"Ring Shout" by P. Djèlí Clark

A powerful and spooky novella that's a delight to read, Ring Shout is a darkly fantastic alt-history—a community fighting literal demons in the Klu Klux Klan. Narrator Maryse Boudreaux hunts these monsters with the help of a magic sword, ethereal advisors, and two other talented Black women, and soon discovers that the dark magic under the white hoods is evolving in dangerous ways. It's a fast but fairly intricate novella, doing a really good job of fleshing out its world and characters while propelling the story forward.

"The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

(This was the February 2019 Chicago Nerd Social Club selection.)

A post-apocalyptic indigenous YA story, The Marrow Thieves follows a teenage protagonist on a journey for survival across Northern Canada. In a world wracked by complex climate disaster, First Nations people find themselves hunted for their ability to dream, which everyone else has lost.

This was a very good read; I'm not much of a YA-reader, but wasn't put off by it—when the teenage-ness of the characters comes out in the later chapters, it's in very believably-confused attraction and rivalry. I think there's a limit to how well the world-building holds up to scrutiny—at club, we talked about "backpacker pragmatics" and issues of how the journey doesn't match up with calendar/map concerns very well—but the fairly episodic chapter structure keeps the story moving along, and the character interactions work.

"Friday Black" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Adjei-Brenyah is a name I'll be watching for. This collection is intense: filled with violence, racism, death, and magic. These stories are heavy. But, thanks to Adjei-Brenyah's writing, they're light on their feet, lively and passionate, tinged with dark humor, and rich with detail and empathy that stop most of them short of despair.

There's really not a weak story here; they often feel worth reading on the sheer brashness of their Kilgore Trout-ish premises, but the writing is strong even in the quieter stories. Fantastic, science fictional, and magical realist techniques flesh out ideas and characters that are almost uncomfortably, clearly drawn from present reality.

"The Finkelstein 5", the opening story, launches the collection at full strength. In the wake of a brutal chainsaw-murder of five young black people by a white man who goes free, spontaneous incidences of black-on-white violence erupt while the victims' names are ritually spoken. Both a parody of miscarriages of justice and frighteningly plausible, there's both horror and a kind of bleak, surreal humor in the coverage of the trial. The narrator's storyline captures the confusion and pain around the double violence of the attack and acquittal, and his ability to "dial" his blackness up or down in a quantified way.

Chicago Nerds- Lovecraft Country

For the December meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

Set in the 1950s, Lovecraft Country follows a cast of connected characters from Chicago, all black, who become entangled in a number of supernatural adventures connected to a secret occult organization.

Generally quite liked, and we spent most of our conversation talking about how the novel sets actual Jim Crow evil up against a more pulp-SF, Lovecrafty kind. Notes and possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic- Everfair

For the November meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Everfair by Nisi Shawl.

An alt-history of the Belgian Congo with steampunk & utopian elements, the novel follows a fairly large cast of characters over several decades. Brief notes and possible spoilers below:

Think Galactic: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

November TG notes brought to you by Michael Tax.

This month, Think Galactic returns to familiar territory: horror. Although the reading list states clearly the Victor LaValle novella The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) as the TG November selection, LaValle’s Ballad is inextricably linked with it’s intellectual, if not ideological, progenitor: H. P. Lovecraft’s The Horror at Red Hook (1927). The works share kinship in setting and characters, but could not be more different in artistic intent. Black Tom is written by a person of color, and LaValle’s perspective can be assumed to be diametrically opposed to such as that espoused by Lovecraft. In the dedication of his novella, LaValle attributes this: “For H. P. Lovecraft, with all my conflicted feelings.”

It is in this very same spirit that virtually all participants at Think Galactic’s November group meeting have taken on both works, and we realized the tremendous opportunity presented of a side-by-side comparison. Our progressive feminist sensibilities of necessity bristle at the outright objectification of person that informs the plot of Lovecraft’s classic novella. But I was fixated on how its horror is not coexistent with, but seems to be dependent on the author’s xenophobic point-of-view, and wouldn't stop until everyone in the group either agreed or told me to cool it. Ultimately, we think the horror of The Horror at Red Hook actually originates precisely with this perspective of an incomprehension of other cultures. This view must be truly horrifying for one such as H. P. Lovecraft, given his novella’s multicultural melting-pot setting of contemporary 1924 Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Classic Sci-Fi- The Drowned World

For September's Classic Sci-Fi Meetup, we discussed "The Drowned World" (1962) by J. G. Ballard.

Set in a future where the world has been radically transformed by increased solar radiation and things seem to be reverting to a dinosaur-era biome, "The Drowned World" follows a small cast of characters attempting to survive and perhaps adapt themselves to these new conditions.

