Waiting on Wednesday 07/27/16
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
Everfair by Nisi Shawl (September 6, 2016 by Tor)
This book has been on my radar for a while, but a fascinating conversation I had about it recently has put it squarely on my must-read list. Featuring alternate history, steampunk, and diverse characters, Everfair has everything to make it an intriguing, tantalizing read.
“Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Shawl’s speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.”
Oh nice! Totally new to me! Hope you really enjoy this one once you read it!
Here’s my WoW
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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This has been on my radar too. It sounds fascinating and so unusual! It’s not a period in history that I know anything about, but I’m curious to learn more. And I do love alternate histories:-)
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Okay, that definitely sounds interesting. Nice to see an alt history spin on a new chapter.
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This one is on my radar, too, though I’m not quite sure how I first heard about it… But I agree, the mix of genres really piques my interest.
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This is all-new to me! It sounds brilliant though so I will be adding it to my tbr shelf. The mixture of elements makes it sounds wholly unique. Eeep! So exciting 😀
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Very, very intriguing! Alternate history books tend to focus on well-known events, while this one sounds different enough to be quite promising.
Thank you! 🙂
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I love the alt history aspect – right up my ally. Will have to keep an eye out for this one.
Lynn 😀
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I don’t always do well with Steampunk. But it does sound interesting! 🙂
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This sounds like one I might like!
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It sounds interesting …
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I read two good short stories by Nisi Shawl but since I am not a big steampunk lover, I don’t know if I’ll give it a try… I want to but at the same I tend to be bored by this genre, everytime I read a description of a steampunky invention I’m either bored or confused because I can’t picture it in my mind. It’s super weird. x)
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I’m glad to hear you had good experiences with the author’s other works! And yeah, I think getting into this one would be hard if you don’t care for steampunk 😀
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