Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I'm on the fence on this one. I wanted to like it more than I did but found myself not really getting into it and losing track of what was going on. It was an interesting story, just not for me at this time!

Archangels of Funk is an ambitious novel that blends urban fantasy with funk-inspired mysticism. The concept of celestial beings navigating a world of music, rebellion, and spirituality is unique and intriguing. The world-building, with its rich musical references and cultural nods, gives the story a strong atmosphere. However, the execution falls short in some areas. The pacing can be uneven, with parts of the narrative dragging, and some character arcs feel underdeveloped. While it’s a fun and imaginative read, it doesn’t quite hit its full potential, earning it a solid 3-star rating.

I dove into this book purely because of the cover and the opportunity to try something new.
I clearly missed the part about this book being an extension of another work but mostly found my way in this ode to music, dance and storytelling. I think had I read the first book I may have enjoyed this work. I do plan to go back and read the first book and reread this one again.

A special thanks to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This is a more difficult book to review. So it’s going to be simple and sweet like a rice crispy treat.
First and foremost this has its own unique style and story. I can say this if you start the book and don’t enjoy the vibe it’s not for you. I can also say that you can enjoy the vibe and it’s still not going to be for you. This is a niche story with a niche writing style. I enjoyed it but could totally understand why some will love it, some will hate it and others will be indifferent.

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Andrea Hairston, RB Media, and NetGalley.

This is a fun and unique novel, almost like a podcast in a way. This starts off with an ad for the Next World Festival. The Next World Festival is a celebration of life; focusing on dance, storytelling, music, and more. At this festival attendees both honor the past and dream the future. It's incredibly unique and I would LOVE to attend this festival!

This is set in a dystopian future of water shortages with resulting wars and deep income inequality exacerbated by the resource hoarding of the wealthy living in enclaves. This addresses how the world responds to these crisis', largely resulting in mass societal mayhem. So this novel features the joy of the festival juxta positioned with the side by side overwhelming despair of a world in climate and political crisis. What does it mean to live in such harrowing times?

This weaves seamlessly into the narrative mythology and mythological beings from West African/Black Diaspora and Native American/First Nations cultures. This is a fun festival set in an Octavia Butler-esque dystopian future. Cinnamon has created a tiny utopia inside of this dystopic hell scape, with notes of Parable of the Talents' Acorn. A place where community means no one is left out and everyone respects and honors everyone else. This enclave is threatened and stressed by outside forces like the corporate spies and desperate folks surrounding them. The novels tone is light allowing the stress of this world to feel manageable and dreamy. It's heady stuff, almost a cozy dystopia🤔 What a fun and wild mix.

This novel is narrated by January LaVoy. January narrated an audiobook by Shari Lapena that I listened to awhile ago so I was already familiar with her work. Her ability to be light but serious was crucial to narrating a book like this. Cinnamon and her crew of 2 dogs and 3 circus-bots came to life with January's narration. It truly enhanced the listening experience.

Thank you to Andrea Hairston, RB Media, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Took longer that it should have to get through this book. It was very hard to get into. There was no real excitement or adventure. Sadly this book just dragged on and on with a boring story. It may be interesting to some but not for me. A cyber dog a biter coolly and an old lady that has 3 bots living on her own. A man she use to work with wants her tech to get his life back but it’s like he was never really a threat. The festival seemed fun. The little girl that was found didn’t really play a big part for how much they started to talk about her.

A lot of fun, the characters make this story feel like something I should have read earlier. Hairston does a great job bringing real people into danger and back out again.

I received an AudioARC thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books. The opinions expressed are my own.

Interesting concept, but didn’t work for me in audio form. The narrator was fine, but I kept losing track of which POV was speaking, what was going on. I think it would work better for me as text rather than audio and I will probably try again as some point in the future.

A funky sci-fi adventure with heart and soul. There’s music and performance and magic and ghost dogs and circus bots and inter-dimensional trees and water spirits and adaptive AI. There’s also love and family and loss and the past and the present and the future. These characters are learning and growing and challenging themselves to be better, despite their fears and their past failures. And most of all, they want to be true to themselves, to honor the ancestors who have guided and protected them, to build the kind of future they want to live in, to trust that those around them truly have their backs.

Honestly, there’s so much going on in this book, I’m not sure I can even describe it. It was almost too much for me at times - I had a hard time following how the tech worked, and which characters were the bots and which were the ghosts of those they’d lost. The festival was the main centerpiece of the book, but as someone who has difficulty picturing things when I read, a lot of those rich descriptions of magical beings and leaping dogs and alien spaceships were lost on me. She described the circus bots so many times, but I still can’t picture what they looked like, and I think that’s part of why I was always getting confused.