An easy read, a deeply problematic book, a good discussion. Possible spoilers below!

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Megatext 2: Octavia Butler

Thursday, August 25th, 7pm

Open Books, 651 W. Lake St.
(Facebook Event Page)

For our second Megatext discussion, we're going to be talking about Octavia E. Butler (1946-2008), who's had a powerful impact on the genre. This discussion is being supported by Open Books, who are hosting, and by Think Galactic.

The idea behind the "Megatext" book club is that we talk about an author as a whole, rather than one specific book. Feel free to come if you've read everything Butler's written, if you've only read one book, or if you're just interested!

photo via Joshua Trujillo

Think Galactic- The Fifth Season

For our first post-Wiscon gathering, Think Galactic once more filed into the Upper Chambers of Myopic, this time to discuss N.K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season".

Jemisin's novel has been getting a lot of well-deserved recognition (shortlisted for the Nebula & Hugo awards, among others). It's set on a world beset by cycles of cataclysmic natural events, where humanity has only survived by a combination of "prepper" culture and the magical abilities of "orogenes", who can control seismic events. Through three different storylines, "The Fifth Season" explores this world and the way the orogenes have been oppressed. Spoilers below!

Chicago Nerds- The Fifth Season

For April's book club discussion, the Chicago Nerd Social Club read "The Fifth Season" (2015), the latest by N.K. Jemisin. And we really liked it!

The novel takes place on a planet wracked by periodic geological upheavals; human civilization only survives through a combination of disaster-preparation & rigid codes, known as "stonelore", as well as the intervention of "orogenes", a small minority of humans with the ability to sense and control seismic phenomena. Despite this rather obviously advantageous ability, "roggas" are hated and feared by the general population, and typically killed if they are not trained and licensed by a government body, the Fulcrum.

"The Fifth Season" follows three different viewpoints: Essun, a covert orogene attempting to find her daughter after her husband murders their other child; Damaya, a young orogene being trained by the Fulcrum; and Syenite, sent to train under a powerful senior orogene, who winds up having a pretty far-ranging adventure.

There's also lots of much weirder stuff going on: a possibly sentient-and-malicious Father Earth, some kind of intelligent stone-based life-form, sometimes-functional remnants of some high-tech civilizations, and, no spoiler, it's the first sentence: the end of the world. (Not to be confused with last month's Weird & Wonderful selection). Definitely some other major spoilers below, though:

Think Galactic: The Girl in the Road

Meeting once again amidst the erudite shelves and, if our cellular devices are to be believed, Faraday-cage-lined walls of Myopic Books, the ornately robed members of Think Galactic cast back their cowls, exchanged a few cryptic, sweeping gestures, then sat at the circle to discuss Monica Byrne's 2014 novel "The Girl in the Road".

Girls and roads plural both, as it turns out. Byrne's novel weaves together two different stories. Mariama is a refugee girl whose travels take her to Ethiopia, while Meena is a young Indian woman who, fleeing violence, decides to walk "The Trail"--an ocean-spanning tidal generator that stretches from Mumbai to Djibouti.

We none of us quite knew how to summarize our reaction to this book. It's well written--with the caveat that neither narrator is completely reliable. And the characters are well-drawn--but we found it a little hard to sympathize with them nonetheless.

It's definitely a powerful book, and--one doesn't want to say haunting, but definitely a little hard to get out of the mind. One can easily see why it was awarded the Tiptree. More of our thoughts and, most definitely, SPOILERS, below.

Classic Sci-Fi: The Intuitionist

The Classic Sci-Fi Book Group tried out a new location for September: Mystic Celt, where we were able to have a bit more room. Quite nice, and it looks like we'll be returning. We met to discuss Colson Whitehead's first novel, "The Intuitionist" (1999).

"The Intuitionist" is set in a slightly-alternate America; the time isn't explicit, but it feels roughly 1950s-ish: post-war, but pre-Civil Rights Movement. The most notable alterity here is the importance and public recognition of elevators and elevator inspectors. Our protagonist, Lila Mae Watson, is the first woman and only second black person (the novel primarily uses "colored") to become an elevator inspector; furthermore, she is an Intuitionist, one of a small but increasingly influential faction of inspectors who "intuit" the status of elevators just by riding in them, rather than the traditionally-inspecting Empiricists. After a high-profile accident of an elevator Lila recently declared safe, she is drawn into a mystery circling around guild politics and the enigmatic founder of the Intutionists, who may have left behind plans for a radically more perfect elevator.

Possible spoilers below!

Classic Sci-Fi: Woman on the Edge of Time

The era of the Mad River Grille meetings of the Classic Sci-Fi Meetup appears to have passed--another private event forced us to relocate again, this time just a building or two over to Vaughan's Pub, and we'll be trying out a new (hopefully good, long-lasting location) next time.

