I'm becoming a real fan of Fantasy stories that are not set in Europe during the Middle Ages, and this is a great sampling of both stories and new writers to watch for. I didn't love all the stories but enjoyed most of them just because they're so different from what Fantasy readers are used to.
Only a few of the stories reminded me of Charles Saunders, an African American writer who wrote SciFi/Fantasy stories set in Africa, which I remember reading as a young girl.
Apparently these were the kinds of stories I didn't know I was missing. If you are a old Charles Saunders fan, or you loved the Black Panther movies, or Afro-Futurism stories, there will be something in this book for you to enjoy.

Whenever you see this review: GO GET THIS ANTHOLOGY. It's the 24th...your ereader or tablet is just sitting there, you can't play your gifted games just yet, and Krampus only knows how long it will be until you get snacky. Read these intense, startling, urgent stories...no excuses! You read The Lord of the Rings and had no problem following those fake, complicated character and place names so don't front that these are any harder. And believe me: The stories are (almost) all so vivid and alive and enfolding that you are gonna be up late. The always-useful technique I call the Bryce Method of making notes and offering ratings story-by-story is my guide. Follow the link to my blog to see those story-by-story reviews.

This is a very strong anthology. Even the stories that didn‘t fully grab me gave me plenty to think about. Recommended!

- Trickin by Nicole Givens Kurtz

An old god rises up each fall to test his subjects. A Halloween story with a supernatural twist. It was ok.

- Red_Bati by Dilman Dila

Dilman Dila is a Ugandan writer and film maker. The story is about a robot facing an existential crisis. Is he a human inside of a pet robot? Does he have a spirit? What is his purpose?

This felt a bit like a physics lecture, with a side dish of techno-babble. However, if Murderbot ever wants to adopt a pet, this could be the ideal dog for it. Nice plot, although the ending is a bit abrupt—I think this could make an interesting novella. I liked it.

- A Maji Maji Chronichle by Eugene Bacon

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian computer scientist (born in Tanzania) and author of spec fic.

A magician and his son time-travel to Ngoni country and try to change the course of history. Very wordy, wanting to create atmosphere. I didn‘t like the first few pages, but as the story picked up momentum, I liked it better. It covers the usual ethical ground of time travel stories. It is worth reading up on the Ngoni before reading the story, it helps with the background. The author is pretty sparse with filling in any details.

“Early in the 20th century, the Ngoni were a fierce ethnic group, distant cousins to King Shaka of the Zulu kingdom. Way before the scramble and partition of Africa, ethnic groups had dispersed across the continent, and this particular Ngoni group set habitat in what later became known as German East Africa. In defiance to harsh methods of forced labour imposed upon them by colonialists, the Ngoni took up arms in what is historically documented as The Maji Maji Rising. Maji is a Swahili word for water. Belief holds that a witchdoctor gave warriors a magic potion that would turn German bullets to water.“

- The Unclean by Nuzo Onoh

Nuzo Onoh is a British-Nigerian writer. She is a pioneer of the African horror subgenre.

The main character Desdemona tells her story. About her horrible marriage and what it leads her to do… Names matter, so all kinds of alarms went off in my head, when I read her name and that of her sister.

“Desee's quest will force her to make some terrible choices, and with the diabolical help of a powerful witch-doctor, embark on a harrowing journey that will end in deadly consequences, culminating in a trial by ordeal underneath the infamous Tree of Truth.“

Very good, but turns pretty strange and disgusting towards the end. Not for the squeamish. Set in Nigeria, around the time of Nigeria‘s independence. Quite a prolific country in terms of writing, it seems—I keep bumping into authors from that country—and learned about the Igbo and about fetishism.

- A Mastery of German by Marian Denise Moore

I couldn‘t find much about the author, but think she might be from Louisiana and is a computer analyst and poet. And this story is a finalist of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2021.

A near-future story about memories and passing them on in a genetic procedure. The technology is not explained or shown and the ethical implications are mentioned, but not elaborated on much. But it would probably need a novel to explore all that. I liked it. The main character was relatable, the writing was very readable.

- Convergence in Chorus Architecture by Dare Segun Falowo

Another Nigerian author. Mythology, Nigerian gods, dreams. Didn‘t captivate me.

- Emily by Marian Denise Moore

A snippet with possibilities.

