARACTERS. I think one of the new characters, we see things from her own perspective like. Once. After she’s shipped herself off to America. And then she’s just gone, as far as I can see, and I’m fifty pages to the end. How many character perspectives do we cycle through? Like…maybe around 11 over the course of 480 pages. Which is a lot, right?? That’s a lot! I guess props to the book for juggling all these characters and still being able to have me keep track of them all, but like…it’s just weird. It feels like I don’t get to see the process of struggling even though I do, honestly. There’s so much of people grappling with their shit, and its shit that takes some people literal years, but you cut out a lot of those years and then just kinda check in occasionally it ends up feeling too disconnected for me to see a continuous struggle. I dunno. I’m so tired. Please let me just finish these last 50 pages.

[specialagentartemis]

Black Women writing SFF

The post about Octavia Butler also made me think about the injustice we do both Butler, SFF readers, and Black women SFF writers by holding her up as the one Black Woman Writing Sci-Fi. She occupies an important place in the genre, for her creativity, the beauty and impact of her writing, and her prolific work... but she's still just one writer, and no one writer works for everybody.

So whether you liked Octavia Butler's books or didn't, here are some of the (many!!! this list is just the authors I've read and liked, or been recommended and been wanting to read) other Black women writing speculative fiction aimed at adults, who might be writing something within your interest:

N. K. Jemisin - a prolific powerhouse of modern sff. Will probably have something you'll like. Won three Hugo awards in a row for her Broken Earth trilogy. I’ve only read her book of short stories, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? and it is absolutely story after story of bangers. Creative, chilling, beautifully written, make you think. They’re so good and I highly recommend the collection. Several of her novels have spun out of premises she first explored through these short stories, most recently “The City Born Great” giving rise to her novel The City We Became. Leans more fantasy than sci-fi, but has a lot of both, in various permutations. 

Nisi Shawl - EDIT: I have been informed that Nisi Shawl identifies as genderfluid, not as a woman. They primarily write short stories that lean literary. Their one novel that I’ve read, Everfair, is an alternate-history 19th century that asks, what if the Congo had fought off European colonization and became a free and independent African state? Told in vignettes spanning decades of political organization, political movements, war tactics, and social development, among an ensemble of local African people, Black Americans coming to the new country, white and mixed-race Brits, and Chinese immigrants who came as British laborers.

Nnedi Okorafor - American-Nigerian writer of Africanfuturism, sci-fi stories emphasizing life in present, future, and alternate-magical Africa. She has range! From Binti, a trilogy of novellas about a teenage girl in Namibia encountering aliens and balancing her newfound connection to space with expectations of her family; to Akata Witch, a middle-grade series about a Nigerian-American girl moving to Nigeria and learning to use magic powers she didn’t know she had; to Who Fears Death, a brutal depiction of magical-realism in a futuristic, post-war Sudan; to short stories like "Africanfuturism 419", about that poor Nigerian prince who’s desperately sending out those emails looking for help (but with a sci-fi twist), and "Mother of Invention" about a smart house taking care of its human and her baby… she’s done a little bit of everything, but always emphasizes the future, the science, and the magic of (usually western) Africa.

Karen Lord - an Afro-Caribbean author.  I actually didn’t particularly like the one novel by her I’ve read, The Best of All Possible Worlds, but Martha Wells did, so. Lord has more novels set in this world—a Star Trek-esque multicultural, multispecies spacefuture set on a planet that has welcomed immigrants and refugees for a long time, and become a vibrant multicultural planet. I find her stories rooted in near-future Caribbean socio-climatic concerns like "Haven" and "Cities of the Sun" and her folktale-fantasy style Redemption in Indigo more compelling.  And more short stories here.

Bethany C. Morrow - only has one novella (short novel?) for adults, Mem, but it was creative and fascinating and good and I’d be remiss not to shout it out. In an alternate-history 1920s Toronto, scientists have discovered how to extract specific memories from a person—but then those memories are embodied as physical, cloned manifestations of the person at the moment the memory was made. The main character is one such “Mem,” struggling to determine who she is if she was created from and defined by one single traumatic memory that her original-self wanted to remove. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative, and very interesting.  (Morrow has some YA novels too. I read one of them and thought it was okay.)

