Arkdust

by Alex Smith

Pain, hope, and love collide in this explosive collection of speculative fiction. Arkdust demands revolutions while seeking compassion and understanding. Alex Smith gives us abandoned Black Panthers, disillusioned queer anarchists, warrior queen grocery clerks, all fighting for a better future against sadistic superheroes and white supremacist automatons—while a high-heeled bag lady with utopia in her eyes leads the way. Worlds we hope to never see and only dare to imagine, Arkdust challenges and implores the reader to explore the unimaginable to make all worlds possible. As Samuel R. Delany says, “You should be in that armchair, this word-wonder in your hand, reading...”

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Dystopia

164 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2022

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the incredible introduction ("Listen. You can be the hero. You are the witch.") to the final story this book is magnificent. The Final Flight of the Unicorn Girl is one of the best stories about a trans woman I've read from a cis author, and the end of the cosmic fantasy Galactic brought me to tears. But hands down my favorite story is the House of the White Automaton, a disturbing, hilarious, deeply affecting Twilight Zone vision of a world where every black household is assigned a white man to watch over them, and a man trapped in this middle of this almost-real nightmare trying to deal with an unrequited crush on a heterosexual housemate. I'm never going to hear someone get excited about The Doors again without giggling. The entire book is a swirling cosmos of beautifully chosen turns of phrase and surreal recapitulations of the already-surreal language of the best superhero comics, all tucked into a book the size of a classic paperback; just right for devouring twice then cursing yourself forever for forgetting on a lunch room table. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARKDUST. What can I say? I've watched Philly local legend Alex Smith perform his short stories for years now, and his tales always always always make me giddy with amazement and emotion. I love the mixing of mundane details with fantastic element, his penchant for perspective jumping and simultaneous layer weaving, his exacting captures of the outrageous and demoralizing, his city as universe dream as reality style.

I catch some new feeling or new detail every time I've heard Alex perform a story that I've heard him read before. The archive-time capsule that is ARKDUST exceeded my own recollections of the times I'd heard these stories alive on the air. Some stories were new. All are portals. To me, they capture a Metropolarity essence of many intersecting parts at once–the resulting matter of the intersection/collision itself.

Alex Smith has organized all manner of events from workshops, fests, readings, shows, awareness-raising forums... played in bands... writes for local music XPN jawn and Philly Gay News... and so on. (Honestly they deserve a huge arts grant right now hint hint someone who knows.) Were some of the first #queerscifi tags on the early '10s internet about Alex's work? You heard it here first.

So ARKDUST is a must-read for me. Especially–let me not forget to mention–because it has many many excellent scenes describing fat hefty husky men and their bodies, and it's wild how refreshing and vivid it feels to read those.

The first run of his book sold out in like 2 weeks, and it wasn't till its recent 2nd printing that I finally cracked my signed copy open. You can get a copy via the Metropolarity distro, requesting your local library get you a copy, or direct from @theyarebirds themself.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

INCREDIBLE!!

The prose is lush, the political fire of these words is brilliant. Each individual story is a whole world built.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great mix of Afrofuturism stories set within a foundation of black and queer worlds.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this...I found the style of the stories (the overwhelming slang and vernacular, the mind-boggling construction of the plots) too distracting from the substance. There's something fascinating in this collection, and there are some who will respond to it...but I'm afraid I simply can't wrap my head around most of it. Not for me.

[christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just beautiful.

[Ben Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as an impulse buy at Small Press Expo in 2024. I was about to leave with my bag full of purchases, and then the last table I saw was dedicated to science fiction written by Black authors. This was a genre I absolutely wanted to explore in more detail. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors of all time, science fiction or otherwise. The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is a 21st century classic of the Afrofuturism genre. But whenever I try to seek out books about Afrofuturism, it feels like my options are always somewhat limited. So I was thrilled to see a small publisher focusing on the genre. Arkdust is the first of my three purchases from that publisher that I've read so far.

I should also add that I am a white heterosexual male. I find reading to be one of the most satisfying ways of expanding my horizons and understanding different perspectives. And I thought this was an excellent short story collection. Plus, the author is from Philly!

As with any short story collection, I find that I really enjoy certain ones more than others. The prose is wonderful. You can tell the author has a lot of really interesting ideas cooking in his head. There are bold ideas mixed with just great sci-fi writing, and it's unlike anything I've read so far. The fact that it's also LGBTQ-positive literature just adds to its effectiveness, and at less than 200 pages, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I would LOVE to see some of the universes explored here, particularly in the stories "The Final Flight of Unicorn Girl" and "Galactic," to be fleshed out into full-fledged novels. I think they were the two strongest stories, though I found something to enjoy in all of them.

Attending Small Press Expo in 2024 was one of the unexpected highlights of my year, and discovering new voices like Alex Smith justified the trip and the purchase. Very happy with this one, highly recommended as a new voice exercising his writing chops!

[Sara Zia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is stunning. Painful and raw at times. But the prose is phenomenal. And the author is so good at building a world quickly with almost no exposition but somehow still manages to guide you into a whole other reality through the writing craft. And it's so Philly--from a west Philly food coop to punching Mayor Goode in the face. And I love reading hot bear scenes; we need more praise of the hotness of ample bellies and thick thighs in literature. I don't understand why Alex Smith isn't a bigger deal than he is.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I slogged through this book like in a dream, where you want to run, or fly, but you are moving in slow slow motion, unable. It's because the images and language were so surprising at each turn, I had to stop and look, and look again. And while I like to guzzle books, I stayed committed, and just finished. It helped to visualize the whole thing as if it was a comic book, otherwise my literal brain kept getting tripped up. And it really was a cool comic book in my mind.

[James Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed Alex Smith's enjoyable afrofuturistic collection Arkdust for Strange Horizons Magazine, calling it a
"a strong mix of nine science fiction, fantasy and horror ... with several robust standouts ... the pieces feature matter-of-factly Black ... usually queer protags."

Full review at: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fictio...