2.5

I had really enjoyed the 2021 collection, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction, so I was excited to read the 2022 edition but unfortunately I found most of these stories were misses for me. I did really like a couple of the stories, but most of them were one's I had read previously either in Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, or in Convergence Problems. Some of those loved and repeated stories include:

—Tlotlo Tsamaase’s “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)"
—Wole Talabi’s “An Arc of Electric Skin"
—P. Djèlí Clark’s “If the Martians Have Magic”

I also really enjoyed Tobi Ugundiran’s “Deep in the Gardener’s Barrow” and T. L. Huchu's "A Mercy of the Sandsea". Tlotlo Tsamaase's "District to Cervix: The Time Before We Were Born" was also a fascinating exploration of gender and reincarnation. Honestly it made me sad I didn't love xer first full length novel, Womb City, even more.

I did appreciate the inclusion of poetry in this volume and I do think I would have liked this more if I had read some of the entries I liked the most for the first time so I do still recommend this anthology. I look forward to seeing if there is a 2023 version!

There were a lot of great stories in this collection and I was surprised that my favorites were ones by authors who were new to me. The variety is really great, with magic and vengeance and actual sci fi. There were a handful of poems at the end to round out the collection.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

A collection of stories and poetry, The Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2022) imagines futures on and off of Earth through glimpses into possibilities. It does exactly what speculative sci-fi does best, giving snapshots to spend 5 or 10 minutes with and then moving onto the next. Some stories wrap up, others hint at what is next to come, but there are many that leave you with things up in the wir.

The short stories are brief looks into imagined world, where the burdens of capitalism, technology, language, gender, race, age and ability all interplay in different but reminiscent ways. As with any anthology, different stories will hit and linger with each reader in unique and individual ways.

From stories about underwater robots to banks that steal destinies as loan collateral to poems about food and the solar system and life and love, this anthology has a little bit of it all.

As is to be expected with an anthology, some stories and poems were not for me, and that's okay! I learned a bit about myself and what I'm looking for in a short story, and especially in an anthology of them. Several stories were centered around birth, and sexual assault was a common theme in a few as well, both of which are topics I don't love to read about.

A few favorites of mine were A Sunken Memory and Loving Venus!

Thank you to Arc Manor, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and Netgalley for access to an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thought all the stories/poems were good. Some of them I had to reread to understand. Like I had to digest them but I’m glad I read this.

Speculative fiction is such a broad umbrella that so many categories of story falls under. Anything that is current world adjacent or set in the future, whether post-apocalyptic stories, horror stories, space science fiction, climate change sci-fi, fantasy stories, superhero stories, technology stories, and even magical realism all live in the speculative space. If any story has a world built outside the realms of the current world, whether be in the future or in an alternative timeline, it can be classified as speculative. I love these kinds of stories, and an anthology like The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 not only fits into these interests, but it also stretches my ideas of what speculative fiction can be.

I recognized a few authors when I decided to read this anthology. Nalo Hopkinson is a legend, I know P. Djeli Clark from Ring Shout and A Master of Djinn, and one of the editors Eugen Bacon has books released on Meerkat Press. The rest of the authors in the collection are new to me. I knew I was going to like the collection, but I did not know I would like it as much as I did.

Like the large umbrella that is speculative fiction, there is a large variety of different types of stories and voices in this collection. With so many different types of stories, there is no way a reader can like them all, but it is pretty close for me. A few of the stories really stick out for me and made me immediately look up and even order some of their books.  “Old Solomon’s Eyes” by Cherly S. Ntumy, about a village that is battling a demon that lives in the sunflower fields,  “Them Doghead Boys” by Alex Jennings, about a street gang and police being found torn to pieces, and “Kaleidoscope” by Milton J Davis, about a Christmas gift from an uncle’s mysterious new girlfriend, are just a few of the great stories in the collection from authors that are now on my reading list.

My favorite stories in the anthology are the two written by Tlotlo Tsamaase. “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)” might be one of the best stories I have read in years. The premise is actually a well worn story, dealing with the devil for fame, but the structure, writing, and voice honestly make it so much better than it should be. Tlotlo Tsamaase also has “District To Cervix: The Time Before We Were Born” which is a sci-fi, reincarnation story that proves that she is not just one story, but a fantastic writer that needs a bigger audience. In January, her novel Womb City will be released, and I am already in line for one of the first copies. 

The last section of the anthology is a group of the year’s best speculative poems. I do not know much about poetry, but I do know that many of these poems evoke strong emotions in me. “The Revenge of Henrietta Lacks” by Cecilia Caballero, “Tons of Liquid Oxygen Buckle Too Late Under Strain” by Eugen Bacon, and “That Poor Woman” by Gerald Coleman are powerful and memorable. 

The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 is one of the surprises of my year. I knew that I would like the anthology, but I did not expect it to be one of the best books I read, and I did not know I would feel so compelled to read more from most of these authors. I hope they continue to release these anthologies. I will preorder next year. 

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having very much enjoyed 2021’s collection, I was pleased to find that The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022) is equally wide ranging, thought-provoking, and timely as its predecessor — in fact, I might have enjoyed this one even more. Inevitably, with an anthology, some stories stood out for me personally more than others, but there is no filler here and I have no doubt that each reader will find stories that stay with them and new-to-them authors to seek out further works from (I know I have). Some of my favourites included:
—P. Djèlí Clark’s “If the Martians Have Magic” - sci-fi with magic, from one of my absolute favourite fantasy authors.
—Tobi Ugundiran’s “Deep in the Gardener’s Barrow” - eerie, witchy, mysterious.
—Wole Talabi’s “An Arc of Electric Skin - revolution with science fictional aspects.
—Ugochi Agoawike’s “When She Speaks” - poetic, queer, magical.
—Nnamdi Anyadu’s “The Coward of Umustead” - a quiet child who isn’t who isn’t quite who he appears.
—Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s “Destiny Delayed” - an excellent story I already got to enjoy in the collection Between Dystopias (which I recommend!) and was happy to give a re-read.

This installment of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction includes a section of poems at the end. I don’t feel like I have the critical vocabulary to review poetry well, but I found many of the poems to be impactful and I am glad that the decision was made to include them. I really hope that this wonderful series of anthologies continues!

Content warnings: gun violence, murder, death, sexual assault, rape, slavery, racism, slurs, trauma, genocide, gore, body horror, injury detail

Thank you to NetGalley, Arc Manor, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, and the editors for providing an ARC in exchange for this review.