Short story collections are my favorite way to find new amazing speculative fiction. This collection was no different, and has some amazing authors contributing. If you love speculative fiction collections I would absolutely recommend this collection, however if you do not like short stories I would skip this one and instead choose from the authors' full length works (if available).

As with many collections there were some stories that will stick with me for a long time, and some stories that were very forgettable.

The audiobook was well done, and I would recommend listening if that's your preferred method of reading. There were a few stories that I think would be better suited for physical book though, so if audiobooks are difficult to focus on I would get the physical book.

The cover artist is so good!

3/3.5 stars amongst all stories.

I am a huge fan of short stories and speculative fiction so this book is exactly what I like to read.
As is the case for all anthologies, some stories were more powerful than others BUT I didn't have any that were total duds. They all had a unique perspective and were so full of mystery and adventure.
The afterword by Grace Dillon sums up the whole book so nicely as well. I love it when there is a succinct conclusion like that.

I have a whole list of new-to-me authors to check out after this as well which might be the best part for all.

Thank you NetGalley and Tanton Audio for the audiobook ARC.

I really like compilations of stories, and I decided to listen to this one because I saw that it would have a story by Tananarive Due and since I read her short story Patient zero, she is one of my favourite authors, and again her story here didn’t disappoint.
Some of the stories kind of brought the authors to my radar, I will search for more stories from Darcie Little Badger, Saad Hossain.

I did enjoy more the stories that were more science fiction and/or speculative fiction, than fantasy, but that is a personal preference, and what I can comment about is that we have an healthy mix in this book.

The audiobook was a bit hit and miss with me, while I did enjoy the reading in some stories, in others it was very distracting and very slow paced.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Audio for the free AAC, and this is my honest opinion.

Just like the first installment in this series New Suns 2 is an excellent collection of stories. I absolutely love speculative and weird fiction and this anthology had such an amazing variety of stories that fell under that umbrella. The diverse voices and styles of the eighteen different writers is what really made this collection such a powerful read for me. The stories from John Chu, Nghi Vo, and Tananarive Due, were among my favorites.

I appreciate the diverse voices and styles in this anthology of 18 new speculative fiction short stories by people of color. I didn’t enjoy all of the stories, but collections like this are a great way to step outside your literary comfort zone and discover new authors.

Many of the stories deal with violence, discrimination, and other injustices, and some of them were just too dark for my taste. Others were told with humor and optimism. My favorite was K. Tempest Bradford’s “The Farmer’s Wife and the Faery Queen,” a sly feminist retelling of Tam Lin.

Other stories that I particularly enjoyed include “Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood” by Nghi Vo, in which a mild-mannered servant cleverly exacts revenge on a group of invaders, and “Chosen” by Saad Hossain, which is a space opera involving reincarnation that made me laugh. The young heroine of “Suppertime” by Tananarive Due also made me smile with her camera and her pet bobcat.

The audiobook production was good. Each story is narrated by either Allyson Johnson or Diontae Black. I enjoyed the narration; both narrators have good pacing and pronunciation, distinctive voices and speech patterns to suit each character, and the ability to convey mood and emotion effectively.

I received a free advanced review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

This collection of weird and wonderful little gems feels less polished than some other anthologies and I love that. This feels like sitting in on a a writing workshop for giants of the genre. It is not calibrated for mass consumption and I think that is wonderful. These stories were sometimes delightful, sometimes confusing, sometimes annoying but always special.

I found narration to be solid as well! I will say - and this is an odd criticism even to my ear- it feels too long. I think a few of these stories could have been cut and the overall experience of the book might have been a bit improved. Having said that, though, what in the world do I know??

"New Suns 2: Original Speculative Fiction By People of Color" is an anthology collected ny Nisi Shawl. There are 19 short stories in this, all by different authors. Some of the stories are horrors, some fantasy, and some speculative fiction.

I found this to be a mixed bag. I liked some and disliked others.

My favorite story was by John Chu:
✅️"Equal Forces Opposed in Exquisite Tension" about a young man, Tam, getting tested for entry into a special college program based on his telepathy and ability to "reify" things. I want to read the rest of this as a novel. 5 star for this one

I also gave 4 stars to these stories:
✅️The Farmer's Wife and the Fairy Queen by K. Tempest Bradford (the Fairy Queen takes the wife instead of the son)
✅️Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood by Nghi Vo (Asian rulers and the robe makers)
✅️ Suppertime By Tananarive Due (a friendly Bobcat and giant leeches)
✅️Chosen by Saad Hossein (alien lives and reincarnation)
✅️Home is Where the Heart Is by Hiromi Goto (Japanese tale about reclaiming your heart)
✅️The Plant and the Purist By Malka Older
(Tombs in a volcano)
✅️Fast Enough Human By Kathleen Alcalá (Indigenous woman)
✅️Counting Her Petals By Christopher Caldwell
(Lesbian with trans woman and virtual reality)
✅️Juan by Darcie Little Badger (pandemic, giant oil, old man)

There were another five stories I gave 3 stars, and three I gave 2 stars. Some of the stories were rather confusing.

