Where it Rains in Color is an Afrofuturist novel from author Denise Crittendon. The novel features a galaxy in which melanin and skin color is prized, and the planet Swazembi - settled by people who disputedly have origins in West Africa - features the people with the most melanin and skin color of all. It's a world filled with color and peace and the most prized among them all is the Rare Indigo, a girl who comes along every few decades with the most perfect skin color and beauty in the galaxy and who possesses magical abilities such as the ability to "shimmer". The story follows the most recent Rare Indigo, Lileala, as she's about to be fully confirmed in that role...only for her to be struck with a strange skin affecting disease, strange voices, and a role in a galactic conspiracy.

The result is a novel with a lot of really interesting ideas - ideas about remembering the past vs being ashamed and hiding it, ideas about beauty and power, ideas about ambition and collective decisions vs individuals striving to help make things better, and more. Lileala is a very strong main character and the world is beautifully illustrated, with the main planet of Swazembi being filled with color, even if everything isn't perfect under the surface, while the world of the antagonists, the Kclabs, is completely lacking such color, just like their skin, and the contrast and afrofuturist ideas are done pretty well. At the same time however, the story relies upon occasionally switching point of view characters and that results in some very unsatisfying results, such as one prominent major character who is revealed to be hiding some major things in the ending which are not at all hinted at (or done so poorly) in the chapters from their perspective. The book also relies upon worldbuilding that doesn't sketch everything out and leaves it to the reader to figure out how it works, and that has some occasionally ineffective results (especially after the reveal). All in all, it's an interesting novel that doesn't quite meet up with its potential.


Plot Summary:
Lileala seemingly is about to have it all. She's about to be confirmed as the Rare Indigo, the most beautiful person on the colorful and idealized plnet of Swazembi...and the most beautiful person in the galaxy - with the ideal blue-black skin and the ability to cause her skin to shimmer in miraculous ways. She will be treated as the ideal of Swazembi - and the world of Swazembi is already treated itself as an ideal to other people of the coalition of world allied worlds. And as that ideal, she will serve as an ambassador of sorts to the rest of the galaxy and the first one in over forty years, when the prior rare indigo, Ahonotay, suddenly became mute and refused to speak. She even has a boy in Otto she loves and with whom she will in a few months be joined.

But inside her heart, Lileala chafes at the restrictions placed on her as part of her role. She wants to explore the Surface and the colors and to enjoy traveling on the sweeps and the sugars of molasses. She has been pampered for years, but still yearns for more, to be given time to explore...and yet she is afraid that in doing so it will cost her her title as Rare Indigo.

But when Lileala comes down with a previously unheard of illness that affects her beautiful skin and begins to hear strange voices in her head, even this equilibrium of hers is shattered. Soon, it seems that her only chance for restoring her skin and finding answers lies in going to the asteroid world of Kclaben, home to a people whose skin is alost fully translucent and who were denied access to the Coalition of Worlds years ago. But while the Kclabs promise a cure to the disease, Lileala's time among them will reveal to her a truth about not just them, but about herself, which will reveal a power that can change the entire galaxy.....

Where it Rains in Color takes place in a galaxy in which the white-centric values of the Western world are turned on their head. Here, what is valued is color, especially skin color and melanin, with the planet of Swazembi (which is filled with colors and color-based technology) being full of people with the darkest skin colors, most prominently of course the Rare Indigo. The Swazembians boast super long life spans (up through 500 years and beyond), occasional magical powers (some rare people are clairvoyant, the Rare Indigo can shimmer, etc.) and are the envy of all, and many tourists come to visit them. The white-esque people of Toth, an allied planet, even use their own mix of technology and magic to try and make their skin darker; while the nearly colorless and translucent Kclabs are the outcasts and shunned...and their society is without light and features drug use and oppression of both gender and class-centric varieties. And of course the most prominent Kclab, a woman named Trieca who has bulldozed her way into leadership, has birthmarks that give her skin blotches of color (albeit White), which provide her with prominence and attractiveness to her people.

