How Long Til Black Future Month

This first collection by multiple award-winning novelist N. K. Jemisin demonstrates the enormous reach of her shorter work, which is galaxy-wide and eons-deep. Opening with the audacious “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” a story in direct conversation with Ursula K. Le Guin’s unforgettable “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” How Long ‘Til Black Future Month includes among other joys an adventure tale set in a steamfunky 19th-century New Orleans (“The Effluent Engine”); a strangely plausible, deeply moving depiction of the virtual survivors of a real-life apocalypse (“Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows”); and an opulently sensual account of wealthy gourmets playing havoc with taste and time (“Cuisine des Mémoires”). Plus the appearances here of “Stone Hunger,” set in the world of her acclaimed Broken Earth trilogy, and “The Narcomancer,” set in the world of her Dreamblood duology, help us see all forms of Jemisin’s writing as part of a glorious whole.

The twenty-two stories in How Long ‘Til Black Future Month span more than a decade. They’ve been collected from sources as diverse as online genre venues, printed anthologies, literary magazines, and podcasts. Gathered together, they mark a new high in Jemisin’s stellar career. As she tells us in the book’s introduction, short stories are where Jemisin started out. That makes them the perfect jumping-off place for subsequent stages in her bright artistic future. Read them now and you’ll be ready for whatever comes next.