![]() ![]() Even though Adelaide is well aware of her many disadvantages in the already brutal practice of homesteading as a single Black woman, she has something no one else has: a secret sin lurking in that trunk, which must always be locked, but which may also be the key to surviving on the homestead. In 1915, Adelaide Henry shows up in Montana lugging a massive steamer trunk, fleeing the charred remains of her childhood home in California… and the bodies of her parents. The latest from the Changeling author is a historical Gothic horror set in the era of homesteading, as “lone women” set out on their own. ![]() Ana’s “grandfather” turns her into a vampire like himself, setting her up for the double-edged sword of eternal life but also eternal loneliness… until Collette’s encounter with a particularly gifted child dovetails with her own gnawing hunger. A hundred and fifty years ago, she was Ana, a child orphaned by tuberculosis sweeping through her village, only to be plucked from death by a mysterious stranger. In 1984, Collette LeSange runs an elite arts school for children in upstate New York, devoting her seemingly friendless life to their education. It’s been a while since I’ve found a proper, generations-spanning epic here, instead of a traditional family tree, it’s the infinite lifetime of an immortal woman. Biohacked planet rangers, sentient trains, robots, and feline reporters are among the varied cast of characters grappling with futuristic yet familiar conflicts: urban planning new transit networks, gentrification pushing out existing residents, and the need for mutual aid. ![]() Through three interrelated novellas set on the same future planet of Sask-E, Annalee Newitz brings hope but also grim pragmatism to the question of terraforming: Yes, humanity will find a home after Earth… but also yes, capitalism will threaten its continued survival three times over. Crane’s shadows metaphor is effective yet restrained, with their prose-as Kris grapples with grief and shame and feeling lost-coming through sharp and affecting. Kris is a sudden widow and single mother, struggling to take care of “the kid,” who has been slapped with a second shadow for the crime of killing Kris’ partner Beau in childbirth. ![]() Disenfranchised and indelibly stamped with evidence of their past sins, Shadesters have no option but to lag behind the morally superior NoShads. Marisa Crane envisions an all-too-plausible future in which the Department of Balance weighs down wrongdoers with second (or third, or fourth) shadows as constant reminders of basically any crime that challenges the status quo. What a way to start the new year, with this queer speculative debut that brings to mind the best of Black Mirror, hurtling at the anxious pace of “The Entire History of You” but with “San Junipero”’s depth of feeling. I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane And when her mentor Daniel “Darlington” Arlington is cast into hell, Alex must flex her abilities as a Dante to rescue her Virgil, even after the Ninth House has withdrawn its support and her future with them is at stake. But it’s not a free ride Alex is part of the Lethe, who oversee the skull-and-bones-and-sorcery at the heart of Yale. This dark academia tome reimagined Yale’s Ancient Eight secret societies as practitioners of black magic, witnessed through the eyes of Galaxy “Alex” Stern, who earns her way into the Ivy League school thanks to her ability to see ghosts. Somehow I didn’t remember that Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo’s adult paranormal fantasy debut (after the wildly popular Grishaverse YA series), came out before the pandemic. ![]()
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