In an alternate world where the Civil War ended in a truce and the Confederacy drugs its slaves into addiction and compliance, Creeper, a young black girl lives in free New Orleans. She learns of a plot by the Confederacy to unleash a weapon that could allow them to win the stalled war and uses that information to get herself a place on an airship attempting to stop it. But Creeper and the Captain of the ship aren't alone in what they're doing because there's a goddess using each one of them and those goddesses have ideas of their own.

This book was fresh and interesting, the world-building was excellent, and the characters were three-dimensional. I would happily dip back into this world. #TheBlackGodsDrums #NetGalley

Creeper is a young teenager living by herself on the streets of an alternate steampunk version of New Orleans. However, she doesn’t intend to live this way her entire life: her goal is to get the hell away from the streets and, hopefully from New Orleans altogether. Her opportunity to do so comes up when she hears about the disapperance of a scientist and how it might be linked with the Black God’s Drums, a mysterious weapon that could destroy New Orleans in the blink of an eye.

Creeper intend to use this information to flee the city, however, Oya, the goddess who constantly whispers in her ears have other wishes for her.

I haven’t been reading a lot of fantasy lately and I usually don’t like steampunk books. However, I read a couple of reviews gushing about this little novella (and I have to say that the gorgeousness of the cover may have helped as well), so I decided to request this book anyway since I usually like the range of novellas from Tor.Com.

I’m very glad I read this book because I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a fast read set in a fascinating city and the main character, Creeper, was an interesting one for sure. She’s young and sometimes a bit stubborn but she’s very clever, ambitious and full of good intentions. She knows what she wants and she isn’t afraid of fighting for it which made her perspective very interesting.

The world, the magic system and the constant presences of gods influencing the characters were all very interesting. I would definitely read other stories set in this world, Clark’s descriptions made it very easy for me to picture how everything looked and worked without ever feeling like too much.

My only issues with it were the fact that I wished the novella was a bit bigger because I found some events a bit rushed towards the end. I also sometimes struggled a bit with the writing. Indeed a lot of characters don’t speak a very good English and, being set in New Orleans, they often use French words that they mispronounce as well and it made it hard for me to understand some of their sentences. It was oddly bothering me even more with the French words than the English ones (if you don’t know, I’m French and English isn’t my first language) . For example, the characters mentionned “Maddi grà” a lot and it took me quite a while to get that characters were talking about “Mardi Gras”. It’s not an issue for one word but it happened several times and it was a bit annoying.

Anyway, except for those little things, I quite enjoyed The Black God’s Drums and I would recommend this story. It is a very fun, fast-paced novella set in a fascinating world.



Recommended.

Man, Tor.com has put out some real stellar novellas this year! The Black God's Drums was short but it packed a lot in. The language, world-building and characters grip you and it managed a full story in 110 pages. I do think this would have benefited from being longer but it was good as it was.

This story features an alternative history America where the events of the American Civil War have been slightly changed and the States are not as United as they once were. Slavery is still present, but there are key differences, and each state operates to its own rules. Also, there's a bunch of steampunk tech. And it’s on an airship that our main character, Creeper, wants to escape on and leave New Orleans behind.

The magic system in this book was intriguing. Creeper has divine powers courtesy of Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who lives inside her and pulls her this way and that to her own purposes. I would love to see this explored more in hopefully future novellas.

I adored the airship captain and would love a series on her life and loves as well as a heck of a lot more of this world and the rest of its characters. I want more about Creeper goes without saying but I'd love to know more about the nuns.

For a novella, this story was executed wonderfully. It has a full world and history along with great characters. It was a very satisfying, short read. I just need more. Hopefully, we'll see more books and novellas by P. Djèlí Clark in the near future.

The Black God's Drums is a well crafted novella set in an alternative 1884 New Orleans. One where Southern slavery is not illegal, gods are alive and actively meddling with human lives. The lead protagonist, Creeper, is an orphan imbued with powers by an African orisha, Oya, that lives inside her. The stealthy Creeper, is made aware of a secret weapon that could impact everyone in New Orleans’ lives forever and Creeper is drawn into the struggle against this secret weapon.

The world building in this novella is exquisite. The writing, well structured. The characters are memorable. This book is definitely worth picking up and reading.

A novella set in a very different historical New Orleans. We get airships, African Gods, and two great characters in Creeper & Ann-Marie! I hope this is not the last we will see if them!

