Like any short story collection by multiple authors, the stories in this book ranged anywhere from 5 stars to about 2 stars. There were some really boring stories that I didn't see the point even from an artistic perspective let alone an entertainment one. But there are others that I need more of. Some of them I want complete novels from. Though I did find this book hard to get through there were more interesting stories than not so I give this a 3.5 rounded up. I'd like to thank Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this for an honest review.

One of the prettiest covers ever in my opinion, so this is an anthology collecting a bunch of different stories exploring the culture of Africa both past and present and it’s in the genre of scifi. It was so very interesting especially since we get a multiple perspective lens from many different African authors. Now there are 32 stories in this collection which is a lot. Normally you only get I don’t know half that or even less. Sometimes with anthologies like this, it can be a mixed bag but with 32 stories there more chances of you liking a lot of them which just ups that quality of life.

Interesting amount of stories. I love seeing the representation of black characters just able to save the world in this anthology. There were some hits and misses like with every anthology but this this was overall a very good anthology.

DNF - Just too long and I'm not hooked. I'm sure this is an amazing collection of stories, but just not for me right now.

Heavy hitters of Speculative Fiction come together for an epic compilation celebrating of 32 new stories celebrating Black culture!

This is a collection of speculative fiction short stories by African and African diaspora authors. There were several stand out stories that I really enjoyed, but much of the rest of the collection was a miss for me. There were several stories that completely went over my head. I have to wonder if maybe I'm missing some cultural or historical context in these cases. While many of these stories didn't work for me, I'm still really glad that I read the collection. It is a treat to be able to read spec fic from cultures I'm less familiar with. Perhaps as I read more I will learn some of that context I'm missing.

Africa Risen is a collection of short stories inspired by african myths and legends. Every story falls into the speculative fiction genre, so either sci-fi, fantasy, or horror. Overall, the stories get very repetitive and start to blend together. There are a couple that really stood out to me as fantastic, and I am very excited to look into those authors more, but I think the editor should have narrowed down this work. Clocking in at 32 short stories, that's too much for an anthology.

Here are my ratings for each individual story. You'll notice I few times I wrote "narrator" instead of a rating. I listened to the audio for this book, and there were about 5-6 narrators telling these stories. I started to realize there was one narrator that I hated so much, that any time they read a story I instantly skipped those. So I marked them that way to show I didn't even give the story an honest shot.

The Blue House - 2
March Magic - 2
IRL - 3.5 (TOTALLY WORTH IT!)
The Deification of Igodo - 3
Mami Wataworks - 4 (FAVORITE!)
Rear Mirror - 2
Door Crashers - 1
The Soul Would Have No Rainbow - DNF
A Dream of Electric Mothers - DNF
Simbi - 1
Housewarming for a Lion Goddess - DNF
A Knight in Tunisia - 2.5
The Devil Is Us - DNF
Cloud Mine - 1
Ruler of the Rear Guard - 2
Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition) - DNF
The Sugar Mill - 2.5
The Carving of War - 2
Ghost Ship - 3
Liquid Twilight - 2.5
Once Upon a Time in 1967 - DNF
A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner - 3
The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library - Narrator
When the Mami Wata Met a Demon - Narrator
The Papermakers - 2
A Soul of Small Places - 3
Air to Shape Lungs - 3
Hanfo Driver - Narrator
Exiles of Witchery - 2
The Taloned Beast - Narrator
Star Watchers - Narrator
Biscuit and Milk - DNF

This was a great collection with a wide variety of authors from across the African diaspora. The stories varied in tone and genre and some worked better for me than others. It is always hard to give a good review for an anthology, so here are my favourites from the collection:
'March Magic'
'IRL'
'Mamie Waterworks'
'Rare Mirror'
'Ruler of the Rear Guard'
'The Sugar Mill'
'Liquid Twilight'
'The Lady of the Yellow Painted Library'
'Exiles of Witchery'
'Biscuit and Milk'
I would definitely recommend this anthology to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction - there is definitely something for everyone.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated! I always really enjoy multi-cultural thrillers, for I embark on a journey through a land unknown to me, while still getting spooked.

Very interesting collection of short stories. Some worked better than others and covered myriad topics from family, climate change, technology etc.
My favorites were "March Magic" by WC Dunlap, "A Dream of Electric Mothers" by Wole Talabi, "Ghost Ship" by Tananarive Due, and "The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library" by Tobi Ogundiran.

