Celebrate Black Speculative Fiction Month with These Melanated Stories

If you didn’t know it, October is Black Speculative Fiction Month. While the month is more than halfway over, it’s never too late (or too early) to celebrate the contributions of Black, queer authors. If you’re looking for a few more books to add to your TBR pile, or if you’re hankering for some speculative fiction titles from authors of color, consider these titles.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Odd-mannered, dark-skinned, and withdrawn Aster wishes she was the monster other people call her. If she were, she’d have the strength to tear down the walls of injustice that pen in her and others who look like her. Aster lives aboard a space vessel organized like the antebellum South, a vessel voyaging toward The Promised Land. 

When Aster discovers a connection between her mother’s suicide and the death of the ship’s sovereign, she thinks she’s found a way to freedom. To discover it, she must navigate a grudge with a brutal overseer and sow the seeds of civil war.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Ada, deeply troubled and prone to violence, concerns her southern Nigerian parents. Born “with one foot on the other side,” Ada develops fractured selves as she matures into adulthood. A traumatic assault catalyzes her separate selves, Asụghara and Saint Vincent, into startling realization and agency. Ada becomes a passenger in her own body, as her hedonistic and protective selves lead her down a dark, dangerous path.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

Labeled a sorcerer, earthbound demigod Demane follows the Captain, a beautiful man with a beautiful voice and hair to match. A necromantic terror stalks the only safe road stretching between the northern oasis and the southern kingdom. To keep their caravan brothers alive, Demane and the Captain must work together and use their divine gifts. By mastering his powers to protect those he holds dear, Demane risks losing his humanity, as he ascends to godhood.

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is at war with the Invaders, who covertly assassinate officials and sabotage spaceships. The only clues are strange alien messages intercepted in space. Poet and linguist Rydra Wong is determined to understand the language and end the alien threat.

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Happy reading!