RaveStrange HorizonsSogolon blurs the personal and the political, and denies legitimacy to both. The refuge of meaning is available neither in the novel’s overarching quest, nor in Sogolon’s own character arc ... A careful read reveals that from the beginning to the end, Moon Witch, Spider King is in constant conversation with the idea of power ... we are prevented from immersing ourselves in the world that James has built because, when you really think about it, there is something repugnant about immersion-to-the-point-of-identification in a world that is built upon unjust power structures ... This is, once again, at odds with many works of contemporary fantasy, where lyrical prose and epic atmosphere aestheticizes the world, and—through immersion—allows readers intense emotional involvement with actions (and characters) that would be entirely repellent were the aesthetic veneer to be stripped away: a modern-day version of catharsis through tragedy, so to speak. With James, however, this consolation is entirely off the table ... James does not deny his characters the possibility of joy, and particularly joy in each other ... While it denies us refuge in meaning, the triumph of Moon Witch, Spider King lies in the fact that at the same time it does not deny us the possibility of meaning. James’s kind of meaning is to be sure fragile, temporary, and hard-won—but that is precisely why it means anything at all.
Arkady Martine
RaveStrange Horizons... in many ways, a classic First Contact story, is about borders that are impossible to even articulate (because there exists no common language), but whose resolution, nonetheless, turns into an existential question ... a worthy successor to A Memory Called Empire. It is simultaneously in argument with science fiction’s history of empires as protagonists, in conversation with familiar ideas such as hive minds and first contact, in engagement with the timeless themes of language and borders, while all the time managing to tell an entirely original story. There are also little delights scattered across its pages ... Long after putting it down, readers are likely to find themselves in extended conversation—and occasionally, argument—with its principal characters.
Yoss Tr. by David Frye
RaveStrange HorizonsFor readers acquainted with Yoss’s very particular imaginative landscape, Red Dust will feel like a familiar homecoming, sprinkled with the dust of something new ... Through the eyes of such protagonists, Yoss shows us the galaxy as through a glass darkly, neither majestic nor terrible, but just a series of power relations that need to be negotiated—a distinctly earthy frame to what is otherwise a soaring space opera ... also has the remaining elements that make up a Yoss story: careful—but smoothly integrated—nods to science, epic space battles, dazzling technology, inter-textual references to classic science fiction novels, biting observations on colonialism on a galactic scale, and wry humour that prevents both the writer and the reader from taking anything to seriously at any point ... But above all else, Yoss’s galaxy is a galaxy without judgment. That is not to say that his characters are necessarily amoral, or that the stakes don’t really matter: in a spectacular climax to the novel, Yoss compels us to pick a side and root for one party.
Marlon James
PositiveStrange Horizons... denies us refuge in meaning. At the end of the book, a reader who has become thoroughly invested in the story (as I was) is left with many questions. One of those questions, terrifyingly, is: \'what was it all for?\' And it is at that level, at the level of what a reader is entitled to expect when they pick up a fantasy novel, that Black Leopard, Red Wolf defies all attempts at comparison with the Gaiman-esque canons of the fantasy world.