Rebecca Roanhorse - Afro-Indigenous, Black and "Spanish Indian" and married into Diné (Navajo). I’ve read her ongoing post-apocalyptic fantasy series starting with Trail of Lightning, and am liking it a lot; after a climate catastrophe, the spirits and magic of the Diné awakened to protect Dinetah (the Navajo Nation) from the onslaught; and now magic and monsters are part of life in this fundamentally changed world. Coyote is there and he is only sometimes helpful. She also has a more traditional second-world epic high fantasy, Black Sun, an elaborate fantasy world with quests and prophecies and seafaring adventure that draws inspiration from Indigenous cultures of the US and Mexico rather than Europe. She also has bitingly satirical and very incisive short stories like “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” about virtual reality and cultural tourism, and the fantasy-horror "Harvest."

Micaiah Johnson - her multiverse-hopping novel The Space Between Worlds plays with alternate universes and alternate selves in a continuously creative and interesting way! The setup doesn’t take the easy premise that one universe is our own recognizable one that opens up onto strange alternate universes—even the main character’s home universe is wildly different in speculative ways, with the MC coming from a Mad Max-esque desert community abandoned to the elements, while working for the universe-travel company within the climate-controlled walled city where the rich and well-connected live and work. Also, it’s unabashedly gay. 

And if you like audiobooks and audio fiction (I listened to The Space Between Worlds as an audiobook, it’s good), then Jordan Cobb is someone you should check out. She does sci-fi/horror/thriller audio drama. Her works include Janus Descending, a lyrical and eerie sci-fi horror about a small research expedition to a distant planet and how it went so, so wrong; and Descendants, the sequel about its aftermath. She also has Primordial Deep, about a research expedition to the deep undersea, to investigate the apparent re-emergence of a lot of extinct prehistoric sea creatures. She’s a writer/producer I like, and always follow her new releases. Her detailed prose, minimal casts  (especially in Janus Descending), good audio quality, and full-series supercuts make these welcoming to audiobook fans. 

-

Nalo Hopkinson - a writer who should be considered nearly as foundational as Octavia Butler, honestly. A novelist and short story writer with a wide variety of sci-fi, dystopian futures, fairy-tale horror, gods and epics, and space Carnival, drawing heavily from her Caribbean experiences and aesthetics.

Tananarive Due - fantastical/horror. Immortals, vampires, curses, altered reality, unnerving mystery. Also has written a lot of books.

Andrea Hairston - creative and otherworldly, weird and bisexual, with mindscapes and magic and aliens. 

Helen Oyeyemi - I haven’t read her work but she comes highly recommended by a friend. A novelist and short story writer, most of her work leans fairytale fantastical-horror. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a collection of short fiction and recc’ed to me as her best work. White is for Witching is a well-regarded haunted house novel. 

Ashia Monet - indie author, writer of The Black Veins, pitched as “the no-love-interest, found family adventure you’ve been searching for.” Magic road trip! Possibly YA? I’m not positive. 

-

This also doesn’t include Black non-binary sff authors I’ve read and liked like An Owomoyela, C. L. Polk, and Rivers Solomon. And this is specifically about adult sff books, so I didn’t include Black women YA sff authors like Kalynn Bayron, Tomi Adeyemi, Tracy Deonn, Justina Ireland, or Alechia Dow, though they’re writing fantasy and sci-fi in the YA world too.

And a lot of short stories are out there in the online magazine world, where so many up and coming authors get their start, and established ones explore offbeat and new ideas.  Pick up an issue (or a subscription!) of FIYAH magazine for the most current Black speculative writing.

[ya-world-challenge]

18 Afrofantasy Worlds to Read after you watch Wakanda Forever

So I see you guys love these lists and, hey, I’m not going to complain, I love looking at these sets of beautiful cover art. This theme is... Afro Fantasy Worlds! ♥♥ From alt-Cairo to alt-Johannesburg and many magical worlds in between, I’ve chosen 18 books full of African magic.

Add your favorites in the comments, too! I only ended up with two male MCs... that’s sadly a shortcoming in YA fantasy in general, although not every book here is YA.

