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3.0 

Everfair

By Nisi Shawl
Everfair by Nisi Shawl digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

From acclaimed short fiction writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant alternate history set in the Congo, where heroes strive for a Utopia and endeavor to live together despite their differences.

Now with a foreward from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull.

In this re-imagining of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo, African American missionaries join forces with British socialists to purchase land from the Congo Free State's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, which they name Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven for native populations of the Congo as well as settlers from around the world, including dream-eyed Europeans attempting to create a better society, formerly enslaved people returning from America, and Chinese railroad builders escaping hard labor. Using the combined knowledge of four continents, Everfair becomes a land of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives.

With this technology, Everfair will attempt to defeat the Belgian tyrant Leopold II. But even if they can defeat their great enemy, a looming world war and political infighting may threaten to destroy everything they have built.

“A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies… Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement.” — Karen Joy Fowler

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Everfair Reviews

3.0
“I really wanted to love this book. It has an awesome premise. It’s an alternate history of Belgian Congo colonization where a group of people acquire part of the territory from Leopold II and try to turn it into a haven and utopia for the native peoples, the slaves of Belgium, the slaves of the US, Chinese forced laborers, and white people from Europe and the US. Their economy is based on steam and dirigibles. And they all fight against the oppression of the colonizers. Unfortunately, the book suffered from too many characters, POVs, and jumps in the timeline. While I liked many characters, I found it hard to love and empathize with them. Still, the book is impressive for the topics it tackles, the grand sweep of alternate history, and the detail of the characters’ personalities. This book was nominated for a 2016 Nebula Award, among others. Come visit my blog for the full review… https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspot.com/2025/09/everfair.html”
“Do not read this on audio. But even my book club that read the physical copy also had a hard time understanding what was going on and who was who. With the physical copy you can at least get a character list with descriptions and a map. The story felt disjointed, I kept hoping I’d get a little further in and things would click to understand what the plot even was but it never did. The steam punk inventions seemed interesting but needed more descriptive for the reader to really be absorbed in the creativity. Disappointing because I haven’t found many fantasy books that take place in the Congo. The diversity of characters was good, different races, abilities (magical and physical), ages, sexuality. Everyone in my book club agreed that the cat part was a fun highlight to an otherwise chaotic story.”

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