Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

I have been waiting for someone to put together an anthology of Black Sci-Fi writers for years now! All too often people think that black folks can't write intelligent stories whose characters could be of any color. The world places our writers in a small bubble and we have to fight to break out. This book gives people a taste of the talent of black writers that is, and has been out there. It inspired me to go out and find the books of the the writers I didn't know and also to find other books from the writers I was familiar with. Although it is not this book's fault, there is a down side; some of the writers depicted in DARK MATTER are hard to find or out of print. Maybe with more books out there like this, publishers will realize just how starved the black audience is for talented black writers of any venue and do something about that. I really enjoyed it, you will too and truly... DARK MATTERS!

Will the future include people of color? Do Non-Europeans have fantastic myths from their cultures? If you are a reader of speculative fiction, you will probably answer no to both of the preceding questions. Speculative fiction has mostly ignored everything except the western way of perceiving the world. Many people do not read SF because they see nothing in it that speaks to them. SF seems like a big happy party where only whites are invited.Now the party crasher has arrived. "Dark Matter" not only bum rushes the party yelling, "We are here and things will never be the same!" It also informs the partygoers that we have always been here. "Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora" is an important anthology that sends an important message. Sheree R. Thomas has compiled a wonderful collection of SF from all over the African Diaspora. Every aspect of SF is covered in the wonderful tales that are included in this book. Steven Barnes' "The Woman in the Wall" is the best fiction I read from him. This story is definitely one of the emotional highlights of the anthology. Nalo Hopkinson has two stories and both are excellent. "The Space Traders" by Derrick Bell brings up many important issues concerning the role African Americans play in our society. This book is full on many more examples of thought provoking and emotional fiction.The essays included in this book will give you a better understanding of racism within the science fiction community and hope for a more inclusive future. I hope that every SF fan embraces this book.

This book will no doubt be required reading for generations to come. Finally a three dimensional globe of fiction that surpasses genre and cliche. Regardless of what it is categorized as; science fiction, future, fantasy, or horror, Dark Matter enlightens, entertains and leaves you wanting more, hence GOOD FICTION by Tananarive Due, Steve Barns, Ocativa E.Butler, Walter Mosely, Jewelle Gomez and more. The first story by W. E. B. Dubois is the perfect example... this story of a black man and a white woman discovering that they are the only ones living among a massive meteor disaster in the streets of New York begin re-evaluating their roles as black or white, lower class or upper class and begin to see that none of that matters. As the last two humans living on earth, the record is wiped clean of labels and salvaging humanity is the only real issue. It's a must read, can't put down, tell all your friends about book that will hopefully get the recognition and reward it deserves.

Fans of science fiction and fantasy will be delighted with this new anthology that focuses on the contributions of Black authors to the speculative fiction genre. The 40 tales have been written over the past century and include many notable writers such as Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson. Historical figures like Web DuBois have also contributed to this enchanting collection.Most of the stories are excellent and have a satirical bite to them. None of the tales fail to entertain. Although some of the older contributions shows their "age" (as many of the nineteenth and early twentieth century science fiction tales do), nonetheless they are well written and enjoyable. Readers of short story science fiction or fantasy will find DARK MATTER an entertaining, enlightening collection.Harriet Klausner