This was not was I was expecting. 

 

The first story was good, following an kickbutt woman warrior with tribe politics and dark rituals and experimental monsters. My copy has formatting issues where sentences have no spaces and sometimes the narrative as hard to follow, but interesting. Kept my attention. 

 

The next two stories were white men telling tales about torturing and killing slaves. Lots of slurs involved and violence. 

 

Then I skimmed over the a slave tale - this time from the slave’s POV, then a boxer, then a prisoner. None of which looped back into the genre I thought it was - sci-fi & fantasty. That’s how NetGalley has it listed. That’s where I got my copy. Disappointing. It’s really too bad given all the praise. I really can’t stomach to go further. Guess it’s just not for me.

Set in past present and future, the voices in Broaddus’s stories are sometimes desperate, sometimes resigned, often angry—and all worth listening to and learning from. This is a collection that explores the outer edges of genre but includes a the story of an African huntress tracking a monstrous sorcerer, a Steampunk story entitled “Pimp My Airship” with a futuristic disco vibe, present day stories where ancestors and ancestral gods interact with the characters. It’s a challenging, thought-provoking, and a wonderfully written collection.

Title: The Voices of Martyrs



Author: Maurice Broaddus

Genre: anthology, short stories

Genre (of individual stories): historical fiction, contemporary, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, vampires, urban fantasy, horror, dystopian, magic realism









A few starting notes:


I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.

Honestly, I like me some short stories - and I never fail to be impressed by Rosarium Publishing - so I figured, why not? And decided to give this a shot.





Premise:


A collection of voices - an unforgotten collected memory that encompasses the past, present, and future.

These short stories are tales of strength, pain, sacrifice, and life. These are the voices of martyrs.







Best bits:





The prose is rich here.

I know, I know, that's something people say when they're being pr*ts, 'oh the prose was rich and I'm soooo much more intelligent than all of you,' but I'm not sure how else to put it.

The prose here is an almost physical thing - something you can dig through, something with layers, something you can practically swim in.

So yes, until I come up with something better. The prose is rich in this book.












One thing that really made me nerdishly (shhhh, it's a word now!) happy when reading this anthology was the reccurrence of themes, motifs, images, etc.

It gave a bit more continuity and together-y-ness to a collection that included such a wide and varied scope of genres and narratives - which was pretty damn cool!











Speaking of the scope of these stories: dude, wow!

Broaddus clearly decided to have a try at... everything! Because why pick one type of short story when you're clearly awesome at all of them!

Seriously, this dude's genre-hopping is impressive.














This is also #ownvoices (in this case, a black author writing about black main characters,) which is awesome as all hell!

Stand out stories for me were Cerulean Dreams, which was delightfully creepy, and The Volunteer because... well, vampires dammit!








Not so great bits:




OK, the potentially distressing content from this book is as follows my nerdlets:


- slavery (including POV from the Captain of a slave ship)
- torture
- abduction
- racism
- segregation
- lynching
- self-harm
- suicide
- murder
- violence
- war

- rape/sexual assault
- gore




I think that's everything. Honestly, sometimes it's hard to catch everything.

This does have some very graphic moments guys, so be aware.

Oh, and there's also swearing, and the odd reference to the sexy times here and there.









This book unfortunately shares the weakness of most short story collections: they can't all be winners.

Of course, different people will have different interpretations and preferences for different stories - it's just inevitable.

But there's enough good/great stories in there to make up for it!












Some of the stories are set in the same world/reality/whatever as others.

While that's all well and good, there's no real logic to which stories are set in which world, and it did lead me to being like: is X story related to Y story? Or are they completely different?

Not a big problem, but it was irritating.













The title story, and the last in the collection, The Voices of Martyrs, which is set in the distant future, is a great story about the evils of colonialism, and of colonial powers considering themselves entitled to indigenous lands and populations.

Why is it in this section then? Why not put it in the 'best bits' section?

Because it's too clever, and too well-written, for it's own good.

It's so subtle, and nuanced, and down-right clever, that I fear a section of readers will completely miss the point, and take the references to 'noble savages,' and the civilising influence of colonialism at face value.

Putting it bluntly, it's not clear enough.

In taking the intellectual road, it's muddled its own message. Which is unintentional, yes, but still a disappointment.





Verdict:


It may've scored a bit of an own-goal with the last story, but overall, this book is well worth the read.

Honestly, Maurice Broaddus is a real talent, and this book is incredible!

This anthology is  a profound, emotionally charged anthology that left me breathless.  The stories are portraits of Africans over time, from the time before slavery, through their experiences over the decades in the US to the present and beyond.  Each voice is a message that reaches the heart.  An entire race has been shaped by the ignorance, hate and greed of others. But despite this, there is still pride, a sense of connection with their origins.  It takes strength and determination to persevere.  At the same time, there is a tacit criticism of the selfishness that arises from a lack of human connection, a lack of place.  There is also a criticism of those who force their religion on others, particularly through militant means.  If we ignore our pasts, we are in danger of making the same mistakes.  

Some may be offended about the way Christianity is portrayed, but the reality is that slavers justified their actions because they saw themselves as superior.  They felt they were “civilizing heathens” and that Africans were little better than animals.  The short sightedness and lack of empathy that people have for those that look different and believe differently has had a horrific impact on our culture.  American society hasn’t progressed, as we can easily see today.

The Voices of Martyrs is an incredible, eloquently written anthology and I highly recommend it.  

5 / 5

I received a copy The Voices of Martyrs from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

I was really interested in the beginning but then one of the short stories under "future" decided to blatantly use the word for God like it meant nothing. I loved the African history and Culture I got to learn but really disappointed at how a different culture wasn't loved and understood the same way.

A great story collection that covers a wide range of the Black experience, in Africa, America, and elsewhere, past, present and future. Vivid imagery of scene and mood, intriguing characters. Recommended.