First and foremost, both The Glassman and Dreamer are available as free ebook giveaways for Prolific Works' group giveaway "Hidden Magic". Get them before they're gone. Also, I am expecting a galley-in-proof of an upcoming anthology about the global water crisis penned by Black authors from around the world called Yemoja Tears: Water, Bodies & Bodies of Water. I was personally invited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki to submit a story so I penned a new sci-fi story called "Stalwart". More updates to come soon. It would be the first fiction print anthology I would be part of.
What I'm reading/What I've Recently Read (I also track what I read (except webcomics) on The Storygraph, jus' sayin'):
Vibe Check (Webcomic): Finished it. It was really good, I really liked it. I really loved the Vibe Fairy. Extremely creative and introspective. Definitely would recommend it to male readers because of how the story approaches dealing with life while Black and male but it's great for everyone. Completely fantastic and great action bits.
The Uncommons (Webcomic): Finished it. I really liked this one for all the magic and imagination. Pretty dynamic storytelling.
Daybreak (Webcomic): I really freakin' loved this one. It's up there with Hover Girls (webcomic, now soon to be its own book) in terms of how good it is. I usually don't like slice of life and slow moving stories but this one was obscenely cute and amazing. It is a gentle, sawft, Black Boy Joy story and I am 10000000% here for it
Tiger Tiger (Webcomic): White creator but Black characters, it's actually really a good sea-faring webcomic that isn't pathetically tropey and has an interesting, dynamic story. Their eye for era fashion (the story is based in 1800s-esque fantasy times: frocks, men wearing heels, and pantaloons) is impeccable, I love it. Story is still updating.
The Prince of Southland (Webcomic): Still reading. Isn't bad so far. Pretty sci-fi and interesting.
Last Human, Doug Naylor (novel, Red Dwarf series): Still reading. I grew up watching Red Dwarf (super disliked Doctor Who, it didn't have any Black people in it while Red Dwarf did and, as a result, Doctor Who bored me too much. Great they have a Black doctor now, should have done that back in the 1980s/1990s and I would have watched it alongside Red Dwarf and Homeboys From Outer Space, another cherished sci-fi classic for me.) I like how it's an easy, quick paced read, with fun writing and how the show remained extremely faithful to the books. It's an engaging book for me but I already was a fan of the show since I was a kid.
Dawn, Octavia Butler (novel, Lilith's Brood series): Still reading. I'm slogging through this one because I want to read more of Adulthood Rites but it's a bit slow in parts. I don't think I have read a complete work of Butler because her works never really caught me very well. When I was in middle school, we read Kindred but I did not like that one, especially since it was presented as "Black Sci-Fi". I was expecting, well, not slavery tales. Black woman goes back in time to defend White slave owner and experience slavery herself, I can see exactly why it was popular with White people - I simply hated it. And we had to watch the movie as well. I barely remembered that because ugh. It basically seemed as if all Black sci-fi was filled with was with racial pain stories - while White people Get To Write Whatever They Want, Including Fun Stories. That's a problem. Even Red Dwarf, though it has two Black main characters (Lister, who the story is about, and the Cat), was penned by two White guys (and trust, it shows in the writing sometimes. Especially when Lister's hair, a curly mullet with dreads in the back, get mentioned. Their description is ... not great. Korean level bad, actually) and it just all seemed like Black Sci-Fi writers only wrote oppression stories and White writers wrote everything else. Because that's literally what gets shoved down everyone's throats, hand picked by White folks. Black Sci-Fi writers write more than that (I sure do) but you let White folks do the picking, you'd never know it and sure as hell would never see it. Too world/reality breaking for them, I guess. This is also why I look at sites like Melanin Library and Black Comic Creators, because I want to read anything besides oppression tales and still be penned by someone who is Black. I've found a big bounty as a result. Dawn is a bit of a slow read that is really classic of an 80s book so it's a bit of a chore to read but I'm working through it. At least I get a Black Woman/Asian Man pairing, if it were another White/Other type story, I would have just dropped the book immediately and found something else to read. Isn't too heavy on romance (great for me, I'm demi/ace), but even the action scenes, such as fights, in the book are fairly muted. I prefer more whizzbang in my action but it's also a book from the '80s and not now so there's that. But Red Dwarf is also from the '80s and is more dynamic so I guess Butler just writes her action scenes as more muted.
That's the list! As for what I'm reading. I don't read as much as I would like, having a disorder can be a difficult thing to contend with. I also am immensely picky with what I read because I bore easily with books that are too stereotypical. If it's White, male and straight (and isn't from the Victorian/dark romanticist era) of a story, I'm probably not bending over backwards to read it. I already have my English degree (this also includes works from the Victorian dark romanticist era, lol. They still have to tell a good story because I will always find someone more diverse otherwise). Remember, this is the 21st century and I literally have access to the internet, a gaming laptop with a full and bustling Steam account, and a VR headset. If the story isn't interesting me, I will waste no time to spend it elsewhere. No time whatsoever. No point in thinking "I'm bored, this book is boring" when I could just start up a video game or watch a show (I'm currently watching Found (huzzah, positive Black mental health representation, especially with agoraphobia and trauma, without drugs and racial trauma porn) and Song of the Bandits, a Korean Western that is action packed and really good. I tried Loki but I got bored).
I'm not interested in seeing stories that are insufferably straight, hold Whiteness as the baseline of existence (as in, they always have to shove in a White character in there somewhere and that White character is somehow always important, even if they are a side character, or- just as bad - the book has a "I'm sorry I'm not White" moment or theme throughout the book. And there's usually a White/Other relationship because Modern White Man's Burden, I guess), and very steeped in toxic masculinity that is thoroughly unexamined. And if there is queerness, it better not be White and better not be stereotypical, I'm beyond tired of those stories as well. White feminism doesn't appeal to me and isn't real feminism (White feminism has a goal to still oppress women, as long as those women are of color, which is the majority of the world's female population (women are also the majority of the world population at 51%)), and White queerness is just as self-deluding and White feminism. Just like I'm not interested in reading a story that's basically the written version of a Klan robe with a pink flower on its hood lapel, I'm doubly not interested in a story that is basically the written version of a Klan robe fitted with a little rainbow hem at the bottom of the hood. Trash and boring for me. You're forced to sit through it when getting an English degree, no point in sitting through it for no good reason whatsoever. It's not like the work is that jaw-droppingly brilliant. It isn't.
I don't really read fan-fics because I'm not a teenager anymore but I don't mind seeing fan-derived works if they're really good. But if it isn't crossing me on my Tumblr (my tumblr is for my other blog, Black Witch), I'm probably not looking at it.
It's a small list (probably big for some but it's mostly webcomics, which are pretty fast reads) but that's what I currently prefer. I don't really like reading massive tomes, especially if the story isn't worth it. 1000 pages of snore? No thank you. I like thrilling tales and no romance (if there is going to be romance, it better be queer and of color or I will be gone - and none of that "Mixed signals, will they ever know they love each other" or "I'm ashamed of being queer/what will the world think of me or us?" bullsh#t. Full commit or gtfo). I want dynamic tales, not snooze fests. I prefer to read on an e-reader because I can use it in a hospital setting (I occasionally get hospitalized because of my disorders) and it holds a lot of books, way more than a bag can. I read webcomics either on the computer or on my phone but I dislike using apps for it because the apps like to shove in ads and I have several ad-blockers on my computer and phone web browsers.
It's Thanksgiving in the US so obligatory Thanksgiving thing:
No comments:
Post a Comment