The Sword and Laser discussion

Yesterday was Blackout Tuesday as the music industry joined the protest at George Floyd’s killing..

What Black writers and books should we be reading in this time of protest.

My immediate list includes

Octavia Butler , N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson.

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff also falls into this category.. I am look8ng for Sf&F that work with current themes

Matt Ruff is not black, but I never would’ve guessed he’s white from listening to Lovecraft Country. I’m really looking forward to the show!

Victor LaValle

P. Djèlí Clark

Tade Thompson

I would include:
Nnedi Okorafor, Rivers Solomon & Samuel R. Delany

An Unkindness of Ghosts would be my pick of their books for the most topical about societies tackling racial divides.

Nnedi Okorafor comes to mind. As does Ta-Nehisi Coates. The latter writes a lot of NF that's relevant but he also wrote The Water Dancer that is fantasy/historical fiction but also relevant in some ways to how our past got us to now.

There are also some lists on Twitter that especially include books that can help kids understand what's going on. https://twitter.com/srmilesauthor/sta... as an example

Steven Barnes and spouse Tananarive Due have written some entertaining novels.

Mark wrote: "Steven Barnes and spouse Tananarive Due have written some entertaining novels."

I didn’t know they were married. I don’t know why, but I always find it strange when two writers are married to each other, even though it happens a fair bit.

On topic: also Nisi Shawl and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Oh, and Colson Whitehead and his book The Underground Railroad.

Here’s a Goodreads list of SFF books in 2019: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Here’s the 2020 list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I can’t find a General SFF list; must be doing the search incorrectly.

I would love to hear suggestions from BIPOC members of S&L, if you are willing to share.

Fantasy suggestions:
Lost Gods by Micah Yongo
Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

Contemporary YA:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Maybe also worth reading some non-fiction. The books which are the subject of a petition in the UK to get them added to the National curriculum are:
The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
(You can sign the petition here https://www.change.org/p/department-o...)

Mark wrote: "Steven Barnes and spouse Tananarive Due have written some entertaining novels."

Speaking of Steven Barnes, a new novel in the Heorot series which is coauthored by Barnes, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle (wow, talk about author power!) was just published. (Starborn and Godsons)
Alas, it will most likely be the last in the series as Dr. Pournelle is no longer with us.

Update: The GoodReads link to Stephen Barnes' website is incorrect. It takes you to an advertisement. (Which may or may not be approved by Barnes.) His actual website is: https://stevenbarneslife.wordpress.com/

Veronica posted this to Instagram but did you know there is a black-owned science fiction bookstore called Sistah Scifi? Actually it's more narrow, focused on works of afro-futurism by black women. And I should note that Nnedi Okorafor prefers for her work to be referred to as "Africanfuturism."

They are sold out of a lot of stuff because of the attention, but I was still able to pick up the SOULar Powered Book Bundle featuring four books that came out this year:

How Long 'til Black Future Month? by NK Jeminsin
Petby Akwaeke Emezi (author of Freshwater)
Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden, and
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

At least one of these titles would also qualify for Pride month reading so even better.

Right now the Tournament of Books people are reading The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin so I'm halfway through that novel, read by Robin Miles, who is a queen.