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Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi – #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi

In Wole Talabi’s exciting fantasy adventure, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, the spirit world has fallen on hard times. With dwindling followers to make faith offerings, the companies of the gods have to make do with diminished income, and their powers are not quite what they used to be. Shigidi is an ex-god […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Afrofuturist, gods, heist, imagination, magic, sexuality, spirits, transformation, Wole Talabi

Embertide (Book 3 of The Fallow Sisters) by Liz Williams

By John Folk-Williams

Embertide

Liz Williams’ Embertide is the third outing with the Fallow Sisters (following on from Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter), and it’s another time-slipping and spirit-battling adventure with Bee, Serena, Stella, Luna, and their reality jumping Mom, Alys. Spirits, both good and evil, frequently interrupt their lives in present-day England. Assisting them are a troupe of […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Great Series Read Project Tagged With: England, freedom, gods, Liz Williams, myth, primal Britain, shape-shifting, spirits, star beings, time travel

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

By John Folk-Williams

The Monsters We Defy

Leslye Penelope takes us in the masterful The Monsters We Defy to 1925 Washington DC and its thriving but caste-bound African American elite community where spirits battle for souls. Though I could use the marketing labels (historical fantasy, romance, etc) to describe the story, The Monsters We Defy is so insightful and brilliant that conventional […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: city, heist, identity, Leslye Penelope, memory, souls, spirits, urban fantasy

The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction – 2021

By John Folk-Williams

Year's Best African Speculative Fiction 2021

The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, reprints 29 gripping stories that test the limits of everyday reality. As diverse as the stories are, most of them push their characters across boundaries between this world and the spirit world, between past and present, human and robot, the living and the […]

Filed Under: International Speculative Fiction, Short Fiction Tagged With: Africa, Africanfuturism, alternate worlds, ancestors, robots, self-worth, sentient beings, spirits

Parallel Worlds of Blackthorn Winter by Liz Williams

By John Folk-Williams

Blackthorn Winter by Liz Williams

In Liz Williams’ wonderful fantasy, Blackthorn Winter, sequel to Comet Weather, a lot can happen in the blink of an eye. A winter landscape can turn to summer, an ancient ruin can become a mansion full of dinner party guests, an empty auditorium a maze with a charging minotaur. For the four Fallow sisters, as […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: Blackthorn Winter, Comet Weather, ghosts, Liz Williams, magic, multiple worlds, spirits, star beings

Comet Weather by Liz Williams: A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Comet Weather by Liz Williams

I guess I’m a bit late to join the Wyrd & Wonder group, but Liz Williams’ beautiful fantasy, Comet Weather, has won me over completely from my hard edged science fictional ways. Sad to think, I never would have known about Liz Williams, or discovered this latest novels of hers, if Alastair Reynolds hadn’t mentioned […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: comet, Comet Weather, cosmic forces, England, Liz Williams, spirits, star

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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