An amazingly powerful, beautifully written and poignant novella that looks at aspects of historical New Orleans that all too often get passed over, while still cutting a clean new track with it's fantasy elements. This was unusal and highly original - and can we take a moment to appreciate out young POC protagonist who shares her body with an African goddess brought over on slave ships (a la Neil Gaiman's American Gods.) A stunning read. Highly recommend.

I grew up a few hours East of New Orleans, well within that city's sphere of cultural influence. Yet, as a white southerner, many aspects of the historical culture were neither made for me nor comprehensible to me, no matter how fascinating I may find them as an individual. And this has always seemed fair to me- why would the descendants of slaves owned by my ancestors ever reveal to me their spiritual secrets?

In this novel, I felt like I was given a sideways glimpse of that New Orleans society, that other powerful spiritual thread uniting and animating the region's oppressed, marginalized, and dispossessed. The experience was dreamlike, almost hallucinatory, a strange twisting of reality that recalled images and vistas from my own youth on the Gulf Coast.

And yet, Clark's world is uniquely fantastical, cleanly separate from the items of factual history. The novel heaves, thrums, and bellows its way through a rousing, tragic, deeply compelling narrative that even as an adult I found both satisfying and edifying. Clark's novel is also an important piece of representation, a powerful reminder that my own ancestors do not, never have, and never should define the entirety of the American experience.

This is the alt history Confederacy story you’re looking for.

** Trigger warning for racism. **

“The magic of those old Afrikin gods is part of this city, ma maman used to say, buried in its bones and roots with the slaves that built it, making the ground and air and waterways sacred land. Only we forgot the names that went with that power we brought over here. Since Haiti got free, though, those gods were coming back, she’d said, across the waters, all the way from Lafrik. Now here’s two of them in a bordello in New Orleans. Who knows what that means.”

The year is 1884, and the Union is still divided. In this alternate steampunk version of American history, the Union and Confederacy called a truce after eight years of war, in the Armistice of Third Antietam. Any states not already a part of the Union were abandoned, its enslaved citizens left to perish in bondage. As if the reality of slavery wasn’t (isn’t) horrific enough, Clark throws in an especially chilling detail, reminiscent of the Sunken Place: slave owners dose their human chattel with a drug called drapeto vapor, which zombifies them into compliance.

“I’ve seen the tintype photographs from inside the Confederacy. Shadowy pictures of fields and factories filled with laboring dark bodies, their faces almost all covered up in big black gas masks, breathing in that drapeto vapor. It make it so the slaves don’t want to fight no more, don’t want to do much of nothing. Just work. Thinking about their faces, so blank and empty, makes me go cold inside.”

Against this backdrop we meet a plucky AF heroine, thirteen-year-old Creeper (given name Jacqueline). Orphaned three years prior when her mother died of yellow fever, Creeper lives in the nooks and crannies of Les Grand Murs, the Great Wall that surrounds free New Orleans, protecting it from the superstorms that plague the coast – ever since the Haitians let loose a supernatural weapon called The Black God’s Drums in order to drive Napoleon and the French from their country.

While hiding in her alcove, scoping out some potential marks, Creeper overhears a plot to deliver a Haitian scientist to the Confederacy. Supposedly this Dr. Duval has found a way to recreate The Black God’s Drums, thus unleashing the power of the Gods here on earth once again. With such a powerful weapon in their hands, the Confederacy could actually win the war. Now it’s up to a tween pickpocket, an airship captain named Ann-Marie St. Augustine (previously her mother’s paramour), a pair of renegade nuns, and a feral child descended from plantation owners to foil the plot and save the day.

And oh, let’s not forget the two sister-wife goddesses (or pieces of goddesses, rather) that have attached themselves to Creeper and Ann-Marie.

THE BLACK GOD’S DRUMS is amazing, and my only complaint is that we don’t get to spend more time in the spectacularly captivating world Clark has created here. While Creeper shines (I’m a sucker for girls disguised as boys), every single character is multi-dimensional and engaging. I really love the interplay between Creeper and Ann-Marie – and their goddesses, Oya and Oshun. The relationship between Ann-Marie and Rose adds another layer to an already complex situation. And Sisters Agnès and Eunice are all kinds of awesome.

