African Fantasy

In his sharply crafted, unnerving first collection of speculative short stories, Courttia Newland envisages an alternate future as lived by the African diaspora. Robots driven by all-too-human urges set out to colonize space; Kill Parties roam the streets of a postapocalyptic world; a matriarchal race of mer creatures depends on interbreeding with mortals to survive; mysterious seeds appear in cities across the world, growing into the likeness of people in their vicinity.

Is love really the only thing O'Asia needs to save the waters? Or, is that just the tip of the iceberg? O'Asia and Zale need to fall in love, but they're currently surrounded by angry guards ready to uphold the law. Can Odessa succeed in protecting them both? With Emperor Seera now back in open waters, they quickly become more dangerous for one merm in particular, and O'Asia soon realizes that the prince and his love aren't the only things she needs to protect. She has to protect them all.

Stepping Stone and Love Machine are but two of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Walter Mosley entertainingly explores life’s cosmic questions. From life’s meaning to the nature of good and evil, these tales take us on speculative journeys beyond the reality we have come to know. In each tale, someone in our world today is given insight into these long pondered mysteries. But how would the world really receive the answers?

In 2015, Tony Carpenter stumbled upon the plans for the Chronocar, a time machine conceived before it could be built by Dr. Simmie Johnson, genius, scientist, and son of a slave. Tony’s visit to 1919 to see the doctor and his lovely daughter Ollie turned into disaster, forcing the doctor to make a most difficult final decision. Now the timeline has worked its way back to 2012.

A northern white couple has relocated to the South to operate a vineyard on a North Carolina plantation. There, they pass their idle hours listening to the stories of one Uncle Julius, who has a deep knowledge of the land. These stories, however, are more than mere entertainments. They all have their time and place, and they offer not only a quiet commentary on the events of the day but also a deeper reckoning with the plantation’s disturbing past.

Dhata Mays has become used to living on the fringes. Unlike most of humanity, the detective treats the synth population with the respect they deserve. But when a gruesome murder points to a synth as the perpetrator, Dhata must do everything in his power to discover an explanation before the case goes public. In a race against time, Dhata discovers a scheme involving cypher hackers, synth prostitutes, and a pair of rival gang bosses that could tear the city apart. For Dhata to keep the uneasy peace, he'll have to track down the murderers himself, but no one said he had to take them alive.

Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was raised to perpetuate the glory of his namesake and expected to be as illuminated as his Great Ancestor. But in the chaos of modernity, his young life is marked only by restlessness, maddening insomnia, and an adolescent apathy.

It is the end of days. A nuclear strike hits New York. Alfie, a young black male, survives but with no memory of what has happened. The only thing he can remember with any clarity is how to play his guitar and a few snatches of old blues and folk songs. Another survivor, Meg, has taken refuge in the hills of Vermont, and she, too, is the victim of near absolute amnesia. Her only hope is to survive these darkest of days.

Ancient folklore and modern myth come together in these stories by author Craig Laurance Gidney. Here are found the struggles of a medieval Japanese monk seduced by a mischievous fairy, and a young slave who finds mystery deep within the briar patch of an antebellum plantation. Gidney offers a gay teen obsessed with his patron saint, Lena Horne, and, in the title story, an ailing tourist seeks escape at a distant shore but never reckons on encountering an African sea god. Rich, poetic, dark and disturbing, these are distinctive tales not soon forgotten.

Political activist and best-selling author Randall Robinson is a pillar of scholarship and insight within the African-American literary community. His acclaimed novel Makeda stars Gray March, a young man who, beginning in the 1950s, embarks on a journey of spiritual and historical enlightenment through stories he hears from his blind grandmother.

For as long as she can remember, Yomi has heard stories about Nkara – magnificent creatures that roam the African continent. Now she’s about to meet them for real! Yomi and her brother Kayode are on a trip to The Gambia when they witness the Dragon King Ninki Nanka being kidnapped from the sky. Determined to save him, Yomi and Kay uncover secrets and meet magnificent beasts – but will it be enough to save Ninki Nanka?

Wasteland guide Meloni Harris wants two things. To find her missing brother and to get her new client, a sexy doctor, to his next outpost in one piece. But the doctor didn’t disclose all of his motives for hiring Meloni. He’s fleeing someone, and now they’re hot on Meloni’s trail too. And without her brother having her back, she’ll have to face a gang of mercenaries alone - not to mention the threat of letting her guard down to the hot doc.

Clue, an exiled hypnotist from outer space, is in dire need to get back to her interstellar planet, Nubia, to rescue her parents from the insidious brainwashing agents: The Screens. Clue's obstacle...she's stuck on earth. Will Clue be tried and tested by the prim and proper boarding school, the School of the Unknown, or will earth's killer simulators get the best of Clue?

Washington would rather be playing basketball in the tournament instead of traveling to East Texas for a family reunion. He hates to read, but takes off on his own with a book to satisfy his parents. Washington travels back to the past where he encounters his ancestor Square and witnesses the brutal punishment of a slave when he is caught reading.

Gabrielle LeRoux was just like any other girl, focused on her academics and other normal teenage angst. That is, until her 18th birthday, where she inherits her powers and finds out she's a witch! She discovers that she is part of a long line of witches that descended from West Africa. They have the power to control the elements at will, breathe life into anything they wish, as well as take it away. The source of their magic comes from the melanin only their kind possess in their skin, absorbed from the sun and radiating through their bodies.

Stolen, shipped and sold into slavery, Gelila escapes to the sea. As a feared captain of a pirate ship, she's continuously looking for a port to call home. She never expected to find it in the arms of an ancient powerful shaman.

In the deepest shadows of a mysterious afterlife, Samael’s evil spirit seeks to escape into the realm of mortals. With unholy alliances, he is sure to reclaim a well-guarded throne. Torn from her loved ones, a special young woman discovers that she is essential to the demon’s plan. What price will Earta pay to save her innocent brother? How many more lives will be lost? Unforgettable adventures await! Welcome to Nibiru, a world of magic, mystery, and deadly horror. Welcome to Eben Rahl’s multiverse.

Five miles off the South Carolina coast, Darden and Catherina are getting their promised forty acres, all of it undersea. Like every Black “mer,” they’ve been experimentally modified to adapt to their new subaquatic home - and have met with extreme resistance from white supremacists. Darden has an inspired plan for resolution. For both those on land and the webbed bottom-dwellers below, Darden is hoping to change the wave of the future.

With racial tension dividing a small Mississippi town, what happens when one by one, white residents awaken to find themselves with skin pigmentation as dark as those they despise? In the small town of St. Molasses, Mississippi, the town was so small, there was only one library, one school, one pharmacy, and only one major grocery store. If one wished to visit a museum, shopping mall, night club or movie theater, they’d have to travel a couple miles over to the city of Marmalade to do so. Like most small rural towns, everybody knew everybody.

El recién nombrado joven rey de un poderoso reino africano, se deja llevar por sus aduladores. Tendrá que sufrir una dura caída para descubrir lo realmente importante en la vida.