REVIEW: “A Maji Maji Chronicle” by Eugen Bacon

Review of Eugen Bacon, “A Maji Maji Chronicle”, in Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, ed., Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, (Aurelia Leo, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology).

I, to my embarrassment, did not know of the Maji Maji rebellion before reading this story; I am glad I read up on it (thanks, wikipedia…) before reading this story as it gave me a sense of place and context for it.

What I thought I was going to get was a story about the rebellion, and I did, if only tangentially. What it was primarily was the story of two time-travellers, Zhorr the grand magician of the Diaspora and his son Pickle, and how Zhorr’s actions rewrote the history that we know (as always happens when magicians time-traveller injudiciously!).

To be honest, I expected a story of Ngoni triumph over German; I did not expect how Zhorr’s interference caused the installation of an Ngoni emperor, or the critical eye that Bacon took to the alternate history she created: “Different historical outcomes are not necessarily better than the ones that eventuated them”.

A thought-provoking, unexpected story.

(Originally published in Backstory Magazine 1, no. 1, 2016.)

[Update August 14, 2020: I’d like to apologise to the author for misgendering her in the review as originally posted! The post has been edited to fix my error.]

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Red_Bati” by Dilman Dila

Review of Dilman Dila, “Red_Bati”, in Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, ed., Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, (Aurelia Leo, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology).

Red_Bati is a robot dog that Akili has programmed to be a companion for his grandmother. In Dila’s tale, we experience Red_Bati’s world and story through his eyes, feeling the constant tug between the reminders that Red_Bati is a mere collection of mechanical parts and the fact that those parts have all come together to create “a human trapped in a pet robot”. (At least, that’s what Red_Bati thinks. The ghost of Granny that keeps him company as his battery slowly dies thinks otherwise; Red_Bati cannot be human, he has no spirit.) But whether human or not, Red_Bati has a plan and the capacity to implement it. All through the story, right up until the very end, I held out hope that Red_Bati would, in the end, be a Good Dog. And was he? I’ll let you read it and determine for yourself.

This was a delicious story, full of humor and pathos and a steady reminder that we must always question who, and what, we ascribe humanity to — and why.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Trickin'” by Nicole Givens Kurtz

Review of Nicole Givens Kurtz, “Trickin'”, in Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, ed., Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, (Aurelia Leo, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology).

Content warning: Knife injury, blood, death.

Raoul awakes one rainy morning in the mouth of a cave, uncertain, at first, of his memories. It comes back to him slowly — today is Halloween, a day for treats, a day for trickin’.

In the city down below, they might not believe in the old gods any more, but he’s planning to change that — if they don’t give him treats, he’ll play tricks on them.

This was a gruesome, gleefully bloody story, part horror, part fantasy. A strong story to open the anthology on.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora edited by Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald

Review of Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, ed., Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, (Aurelia Leo, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

When I received an invitation to review this anthology, my response was the email equivalent of grabby hands: Oh my, yes, please!!! This is exactly the sort of fiction I want to be reading, and exactly the sort of fiction I want to see more of being published and promoted — stories that introduce me to new worlds, stories that fill gaps in my knowledge of history, stories that bring me into the unknown. So buckle in, and join me on a tour of these thirteen wonderful, wonderful stories, ranging from poetry/flash fic all the way to nearly novella-length. They cover the entire spectrum of speculative fiction, some fantastic, some scientific, some lingering on the borders of horro. As usual, we will review them individually, and link the reviews back here when they are published.

The ARC I read unfortunately had a number of typos in it (as well as no pagination, so we have left page references out of the individual reviews); I hope they are all fixed before the final publication, as they would otherwise mar what is an excellent collection.

Sara L. Uckelman16 Comments