PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here
Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn
If anyone has any recommendations give them to me please!
Gladly! The books on this list aren’t limited to specifically anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy, but they do center related and relevant topics, themes, etc.
Anything by NK Jemisin. She is the best speculative fiction writer of her generation and probably the best speculative fiction writer alive. She is easily one of the best writers working right now, across all genres. That’s not hyperbole. She deserves all the hype.
Anything by Octavia Butler. She needs no introduction. Her short fiction is incredible; “Bloodchild” is one of the pieces that inspired me to write.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Excellent. Just read it.
The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley P. Chan. It broke my heart and it'll break yours.
Babel by RF Kuang. You’ve probably already heard of this book because Harper Voyager marketed the shit out of it. Is it subtle? Uh, no. It's definitely Baby's First Anti-Colonialism Book. But it’s still good. Kuang writes a compulsively readable story, that’s for sure.
The Unbroken by CL Clark. An exploration of what happens when conscription blurs the line between colonizer and colonized.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.
So Long Been Dreaming: Post-Colonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (anthology) edited by Sheree Renée Thomas.
Severely underhyped books of assorted speculative genres:
The Blood Trials by NE Davenport. Given the chokehold romantasy currently has on the public it’s insane to me that this book hasn’t sold a billion copies.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. It’ll change you.
The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera.
The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull.
Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun. Ignore the marketing, this book is YA (maybe NA) and you’ll appreciate it more if you approach it as such.
Read widely. Read diversely. People of the Caucasian persuasion need to stop getting pissy when the story doesn’t immediately center them and they don’t automatically relate to everything the character says and does and is. Just let yourself get swept up in the story—even if it touches on (gasp!) racism—and maybe, just maybe, it’ll reveal something to you.
Or maybe not! Marginalized sff authors do not have to and should not have to educate their readers. But if I see one more white person complain about how Black characters are fundamentally annoying because they complain too much I’m going to fling myself into the sun
Thanks for coming to my ted talk I didn’t want to do it but here I am