Notably this colorism pervades the attitudes of various characters here, with interesting results. Lileala has everything and is utterly pampered and a disease that attacks her beautiful skin threatens everything for her: not just her standing possibly, but her own concepts of self-worth. Her most special ability, her ability to Shimmer, is literally to make her skin shine more. Similarly, Trieca is able to bulldoze her way through Kclab politics thanks to her birthmarks giving her prominence, but when she goes to Toth as part of a plan, she finds out that those birthmarks don't convey beauty outside of her own people and is devastated and shocked to be called ugly. Meanwhile a large part of Lileana's journey in this book is learning that her shimmer and her beauty might have power that isn't just cosmetic, and that she needs to use that prominence and power in more direct and useful fashions.

This book contains more interesting ideas and themes than just its use of Color and Skin Color however. A major conflict under the surface of the Swazembian people and of Lileana's arc is their connection to history - they are the descendants of West Africa's Dogon Tribe (a real tribe in Mali) who were taken to space ages ago, but the Swazembian leadership denies that this is the case and takes strong stands against the idea, even as the idea percolates among people. They are in many ways ashamed of the pain they escaped by fleeing the doomed Earth and the tragedies that underfell the African people, which Lileana sees in visions of her ancestors. But as Lileana discovers, and the book seems to argue, this burying of the past is wrong and only through recognizing the past and making something out of the wrongness can they move forward and really most use their power to benefit everyone else.

There are a lot of other interesting themes here as well, such as those about power and greed and ambition, about collective action vs individual, and about how various forms of utopia may have flaws. The book doesn't have enough time to really go into it at times honestly, although it's possible some ideas could be saved for another book in this galaxy (the Swazembi government's use of secret police for instance). More annoyingly is the fact that the book uses a number of point of view characters but then also relies upon hiding how one major character is really behind a number of antagonistic activities that all come into play in the ending. This just feels highly annoying and unsatisfying - as it requires the book to omit a lot of actions by certain characters that occur between moments that occur on page and to assume a lot more power and abilities to belong to various characters or people who don't seem to have anything close to that when the book is being told from their perspective. Similarly, for example, the book hints at a class conflict among the Kclabs - between their workers and miners and elites - and that never comes into play, only for those miners to apparently have done a major action off page on behalf of one character in the climax for....reasons? There's a lot going on here and it doesn't quite all come together into a cohesive and satisfying plot, even if the ideas are all interesting.

In short, Where it Rains in Color is a book with a lot of really interesting stuff to say in an Afrofuturist tale (I'm really scratching only the surface, pun not intended), but it doesn't quite come together in a way that's as enjoyable or satisfying as I would hope. So this is still a book I'd recommend, but with reservations.

This is a case of "it's not you, it's me". I struggled with this book, simply because it is not my cup of tea. I did like the writing, I did like the overall premise. I think it is very impressive, the world that the author has managed to create. I personally have problems with fantasy books with lots of world building and many detailed descriptions of places/ things/ concepts that are not familiar to me, because I have issues with visualization. I cannot picture things in my head that I don't have any reference for (Aphantasia), so if descriptions are very long and detailed I get lost.
Like I said, this is a me thing. I did like many things in this, and I will definitely recommend it to readers who are into high-fantasy and such.

In a futuristic society, which values beauty and colour, Lileala is about to take her place as the Rare Indigo in Swazembi - a position of prestige, that she has dreamt of her whole life.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story follow Lileala, the favoured aspirant, as she finishes her training and is recognised as the Rare Indigo. Swazembi has been without a Rare Indigo since the last one became silent and left without warning nearly fifty years ago; so when Lileala takes on the role, there is a lot of pressure to do well.

I really struggled with this book. I didn't get far, but I did come back to it repeatedly, hoping to make more progress, because the premise sounded really cool.
My main issue is that I did not know what was going on. At any point. Ever.
The author has created a new world, with completely new rules. There were some bits that were described, but most of it is left vague. There are transport waves? Different castes?

