New Suns 2 - Original Speculative Fiction By People of Colour edited by Nisi Shawl

Publisher - Solaris

Published - Out Now

Price - £9.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

Octavia E. Butler said, “There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.”

New Suns 2 brings you fresh visions of the strange, the unexpected, the shocking—breakthrough stories, stories shining with emerging truths, stories that pierce stale preconceptions with their beauty and bravery. Like the first New Suns anthology (winner of the World Fantasy, Locus, IGNYTE, and British Fantasy awards), this book liberates writers of many races to tell us tales no one has ever told.

Many things come in twos: dualities, binaries, halves, and alternates. Twos are found throughout New Suns 2, in eighteen science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories revealing daring futures, hidden pasts, and present-day worlds filled with unmapped wonders.

Including stories by Daniel H. Wilson, K. Tempest Bradford, Darcie Little Badger, Geetanjali Vandemark, John Chu, Nghi Vo, Tananarive Due, Alex Jennings, Karin Lowachee, Saad Hossain, Hiromi Goto, Minsoo Kang, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Malka Older, Kathleen Alcalá, Christopher Caldwell and Jaymee Goh with a foreword by Walter Mosley and an afterword by Dr. Grace Dillon.

Good anthologies should always have a purpose. To show you what the genre has been or is currently. Stretch our ideas of what SF, Fantasy and Horror can be and also intrigue us to new voices. I loved Nisis Shawl’s award winning New Suns and so am very pleased to say the next volume matches it’s predecessor for the range, quality and pure class of tales held within it; all of which also help promote authors of colour who bring their own experiences and cultures to the mix within it.

Among the many stories I enjoyed were:-

Ocasta by Daniel H Wilson - a strangely timely story of an AI who has been watching us for a long time. It’s though giving an objective outsider perspective to humanity’s moments of casual cruelty and genius. Sweeping and elegant.

The Farmer’s Wife and the Faerie Queen by K Tempest Bradford - a brilliant folk tale that plays with jumps forward in back in time as a farmer realised his wife is held by the fae. All though not quite going to end as you imagine it and it tackles themes of freedom and toxic relationships in a very impressive way aided by the voice making this feel a much older tale. One of my favourites.

Juan by Darcie Little Badger - a man seems to be be targets by a strange power in this tale reworking sone Native American myths in a modern setting. It’s a chase tale and plays with expectations on who is the prey. I really liked how this kept the reader guessing the outcome throughout.

Neti-Neti by Geetanjali Vandemark - A take inspired by Indian beliefs mixed criminal gangs with body swapping and lost souls (actual and metaphorical) as our narrator tries to do the right thing and yet things get slowly worse for them. I loved the stories pace and how it makes us feel jumping into the world outside our own.

Equal Forces Opposed In Exquisite Tension by Jon Chu - another favourite tale plays with scrounge and humanity. We get a young man feeling in his father’s shadow trying for university. Chu juggles skillfully an exam of complex science mixed with telepathy; two people possibly falling in love and a complex but loving father son dynamic that slowly make that title all click together. A tale of learning choices will always have to be made.

Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood by Nghi Vo - an imperial house is taken over by a set of Barbarians and the seamstresses (and our narrator) are required to now serve a new set of masters. This tale explores choices made for survival but also the wait for the right moment to push back. Not all tales require great magic and battles to change things and the solution here is simple. How our narrator got underestimated is really impressive.

Suppertime by Tananarive Due - Florida swaps of 1909 is the setting for this tale of a young Black girl in a farming family full of tensions regards her future and her attitude to her parents. But a monstrous creature in the swamp has decided it’s time to feed. Due brings this tale alive and their young character’s many realisations on how strange and dangerous the world is make the story sing beautifully.

Chosen by Saad Hossain - An offbeat SF tale of human renegades hunted across the galaxy and one engineer who finds death isn’t permanent. It’s funny and bittersweet plus very inventive as to how one human can take on an empire. A lot of fun!

Home Is Where The Heart is by Hirohito Goto - a very smart tale mixing moments of fairytales with a young woman who has lost her heart in the city she loved. It’s about families, reconciliation and getting to a sense of peace and it’s a beautifully told tale. Another favourite.

Before The Glories of Her Majesties by Minsoo Kang - Initially this tale felt off putting and a list but then Kang cleverly enters the tale themselves explaining he issued with what we’ve read: then for added ingenuity it’s gives another more positive version which they then show also is flawed in how it treats disability. Finally a synthesis of both tales knots together and will make you think about the subject a long time after. A very powerful bit of storytelling making the reader part of the story.

Haunted Bodies of Wombmen by Tloto Tsamaase - in this tale horror arrives and Taamaase mixes the pores soon of black pepper by white industrialists; inherited guilt and plays with gender to create a memorable, gritty and somber tale about trying to escape and also make up for past misdeeds.

The Plant and The Purist by Malka Older - a far future tale of an archeology group exploring a strange tomb under a volcano. Older explores how modern world billionaires could become stranger future tombs like Phraoahs to us and yet their world makes little sense to the far future z but we also get an enhanced human who can use implants to sense anything slowly bond with an archaeologist who has no just abilities. Inventive and thoughtful.

Counting Her Petals by Christopher Caldwell - a tale cleverly bring all the genres together that tells a tale of a trans woman and her girlfriend meeting and then trying to work out how to survive in an intolerant world. Cyberspace and magic collide in an unexpected Ted way but the tale ultimately is love finds a way through it all.

As you can likely tell I hugely enjoyed this and I have found a host of new authors to look out for. Great stories, imagination stretched and ideas to think about there is little more I need from an anthology. Strongly recommended!