NetGalley ARC

This is a great collection of mostly African SFF short stories. As with all short story collections, I connected more with some stories than others. These stories run the gamut from Afro Futurism, Sci fi, Fantasy, Mythology and everything in-between. There is definitely something for everyone. I loved listening to African and African Diaspora takes on the world. The audiobook narrators do an amazing job.

Some of my favorites were:

March Magic by WC Dunlap
Mami Wataworks by Russell Nichols
Door Crashers by Frank Zeph
Ghost Ship by Tananarive Due
Liquid Twilight by Ytasha Womack
A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner by Alexis Brooks de Vita
The Papermakers by Akua Lezil Hope
Exiles of Witchery by Ivana Akotwaa
The Galoned Beast by Chinelo Onwualu

Africa Risen is a masterpiece anthology that brings together different Speculative stories from all around the African continent and her Diaspora.

Stories of mermaids, djinns, shape-shifters, mothers, fathers, families, dreams, memories are all woven into this beautiful anthology edited by three amazing award winning editors.

The stories take you on a journey through the different countries of Africa; from the Djinns of Egypt who you mustn't make bargains with to the Futuristic battlefield of Nigeria where a daughter finds a way to connect to her matriarchal ancestors to find her identity.

The stories move on to the shores of ivory Coast where a young woman is swept into the sea to Renew her belief of what she new about mermaids. It goes on onto a futuristic ship where a young woman transports a deadly creature all the while hoping to reach a new destination that offers her freedom.

Africa Risen is an award winning anthology that every one must read. It forces conversations on the creativity and imagination of Africans and diaspora Africans and blacks authors who have contribute to filling the pages with their captivating stories.

The narrators wove a beautiful story, making sure the pronouncing of local words were correct. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook version.
Thank you for this audiobook arc.

Africa Risen has a beautiful aspects of mythology, culture, family and history.
I enjoyed this collection of stories it was nice to discover some new authors. The audiobook was also really nicely narrated, the various narrators added to the culture and depth of the stories.

4⭐

As with all anthologies, there were some hits and some misses. However, unlike most anthologies, the misses were still stories I would go back to on a re-read (which I fully intend to do). This mix of speculative fiction combines fantasy and sci-fi elements in a way that truly reflects the overarching theme of African stories. Written by some fabulous talent, this is a book I would recommend to everyone! Additionally, the narrators were simply wonderful, bringing each story to live with passion and understanding of the source material.

Such a cool premise for the book. The fact that all of the stories blended together to a point that you couldn't tell the difference was a beautiful feature.

This is an absolutely INCREDIBLE short story collection, there wasn't a single story I disliked, there were many that were mindblowing and I will be following up on the future works of many of these authors. The collection is fantastically edited, the stories flow really well into each other and the book manages to have a great sense of cohesion despite every story being told by a different author


Individual story ratings:
The Blue House - 4.5
March magic - 5
IRL- 4
The Deification of Igodo - 4
Mami Waterworks - 4
Rear Mirror - 3
Door crashers - 4
The Soul Would Have No Rainbow - 5
A Dream of Electric Mothers - 4
Simbi - 4.5
Housewarming for a Lion Goddess - 4
A Knight In Tunisia - 5
The Devil is Us - 4.5
Cloud Mine - 4
Ruler of The Rear Guard - 5
Peeling Time - 3.5
The Sugar Mill - 4
The Carving of War - 4.5
Ghost Ship - 5
Liquid Twilight - 4.5
Once Upon A time in 1967 - 4
A Girl Crawls In A Dark Corner - 5
The Lady Of The Yellow Painted Library - 5
When the Mami Wata met The Demon - 4
The Papermakers - 5
A Soul Of Small Places - 4.5
Air To Shape Lungs - 4
Hanfo Driver - 4
Exiles Of Witchery - 4
The Taloned Beasts - 4.5
Star Watchers - 4
Biscuit and Milk - 4