- To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines by Rafeeat Aliyu

Another Nigerian author. The title immediately made me think of To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. That book has been on my want-to-read list for ages, but so far I haven’t gotten round to it yet. I can‘t tell if it was a plot bunny for this story, which is a magical portal fantasy. Amusing tone, bit of a caper/heist story. Needs more…

- Sleep Papa, Sleep by Suyi Okungbowa Davies

And another Nigerian author. I liked his David Mogo Godhunter. This story is pretty gruesome, but excellently written. We are talking body parts, corpses and violence. Well crafted tale with no loose ends.

- The Satellite Charmer by Mame Bougouma Diene

A Franco-Senegalese-American author. I found quite a few interesting articles written by him. Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night, his collection of four novelettes, is mentioned several times.

This story is probably the longest in this anthology. And it is odd. Set in a near future, where Chinese corporations mine African land via satellite. We are told the life story of Ibrahima in several jumps. He is an odd and fairly unlikable guy with an unusual connection to those satellites. Interesting concept, but I didn‘t like the story particularly much. Still, I learned something about the Caliphate, which was new to me.

- Clanfall: Death of Kings by Odida Nyabundi

I had a hard time tracking down the auther, but eventually found this story, with the same beginning as the prologue of Clanfall:

“Fisi Wahoo basked in the rapturous applause of the crowd. It seemed like the whole population of New Machakos had turned up for his coronation. Fisi! Fisi! Fisi! They chanted.“

I think we are looking at a story by an author from Kenya. Good, pretty puzzling at first, set in the far future, in what used to be Kenya, with bionically enhanced, conscious and intelligent animals (I think?), where humanity has disappeared long ago. It would have been nice to have gotten some visuals on the characters. There are a lot of claws, cannons, armour and various augmentations, but we never get to see what the protagonists actually look like.

Society is ruled by feudal clans. War and conflict seem to be the favoured state of being. I liked the characters and the writing. However, this was not a coherent story and it leaves the reader in the middle of things, just when the story starts to get interesting.

If the author ever decides to make a novella or novel out of this, with a proper plot, I would like to read it.

- Thresher of Men by Michael Boatman

Boatman is a US American actor or novelist, writing in the splatterpunk horror genre. Sounds gory, right? I had to look it up. And holy crap, that was gruesome. Rape, gore, lots of blood. Well written though.

- Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald

Another Nigerian author, with a finalist for the 2020 Nebula Awards for Best Novella and a bunch of other awards for this and other stories. Content warning: attempted rape, nonconsensual sex and suicide.

The discrimination of women in parts of the story irritated me too much to truly enjoy it. That part of the story was intentional, but women were still just weak victims throughout, determined by men and the female MC, Imade, was ultimately at fault because she didn‘t know her place and didn‘t do as she was told. This didn‘t sit right with me. That‘s just me though, plenty of others liked this a lot.

The action scenes were good, the post-apocalyptic world building was good, even if I didn‘t buy the premise of the nuclear war. So this was a mixed bag for me. I might pick up the author again.

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC copy.

I first saw this anthology on Kickstarter, but wasn't able to kick it. Luckily, Netgalley allowed me to get a sneak peek at the anthology and oh boy was it worth it.

Before I got sick, I found myself devouring this anthology. Dominion contains stories from Africans and the African diaspora and they run the gauntlet from fantasy to horror to sci-fi. They also deal with strong subjects such as racism, gender roles, and the challenges that face marginalized people in marginalized communities. One thing that I truly enjoyed about this anthology is that Knight and Donald did not shy away from dark and difficult topics, and the anthology shines because of that.

Some of my favorites were "The Unclean" and Sleep Papa, Sleep. Those two would have sold me if they were the only stories that I read. I highly recommend to anyone interested in African mythology from African authors.

Dominion is an anthology of speculative fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, and it immediately hooked me with the first story. Many, if not all, of the stories tend toward being dark and a few of them I would classify as horror. As is the case with any anthology collection, there were stories I didn’t enjoy as much as others, but I think they’re all very well written and brought together an excellent group of authors. There are quite a few of these stories that will stick with me for a long time, along with some very visceral imagery. I could very easily see myself revisiting this collection and I’m glad to have been introduced to so many authors I hadn’t known about!

It’s difficult to list content warnings for an anthology, and I didn’t think to write them down as I read. However some things you can expect to encounter include death, dead bodies, body horror, blood, child death, domestic violence, police brutality, etc.

