“They,” the people who
run the publishing business, keep saying that no one cares about single author
short story collections. I disagree. I love them. Guess I’m nobody.
I kinda understand when
a degenerate like me does one and it gets ignored, but you’d think
the world would stop and take notice when a SFWA grandmaster has one come out. Come on, folks, where’s the social media
buzz? The cultural groundswell of excitement? The dancing in the streets?
We’ve still got some
time before the release, so let me tell you about Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions by Nalo Hopkinson and how wonderful it is.
The fifteen stories—one
co-written by Nisi Shawl—were all originally published in the 21st century and
are prime examples of what is, and is becoming. And if you haven’t noticed,
there’s been a whole lot of becoming going on. None of the usual cornball
sci-fi is here. Nalo can’t help but be different, original. This book just had
to be diverse.
She’s
Caribbean-Canadian, outside of the usual boundaries of traditional
English-language science fiction that are centered around New York, and
sometimes goes on field expeditions to far-off London. Both the fantastic
worlds she imagined and real-world elements she uses are richly textured.
Rising sea levels
creates a new world with, among other things, cyborg pigs. An alien life form
crossed the line between living and dead. Stereotypes become real in an
unexpected way. A cruise ship is hacked into a tool for decolonization. Queer love
and relationships abound. No sign of the all-white future I grew up reading
about.
She’s hip to what’s happening on the cutting edges of science and technology, but delivers far more
than the usual hard-science take on things. The human element is always
present. Sometimes things other than human. There is anger, but also
optimism.
This volatile mix
often steps out of the restrictions of the science fiction genre and becomes other
kinds of storytelling. Some of these are more like folklore and fables, the literature
you are more likely to overhear being told into a smart phone on public
transportation and in performance art than in a book. Genres are just marketing
gimmicks–we need to set our imaginations free to soar beyond the temporary,
artificial cultural borders.
She is a true
grandmaster. This collection of marvelous, delicious concoctions is a joy to
read.
Those dopes who don’t
like story collections don’t know what they’re missing.
