Harare Review of Books

300 pp. Published November 26, 2024 by Caezik SF and Fantasy. SFF/African SF.

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In this, the third volume in the Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction series, we’re privileged to read a couple of stories from the Sauútiverse (described as “stories set in a fictional shared world based on a blend of African cultural worldviews”), as well as other fresh African SFF. The Sauútiverse is self-contained, with its own rules, languages, and vividly imagined worlds and characters; the stories here (by T. L. Huchu and Xan van Rooyen) showcase it well.

If you’ve ever seen a blue hole (or the on-land version, after a quarry’s been abandoned), you’ll probably have imagined monsters in it. Nalo Hopkinson’s The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of The World tells about one, about Black trauma, and of a girl coming into her powers. Tananarive Due’s contribution is the hair-raising Suppertime, featuring more monsters and also a pet bobcat. The inimitable P. Djèlí Clark gives us instructions for How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub, with great wit. Wole Talabi’s Saturday’s Song features the nightmare god Shigidi of 2023’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. The teleporting protagonist of the intriguing Nairuko by Dennis Mugaa is from the Ilaikipia people, and we learn about their survival after genocide through this story about the attempted secession of Kenya’s Coast Province.

Tobias Buckell’s By Throat and Void is a short story about a wonderfully imagined planet system, but, in the tradition of SF, is also a tale about oppression, refugees on the move, and dreams of freedom. Kemi Ashing-Giwa’s Thin Ice could easily be a story about AI and creatives, when the machines take over. Gabrielle Emem Harry’s brilliant A Name is a Plea and a Prophecy has one of the best and cleverest depictions of Death personified that I’ve ever read. And, finally, we know the trope of space travel’s potential impact on human relationships through time dilation; Adelehin Ijasan’s The Rafting of Jorge Santa Cruz is a heartbreaking exploration.

Other stories included are from Makena Onjerika, Amanda Ilozumba, Michelle Enehiwealu Iruobe, Chisom Umeh, Vuyokazi Ngemntu, and Uchechukwu Nwaka. The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023 is packed with the talent and creative vision of African and Diaspora authors. Brilliant; one of my top reads of 2024, and very highly recommended.

Many thanks to Caezik SF and Fantasy, NetGalley, and ODE for review copies.

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