Wonderful anthology of 12 stories and 1 poem written by African authors.
Like all anthologies, there were stories that appealed to me more than others, but I’m happy to say I found more hits than misses in Dominion.
I loved the mixture of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories in this anthology.
Standouts for me were The Unclean by Nuzo Onoh, the queen of African horror. This story of an abused bride has it all. Tension, terror, great characters, a slice of life and some folklore too. I loved it.
To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines by Rafeeat Aliyu. A great fantasy story with portals, inter dimensional travel, magic and frog people that reminded me of something out of Dungeons and Dragons. I’d love to read a novel set in this world.
Clanfall: Death of Kings by Odida Nyabundi. An epic science fantasy that read like Shakespeare with animal people. I really really hope that there is a forthcoming novel that continues this story as I want to find out what happens next to these characters.
I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved reading this and exploring the different stories inside.

I did have some issues with the typesetting which made it slightly more difficult to enjoy but the tales were fabulous.

A very, very strong anthology. Most of the authors are unknown to me and that's the beauty of anthology since many of them are now in my watch list!

I've watched one of the editors, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, in various con panels this year and the way he spoke about African SF, the diversity of it and the rich tradition behind it, had been very appealing to me. Of course when this book was mentioned lots of time during these cons, also in the context of Afrofuturism, I just knew I had to read it.

I had high expectation but I was still pleasantly surprised. The stories have distinct voices, coming from various authors from different countries from Uganda to Nigeria. Some were fun, high-octane adventure, some were simply dark and disturbing.

Overall I enjoyed all stories but I do have some favorites:
"Red Bati" by Dilman Dila: Really liked it, I always have a soft spot for robot story
"A Maji Maji Chronicle” by Eugen Bacon: magical time travel story with history of colonialism past and present!
"Convergence in Chorus Architecture by Dare Segun Falowo: This is a strange one. But I liked it? It reminded me of my feeling when reading The Silmarilion's Ainulindale chapter.
"To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines" by Rafeeat Aliyu: A fun planetary adventure. I want more stories from both main characters and their world.
"Ife-Iyoku, The Tale of Imadeyunuagbon" by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki: A story about a woman who stood her ground amidst a thread of extinction and societal pressure. This is available for free here: https://ekpeki.com/2020/08/24/ife-iyo... (PS: novella consideration for the Hugo? ;))

All in all, wow, thank you for this wonderful experience. I definitely eager for more anthologies like this and can't wait to read these authors' works.

Made up of twelve short stories and one poem, Dominion brings together stories from authors from Africa and the diaspora. Some have been published elsewhere, but this is the first time a collection of speculative fiction of writers from this region has been put together. Unsurprisingly, I was keen to get my hands on it for this reason. An anthology of unrepresented voices and their stories is essential reading.
The scope of the anthology is huge from small villages steeped in ancient traditions to futuristic companies with immoral intentions. There will be something for everyone in it. Although each story is different on the surface, underneath there is a common theme of injustice. The characters often have a deep hurt they cannot ignore. To move forward, they must face their greatest fear and pain to become stronger. The stories are also quite painful with themes of slavery and imprisonment.
As I don’t want to spoil anything for you, I won’t go into detail about each story. I want you to explore them as I did. However, I will tell you the one that stuck with me the most was The Unclean. The Unclean examines the role of women in a patriarchal village and the conflict between Christianity and native beliefs. It was challenging and disturbing, staying with me long after I had finished the book.
None of these stories fit neatly into one genre. Horror features strongly, mixed in with science fiction, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic tales. Ife-Iyoku, The Tale of Imadeyunuagbon blends genres to create a story of difficult and heart-breaking decisions in a futuristic setting of a secluded village after a nuclear war. The choice between tradition and progress is never easy, and the reader is torn as the characters are.
I really enjoyed this collection. I loved reading stories from other different cultures. They made me think and are refreshing because they offer me something new. As they are from a different culture, I needed to focus, paying attention to the nuances and the descriptions. After each story, I usually required time to consider and understand what I had read, which enhanced my appreciation for the whole collection. It isn’t often you find a collection of short stories where each one is gripping and thought-provoking, but Dominion is the exception. Highly recommended.

Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora is a collection of speculative fiction and poetry written by Africans and the African Diaspora.

Among those I really enjoyed was "The Unclean" by Nuzo Onoh. It's a horror story of an arranged marriage gone horribly wrong, with a heavy supernatural element.

"The Satellite Charmer" by Mame Bougouma Diene also stuck with me long after reading, This story is set in a version of Africa pillaged by Asian mega-corporations equipped with terrifying technology, centered around a man trying to do the best for those he loves and failing miserably.

I also enjoyed "A Maji Maji Chronicle" by Eugen Bacon, featuring two visitors from the future who time-travel to cause mischief in Africa's past, with an underlying message of how power can corrupt.

But there really wasn't a bad story in the bunch, and I loved that many used African folklore as inspiration. I should mention there is some content that many be viewed as disturbing (violence against women, familial abuse, child death, body horror), but that's the nature of horror in general.

If you're looking for some unique stories and writer voices in your sci-fi/horror reading, you'll definitely want to check out Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald.

I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.

This anthology was interesting, topical, different from anything else I’ve read before, and really challenged me as a reader.

I’m always quick to snap up books based on cultures I’m unfamiliar with, so a collection of writings from African spec fic writers was super appealing to me. I was a little dubious of the “Africa and the African Diaspora” thing, though, for several reasons. One, Africa is about as far from monolithic as one can get, and lumping Ethiopia in with Senegal in with Nigeria in with Botswana is a thing racists have been doing for a long time. The other is the notion of the “African diaspora” thing. The Black population of the Americas can certainly be called that, but again, lumping Black Americans with Africans is another thing racists do. It all made me a little bit uncomfortable, but as a white dude, really not my place to judge. Just thoughts that were in the back of my mind as I read.

Where I’m going with this is that there was a theme working through the entire book, regardless of whether the writer in question was from Africa, the United States, the Caribbean, wherever. It was a common theme of injustice. Maybe it showed itself in a future story with China relentlessly stripping Africa of its mineral wealth, or in a story of people trying to survive the radioactive fallout of a war they had no part in, or in a story of a white Southern cop facing the consequences for his actions. Not every story was the same, and the experiences of people in Africa are naturally quite divergent from those of Black people in the United States. But especially given, well, <*gestures vaguely at everything*> now is a good time to read this anthology.

My favorite stories:

* **The Unclean** by Nuzo Onoh, about a woman who will do anything to have a son and prove her worth (the only path open to women to be worth anything being to have a boy). This was a truly horrible story, in the sense of invoking horror. It was tough to read at times. The author did a particularly good job of showing the colonialism-imposed Christianity merging with, rather than strictly superseding, the local beliefs. The protagonist has faith in both

* **A Mastery of German** by Marian Denise Moore. Good Golden Age style science fiction story about taking an idea and exploring it - in this case, the ethics of memory transfer.

* **To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines** by Rafeeat Aliyu. This one reminded me quite a lot of Jack Vance’s *Dying Earth* books, which is a good thing. A magician is going to an isolationist, xenophobic, anti-human world to recover part of his magics that have been stolen. His presence is tolerated - barely - only because he’s permanently accompanied by a half-human border guard who is herself eager to leave for friendlier environs.

* **Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon** by Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald. This is another powerful, horrible story, in this case about an isolated, hidden village of people who have gained extraordinary powers as a result of exposure to nuclear fallout. A story of xenophobia, misogyny, self-determination, this is probably my favorite one of the book.

All in all highly recommended, if not an easy book to read.

Dominion is an anthology of twelve speculative short stories (and a poem) from Africa and the African Diaspora. With that being the singular factor uniting these works, they represent a wide range of genres, subjects, and settings. Robots, magicians, angry goddesses, zombies, greedy corporations, and more make appearances across small towns, spaceships, crumbling worlds, and interdimensional spaces.

Despite this great variance, there is one noticeable theme; a majority of these stories are post-apocalyptic, dealing with survival and recovery from a past that can never truly be healed. Though some are more optimistic than others, very few of these tales are truly uplifting. Instead, they purposefully confront difficult topics including racism, sexism, and many types of violence. This collection may not be for the faint of heart, but it is compelling and meaningful.

