How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories

N.K.Jemisin's short story collection, How Long 'til Black Future Month? traverses a rainbow of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Fueled by strong lead characters winding their way through strange circumstances that at times echo The Twilight Zone, this collection is a must read for fans of these genres. While her protagonists are typically the "good" in the story, they are also fallible and introspective regarding their own flaws. "L'Alchimista" features a master chef in an ordinary restaurant faced with creating an extraordinary dish to impress a mysterious client. As she works through the problems before her, she vacillates between confidence in her culinary prowess and self doubt which makes the character relatable though skilled. "Stone Hunger" focuses on a desolate and lonely girl with a singular talent which helps her survive as she seeks justice for her home and childhood. Without knowing who to trust, she battles an internal conflict as she decides how to reach her goals. In "Walking Awake", the lead serves the masters of a dystopian reality until she pick, pick, picks her way to the truth and decides whether she has the mettle to fight. Every story is beautifully built within a unique world that both justifies and tests the character at its center. Decisions are impactful and ramifications are reasonable even when Jemisin leaves the ending open to interpretation. Variations in structure also abound as the form and perspective shifts diversify the reading experience. For instance, "Henosis" is told through sic chapters out of chronological order, engaging and tantalizing the reader through its winding plot. Overall, this is a fantastic read with treats for even the most scrupulous reader.N.K.Jemisin is a master of hooking a reader's attention. Many of her first lines immediately grab the reader and pull them into its world. "Cloud Dragon Skies" begins, "Long ago, our ancestors looked at the sky and saw gods. Their ancestors saw only stars. In the end, only the earth knew the truth". "The City Born Great" simply starts, "I sing the city". Jemisin’s details also stand out in the writing. She describes one character as “the florid kind, red-haired and freckled with skin so pale that it revealed his every thought”. Another introduces themselves as “one whose task it is to speak for the dead”. Characters are distinct and introduced using fine craft to pique the reader’s interest.Teachable Moments:N.K. Jemisin is a powerhouse in the sci-fi community that students should be introduced to for both the genre and her skill in its execution. Opportunities abound within this volume to introduce students to everything from engaging world building to characterization and exploration of realistic dilemmas (see "Valedictorian" or "The Narcomancer"). The description throughout is thorough and sets a range of tones while the structure and perspective suit the narrative. For instance, “On the Banks of the River Lex” is an allegorical tale, while “The You Train” is an eerie near ghost story akin to “The Hitchhiker” episode of The Twilight Zone. Each story exemplifies different methodology and could be used for a number of different assignments centered on analysis or writing. As a caveat, some of the stories do include adult language and sex, so do a read through yourself if you plan to select a story for the classroom. Though nearly all of the examples have teachable moments, only one fell short for me, which says a lot about the quality of the collection as a whole.

In the foreword to How Long ‘til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin talks about her struggles as a young, African American writer and about how difficult it was to break through in what was then a genre exclusively dominated by white men. It is perhaps unsurprising then, considering the foreword as well as the book’s title, that the main theme of the collection would be discrimination, prejudice, persecution, how difficult it is to be different in a world that is still so unforgiving to anyone who does not fit the ‘mould’.This—vehemently so—was the main theme of The Broken Earth and, to some extent, of the Inheritance trilogy. The reason why both of them appealed to me immensely, while most stories in How Long ‘til Black Future Month? did not, is simple: I did not like the way the problems were expounded in the stories.Rather than ‘dressing’ prejudice and discrimination in allegory, as in The Broken Earth and Inheritance, the collection tends to present them rather literally and explicitly, almost in the form of a political manifesto. The main protagonist usually tends to be a modern black woman, who is confronted with an unjust and oppressive society. Endings tend to be didactic and sometimes read like slogans. There also seems to be a wagging finger that is telling us emphatically, ‘This is what things are supposed to be like’. I know that I am obviously in the minority in thinking this, but this blunt, political approach simply does not work for me, at least not in literature.Consequently, it does not come as a surprise that the few stories that did not conform to this mould ended up being to my liking and the majority that did I found unpalatable. And to be a tad more specific, here is a short summary of which stories I really liked and which I really disliked in this collection:L’Alchimista: A mysterious stranger brings a bunch of odd ingredients to a disgraced Milanese cook and asks her to prepare an ancient recipe. Fresh, lively, with an unexpected twist at the end and a very different tone and setting than the rest of the collection.Cuisine des Mémoires: The protagonist is taken to an enigmatic restaurant (a very smart reference here to Marie Laveau and New Orleans’ voodoo traditions) that can re-enact, with the utmost precision, any meal ever cooked as long you can give the time, date and place where it was made. The twist is self-evident, but the story is well-written and excellently paced. This seems to be the only case where the critics and I are of the same opinion (the story was shortlisted for Locus).Stone Hunger and The Narcomancer: Set in the universe of The Broken Earth and Dreamblood, respectively. If you liked the novels, you will probably like the stories, too.Valedictorian: A black girls wants to graduate at the top of her class even though this means that she will be ‘culled’ by the enigmatic non-humans who have captured most of the planet. I realise the story espouses the very thing I dislike about the collection, but there is no better confirmation that it is execution rather than principle that is the source of my vexation.Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters: A social commentary on Hurricane Katrina, with very apt supernatural elements.An honourable mention to The Evaluators: A pure science fiction story about piecing together the reason for the disappearance of a Terran expedition to another planet. The story would be absolutely chilling if it was not for the annoying log details and disjointed structure.And what I did not like (at all):The Ones Who Stay and Fight: A take on Ursula le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas—gone horribly wrong. Didactic, preachy, moralising, sloganistic, the worst thing you can do with a short story.The City Born Great: A homeless gay African American teenager (yes, let’s check all the boxes) has been selected to ‘sing’ New York into being born as a sort of a ‘midwife’. I find the idea ludicrous and the execution horrendous, but I am very much in the minority here considering the story was nominated for both Hugo and Locus. As if this is not enough, Jemisin is expanding the story into a novel, so there go my hopes to read anything new by her in the next couple of years (shoot!!!).Non-Zero Probabilities: Chance occurrences become commonplace across New York. Reminds me somewhat of an early story by Robert Sheckley, Protection, but twisted upside down and then fizzling out into nothingness. Considering how many awards it has been shortlisted for, perhaps it is me reading it wrong though.

