How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

Stories

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Ray Eller, Ron Butler, Kevin Stillwell, Je Nie Fleming, Jeanette Illidge

Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Three-time Hugo Award-winner N. K. Jemisin's first collection of short fiction challenges and enchants with breathtaking stories of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.

N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.

Dragons and hateful spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A Black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo Award-nominated short story "The City Born Great", a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul.

For more from N. K. Jemisin, check out:

The Inheritance Trilogy:

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
• The Broken Kingdoms
• The Kingdom of Gods
• The Inheritance Trilogy (omnibus edition)
• Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych (e-only short fiction)
• The Awakened Kingdom (e-only novella)

Dreamblood Duology:

• The Killing Moon
• The Shadowed Sun
• The Dreamblood Duology (omnibus)

The Broken Earth:

• The Fifth Season
• The Obelisk Gate
• The Stone Sky

©2018 N. K. Jemisin (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The stories are wonderful. In worlds both invariably cruel and brilliantly imagined, heroism thrives in the margins." (Nicky Drayden, author of The Prey of Gods)

"There are so many things in How Long 'Til Black Future Month - from firebirds to Megacops, from truffles to hurricanes, from utopias (maybe) to civil rights marches - that it's impossible to describe. Except to say that every single story here is riveting, provocative, and remarkable. An extraordinary story collection from an extraordinary writer!" (Connie Willis, Hugo and Nebula Award winner)

"[E]loquently develops a series of passionately felt themes.... [O]ne of speculative fiction's most thoughtful and exciting writers." (Kirkus, starred review)

So Enjoyable!

I particularly enjoyed the memory story. Jemisin's detailed description of the preparation of the food and the food itself made me long for a taste. Too, it revealed meticulous research or an intimate top chef knowledge of food or both. The last story was appropriately the final one, and left me feeling quite satisfied.
Overall, well-imagined stories.

Amazing collection of short stories

The best compendium of short stories that I have ever read. I read the broken earth trilogy and also the thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemison. I love her novels. Short stories however are completely different animal. As someone who loves to read and has tried to write, I believe that short stories take the most amount of talent to write. Not only do you have to hook the reader quickly and spin very satisfying plot in a short period of time, you have to develop a depth to your characters in a very short period of time. And Ms. Jemison has shown herself to be one of the best writers in the genre today having obviously mastered the novel and the short story.

All of the short stories are wonderful. I loved many of them and liked all of them. My favorite short stories were The City Born Great which she won an award for, The Effluent Engine, The Brides of Heaven and Sinners, Saints, Dragons and Haints in the City Beneath the Still Waters Which is the last story in the collection.

Her love for New York City shines bright and strong in this collection as well as her enjoyment of New Orleans. This book is well worth your time and credit.

Some of the best stories I've ever read.

A wide variety of styles, topics, and voices.
Black Future Month IS the future or a big part of it.

most interesting voice in science fiction/fantasy

awesome characters in a fascinating array of environments where metaphysics is stood on its head

Exceptionally Excellent! (yes, it's that good).

A grand collection of superb stories, especially the last story about haints, lizards, and a flood. I'll read it again soon. Exciting, wondrous and full of both dread and joy. Amazing characters, unique ideas, and the absolute best storytelling. Want to lose yourself over and over? These stories are the ticket to new worlds wonderfully imagined.

Fantastic collection of stories!

Loved these stories, a variety of speculative styles but each engaging, and loved the use of multiple narrators --made it easy to tell the stories apart and get drawn into each unique story.

Great story

The stories were really good. But there was one of the readers, that spoke too fast and didn’t leave any breathing room between sentences. Overall good and I love Jemisin’s work.

Several stories really stood out

Overall, I found this collection of short stories to be a good read. Several stories in particular especially intrigued, namely: L'Alchimista, The Effluent Engine, Cuisine des Memoires, and The Narcomancer.

The reason for 4 stars and not 5 may be wholly personal preference. This is my first time reading a collection of short stories like this, and I did not particularly enjoy how disconnected each story was from each other. There were some common threads, but ultimately I did not really see any connection between the stories, making it a bit disorienting to try to transition from one story to the next. Some stories, like the ones that I listed above, were able to capture my attention from the beginning. But others, I found myself having to re-read from the beginning several times because I found my attention drifting to thoughts of a previous story.

But N.K. Jemisin is certainly a great author. This is my second work from her that I have read. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I love this book.

This collection of short stories has just about everything I've wanted in a book. (If Jemisin ever writes short stories about giant robots in space then this will be the perfect collection.)

Very Pleased!

I thought I'd try a new author and wow!, I'm glad I did! I like to try an author's short stories first to see if I should read their books. I'm very pleased with my choice. I live in baton rouge and totally understand the very last story. insightful author who reminds me of Richard Bachman. I can't wait to read the books or listen either way! As I said, I am Very Pleased with this collection of true science fiction short stories. There were a few I would certainly enjoy as a novel. And some are the best short stories I've read since Full Dark, No Stars. Now that's two references to my favorite author of all time or at least one particular style he uses. I think this author will be one of my favorites.