So far as the quality of each story, there were some that worked much better for me than others, but as a whole the anthology is excellent. There were several stories that I loved, and even those that I didn’t like as well were engaging and explored fascinating concepts. When I was unsatisfied, it often felt like it was more because I was missing something than that the story was. Below are some brief thoughts on the standout stories for me.

"Red_Bati" by Dilman Dila - A robot dog taking over a spaceship to avoid being reprogrammed. Throughout the heist, questions of sentience are explored and we get glimpses of the world beyond the spaceship which piqued my curiosity.

"The Unclean" by Nuzo Onoh - An uncomfortable horror story addressing the oppression of women through expectations and domestic abuse and the terrible decisions that this can force them into. It was incredibly creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat.

"A Mastery of German" by Marian Denise Moore - Examines the possibility of transferring memories and what this would mean for personal worth and identity. This subject always fascinates me, and I enjoyed the author’s take on how it might come about in a real-world setting.

"Clanfall: Death of Kings" by Odida Nyabundi - This sci-fi about various tribes of killer cyborgs was so entertaining. My only complaint is that it felt more like an introduction than a completed work, which gives me hope that it may be expanded into a longer story in the future.

"The Satellite Charmer" by Mame Bougouma Diene - Follows Ibrahim throughout his life in an Africa that is in peril from gigantus mining corporations. For me, there was just the right mix of everyday life and perplexing sci-fi.

"Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon" by Epeki Oghenechovwe Donald - A small civilization of survivors of the apocalypse have been blessed with magical powers, but inept leadership and patriarchal beliefs might be their downfall. I liked the exploration of gender roles and power dynamics combined with a strong main character and, well, superpowers.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

« I received a digital ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. »

DOMINION is an anthology of speculative fiction written by Black authors all over the diaspora, and is the book I didn't know I needed.
One word to describe these stories? Rich. All of them are. The reading experience felt like if I sat near a fire in the wild, listening to griots telling stories and playing instruments at the same time. Even the science-fiction aspects —that I'm not usually a fan of— were well executed here. As anyone would expect, the world was diverse, characters multi-dimensional and unique.
The story that I liked the most was THE UNCLEAN by Nuzo Onoh. That piece was mindblowing, and I still think about it weeks after I finished it. Along with the other stories, it's really demonstrative of the spectacular similarities between African cultures.
I'm giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars, because sometimes it was a bit difficult to follow some of the stories, but that's understandable. Conveying a lot of information in a short piece is hard, which is why the flow can be a little less fluid than in a full-length novel.
Overall this was a great anthology, with excellent stories that more people should read. It screams African authenticity, and I recommend it to people that wish to dive in those particular themes, and to all people of African descent that wish to rediscover themselves.

***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

When I saw this book being talked about on Twitter, I knew I had to have a chance to review it. Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Science Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora edited by Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald is an excellent anthology featuring great sci-fi stories that are diverse in their settings and themes. The stories can take place in small villages or in grand interdimensional spaces. They can deal with topics from racism and gender roles, to shame and the want for family with the characters being humans, gods, or aliens. What they share in common is that each story is rich with African cultural influence which in my opinion makes for a unique reading experience, one that is different from the usual sci-fi we frequently read in the West and just as good or better. The stories in this book do not shy away from difficult topics and some of these stories can be a bit dark, stories which for me were some of my favorites but where others may want to take caution. I can honestly say that I enjoy the different stories in the anthology and would recommend this to anyone looking to read sci-fi.

Rating: 4/5 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

Dominion is a collection of short stories from African and African diaspora authors that covers all forms of speculative fiction: fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Every story tackles a new subject. From neocolonialism to gene editing, grave-robbing and body harvesting, to women's roles. This collection has something for everyone. The horror stories creep into you, the science fiction stories make you think, and the fantasy stories move you. The standouts in this collection are "Sleep Papa, Sleep", and "The Unclean" Go check it out!

I wide variety of satisfying fantasy and scifi stories. I expected them to be a little different than I normally get from US and European authors, and that's what I got. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I enjoyed this, generally! As with any anthology, there were some hits and some misses, for my personally.

Some of these were heavily sci-fi and we all know how I feel about sci-fi. Hard science just has never been something that my brain processes easily, and that is still true to this day. If a character starts talking genetics and eugenics and stuff like that, or there's more complex technology being described/explained... I quickly become lost. I'm not an unintelligent person, but we can't all be smart about every topic, ya know? Science is not a topic that I am particularly keen on!

