One day I read this quote in the introduction, which blew my mind:"Unmitigated dystopia in fiction may be enjoyed by those who live securely, but this region suffers under crises of economy and climate and a history shadowed with genocide. I am wary and weary of literature that depicts the utter extinction, physical or cultural, of a people who still fight to survive." - Karen LordAnd the next day, Trump goes on about "shithole countries." So that's my context. I thoroughly enjoyed this collecti...

I enjoyed the fantasy and sci-fi elements involved on this collection. As, expected, I enjoyed some stories more than others (‘Once in a Blood Moon’, ‘Daddy’ and ‘Cascadura’ are among those I enjoyed.)With Hosein’s ‘Maiden of the Mud’ the protagonist’s revenge was strangely focused on punishing other expecting mothers instead of on the man who fathered her unborn child then killed her. The conclusion I came to is that she is jealous of those expecting. Jealous because she lost her child and thus...

Like many short story collections or anthologies, there are strong pieces and less strong pieces. However, this collection is well edited for style, theme, and of course geography, and reads cumulatively very nicely.

LeVar Burton reads: Daddy by Damion Wilson

New Worlds, Old Ways gets off to a potent start with its first entry, Once in a Blood Moon, a dreamy tale of a sea god, resilience and transformation by the promising Antiguan born, Barbados-based writer Tammi-Browne-Bannister. The tightly woven poetics of Bannister’s language is a joy to digest both mentally and emotionally. Some writers simply possess that rare gift to leave the reader spellbound through the power of the written word. There’s an undeniable spacey quality about The Passing Over...

Ever since the Datlow anthologies became all the rage, I have avoided thematic F/SF anthologies because you usually end of wading through some terribly boring stuff looking for the few gems that might not even be there. This book is not at all like that. There were a few stories that I liked a bit less, but the non-subjective quality is pretty consistent and high enough to be pleasant to read. I say pleasant, not because the stories are silly happy things - mostly there is a melancholic feel to

I found the collection to be uneven in my enjoyment, but it ended far stronger than it began, leaving me with a very positive overall impression. Characteristically, I was more intrigued by the stories that leaned more into science fiction, rather than those that felt built upon folklore. The stories that stuck out to me the most were The Ceremony by Elizabeth J. Jones, about a woman whose family has an insidious traditional ceremony involved in the passing down of their land, and Daddy by Damio...

I was partly attracted to this collection because of the title, which seemed both optimistic and suggested that it would in some was reflect Caribbean culture, of which I know little and therefore would be interested in learning more of. But there is little optimism in the book; most of the stories lean towards sci-fi, with settings that are dystopic or post-apocalyptic, with the only one set in a future that isn't overtly bad being a story of vicious inter-generational conflict depressing in it...

Daddy, a short speculative fiction story by Damion Wilson, deftly combined the melancholy of caring for a parent with Alzheimer's with teleportation. The story begins grounded in the reality of a woman whose mother and sister are dead, with her recent divorce and her father's declining mental capabilities weighing on her. When he starts appearing at locations far away from his assisted living home, she is confused. The fantasy/sci-fi aspect of the conclusion tie in nicely to this well-written ta...

Some weaker stories and I almost put the book down, but then came Brandon O'Brien's story, which was awesome - it engaged with local political themes, had genuine tension, there was a queer couple who did not die :), etc. I was glad I did not stop reading because I ended up enjoying the majority of the work. I did kind of feel like this anthology would have benefited from an open call rather than just querying people who'd been to fiction workshops etc.I might review this book at length later; n...

This short anthology brings together speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) short stories from several Caribbean authors. All of the authors were new-to-me, and I did find a few who I may seek out more work by. However, on the whole I didn’t think the collection was very strong.In “Once in a Blood Moon” the protagonist is an orphaned girl drawn towards sea turtles. This magical realism story touches on environmental issues. Unfortunately, it was also fairly forgettable. At least I lik...

4.5The stories in this collection spoke to me deeply. They captured anxieties that only a first generation Canadian single child of Trinidadian parents could know. I didn’t know that I needed these stories as much as I now know I so clearly do.7 Cowrie Shell Review to come on ONYX Pages: https://youtu.be/AzRq9pflO4ISubscribe and click on the notifications bell to receive an alert when it’s up!

Listened to "Daddy" by Damion Wilson on Levar Burton Reads

A challenging collection of eleven speculative fiction stories by Caribbean authors.Book Review: New Worlds, Old Ways is quite appropriately subtitled "Speculative Tales from the Caribbean," and spotlights "new writers and new works" of speculative fiction from English-speaking countries. As someone who lives 1,000 miles (1600+ km) from the nearest ocean, these stories could be culturally and geographically exotic, but were still familiar. As I learned from reading Jamaica Kincaid's story collec...

What should be the role of the small press? I believe it should be to tackle the kind of fiction that lays at the boundaries, at the edges, which is not the focus of the mainstream industry rather than a slavish attempt to imitate the big presses. This anthology by Karen Lord fulfills this mandate by looking at narratives from the Caribbean and expanding the voices, themes and stories of a region which does not get much attention by most readers. In short, it colors beyond the borders of the pag...

Daddy by Damion Wilson read by LeVar Burton.Really good, some eye misting over. Very sweet, believable characters and awesome power. 4 solid stars.

Even though I loved a few of these stories, on a whole they were not enough to make up for the stories that were vague, lacked world-building and had characters that I could care less what happened to them. There were stories that were character-driven and I became invested in where they would ultimately end up. I felt their pain, despondence, neglect, self-worth and fire.There were stories that were based in myths and legends of the caribbean islands, the fight to uncover governmental corruptio...

5.0⭐ “This isn’t the first time your father has, relocated.” **spoilers** ♡ LBR 2021♡ It’s LeVar Burton Reads season 8! Season of Choice, & Effect. It’s episode 3, and we’re gifted with “Daddy” by Damion Wilson. If you read this story and it hit close to home, you’re in good company. Damion found a way to tell the family’s story through Tanya’s resentment and exhaustion. We’re not going through it with her, but we get these jilted shards of pain that we know too well from our own lives. It’s p

A collection of science fiction and fantasy set among the islands (and peoples) of the Caribbean. Some are simply SF&F stories set in, say, Trinidad. Those stories could be set anywhere. Other stories are specific to the place in which they're set. The Barbadian stories, for example, are specific to the geography and culture of Barbados.All in all, a very fine collection of Caribbean SF.

Love this collection! A wonderful mix of creepy, fun, and moving SFF stories from the Caribbean. Thanks as always to Akashic for publishing amazing work.