This is a fascinating anthology combining Black philosophy and Black speculative fiction in 7 short stories/essays, often inspired by people from history. The anthology begins with an introduction, that helps set the tone, explaining that it is a combination of academic work and speculative writing and that this both is and is not Black speculative fiction. Most of the short stories themselves also include a foreword by the author to set the tone and I found that really interesting as it added depth to the stories.
Throughout these short stories and essays the author examines Black reality in America through a speculative lens, including Black philosophy, Black Academia and Black male lives in America. There’s a big focus on the past of slavery, but also the idea of a different, speculative past such as in “At Rest” or “Henry Box Brown”, as well as a speculative present, such as in “Theft”. Other essays explore Black media and the white consumption of it (such as “Appetite/Fever/Consumption”).
It is not an easy collection to read, but one that I enjoyed reading. Most of all this is an anthology I am looking forward for others to read, especially those more immersed in academia than I am. It is definitely something I hope to see gain a readership there, because I feel that it can really start some interesting discussions for the field of Black speculative fiction. I myself am definitely interested in reading more works by the author if he ever writes any more speculative fiction.
My only problem while reading this was that I did not immediately check out the footnotes accompanying each chapter, as I only realized that there was a lot of further discussion on each text after I was done with the anthology. So if you plan to read this, check out the footnotes for each chapter separately, I feel they add a lot of extra information/discussion material/food for thought.

I’ve taken notes while reading each chapter and will also be including them in my review, including trigger warnings.
Henry Box Brown: An Ode to the Enigma of Black Freedom: This story examines Henry Brown’s escape from slavery in a box through a modern lens, when during a trip to the museum a young boy crawls inside the box, which promptly disappears with him inside. A really interesting look at historical research, exhibits in museums and Black Inventions. I also enjoyed the language used here a lot, people have very different dialogues, and it makes for a very interesting chapter.
Tw: slavery, danger to children

At Rest: Journey to the Center of the Earth: A scholar of Black History holds a speech at a university for the annual Black History month, shortly after a young black man was killed by campus police. This story explores how an alternative universe, where slavery never happened, might work. It is a really fascinating concept and works quite interestingly with double consciousness. I also quite liked the descriptions of the university grounds, it felt quite haunted.
Tw: slavery, murder, rape

Dumas: This Land of Mine: This short story examines the death of Henry Dumas, a black author shot by police and justified through “mistaken identity”. The short blurs temporal lines between the narrator, who is reading Toni Morrison’s newspaper article about it twenty years later, and yet finds himself transported to the moment of Dumas’ death. After all, things haven’t really changed. This story is claustrophobic and haunted.
Tw: police violence, murder

Theft: A heartbreaking story exploring the double bind that Black men faced (and still face) in America during the Covid-19 pandemic as they have to decide between protecting themselves from getting sick or the heightened danger of being killed for wearing a mask. In this, a man accused of breaking the law (attempted theft) for following it (wearing a mask), finds something inside of him changing and he finds himself unable to follow the plan he has been following all his life to get through situations such as these. There writing here was really interesting and I found the long introduction really intriguing. It added a lot to this story.
Tw: implied police violence, murder

Tathāgata: A strange story about a man working in an office, who finds a painting that looks exactly like him at an art gallery. This story plays a lot with what happened/what was imagined and the timeline and made for an intriguing, but also slightly dreamlike read to me. I really enjoyed how it made me question what was going on and puzzle it out just as the main character did.

Appetite/Fever/Consumption: This essay is split into three parts examining media/performance that centers/commodified/sells Blackness. It starts with the movie “Sorry to Bother You” and the author’s initial reaction to it when seeing it in the cinema and how he stopped viewing it as a comedy and instead realized it as a mirror, then follows a Black man, who performs for a majority white audience trying to find a way to turn their white guilt int action but just becoming another Black body to devour and finally ends with an open letter the author was asked to write by his faculty. A really, really interesting look into Blackness as Commodity particularly in Academia and I really enjoyed reading it.
Tw: murder, cannibalism, n-word, lynchings

Epilogue: Nero – Toward a More Perfect Union: This essay before the story examines the swamp as a Black liminal space during slavery, where Black people can both be free, but not quite free, an “almost-there” place. The story itself follows the story of a burial place for Black people, their names forgotten as something happens during a ceremony.
Tw: lynching, mass murder, slavery

This was such an interesting way of putting out a history of Black spec fic while also using Balck spec fic itself as a medium. Brilliant idea and I learned a lot!

I understand that this an academic book, but throughout reading I felt sorry for the author. A quarter of the book is just citations. Otherwise, I think it’s promising work. I would note that it’s very much from a Black man’s POV, not some nonexistent universal Black POV.

It’s really difficult to enjoy books like this, that are particularly special, when the formatting is off. Despite this, I cannot wait to share this with others. It’s so imaginative and expansive.