Also quite a few were, understandably, magical realism and had very folk-tale-esque narratives. I think it was done well (and rated accordingly) but on a personal level, I simply wasn't able to understand all the references or cultural impact. I have to take into consideration the cultural aspects here -- as a child I certainly read fables and fairytales, but those things were not part of my CULTURE. Verbal storytelling isn't a "thing" in general white, Western culture. Whereas for countless cultures across the world, Indigenous cultures certainly, it is a huge part. So people grow up with these stories and are so familiar with that kind of storytelling, and recognize that kind of storytelling as almost a "comfort" thing - it's part of who they are who their people are. For someone like me who does not have that experience, and whose brain just doesn't process magical realism/fabulism/folk tales the same way as an adult that I did as a kid... it's just hard for me to get invested in the stories.

I think these kinds of stories are an exercise in expending your brain - being flexible, mentally. And I'm always happy when I get a chance to do that, but I can't lie and say that it doesn't exhaust my lil brain a bit. Haha! Again, I took this into consideration and I gave a higher rating still for "themes" and for "logical plot/pacing" because the stories that were like that, did it well, in my opinion. I very much felt like I was listening to someone telling me a tale that was passed down from generation to generation. Myths and legends and those kinds of things.

As with any short story collection/anthology, I just don't get super invested because, they're shorter stories! But I do enjoy them when I'm able to find a few new authors that I'm interested in and want to check out. ("Sleep Papa Sleep" by Suyi Davies Okungbowa and "To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines" by Rafeeat Aliyu)

This is an outstanding anthology of speculative fiction from voices that aren't heard often enough, and it was fascinating and enlightening to see how these very different stories were brought together by the author's backgrounds and experiences, and it made for a cohesive yet expansive offering of fantasy/sci-fi and a touch of horror. It is a buffet of incredible stories, and each one had it's own strengths. There were a couple that didn't work as well for me, largely as it felt as though they were part of something bigger or needed a longer format to reach their full potential, but in any collection there will always be at least a couple of stories that don't mesh so well with the reader, and it certainly didn't detract from the impact of this collection.

The overall tone of the collection is dark, and I would not necessarily recommend this to more sensitive readers as it explores many disturbing themes including but not limited to violence, sexual assault and racism in varying levels of detail. For me, while it was horrifying and disturbing in places, it didn't alter the fact that this was a beautiful, thought-provoking anthology that I will be revisiting a few times to get the full impact from the stories.

My stand out story was 'A Mastery of German' which I just found engrossing from start to finish.

I think it is an excellent book and it was great to read story written by people with a different background.
I strongly appreciated the world building and the characters.
Not all the story were at the same level but I can say I liked the all.
It's strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This collection is nothing short of incredible! Every entry is thought-provoking, emotional, and many are so surreal I had to stop reading for a bit to wrap my head around what was happening. From a Halloween origin story to a young woman reclaiming he herself and defying the status quo, not all stories were easy to read (see end for content/trigger warnings), but each one will certainly stay with me for a very long time.

My favorites were the surreal "Convergence in Chorus Architecture" (telling of three young people who survive a mass abduction by ethereal and sinister beings beyond time and space), "Emily" (a short poem-like snapshot of a moment frozen in time), "To Say Nothing of Lost Figurines" (a wholly charming story in which a time-space-traveling wizard has to team up with a low-level biracial civil servant who dreams of being and doing *more* to find his stolen wand), and "Thresher of Men" (where a goddess wreaks horrible, yet oftentimes well-deserved, vengeance on those who harm her stolen followers). The imagery and emotion in each of these is so utterly captivating and beautiful even in its horror I still find myself thinking about them. (I also really need Netflix or Shudder to get these on their radars and make them into full movies, especially "Convergence".)

As beautiful, horrific, and wonderful as this anthology is, there are some things to be aware of for those sensitive to disturbing content (not every entry contains these things and not all of them are graphic in nature): graphic violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, violence against women, familial abuse, child death, corpse desecration, body horror, loss of sanity, mentions of suicide, rape, disturbing imagery, violent abortion, racism and racial slurs, sexism in a patriarchal society.

For the publisher: there were several instances where there was no space between words, and at least one instance (I believe in "Trickin'") where a random number showed up in the middle of a word. I'm sure this will be fixed, but I wanted to say something just in case.