Allyson Johnson
and Diontae Black are the narrators. Both did a good job

Thank you to Netgalley, Tantor Audio, and Nisi Shawl for providing me with this early release audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this collection. So many great themes explored. I liked all of these stories, but here are some standouts.


(Apologies if titles or names are messed up. I listened to the audiobook and I don’t have great audio processing (and maybe have ADD). The book isn’t out yet, so I wasn’t able to look up a list of the stories to get the correct spellings of names. )

**Ocasta** by Daniel H Wilson – The story of an AI created to watch for and analyze patterns of data. We see its various iterations looking into issues of maternal mortality (specifically how women of color are much more likely to have bad outcomes), police brutality, and how an autistic woman uses it to help with social interactions. I don’t like AI (find it mildly creepy actually haha) but I thought this was pretty interesting. I could have done with more delving into the issues mentioned because they’re important things to question.

**The Farmer’s Wife and the Fairy Queen** by K Tempest Bradford – I think this is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a bit irreverent and the fairy queen proclaiming “some men ain’t worth shit”? Heh. That’s a mood. It’s sort of a spin on Tam Lin. So, Titania the fairy queen (who’s southern and says y’all) occasionally kidnaps pretty boys. When she tries to take the farmer’s son, his wife insists she be taken instead. So now the farmer is left to actually do his own cooking and cleaning and looking after his own children (*gasp* how horrible for him). I liked the lighthearted, teasing tone and way it was told. Very entertaining. Highly recommended.

**Juan** by Darcie Little Badger – another favorite. Big Owl sets a monster after Juan, and Juan must fight back and try to outwit him. I think what makes this one so good for me is Juan. He’s just a sweet guy. It takes place at the height of covid, and he’s freaking living in a tent in the yard to not spread work germs to his wife and his grandmother who is undergoing chemo. The one phone call he has with grandma shows what a sweet relationship they have. I would happily read more of Juan trying to outfox various creatures from Native American folklore and having adorable phone calls and making his grandma laugh too hard.

**Equal Forces Opposed in Exquisite Tension** by Jon Chu – Another one I really enjoyed. It’s about Tam as he sits his exams for a prestigious telepathic engineering school. One of his fathers is a powerful telepath, and the other is the legendary engineer who designed and built The Barricade which holds back the Turbulence (not sure what that is exactly, but apparently it is bad). His father has been rigorously preparing him for this day for his entire life. There’s a loving but rather complex dynamic there. He also has an exam for the archivist librarian track. And he meets a smoking hot telepathic guy and they start talking. (That is kind of adorable as they maybe start a relationship.) I’m white and don’t have high achieving parents so no tiger parents for me, but I could definitely relate to the theme of pressure and the weight of others’ (or your own) expectations and worrying you won’t be good enough. The world seems pretty cool, I mean engineers who use telepathic powers to like fashion things out of thin air, hello? I am a science/STEM teacher I am all for it! Plus, the libraries are described as like elephants like beasts? I don’t know, but it sounds cool. I would totally read the adventures of Tam and the most stunningly gorgeous man he’s ever laid eyes on at telepathic library/engineering school. Like, please can I have that?

**Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood** by Nghi Vo – soon as I heard Nghi Vo, I was like oh yes this will be great. And it was. (If you haven’t read her works, go do that!) It’s about the royal wardrobist whose king was just killed by invading barbarians. She takes pride in her life’s work and wants to do it right, but also she’s seen as a traitor by the people in town even though she’s just doing what she needs to do to survive. That tension and how she quietly fights back in her own way. So good. If you like her other works, you will love this one too as it’s a similar theme/vibes.

**Chosen** by Saad Hossain – Opens with “We are the scum of the galaxy.” Well, ok, I’m in. Haha. Not usually into space stories, but this was a good one. Humans, or a group of them, somehow have wound up in another galaxy where there are hostile alien things. The narrator’s ship gets blown up, killing everyone, but due to the ancient alien tech remnant he used to do that blowing up, he is reincarnated. The aliens who left that tech are gone for like millions of years, but two bureaucrats in charge of bringing back dead souls somehow got left. And he takes them off on an adventure to get revenge on the ship that blew him and his captain and crew up and then maybe the whole empire. I like how the narrator went from ok wow this one is real psycho to ok psycho’s growing on me. Haha. If you like space stories and some cheeky humor, you should like this one.

