GUIDE TO SHORT SCI/FI, FANTASY, AND SPECULATIVE FICTION

By P. Djèlí Clark

The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up. Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?

By Nnedi Okorafor

In a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, a clan of aggressive people, the Nuru, plan the total destruction of the Okeke; but one member of the tribe manages to escape and wanders into the desert where she gives birth to a daughter, whose special powers will allow her to put an end to the genocide of her people.

Edited by Ken Liu

A collection of sixteen short stories from groundbreaking Chinese science fiction authors. Also includes essays exploring the history and rise of Chinese science fiction publishing and contemporary Chinese fandom.

Edited by Sheree R. Thomas

A collection of short stories and essays from the speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction genres written by authors of the African diaspora.

By N.K. JEMISIN

A collection of stories about destruction, rebirth, and redemption from the winner of multiple Hugo Awards.

By Rivers Solomon

Yetu holds the memories for her people--water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners--who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly is forgotten by everyone, save one--the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities--and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

By Damian Duffy / Octavia Butler

A graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's "Kindred" in which a young African-American woman is mysteriously transferred back in time leading to an irresistible curiosity about her family's past.

Edited By Grace L. Dillon

A collection of science fiction stories by indigenous authors with contributions from Native Americans, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori.

By Walidah Imarisha

Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought twenty of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia's Brood span genres -- sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism -- but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be.

By Stephen Graham Jones

Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew. The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you'd rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them ... at terrible cost.

By Nishi Shawl

A collection of short stories from people of color.

Edited by Joshua Whitehead

This...speculative fiction anthology showcases a number of new and emerging Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity and enduring strength of 2SQness throughout its plight in the maw of settler colonialism's histories

By Sylvain Neuvel

Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress. When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death. How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?

By Nino Cipri

When an elderly customer at a Swedish big box furniture store - but not that one - slips through a portal to another dimension, it's up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company's bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago. To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.

By Brian K. Vaughnan + Fiona Staples

Collects the first nine volumes in Brian K. Vaughan's "Saga" which tells the story of a girl named Hazel and her star-crossed parents.

By Nnedi Okorofor

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself--but first she has to make it there, alive.

By Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isnt a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied droid: a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as Murderbot. Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

By Ted Chaing

A collection of nine short science fiction stories by American author Ted Chiang.

By Carmen Maria Machado

A collection of eight short stories that explore the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.

By Amal El-Mohtar

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them.

By Jeff Van Dermeer

Area X has claimed the lives of members of eleven expeditions. The twelfth expedition, consisting of four women, hopes to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

By Ken Liu

A collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by Ken Liu.

By Ursula LeGuin

An official from an interplanetary federation is called in to arbitrate peace on a planet whose inhabitants are technically advanced, androgynous, and have telepathic powers.

Foreward by Alicia Elliot

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

By Tillie Walden

In her first collection of short comics stories, Tillie Walden opens windows into strange new worlds with works such as 'The End of Summer,' 'I Love This Part,' 'A City Inside,' and never-before collected sketches, webcomics, and short comics for magazines.

By Nnedi Okorofor

The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From here on in she would be known as Sankofa--a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks-alone, except for her fox companion-searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers. But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

By Cherie Dimaline

The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden... but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.