Octavia's Brood
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought twenty of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia’s Brood span genres—sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism—but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. The collection is rounded off with essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.
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The book wasn't quite what I was expecting. Most of the authors are better known for their activism and non-fiction writing, and their stories are just not the same quality as I was really looking for. I think I was hoping much more for works in the worlds Butler created rather than just short snippets of stories with her themes. I thought the nonfiction essays at the end were the strongest and most interesting, but most of the fiction felt a little forced or too much like an excerpt rather than a complete work for me.