I have no idea what a Rare Indigo is, and why they're important.
Our narrator is fifty years old and has been training to be a Rare Indigo for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, and yet she seems as clueless as I do.
She knows nothing about being a Rare Indigo, except that her skin is dark and she can play luminescence along it.

I also felt that Lileala didn't know anything about anything else, either.
It doesn't sound like she's been isolated from everyone else - but every time she meets her friend, trainer, or future partner, they all seem to know everything. They know about the culture of the world, the sport, the food, the rules, the rulers, the religion, other aspirants, what would happen after getting the title.
It just makes it even more glaringly obvious that Lileala knows NOTHING!

Instead of actual story or world-building, the first part of the book is basically Lileala moping about how hard and restrictive her life is, without any evidence of that. She feels like a spoilt teenager, whinging about her perfect life.

Overall, I liked the concept, but I did not enjoy this book.

This was a unique novel! Captivating magical where blackness is centered and not rejected!! Like come thru!!! It gave afrofuture the imagination and shatters the colorism often experienced im our world! It was appreciated!! Overall, a for a debut novel not bad so giving a lot of grace here! And see this cover!! Absolutely stunning!!

I didn't get past the first few chapters. The beginning did not intrigue me enough to read further. I'm also very big on word building. The descriptions weren't as thorough as I would have liked so I had a hard time visualizing what I was reading.

Synopsis:
Swazembi is a blazing, color-rich utopia and the vacation center of the galaxy. This idyllic, peace-loving world is home to waterless seas, filled with cascading neon vapors. No one is used to serious trouble here, especially Lileala, whose radiance has just earned her the revered title of Rare Indigo, the highest and most sacred of honours.

But her perfect lifestyle is shattered when her skin becomes infected with a debilitating disease. The unthinkable happens – Lileala Walata Sundiata loses her ability to shimmer. Where her skin should glisten like diamonds mixed with coal, instead it dulls and forms scar tissue. On top of that, she starts to hear voices in her head, making her paranoid and confused.

But Lileala’s destiny goes far beyond her beauty. Soon, a new power awakens inside her and she realizes her whole life, and the galaxy, is about to change…

Three word review: fantastical, challenging, book club read.

Unfortunately, despite my piqued interest in this title, I did not get the chance to read it in time to publish a review before the full release.

Follow Lileala who is the crowned beauty of Swazembi, the Rare Indigo. With skin so dark it glitters and power at her fingertips, Lileala currently has it all and yet she longs for more. She doesn’t want to be stuck in one place or doted upon like a Princess. She wants adventure, excitement and most of all, freedom. So what happens when her skin scabs and scars from an unknown disease? Or when Lileala starts digging deeper into the past… all she has known and been taught is not as it is… and she learns there are greater things in the galaxy than beauty.

I loved this story. The world building was extraordinary, the characters have been written to the finest details and they all shone in their own light. The concept that this Rare Indigo is the most elite and doted on saviour in the whole galaxy, it blew me away.
I loved how strong Lileala was and the openness she had toward her new world. She was so relatable and fun to follow, I enjoyed her journey with every step she took.
The writing was phenomenal, I had no trouble imagining this world and constructing it all in my mind following the pathways that the characters walked. I also enjoyed the plot twists, and the complex speech and eloquence between the characters. This was so refreshing and such a great joy to have in my hands.
I would follow Lileala anywhere and I would love to see more of her!

Angryrobot definitely picked a star with potential. A book made of onions with every layer that has been peeled away there is a gem to black society, to Motherland, and an inverted view of dark complexion. One day a teen in college will embark on a dissertation to why we need more books like Where it Rains in Color. One day a brown child will look at Zenon and say i want that life and will find this.

“She had the witchery of fire in her eyes and her skin twinkled as she traipsed about the village, her ebony arms bare, her face black as a moonless sky. Such skin, it was said, must have had stars rubbed into it. With one breath, Ahonotay could make it flicker. With another, she could enchant anyone who came near.”

