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3.5 

An Unkindness of Ghosts

By Rivers Solomon
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

One of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the past decade, selected by NPR

One of the 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time, selected by Esquire

One of the 100 Most Influential Queer Books of All Time, selected by Booklist

A Best Book of 2017: NPR, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bustle, Bookish, Barnes & Noble, Chicago Public Library, Book Scrolling.

CLMP Firecracker Award Winner

A Stonewall Book Award Honor Book

Finalist 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 Star

Aster 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.

52 Reviews

3.5
Diverse charactersOriginal charactersOriginal writingAddictiveHeartbreakingTwistyUnpredictable
“Page 284, “All beginnings are arbitrary.” This summarizes my feelings about the beginning of the book. I was lost and confused for the first chapter, but once the book gets going, it’s a great read and the characters were unique and refreshing. Sadly I did not like the ending, but maybe there is a sequel in the works? Otherwise I’d have to say endings are arbitrary, too. Would recommend if you like sci-fi that isn’t formulaic.”
“I couldn’t get into this book at all. I couldn’t understand what, exactly, the plot was supposed to be or what journey the main character was supposed to be on. I couldn’t sympathize with the main character and I didn’t really understand how the people on the ship came to be on the ship or why the social structure came to be what it was. The point of this book seems to be out of my grasp. Sadly, it won’t take me long to forget this book.”
“3.5: While I did very much enjoy this novel, it took me almost 1/3 of the book to really connect and care for Aster and what she had going on. The pacing and transitions were a big yikes for me in muuultiple places. I appreciate what the author was trying to do on the topic of gender identity, but Aster and Theo were the only two characters that gave us a look into the complexities of gender. I would’ve loved to learn more about how gender identity is defined and influences life on the ship, instead of it just being mentioned in passing.”
“i liked it. I'll update my thoughts after i finished my EE bc imma b honest I don't remember all the plot points of this book but it was good.”

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