I enjoyed the rhythmic flow of the songs/raps everyone was continuously inventing and jumping into, which sort of translated into the audiobook, but I wish they flowed smoother or were more clear about whether it was song or rap or spoken word poetry. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I was reading it and could hear it however I wanted?

My favorite parts of the books were the dogs’ perspectives - I loved seeing what they were focused on and how much their loved everyone who was in their circle, and the lengths they’d go to to protect their people. I just wanted to give them a big hug, ear rub, and all the human food they can eat. Much love to Bruja and Spook!

All in all, I would recommend this one to those who enjoy sci-fi, and specifically Afrofuturism. There was a great blending of cultures, from African to indigenous American to German, etc, and it was fascinating to see those influences play out in a futuristic sci-fi environment. If I had any advice, I’d recommend you first read Hairston’s previous Cinnamon Jones book, set during her teenage years. I didn’t realize this was the second in a sort-of series until I was well into the book, and I wonder if that would have helped me understand it a bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I was so thrilled to listen to this Afrofuturistic adventure in audiobook form, but it didn't work for me. This is a slice of some future life, a day in the drudgery and disco-funk of a fantastic and motley party. What even happened? I don't know. I'm never sure how to engage with these kinds of texts. This is perhaps speculative at its most real. I kept feeling like ... if only this was a movie ... or a video game ... or virtual reality experience. There's so much description and techno-babble. The narrator does an admirable job of distinguishing who and where, but there's only so much that can be described when it comes to such a variegated and futuristic world. At times, I felt like this was riffing from cinematic games like BioShock and the latter offerings in the Fallout series, with random interjections in the form of advertisments and warning beacons and literal shows on stage. At the centre of the narrative is a gigantic bash with roots deep in Afro/Black and of course funk+ culture from the present day and near past. Again, I kept wishing to hear it! To see it! To experience it myself! At the same time, I kept wondering where the story was. Like I said, this style of story is just not for me, as imaginative as the material is.

The audio narration to this book was great! However it is not really labeled well that this is a second book. So I was pretty lost the entire time. Before I started reading it, I kept looking to see if it was a sequel and I couldn’t find that info anywhere. I’m not sure why it isn’t clear? I’m going to read the first and come back to this one.

DNF @ 15%

I tried several times to get into this book but struggled with it. I didn't know that the book was based on a short story by the same author, which I also struggled to get into. The book is well written and the narrator is excellent, but the plot meanders a little bit too much for my taste. If you like afrofuturism books, I'd definitely check it out and see if it's the book for you.

I am going to start my review with the narration. I picked this for January Lavoy and that amazing cover. She did such a fine job! I loved every moment of listening to this one.
As for the story; I love that as well. I am not the smartest about machine learning so I had to do a little thinking to get myself into a place where I could visualize the world the characters live in but it did not distract me from the story. What a fun and slightly scary tale! I love the hope and the art in this dystopian possible future!

Thanks to #Netgally, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, I didn't finish this book. I was so excited about it based on the synopsis; I love a good dystopian read and January LaVoy is one of my favorite audiobook narrators. It was a bit too all over the place for me, and I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening. The best way I can explain it is that the story was disjointed, in my opinion. The concept was very interesting to me though, I loved the idea of a character trying to keep the memory of the ancestors alive. The execution didn't work for me, however, that could be because I'm not a fan of lyrical/poetic writing outside of music or poetry. I did really enjoy the world building and the character development though! I just couldn't keep track of it all. This one might be a better physical read for me. I'm sure many people will enjoy this one, especially if you've previously read/listened to this author's work.

What an interesting book to try to describe. I’d say this is a funky, slice-of-life, hopeful cyberpunk. Hopeful because in the near future after the Water Wars, there is a community bursting with creativity, care, found family and love. In this high tech world where the resources we know now are low there are also haints and spirits and a Boneyard Barron from another universe. The “plot” takes place over a few days when our MCs are trying to prepare for the annual Next World Festival. There are also threats to the community that emerge and drive the book forward.

Overall I was really transported to this community and came to deeply care for it. I was entranced by the writing, especially the dialogue, which often made me feel like I was part of a poetry slam or spoken word performance (possibly especially amplified to January Lavoy’s narration). In some ways Festival is where I was disappointed, because it all felt a bit anti-climactic and was hoping for more on-page pizzazz and magic from the celebration and performances, which were overshadowed by the character goings-on and threats. It’s not a book one gobbles down, but it’s like slowly drinking tea or coffee and being gratified by every sip. I fell in love with Cinnamon, Zaneesha, Spook and Bruja (the latter two are canine friends).