Clark paints a colorful and vibrant picture of 1884 New Orleans, from the mixed-race and gay-friendly bordello Shá Rouj to the crumbling plantations claimed by the swamps. The alternate history is fascinating, though it’s frustrating that we don’t learn more about the circumstances leading up to (and fallout of) the treaty; I really, really hope that THE BLACK GOD’S DRUMS won’t be the only glimpse we get into this ‘verse. The titular Black God’s Drums, particularly how Clark weaves it into Haitian history, is just the icing on the cake.

I need more. Maybe a twenty-something Jacqueline, now a college graduate and bonafide member of the Midnight Robber, helping Ann-Marie and the rest of the crew to take down the Confederacy for good? Bonus points if guerilla fighter Harriet Tubman makes a cameo. Not to typecast her, but Aisha Hinds has to play Tubman in the film version. (She’s just too perfect, once you see the monologue episode of UNDERGROUND you won’t ever be able to picture anyone else as Minty.)

And yes, this needs to be a movie like yesterday. Get on this, Hollywood.

Man, Tor.com has put out some stellar novellas lately! (And those covers, so pretty.) This was short, true, but it packed a mighty punch. The language, world-building and characters grip you and it managed a full story in 110 pages. I do generally prefer longer works and I think this would have lent itself to being longer. (Though I realize Tor specializes for shorter works.) All in all, two big thumbs up from me. I'll be looking for more of Clark's writing.

The Black God’s Drums is a novella by P. Djèlí Clark, and features an alternative history America where the events of the American Civil War have been slightly changed and the States are not as United as they once were. Slavery is still present, but there are key differences, and each state operates to its own rules. Separate to that, there is now steampunk technology and it’s on an airship that our main character, Creeper, wants to escape on and leave New Orleans far, far behind.

Born during a violent storm, Creeper has divine powers curtesy of Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who lives inside her and pulls her this way and that to her own purposes. Such as sending her warning signs or shoving attackers away by force, and in return Creeper is able to be stealthy and move silently, which enables her pickpocket lifestyle as well as being able to hear dangerous things, and eventually, come into close contact with a very dangerous weapon.

Way back when, I tried to be a writer. And I was obsessed with sky pirates (and by extension, their vehicles) – so this was a special kind of high for me. The airship captain is especially a favourite, and I would love a series of her life and loves (please and thank you), as well as a heck of a lot more of this world and the rest of its characters – Creeper goes without saying, and I second my friend Alex’s review mention of the nuns.

This is a powerful and elegantly written novella at only just 100 pages. You have a full world and history in your head, beautifully orchestrated characters, and while this is a satisfying read plot-wise it’s simply too good to leave it there – you’ll need and want more.

Let’s hope we get it.

The Black God’s Drum is a novella with a steampunk and supernatural twist. I have recently gotten into Tor’s novella selection, and I have to say that this is probably my favorite of their offerings so far!

This bit of alternate history takes place in Civil Ware era Lousiana. New Orleans is a free and neutral port, but still sees it’s share of activity closely related to the war of the states. Here we meet Creeper, a young girl who lives on the streets and who has an Orisha goddess on her side, Oya. Though the novella is short, so much is packed within the pages. New Orleans really shines on these pages, bursting with atmosphere and life with each turn.

I quite like Creeper and her desire to rush off to adventure on an airship, and I love her tenacity even when faced with problems far larger than her. Her relationship with Oya was quite interesting as well, and the entire set up for that portion of the story was kind of beautiful. Then there is Anna-Marie, a bisexual airship captain, who I would want to run away with if I could. She’s fierce and stubborn, and though she can be somewhat blunt toward Creeper she only means the best for her. Their friendship is fantastic, and it’s so nice to see both parties learning from each other. There are a small host of other characters that really stand out as well, like the sister nuns and Feral, and I find myself wishing this were a full-length book because of them. Clark’s characterization is absolutely on point. This is my first novel incorporating the Orisha pantheon, and though I’m not familiar with the gods and goddesses of it I really loved the version Clark painted for us. So beautifully subtle and yet there is no question to the power and rawness of their nature. I look forward to learning more about the Orisha on my own and hope to see more of them in other books.

Unfortunately, I can’t say too much more without possibly spoiling such a fun read, truly one of the few downsides to novellas, but I can honestly say I’d love to read more by Clark. He has an undeniable skill to paint a world with very few pages to do so, without ever sacrificing fleshed out characters and meaningful relationships.

