208 pages. Published October 29, 2024 by Tachyon Publications. SF anthology.
My previous exposure to Hopkinson is not as extensive as that of other readers; I read PM Press’s Report From Planet Midnight a couple of years ago, and haven’t read much else (I know!). And so this was my fun introduction to Hopkinson’s style. It’s a collection of quite varied short fiction; each story begins with the author’s note about how it came about, or something about its subject or theme.
Can’t Beat ‘Em has a “queer butch” woman, in the author’s words, as an “object of desire.” She’s a plumber who’s come to deal with a cosmic sink throat monster. Covenant is a creation myth about a post-apocalyptic city that all of humanity has retreated to. Broad Dutty Water is a wonderful, also post-apocalyptic tale that reminds me of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld: ocean levels have risen, and people live on moveable islands. This story is cool because it’s also a bit about multispecies futures. Clap Back is a clever and troubling story about the horrible knickknacks Hopkinson refers to as ‘Black Americana’ (so glad for my lack of exposure to these). Inselberg is brilliant and hilarious and horrific, I think my favourite story among many contenders; it’s about post-apocalyptic tourism, a bus tour.
The story Jamaica Ginger was co-written with Nisi Shawl, for inclusion in an anthology celebrating Samuel R. (“Chip”) Delaney. It’s delightful clockpunk that also, in Hopkinson style, doesn’t shy away from complicated themes: in this case, the talented young protagonist is considering becoming her employers mistress so as to help her family out of poverty, but this is also a story about mechanisation and labour. Waving at Trains is a piercingly sad story set after a terrible epidemic—yep, more post-apocalypse. Repatriation is a hopeful vision of a time when we can restore coral reefs, and is about homecoming (to the Caribbean, again). And then, Whimper is incredibly surreal, and fun because it ends in the middle of a sentence. (Please, what fun things are leggobeasts?!)
Hopkinson builds alternative and just worlds, where people are free to be themselves; and when she isn’t doing that, she’s creating critical commentary on the unjust one we* have built. I love the freedom in these stories, sometimes hard-won, but always won (Hopkinson must be an optimist, and this feels like hopepunk; there’s joy in these stories!). I love, too, that these characters are gritty and determined, and very rarely cuddly. And I love the sensibility (often Caribbean-flavoured) that Hopkinson brings to her stories, particularly the ones about a changed climate.
Many thanks to Tachyon Publications and to NetGalley for early access.
* a note on ‘we’: just some humans, not all of us
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