My thanks to Angry Robot for the invitation to take part via NetGalley in the promotional blog tour for ‘Where it Rains in Color’ by Denise Crittendon.

This is an Afrofuturist-themed science fiction novel set in a future in which Earth has been destroyed and humans have populated various planets. Twenty-two of them make up the Coalition.

Swazembi is an idyllic, peace-loving planet of blazing colours and waterless seas filled with cascading neon vapors. Its people prize their dark skin though no one has either proven or disproven their link to Earth’s melanin bearers.

Swazembi is considered a utopia and is the vacation center of the galaxy. Lileala Walata Sundiata is a beautiful woman with the highly prized blue-black skin and the ability to shimmer. For years she has been an Indigo Aspirant and her perfection and radiance has just earned her the revered title of Rare Indigo, the highest and most sacred of honours in Swazembi society.

However, as she awaits the final ceremony that will confirm her status she becomes infected with a skin disease and loses her ability to shimmer. In addition, she begins to hear voices in her head and becomes increasingly paranoid. Among those voices is that of Ahonotay, the last Rare Indigo who fled on the day that she was chosen.

While Lileala lives a privileged, isolated life, there are various political machinations taking place on Swazembi and its allied planets. The Kclabs are transparent humanoid creatures whose planet is shunned by the Coalition. They have the cure for the disease that is infecting Lileala and a number of others though they will only administer treatment under their strict terms. Oh and one of the planets of the Coalition is missing.

When first introduced Lileala is immature and spoiled. Yet over the course of the novel she undertakes a powerful emotional and spiritual journey that unlocks the far past of her Dogon ancestors and ultimately impacts upon the present and future of Swazembi and the Coalition as a whole. I found it very inspiring.

There are a number of layers to this work of science fiction, including the concept of beauty. Is Lileala’s destiny solely linked to her society’s elevation of certain physical qualities, while the Kclabs are reviled and rejected due to their perceived hideousness. Is Swazembi the utopia it appears or actually a dystopia?

I found this quite a gripping story and adored Denise Crittendon’s world building, especially her inclusion of the Dogon tribal traditions and their connection to Sirius-B. I was aware of this many years ago when I read Robert Temple’s 1976 ‘The Sirius Mystery’ and other works.

I certainly would welcome further stories/novels set in this galaxy if Denise Crittendon chooses to revisit. Indeed, after this strong debut I will be very interested in all of her future projects.

‘Where it Rains in Color’ cover art by Morgane Magloire is stunning.

Highly recommended.

The future is full of an almost infinite sea of possibilities and that’s what makes science fiction such a great genre. Whilst I may imagine a dystopian future of bleak radioactive zombies, you may think of a utopia. The best books should be a mix of the two, a dark future with a glimmer of hope, or a land of plenty that may be built on loose foundations. On the surface the world of Denise Crittendon’s Where it Rains in Color seems like the perfect future, but in this society based around a rigid structure how do those at the bottom of the rung think about the top?

Swazembi is considered a Utopia, one of the centres of tourism in the known universe. One of the biggest attractions is the Rare Indigo, a chosen member of the land who has the most magnificent shimmer. Lileala has been training all her life and has been newly announced as the Rare, but she has also started to hear voices and can’t tell anybody. When her skin starts to lose its shimmer and instead becomes covered in sores her place as the Rare is threatened. Lileala must leave her guilded cage and seek a cure, she will learn more about other cultures, but also more about herself.

I read a lot of different futures and Color is one of the most dynamic and different I have read in recent years. Crittendon has created a mixture of cyberpunk and magical realism. Not only have they created Swazembi, but also several others. How these different places interact are key to the story. We see this society through the eyes of Lileala, someone who has always thought for themselves, but from a place of privilege. We learn alongside Lileala what this Utopia is really like.