**Haunted Bodies of Wombmen** by Tlolo Tsamasse – ok, this one should be longer. I want more. I really liked the themes and the horror leanings. It’s set in South Africa, and it follows a family that did really horrific, terrible things as human sacrifice to attain and keep power and wealth. The spirit of the victim (which has come back and been killed several times) is working to get its revenge. The men in this family get pregnant and give birth and die at age 30. Honestly, a real *good for her* moment. I seriously laughed out loud when aunt spills the beans to the main girl she’s all “how could they do this to me?” Yeah, sure, honey. Your ancestors mutilated and sacrificed people who are coming back as evil spirts for revenge, but way to make it all about you. I also really liked the line where the spirit wonders why women always sacrifice themselves. Like I said, I love the themes of how women are sacrificed and generational trauma and sins of the ancestors this one is exploring and fantasy and horror can mix so well when done right. I want more of this story.

**The Plant and the Purist** by Malka Older – Follows a crew as they explore an ancient burial from a long past civilization in a volcano. The MC has a number of tech implant to enhance senses and get readings and stuff. And the main historian type guy has none (which is odd in this world). Really cool mix of archaeology, studying history, and geology. Liked the exploration of what would our society look like millenia in the future, what will the make of our weirdness? Kind of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider vibes. Really fun; I liked it a lot.

Sometimes writing a review for an anthology is tricky.

I loved what this series is accomplishing and I think it’s very well done.

Some of the stories I loved and some I didn’t.

I loved the stories from Darcie Little Badger, Tananarive Due and Hiromi Goto the most. But all were written so well and the whole book is very engaging and a great audiobook with different narrators.

Thanks to netgalley and Tantor Audio for an alc

3.5 stars rounded up

I really loved some of the stories in the collection, others were just okay for me. However, I think the project of bringing together authors of color writing speculative fiction is a great one. Here are a few standouts:

Darcie Little Badger wrote a story that is an interesting modern take on an indigenous monster.

Nghi Vo (is anyone surprise I loved her story?) tells a fantastic tale of unexpected revenge in the best possible way.

Tananarive Due wrote a creepy story about a girl living near a swamp with giant leech monsters.

Christopher Caldwell wrote a genre-bending story about a trans woman and her girlfriend trying to find a place to live and love safely, even in virtual reality.

Certainly a collection worth checking out because you might find a gem of a new author! I received an audio review copy of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

It's always hard to write a review about a book that contains so many stories and authors, especially when my opinions vary so much around them. This book contains some real gems and some that clearly needed more work

I do want to highlight my favourite of them, Neti Neti by Geetanjali Vandemark. It was such a nice read and I would love a longer story around the concept!

My arc was an audiobook and the narration was great. It really added life to some of the stories I didn’t enjoy as much.

This audiobook was made available to me by RB Media and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The narrators Allyson Johnson and Diontae Black are both familiar to me. I listened to at least one novel narrated by both narrators prior to this. For this novel both narrators assumed unique tones, employing inflection and even accent changes as needed for the short stories in this anthology. The narration reminded me of stories shared before bed, around a campfire or shared at a sleepover, just nostalgic in the best ways. I'll continue to seek out audiobooks narrated by both Ms. Johnson and Mr. Black in the future.

I love anthologies precisely for the opportunity to meet new authors that I can add to my ever growing to-be-read list. That this is an anthology of speculative fiction written by people of color authors is just chef's kiss!

Ocasta by Daniel H. Wilson an AI learning program tells the story of its program life.

The Farmer's Wife and the Fairy Queen K. Tempest Bradford is a feminist anthem in fairytale form.

Juan by Darcie Little Badger this is set during covid lockdown and has Indigenous mythological elements.

Neti Neti by Geetanjali Vandemark is an interesting tale of a monk with a violent past.

Equal Forces Opposed in Exquisite Tension by John Chu a dystopian world in which unauthorized telepathy is strictly monitored.

Silk and Cotton and Linen and Blood by Nghi Vo, a servant of the third class helps a barbarian king choose the appropriate robe.

Suppertime by Tananarive Due a precocious girl, a swamp monster and a camera have an adventure.

Good Night Gracie by Alex Jennings, a group on the search for the right kind of party.

A Borrowing of Bones by Karin Lowachee a dystopian in which pieces of one's life is traded inorder to make a living. A cannibalizing of the poor.

Chosen by Saad Hossain is the story of multiple space faring species with caste designations.

Home Is Where the Heart Is by Hiromi Goto is a fairytale-like feminist story about home.

Before the Glory of Their Majesties by Minsoo Kang an ambassador meets with royalty in an effort to save their home.

Haunted Bodies of WombMen by Tlotlo Tsamaase an interesting if harrowing tale of reincarnation.

Dragons of Yuta by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz a tale of ghosts and dragons.

The Plant and the Purist by Malka Older involves an airship adventure.

The Fast-Enough Human by Kathleen Alcalá a tale of immigration and belonging.

Counting Her Petals by Christopher Caldwell a haunting tale with ATR mythological elements.

Fever Dreams by Jaymee Goh a delightful tale of storyengines and storytellers.

I found a few new authors and added their work to my to- read list.

Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook anthology. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.