Marvel's Black Panther is being released next Friday and it's been getting great reviews so far! We're excited to see more of Wakanda on the big screen and the imaginative world director Ryan Coogler has created. The look of the mythical African country of Wakanda appears to draw inspiration from the concept of Afrofuturism, which, "addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through a technoculture and science fiction lens." If you're interested in reading more about Afrofuturism and speculative fiction by Black writers, take a look at this list.
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Binti
by Nnedi Okorafor When Binti is offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy, she must rely on the gifts of her people and the wisdom found within the school. |
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The fifth season
by N. K Jemisin A first entry in a new trilogy by the award-winning author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms finds the sole continent of the earth threatened by murder, betrayal, a super-volcano and overlords who use the planet's power as a weapon. |
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Dark matter : a century of speculative fiction from the African diaspora
by Sheree R. Thomas A remarkable, richly diverse anthology of African-American fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction features some forty short stories by Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Tanararive Due, Walter Mosley, Ishmael Reed, Steven Barnes, and other notable authors. |
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The prey of gods
by Nicky Drayden A tale set in a futuristic South Africa where technology and a booming economy make life more comfortable, an unconventional Zulu girl becomes her community's defender against such challenges as a popular hallucinogen, an artificial intelligence uprising and a murderous demigoddess. |
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The intuitionist
by Colson Whitehead As two factions at the Department of Elevator Inspectors--the Empiricists and the Intuitionists--wage war on each other, Intuitionist Lila Mae, the first black elevator inspector, faces bedlam when an elevator freefalls on her watch and the mysterious notebooks from the founder of Intuitionism suddenly appear. |
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Ghost summer : stories
by Tananarive Due A collection that includes a novella and short stories takes readers to Gracetown, a small Florida town that has both literal and figurative ghosts. |
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Falling in love with hominids
by Nalo Hopkinson Presents a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, including a retelling of "The Tempest," as a Caribbean myth. |
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From the notebooks of Doctor Brain
by Minister Faust After defeating all of their enemies in a global battle in the 1980s, the Fantastic Order of Justice, Earth's most powerful--and dysfunctional--team of super heroes, finds itself adrift in a peaceful world without super villains and without purpose, until Dr. Evan Brain-Silverman is enlisted to help save them from themselves. |
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Lilith's brood
by Octavia E. Butler All of humanity must share the world with uncanny, unimaginable alien creatures after war destroys Earth, in an omnibus edition containing three class science fiction novels--Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. |
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Dhalgren
by Samuel R. Delany Journeying to the central United States city of Bellona, where all have fled save madmen and criminals, a poet and adventurer known only as the Kid wonders at the strange portents that appear in the city's cloud-covered sky. |
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The devil in silver : a novel
by Victor D. LaValle Landing in a budget-strapped mental institution after being accused of a crime he does not remember, self-proclaimed hero Pepper is assaulted by a monstrous creature that has been attacking patients but that the hospital staff does not believe exists, a situation that compels Pepper to rally three fellow inmates in a fight for survival. |
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Everfair
by Nisi Shawl A Neo-Victorian alternate-history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. |
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Will do magic for small change : a novel of what might have been
by Andrea Hairston Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But at 5'10" and 180 pounds, she's theatrically challenged. Her family life is a tangle of mystery and deadly secrets, and nobody is telling Cinnamon the whole truth. Before her older brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer, a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform in Paris and at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The Chronicles may be magic or alien science, but the story is definitely connected to Cinnamon's family secrets. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theater squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds together. |
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Beasts made of night
by Tochi Onyebuchi Indentured by a ruthless organization of mages, a gifted young sin-eater uncovers a dark plot and must rely on his dangerous talents to save the kingdom and his own life. |
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The best of all possible worlds : a novel
by Karen Lord When their homeland is destroyed, the survivors of a proud and aloof alien society struggle to reach out to the rest of the galaxy for aid and understanding while striving to preserve their cherished way of life, a situation that leads to an unexpected bond between an alien man and a human woman. By the award-winning author of Redemption in Indigo. |
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Buffalo soldier
by Maurice Broaddus When Desmond Coke finds himself caught between warring factions all vying for control of a boy named Lij Tafri, he flees with the boy, but an enemy agent remains on their trail, along with assassins and steammen. |