The world building is great, but it the story of Lileala’s journey that is the heart. This is a character who seems to have a idea of who they are and where they are going, only for it to be shattered. She meets new people she would never have been in contact with and it chances her insight, but also her powers. Like Lileala, the reader is hit with new people, places and concepts. It can be a little overwhelming as Crittendon has explored so many elements in one story, but Lileala keeps the story driving in the right direction and always acts as it’s centre.

There is a lot to enjoy in Color just through the vibrancy and number of ideas. The world building is excellent, down to the level that different people have their own way of talking, so you get a subtle sense of place. It is a full on story that has new ideas and characters being introduced throughout, but you have to enjoy the sense of enthusiasm and magic that the book brings.

Denise Crittendon has created a vivid sci-fi world where melanin bearers are highly prized and the lead character Lileala is the rare indigo who is a figurehead for her people chosen for her beauty and her ability to shimmer.

At the beginning of the novel Lileala is a bit of a pampered brat.  She has been chosen to be the rare indigo a symbol of beauty and grace, although one without a voice.  The previous rare indigo Ahonotay had abdicated her role many decades ago and has retreated from all society leaving a void and much expectation on the new rare indigo.

All is going well until Lileala comes down with a disfiguring skin disease. 

Thematically the novel examines beauty standards as well as issues surrounding them.

I really wanted to love this novel.  The idea of the rare indigo and the shimmer is really interesting and such a vivid image, which I could clearly visualise.  I loved the worlk building and the descriptions of the Swazembi infrastucture.  I also loved the description of the old earth hymns.

Lileala as a character is capricious, moody and spoiled. Her character development didn't always feel coherent or consistent.  I also found her friends and her beloved as characters lacking depth. I wanted more from the characters.  Likewise Ahonotay was foreshadowed heavily and I don't feel that enough was done with the character.

Otto was a character I really couldn't warm to I didn't like him as Lileala's love interest.  He seemed to be both patronising and controlling and he put my teeth on edge. 

Overall, Crittendon has delivered an engaging novel, but I love a deeper dive into characters than we got.

Where it Rains in Color is published by Angry Robot and is released on 6th December.

Where it rains in Colour by Denise Crittendon is the perfect title for this book- I felt like I was hit with an explosion of colour as I was reading.
I received a copy of this book for a free and unbiased opinion.
The world-building in the book is unlike anything I have read before- so vivid and rich, bursting with colour and originality Swazembi is a modern, high-tech future society but with a difference, it is a bright, vivid, happy utopia where colour plays an important role. The people in Swazembi have skin that can shimmer and shine and future leader Lileala has been chosen as the Rare Indigo because of her outstanding radiance. The technology in the book is truly unique and magical, people get swept up in gusts of wind to travel to destinations which I think should be a viable mode of transport in the future.
While I liked Lileala's arc from a girl spoilt and pampered for her beauty that’s places values outer looks to a person concerned for other people and an ambassador for peace, I really didn’t warm to her as a character. I struggled with the pacing of the story and just couldn’t follow the story at places which was disappointing as I wanted to like it so much. I wish I had been aware of the glossary at the end of the book which may have helped a little.
But even though this book wasn’t for me, I imagine many other readers will love the descriptive prose and the world-building.

This book was good. I enjoyed the writing and how the story turned out. I loved the futuristic things about the story and how present day + historical elements were intertwined throughout the story.

Although I liked how the story played out, it was a slow build and it didn’t have many of the world building elements you might find in other sci-Go/fantasy reads. I also didn’t feel any real connection to any of the characters. It seemed as if the main character was supposed to confident and smart but she mostly seemed naive and confused. (Spoiler: she overcomes this).

Overall, I thought it was a good read. I’d recommend this book to people who like slow burns, cozy mysteries and sci-fi books that aren’t overwhelmed with world building.

I really wanted to love this one, but it just fell flat for me. I love that this is epic in scope and set in a diverse setting. The world itself was very cool, but I felt that the world building needed more fleshing out. I felt the same about the characters. The protagonist is nearly 50 but she felt very juvenile. I think if this has been shorter and edited a bit more, it really would have come alive for me. That being said, I did enjoy the imagery and the author's writing. I will definitely try more of her work in the future.

