How Long 'til Black Future Month? : Stories

In this career-spanning collection, Jemisin ("The Broken Earth" trilogy) delivers 22 thrilling stories of black strength in the face of worldly and otherworldly adversity. In "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," guardians of a thriving world parallel to ours watch over humans and toil with ruthless compassion to avoid falling prey to common prejudices or repeating mistakes. In "The Valedictorian," a girl who has always defied convention to pursue greatness in the shadow of war learns the true cost of failure and the terrifying burden of success. In "The Storyteller's Replacement," an unnamed narrator tells of a foolish king who consumes a dragon's heart in the hope of siring sons and the cunning, dragon-hearted daughters he fathers instead. In "The Effluent Engine," a Haitian spy infiltrates slavery-shackled America in search of technology to safeguard free Haiti against threatening French influence. There she meets a beautiful Creole chemist who could secure Haiti's future and steal her heart in the process.