I started and stopped and restarted and stopped The Ephemera Collector by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson repeatedly before DNFing. I really wanted to like this one, but there was far too much dry info dumping and not enough focus on character. There were elements I was very interested in, like a middle aged Black woman as the protagonist of a futuristic fantasy novel. But I don't feel that the delivery was as engaging enough to keep spending time on.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been on an Afrofuturistic kick and The Ephemera Collector satisfied my curiosity.

I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book where we are following our main character Xandria as she attempts to navigate the effects of long-COVID while being accused of a kidnapping plot. The techno-thriller vibes from this were excellent….however we then take a huge leap into the future and I wasn’t really engaged.

I did appreciate the epistolary format of the book while I listened to the audiobook (thanks NetGalley and Liveright Publishing for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review). It added an additional touch to the commentary on archives.

Overall this was a decent read and a welcome new entry into the Afrofuturistic Sci-fi genre.

The Ephemera Collector: A Novel by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson conceptually is a great book but poor in execution. There are so many descriptions of concepts like Project Management and endless lists of items like historical figures and literature that were overwhelming even for me, having a thorough knowledge of some of these concepts having read a lot of the books, knowing of the historical figures mentioned and being a Project Management Professional.

The narration by Bianca Drew felt monotone and that made it challenging for me to follow. I think this would certainly be a better experience being a print book, especially with the exhaustive list of historical items and people.

Thank you to HighBridge Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ALC. All opinions are my own.

Audiobook Rating: 3 Stars
Pub Date: Apr 29 2025

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#StacyNathanielJackson
#BiancaDrew
#Fantasy
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This is fascinating and unique. I quite enjoyed this story. This is solidly Afrofuturist and takes the time to include quite a bit of Black American history to boot. Most of the story is set in 2035, though it does start in 2288. The story doesn't quite follow normal story parameters which is interesting and slightly confusing on audiobook.

Xandria A. Brown is an archivist for the Huntington Library in LA. This future is recognizable and frightening. Xandria is disabled with multiple issues, including Long COVID from COVID 19 & COVID 34 (or 35, my memory🤷🏾‍♀️). In addition, the air quality is terrible from a combination of uncontrollable forest fires and climate change. This felt like a very realistic extrapolation of our current societal woes.
I will say that I found myself lost in the plot multiple times. The narration really worked to anchor me to the story. This is artfully told to the extent that I feel like I definitely missed some clues that I'll pick up on a future reread. Towards the end of the novel there's a time jump and character change that I really struggled with. I found the jump confusing and the characters introduced overwhelming at first. It took chapters to understand what was happening. This got a wee bit too artsy for me.

The narrator of this audiobook is Bianca Drew. This is a difficult novel to narrate given that the main character is often interacting with computer programs and how social media is incorporated into the story. The story itself is artfully presented which can add additional challenges to narration. I think Bianca does a fantastic job with this. Her narration held my interest no matter how momentarily confused I was by the actions of the story. The narration almost acted as a guide to this confusing but easily recognizable possible future world. This would be an excellent novel for immersion reading. The artful story paired with the stellar narration would be a treat in an immersion reading experience.

Thank you to Stacy Nathaniel Jackson, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

I might have liked this more if it had been more cohesive and didn't jump around so much. The writing itself was fine but the book was difficult to follow and the constant history infodumps slowed things down. I also already knew a lot of the history that the book was teaching so that might have had something to do with it, I was just thinking yes I know all this can you get back to the story? I imagine a lot of other people who will want to read this book will also know the history.