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Synopsis:

This is the follow up to the highly acclaimed 2021 anthology described as containing “some of the most exciting voices, old and new, from Africa and the diaspora, published in the 2020 year.” The first won the World Fantasy Award for best anthology and was met with widespread critical acclaim from across the world, with the science fiction trade magazine, Locus , calling it a “must read.” Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, who created the first anthology now joins forces with Eugen Bacon, a 2022 World Fantasy Award finalist and Milton Davis, an award-winning Black Speculative fiction writer and editor to introduce readers to an ever more diverse set of writers associated with Africa. Timely and relevant to today’s world, the set of stories in this book will astonish, shock and amaze the reader while introducing them to a whole new world.

Review:

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.