Time for another installment of #blackspeculativefictionmonth! These two books occupy similar places in my brain, but it’s difficult to explain why. I guess the both contain alternate history elements? . . THE BLACK GOD’S DRUMS takes place in an alternate history New Orleans, with airships, African orishas, bordellos where different races and nationalities mix freely, nuns who smuggle slaves to freedom and doping gas mechanisms to freedom fighters. This is a riot of a book, a fast-paced adventure both wildly original and easy to orient yourself in. Especially if you are looking for something with a steampunk feel but not so white. And with scrappy teen Creeper as the force at the center. So much fun. . . PYM is more of an alternate present, but one in which Poe’s THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM may have been a true memoir. If you are familiar with that book, you’ll get more out of this one, but if you aren’t, Johnson absolutely brings you up on what you need to know along the way. Johnson turns the startling racism at the end of Poe’s work on its head while following in its steps on an epic and perilous journey in Antarctica. Fun and clever and biting all at once. . . #blackspeculativefiction #speculativefiction #alternatehistory #matjohnson #pym #pdjèlíclark #theblackgodsdrums #booksofinstagram #bookrecs #booknerd https://www.instagram.com/p/B3mpmdXAm57/?igshid=1k54bf80g829w