4.5 Stars Out of 5

The Black God's Drums by P Djèlí Clark is a novella set in a steampunk alternate history New Orleans in 1884. The alternate history aspect involves a quicker end to the American Civil War after Britain and France sent reinforcements by airship, starkly altering the sociological landscape of the world.

Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart--Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…

The most interesting thing about this novella was the setting and the worldbuilding. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into it and I would be interested in seeing the setting explored further. Since this is a novella and hence relatively short, I felt like it only scratched the surface of some aspects and that there are more stories that could be told in this setting.

I liked Creeper, the thirteen year old street girl who was quite capable of looking after herself and who also lived with the presence of a god. The other main character was also fun to read about, though we didn't see quite as much of her and mostly saw her from the perspective of Creeper. The story is written as first person narration by Creeper, which strongly overlays her interpretation of the world over the story. The dialogue is written in the accent or dialect matching the character speaking, which sometimes took me an extra second to parse, but did a lot to distinguish different characters and, to some degree, their origins.

My main disappointment with this story was that, even though it's a novella it felt very short. More like a long short story than a novella. It's not that nothing happened, but the plot was fairly limited and contained and when I neared the end it felt like it was over too quickly. I think I would have preferred a slightly meatier story that was a bit less linear. Not that the plot was bad, I have just gotten used to longer novellas, I suppose.

Overall, I recommend The Black God's Drums to readers who are intrigued by the premise of a steam punk New Orleans. It's a short read and an enjoyable one, especially if you go in with accurate expectations.

4 / 5 stars

First published: August 2018, Tor.com
Series: Not as far as I know
Format read: ePub
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley

This steampunk novella didn't work for me. The plot is interesting enough: the protagonist, a thirteen-year-old girl Creeper, lives on the streets in New Orleans in the alternative version of the end of the 19th century. There are airships and gods in the story, magic and technology, slaves and gangs. When Creeper overhears several men discussing a plan to kidnap a visiting scientist for his secret weapon, she decides to sell the information to the captain of the airship Midnight Robber for a price: she wants to be accepted as a crew member.
Creeper is a street-smart teenager, tenacious and creative, but she is not very sympathetic. She is not kind or compassionate. She doesn't care about anyone but herself. Her naivete and self-absorption and her cheerful mercenary approach to life make her believable as a 13-year-old brat, but that's about all that works for her. She is shallow and elusive, not alive. Her emotions seem non-existent. She resembles a comics portrait, with some speech bubbles thrown in, but I'll talk about her speech patterns later.
The world seems unusual. It could've been fascinating, if the details were better fleshed out. For example, Creeper lives in an alcove somewhere, where she could see airships coming and going. The place has a name but no description. I don't know if it is an old wall riddled with nooks, or the ruins of a fortress, or a tenement, or a cliff with caves. The author never describes it.
Another example of the same problem: the scene of the last confrontation. We have the good guys traveling towards the bad guys' hiding place. They aim to rescue the kidnapped scientist. When they arrive, they can see the bad guys clearly: how many of them, what they're doing, etc. But the bad guys never see them until the shooting starts. I can't envision this scene. It seems unreal, as if the author only writes what propels his plot forward, but discards reality and even probability as irrelevant.
And then, there is the language. The narrative is clean, but when the characters open their mouths, all the rules of English grammar and spelling go down the drain. The speech accents are atrocious. In general, I dislike this technique. I don't think it is necessary to use the local jargon to add flavor to the story and I don't think the characters should talk like uneducated idiots.
Their mutilated sentences jerk the reader and interrupt the flow of the story. And their vernacular is even worse. Sometimes, I would read a word and wonder: is it a typo or a New Orleans lingo? Or maybe the author made up the word himself. In any way, I could only guess at its meaning. When such incomprehensible words pile up on every page, it becomes very irritating very fast.
Overall: I'm not impressed. The best that could be said about this book: it is short.

For people coming into this book it might be a first glimpse into the world of African/West Indian myth. For the descendants of the Africans brought to the West their gods came with them. In New Orleans Creeper is an orphan with Oya the African Orisha her constant companion. When she is made aware of a threat against her city she has to find a way to save her city and in doing so she changes her life. I felt this book to my soul, so many gods I haven't seen/heard from in a long time. It was like coming home.