Support my blog and read at the same time when you buy from the linked titles below, which go to Bookshop.org (where you support small bookshops, too!) Or get a free trial at Scribd for ebooks & audiobooks.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray Fate binds two Black teenagers from different social classes together  as they strike a dangerous alliance to enter a magical jungle and hunt down the ancient creature menacing their home--and discover much more than they bargained for.

Daughters of Nri by Reni K. Amayo A gruesome war results in the old gods' departure from earth. The only remnants of their existence lie in two girls. Twins, separated at birth. Goddesses who grow up believing that they are human. Their epic journey of self-discovery as they embark on a path back to one another.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl A steampunk alternate-history novel set in the Belgian Congo. What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi A fantasy trilogy with its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia, three women band together against a cruel empire where castes are divided by the color of one's blood.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark A young magical detective in 1912 Cairo must investigate the murders of a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, when the murderer claims to be al-Jahiz himself returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko Tarisai was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to compete to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11. If she's picked, she'll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron Heir to two lines of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. Under the disapproving eye of her mother, the Kingdom's most powerful priestess and seer, she fears she may never be good enough. But when the Kingdom's children begin to disappear, Arrah is desperate enough to turn to a forbidden, dangerous ritual.

Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness--except he doesn't want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn't exist, he's put on a collision course with Bassa's darkest secrets. Drawn into the city's hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders.

The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani Children have been disappearing from across Menaiya for longer than Amraeya ni Ansarim can remember. When her friend's sister is snatched, Rae knows she can't look away any longer. She finds unexpected support from a foreign princess and a street thief with secrets of his own.

Blood Scion by Deborah Falayei They wanted me to be a monster. I will be the worst monster they ever created. Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will--she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods. When she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training, and destroy them from within.

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata--a mermaid--collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home. But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi goes against an ancient decree and does the unthinkable--she saves his life. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy the gods.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna On the day of the blood ceremony of her village, Deka's blood runs gold, the color of impurity-and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death. Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki-near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire's greatest threat.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes Set in a world where murderers and other criminals acquire magical animals that are mystically bonded to them. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. When a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, Zinzi's forced to take on her least favorite kind of job -- missing persons.

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor In a near-future Nigeria. Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO, Artificial Organism. Instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy Sixteen-year-old Eva is a princess, born with the magick of marrow and blood--a dark and terrible magick that hasn't been seen for generations in the vibrant but fractured country of Myre. Its last known practitioner was Queen Raina, who toppled the native khimaer royalty and massacred thousands, including her own sister, eight generations ago. Eva must now face her older sister, Isa, in a battle to the death if she hopes to ascend to the Ivory Throne.

Changa’s Safari by Milton Davis In the 15th century on the African Continent a young prince flees his homeland of Kongo, vowing to seek revenge for the murder of his father and the enslavement of his family and his people. He triumphs over the slavery and the fighting pits of Mogadishu to become a legendary fighter and respected merchant.

Waking Fire by Jean Louise Naira Khoum has only known life in Lagusa, a quiet village at the desert’s end. But to the rest of the world, Lagusa is a myth, its location shrouded in secrecy. While war rages to the north led by power-hungry Sothpike and his army of undead monsters called Dambi, Naira’s people live in peace. Until the impossible happens—Lagusa is attacked by a Mistress sent to do Sothpike’s bidding with a hoard of Dambi under her control.

Bonus: Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi An elite female fighter must reenter the competition to protect her found family of younger sisters in this scintillating young adult fantasy inspired by West African culture.

[biandlesbianliterature]

Do you have any personal favorite queer books set in not-primarily-anglophone countries?

I do! Here are my personal favourites:

[image description: the covers of five of the books listed]

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi (review), set in Lagos

Painting Their Portraits in Winter by Myriam Gurba (review), set partly in Mexico and partly in the U.S.

Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy (review), set in India

The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson (review), set in several countries, including the Caribbean

Everfair by Nisi Shawl (review), set in an alternate Belgian Congo

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark (review), set in a world inspired by North Africa

Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa (review), takes place in several countries, including the Phillipines

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 by Erica Fischer, nonfiction in Germany

Manga, set in Japan:

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Naoko Kodama (review)

How Do We Relationship? series by Tamifull (review)

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata (memoir)

[sistahscifi]

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO KINNING BY NISI SHAWL!!