CWs (these may not be 100% accurate as I read the audiobook and some things may be missing) - Body Horror (Blue House), Racism (marsh magic, door crashers, ruler of the rear guard, sugar mill, air to shape lungs), Pandemic (irl, ghost ship), Death of mother (irl, electric mothers), Terminal illness (irl), decapitation (Igodo), Ableism (mami Waterworks, a knight in tunisia), car accident (rear Mirror), lesbophobia (door crashers), blood (door crashers, a girl crawls in a dark corner), death of grandparent (rainbow), colonisation (rainbow, ruler of the rear guard, sugar mill), slavery (Simbi, sugar mill, once upon a time in 1967, a girl crawls in a dark corner), SA (The Devil is Mine, peeling time, a girl crawls in a dark corner, a soul of small places), child abuse (peeling time, a girl crawls in a dark corner), suicidal thoughts (peeling time), confinement (peeling time), illness (ghost ship), fgm (a girl crawls in a dark corner)

Book 4/5
Audiobook 3/5

This was a really cool anthology, I have really been enjoying short stories lately so I was excited to receive the ARC for the audiobook from Netgalley. It does feel difficult to rate because there are just so many stories. Some are really short and some are longer some I loved and some I didn't enjoy so much. The genres include sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. I actually had a difficult time listening to this as an audiobook, but I'm not sure exactly why because the narrators were great. It could just be that it was so long (16.5 hours), I also typically have a hard time with character names that are unfamiliar to me so that was probably part of it. I still recommend the audiobook if it sounds interesting to you.

These were my favorites:
The Blue House
March Magic
Mami Wataworks
The Soul Would Have No Rainbow
A Dream of Electric Mothers
Housewarming for a Lion Goddess
The Sugar Mill
Liquid Twilight
A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner
A Soul of Small Places

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for the advanced review copy of the audio in exchange for my honest review.

Please note: This is an amazing book, but double-check your TRIGGERS before reading. This book has some phenomenal stories, and you should really try them if you can, but also be careful of your mental health!

While this whole collection was fantastic, there's two stories which have floated about in my head for the last 2 months. Both of them have major trigger warnings for sexual abuse of women, but both just won't leave me.

First and foremost is "Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)" by Tlotlo Tsamaase, about a digital music video artist who finds inspiration and even computing power in the pain and death of women. There's a sort of melding of technology and magic, turning him both into videographer and sorcerer. His fame and his victim count rise, and eventually he is hired to work with the most prominent woman performer of his time. And there, finally, readers get a little catharsis. This whole piece if fascinating, but also smothers. The entertainment tech of the future combined with the ongoing violence against women (literal and merely visual) in the music industry makes everything feel very "ten years in the future." Very believable.

The other story, "Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner" by Alexis Brooks de Vita, goes into the past, depicting an older woman enslaved in the Americas. As a child, she undergoes a procedure common for the women of her community: a form of genital surgery which, while painful and considered mutilation in modern times, in the story it is depicted as a way in which her society protected her from sexual abuse. But her enslaver performs a true mutilation on her, and then demands that she does surgery on other women. We're given this glimpse at the title girl in the corner at the start of the story, and then almost forget as the narrative unfolds. Until we come to a most satisfying ending.

Now, there are stories in this collection which doesn't hit so hard into triggers, and these are also good! As a lover of writing, I really enjoyed "The Papermakers" by Akua Lezli Hope, where magic goes even deeper than the written word, and into the substances words are written upon. "Rear Mirror" by Nuzo Onoh gives us fantastical funeral rites, and a reminder that the dead may be gone, but they are not to be denied.

Overall, I loved this! And thanks so much to the publishers for providing an ARC audiobook for review!

Unfortunately, the form of this book is putting the stories and their authors at a disadvantage. If you put any 30 pieces of fiction they slowly start to melt together, even if the authors would otherwise have a distinct style and voice. I think it would be a much better move to split this collection into three volumes, with different genres. In this form, I know it will end up read only partially on someone's "diversity read" tbr list and it makes me very sad for the authors.

It is extremely hard for me to judge a collection like this, and I don't want to add to this unfair bundling of stories together. My absolute favourites were:
Peeling Time (deluxe edition)
A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner
A Soul of Small Places
The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library
For those stories, I do intend to keep an eye out for the authors' next works.

Thanks Netgalley for early access to this in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't expect this when I started listening to it, however I did enjoy it. It is a series of short stories, so of course there's going to be ones you love and ones you don't. I enjoyed the majority of them.

I have a real interest in Africa and African stories. I think they're so beautiful and colourful and unique. This is what made me request this, and I'm glad I did!