This was a great collection of sci-fi short stories - for a lot of them, I wanted to spend more time in the world that was developed and hear more stories from those characters.

This was my first experience of this author and that fact that I’m only halfway through the book but felt compelled to post this says it all. I’d read good reviews of her work, wanted to check her out and thought a collection of short stories could be a good way to do that. I was not wrong and now I want to read Everything she’s ever written. This was the perfect introduction to this masterful writer that won the Hugo Award for Best Novel 3 years in a row. I can see why.Each and every story, every single one I’ve devoured thus far, was powerful, provocative and created with breathtaking and brilliant imagination. Unreal. I look forward to searching out reading more of her work. She has achieved what frankly I did not think was possible, new and entirely novel ways of seeing and describing the current, probable, possible and allegedly impossible human (and Other) experience. She makes you Think, and Feel and consider things and circumstances that would Never have occurred to you. Or at least, to Me and That surprised and delighted me above all. I honestly hadn’t thought that possible. Nothing re-worked, re-done, re-considered. It was, all of it, New.I am thoroughly enjoying these tales and hate that they have to end. So I’m ordering her 3 Trilogies, Now.

This deserves to be made into a series similar to the Outer limits… Every story was very interesting and different… Couldn’t put the book down

An incredible collection! Just the range is impressive, from cyberpunk to steampunk to magical realism to fantasy. But that's just the surface; the real power of these stories is much more profound. JUST READ THEM.

Disclaimer: I'm one of these horrible persons who usually only write reviews to complain. But for N. K. Jemisin's short story collection, I have to make an exception.I first came across Jemisin via the Broken Earth trilogy. The Fifth Season blew me away not only by virtue of the incredible imaginative power that fuels it, but also due to its fantastic characters, social undertones, and the sheer beauty and rhythm of its language. Jemisin's writing instantly resonated with me, and left me craving for more.So here we have a collection of short stories. I was sceptical at first: Would Jemisin be able to pull off the fantastic world-building that I loved so much about the Fifth Season again and again in the very different format of short stories?Plain and simple: Yes. Here is a collection of varied stories that will take your breath away by the same means The Fifth Season did. The first story, granted, is more of an essay than anything else, but it is beautifully crafted and made me smile and even cry a little, so much was I moved by it. Magic and humanity run through all of the stories, and I can't begin to tell you how much Jemisin impressed me by managing to build whole worlds within a few pages, and tell a gripping story at the same time.If you, like me, loved The Fifth Season, you have to read these short stories. One of the very rare books I whish would never end.

no real development of the characters or the stories, even though they are supposed to be "short tales", they look more like "short ideas". No real feeling to be reading science fiction or fantasy ..It just seems like a mix of ideas shaked and tossed at random. A waste of time.

An amazing collection of stories.As a fan of ‘the broken earth’ it’s no surprise I enjoyed this collection, but the overall quality and diversity of stories is remarkable and I cannot recommend this collection highly enough.

kw

HOW LONG TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? was a slightly different read for me - I'm not a big reader of SFF or short story collections - but I'm so glad I ventured out of my comfort zone as this collection was a definite win for me.This was my first read by N.K Jemisin but its clear to me why she's such a beloved writer as I could see how much skill and creativity she has here. As with any short story collection there were some stories that didn't totally work for me but overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading these. My personal favourite stories were Red Dirt Witch, The City Born Great, Cuisine des Memories, The Elevator Dancer and The Evaluators.