THIS FRIDAY kicks off the Sistah Scifi West Coast Book Tour for “Kinning,” celebrating the sequel to literary luminary Nisi Shawl’s debut novel, “Everfair.”

January 26, 2024

6:30 - 8:30pm PST

Seattle Public Library - Central Library

1000 4th Avenue Seattle, WA 98104

Registration link in bio: @SistahScifi | www.sistahscifi.com

✨The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done.

Tink and his sister Bee-Lung are traveling the world via aircanoe, spreading the spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus. Through these spores, they seek to build bonds between people and help spread revolutionary sentiments of socialism and equality—the very ideals that led to Everfair’s founding.

@nisi_shawl

@torbooks

@seattlepubliclibrary

You can now pre-order this signed title from our @Shopify, @Instagram, @Facebook, @TikTok, @Twitter, @Librofm and @Pinterest stores. Link in bio: @SistahScifi | https://sistahscifi.com/products/kinning-everfair-2

Better yet, check it out from your local #library after the release date!

#SistahScifi #NisiShawl #Kinning #WestCoastBookTour #Everfair

[tirkdi]

okay friends what books are coming out that you're looking forward to next year?? my list is below (in approximate release date order) – what else should be on it?

The Atlas Complex (The Atlas, #3) by Olivie Blake I had a lot of fun with book one of this trilogy, enjoyed book two, and am extremely curious to see how everything gets wrapped up in book three

Kinning (Everfair, #2) by Nisi Shawl When Everfair first came out years ago, I was obsessed with how almost great it was. The premise is a steampunk sanctuary in the Congo in the time of Leopold II, and I loved the society Shawl had imagined. She's a phenomenal writer, but ultimately the first book suffered (imo) from trying to cover several decades though a dozen or so POVs so we never got deep enough into any one story. That seemed like a super fixable problem for future books, though, and I am really looking forward to reading the sequel!

(I also still regularly reference a line from Everfair: "He was stronger than [her], but only physically.")

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo I've lost my mind over this here before so I won't get too much more into it other than to say I remain extremely excited about it!!

Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao I have also lost my mind over book one in this series on here before. Suffice it to say I am so, so, so excited to read this one.

Alecto the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #4) by Tamsyn Muir This is coming out in 2024, right?? RIGHT???? A GIRL CAN DREAM 😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀😭💀

[paulsemel]

Eight years after releasing the iconic steampunk novel "Everfair," author Nisi Shawl has returned to that story's realm for an AfroRetroFuturism / mycopunk sequel, "Kinning." To learn more, check out this exclusive interview. https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-kinning-author-nisi-shawl/ 📖🦠

[souldagger]

24 for the reading ask?

Did you DNF anything? Why? yea lol

- Hyperion by Dan Simmons - kicks off with some pretty nasty ableism+racism and i didnt feel like putting up with it

- Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel - i wasn't enjoying this trilogy at all idk how i even got that far

- Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - look, i think this author comes up with REALLY cool plots, but his characters are such boring paper cutouts, and i couldn't get into this novel bc of that. i might give it another shot sometime tho!

- Everfair by Nisi Shawl, The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, and Once&Future by Cory McCarthy and AR Capetta - just couldn't get into them :(

- Celestial by MD Lachlan - the plot was too. Ancient Aliens. for me.

- Dracula - i failed jonathan from my emails :(

[readingaccountability]

updates!

read:

the bandit queens - parini shroff

uprooted - naomi novik

the poppy war - r.f. kuang

the terraformers - annalee newitz

the paris apartment - lucy foley

the buried giant - kazoo ishiguro

the dragon republic - r.f. kuang

the golden spoon - jessa maxwell

a deadly education - naomi novik

broken people - sam lansky

scorched grace - margot douaihy

the stars are legion - kameron hurley

docile - k.m. szpara

plain bad heroines - emily m danforth & sara lautman

currently reading:

a chorus of stones - susan griffin (still lol)

everfair - nisi shawl

[aatroxskitten]

there are just some books you read and wish they had about 300 more pages and a second book.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is one of those books. Oh my did I really love the places that book went, but it skipped so many years of time and I just wanted to slow down and take it piece by piece.