Obviously I’d recommend this for folks who like cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic with high-tech, especially if you don’t want just doom and gloom, but I’d also rec this for the theater kids, artists, poets, funk fans, music fans, or anyone looking for those types of stories that are doing something different and/or influenced by US Southern and African-American culture. I wouldn’t rec this for people who NEED an obvious plot arc or action. I’m rooting for this book to find its audience and curious to see if it ends up on any award nomination lists.

Archangels of Funk is a very imaginative look at how a post-singularity Lollapalooza might get organized by a ragtag group of people, robots, and combinations. There is a ton of worldbuilding and interesting connections and powers feature descriptions leading up to a big poetry and music festival celebrating humanity; with interludes of interference from the more dystopian elements of the world.

This is a fun, creative hopepunk story incorporating diverse cultures. I was initially confused about what was happening and which characters were and were not human, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Be patient and go with the flow and watch the characters and the story unfold.

The characters (human and otherwise) were complex and interesting, and the imagery was vivid. The setting is a dystopian future where economic inequality, environmental problems, and pandemics have caused many people to lose everything, including hope, but Cinnamon Jones and her friends are determined to work together to create a better life. The story includes various mysteries and challenges to be resolved, but the focus is on the characters and their choices more than the plot.

The story is told from multiple points of view, including the dogs and AI circus bots as well as Cinnamon and her friends. I love the ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, gender, and sexual diversity of the characters and watching how they learn to trust each other and work together.

The audiobook production was excellent, and I loved the skillful narration by January LaVoy. She has good pacing and pronunciation, distinctive voices and speech patterns to suit each character, and the ability to convey mood and emotion effectively. Because there’s a musicality to so much of the dialog, it’s wonderful to hear it performed by a talented narrator. I definitely recommend enjoying this story as an audiobook.

I received a free advanced review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

When I say this book is high octane, I mean just that; it revs up to 100 and never slows down. The voice in the story is spot on, pitch perfect, and utterly original, and the story itself is a creative masterpiece. I longed a little bit for a respite, a chance to rest and digest, but the story soared on to ever wilder heights. Ultimately, perfect for those who love high speed adventures with interesting characters.

Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston is a captivating and unique listen set in a dystopian future. The story centers around the Next World Festival, a vibrant celebration of life through dance, music, and storytelling, created by the protagonist, Cinnamon Jones. The blend of West African, Black Diasporic, and Native American mythology adds depth, and January LaVoy’s narration brings the diverse characters to vivid life, including Cinnamon’s cybernetic dogs and AI circus-bots.

The plot can feel a bit disjointed, resembling interconnected short stories rather than a single narrative, but the strong character focus keeps it engaging. Cinnamon, a queer, Black, older woman, is a compelling protagonist, and LaVoy’s seamless character transitions enhance the experience. Despite some pacing issues, Archangels of Funk is an imaginative and memorable audiobook, enriched by LaVoy's skillful narration.

I finally finished listening to "Archangels of Funk: Episodes from the Continuing Drama of Cinnamon Jones, A Scientist, Artiste, and Hoodoo Conjuror, A Novel of What Might Be" by Andrea Hairston. It was so so long!! I meant the book, but hey, that title, too! The audiobook is 15 hrs, 22 minutes at 1.0 speed. I listened to it at 1.75 to 2.0. I have listened to much longer books and haven't had the length of those bother me, so let's dig in here.

The whole thing was confusing and disjointed! I think it is more like short stories strung together rather than a consistent book. It is set in the future after terrible floods of the future and somewhere in Western Massachusetts.

The main character is Cinnamon Jones, who at first seems to be a young adult. Later, we find it she is in her 50s. She hosts an annual festival, the Next World Festival, with music and dancing and lots of masks and costumes like a carnival. She has two dogs, Spook (ghost dog), who is half cybernetic, and Bruja (witch dog), who can find anything.

She has three circus bots that she created with junk and functioning with AI programming. One looks like a mermaid, sort of, and is called Mami-Wo. Cinnamon sees her relatives inhabit the three bots to haunt her and nag or guide her.

There is a weak plot here, but the book is primarily character driven.

Characters - 5/5
Writing - 3/5
Plot - 2/5 Very weak
Pacing - 3/5
Unputdownability - 1/5
Enjoyment - 2/5
Narration - 5/5 January LaVoy
Cover - 4/5
Overall - 25/8 = 3.1

Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media, and Andrea Hairston for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.