DNF at 15%

Lileala is a very unlikable character in my opinion. Very shallow, spoilt and doesn't care about others. For being 50 years old she behaves like a 14-year old teenager. She also smiles constantly, half-smiles, fake smiles, full smiles... I can see that the author really tried with the world building but it just doesn't come together properly and I got confused multiple times and had to reread paragraphs. The dialogue and conversation topics of the characters were stilted and boring. I just wasn't able to push through the whole book as it's just over 400 pages long.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

DNF

The worldbuilding of Where It Rains In Color is amazing, and usually that would mean devouring a book to the end, regardless of the actual story – I care a lot more about interesting, epic worldbuilding then I do plot.

But even worldbuilding isn’t enough when the prose doesn’t work for me, and unfortunately that was the case here. The beginning chapters, in particular, are incredibly rough – the writing starts to smooth out around the 20% mark, but the overall rhythm is jerky and stuttering, with abrupt starts and stops that just don’t come together and had me grinding my teeth. There are too many sudden shifts in tone and rhythm and scene, as if it can’t figure out what its own style is.

The dialogue is, flatly, appalling. There’s a lot of exposition-through-dialogue that isn’t handled very well, so it feels like we’re just getting lectures from a bunch of different characters, but mostly it just…feels stilted and false, a bad script that just doesn’t sound like real people talking. And I’m not talking about the speech patterns Crittendon has created for her futuristic society – those are fine. I’m talking about how the characters switch gears mid-speech and the disjointed sentences and the seemingly random changes in topic and I just Could Not, okay? I was constantly cringing.

<“Otto? The Otto next door to me?”

“Yes, that Otto,” Lileala replied, taken aback. “Don’t act so surprised. He’ll be my devoted in a few months.”

“You and Otto are getting joined?” Zizi faked a cough. “Never imagined the two of you.”

“Why?” Lileala rolled her eyes. “We were always friendly.”>

a) Zizi has been away for two years – why is Lileala taken aback that Zizi doesn’t know of an engagement that happened while she was away?
b) Why is Lileala rolling her eyes? Isn’t that a weird way to talk about your fiance???

The whole book is like this. (Or, to be fair, the chunk that I read. I did DNF it. Maybe it gets a whole lot better in the second half.)

Lileala is…a character??? I don’t know what else I can call her when she seems to have a complete personality shift every few paragraphs. She goes back and forth between childish and mature, defiant and whining, shy and the life of the party. She’s chill one second and mad the next for no reason I can follow. It started off confusing and quickly became frustrating. And I still have no idea why she wants to be the Rare Indigo – okay, she entered training as a child, but she’s now an adult who hates the restrictions placed on her. So why not quit? I don’t know.

I read far enough for the book to shift away from Lileala and introduce us to a new character on a different planet – and honestly, that was even worse. One character goes from yelling, to cackling, to burying his head in his hands in three short paragraphs, and I couldn’t follow why. I mean, it’s clear in the scene why he’s angry, but the sudden about-faces to laughing and then defeated?

And then there’s this

<“Listen to her,” Haliton whispered to him. “She’s crafty. That’s why she dared such an abomination as this. She and her birthmarks and her poetic way of talking, they help her get away with a lot.”>

That’s just…incredibly clunky? The phrasing is so awkward. Or is it just me?

It might just be me – we’ve established I’m overly sensitive/picky about writing rhythm – and if so, then I hope you pick this up and give it a go, if the premise sounds interesting to you. But forcing myself to read this one was making me miserable, so I’m calling it quits.

I loved the imagery in this book; I kept picturing a planet similar to the one in the Avatar movie, but with a little more technology and tourists. I did think the beginning was a bit slow but I liked how this book was written overall.

Thank you NetGalley for an early eARC of Where it Rains in Color.