レビュー要約

• 想像力の広がりと官能的な文体を評価する声がある。短篇ごとに語りの質感が変わるため、濃い比喩や幻想性を好む読者に向く。

レビュー

• Myth to Mysticism, Feminism, Erotica, Sci-Fi: A Must-Read

  Ancient, Ancient is an engrossing read, spanning the mythical and the mystical. Its inventiveness draws you in immediately. Kiini Ibura Salaam opens with the tale of "Desire," wherein new mythologies borrow from old--the satyr from Greece, the crocodile goddess from Egypt, the elephant god from India--in a way that is both familiar and brand new, completely her own. Much of the new is in the way Salaam imagines feminine powers, concerns, and possibilities. She draws not only upon classic mythology, but also on feminist thought, and on forms from speculative fiction to allegory to erotica...and yet Ancient, Ancient is its own beast. Its strength is not in its literariness or structure--though the three linked allegorical tales of love, featuring nectar-seeking non-humans, is an especially beautiful set piece--but in Salaam's inventive concoctions: worlds where language is dance, where beings can be thrown into other bodies and worlds and forced into the Hero's Journey, where leadership is acquired through inheritance, through challenge of the elder for possession of a divining ferret who lives in an orb, held in the body along with the vital organs...crazy, wild, utterly previously unimagined possibilities. I have always loved science fiction, but this book is a whole other thing. It doesn't follow the tried and true formulas, but invents fantastic scenarios out of whole cloth. The surprising unifier, across this range of forms and subjects, is sensuality. Salaam's straightforward handling of the sensual and the sexual are a perfect fit for the possibilities she imagines--healing, destructive, workaday, transformative, mechanical, otherworldly sex and sensuality. If I have one complaint, it's mixed with a plea: several stories end too soon. Salaam sets up several fascinating scenarios that demand rigorous imagination and attention to grasp it all--and then ties it up in a quick page or two, when the tale is crying out for the space to breathe. I want the next chapter in the story of the grandson thrown through the universe on a journey of knowledge and repentance; the rage he returns with argues for the next chapter in "Battle Royale" that will tell us what comes of his lessons not learned. "Bio-Anger" is such an intriguing idea, so grippingly set up, it needs an entire novel to itself. The same is true of the "Legend of the Last Wero." Each of these are stories could stand on their own for much longer than Salaam allows in this format, and I hope very much that she goes on to develop them further. Taken as a whole, Ancient, Ancient is one of the most startling, eye-opening, and thought-provoking books I've read. It's an absorbing read, not to be missed. I can't wait for whatever comes next from Ms. Salaam's loaded-for-bear imagination. It's a hearty thumbs up, for me.

• a wonderful, poetic collection

  NOTES ON DIVERSITY: This is another case where diversity is not really the right word to use here.1 This is a book of stories where, with one or two exceptions, the focus is on Black womanhood. Sometimes those Black women are in space. Sometimes they coexist alongside gods. Sometimes they live in New York and are beset by nostalgia for Louisiana. Sometimes they are aliens who communicate through dance. But unifying the collection of stories is a deep exploration of Black womanhood. It is a book written within a lived experience for others of that lived experience. It reminds me, in that sense, of Constance Burris’ BLACK BEAUTY.2 All philosophizing aside, this book is full of characters of color. And women. And it has some queer representation. REVIEW: Salaam is a lovely, poetic writer. From her language choice to the actual structure of the stories themselves, most of the stories in this collection are lyrical and haunting. One of the clearest themes throughout all the stories is sex, which in virtually all cases3 is a powerfully positive and healing force in women’s lives. In stories like “Desire” and the trio of stories featuring the unnamed alien race represented by WaLiLa and MalKai who feast on human nectar (that is drawn out by way of sex), sex and sexuality is arguably coerced--but still, the power of it and the emotional connection it brings proves healing. Or at the very least complicated. The women in the stories remain agentic throughout even when used as vessels. But I was more drawn to some of the other themes woven through the stories.4 Movement-as-freedom and movement-as-communication comes up again and again. Most clearly in the WaLiLa and MalKai stories, where WaLiLa and MalKai must learn to forsake their original language of movement/dance for spoken human languages, and again in “Battle Royale.” In “Battle Royale”, the narrator’s insistence on engaging in the flashing game/dance of razors leads to the fever-dream punishment meted out by his grandfather. But movement, or the lack of it, and how it can bring a different kind of freedom comes up in “Debris”, too. There is an openness in Salaam’s resolutions that I enjoyed. Many of the stories were about a change of direction, a decision point, and were other writers would tell you where the characters were going, Salaam refuses to reveal what happens next. The conflict was that there was a decision to make, she seems to suggest. The trick of her stories is that there emotional gratification in knowing that a decision was made, but we don’t know which path was taken. Salaam’s stories are fascinating. In particular, I liked “Debris”, “Ferret”, and “Ancient, Ancient”. “Rosamojo” was hard for me to read--I found it triggering--but it is a very good story. _____ 1: I need to write this post already about My Issues With The Word Diversity. 2: Although, if you’re into short speculative fiction featuring Black characters you should really check out BLACK BEAUTY, too. 3: The exception to this is “Rosamojo”. It is a very good story, but if you are triggered by sexual assault, especially as a survivor of childhood trauma, tread with caution. 4: I’m ace, man, I’m not getting the same sex-as-rapture thing these characters are getting.