Still, a lovely patio on a Chicago summer, and a nice discussion of Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time" (1976): definitely a bit of classic SF, this one particularly in the feminist SF tradition of the 60s/70s, often mentioned alongside work by Le Guin, Russ, or Atwood. The novel follows Consuelo Ramos, a woman who is (seemingly wrongfully) placed in a mental institution, and who is having (seemingly real, albeit psychic) visits to and from the future.

A couple points that we all agreed on: this is a hard book to read. Partially because it takes a while to really pick up, partially because it is about 30% utopia with attendant infodump-itis, but primarily because, emotionally, it's grim. Connie's experience being held against her will, misdiagnosed as an act of oppression, and the way that sexism, racism, and classism are magnified by being institutionalized all make for a rough read.

Think Galactic: Mothership

The full version of this John Jennings cover is worth sharing.
Via collection contributor Rochita Loenen-Ruiz.

For the last meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed some selections from "Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond", edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall, and published by Rosarium. It's a really diverse collection, and Sara picked us a good handful of stories to focus on:

Chicago Nerds: The Goblin Emperor

For the last meeting of the Chicago Nerd Social Club, we discussed “The Goblin Emperor” (2014) by Katherine Addison. The novel is currently nominated for the Hugo Award and, if you've been following the whole kerfuffle this year, is one of the non-Puppy nominees.

“The Goblin Emperor” takes place in an alternate world—not Earth-related—in which the dominant civilizations seem to be in the steam age. There are at least two races—goblins and elves—which seem to be more like human races than your typical fantasy species-like races: relatively cosmetic differences, not reproductively distinct, with many characters of mixed heritage and racial “purity” more of a construct than a reality. There is some magic, of a very practical and effective nature, but it is totally in the backseat to a slightly steampunky/clockworky technology (airships and Industrial-Era-type factories loom large). Our titular character, Maia, is the youngest, essentially exiled son of the emperor of the Elflands, to whom the succession rather precipitously shifts. So we follow a young and largely-unprepared character thrust into the highest level of court intrigues, where he must find his way.

THOUGHTS and, just possibly, SPOILERS BELOW:

Think Galactic: The Summer Prince

Alaya Dawn Johnson's "The Summer Prince" (2013) is set a few centuries after some nigh-apocalyptic events: a "Y plague" that wiped out greater than two thirds of the male population, some kind of massive nuclear exchange that has left large swathes of the planet radioactive, and the resulting nuclear winter that seems to have made most of the temperate zones too cold for dense human civilization. Oh, and it's a YA work, set in a utopian (or is it DYSTOPIAN?! DUN DUN DUN) mega-city-structure in Brazil, where elected kings (I'm not sure that's what king means but whatever) reign for one year before being ritually sacrificed as they select the queen, who's the real ruler.

Yep, that's the gist of it. Oh and also there's a lot of stuff about art and art-as-politics and fame and fame-as-politics. I found myself enjoying the book quite a bit, as long as I remembered to do some eye-ball stretching so as not to strain anything with occasional YA-induced rolling. And we had a pretty delightful discussion of it at Think Galactic. Possible spoilers below!

Weird & Wonderful: Kindred

Much-delayed meeting notes! The last convocation of City Lit Books' "Weird & Wonderful" reading group discussed Octavia Butler's "Kindred" (1979), now considered a classic--probably why the Classic SF Meetup discussed it a while back.


In the novel, a modern black woman is mysteriously transported back to the early 19th century to save a drowning boy, who she later deduces is her ancestor. Dana is then transported back and forth several times--called back to save Rufus Weylin whenever his life is in danger, and sent forward to her own time whenever her life is in peril.

"Kindred" is almost certainly Butler's most-discussed work (I first ran into it in an undergrad lit class SO LONG AGO), which is interesting given how "non-genre" this reads. Unlike Butler's other works, which are clearly "genre" (aliens, vampires, post-apocalypse, etc.), "Kindred" purposefully downplays its one weird element--the time travel--allowing it read more as a mainstream, literary novel. At group we talked about shelving and genre decisions, how that affects how people read; I'm vastly amused to imagine slow, passive-aggressive category debates carried out by furtive re-shelvers.

Other things we discussed in relation to the novel:

Classic SF Meetup: Kindred

I can't often attend the Classic SF Meetup, as it's usually scheduled for the same time as Think Galactic. (And the Forest Park Speculative Fiction group. And the Suburban Fantasy Meetup. 2nd Thursdays are over-booked!)

However, once in a while the schedules diverge, as happened last week, so I got to attend the discussion of Octavia Butler's 1979 novel "Kindred". Possible spoilers below!