Sheree R Thomas’s Dark Matters is an
interesting mix of reprints, original stories and essays.
Seventeen of the stories are original, with eleven reprints dating
back to 1887. Thomas also
includes five essays (plus her introduction) which discuss the role of
African Americans in science fiction and why it is important for Blacks to
read science fiction.
One of the interesting, and sad, things about the
stories reprinted in Dark Matters is how few of the stories were
originally published in the standard outlets of the science fiction field.
One was published in Omni (1987), one in Marion Zimmer
Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress (1984), and one in Harlan
Ellison’s Dangerous Visions (1967). Although this seems to indicate that Black authors are not
being published in those outlets, several of the authors included in Dark
Matters, such as Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson and Octavia E. Butler
do have stories appearing in places such as Analog, F&SF
and Asimov’s. Furthermore,
Butler’s novel Parable of the Talents was the Nebula winner this
year.
At the same time, few of the authors in Dark
Matter are generally recognizable as genre authors.
Steven Barnes, Samuel Delany, Due and Butler have established
reputations within science fiction and Hopkinson has made quite a splash
in the couple of years since she made her first appearance, winning the
Warner first novel contest with Brown Girl in the Ring. Other authors have names which may be familiar, but which are
generally associated with other fields of writing, ranging from Walter
Mosley’s mysteries to the history and sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois.
While the authors’ backgrounds are not necessarily
evident in their stories, their familiarity with the common themes and
ideas of science fiction is noticeable.
Stories like Amira Baraka’s “Rhythm Travel” demonstrate a
high level of skill for story-telling, but fail to follow through with the
extrapolation which forms part of science fiction. Other stories
work better. Tananarive Due's short "Like Daughter" is a
masterful examination of cloning and a reminder that no matter how hard we
try, we can't provide our children with the lives we necessarily would
like for them.
The collection ends with a series of short essays in
which the authors examine the ties between African-Americans and science
fiction or the gulfs which keep them apart. Naturally, with several
different authors attacking the same issue, nothing is resolved, but
several interesting points of discussion are raised which can spark future
discussions.
While Thomas does not include a bibliography for
further reading as such, she does mention several other titles in the
notes about the authors which can provide a starting place for further
explorations into African-American science fiction.