The Black God's Drums is a thrilling story that bristles with adventure and escapism. I couldn't put it down!

Such a fabulous novella. I started to read this story and was so captivated by it that it was almost depressing to finish it. I hope the author has plans to write fill-ledge novels!

if you like alternative stories, then this is definitely one to go for. New Orleans is the perfect setting, I love reading about the town whether it is a paranormal story or not. However, I have to admit that I do love it when there is some kind of paranormal activity going on.

Creeper is a wonderful character. I can't wait to find out what adventure she will stumble over next time! As for the story, it's captivating and even funny now and then (the nuns are just too cool) and as I said before, I need a full-fledged novel!

This is a pretty short review, but honestly, I just like it so much that I'm a bit lost for words. Just read it!

This story is set in an alternate-history steampunk world in which the American Civil War ends in an uneasy truce with slaves kept down by drugged gas, and New Orleans is fiercely protecting its neutrality in the midst of all that, while Haiti is still dealing with having used powerful magic/science to destroy the French navy that attempted to re-conquer them in a sort of Cold War nuclear crisis, and sky-pirates fly out of the Caribbean, and gods and goddesses walk among or rather within some of the characters. So many fabulous worldbuilding details! Such appealing characters! So much potential plot conflict for future work!

His work is amazing and you should read it, sooner rather than later.

This short story was a good read, particularly interesting for its setting, an uchronic New Orleans. This aspect I loved, it was cleverly done, beautifully evocative and food for thoughts.

In fact it was maybe too much for such a short story, which is a little unbalanced for that, sometimes penalised with some pieces of info-dump, when some character or an another begins to lecture about some History point.

An other weak point in my point of view was the rather uninspired characters. They evolve and interact well, but it’s the usual trope: the clever and ressourful urchin, the beautiful and wise brothel’s owner, the beautiful, independant bisexual Capitaine, the multiracial clique, the wise and mysteriously powerful old women. The only interesting character was Féral, but I wasn’t very pleased with the implicit idea (white people leaving in the wild who evolve as caverns’ humans in a few generations, really?).

An other point bothered me. The author have his heart set on showing strong women, leading their lives as they like, which is absolutely fine and commendable. Some of the women of the story are working in a brothel, as a choice it seems, without being oppressed. I’m completely in favour of official prostitution, it should be a normal job, chosen and regulated, and not used to enslaved people. But in the story the brothel is a classical one, where the women are described as nearly in the nude, with a lot of make-up, always smiling, sitting on clients’s laps – an attitude expected of them, not respectful, demeaning even, which I’m sure wasn’t the author’s intentions. Some editing would have been nice here.

My recriminations are over! The story is very good, an easy flow, with good characters, some mysteries and a very strong and personal atmosphere. Note that if you’re not francophone nor living in Louisiana, you may be lost with the French and Cajun’s expressions which pepper the novella (all understandable phonetically for me, but I’m French!). They give a lot of authenticity to the story and I loved them, but it’s a shame that editors don’t seem to believe in footnotes anymore…

I LOVE THIS BOOK!
Own voice? Check. Exquisite world building? Check. Clever, fabulous female characters and a protagonist with a unique voice? Check!
I’ve always loved literary New Orleans. This alternative history has a New Orleans that is almost the Switzerland, or the DMZ of the American Civil War. Freedom and slavery sit uneasily together, rogue bands of Confederate Soldiers who refuse to accept their leaders surrender share space with free or former slave black citizens. Haiti has risen up and become independent. It’s a tight, tense, powder keg of a situation, and it is brilliant. Added to this...troublesome, powerful, and chaotic African goddesses make their presence known. The protagonist, Jaqueline or ‘Creeper’, is a chosen of one Goddess, Oya, who both creates and destroys. Her connection to her goddess is beautiful. The shifts in language amongst the African diaspora are a Master stroke. The only possible problem I could have is that it’s too short! I would love to know more about this world, about Creeper and the Captain. I will be recommending this book to everyone

This book is so good that when I was done I wanted to read the second book (there is no second book).

This takes place in an interesting universe where New Orleans governs itself and the African God's speak to certain people.

I'm hoping that if/when another book comes out it will be longer. I was not ready to leave that world. Sorry for the short review but my mind is stuck on wanting more.