An Unkindness of Ghosts

Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Space Opera

4.1

(941)

Rivers Solomon

One of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the past decade, selected by NPROne of the 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time, selected by EsquireOne of the 100 Most Influential Queer Books of All Time, selected by BooklistA Best Book of 2017: NPR, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bustle, Bookish, Barnes & Noble, Chicago Public Library, Book Scrolling.CLMP Firecracker Award WinnerA Stonewall Book Award Honor BookFinalist for the 2018 Locus Award, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lambda Literary Award.Nominated for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Novel"What Solomon achieves with this debut--the sharpness, the depth, the precision--puts me in mind of a syringe full of stars. I want to say about this book, its only imperfection is that it ended. But that might give the wrong impression: that it is a happy book, a book that makes a body feel good. It is not a happy book. I love it like I love food, I love it for what it did to me, I love it for having made me feel stronger and more sure in a nightmare world, but it is not a happy book. It is an antidote to poison. It is inoculation against pervasive, enduring disease. Like a vaccine, it is briefly painful, leaves a lingering soreness, but armors you from the inside out."--NPR"In Rivers Solomon's highly imaginative sci-fi novel An Unkindness of Ghosts, eccentric Aster was born into slavery on--and is trying to escape from--a brutally segregated spaceship that for generations has been trying to escort the last humans from a dying planet to a Promised Land. When she discovers clues about the circumstances of her mother's death, she also comes closer to disturbing truths about the ship and its journey."--BuzzFeed"What Solomon does brilliantly in this novel is in the creation of a society in which dichotomies loom over certain aspects of the narrative, and are eschewed by others...Hearkening back to the past in visions of the future can hold a number of narrative purposes...The past offers us countless nightmares and cautionary tales; so too, I'm afraid, can the array of possible futures lurking up ahead."--Tor.com"This book is a clear descendent of Octavia Butler's Black science fiction legacy, but grounded in more explicit queerness and neuroatypicality."--AutoStraddle"Ghosts are 'the past refusing to be forgot,' says a character in this assured science-fiction debut. That's certainly the case aboard the HSS Matilda, a massive spacecraft arranged along the cruel racial divides of pre-Civil War America."--Toronto StarAster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

Science Fiction

Outer Space

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Author

Rivers Solomon

Pages

340

Publisher

Akashic Books

Published Date

2017-09-18

ISBN

1617755990 9781617755996

Ratings

Google: 5

Community ReviewsSee all

"I really liked the start, but didn't like the ending. "

Jennifer

"one of the most deeply impactful, sad and inspiring novels i've ever read. the creativity is absolutely unmatched. 100% recommend."

Lila Sanchez

"Autistic and aro ace main character"

Abby

"For some reason this didn't work for me. It felt disjointed. I was unable to get into the storyline and feel any flow or momentum. Yes, I had small moments of those but too few and far between for me."

DaRo reads

"Before finishing this book, I thought unequivocally NK Jemisin was my favorite author and her books were my favorite books. How glad am I now though to be uncertain again of which book could ever possibly be my most favorite and which author could I be more excited to read?? An Unkindness of Ghosts was incredible. I listened to it on audiobook and the narrator Cherise Boothe is now among my favorite audiobook narrators as well. She read the different characters and accents and tones better than I ever could have imagined in my own mind. This book was revolutionary in so many ways, some that I’ve read before and will always love reading again and many that I have never encountered before in a book-especially all in one book. In one scene written so matter of factly (as the main character’s inner monologue often was) the main character, Aster, performs an abortion and so simply states the incomprehensibility of gender binaries. After removing the fetus, Aster’s patient says “do you know what it was? Girl? boy?” And Aster says, “I don’t understand such things.” Aster is a woman, but she isn’t. Theo, the Surgeon, her friend and then lover is non-binary. Aster is neuroatypical and I loved learning about her world through her thoughts. Her best friend Giselle suffered so much trauma that she was angry, mean, abusive, and very mentally unstable, but Aster still loved her and so did I. I don’t usually like to read books with so much mention of sexual assault, but Rivers Solomon wrote it so well that I agonized with the characters and believed and understood why it was a part of the plot. It wasn’t just there as some hurdle for the characters to overcome or a way to add tragedy to the story. It was written in a way that is so important. A way that would force someone to see how rape is used as a weapon against people, especially women of color. And the way the characters fought back gave me so much joy. Race and structural racism is also central to the plot and the uprising at the end of the book had me sobbing with joy and heartache and cheering for the death of the guards and the Sovereign. This book is everything and I will be waiting excitedly to buy every single thing Rivers Solomon ever writes."

Reading into the Void

"This book was beautiful and difficult, both in understandability and in content. The ending didn’t feel as finished as I had hoped, but perhaps it was the nature of the story to be that way. While it was very disturbing, it gave me a lot to think about and I don’t regret reading it, but definitely read this at a time when you’re prepared to work through heavy ideas and content. "

Eve

"Dystopian future Space Odyssey that explores queer and racial themes among many others. This book is amazing but please check the trigger warnings because it's also heartbreaking."