• Dreaming While Awake

  I don't usually read speculative fiction, so this was a novel (no pun) experience for me. After reading these stories, I can't conceive of where or how Kiini came up with her ideas: bitter old men who punish their grandkids by sending them spiraling through time; space colonies guided by the mammalian divination of ferrets; etc., etc. The concepts alone are to leave you both intrigued and shaken. In the first story, a petty-minded and fantastically vain little deity misuses an innocent bystander to get out of scrape. Everything goes fine until the deity discovers that accidental goddesses aren't always willing to give up their powers as easily as they've acquired them. The world these people (are they people? it's hard to tell...but ultimately irrelevant) occupy is as lush as Pangea (or whatever planet it was where the Avatar people lived), but as gritty and palpable as your favorite big city's skid row. It's the kind of thing you finish reading and kind of blink and look around, like, "Where am I? Oh, right. At home on the sofa." When I first started reading the book, I had only intended to read the first story but the first was was interesting enough that I started the second one right away. This one features a girl with honey-colored skin and some kind of mystical-sexy way of dance/talking. Sure enough, she goes to a club, but not to dance - she's there to pick up a man. But she's not trying to take him home--not right away, at least--she actually wants something else from him. I won't give away what she wants or what happens next, but it's the first in a series of three stories featuring the same characters -- characters that could easily be the centerpieces of a cinematic or television series. Unlike some of the other characters (who are more beholden to their stories), these characters stay with you long after you've forgotten the particulars of the plot. All in all, the thing I like most about these stories is the way they make no realistic sense, but perfect make-believe sense: like dreaming while you're awake. Highly recommended for the adventurous or the bored.

• Stunning

  Salaam's a true master of the craft; I read her to learn as much as to enjoy. Her plots are delicately constructed, but I think of them in jeweler's terms. They are the setting for the gems that are her scenes that ooze passion, emotion, and sensuality. With clever formatting, she achieves cinematic intercut scenes, modulates the voice of characters to let us see them from the inside, and shows the scene from such different perspectives, your head spin if it wasn't all so enthralling. People who know my work should note, Salaam writes with an unabashed sexuality. If you prefer my LDS chick lit, this is *definitely* different. Be ready to check preconceptions and inhibitions at the door. In Salaam's world, the depths of one man's shame are as expansive as our universe and the fall of an angel from a religion older than time evokes a soft pain washed away by morning. A former student of Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson, Kiini Ibura Salaam takes the genre in new and mind blowing directions.

• Storytelling at its best, organic and mesmerizing

  I was completely inspired and thrilled by "Ancient, Ancient" a short story collection by Kiini Ibura Salaam that covers science-fiction, fantasy and horror in the most unique ways. Her storytelling is original, organic and mesmerizing. The opening story, "Desire" is like magical poetry, telling the fable of a woman dried out by life and what happens when she is caught in a conflict between deities. I loved the stories (the first is "Of Wings, Nectar & Ancestors") involving the aliens (whose language was body movement) that gather human nectar and transform the human at the same time. "Bio-Anger" was raw science-fiction and written in a style that is so unique its almost another language. I was sad when the last story ended. I didn't want to leave the multi-faceted universe spun from Salaam's fantastic and exceptional imagination. You have to read this book!

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