‘New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color’ is A New Galaxy of Fiction to Love

Editor: Nisi Shawl / Solaris Books “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” –Octavia E. Butler I open this review with the same quote that opens New Suns, not just because it is so appropriate, but because it speaks to an ongoing drive in Speculative Fiction to find new definitions, new areas for the genre. More and more writers identify with the umbrella term, speculative fiction, instead of the traditional Science Fiction or Fantasy distinctions. This anthology really shows why. The stories defy neat categories, some being more this than that, some being a seamless blend of both. The future figures prominently, but so does the past, ghosts, and the ancestors. There are robots, of course, but so much more of the future than just that. If you’re a collector of short stories by people of color, as I am, you’d be well suited to pick up this book. History Re-Imagined One of the interesting and complex tasks that writers take up in New Suns is to wrestle with the past. Not as alternative history, or as the consequences we live in now, but to look at past events and re-write them from different perspectives. Two stories here do that particularly well. “Burn the Ships” by Alberto Yáñez retells the story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, in magic-filled metaphor. Here there are blood rites, cold-hearted gods, and vengeful spirits willing to give power for a price. Woven with that is a kind of love story, or at least a relationship story about a man and woman w…